Gary Flake (I posted on my meeting with him earlier this week here) has sent me files from his demo at SAS. I missed that demo, but you can get the picture, literally, by checking out these images.
Here is an image of LiveSearch with the SeaDragon/SivlerLight mashup overlay.
When you mouse over or click on a favicon-sized object at the beginning of the paid search ad on the right (in this image, you can just see one of them at the bottom right), a window opens up with tons more information, turning a “text ad” into an interactive display ad, voila! Yes, this is like Ajax, Flash, etc. But the feel is far more fluid, at least, it was in the demo…
Now, imagine this technology for display ads or online representations of traditional publications. Here’s an example of a digital newspaper:
Imagine clicking or mousing over that BMW ad and getting tons more info instantly. All of sudden, real estate gets far more fungible. It could change the business model a bit.
PhotoSynth is still in early dev stages, but the possibilities are very interesting. Using the technology you can start to build virtual stores that integrate the way we are wired – visually – to the way the web is wired – datily. Er, data-ly. You get the picture. Well, no, here’s the picture:
In this example you see a very realistic rendering (it should be, it’s from a photo) of a high-end plumbing fixture store. Highlighted via the PhotoSynth interface is a faucet, and on the left is a ton of specs, data, etc. on that item. Imagine shopping in this interface online. It’s compelling….the glimmerings of a tangible link between the physical and the data worlds.
It’s all the matrix anyway. We just process it one way. Connecting the way we process data to the way machines process it is…well, fun to think about.
I bet if we asked nicely, Gary’d be happy to take your questions and input in the comments section….