The seven ways that people search the Web. By Paul Boutin - Slate Magazine: "Using the third-party site splunkd.com, I've parsed the AOL data to create a typology of AOL Search users. Which of the seven types of searcher are you?"
This is great. Must read for planners.
MediaPost Publications - IAC Buys Majority Stake In CollegeHumor.com - 08/16/2006: "IAC/INTERACTIVECORP. HAS ACQUIRED A MAJORITY stake in the parent company of comedy Web site College Humor.com, which offers videos, articles, and jokes aimed at a college-age audience.
CollegeHumor is the first site to be acquired by IAC Programming, the unit formed in January to buy or create online properties that appeal to loyal, well-defined communities.
With the deal, IAC gained a 51 percent share and full voting control of parent Connected Ventures."
BBC NEWS | Technology | File-sharing 'darknet' unveiled
Ooooo ... this is exceptionally cool. Just when you thought illegal file sharing might quiet down, along comes a new wave that's just so, so, so Star Wars in a dark-side-of-the-force kind of way. Read on ...
"A "darknet" service that allows users to share music files anonymously on the web has been launched in Sweden.
Relakks, as the service is known, allows users to send and receive files through a heavily-encrypted connection.
It is the first commercial example of a darknet, a virtual network set up to share files between trusted users." ... plus ...
Usually darknets are confined to small tight-knit groups such as hackers who use the secure connections to distribute information and hacking tools."
... but ... "They have also been used by paedophiles to distribute images of child abuse." ... which is decidely NOT cool.
Consumers more critical of cell carriers than handset makers: "Cingular, the top carrier with 57.3 million customers, had 5.2 million aspiring users, the survey estimates. No. 2 Verizon (54.8 million now) had 4.7 million and Sprint (51 million) 6.9 million. Even here, however, device brands scored better, with Motorola having the most wannabe users at 12.3 million."
Lookit That ... By devising a campaign that specifically targets the wireless subscribers of the top three (Cingular, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel), you reach (potentially) 162 million Americans (minus duplicate subscribers, of course). Okay, so you reach almost 150 million Americans. Ummm, last time I checked the US population is just approaching 300 million. So you can reach about half of all Americans via the top three carriers. That's pretty darned good.
USATODAY.com - HSN to offer point and shop by TV remote: "HSN is announcing the nation's first shop-by-remote system for digital TV customers. It will be available in New York City and Hawaii, where it's been tested in some homes. Other major cities will get access in coming months.
'We've been chomping at the bit' to offer the service, says John McDevitt, vice president of finance for HSN, based in St. Petersburg, Fla. 'It's a natural evolution for our industry.'
HSN viewers who have pre-registered credit card information with the company can use the service. No special remote or cable box is needed. Digital TV companies get a cut of the network's sales.
'It's a big deal,' says Thomas Umstead, programming editor for MultiChannel News, a trade publication that covers the cable TV industry. 'Instead of having to pick up the phone to call and order the latest Gucci bag, you just point and click.'"
Pew Internet: Pew Internet - Bloggers: "A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family."
Credit cards with radio tags speed purchases but track customers, too - The Boston Globe: "Already, 20 million Americans have credit or debit cards that contain radio frequency identification technology chips, or RFID chips. These chips let a cardholder make a purchase by waving the card in front of a contactless card reader, instead of sliding the card through a magnetic reader or handing it to a sales clerk.
Now cellphone makers like Finland's Nokia Corp. are building the chips into their phones. That could transform the cellphone into a universal payment device that could supplant the credit card altogether.
``Some people will say, instead of having five credit cards, I'll have them all in one phone,' said Gerhard Romen, Nokia's head of global market development.
The prospect appeals to many merchants, who hope that the new system will let them ring up sales more quickly and securely than with today's credit cards or with cash.
But not everyone is convinced."
BBC NEWS | Technology | Duran Duran to give virtual gigs: "British band Duran Duran are to create a virtual island within online game Second Life, on which they will perform actual live concerts.
The band is the first major group to announce a virtual world presence in the game.
Second Life is an online 3D digital world, which is imagined, created and owned by the residents.
More than 370,000 people have Second Life characters, called Avatars, who exist in the world.
Earlier this year, BBC Radio 1 rented a virtual island in Second Life where it held music festivals and BBC Two's Newsnight hosted an interview inside the game."
U2 in SL - A Virtual Band in Second Life: "Through streaming music technology in the 3D virtual world of Second Life, from time to time, we hold concerts and gigs for the entire SL community. We role-play the real world band using custom made avatars, animations and concert set"
Competition Heats Up For Viral Video Advertisers
Business Week
Advertisers are creating and distributing videos on sites like YouTube and Google Video, hoping they'll be distributed by thousands of Web users, reports Business Week. For that powerful chain of events to take place, marketers have to create something compelling enough for a legion of anonymous users to want to share it with friends. "If you entertain your audience, they will get it, and the viral mechanism will make the audience come to watch you," says Ed Robinson, an ad executive and Web site owner who attracted more than 60,000 people in one week to his Web site with a 12-second spot. Within three months, he had 500,000 visitors. Video could be advertising's holy grail. It reaches millions of consumers without spending millions of dollars. The big lure, according to research estimates--it's a $100 million to $150 million industry. Just think of Crispin Porter + Bogusky's "Subservient Chicken" video for Burger King; it's still one of the most popular viral video ads in history, with 400 million hits. And it didn't cost millions to make. CPB says after that success, it found competition on the Web to be fresh, different, and fierce. After all, advertisers are competing with content created by millions of amateurs, too. Plus, Web users are an ad-saturated audience, so anything that lacks irony or a little sophistication and smacks of cheap marketing ploys won't get very far. To be successful, viral video needs high entertainment value. That's right, advertisers--you're creating content, too. - Read the whole story...
A study by Harris Interactive set for release Monday found that 31 percent of the over-18 set preferred the games to TV for whiling away a spare hour. Watching movies at home fared better, with 21 percent choosing games instead, but going to the movie theater did slightly worse with 35 percent."
Microsoft lets players be designers - Technology - International Herald Tribune: "Microsoft is trying to change that. The company on Monday announced the release this autumn of a product called XNA Game Studio Express, a basic version of the company's game authoring tools that will let aspiring designers write games on a PC and test them on an ordinary Xbox 360. To test games, the designer pays $99 a year to translate the game from the PC into the Xbox format."
eMarketer.com - Online Video Stats Say It All: "A recent report from technology research firm In-Stat indicates that the potential market for online video content worldwide will grow from 13 million households in 2005 to 131 million households in 2010. One of the drivers behind this growth is the widespread adoption of broadband, and In-stat predicts that by 2010 there will be 413 million broadband households worldwide, up from 194 million in 2005."
Shatner launches online sci-fi contest - Yahoo! News: "Shatner will pick the winner, who will be named spokesperson for the William Shatner Science Fiction DVD Club. The winner also will receive 'a large cash award,' according to the contest announcement.
Entrants must create a short video clip that shows why they have what it takes and submit it to http://shatner.blip.tv/. Deadline for entries is Sept. 30.
Aspiring actors, young filmmakers and budding film critics are encouraged to enter.
'This is an opportunity for new faces and new voices in the science fiction world to be seen and heard,' Shatner said in a statement Thursday."
First hotel for 'Second Life' | CNET News.com
"Starwood Hotels & Resorts is launching its new Aloft Hotel in the virtual land of Second Life in September, months before the chain of hotels opens in real life. The brick-and-mortar version of the hotel, which caters to active, urban 30- to 50-year-olds, is set to roll out the red carpet sometime in 2008. The folks at Starwood are hoping the hotel attracts a lively bunch of avatars who like to mingle in the lobby and give feedback about the hotel. In this way, Second Life will help guide the earthbound hotel's operations.
Credit: The Electric Sheep Company"
Going to Work for SUBWAY: Part 1
For any of you who've missed it; here's the Agency.com (an Omnicom interactive shop, btw) pitch "viral" (intentional misuse of quote marks) video on YouTube.
And here are some of our favorite spoofs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qArfluhDzeE&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkFitDdRzVU&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyMEP_AGjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJ2Gz0q984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE0SsmAWI5k
MINI Mail™
Here's a lame Web 2.0 app/site that's nothing more than a Web card wrapped in lots and lots of Flash. Ecchhh. One saving grace is a free font download. That's nice. And ... free.
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