Seth Godin refers to this situation as a “surplus of attention,” a reversal of the previous trend that saw marketers buying up ad space wherever they could and at premium prices because there was only so much that people were looking at and it typically translated into increased profits for everyone.

Now we’re looking at a situation where there’s so much real estate that the options of where to try and capture an audience are almost too vast. Advertisers don’t know how to handle so many choices to leverage this situation and therefore are missing out on our collective time spent online. Godin sees the solution as “hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant,” as the direction we need to be heading.

And while this trend, is more geared towards marketers, I see parallels within the business world, particularly when looking at new tech start-ups because this is the landscape that they will be navigating. Understanding the demands of the your potential customer in any environment, but especially online will have a huge impact on the success of your offering, whether product or service.

[image via katielips]

The NY Times points to the current landscape, where Microsoft and Apple have recently upgraded their entries, Google has introduced Chrome and “browser-lite” offered by Mozilla has captured 23 percent market share. Add to this already crowded field, a new venture by start-up RockMelt – backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen – that while still in the early stages, is rumored to have implications for engaging with social media platforms, and the battle lines are being redrawn.

With the increasing mobility and connectedness offered by new technologies, the web and not the computer is increasingly becoming our access point to work and play, while the internet is simultaneously being seen less as a cohesive whole as it is deconstructed into dynamic pages and applications for performing specific tasks. Which is to say, that the browser is the gateway to controlling and shaping that user experience and there’s plenty of room for  innovation to keep pace with this evolution.

The biggest challenge remains distribution, but as we’ve seen time and again, develop a compelling enough product and your audience will find you, particularly in the fluid world of online technology.

[image via R.P. Piper]

Outside of Caspar, Wyoming, the site of a former Rocky Mountain Power coal mine that was no longer economically viable has been converted into a 158-turbine wind farm that produces 237 megawatts of power, enough electricity for 66,800 households for a year.

As CNET reports “Full-scale final reclamation efforts to restore the nearly 9-mile long stretch of land affected by mining began in 1999 and were completed in 2005. Mountains of dirt were moved, miles of land reseeded with native vegetation and major contouring performed in order to return the landscape to its pre-mining appearance. More than 85 million yards of earth were moved to accomplish this feat.”

And while a project like this is no small undertaking, both in terms of time and money (one wind turbine alone costs roughly $2 million), given that the company already owned the land and had much of the necessary infrastructure in place, the long-term prospects made sense. Factor in the improved design  - specialists arranged the farm in an array that maximizes output – and technology – turbines are now electronically controlled to “track” the wind – and traditional power companies are being to see the value in clean energy.

Meanwhile in Holmdel, New Jersey, Somerset Development is attempting to gain approvals so that they can move forward with plans to convert an abandoned office park into a community of lofts and stores. The building and campus seem to be prime candidates for such an endeavor, given their unusual pedigree – designed by renowned Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and served as former home to Bell Labs, known for its pioneering work on transistors and cell phones.

Fast Company explains the important precedent such a project could set, “If the conversion goes through it could serve as a model for the conversation of aging and abandoned surburban offices across the country. And as preservationist and architectural historian Nina Rappaport notes,”[the] key to the project is how to retrofit the building into an era that requires sustainable new systems,” representing an unique opportunity for Somerset to be seen as a leader in this specialized (but growing) industry.