In the last 18 months, the rise of the real-time Web has created many interesting business opportunities but is this only the tip of the iceberg? Is the real-time Web hiding a bigger, more strategic opportunity? Is the temporal Web the next big revolution after “location”? Sebastien Provencher will present his latest thoughts on the subject.

1. 1
What, Where and Now When?
Time and Local Search

2. Rise of the Real-Time Web
Content: unheard scale and scope (user
participation)
Consumers are looking for instant
gratification (real-time products,
services and experience)
Business intelligence: in your face
Conversations: become part of it,
engage and initiate conversations (join
the “now”)
Source: Trendwatching

3. Real-Time: The Tip of the Iceberg?
Flickr photo: Ludovic Hirlimann

4. Is there something more strategic when
we start looking at time as a variable?
The temporal Web

5. Time Use Research
Investigates human activity inside and outside
the paid economy
Looks at how these activities change over time
Addresses a wide array of political, economic,
social, and cultural issues through the use of
time use surveys
Surveys provide geographic data and time
diaries that volunteers record using GPS
technology and time diaries.
Source: Wikipedia

6. Categories of time
Contracted time (work or school)
Committed time (home and family)
Necessary time (eating, sleeping,
cleansing, exercising)
Free time (the rest)
Source: Wikipedia

7. Top 10 Uses of Time in a Typical Day
(minutes per 24 hours)
1. sleeping (513 minutes)
2. working at main job (199)
3. watching TV (155)
4. eating and drinking (67)
5. washing, dressing, grooming (40)
6. socializing (39)
7. food and drink preparation (24)
8. interior house cleaning (23)
9. reading for personal interest (22)
10. relaxing, thinking (19)
Source: Time Use Institute

8. Where Are People During the Day?
Location and Activity of Adult -Apartment Residents by Hour:
Monday through Friday
Source: Time Use Institute

9. Going Out to Eat or Eating Home?
Those who go out to eat, eat later in the evening
than to those who eat at home
Those who go out to eat, eat later in the evening
than to those who eat at home
Source: Time Use Institute

10. Time Trend: Work-Life Imbalance
Less than half of consumers across 17
countries are satisfied with their work-life
balance
Various commitments and demands from work
and personal/family life have contributed to the
feeling of time-deprivation
People are looking for speed and convenience
and anything that allows them to feel more in
control of time.
Source: Datamonitor, August 2009

11. Time Trend: Saving Time/Saving Money
28% shoppers prefer to spend more if it
saves them time (increasing)
28% say that "saving money by
shopping around" was their top
preference (decreasing)
Source: M/A/R/C Research and Integer, August 2009

12. In the “local” space, what
products/services/features are time-
oriented?
1

13. Hours of Operations
Key building block for temporal local Web
Someone is searching for pizza at 2am,
they probably want pizza now
Don’t give them irrelevant results

14. Reservations / Scheduling / Appointments
Restaurants, hotels, travel, yoga,
dentists, etc.

15. Time Product: RFQ / RFP
Request for quotes / request for proposals
When do you need that roof fixed?
NOW!
Next week?
Next summer?

16. Deals / Coupons / Specials / Sales
Main characteristics:
End date
Offer
Location

17. Real-Time Products
Local content (external and internal)
Local product inventory
Reputation management
Real-time business opportunities
Data mining to influence search results
1

18. Inventory management
"In the retail sector (…), many companies
make a high percentage of their sales
during an eight-day period around
Christmas. If you rely on old information, it
gives you an idea of what people are going
to buy and in what quantity, but if you can
capture that several times a day, you can
move products to where the demand is. It
allows you to react to needs and trends on
a real-time basis"
Source: Montreal Gazette, October 22, 2010

19. Pop-up Retail
A pop-up retail space is a venue that is temporary
Encompasses all temporary brand manifestations
that add an element of surprise, urgency, and must-
have/must-see to shopping, dining, entertaining,
lodging, exhibiting and so on.
It can also be for the
duration of a peak in
demand anticipated to
be short.
Source: Wikipedia & TrendWatching. Globalgraphica.com for the picture

20. Local Events
Plancast
Eventful: “Demand events in your town”

21. Local News
Source: Poynter Online, “From Blog to Narrative: Josh Benton Throws Us a Curve”,
March 21 2008

22. Predictions: The Future
Stock Market
Box Office

23. Data Mining to Influence Search Results
Determine trends before they happen
Gauge demand of products / services on
a day-to-day basis
Serving the right result at the right time
“Temporal Analytics Engine” (Recorded
Future)

24. Ideas / Thoughts / Business Opportunities
How do we stretch time / optimize time for consumers?
Knowing how time is spent probably has an impact on
mobile/local/social applications
Mobile commuting apps
Can you help local merchants with inventory management?
Is there a Plancast for local search?
Real-time local product inventory for SMEs
Deal / specials aggregation
Is there dayparting / yield management on a local search
site?

25. Food for Thought
“Media companies are stewards of
people’s time. People choose to invest
their time with media companies’
products and those choices become
opportunities to invest client dollars to
help people get things done…”
Source: Jerry Courtney, “Procuring Value with People”, October 23, 2010

26. Food for Thought 2
"Brands don't become great by
monitoring the past. The challenge is to
have a point of view on the future.”
Stan Sthanunathan, Vice President of Marketing Strategy and Insights, Coca-Cola
Company
Source: Technology Review, “Mining Moods for Brand Intelligence” October 11, 2010

27. Food for Thought 3
John Battelle: "What's the next big thing
after social? Location."
Me: What's the next big thing after location?
Time?
Time is (probably) money...
Source: John Battelle “Mayer to Location: Big. ” October 12, 2010

28. Recommended reading
“Twenty-Four Hours - Insights into the
Flow of Daily Life from the American
Time Use Survey”, The Time Use
Institute, June 2008

29. Merci!
Sébastien Provencher
Co-founder, Praized Media
www.needium.com
sprovencher@needium.com
http://blogs.praized.com/seb
http://twitter.com/sebprovencher

30. Back-up slides
1

31. Canadians Caught in the Time Crunch
A greater demand by consumers for
services in the evenings, weekends and
holidays (25% of Canadian work non-
standard hours)
An increase in urban sprawl
Greater innovation and adaptation of
workplace technologies (on call)
20% of Canadian feel “time crunched”
Source: Canadian Index of Wellbeing, June 2010