With Messenger TV users of Live Messenger (former MSN Messenger) can now simultaneously chat, watch TV/videos and, above all, comment on episodes and programs together.

Department store Hema has its own recognisable tune, its own recognisable sound. HEMA has now called people to recreate the tune on the site een nieuw geluid voor de Hema fluit (Dutch, 'A new sound for the HEMA-whistle'). The site itself contains hundreds of objects that all make a sound on a mouse-over. In the middle of the page is the contest in which HEMA fans battle for the favour of other fans. Here you'll find the most-viewed movies, the best movies up to now, etc.

This is how consumers show that they have a clear input in the identity of a brand. Whether it’s a visual logo, a sound logo or a recognisable jingle, if people have been able to contribute they’ll be more involved with the brand. Good publicity stunt, HEMA!

Rallypoint has designed a glove for soldiers that enables them to use firearms and a computer simultaneously. It's supposed to ensure that computer usage won't be restricted to safe situations.

Google has invested in several DNA-research centres. These centres offer paid services in which they analyse your DNA and present it to you in online reports. The test results of your show if you have a genetic chance of medical conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer or rheumatoid arthritis.

This year in the Netherlands the growth in the number of chatbots, automated chat friends on websites or in Live Messenger, has tripled. Chatbots.org, an ErwinVanLun.com and Mensmerk.nl initiative, has announced this morning via a press release. These statistics have been gathered by analysis and questioning of all Dutch chatbot suppliers. In the future we will more often have contact with, for example, companies, via chatbots. Here follows the full press release.

Consumer's site Kieskeurig.nl has expanded its services with a mobile version. This allows consumers to compare products and prices while they're shopping. Consumers will be able to check whether they're really shopping in the most economical fashion whilst they're standing in the store.

The Dutch public broadcaster has launched two chatbots: the Missed Broadcast chatbot and the Broadcast Guide chatbot. By adding uitzendinggemistbot@omroep.nl and zoomerbot@omroep.nl respectively the media consumer can see what is on TV is or watch programs that have previously been broadcast.

In this way home entertainment coaching brands, brands that can help us enjoy ourselves in our armchairs, are finding a place in our friend list, in the buddy list of Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger). Soon we will have one chatbot, one brand agent, one synthetic worker who will organise it all for us. This will not only be active on the PC but also on the TV and your mobile. They will make clear what is on offer (also information from other broadcasters, including those from other countries and in foreign languages), they will learn our personal preferences and what we have already seen, as well as what our friends have seen or done. Eventually they will be able to present us with our perfect evenings entertainment, exactly tailored to our likes and dislikes.

The Dutch family ties site Familieband.nl allows people to record their family relationships and also functions as a social network. In doing this Familieband.nl facilitates typical family activities like organizing a family day out or an annual reunion.

Social networks are no longer simply recording who you know but also the relationship you have with them. Friends, family or colleagues? This is just the first step. Good friends, old friends or new friends? Brother, grandfather or distant niece? Direct colleague? Ex-collegue? Network contact? As social networks, as social coaching brands, soon they will be able to arrange real time contact for us too (read: chat and telephoning), then we can also define who is important for us, who the runners up are and who are old contacts. Once they understand who is important to us they will be able to advise us about the maintenance of personal contacts. It begins with this sort of initative. 

Apple has patented light weight spectacles with extremely thin lenses, comparable with thicker lenses, they are steered via a laser that is connected to your belt via an optic cable. There is a battery in the apparatus on your belt.

Ever more technology is being developed to stimulate our senses as much as possible. This will make experiences in the virtual world much more realistic. This naturally also applies to brand experiences too. 

Nescafé has let people order samples of new coffee flavors via text message. They encouraged people to do this through print and advertisements in bus shelters. In total 74,000 people requested a sample. 80% of these had never bought the coffee before. 82% of the respondents indicated actually using the requested sample and 26% of the respondents decided to buy the product. And because consumers are taking action themselves their attitude towards the brand improved and their spontaneous recognition rose. Their intention to buy the product rose as well.

This is how brands are slowly starting to communicate on personal levels, but each individual is still an individual. For now every random passerby can order – even the people who already knew it – but soon Nescafé will know how to refine this mechanism and apply it to people who don’t know the product yet or, even better, allows people who are more inclined to spread the word to try the product. This shows how brands will improve at tribal thinking. This is a kind of start.

Ten supermarkets within the Dutch supermarket chain C1000 now check the age of people buying alcohol with webcams. At each checkout there is a terminal with two cameras. As soon as alcohol or tobacco is scanned a live stream is activated and trained personnel assess the age of the customer from a distance. If there is any doubt about the customers' age they will be asked to hold ID up to the webcam.

Brands are slowly automating the dialogue. Now with real personnel via a webcam but soon this check will be done automatically. The next step will be that the customer wont need to present their face to a specific camera because the assessment will already have taken place via one of the many cameras in the store. 

A little celibration for myself: ErwinVanLun.com. has since today a Google page ranking of 4, Chatbots.org has, since the press release last week, a Google page ranking of 3. Not yet spectacular, Mensmerk (the Dutch version of ErwinVanLun.com) scores a lot better, but this means that the pages are becoming easier to find and that terms such as 'futurist', 'trend analyst' or 'speaker' also have more of a chance internationally. Both sites are part of my international stratergy. I hope to base myself in Sydney in the near future. In my vision ErwinVanLun.com will then become the leading site and will eventually have 10 times as many visitors as Mensmerk (whilst Mensmerk must also attract 10 times as many visitors as it does now). Finished, just wanted to share the good news!

On the site of the NS (Dutch Rail) a chatbot, Eva, reads the answers to questions posed by consumers. It is possible to just read the answers too.

Brands are more often being built in dialogue with consumers, members or citizens. They represent themselves through brand agents, synthetic characters who we can talk to. Now they are only to be found on the service pages but soon they they will be prominent on the home page. Now Eva has started talking, soon she will listen too. Now only on the PC but soon we will only need to call ‘Eva’ and she will appear on the nearest screen, wherever we are in the world, to answer our questions. This is clearly a step in that direction. 

In the new video game Grand Theft Auto IV players can buy MP3s of music that can be heard on the radio stations in the game.

The overflow between different media is gradually creating the virtual world. All electronic media, media with batteries or mains power, are becoming a part of the big virtual world. Now via the Playstation or Xbox, but soon we will see the world from every screen and be able to listen wherever we want. If we hear something we like in the real world we will be able to request it in the virtual world. In this way various media are merging. This is another step in that direction. 

Registered Nine Inch Nails fans are being offered the opportunity to buy tickets for the best seats for the summer tour, 3 days before the official sales start. The tickets are issued in the name of the fan and they will need to show ID to prove that they are the owner of the ticket.

The music industry is experiencing a transformation. Money is now more often earned from concerts. Real (registered) fans sit close by and others further away. Those who can’t be present for whatever reason can enjoy the concerts in the virtual world, at home but still very much involved.