http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=128735
Google is fearlessly attempting to go to head to head with Apple in a number of areas including an online applications, mobile software, and television. Is this the beginning of the 21st century's greatest rivalry? Can the rivalry result in both company's prospering like Coke and Pepsi did in the 20th century?
Although google appears to be attacking Apple head on, it may be possible for these two companies to co-exist and even push one another to continue to innovate and grow. Some suggest that the rivalry between Coke and Pepsi is what lead to both companies' substantial growth through the 20th century.
I believe a mobile operating system is a smart and logical extension of Google's current dominance in search. As smart phones continue to become more prevalent, individuals will increasingly use their mobile devices to search for content, products, and even make purchases. Android is in direct competition with the iphone but I believe there is plenty of room in sector for two players potentially creating a long-term oligopoly. Android is just software, which can be used on any mobile phone while the iphone combines the two. It is unlikely that everyone will one day own an iPhone and more likely that some will own iPhones and others will own nokias, motorolas, etc. with an Android operating system. It could turn into the Microsoft and Mac of the mobile phone world.
I also believe that the rivalry will extend into connecting all forms of media and communication i.e. mobile, television, movies, etc. Again, I think these two companies are years ahead of others and can co-exist in this arena as well. It will be interesting and exciting to watch these companies continue to change the technology world and make a lot of money doing it!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Location-based social Networks: Information over-sharing?
The privacy trend on the Internet has changed a lot in recent times: people used to hide their real names online a few years ago. Nowadays, they happily share with the whole world their exact location. This might lead to more risk than we might think.
Pleaserobme.com is precisely a reminder of these perils: this website publishes live tweets (many of them come from Foursquare –which has more than half million users- and networks alike), reveling people’s location. This information can be simply shared with friends or be exploited by businesses through location-based advertising. But, more intriguingly, this data could be given away to a potential burglar as well.
‘Ain’t No Grave’: The Web Brings Johnny Cash Back to Life
Here's the link: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/04/30/aint-no-grave-the-web-brings-johnny-cash-back-to-life/
By John Jurgensen
- TM and Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection
- Johnny Cash in “Gospel Road” in 1973; the late singer has a new video out for his song “Ain’t No Grave.”
Johnny Cash has been dead for seven years, but he recently produced a new music video, with the help of 5,500 contributing artists and counting.
The video for the song “Ain’t No Grave” is a piece of crowdsourced animation, with individual frames created by online participants. Using virtual drawing tools on the Johnny Cash Project site, users superimpose their own images over old footage of the singer walking through scenes alone. The result, set to Cash’s defiant forecast for the afterlife, is a ghostly vision of the singer that flickers with subliminal messages from an army of Cash fans.
Nine months in the making, the project was directed by Chris Milk, who has made music videos for Kanye West, Gnarls Barkley and other acts. He hatched the collaborative video concept with Aaron Koblin, a digital artist known for his experiments in crowdsourcing, such as an open-source Radiohead video.
The first challenge the project faced: choosing an artist to build the video around, one who wouldn’t get caught in a love-hate crossfire typical of the Internet. “We needed to find an artist that was universally beloved. You can count those artists on two hands, and the majority of them are deceased,” Milk says.
The director found his man after a chance meeting at an art opening with Rick Rubin, the music producer who steered the last six albums of Cash’s career, an elegiac series that includes “American VI: Ain’t No Grave,” released last February. Rubin had worked with Milk previously on a Green Day/U2 collaboration video, and suggested the Cash album’s title track.
For the base video, Milk culled footage from a few obscure sources including “Gospel Road,” a 1973 movie written and directed by Cash, in which the singer followed the story of Jesus in the Holy Land. On a platform built by Radical Media, the production company that represents Milk, users work with a virtual brush and a black-and-white palette, painting in or out of the lines of the underlying images of Cash as walks down a railroad track or leans against a tombstone. The submitted frames are filtered. To preserve continuity in the final video, paintings that ignored the original image are rejected.
The video continues to change as more users submit frames. Viewers can dig into the submissions, clicking to view individual frames and the home of the artist—London, Amsterdam, Sau Paulo–who created it, as well as how long they worked on it. Milk says he was floored to discover a frame that a user in Japan spent 33 hours creating. Rick Rubin says, “It’s surprising how coherent the video is considering the wide range of drawing styles.”
Some artists have used their digital canvas to create meticulous portraits, sculpting and shading Cash’s rugged features. Given the biblical references in the song’s lyrics, resurrection symbols such as angel wings, halos and crosses, crop up frequently in the staticky montage. “The peoople that Johnny meant the most to are collectively bringing him back by their own hand,” Milk says.
Of course, we’ll never know what the Man in Black himself would have made of the interactive pastiche, but Rubin says Cash had an open mind about the music video medium. “We never discussed music videos in general but I know he was pleased with the ones we did together. I think he particularly liked the ‘Delia’s Gone’ clip where he murders Kate Moss.”
You Would Unfriend Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook made history in April when it briefly passed Google as the most visited website in the world. On one hand, this is discouraging. Our appetite for all knowledge on Earth is exceeded by our lust for mundane status updates and boozy party pictures. But on the other, this is uplifting. It shows how much we crave a manicured, gated-online picture-sharing party where you’re the real you. Leave MySpace to the creepy uncle or Indie band. Ironic because:
You Would Unfriend Mark Zuckerberg
You wouldn’t like Mark Zuckerberg in person. At Harvard, he was brash, obnoxious, and wont to quote lines from the Iliad. As he tells it, he thought up Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, buzzed, and dejected after a girl broke up with him. Zuckerberg wanted a way to compare ugly Harvard student pictures to barnyard animals.
Ask Harvard classmates and they have a slightly different version: Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea entirely. Three classmates offered to pay Zuckerberg to build a dating site for them called HarvardConnections.com. So Zuckerberg took the idea, stalled on that project, and churned out theFacebook.com. There’s even an instant message conversation where Zuckerberg boasts to a friend he would “f--- them, probably in the ear”. Zuckerberg later paid $65 million to settle.
There’s more. Zuckerberg may have committed a felony. When he caught wind that the Harvard Crimson planned to write about his HarvardConnections.com imbroglio, Zuckerberg hacked into reporters’ email accounts back in 2004. Or, in 2010 terms, he pulled a China.
Thief, felon, ear-violator, whatever you want to call Mark Zuckerberg, you also have to call him the youngest self-made billionaire in human history. He’s our generation’s Bill Gates, except much raunchier. Gates gave us Windows, a stable platform for computers. But he completely whiffed at the Internet: Do you know anyone that uses Hotmail anymore? Mark Zuckerberg gave us Facebook, the stable platform for the Internet. He chalks Facebook’s exponential growth up to the “social graph” phenomenon. Basically, the longest you’re in a social network, the more you will want to share with your friends. You get more social. Some would say too much…
Dear Girls With The Intensely Personal Facebook Status Updates,
Stop! You have 642 friends, and you really only know 50 of them. The rest are of the random, met-you-at-a-party-once variety. I see a girl rant about some boy or betrayed by a friend in the News Feed and all I can think is: you realize other people can read this right? Become A Fan of: “Wanna not say that in front of everyone? Kay, thanks.” (nearly 600,000 strong). We don’t want to read this. It’s uncomfortable, awkward, but unavoidable when it’s right there at the top of the News Feed.
Mark Zuckerberg raised the ire of many when he said the Millenial Generation doesn’t care about privacy. He’s largely right though. I love the “Jersey Shore” and occasionally drinking with my friends. You really got me! I’ve heard the argument: Facebook has already extinguished every American’s political prospects born between 1981 and 1992. Every potential 2032 Senate run is undermined by Spring Break pictures. These fears are unfounded. Barring seething racial diatribes or “For All In Favor Of Clubbing Baby Seals” membership, we probably won’t care by then. We almost already don’t. Barack Obama admitted he inhaled weed (“That was the point!”) and snorted coke at Columbia.
Obama sobered up, hired Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes to revolutionize his social media campaign, and raised over half a billion dollars online. Over 5.4 million (mostly college age) users ticked the "I Voted" button on Election Day. Our more audacious parents stormed school buildings and marched on Washington. Facebook is ideal for Generation Y’s sleepy political activism. We can just click the “Like” button, join the “1,000,000 Strong For Same Sex Marriage” group, give money, and don’t even have to leave bed.
We have mostly snoozed since Election Day, but Sarah Palin has rabble-roused Republicans to “not retreat, reload” on the heels of health care reform. The half-term-former- governor-of-Alaska-turned-wanna-be-White-Oprah posted a map with vulnerable Democrat seats circled in cross-hairs. The grandmother has refused to apologize for the loaded gun analogy.
Our Parents Took Facebook From Us
Our parents used to make fun of us for Facebook. “Quit spending so much time on that picture-thingey!” is an exact quote. But then they wouldn’t get off it. Our parents took it over. The 35-54 user demographic exploded by 276% in 2009. They got over high school grudges, didn’t get Twitter, and loved to share our embarrassing baby pictures (Thanks Aunt Ellie. Those Cape Cod beach pictures of five-year old me are quite the conversation-starter.) Scan the NewsFeed and your Tiger Woods spoof may have 2-3 comments and a like. Your dad’s girlfriend’s biking picture? It only racked up 17 comments and 20 likes. Having your mom on Facebook has created some disconcerting run-ins:
What’s the quickest way to turn us off of something? Turn our parents onto it. It hasn’t happened yet. But Facebook has been a lightning rod of pop culture riffs. South Park pilloried not so much Facebook but our addiction to it in last week’s episode: “Your friends shouldn't be a commodity for status.” Seth Rogen ranted “F--- Facebook … in the face!” in Judd Apatow’s unheralded movie “Funny People”. The site Lamebook.com attracts nearly a million Facebook foes a day hilariously compiling our worst Facebook moments.
Cartman tirades are more testament to Facebook’s sheer scale than any veritable threat. Twitter is not the next Facebook. Teens don’t tweet and 60% of Twitter users burn out within the first month .Meanwhile, Facebook hosts 400 million people, or the combined population of the US and Mexico. Recent valuations peg Facebook between $11 and 17 billion. The Oxford Dictionary named “unfriend” the 2009 Word of the Year. Entertainment Weekly rated Facebook as one of the best inventions of the 2000s, asking: "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?”
Facebook is our collective fridge door to magnet birthday reminders and what’s for dinner. It’s our constantly-updating reminder that our friends and families care. The genius of Facebook is not so much that we like the “That’s What She Said” group or adorable dog videos. It’s that our friends like that we like them.
Move Over Investment Bankers
Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Mashable indicate that Venture Capital firms are starting to use social media to source business deals.
According to Venture Hacks founder Babak Nivi, " investors are all over Twitter and blogs… They use social media to source deals and to create a latent relationship with entrepreneurs so they can close the deals they want to.”
Another financier from Lowercase Capital tells a story of how he discovered a portfolio company through tweeting late one Friday night.
What makes this method of sourcing deals so unusual is that the finance community is infamous for being "close to the vest". Information about potential deals is considered a trade secret, not to be shared with anyone!
However, venture capitalists are not using twitter and the likes to discuss live deals with the entire world. Instead, they are using social media for "research, promotion and other purposes."
Finally, investors are using social media as a means to conduct customer calls. In the old world, investors would sit analysts and associates in cubicles and tell them to call the customers of a potential investment opportunity in order to uncover any potential useful information. In the new world, it appears that the same analysts can put down the phone and instead search the Facebook pages and tweets of a company to get the same info.
While this social media phenomena hasn't seemed to gain steam in the more stodgy private equity or hedge fund arenas, it is quickly becoming very popular for the tech-savvy Venture Capital community. Who thought investment bankers might one day be replaced by tweets!
According to Venture Hacks founder Babak Nivi, " investors are all over Twitter and blogs… They use social media to source deals and to create a latent relationship with entrepreneurs so they can close the deals they want to.”
Another financier from Lowercase Capital tells a story of how he discovered a portfolio company through tweeting late one Friday night.
What makes this method of sourcing deals so unusual is that the finance community is infamous for being "close to the vest". Information about potential deals is considered a trade secret, not to be shared with anyone!
However, venture capitalists are not using twitter and the likes to discuss live deals with the entire world. Instead, they are using social media for "research, promotion and other purposes."
Finally, investors are using social media as a means to conduct customer calls. In the old world, investors would sit analysts and associates in cubicles and tell them to call the customers of a potential investment opportunity in order to uncover any potential useful information. In the new world, it appears that the same analysts can put down the phone and instead search the Facebook pages and tweets of a company to get the same info.
While this social media phenomena hasn't seemed to gain steam in the more stodgy private equity or hedge fund arenas, it is quickly becoming very popular for the tech-savvy Venture Capital community. Who thought investment bankers might one day be replaced by tweets!
Going Viral: YouTube to Ellen to a Record Deal
On April 28th, a theatrical 6th Grader posted a video of himself performing a Lady Gaga song for a Church talent show. The video was a sterotypical proud mom production-- a shaky handy-cam, a lot of inadvertent attention paid to the giggling tweens behind the performing Greyson Michael Chance. Despite the poor videography, the performance was stunning. This twelve year old phenom had never studied singing and was belting out "Paparazzi" on par vocally with Miss Gaga. Two days after the piece went viral, the precocious Greyson was on the Ellen Show. After charming Ellen and chatting with Gaga via phone, he performed an abbreviated version of his 15-million-plus-viewers video.
Viral stars a la Youtube are nothing new. Examples include OK GO using YouTube to create a new music video fan base in 2006, Obama Girl proving the viral ignition of the Obama campaign in 2007 (followed by Will.I.Am and Sarah Silverman in 2008), the revitalization of Saturday Night Live via digital shorts, and the list goes on and on. But what made this Gaga to Greyson to Ellen chronology so interesting is that our jaws dropped and we cheered for this 12-year old kid... but we weren't really THAT surprised when he appeared on national TV.
Ellen is savvy to the ways of viral marketing. She knows the number of eyeballs on of these types of videos and isnt ashamed to ride the bandwagon. For the performance segment of Greyson's visit, Ellen perched behind the young star, making sure that video frames reminded the viewer that they were watching the Ellen Show. This type of viral capitalization makes your show, by proxy, a bit of a maven. You are in the know. But viral videos aren't gems from the cool-kids, they simply represent a new form of shared culture; our new Michael Jackson or the Seinfeld show. There has been a cultural disintegration of common ground due to sheer availability of information, but these ubiquitous nuggets of content are something that we can all can relate to. We weren't surprised that Greyson was on Ellen, because we were all talking about it already; it was only time till the larger outlets would.
Viral stars a la Youtube are nothing new. Examples include OK GO using YouTube to create a new music video fan base in 2006, Obama Girl proving the viral ignition of the Obama campaign in 2007 (followed by Will.I.Am and Sarah Silverman in 2008), the revitalization of Saturday Night Live via digital shorts, and the list goes on and on. But what made this Gaga to Greyson to Ellen chronology so interesting is that our jaws dropped and we cheered for this 12-year old kid... but we weren't really THAT surprised when he appeared on national TV.
Ellen is savvy to the ways of viral marketing. She knows the number of eyeballs on of these types of videos and isnt ashamed to ride the bandwagon. For the performance segment of Greyson's visit, Ellen perched behind the young star, making sure that video frames reminded the viewer that they were watching the Ellen Show. This type of viral capitalization makes your show, by proxy, a bit of a maven. You are in the know. But viral videos aren't gems from the cool-kids, they simply represent a new form of shared culture; our new Michael Jackson or the Seinfeld show. There has been a cultural disintegration of common ground due to sheer availability of information, but these ubiquitous nuggets of content are something that we can all can relate to. We weren't surprised that Greyson was on Ellen, because we were all talking about it already; it was only time till the larger outlets would.
Oscar Mayer wants to give your dad $5,000….and then send him to an early grave
Last week, Oscar Mayer announced an online Father’s Day contest to find the “Oscar Mayer Bacon Sizzling Dad.” One lucky dad will receive a year’s supply of bacon, $5,000 cash, and presumably put himself on the fast track to a triple bypass.
http://www.facebook.com/OscarMayer
What I found interesting about this particular giveaway was that it represents a great example of a corporation capitalizing on an internet meme. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, a meme can be any offbeat idea that propagates quickly through email, youtube, or social network. You might already be familiar with the most popular internet memes such as Lolcats or the unstoppable RickRoll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_internet_memes
Over the past two years, a new internet meme has formed around bacon. Yes, that’s right, bacon. Countless blogs and message boards have taken our favorite breakfast
food and humorously theorized its use for such items as the bacon briefcase (shown) or iPhone carrying case. Black Rock Spirits has even taken two of my favorite consumables, bacon and booze, and combined them to form Bacon Flavored Vodka as an actual product.
http://bakonvodka.com/
Even though Oscar Mayer has not directly referenced the internet bacon craze of recent years, they are undoubtedly aware of how popular it has become within certain internet subcultures. Not surprisingly, the same internet mediums responsible for promoting the bacon meme have also given a huge publicity boost to Oscar Mayer’s latest viral marketing effort. So for the small price of $5,000, the Company has turned an existing internet phenomenon into its own marketing tool and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in free advertising.
http://www.facebook.com/OscarMayer
What I found interesting about this particular giveaway was that it represents a great example of a corporation capitalizing on an internet meme. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, a meme can be any offbeat idea that propagates quickly through email, youtube, or social network. You might already be familiar with the most popular internet memes such as Lolcats or the unstoppable RickRoll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_internet_memes
Over the past two years, a new internet meme has formed around bacon. Yes, that’s right, bacon. Countless blogs and message boards have taken our favorite breakfast
food and humorously theorized its use for such items as the bacon briefcase (shown) or iPhone carrying case. Black Rock Spirits has even taken two of my favorite consumables, bacon and booze, and combined them to form Bacon Flavored Vodka as an actual product.http://bakonvodka.com/
Even though Oscar Mayer has not directly referenced the internet bacon craze of recent years, they are undoubtedly aware of how popular it has become within certain internet subcultures. Not surprisingly, the same internet mediums responsible for promoting the bacon meme have also given a huge publicity boost to Oscar Mayer’s latest viral marketing effort. So for the small price of $5,000, the Company has turned an existing internet phenomenon into its own marketing tool and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in free advertising.
The Importance of YouTube for Online Marketing
There are more YouTube videos watched each month in the US (10 billion), than there are searches on Google. Businesses can't ignore this medium!
Have a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txpjj0ZJS8c&feature=player_embedded#!
This is the link to a video interview in which Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO-PR, an SEO firm that specializes in optimizing press releases, videos and other communications channels, cites an example of a very small business -- a Sierra weekend rental property -- that developed a simple video starring a Golden Retriever named Monarch, to make the point that this was a pet-friendly property. They're now booked every weekend.
How-to videos are especially popular online, as well as demonstrations, and travel featuring hospitality-type businesses.
This is not the only case, but the web is full of examples!
Another very famous small business example is Blendtec.com blenders that emphasized their product's sturdiness by blending objects such as iPhones in a series entitled, "Will It Blend?" The company's sales soared 700% as a result.
Reference: This interview was taped in December 2009 at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in Chicago.
Have a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txpjj0ZJS8c&feature=player_embedded#!
This is the link to a video interview in which Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO-PR, an SEO firm that specializes in optimizing press releases, videos and other communications channels, cites an example of a very small business -- a Sierra weekend rental property -- that developed a simple video starring a Golden Retriever named Monarch, to make the point that this was a pet-friendly property. They're now booked every weekend.
How-to videos are especially popular online, as well as demonstrations, and travel featuring hospitality-type businesses.
This is not the only case, but the web is full of examples!
Another very famous small business example is Blendtec.com blenders that emphasized their product's sturdiness by blending objects such as iPhones in a series entitled, "Will It Blend?" The company's sales soared 700% as a result.
Reference: This interview was taped in December 2009 at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in Chicago.
The Social Media Mandate
Last Thursday, I spoke at Women's Wear Daily's social media summit, a conference for marketers in the fashion and beauty industries. I was in amazing company, with speakers from Google, Facebook, Polyvore, Coach, and L'Oreal, and I was fortunate enough to share a few insights from Juicy Couture's social media activity to date. My presentation was titled "Social Media and Brand Mania," illustrating how social media can fuel consumer interest and spark the passion of a brand's most engaged fans. I wanted to share the entire presentation, but thought it would be better to paste just a taste with the slide above.
Following is an online ad for the summit:
Following is an online ad for the summit:
What Google TV means for advertisers?
Google TV: What Does It Mean for Advertisers?
In 2001, when Apple first launched iTunes as its digital media player in San Francisco, it doesn't seem like a very big news. I mean that it was like a new version of product introduced to the market and there wasn't anyone expecting it a revolutionary change to the digital music industry. Nine years later, as iTunes has already been seen as the most successful integrated media platform in this century , searching giant Google seems determine to join in the war and announce to launch Google TV, service created with partners Sony, Logitech, and Intel. Different to the purchase channel provided by iTunes Stores, the platform Google promises to provide sounds like a heaven for advertisers to create billions of money. With the relationship between Google and advertisers, there exists huge space of imagination of how CLOSE their cooperation would be to enlarge the pie. Will it be another revolutionary change for the next 10 years?Sunday, May 23, 2010
Privacy Loopholes
On Friday the Wall street Journal published an articles about Myspace and Facebook sharing private information of their customers with advertising customers without consent.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256701215465596.html
This is not the first that protests have been raised against these practices by these social network websites.
I believe that those practices are totally unacceptable, since it exposes your personal information to third parties that can make arbitrary use of your information. In my opinion, it rises the question of creating a regulator that can control social networking websites to avoid those privacy loopholes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256701215465596.html
This is not the first that protests have been raised against these practices by these social network websites.
I believe that those practices are totally unacceptable, since it exposes your personal information to third parties that can make arbitrary use of your information. In my opinion, it rises the question of creating a regulator that can control social networking websites to avoid those privacy loopholes.
UrbanDaddy's Move
As mentioned in last week's speaker event, UrbanDaddy is Thrillist's direct competitior and it looks like they've just made their next move by relaunching its Perks program, which offers deals to its readers to restaurants, shows, and clothing stores. The program is to be sponsored by Heineken, who is taking over the site with its ads like a bad disease. Urbandaddy also started a Black List, which offers deals to only a selective number of readers, to maintain the exclusivity of its marketing strategy.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon UrbanDaddy when a female friend forwarded me the link to subscribe and I had been an avid reader until one day I decided all these e-mail subscriptions were overkill and took myself off every mailing list that I've ever subscribed to. However, that's not to say that I still don't check out the site occasionally when I'm looking for that new restaurant to try or just in need of some fresh entertainment ideas.
UrbanDaddy's Perks program and Thrillist's entrance into e-commerce could be the strategies to acquiring and retaining more subscribers and perhaps promote reader engagement. Which move will prove to be more successful? I think it really depends on how well each company executes their new initiatives. Urbandaddy definitely flopped the first time around with very limited deal offerings, but maybe they'll get it right the second time.
Article link: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=128748
A few years ago, I stumbled upon UrbanDaddy when a female friend forwarded me the link to subscribe and I had been an avid reader until one day I decided all these e-mail subscriptions were overkill and took myself off every mailing list that I've ever subscribed to. However, that's not to say that I still don't check out the site occasionally when I'm looking for that new restaurant to try or just in need of some fresh entertainment ideas.
UrbanDaddy's Perks program and Thrillist's entrance into e-commerce could be the strategies to acquiring and retaining more subscribers and perhaps promote reader engagement. Which move will prove to be more successful? I think it really depends on how well each company executes their new initiatives. Urbandaddy definitely flopped the first time around with very limited deal offerings, but maybe they'll get it right the second time.
Article link: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=128748
100 million for a web farm!
Yahoo announced today that it acquired Associated Content. The deal was supposedly for 100 million. So what is associated content - It is a huge web farm/content mill for text , video, image media created by a huge community of free lancers for as little as 100 dollars a day. While this is maybe a strategic move to counter AOL’s content assembly line initiative, I wonder how can another content site even though it is by the people ,for the people be so valuable.
‘According to Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder and president. “Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo!’s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth as we continue to leverage our best-of-breed platform to deliver high quality compelling content on more than 60,000 topics.”
For advertisers, this deal will expand Yahoo! into more topic areas and real-time content generation and give even more opportunities to engage groups of passionate consumers in ways they will find uniquely appealing to their interests and tastes. Having insight into user intent through its leading search products enables Yahoo! to identify topics important to advertisers and users. Associated Content also provides more opportunities for Yahoo! to partner and collaborate with publishers who can help the company shape the tremendous variety of content coming in, into something bespoke and even more engaging.’
The other theory behind the acquisition is Yahoo’s testy relationship with Demand Media – another content mill or web farm which operates on the same principles and is worth even more 200 million! Content mills are a perfect marriage of the long-tail business theory and the so-called link economy. Cover the table with bets on millions of articles, craftily chosen, and you make money on ads consumers go from search engines to your sites. Of course, one man’s getting rich is another man’s cluttered Internet.
On going to the site, I did not find the content of any standards as it is today in Yahoo. It almost reminded me of the bad tabloid web. Most of the writing was mediocre and I being a voracious reader of rags/tabloids at waiting rooms of various kinds consider myself to be a discerning critic of tabloid journalism!
On second thoughts, I have seen some brilliant user content on the Yahoo! Answers like "How come words that rhyme in English don't rhyme when they are said in other languages?" or ”How to be more mature to get a car” or “What are some rich last names” so maybe it is a marriage made in heaven!
‘According to Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder and president. “Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo!’s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth as we continue to leverage our best-of-breed platform to deliver high quality compelling content on more than 60,000 topics.”
For advertisers, this deal will expand Yahoo! into more topic areas and real-time content generation and give even more opportunities to engage groups of passionate consumers in ways they will find uniquely appealing to their interests and tastes. Having insight into user intent through its leading search products enables Yahoo! to identify topics important to advertisers and users. Associated Content also provides more opportunities for Yahoo! to partner and collaborate with publishers who can help the company shape the tremendous variety of content coming in, into something bespoke and even more engaging.’
The other theory behind the acquisition is Yahoo’s testy relationship with Demand Media – another content mill or web farm which operates on the same principles and is worth even more 200 million! Content mills are a perfect marriage of the long-tail business theory and the so-called link economy. Cover the table with bets on millions of articles, craftily chosen, and you make money on ads consumers go from search engines to your sites. Of course, one man’s getting rich is another man’s cluttered Internet.
On going to the site, I did not find the content of any standards as it is today in Yahoo. It almost reminded me of the bad tabloid web. Most of the writing was mediocre and I being a voracious reader of rags/tabloids at waiting rooms of various kinds consider myself to be a discerning critic of tabloid journalism!
On second thoughts, I have seen some brilliant user content on the Yahoo! Answers like "How come words that rhyme in English don't rhyme when they are said in other languages?" or ”How to be more mature to get a car” or “What are some rich last names” so maybe it is a marriage made in heaven!
Reality - Coming to an iPhone near you
You may or may not have heard of the next big wave to hit consumer products/marketing/gaming or just about every part of our lives - Augmented Reality (AR).
AR is basically the use of advanced technology to present digitized content & information projected into the real world or some representation of it. You can then interact with the digitized information in real time. This article details some of the applications and expectations of this new phenomenon. Brands such as Adidas and Nissan have already started using this as a marketing tool and the possibilities seem endless as experts expect to one day (very soon) for us to walk down the street seeing localized information about the buildings, people, companies and opportunities all around us projected onto special AR eyewear.
Something else interesting is that AR was at least partially pioneered right here at Columbia, with Professor Steven Feiner of the Department of Computer Science being a noted leader.
Death to Apple?
Last week I wrote (“Death to Google?”) about an article that addressed how mobile phone applications, and iPhone apps in particular, were usurping Google’s share of internet user’s access to various streams of information. Another school of thought however reasons that Google’s dual operating system approach, via Google Android and Google Chrome, will actually help Google trounce Apple, which maintains a closed source system, just as Microsoft operating systems, installed on PCs, trounced Apple 20+ years ago.
The Android operating system is meant for mobile devices, while the Chrome browser OS will power a next generation of net books and iPad/Kindle like devices. Google fully intends to eventually merge these operating systems, but the real key differentiator between Google and Apple is that Google’s operating systems are open source, meaning that the Android, Chrome, or merged operating system can be integrated into an array of devices made by many device manufacturers. This is highly reminiscent of Apple’s move to maintain its own operating system many years ago, and which in turn deemed Apple computers (e.g., Mcintosh) a computer that couldn’t be used in serious environments where files needed to be shared (e.g., excel, word), etc.
The original article can be found at: www.Internet.com
The Android operating system is meant for mobile devices, while the Chrome browser OS will power a next generation of net books and iPad/Kindle like devices. Google fully intends to eventually merge these operating systems, but the real key differentiator between Google and Apple is that Google’s operating systems are open source, meaning that the Android, Chrome, or merged operating system can be integrated into an array of devices made by many device manufacturers. This is highly reminiscent of Apple’s move to maintain its own operating system many years ago, and which in turn deemed Apple computers (e.g., Mcintosh) a computer that couldn’t be used in serious environments where files needed to be shared (e.g., excel, word), etc.
The original article can be found at: www.Internet.com
Do you know Alexa?
No it’s not the name of an Italian gorgeous chick that just arrived at Columbia. It’s basically a status bar which collect data all over the web to analyze the traffic, and therefore gives a good idea of how much visitors goes on a specific website.
http://www.alexa.com
Alexa is actually very accurate even though its data can be biased because of a community effect.
Indeed, Alexa tool bar is usually installed on the blogger / webmaster computers. Thus, some websites like digg.com and wordpress.org are ranked a bit too high.
Let’s now play with Alexa!
Who has the bigger number of page views? Facebook.com or Google.com? Is twitter having more traffic than youporn?
Alexa can answer all this questions.
What about the blog of the class?
Yep it’s not that good… I know :(
A tool like Google Analytics will be way more accurate than Alexa and will give you the real numbers, but nobody beside the webmaster will have access to these data.
Alexa gives you a good insight of how popular is a website! So don’t wait and download the Alexa status bar to contribute!
http://www.alexa.com/toolbar
http://www.alexa.com
Alexa is actually very accurate even though its data can be biased because of a community effect.
Indeed, Alexa tool bar is usually installed on the blogger / webmaster computers. Thus, some websites like digg.com and wordpress.org are ranked a bit too high.
Let’s now play with Alexa!
Who has the bigger number of page views? Facebook.com or Google.com? Is twitter having more traffic than youporn?
Alexa can answer all this questions.
What about the blog of the class?
Yep it’s not that good… I know :(
A tool like Google Analytics will be way more accurate than Alexa and will give you the real numbers, but nobody beside the webmaster will have access to these data.
Alexa gives you a good insight of how popular is a website! So don’t wait and download the Alexa status bar to contribute!
http://www.alexa.com/toolbar
Cultivating the next generation of bloggers
When I was in elementary school, apples were in the cafeteria. Now, it seems that Apples are just about in every classroom making the learning experience much more dynamic. There was a recent story on ABC news about Ed Stafford, explorer and blogger. Unlike the majority of blogs on the internet, Ed's blog, Walking the Amazon, is specifically aimed at children. Having read the blog (Ed was one of the first to use blogging as a form of childhood education), I find it thoughtful and engaging. Currently, Ed's blog is following his travels through the South American rainforest. The layout includes many videos which help bring the challanges and joys of his adventures to the classroom. Hopefully this blog will inspire others to help enrich the learning experience for the next generation and inspire future bloggers.
Hulu - Let Consumer's Choose
Hulu (www.hulu.com), an online video service provider, allows users to watch and share full-length TV shows, movies and other video content from over 200 leading content companies. And it’s FREE. It is able to support the free service by generating revenue through advertising sales.
Recognizing that many consumers can’t stand to watch advertisements, especially advertisements have no relevance to them, Hulu recently added a feature that gives users [some] “control over their video ad experience.” The service, coined “Ad Tailor” let’s viewers give Hulu real-time feedback on whether or not an advertisement was relevant. While this new feature doesn’t remove advertisements altogether, it does attempt to tailor future ads to consumer’s interests. Occasionally, instead of an advertisement, Hulu may pop-up a survey. Answer a multi-question survey and Hulu guarantees an extended period of ad-free viewing.
I, for one, see a lot of value in what Hulu is trying to do. It’s a win-win situation. Knowing that I’ll be subjected to a series of advertisements, I’d much rather they be advertisements that are relevant to me. The move not only allows Hulu to continue generating ad revenue, but it also builds consumer loyalty and yields positive press. I appreciate the fact that Hulu recognized consumers’ distaste of advertisements and did something about it.
Relevant Articles
http://www.hulu.com/about
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/05/hulu-giving-users-control-over-their-video-ad-experience/
Recognizing that many consumers can’t stand to watch advertisements, especially advertisements have no relevance to them, Hulu recently added a feature that gives users [some] “control over their video ad experience.” The service, coined “Ad Tailor” let’s viewers give Hulu real-time feedback on whether or not an advertisement was relevant. While this new feature doesn’t remove advertisements altogether, it does attempt to tailor future ads to consumer’s interests. Occasionally, instead of an advertisement, Hulu may pop-up a survey. Answer a multi-question survey and Hulu guarantees an extended period of ad-free viewing.
I, for one, see a lot of value in what Hulu is trying to do. It’s a win-win situation. Knowing that I’ll be subjected to a series of advertisements, I’d much rather they be advertisements that are relevant to me. The move not only allows Hulu to continue generating ad revenue, but it also builds consumer loyalty and yields positive press. I appreciate the fact that Hulu recognized consumers’ distaste of advertisements and did something about it.
Relevant Articles
http://www.hulu.com/about
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/05/hulu-giving-users-control-over-their-video-ad-experience/
How much is the average cost to build a website?
To build a website, you need a domain name, a web host, website design, content and so on. Some insights are listed below:
http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-web-development/2670-1.html
http://www.ehow.com/video_4774318_do-need-build-site_.html?cp=1&pid=1&wa%5Fvrid=6de1b149%2Df231%2D4fab%2Db492%2Df2127ac8c135
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com/public/226.cfm
http://www.pearsonified.com/2006/06/how_much_should_a_design_cost.php
To build a website, you need a domain name, a web host, website design, content and so on. Some insights are listed below:
http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-web-development/2670-1.html
http://www.ehow.com/video_4774318_do-need-build-site_.html?cp=1&pid=1&wa%5Fvrid=6de1b149%2Df231%2D4fab%2Db492%2Df2127ac8c135
http://www.bookmoreweddings.com/public/226.cfm
http://www.pearsonified.com/2006/06/how_much_should_a_design_cost.php
Cyberchondria
Does this look infected? More and more people are turning to the internet to answer the question. While this may certainly takes the burden off of physicians at cocktail parties, using the internet as a source of medical information has its risks. One such risk is the contribution health sites make to hypochondriacs who seek out and develop symptoms based on what they read online, a phenomena know as Cyberchondria.
According to the Pew Internet Project Project survey 78% of home broadband users look online for health information.
Though health related searches only represent a small portion of non-entertainment related internet use (6% according to the Pew Study), it has the potential to impact decisions and healthcare choises made by users. According to the same survey, the top searches are Specific Disease or medical problem, medical treatments and procedures, and diet related searches.
A quick look at Google trends reveals the spike in searches for Flu related symptoms during the begining of the H1N1 pandemic scare.
According to the Pew Internet Project Project survey 78% of home broadband users look online for health information.
Though health related searches only represent a small portion of non-entertainment related internet use (6% according to the Pew Study), it has the potential to impact decisions and healthcare choises made by users. According to the same survey, the top searches are Specific Disease or medical problem, medical treatments and procedures, and diet related searches.
A quick look at Google trends reveals the spike in searches for Flu related symptoms during the begining of the H1N1 pandemic scare.
Whether the internet has increased the number of people suffering from hypochondria isn’t clear. One thing is certain, it has made existing hypochondriacs worse says Brian Fallon, MD of Columbia U, and co-author of Phantom Illness.
The advice proscribed by Brian in a WebMD article is to avoid looking on the internet to self diagnose, as it only aggravates the condition.
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