Web Brands

This graphic from Strategy Analytics who did some work with young people on "which brands would you want on your mobile phone?"  The top-five obvious. What is catching is Twitter, ranked by MSN which survives thanks to Hotmail, around since, like, the Stone Age of the Internet. I would have thought Twitter right at the very top given the hype and all that - even I, this very week-end, looked into signing up and me, being over 40.  Despite the racket, Twitter only has 55 million users against Facebook's 325 million (VentureBeat) so while Twitter buzzy, the numbers catching up. The SA graphic sets the stall for the Web's next turf battle - your mobile phone.  Indeed, the war began years ago but mobile power now allows cool stuff in your pocket, all the time. My wise Grandmother recalled the family's car - a horse named Bessy. The idea talking to anybody from anywhere - totally bonkers, though she accepted these things gamely.  Inside ten years my guess that PCs and notebooks - at least as we know them - obsolete. The advantage to applications that cross platforms seamlessly.  Jim is all over this for Google and I would not bet against him. Still the future wide open - Google turned 11 this year while Facebook launched in 2004. Soon, as Luke Nosek who founded PayPal and invested in Facebook, once told me: "one day, all search will be 100% personal." If this turns true, Facebook may one day surprise Google.  Or maybe it will be somebody else, working in her parent's garage instead of going to business school. Or college. Hope so.