Everyone hates Microsoft

I found this chart in valleywag.com summaryzing the link of the mayor internet players and how everyone hates Microsoft and I wanted to share it with the class. I find it very illustrative:

The coment on the chart said: "Salesforce's CEO is pissing on Microsoft in the press, Apple added Google's CEO to its board, Google and Yahoo both made ad deals with eBay, and Yahoo and Google will never get along. And everyone hates Microsoft". Source: http://www.valleywag.com/tech/salesforce/

...and I wonder, how will Microsoft suceed in the comming years if almost everybody seems to hate them?...

Mobile Music

On Thursday’s class we quickly ran through all of the projects that we each worked on as our final paper for our class. There were several very interesting papers shared during this period. I was eagerly awaiting Professor Kagan’s seamless transition from the topic before us into Mobile Music. Unfortunately, as he ran out of ideas in the end, he was forced to inquire directly what the Mobile Music paper was about. I thought this would be a good forum to quickly share a few points about our paper…

Mobile music predominantly includes ringtones, ring back tones, and over-the-air (OTA) full track music. Of course, the first thing I thought of when I first heard the term “ringtones” were the sometimes annoying, seemingly endless musical tones that emanate from people’s cell phones. However, before doing research for this paper, I was not aware that ring back tones –the tones that I would hear when I call someone – could also be personalized. Finally, the OTA full track music market is probably the most fascinating one, in my opinion, as it is less developed and has more potential to change the landscape of music distribution significantly. In fact, as more and more mobile phones become MP3 players also, this will slowly become the future of music distribution.

Of course, there are significant challenges as well, as there are with any newly developing technology – including licensing challenges, lack of standardization, intense competition, and user acceptance. But I think more and more people are probably inclined to agree that they see a future in which their mobile phones double as a mobile entertainment device. Does this mean that we are saying goodbye to the iPod as a separate device? I’m not sure, but my wife’s recent research into a Motorola RAZR that includes iTunes is very likely to be a sign of the future.

Everyone hates Microsoft

I found this chart in valleywag.com summaryzing the link of the mayor internet players and how everyone hates Microsoft and I wanted to share it with the class. I find it very illustrative:

The coment on the chart said: "Salesforce's CEO is pissing on Microsoft in the press, Apple added Google's CEO to its board, Google and Yahoo both made ad deals with eBay, and Yahoo and Google will never get along. And everyone hates Microsoft". Source: http://www.valleywag.com/tech/salesforce/

...and I wonder, how will Microsoft suceed in the comming years if almost everybody seems to hate them?...

Are Social Netowrking Sites Reaching a Saturation Point?

As "wired" as young adults have become these days - think cell phones, mutliple email accounts, blogs and membership in multiple social networking sites - they are starting to become more wary of issues related to their wired environments...

1) Increasingly, young people have been dealing with "online bullies" - who post anything from embarassing photos to online threats.

2) Privacy is becoming a reaal concern - students on facebook.com rebelled when they realize that updates on their pages were automatically forwarded forwarded to contacts they didn't necessarily want to have the information.

3) Increasingly, young people also are realizing that things they post on their profiles can come back to haunt them when applying for school or jobs.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/10/09/facing.the.faceless.ap/index.html

MySpace Grows Up!

A lot of interesting info came out of the various groups projects on social networking sites. It sounded like MySpace was really owning the category, although it seemed to be more limited to the "younger" crowd. Apparently the site is growing well beyond its stereotypical demographic though, as reported by AP in their article "Youths no longer predominant at MySpace":

"Half of the site's users are 35 or older, according to comScore Media Metrix's analysis of its U.S. Internet traffic measurements. Only 30 percent are under 25 despite a common belief that the site is mostly populated with kids and young adults."

Not sure if this means that the young, hip image will be killed by us older folks :) or if it just means that MySpace's growth isn't limited to the original teeny boppers. What is does show though, is that "the appeal of social-networking sites is far broader... suggest that social networking is becoming mainstream."

Just to get a flavor of how MySpace compares with the competitors:

- Xanga skews youngest, with 20 percent of its users under 18 (though MySpace and Facebook both had more under-18 users overall given its larger size)
- Facebook, which started as a hangout for college campuses, has the biggest share among those 18 to 24
- Friendster and MySpace have high appeal among the 25 and up

For more details:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15147500/

It is official: GoogTube

Go Bears, sorry for the overlap. Just got the press release.

Interesting:
Stock for stock deal valued at $1.65bn. I would really love to see their valuation sheet. YouTube shall continue to "operate independently" in order to preserve brand and community. Let's see for how long.
That does not make sense. Keeping the brand: yes. But keeping separate operations: no way. Where are the synergies then?

Merger News: The Internet Acquires Television

This one is actually pretty cool. Akimbo is a 100% video-on-demand service that links into your broadband connection to download over 13,000 titles including feature length movies and episodes of programming from BBC, Food Network, Hallmark, Minor League Baseball and more. They player will be around $200 and service is about $10 a month (similar to a Tivo subscription)

The technology is very cool, but the content is very lame (maybe I just have bad taste). I guess this is what happens when the licenseholders of watchable content still has a vested interest in current television technology. That being said, it is a glimpse into the future of home entertainment. The Akimbo box also has SlingBox-like location shifting abilities so you can watch your favorite Minor League Baseball game while on the go! Kleiner Perkins, AT&T, and Cisco can't all be wrong.. can they? If only Netflix would figure out how to utilize this technology 'cause without it, you may as well short the company down to $0.00.

Google and YouTube

This just in. (I have been waiting all day so I could be the first in the class to post about the official deal.)

Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock

Combination Will Create New Opportunities for Users and Content Owners Everywhere

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.

The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google's expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.

I am sure the people at Google are smarter than me and have figured out a million and one ways to monetize YouTube, but I just can't see it being worth $1.65 billion. If MySpace can be bought for about $500 million, can YouTube be worth three times that.

More generic PR statements that tell us nothing...

"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google. “Our companies share similar values; we both always put our users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers.”

“Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture. By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube. “I’m confident that with this partnership we’ll have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide.”

Good luck to Google and YouTube. I am sure video of a man getting hit in the face with a ball adds to Google's mission of organizing the world's information.

Geotagging is nice.. but..

What still baffles me is that advertisers haven't started using IP addresses to target geography. I mean.. not like everyone reading about something that happened in New York is in New York, and Barney's is wasting an impression on some kid in Wyoming doing research on Roc Center. An example of IP targeting is.. hey your IP is for example 64.143.354.601 which may translate into a dns address of like home-601.nyc.rr.com, well it's pretty obvious at this point that the user is in New York, and Roadrunner should even know which user account it relates to and have a location (privacy issues.. yes I know).

A less intrusive form of this could be a wifi hotspot. The way I initially saw Google's local strategy of buying wifi hotspots was that since a user is connected to a certain router, then Google should be smart enough to know where they are connected (right?) and they should be able to deliver a coupon for Melvin's Diner down the street. This seems like a less intrusive way to target advertsiements and given a higher percentage of people who would connect to one of these Google hotspots may not live in or be familiar with the neighborhood where they are connecting to the hotspot and may welcome a nice lunch deal from the place down the block. Just a thought..

Partnerships against law suits

Today was a day of heavy partnering. While YouTube announced a partnership with CBS, including feeding CBS content into the video site, Google launched strategic partnerships with Sony BMG and Warner. It seems that all large video sites are going into partnerships with content owners to prevent future law suits. YouTube already had agreements with Warner, Sony BMG and Universal. Should Google really acquire YouTube, who will then be able to sue them? As it seems, the two companies are preventing law suits by heavy partnering. Something that could take a lot of the questions marks out of the deal. Clearly, without massive copyright infringements the transaction might happen earlier and with less concerns.

YouTube & CBS
GOOG & SonyBMG
GOOG & Warner

Geotagging - Adding a New Dimension to Advertising

Geotagging will eventually change the way we live, compute, and work and lead the way toward Internet 3.7. Actually it won't, but it's still pretty novel and will be helpful new dimension to understanding the subject of an image or video. Geotagging is the process of adding geographic location specific tags to image and video content.

A good example of geotagging folksonomy can be found on Flikr's Map Page. Flikr added a feature on their site just over a month ago where users can drag their photos over a map in order to identify the location where they were shot. 30 days later a ridiculous 4.1 million photos have already been geotagged.

If this phenomenon catches on, you will see examples of geotagging all over the Internet. The potential is a new way to index sites and content based on location. The applications range from consumer review to news to blogging and more.

Geotagging will give advertisers yet another way to target advertisements, based on geography.

User-generated web/TV network

Current TV is launching in the UK through the BSkyB platform. I find this extremely interesting as it represents the expansion of user-generated content into TV. The most successful internet sites have been the ones that have allowed users to input the information (from Amazon in the early years to YouTube), and this can represent the beggining of this trend into TV content.

I believe that if broadcasters learn from internet networking sites such as MySpace and video sharing services such as YouTube and Google Video they might be able to repeat their success and develop a competitive advantage. The key elements I see on user-generated content for TV is that it is much cheaper that regular content and at the same time it captures more what people really want to see (specially because the viewers can develop the content themselves).

I selected this two quotes from Al Gore (Current TV) and Rupert Murdoch (BSkyB) which I believe grap the sense of what is happening:

"Especially in TV, the comfort zone of a classic TV production company is something that is going to get shaken up" said Rupert Murdoch, BSkyB chairman.

Al Gore said "The secret sauce has to do with the techniques for allowing the people who are part of our audience to select and filter these submissions," referring to the key for success in user-generated content for TV.

international site

so far we see a few huge homeruns on online community.

at this "globalization" age, is there any site aiming to bridge across this world?

There are so many misunderstanding among different cultures and so many beautiful local things that we must enjoy and could inspire us. In anyways, this is a world where creativity and differentiation worth most.

Any idea?

google: content or search?

there are some news about Google in last week

1. Google won't make any major investments in original content, choosing instead to keep its focus on Internet search, a top executive from the Web powerhouse said Tuesday, Oct. 3 2006

2. Google launches literacy project. Oct. 4 2006. to put together its books, video, mapping and blogging services to help teachers and educational organizations share reading resources

3. Google is in talks with YouTube. This is not new actually.

So, what is truly going on there?

competition on online community

Wallop, a Microsoft spin-off accounced it will take on MySpace.com and Facebook.com, "touting tools users can buy to craft better-looking Web pages".

Wallop claimed that it will provide users software and designs to be used on their Web pages.

It seems this hot area is becoming competition-fierce

FT: YouTube's biz model search

according to FT today, Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, is looking at opportunities working with mainstream entertainment groups.

"The more popular users on our site are just telling their stories. It's almost the ultimate form of reality television."

FT attributed its sucess to 1) ease of upload and watch; 2) technology - all videos in a format that can be played on flash player, virtually all PCs; 3) Community - users decide which videos are worth watching

MTV shifts digital sales strategy

I read an article on Advertising Age about MTV change in digital sales strategy. MTV wants its digital sales to focus on people, not properties. MTV new strategy is expected to a) make its digital business profitable and b) lever the MTV's brands online. To achive this MTV is reorganizing its staff to sell horizontally against a predetermined set of psychographic groups: kids/family, men/gamer enthusiasts and youth/music. They also brought new management into the company with experience in this field, like Stirratt who came from Advertising.com.

The new digital-sales strategy that MTV has designed will offer behavior targeting, frequency capping and sequential ad serving, and will also offer a large scale to advertisers. They plan to sell online ads independently from TV ads: "If an advertiser wants to buy scale across a demo, we're going to make that happen," said Nada Stirratt, EVP-digital ad sales.

Is Social Networking Enough?

Interesting article discussing where socialization, friendship and companionship are headed if the growth of social computing continues. Will people choose faceless interaction over the internet as their primary source of socializing? Is the expansion of sites like myspace.com forcing us to communicate less? I think sites like myspace.com and facebook.com do have their place in meeting new people, getting information and networking...but, they shouldn't take the place of face-to-face communication or socializing with friends. With text messaging, the internet, etc., we are moving towards a way of communicating that lacks interaction...you can literally now talk to people without "talking" to them. It might take extra effort to pick up the phone instead of send an email, but it's well worth it...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/10/09/facing.the.faceless.ap/index.html

The Internet Could be Good News for Old Media

Hi,

Today, the FT reports that web use has overtaken print use for the first time. Web Use.


At the same time, it seems that the doomers and gloomers tend to get carried away. Todays print version of the FT has an article titled "Internet could be good news for old media". Unfortuantely, I couldn't find the same article in the FT's online version, but perhaps it is there somewhere. Either way, the jist of this second article is that the Internet isn't weakening the strongest and the fastest of the Old Media conglomerates. In fact, studies show that these old organizations are capitalizing on the new channels offered by the Internet to extend their reach and to enter new markets. Some are making immediate money off these efforts, while others are just increasing readership. Another interesting factoid in the article is that readers tend to decrease their television viewing time before their print time. Additionally, the article notes that the old media print outlets are aggressively adding rich media content to their offerings, such as vidio clips and audio podcasts.


Jack.

Our Blogg

Hello,

I was just working on our final exam, which necessitated a little web surfing. In the process, I found a fun little article that seems related to our class. It provides a nice little diagram delineating Blogs from a Long-Tail perspective. Check it out. Blogs.

For some reason, I doubt that our little Blog is on the A-List, but, perhaps, as word spreads...

J.