i envY envIO
29th November 2009
Wow. Over 100,000 apps for the iPhone. How can you possibly find the next killer app needle in that haystack? How about Chorus?
Chorus, which is developed by envIO Networks, is sort of like a mobile social network based around the apps that your friends have downloaded. The app features real-time feeds from your designated friends (those who have also downloaded Chorus and whom you have friended) displaying the apps they are downloading, and what they are saying about them in the app.
Chorus uses a proprietary Social Genome technology to match your favorite apps against those your friends use, building a personalized and relevant list of recommended apps. Chorus will also ask your a series of questions to determine the types of apps your like. And you can share your favorite apps through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and also invite them to test out Chorus.
What a great idea! Grab this app, provide a list of friends, and voila. You find the New New Thing.
My hat’s off to envIO, but I’ve got to clue you in, my little pretties. envIO is after you like the witch on the broom. Think about the persuasion implications of this application.
You download Chorus and give it access to your iPhone and how you use it. You provide a list of your friends (and with their agreement) they download Chorus and give it access to their iPhones and how they use them. envIO through Chorus tracks your iPhone activity within the network of your friends and accumulates all that data. Part of this accumulation they share with you – what apps your circle is using – but the rest they keep for themselves. What do they do with this?
They develop continuous profiles of you and your friends. Remember, they get information about how you use your iPhone.
They sell this information to other marketers who have your name and phone number as ID markers to connect you with other sources of information they have. Those marketers combine Chorus data with other databases to refine their profile of you.
They use this information to target ads on you and your friends. Not only do you get snipered, but your friends do to, creating a circle of multiple sources, all being exposed to the same New New Thing, but not realizing it. This is how you create a false Echo Chamber or Fake Buzz. “Gee, everyone is talking about this New New Thing, it must be cool” is what you’re thinking when all that’s happening is that Chorus is sending the same ad to everyone you know.
I’d also recommend that you visit envIO’s website and check them out as models who understand the Rule, All Bad Persuasion Is Sincere. They offer an app that finds cool needles in the iTunes haystack, when they are really setting up a marketing network that flies under the radar.
We are inventing a new form of delivering persuasive messages. Smart devices like the iPhone are the friendly recorder of our daily lives. One day you are going to be surprised in a Bad Way. But for persuasion guys, it is all good. Hey, you signed that legal glop page, remember?
P.S. Imagine doing this with a potential Al Qaeda recruit. What’s a catchy name for “Islamic posse” or “Taliban crew?” And, the FBI has got to be using something (legal) like this to catch Bad Guy Gangs, don’t they?