"We are all human aggregators now," says Nick Bilton from the New York Times. While I'm sure he was simply trying to make his point stand out, it's important for heavy social media users to keep in mind that our behavior is not the norm. There is, however, definitely a gradual increase in the amount of effort people are putting into information sharing. The latest research from Forrester and Altimeter Group confirms this. Forrester claims that 24% of us are now creators, 33% of us are conversationalists, and 20% of us are collectors. If you add those up, you reach about 75% of the web crowd who have fully adopted social technology. This can be summed up as "most of us", but it's certainly not all of us. To compare, a couple years ago conversationalists weren't even recognized on the social ladder while creators were at 13% and collectors at 15%. Altimeter Group's latest findings also suggest about 60% of us are sharing information to "support others" and "demonstrate knowledge". This got me thinking about why I collect and share the most interesting things I come across (online through Facebook/Twitter/IM/Blog and offline through word-of-mouth).

These 3 reasons are also why I enjoy the serendipitous nature of social networks most and have a great level of respect for others who are great aggregators, curators, and conversationalists. It's also the reason why sites like Digg and Buzzfeed along with Twitter will continue to be relevant and evolve at helping us filter the web. Update: A good excerpt from @ivanovitch's post titled "Getting Past Viral" over at Big Spaceship's Think blog:

People share things for their own reasons, not ours. When consumers tell friends about a brand, they’re not trying to help the brand; they’re trying to help their friends. At the same time, they’re also making a statement about themselves and the recipient: “I want you to understand that I found this interesting, and believe you will too.” When we want consumers to share things, we need to focus on understanding and supporting their motives, rather than pretending consumers can be convinced to do something for our benefit.

How will the app store differ when it reaches 300,000 or say an unrealistic 1 biiiillion apps vs. the current 100,000? Will we see a large increase in the average number of apps being used per iPhone/iTouch? I don't think so. For every new app I download and plan to keep, I usually delete one I'm not using. Let's call this the LIGO method of app management or Latest In, Garbage Out. The average usage difference between the apps I use daily (5-10) and the remaining apps (50+) is huge. I'm guessing that's true for most people and won't change no matter how many apps become available.

(Photo credit: gnta's photostream)

My obsessive app prioritizing is probably not the norm - I'm sure there are many people who just keep accumulating apps until they reach the 9 screen max. Either way, your organization behavior with apps is most likely very similar to how you manage blog subscriptions, your desktop, people you follow on Twitter, etc. Let's not forget about the problems that start to arise when you have too many apps on your iPhone including: slower performance and freezing, too many app updates, low memory, and decreasing battery life (steady improvements to hardware/software may address some of these issues). On the other end, Apple will have to keep hiring more people to try and keep the app store clean. As long as the quality of apps increases and Apple continues to manage the app store effectively, I'm all for the rapid growth. And the rapid growth will continue as long as we keep seeing success stories from the developers themselves who are increasingly starting to reveal sales figures. I also wonder if Apple should phase out featured apps completely (but keep Top lists) similar to how Twitter hopes to abandon its suggested users list. In the future, I hope to see them make less "App Store breaks 200,000 apps" announcements and more announcements about improvements to the app store. The other major players like Google should also focus on designing a better app marketplace, then maybe people won't care as much about them always being behind in total number of available apps.

The obvious: there's a rapid rise in social gaming along with social network integration within almost anything fun we're doing online. When we play offline, it usually involves our closest friends so it's not surprising the same is becoming true online. What surprises me is the fact that major brands haven't really been too aggressive in experimenting with social games and simple, fun apps. Of course that will change soon, but hopefully only if it makes sense for the brand. If they aim to target a younger audience, I think a branded social game can be a very powerful marketing effort based on the success stories we've seen so far. This quote from a recent article in Ad Age sums it up nicely:

While the heavy gamers remain highly serious and addicted to games, we've begun to see another emerging, and even larger, market -- casual gamers who are into social networking. They visit gaming sites during their lunch break for a shoot-out, for instance, or for a fun break at night or on weekends. This changing demographic is opening a wider opportunity for marketers who should definitely look into gaming as an area of growth potential for communicating their brands.

And two more quote's from the Three Minds blog:

If customer engagement and social relevance are the new holy grails of marketing then designing for play should be put on the agenda of all marketers. The fact that gaming is still unexpected is an opportunity to surprise and delight your audience.

Below, I wanted to highlight some of the examples that came to mind since social games/apps and other miscellaneous fun social sites started gaining traction. I've included some general usage stats and pointed out what made them social.

OMGPOP

For those unfamiliar with OMGPOP (formally called iminlikewithyou), it has been around for a couple years now and growth isn't slowing. It can be highly addictive and judging by the chat rooms, it seems to be most popular among teens. Teen or not, I think some of their most popular games such as Draw My Thing and Balloono can appeal to anyone. They've made it extremely easy to invite friends to instant matches which is one of my favorite features (no sign-up required).

The stats:

• Balloono has been played over 106 million times which amounts to nearly 3 million hours
• Blockes has been played over over 52 million times which amounts to nearly 2 million hours

What makes it social:

• Private games w/ unique invitation links to invite friends through AIM, Facebook, and Twitter
• Quickly join live multiplayer games, make friends by randomly challenging them
• See which friends are playing after logging in & join their games

JibJab

You've probably seen these videos or eCards pop up in your Facebook news feed or at least read about JibJab on TechCrunch. Sure they're a bit cheesy but there's no denying people love to create and share these with their closest friends.

The stats:

• 6 million registered users, over 100 million visits/yr (source)
• Gained 1.5 million users through Facebook in 5 months (source)
• 80% of new users are now signing up using Facebook connect

What makes it social:

• Taps into Facebook to remind you of friends' birthdays for eCards
• Import Facebook photos to easily customize videos to share

Fishville

Plenty has been said about all the very popular Zynga games. I recently decided to give Fishville a try instead of Farmville and Mike Arrington is not lying, it's very easy to get hooked (which shouldn't surprise you). Jason Calicanis has said "they have figured out what’s addictive about social games. And what do we like about playing games? It’s playing games with other people."

The stats:

• 25 million monthly active users and growing (source)
• Zynga sees revenues of $50 million in 2008 from sales of virtual goods (source)

What makes it social:

• Become neighbors with your Facebook friends playing Fishville (like most Zynga games) plus incentives for helping them out and sending free gifts
• Frequent news feed publishing if user allows it

Parking Wars

I had to include Parking Wars which is probably still the best example of a branded social game to live on Facebook by A&E.

The stats:

• 66,905 monthly active users but declining (down from 110k)
• 400,000 people signed up in the first two months (source)

What makes it social:

• Adding more friends gives you more places to park

Other notable Facebook apps: Pet Society, Scrabble, Mafia Wars, Flixster Movies, Social Interview, Friends Exposed, etc.

I Am T-Pain

The stats:

• Users have created over 10.2 million recordings (source)
• 300,000 downloads after 3 weeks w/ average time spent in app being 66 minutes (source)
• During it's most popular time period, was receiving 10,000 downloads a day (source)

What makes it social:

• Basic posting to Facebook Wall or Myspace profile
• Demoing sure to get friends wanting to try it themselves

Tap Tap Revenge

There's no denying Tapulous is leading the way when it comes to social iPhone apps.

The stats:

• Downloaded by 1 out of every 3 iPhone/iTouch owner
• 500,000 paid app downloads, over 6 million users (source)

What makes it social:

• Challenge and battle friends online or real life 2 player mode
• Now including messages, integrated chat, and rich profiles

Other notable iPhone apps: Words with Friends, Foursquare, Live Poker, Who Has The Biggest Brain, VW GTI, Moron Test, etc.

Modern Warfare 2

Gaming consoles made huge improvements several years ago with the most recent generation releases but it's not until now we are starting to see the next phase of social features.

The stats:

• 7 million copies sold on day one (source), $550 millions in sales first 5 days (source)
• 8 million online players within the first five days (source)

What makes it social:

• Instant online play with logged on friends
• Link your gamertag to Facebook profile

Other notable gaming console/handheld games: Animal Crossing, Halo, and basically any other game with online multiplayer mode.

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Most brands probably wouldn't be creating their own console games like Burger King, but they need to keep in mind how hard it is to reach hardcore gamers. Some of my old work friends spend most of their spare time playing games like Modern Warfare. Social gaming sites and Facebook apps are threatening multiplayer sites like Big Fish Games, Pogo, Addicting Games, Candy Stand, and Yahoo! Games and casual games in general. I've also been wondering why peer-to-peer iPhone games over Bluetooth have not really taken off (some examples). For much more in-depth and daily news only on social gaming, definitely check out the Inside Social Games blog.

I think bookmarking can be an art. Since there are always new web services and desktop apps being released to help people manage information online, it's an always evolving process. I frequently spend my spare time browsing the web to stay up to date on the topics I care about and without bookmarking I'd feel completely lost. More importantly, I'm constantly adjusting the news sources that I subscribe to on Twitter, Netvibes, and via email to keep things manageable (I support information environmentalism). For example, I used to subscribe to TechCrunch by email and follow Mashable on Twitter. I unsubscribed to both because it was simply too much to keep up with and found I usually stumbled on the most of the important articles from there anyway. Here is what my bookmarking habit currently looks like:

Safari

My Safari bookmarks are probably the least updated. The Bookmarks Bar organizes the sites I most frequently visit (forums, personal accounts, social networks, etc.) and the many subfolders I have such as Social Web, Blog, Cars, Apple, Web Dev, Work, and Misc organize all the sites I want to keep handy.

Twitter

I follow a lot of people who share interesting things. That little star next to every tweet may not get a lot of use from most people but for me it's used to bookmark tweets I want to check out later. My favorites usually include blog posts, articles, video's, and the occasional good quote.

Instapaper

Love Instapaper. I now use it daily when it comes to long blog posts or articles that I can read during down time. I save these to Instapaper using the site or the incredibly easy Safari/iPhone bookmarklet. Because of the ease of use, Instapaper has quickly become one of my most used iPhone apps while commuting. Syncing is usually flawless and cool app features like auto-tilting and several sharing options make it miles ahead of most of the other popular News related apps.

Delicious

I use Delicious (lie a lot of people) for articles that I've read once then want to save and possibly refer to later. I think it's too time consuming to try and include descriptions so I stick to relevant tags which help me easily filter my 900+ bookmarks. Sometimes I bookmark 5-10 articles a day, and sometimes my account is dry for days. What you find here will typically double-up with my Twitter and Instapaper bookmarks.

Other Thoughts

Of course, there is no right or wrong technique when it comes to bookmarking but I find this system works well for me. So how does all of this relate to marketing a new site or content online? Marketers :: most social media strategies right now focus on trying to get more Diggs, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers. Some Twitter apps like Tweetie are now including an easy way to see other people's favorites, so I think it will slowly become a more popular way for users to discover new content. I usually keep a close eye on who's bookmarking my blog posts on Delicious and I don't see why any brand or blog wouldn't do the same. Just like Quantcast and Compete, Delicious can also be used to gauge popularity of any site (Ex. TechCrunch vs. Mashable or Apple vs. Microsoft). Publishers :: although an app like Instapaper still has a small user base, it should be on your radar. In the same way the DVR has disrupted TV, apps like Instapaper that get rid of ads and place all the content on one page instead of 6 will continue to gain in popularity. The most frequently bookmarked articles on Instapaper and Delicious are also great places to get a sense of what people are reading and sharing online. Any publisher on Twitter can also see who's favoring their tweets using Favstar.fm.

Yes, that's sarcasm in the title. Here's the latest: over 85,000 iPhone apps available, 10,000 apps for Android devices, 80 for Palm, and who knows how many for BlackBerry (update: someone heard me, it's 2,500 apps). As of right now, there isn't a Brands category in any of these app stores and I don't foresee that ever happening (wouldn't really make sense anyway). As more big brands release mobile apps, it's becoming harder to keep track of who is doing what.

So I created a Google spreadsheet to try and organize all these apps in one place. I've decided to only focus on the iPhone for now, but should be moving on to the rest soon if there is interest. I'm also probably missing a lot of apps right now but this will, of course, be an ongoing (and hopefully collaborative) effort.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE GOOGLE SPREADSHEET

Some trends

1. Out of the 200+ apps listed so far, only about 15 have an average rating of 4 stars or better
2. AndroLib shows 64% of all Android apps are rated 4 stars or better. Are branded apps in general worse or just on the iPhone? As soon as I build the Android list, we should have a better idea
3. In general, it's pretty obvious the total number of ratings should be a good indicator of the apps overall popularity (not downloads)
4. The biggest category by far is Lifestyle, News being the second
5. Brands are consistently improving apps because I rarely noticed an average overall rating that was lower than the latest version's rating
6. Not surprisingly, free dominates branded apps (about 90%)
7. Top 5 most rated apps: Facebook, Zippo, Barclaycard, Weather Channel, and Google

Update: Steve Smith from MediaPost's Mobile Insider wrote a great article titled Your Brand App Hit Parade that references my spreadsheet. Make sure to check it out if you didn't come from there. Please let me know what branded apps are missing by using this form or send me a reply on Twitter @jsmakr with the brand/app name.

It's obvious Twitter's suggested user feature is not so great because it knows nothing about your interests. Below is a list of people I currently enjoy following because they have many years of experience in the digital marketing, advertising, social media, and mobile industries (all

'd by me). If you have similar interests, you should be following them too.

Check it out and maybe create a list of your own. If you do, please send me the link or consider tagging it with the hashtag #mysuggested. It doesn't matter what day you do it.

In no particular order: @dberkowitz - Senior Dir, Emerging Media & Innovation at 360i @Malbonnington - Managing Partner @BBHLabs @paulisakson - Head of Strategy at space150 @spikejones - Chief Firestarter at Brains on Fire @bogusky - Chairman of CP+B @flytip - VP, Executive Creative Director at R/GA @workforfood - Associate Creative Director at R/GA @Shivsingh - VP & Global Social Media Lead at Razorfish @Steffan1 - Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Euro RSCG Chicago @bud_caddell - Strategist at Undercurrent @mikearauz - Strategist at Undercurrent @colindrummond - Cultural + Business Insights Dept at CP+B @eyecube - Global Director, Account Management at Taylor PR @lynneluvah - Director, Social Media at FastCompany.com but will soon be Senior VP Social Media, The Advertising Research Foundation @IanSohn - SVP, Marketing and 360° Digital Influence at Ogilvy PR @bastholm - Chief Digital Creative Officer at Ogilvy @heyitsnoah - Head of Planning and Strategy, The Barbarian Group @faris - EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson @scottfrog - Chief Executive of StrawberryFrog @awolk - Blogger, Creative Strategist, Consultant @Armano - Senior Partner at Dachis Group @jowyang - Partner, Altimeter Group @dmklee - Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Digital Arts @its_amber - Dir of Digital Strategy, Naked Communications @rachelpasqua - Dir of Strategy, Emerging Technologies at iCrossing Just a handful of the agency accounts that I currently follow and find very interesting: @BBHLabs, @Wexley, @RGA, @BrainsOnFire, @AgencyNil, @razorfishee, @bigspaceship, @firstborn_nyc, @NakedNY, @ogilvydigital, @hillholliday, @booneoakley, @modernista, and of course where I currently freelance @mslworldwide And don't forget about:

@AdweekDotCom, @tweetfreakblog, @adage, and @agencyspy

I haven't been a huge fan of Follow Friday lately because 140 characters simply isn't enough. Many people send out several tweets in a row with just @usernames - who actually clicks through to each? In a blog post, you have the freedom to include as much info as you want and you can update it as often as you want as things change.

YouTube has had many unexpected uses through the years, but I don't think anyone could have predicted it would be used for public CEO apologies. Who wouldn't agree that it's one of the many great ways for a major brand to respond quickly to negative PR online? Below are 5 (update: now 6, thanks Consumerist) CEO video apologies that I found on YouTube after doing a quick search. A couple of these examples were also mentioned in more detail in a book called Tactical Transparency (pg. 100-104), which is what led to this post.

Domino's

In case you haven't already heard, this video was posted shortly after a unappetizing video was posted by two store employees which quickly went viraaaaaal and led to a PR crisis for Domino's. The apology by CEO Patrick Doyle currently has 754k views, which is by far the most out of all these examples.

JetBlue

The second largest number of views (currently at 361k) belongs to a video posted by JetBlue's former CEO David Neeleman after the company had a very bad week. This apology mostly got positive responses because it seemed to be the most genuine and unscripted. This apology letter was also posted on the their website.

KFC

KFC President Roger Eaton had to try and calm people down after a free meal coupon was promoted on Oprah and things quickly got out of hand. The original apology video has been removed since then and KFC did a really good job of making sure the it was off the internet (please let me know if you find it). Since I cannot embed the video, here is a screenshot instead:

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Mattel

It wouldn't be a toy company if they didn't have to recall their toys at one point in time. Unfortunately for Mattel it was three recalls in just four weeks. The original apology video by CEO Bob Eckert was also removed but this study on believability below highlights the original clip while showing the results of the study.

Maple Leaf Foods

Summary: a major food processing company that had to apologize for bacteria in their food products which actually lead to people dying. It has only received 74k views so far probably because it's the lowest profile brand out of these 5 but I'm still surprised because it seemed like a very serious health and PR case.

(Update) American Airlines

The Consumerist was kind enough to point out another apology that I missed from American Airlines' CEO Jim Goodwin. This one is short.

Other

Two honorable mentions which would have definitely made it to this list if they were also in the form of video apologies: Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos apologizing after the remote deletion of Orwell's 1984 book from all Kindles and Motrin's ad targeted toward mom's that badly backfired. Instead all we got was this short message board post from Jeff Bezoz and a short written apology from Motrin posted on its website. Any others that I missed? Leave a comment or let me know on Twitter @jsmakr.

I recently spent a week in Cairo and a week in Istanbul and I wanted to highlight a few of the things I noticed with current mobile trends in these two major middle eastern cities.

.

Cairo

• By far, most people carry Nokia but the latest models are rare.
• Most people are on prepaid accounts: data usage is charged per KB and texts are charged per sent/received instead of having a monthly allowance so people are overall careful with their usage.
• I used local provider Mobinil while there - 3G coverage was widely available and speeds were great (even around the pyramids).
• The iPhone is available on two local carriers (with MMS support) but considered very expensive.
• Somehow even though Egypt is still behind on widely available and affordable broadband internet access, most people are on Facebook and actively using it (mainly through mobile access). Minimal Twitter use as far as I could tell.

Istanbul

• Same as Cairo: saw mostly Nokia handsets being carried, a majority of which are Nseries devices.
• I used local provider Vodafone Turkey and got ZERO 3G coverage the entire week (even though customer support told me to make sure I turned on 3G in the settings during activation). This was around the entire city and even some areas outside of city center.
• The iPhone also available in Turkey on two carriers but along with BlackBerry's not nearly as commonly used as here in the U.S.
• Staying in a hostel, it was interesting to see everyone accessing Facebook & Gmail during downtime via laptops and sometimes their phone on the hostel's WiFi.

Other Tips

If you have a GSM phone, travel frequently, and like to stay connected I highly recommend you unlock your device and use local carries like I did. Besides the iPhone, I believe most carriers will help you unlock a phone before you travel. The fact that prepaid accounts are the norm here and in some foreign cities makes it very easy to walk into any major carrier's store once you arrive with your passport and within 10 minutes you have a newly activated SIM card. And you will avoid being charged "affordable" international roaming charges. When possible, just use Skype to make much cheaper international calls back home over WiFi (or 3G with some extra work on the iPhone). I honestly don't see the iPhone being a dominant device in Egypt and think it will take a while before it's big in Turkey. This recent Fast Company article highlights Nokia's efforts on how they plan to remain a leader in these global markets. What I witnessed in Cairo and Istanbul verified what I have always been hearing and reading about when it comes to their global dominance outside of the U.S.

I wanted to highlight some of the things that stood out to me while reading Lessons Learned in Igniting Word of Mouth Movements, a manifesto from Brains on Fire which is a very quick and insightful read. While I am a big fan of everything digital/social media, it was refreshing to come across something from a group of very smart marketing people which did not focus on it being the answer to everything.

Let's start with:

We must approach our fans—our friends—on a level that gets to the root of shared passion. It’s not about the product—it’s what the product allows your customers to do. How it enhances their lives. (pg. 4)

Identifying and getting to know your customers and why they started using your product or service should be common sense for any business. Chances are they have valuable opinions and genuinely want to see you improve, but they just didn't want to participate in a one-way feedback method like a boring form or a survey which most people don't believe is taken seriously anyway.

Influence can be made - passion can’t. (pg. 5)

Sure people that have built big followings online can get your message out quicker, but that won't start a movement. It's easy for brands to get attracted to a marketing campaign that brings them lots of short-term PR attention. That may work for certain situations, but they should always be thinking about how they can start working on something more meaningful that will bring them long-term benefits. Although I haven't even owned a Volkswagen in 3 years, I am still a regular visitor and actively participate in a VW community I joined over 8 years ago (even before I bought my first car). Like most of the other members, I share a passion for all cars (not just VW's) which I why I still go back regularly. What I like about online forums is no matter how many posts or how long you've been a member, everyone is equally influential when they voice their opinion.

Companies are made up of people. And people are fallible. The ones that admit this win. (pg. 6)

The last time you saw a company admit to a mistake, did you think worse or better of them? My level of respect definitely goes up when I see a company is willing to admit to their mistakes and how they are actually learning from them to prevent them from happening again. A recent example of this was when Jeff Bezos from Amazon.com apologized right on the company's forums for a mistake that affected owners of a certain book that was taken off their Kindle's without permission. Take a look at all the positive feedback he got (even from unaffected customers).

As great as all the Twitters and Facebooks and MySpaces and blogs and message boards and digital do-dads are, they will never, ever replace the power of shaking someone’s hand, looking them in the eye, getting kindred spirits in the room (or better yet, at your brand’s Mecca), laughing together, getting a drink, sitting at the dinner table—whatever. (pg. 8)

This is an important reminder for brands and agencies to try and link their digital strategy back to the real world. If they are successful, that real life experience people will have with the brand and other passionate customers will go a long way. The same advice is true when it comes to job hunting as I was reminded after recently coming across this article in AdAge. I also agree with Dave Fleet how we sometimes become a little too obsessed with social media ROI.

Reward people with recognition. (pg. 9)

The idea here is that people would rather be recognized for being loyal and important to the brand rather than just be given material rewards. Some of my favorite brands are the ones that regularly perform small and simple customer appreciation gestures without even being asked, and not necessarily just refunds and free products. Virgin, Amazon, Apple, Zappos are just a few that have become known for this (although they certainly aren't perfect either). Small business entrepreneur's seem to be the most passionate when it comes to their own company's success and it's not surprising that I keep reading about more CEO's making time to interact directly with their customers - time that I'm sure they will always agree was well spent. People love recognition and that will never change.

An increase in sales is a byproduct of a movement. (pg. 9)

I am a big believer than nothing worthwhile ever comes easy and the same will always be true when thinking about a potential movement. Also check out this review on Conversation Age. Photo credit.

This iPhone app from Absolut is very impressive. Drinkspiration was obviously carefully planned to try and take over the already crowded category of drink recommendation apps (most of which aren't even free). It was developed by a Swedish agency by the name of Great Works. Before you read further, watch the demo video if you haven't yet: Download it here (iTunes link). I personally paid for a few similar apps a while back and have since removed them because I found them confusing and they really didn't help me easily answer the big question, "What is a new drink I can order or make instead of the usual?" I'm pretty sure almost anybody that drinks and who isn't a bartender has this problem. Drinkspiration does a better job at helping you answer that question and at the same time it went above and beyond by adding several other social and location-based features which really sets it apart. The number one complaint we've been seeing lately from developers is the challenge of app exposure now that it's very crowded in every category. Until there are changes made, the most obvious answer to that question is to create something worthwhile for the user with unique features that are worth talking about. Of course that's easier said than done.

What Drinkspiration does right...

1. Useful functionality

This app solves that common problem among drinkers in several different ways. Some features also leverage the iPhone's built-in GPS and other available API's. The different options that are presented allow you to get drink suggestions based on things like your location, desired taste/color of the drink, the time of day, the weather, liquor type, glass type, and even the type of bar vibe. They also included two other unique options: see what other people are ordering in real-time across the world (I am 99% sure they got this idea from the popular Ocarina app but there is no harm in that) & recommend a drink by background volume (my favorite one that worked well when I tested it).

2. Well designed user interface

A must IMO for any iPhone app to be taken seriously.

3. Social network optimized

Linking to Twitter and Facebook worked as expected (except it got my location wrong but I don't think that's Absolut's fault). One small change I would make: the Facebook status should also be updated so it says "I just had an Old Vic" like it does on Twitter or else your friends will be probably be confused. I do like how they link all updates to absolutdrinks.com, the online version of the app where you can search, browse, and find more tips on how to mix the drinks. If only they would have figured out a way to hook up with the already popular Foursquare app, that would have put the app over the top.

4. Good app name

Drinking + finding the inspiration to try something new = Drinkspiration.

5. Free download

There might be a few other exceptions but for the most part, people won't bother paying for a clearly branded app. One of the exceptions might be paying for subscription based apps from magazines or newspapers that will have frequently updated content (and most likely replace a paper subscription).

Other Thoughts

Some of the early reviews for Drinkspiration on iTunes aren't so great but it looks like they are mainly from people who are pointing out some of the bugs that Absolut will likely fix with future versions. I did notice it crashed on me a few times but that's usually the case with a lot of the new and complex apps I try these days. Besides the iTunes store, the mentions on Twitter for Drinkspiration have been very good. I imagine that Absolut will create the same app for Android, Palm and maybe even BlackBerry sometime in the near future (Update: already plans to release an Android version as this article points out). They created an app that people will likely show off to friends at the bar which will lead to more downloads. There is a huge opportunity for a major beer company to create something similar for the beer category. I'm also wondering since Bluetooth enabled accessories will be a huge part of the iPhone market very soon if it would be possible for Absolut to develop an iPhone breathalyzer which would allow you to blow into it and display your blood alcohol level within the app. Let me know your thoughts on this or any other recent examples of branded apps which you thought were well-done. Some others that come to mind right now are Dunkin Donut's Dunkin Run, Oakley's Surf Report, Charmin's sponsored SitorSquat and Kraft's iFood.