Open up your mind and say, ahh...

When State Farm Insurance announced its telematics-based roadside assistance program, everyone said OnStar had gained a new competitor. What didn’t get as much attention, however, is that the insurance company also opened an electronic window into your driving habits.

The system, called In-Drive, is two small boxes — one that clips onto your visor, another that plugs into your car’s OBD II diagnostic port — that can summon a tow truck, alert the police and even locate a stolen vehicle or a teen who has missed curfew. It’s all very helpful, and quite innocuous. But In-Drive also lets drivers opt in to Drive Safe and Save, State Farm’s usage-based insurance program that calculates drivers’ premiums based on their recorded driving habits.

The insurer is offering discounts on insurance premiums of as much as 50 percent, in addition to roadside assistance, in exchange for tracking its customers. State Farm says the program, which costs motorists between $5 and $15 monthly, is designed to provide conveniences like emergency assistance while encouraging — and rewarding — safe driving habits.

“This combined offering represents a first in our industry,” said Mike Wey, State Farm senior vice president. “It will provide drivers with a wide range of new options that will make for a smarter vehicle and even smarter driver.”

But the practice raises questions about privacy, including what information is recorded and where it is stored. Though there are significant legal protections dictating what insurance companies can use to set rates, other data that is collected is subject to less transparent privacy policies.

Usage-based insurance, also known as “pay as you drive,” gained favor in the last decade or so, when actuaries realized they could use data gleaned from telematics and GPS systems to rate an individual driver’s risk, based on empirical evidence. Perhaps the most widely marketed example is Snapshot, the Progressive program that offers discounts of as much as 35 percent to those drivers who don’t go out late at night and use a light touch on the accelerator.

Many states limit how much data insurers can collect, in many case letting them track nothing more than how many miles accrue between policy renewals. But drivers who opt into these programs may be divulging more information than they realize.

And, although they’re collecting a rich set of data, insurance companies risk lavishing rewards on good drivers while doing little to encourage safer behavior behind the wheel.

Show And Tell

In many ways, In-Drive operates much like OnStar and any other vehicle telematics system offerings roadside assistance. And that’s what opens the door to insurance company snooping.

The system, developed by Hughes Telematics — the same folks behind Mercedes-Benz’ mBrace system — records the stream of diagnostic information sent through a vehicle’s on-board diagnostic (OBD II) port, including emissions data and vehicle-dynamics info like speed and braking.

That data is encrypted and sent to Hughes through a dedicated cellular connection. Much of that information is used only for roadside assistance programs — for instance, GPS data is used to track a stolen vehicle — because many states limit the amount of information a company like Hughes can provide to insurers. In-Drive is currently available in California, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio and Texas; Snapshot in 38 states. In most states, auto insurers face further restrictions in setting rates based on data they collect.

Kevin Link, vice president of marketing at Hughes Telematics, says the only info passed on to State Farm is speed, time of day, miles driven, acceleration, braking and the number of left and right turns made. State Farm sends customers a “report card” after 30 days and begins lowering premiums, if applicable, after 100 days of continuous data collection.

Interestingly, you can pull the device out of your car at that point and enjoy the cheaper rate until your next policy renewal, at which point you’ll need to reinstall it so State Farm can collect another 100 days of data.

Until recently, in many states it wasn’t legal for insurers to collect even that much data. In California, for example, insurance companies lobbied the state to allow electronic tracking devices for usage-based insurance. It was part of “pay as you drive” legislation passed in 2009 that made mileage a major rating factor. With it came new regulations, designed to protect customer privacy, prohibiting insurers from collecting where, when and how a vehicle is driven.

So how can State Farm collect exactly that kind of data? There’s a loophole in the law.

“Insurers are allowed to collect location information only as part of an emergency road service program, theft-tracking service, map service or travel service,” says Dorothy Glancy, a professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law who specializes in privacy issues in transportation.

In other words, if they’re collecting acceleration data through a system that can, say, locate your stolen car, they’re on solid ground.

To be clear, State Farm doesn’t use location data in setting rates, and the information they do receive is only as accurate as a 10th of a degree of latitude. Snapshot doesn’t even include GPS technology, nor does it track vehicle location.

According to Richard Hutchinson, Progressive’s general manager of usage-based insurance, it’s by design. “By having not included GPS, and thereby not having location, we’ve avoided all that activity,” he said. It also saves them from getting into divorce disputes and other messy legal proceedings.

Link says In-Drive doesn’t use location data to help determine premiums, but it does feature GPS for roadside assistance, stolen-vehicle tracking and the optional Co-Pilot service that customers can use to monitor the driving habits of their teen or elderly relatives.

The continued privacy of location data is protection that Glancy says must be maintained.

“Someone could make a lot of money from using the insurance location data, or selling it to data brokers,” she says.

Like a Nosy Neighbor

Even if State Farm and Progressive can track more than mileage, they can only use those most basic data points outlined above to set premiums. What, then, do they do with the rest of the stream of data flowing from the OBD-II?

They store it. Then, they study it.

In their respective privacy policies, both Progressive and State Farm explicitly say they will not sell identifiable information to third parties, but that’s where things get vague.

Progressive says it can, with a customer’s permission, use data gleaned through Snapshot to resolve a claim. According to Hutchinson, the data is only called out when a customer specifically asks for it, usually because they feel it will support their case.

State Farm says it may share information with third parties “as required or permitted by law,” while Progressive says it will do so if “it’s necessary or appropriate to service your insurance policy, prevent fraud, perform research, or comply with the law.”

Both Link and Hutchinson said their respective companies would be required to share info with law enforcement if there were a legal requirement to do so.

According to Link, State Farm’s data is stored with “significant data encryption.” Hutchinson said that Progressive, like all insurance companies, is required by state laws to store identifiable data for seven years for auditing purposes.

Beyond that, the data is scrubbed of personal information and stored “indefinitely,” though he said that there’s currently at least a decade of data on hand that actuaries are studying to create more predictive models for rating. That’s what insurance companies have done since Lloyd’s tried to predict the risk of shipping tea to the New World.

“We keep the driving data, and we keep the loss data associated in our database. We view that data as being valuable from an actuarial standpoint,” he said. “Our primary objective is to find data that we believe is representative and will give us an indication of being in an auto insurance accident.” For example, he said actuaries are currently studying altitude data to determine whether there’s any correlation between accidents and driving on mountain roads.

Hearing Hutchinson say it, we were surprised that such an explicit explanation didn’t make it into Progressive’s relatively obtuse privacy policy. Glancy says this lack of transparency is a common problem.

“The trouble with most of the insurance programs that seek to collect such data is that the insurance companies do not adequately explain in terms that an average driver would understand precisely what data they are collecting,” she says.

A Calculated Risk

State Farm and Progressive stress that their usage-based insurance programs are strictly opt-in, which is the ultimate protection for those concerned about privacy. But that’s exactly what makes such programs less attractive to those drivers whose behavior insurers most want to change.

To encourage safer driving, insurers hope that bad drivers will succumb to illusory superiority — the false belief that they are better than most at a particular task, such as driving. It’s also known as the “Lake Wobegon Effect,” after Garrison Keillor’s fictional town where “all the children are above average.”

Such drivers believe they’re safer and more skilled than they actually are. They’re the type to sign up for usage-based insurance, expecting a big discount. When they don’t receive it, insurers hope they’ll change their behavior to save some money, becoming better drivers. This is why State Farm provides a “report card” concretely telling In-Drive users how to drive in a manner that reduces premiums.

That’s the theory. Reality is far different.

Evidence suggests that those willing to have their driving habits tracked tend to drive very little. There isn’t a whole lot of empirical evidence about usage-based insurance yet, but Glancy says a pay-by-the-mile program from British insurer Norwich Union ended quickly in 2008 when the only people who signed up rarely ventured out in their cars. The company was essentially providing an additional discount to those already presenting the lowest risk.

If insurers really wanted to encourage participation in usage-based programs, they would offer safe-driver discounts and incentives only to those who agree to have their driving habits tracked. Glancy says that would be “possible, even likely” —  if it weren’t barred by state laws.

That’s why offering the convenience of a program like In-Drive — Hey folks! We’ll call an ambulance if you crash, or find your car if it’s stolen! — is important to insurers. It provides them with access to more data streams and entices policyholders to sign up for tracking.

Even collecting and storing the data exposes insurance companies to some financial risk. Should there be a data breach, the companies may face fines and penalties.

“The cost of reacting to data breaches can be very high,” says Glancy. “The other type of expensive risk come from demands for access to the data by law enforcement, civil litigants, national security agents, etc. Responding appropriately can be very costly.”

In the future, increasingly connected cars may be charged mileage-based user fees in place of a gas tax.

Following California’s lead, Massachusetts is considering a pilot “pay as you drive” program for environmental reasons.

For now, though,  it’s still a customer’s choice whether to participate.

“This program is strictly voluntary,” State Farm spokesman Kip Diggs says. “We expect this program won’t be for everyone.”

Photo: Library of Congress

As textbook marketplace Chegg forays into digital textbooks, it’s not dwelling on the reading experience. Rather, it’s surrounding its marketplace with tools that keep students coming back to its site instead of browsing rival stores like Amazon and textbooks.com.

Chegg has made three acquisitions in about a year to fill out its toolbelt, and on Friday it announced a fourth — a student-to-student homework help site called Student of Fortune.

The news follows Thursday’s launch of a redesigned website that better integrates three of Chegg’s newly acquired companies into its main site and an announcement that the company has expanded its digital offering by about 25,000 books.

Chegg’s December acquisition, Cramster, powers a “homework help” section of the site that walks through step-by-step solutions from textbooks and provides student and expert advice. Its August acquisition, CourseRank, powers a “courses” section that gives students access to course schedules at their schools, along with reviews and grade distributions for each class. And its June acquisition, Notehall, adds a student-to-student marketplace for notes. All of these services — as well as a student-targeted daily deals site — are now housed under one Chegg log-in name.

This focus on services rather than books is an unusual behavior for a business that is primarily a textbook vendor. Contrary to several etextbook companies that have focused marketing efforts on the features in their digital book formats, CEO Dan Rosensweig tells Mashable that Chegg’s stance on digital format is “agnostic.”

Chegg’s reader program is HTML5-based and can run on anything with a browser. It comes with standard highlighting, note-taking and search features. Instead of taking on the responsibility for developing further interactivity, Rosenweig says that Chegg wants to develop a “student graph.”

In other words, as Rosenweig has oft repeated, Chegg wants to be a place where students hang out 365 days a year instead of just the two days they buy textbooks. It doesn’t matter what digital formats eventually win out over others — Chegg will have the students to sell them to when the winners are determined.

Buying Student of Fortune adds about 300,000 users to Chegg’s already millions-strong “student graph.” The remaining question is whether this and Chegg’s other recent acquisitions will indeed shift it from “online textbook rental company” to the “social education platform” it now dubs itself — and, of course, whether that helps it sell more textbooks.

Photo courtesy of istockphoto, dlewis33

In an ongoing battle against trademark infringement, Apple has filed a lawsuit against two sellers of knockoff Apple accessories based in the New York City neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, according to documents unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.

The defendants — Apple Story and Fun Zone, both owned by New York resident Janie Po Chiang — are accused of selling unauthorized iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories branded with the company’s iconic logo and signature markings and phrases found on genuine Apple products, including “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.”

Apple is also asking that Apple Story be ordered to change its name to minimize confusion of brands among consumers.

Apple reported having sent representatives to the two counterfeit hawkers in question, where they bought an assortment of unauthorized accessories, including stereo headsets designed for use with the iPhone that came in packaging that was “nearly an exact duplicate” to the original packaging.

The case was filed on July 25, but was not made public until Thursday, due to a U.S. trademark counterfeiting law that enables a company to initially file a trademark infringement complaint under seal, so as not to tip off accused perpetrators before goods have been seized.

At Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto has ordered both stores to stop selling counterfeit goods. He has not yet issued an order on whether Apple Story must change its name.

Above all of its other requests, the most important for Apple’s mission to stamp out knockoffs may be its request to receive a complete lists of individuals and businesses who have purchased or sold counterfeit goods. The company has been granted access to the defendants’ business email accounts, where evidence of such business deals may be found.

This case comes at a pivotal time for Apple, having recently passed Exxon to become the most valuable company in the world and having also passed Lenovo in greater China sales.

As if counterfeit goods weren’t enough to handle, Apple has also been battling for the shutdown of fake Apple stores in China, one of its most promising markets.

via: Reuters

Bing has launched “We’re In,” a new app for Windows Phone that lets a group of friends coordinate their plans by sharing their locations.

The app isn’t like Foursquare, which is designed to broadcast your location to the rest of the world. Instead, the app is all about making it easier to plan an event with a group of friends.

Say you’re trying to get a group of friends to meet at the mall or at a roller coaster at 3:30. Trying to coordinate all of your friends to meet at an exact location can be painfully time-consuming and lead to confused participants.

“We’re In” simplifies the process of organizing these types of get-togethers. One user creates an event, adds friends to it via his contact list or phone number, titles the plan and chooses how long he wants people to share his location information.

These friends then receive a text that will either let them use the app or open a web interface. The interface maps out the location of all people participating in the event, making it easy to figure out who’s already arrived, who’s lost and who’s behind schedule. Members of the temporary event can also send status updates to keep the rest of the group informed.

Range is the name of the game for electric vehicles, and researchers in Germany are the new champs.

Electro-gearheads at the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg, in collaboration with other academic groups, sent the Schlucksprecht E (“heavy drinker” or “boozer”) around a track for a total of 1013.77 miles on a single charge. The run took 36 hours and 12 minutes, with four drivers taking the wheel for two-hour shifts. The drive easily eclipsed the previous record of 623.3 miles set by the Japan Electric Vehicle Club.

The team focused much of its attention on maximizing aerodynamics and cutting weight. The funky single-seater is Spartan to say the least. It’s got two hub-mounted motors, and it’s as slow as it is low. It completed the run at an average of 45 kilometers per hour, according to Oekonews.com, which first reported the results of last weekend’s run. That’s a blistering 28 mph.

The car’s sleek design allowed the Schluckspect to drive into the record books while toting a 23 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, less than half what the Japan EV Club used. To be fair, the Japanese team drove a Daihatsu Mira converted from gasoline, so they had a much heavier vehicle.

The university has been developing fuel efficient and alt-fuel vehicles since 1998, and Schlucksprecht E builds on an earlier version that completed a 389-mile drive in South Africa. The car draws its name from team’s first car, which was such a gas guzzler (relatively speaking) that it wasn’t fit for competition.

Photos: University of Applied Sciences

Electronic health record (EHR) platform Drchrono just released OnPatient, an iPad application that health care providers can now use in lieu of paper forms and clunky clipboards.

The application allows health care providers to customize patient checkin. Patients can then input their personal, demographic and insurance info, snap a profile photo, review medications and allergies, and automatically keep their records updated.

OnPatient iTunes link integrates with Drchrono’s existing suite of iPad EHR services specifically intended to help doctors and health care providers modernize their record keeping processes.

“The OnPatient checkin app digitizes the waiting room and eliminates significant barriers to mass adoption of patient checkin technology by leveraging sophisticated iPad technology,” says Michael Nusimow, co-founder and CEO of Drchrono. “We designed the OnPatient app to be intuitive for both physicians and patient users to create a better patient checkin experience.”

The new application is ambitious in scope — it would require health providers to start handing out pricey iPads instead of cheaper, more disposable clipboards. However, the promise of a paper-free, up-to-do patient tracking system might be enough to entice wealthier medical practices to make the switch.

Drchrono is announcing Thursday that it raised an additional $650,000 in seed funding from DST Global’s Yuri Milner and General Catalyst. The startup previously raised $675,000 from General Catalyst, Charles River Ventures, 500 Startups and Angel investors.

I got to know Michael Brito several years ago when he worked on the social media team at Intel. Since then, we’ve worked together in a variety of projects becoming good friends along the way. I was proud when Michael landed his book deal for Smart Business, Social Business and I was honored when Michael asked me to write the Foreword.

Smart Business, Social Business is now available and the publisher has agreed to let me share the foreword here. Enjoy!

Adapting Businesses to Meet the Needs of the Connected Customer

The social media movement is far more important than we realize. Several years ago I compared the democratization of information to the economic impact realized during the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, social media is much more than Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Social media is a lens into the future of business and the relationships that are created between brands and customers. However, social media can only benefit the organization if its promise is unlocked across the entire organization and not siloed in any one department or function.

Hosting a dynamic Facebook presence and active Twitter stream does not make a business social. Pointing to these accounts in marketing and advertising material also do not make a business social. So what, then, defines a social business?

A social business is one with its communities, wherever they reside. As customers view businesses as one brand and not as a series of disconnected units or departments, a social business is connected, engaged, and adaptive. United on all fronts, a social business connects the dots between value and customer experiences as it heralds a new era of relationships and operates under a banner of transparency and open leadership.

Once-reluctant businesses are now increasingly turning to social media as a means of capturing customer attention. Read any blog or turn to any mainstream media source, and you’ll find countless stories of how social media represent the panacea for all business ills. These ills, however, plague every business. While social media represent a wonderful opportunity for businesses to get closer to their customers, businesses could also benefit from a little soul searching. Why? In addition to improving customer relationships, social media also represent an amplifier for all aspects of customer experiences—the good, bad, and the ugly.

Despite this realization, businesses invest in the cultivation of dedicated communities in fledging social networks because there’s a prevailing perception of necessity, or in some cases it’s recognized as a tactical advantage. We don’t have to venture too far before we stumble upon success story after success story. For example, Coca-Cola has impressively amassed 26 million “Likes” on Facebook, and the Starbucks fandom has percolated to 22 million. These examples become the standard to which other businesses aspire and serve as best practices for others to follow.

These social presences offer the semblance of consumer magnetism and honestly, the numbers are nothing short of staggering. In comparison, traffic to the traditional web sites for Coca-Cola and Starbucks pale by comparison at 270,000 and 1.8 million monthly visitors, respectively. With every example we read, we’re led to believe that Facebook, Twitter, et al represent sure-fire magnets for customer attention and catalysts for interaction—and ultimately loyalty. At the same time, presences in social media enable and inevitably invite customer engagement and feedback. A social business looks at customer activity and designs click paths and experiences internally to guide external experiences.

In a 2010 study, my colleague at Altimeter Group, Jeremiah Owyang, examined the social media architectures within enterprise businesses and found that 50% of all social media initiatives reside within the marketing department. When combined with corporate communications and web/digital teams, almost 90% of social media is siloed within a marketing function and thus trapping social media’s potential at transforming the organization into a social business. Thus, it’s time to rethink the future of social media. If businesses are truly to become social businesses, they must match the behavior of customers to effectively meet their needs and expectations instead of simply responding to them.

Everything begins with the realization that customer needs and characteristics aren’t created equally. In order for businesses to truly become social, the tenets of social media must permeate the entire organization. These businesses build a foundation based on three important pillars:

- Connected
- Engaged
- Adaptive

These pillars prepare a business for the dynamic nature of customer engagement across the distinct categories that define what I call a “market in transition.” This shifting landscape is segmenting the customer base into three very distinct groups: traditional, online, and now social. This social customer is important because he finds and shares information, qualifies prospects, and makes decisions unlike the other two groups. As a result, they require a different level of engagement. They’re connected. They’re influential. Their experiences steer the actions of others. Engaging them and building a business to support them over time, is mutually beneficial.

How customers use social technology opens new feedback loops that teach those who listen…namely, the social business. It is in the identification of this customer and the construction of an interactive social framework that enables a business to effectively engage and learn from them. Doing so benefits the brand, the social customer, as well as the other two customer segments. Additionally, designing products and services that through monitoring reflect acknowledgement and understanding of the social customer creates relationships built on value and mutual benefits. As a result, the development of a social business makes a company not only modern and adaptive, but also relevant.

Social media is both a right and a rite of passage. At some point, every business will feel the power of their social customer. The question is, what are businesses going to do about it? Perhaps more importantly, what are businesses going to do with feedback to offer closure, resolution, and steer positive outcomes. It starts with connecting the dots between marketing and customer service, between customer service and product development, and also across all departments affected by, or possess the capacity to affect, outside social activity.
Everyday customers are increasingly relying on social networks as their primary way to connect and communicate with one another and also make important decisions. The old adage of happy customers telling a few friends and unhappy customers telling many more is not only coming to life in social networks, but also the effect of doing so in social networks hurls sentiment from person to person and from network to network across hundreds and even thousands with every Like, ReTweet, comment, and reaction.

Listening to the social customer is just the beginning. Responding to them when they’re in need or simply to express gratitude in real time in their channels of relevance opens a door that cannot be closed. Unlike Pandora’s infamous box, the resulting activities and the change in dynamics of business is not unwise—it is, to the contrary, shrewd and necessary. The door of self-expression was opened with or without your consent. For those businesses that seek engagement and relevance in new media, let’s consider the broader implications of a simple conversation. In fact, think of a conversation as a conduit for desirable outcomes that carry benefits on all sides of the customer equation.

Today, getting closer to customers is a top priority for executives. It’s almost ironic considering that mainstream business practices were almost in direct conflict with this new sense of renewed customer centricity. Over the years, businesses have moved in an opposite direction distancing representatives from customers through technology, automated process, and through the introduction of outsourced representatives. Customers were practically penalized for trying to seek attention. All was done, however, in the name of operationalization, efficiency, and profitability.

Now we see an about-face through the convergence of media, marketing, and service. Businesses now aspire to social prominence following in the digital footsteps of the much publicized and studied examples of @ComcastCares and @ATT on Twitter. In these cases, if a customer Tweets a problem or a question, Comcast and AT&T have fully staffed Twitter and other social media accounts ready to listen and also respond when necessary. Empowerment is an important characteristic for a social business. Often these representatives can solve problems on the spot or retrieve useful information or trigger next steps to achieve resolution. But at the same time, the shared experiences of customers also vocalize recurring trends that require that attention of other departments. Before we can collaborate externally, we must first collaborate within. Doing so creates processes and systems that proactively fix problems through constant product improvement, redesign, or further experimentation. Most representatives on social networks are disconnected from influencing or expediting internal change for the betterment of the customer experience and ultimately the sentiment associated with the brand. A social business is designed to optimize experiences.

Whether it’s through traditional means or through social networks, responding to problems is by default reactive and focused solely on negative origins. Although still important and necessary, reactivebased engagement attempts to change customer perceptions or impressions once they’re already experienced. Proactively translating that insight into continuous innovation positions the businesses toward a much more productive position, one where positive experiences eclipse the unfavorable.

A good business will use social networks to identify and solve problems as they arise. A social business will then connect the dots within the organization to adapt and positively steer experiences of connected customers through an integrated approach—an approach of oneness. A social business will design the organizational framework to liberate social media from any one department and focus while uniting silos to connect, engage, and adapt. As a result, success will then be measured in sentiment, referrals, and loyalty.

Whether in social networks or in real life, people naturally share experiences. In the end, customers will inevitably share experiences whether they’re negative or positive. The opportunity here is that now more than ever, businesses have a say in the matter. They can choose whether those shared experiences are positive or negative, starting at the development of a product or service and enlivened through the company’s sales, marketing, and service programs. The social customer for all intents and purposes deserves a seat on the board of advisors of any social business. They are stakeholders. They are the guiding light toward relevance and success. And, they require nothing less than the complete transformation of business.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with Michael Brito over the years, and his work is nothing short of inspirational. In this book, Michael shares his insights into the needs of a new generation of connected customers and the importance of building an adaptive framework of a social business. In Smart Business, Social Business Brito gives you actionable steps to help you chart your course toward success. By the time you’re done reading this book you will not only get closer to customers, but learn how to place customers at the front-and-center of all aspects of business where social equates to relevance and where relevance equals allegiance.

You are the architects of a new era of business where adaptive organizations are measured by the ability to shape and steer positive customer experiences before, during, and after transactions.

It’s common knowledge that a good portion of the population listens to music on YouTube. It’s free, easy to search and has pretty much everything. Well, now YouTube is aiming to make the experience easier for users on the hunt for new jams by relaunching its Music Page.

YouTubers are now privy to a cadre of features, including: 1). Recommended videos and artists based on your viewing history (instead of top videos in the genre), 2). Local concert listings paired with artist vids (listings were previously offered, but now feature video previews) 3). YouTube’s new music chart, the YouTube Top 100, and, perhaps most intriguing, another level of curation in the form of tastemaker partnerships. YouTube has linked up with Spin, Vice, XLR8R and some of its top music vloggers (Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop for one) to create playlists and offer up picks.

To celebrate the new page, YouTube is featuring an electric guitar in its logo — a tribute to the “Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Guide to Rock,” the first curated playlist on the page. (The Chili Peppers dropped their first video from their latest album I’m With You Wednesday.) Other artists will soon unleash their own guides, including “David Guetta’s Guide to Electronica” on Friday, “Lady Gaga’s Guide to Pop” on Saturday and “Eminem & Royce Da 5’9”’s Guide to Hiphop” on Monday.

Last summer, YouTube Music underwent a similar transformation, which promised many of these new features. However, this time around the redesign seems much more complete and polished. What do you think of the new digs?

A battery-powered boat covered in solar panels may be plying China’s coastal waters and estuaries in less than a year.

Faced with crippling traffic on land, China is turning to the water to ease congestion in major cities. BMT Nigel Gee, based in Southampton, UK announced earlier this week they won the contract to design and build an all-electric 150 passenger ferry destined for use in China. Construction on the 85 foot long, 28 foot wide catamaran will begin later this year, and a maiden voyage is set for the middle of 2012.

The vessel will rely on a Vanadium Redox Battery (VRB), a flow-type battery that’s good at providing large amounts of power. They’re usually used to store energy produced by wind farms or solar arrays, and they can’t be damaged if they’re stored while depleted. While VRBs are large, they can also be “refilled” without a charger simply by replacing the electrolyte.

Those batteries power an electric drive motor that can propel the boat up to a speed of 10 knots, and can be recharged while in use by solar panels mounted on the ferry’s roof. We’ll have to wait to find out the boat’s range and how long a recharge will take, but infrequent ferry operation may be ideal for an electric boat, allowing it to recharge while awaiting passengers.

While other electric watercraft have been proposed, promised battery-powered ferries have yet to materialize. Hybrid boats sail in California and New York, and solely solar-powered research vessels have been built, but the world’s ferries still burn fossil fuels.

The as-yet unnamed Chinese boat appears to be quite close to production, however, with construction beginning later this year. BMT says their expertise in building low resistance hulls helped, but building an electric boat isn’t all smooth sailing.

“This design has been an interesting challenge as we needed to balance the weight of the batteries against the vessel performance in order to ensure that a practical ferry service can be provided ,” said BMT technical director Ed Dudson.

Image: BMT Nigel Gee