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Monday, April 29, 2002 |
"After two years in development, Ads.com today launched a Web site where consumers not only can replay current television commercials, they also can get information about companies and their products.
Ads.com said it has obtained an agreement with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) that will allow it to legally show commercials on the Web....
Advertisers do not have to pay Ads.com for their commercials to be on the site, nor does Ads.com have to pay, Atcheson explained. He said Ads.com has two other methods for generating revenue - charging the advertisers for offering consumers up to 10 product links, and selling consumer response data.
Advertisers will pay for the former method, known as "audience capture," on a performance basis, he said. Ads.com also will offer consumers a chance to view the commercial on a high-quality stream of 386 kilobits per second.
Response data will be sold on a flat-fee basis on the 13-week run of an ad. It can measure how many people responded to an ad relative to similar products, or relative to other commercials on the same TV show, he said....
Peter Beckman, AdCritic.com's founder and CTO, today told Newsbytes AdCritic has been acquired by Crain, which owns the Ad Age Group and Creativity magazine....
Beckman said he did not know much about Ads.com, and added he was not concerned.
'They will run up against some competition when Crain relaunches AdCritic.com,' said Beckman. 'We still have strong name recognition.'
AdCritic.com is expected to relaunch in June, he added." [Newsbytes]
I thought AdCritic was going to re-launch as a fee-based service for the ad industry, but maybe they're changing their model. They'll have to do a heck of a lot more than the old site did, though, to catch up to Ads.com. The new site lets you browse ads by TV show (time slot) or by brand/product name. There's a handy search feature, or you can linger through some of the collections such as Academy Awards and Super Bowl XXXVI.
Entries for each commercial include all of the information you'd expect plus advertiser-sponsored links, non-advertiser-sponsored links, the name of the ad agency, the song title of any music used in the ad, the artist (plus a link to their site), a chance to rate the ad, and a link to find more ads for the specific product. An Inside Ads section highlights different industry jargon each day, as well as the equivalent of "ad gossip."
Thumbs up: you don't have to register to view the commercials. Thumbs down: no master index of music from commercials.
11:31:59 PM Permanent link here
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"Jamie Kellner controls Turner's programming riches. What he does with them could speed up--or slow down--the transformation of television....
[Kellner:] 'Most industries that don't pay attention to satisfying the demands of their customers fail. You have to realize that television has changed dramatically as much as any other industry I can think of in the past ten to 15 years. American lifestyle has changed dramatically. People are on the Internet a lot, out of the home a lot, having families at a different age than they did ten to 15 years ago. The idea that you can put programs on once a week and expect them to reach their full potential of popularity and their full audience is a joke. If you're interested in satisfying the needs and desires of our customers, we have to offer them multiple times in the week, and that means probably across multiple networks, because the broadcast networks do not have the shelf space to play their program many times during the week....'
And yet, ask Jamie Kellner about the opportunities (or challenges) for his company and VOD [Video On Demand] won't crack the top of his list. He's still too busy making the most out of today's reality: opting for multiplay and multiplex, which he describes as the low-tech way to offer multiple viewing options, creating more network-owned content, pumping up the networks Turner already has (particularly CNN)....
[Kellner:] 'I'm a big believer we have to make television more convenient or we will drive the penetration of PVRs and things like that, which I'm not sure is good for the cable industry or the broadcast industry or the networks....
Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming....
I guess there's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom. But if you formalize it and you create a device that skips certain second increments, you've got that only for one reason, unless you go to the bathroom for 30 seconds. They've done that just to make it easy for someone to skip a commercial....
It's good to make it easier for consumers to watch the programs they want to watch. I'm not opposed to consumers getting a program without commercials in it. But they have to create a new model that charges them for that programming the way HBO charges them....'
Someone's going to have to recognize that once we've entered the digital world people can send out perfect copies without any costs to large numbers of people in many different territories of the world [and] can dramatically disrupt the system that we've built that allows us to produce and distribute content and pay for it and make...a profit in the investment, and that has to be addressed....'
At the end of the day, though, it'll provide customer satisfaction for cable, more use of the cable service and that's good for all of us. It's somewhat inevitable. Hopefully the ad-supported network will be protected...there was one button I heard of that could eliminate the entire commercial pod. That would just remove all the network's promotion, all the sponsors that paid for the film and obviously that's not acceptable to anybody....
The only payment for a lot [of content] is the willingness of the viewer to watch the spot, the commercial. That's part of the contract between the network and the viewer. For anybody to step in between that content and encourage the viewer to disregard the payment in time that he's making--I think everybody should fight those people...or let the viewer have a subscription model where they pay for that, in which case the monies can be taken in and distributed back to cover the loss of the ad revenue. This is the time to honestly address it; also, for people to deal with it. If you think it's something that's good for consumers, give them the choice of either watching the commercials or paying incremental money for the service and make sure that people in the business understand the economic damage they can do by licensing this product.' " [Cableworld, via MetaFilter]
You know, if Kellner had worked on a horse ranch, he probably would have expected Congress to legislate his existing industry against the "disruption" caused by the introduction of the horseless carriage.
He's in favor of convenience for consumers, but only as long as it keeps profits rolling in for him. Does he not read online articles that he should have paid full price for in print? Aren't consumers already paying a service premium just to get access to his cable stations? Isn't that the exact model he's advocating be implemented?!
I shell out for the digital premium package each and every month, but apparently that doesn't entitle me to snack breaks or working while the TV is on in the background. I'm surprised he isn't lobbying Congress to remove mute buttons and the off switches.
And consumers are definitely paying extra for the convenience of recording shows to time-shift and watch them later. But I guess since his company doesn't receive profits from VCRs or PVRs, these "extra" fees don't count. Tell that to my bank account.
10:55:14 PM Permanent link here
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"Redwood City, Calif.-based Liquid Audio said its service, dubbed BurnItFirst.com, will carry a collection of songs from EMI CMG, a Christian music company that is a unit of EMI Music. Among the artists will be Steven Curtis Chapman, Newsboys, Avalon and Jump 5. Liquid Audio said subscribers will be able to burn a song to a CD up to three times and export it to five different portable devices....
To protect its music, Liquid Audio said BurnItFirst.com uses its digital rights management format to control copying and transfers to portable devices. For $9.95 a month the service will give consumers 20 digital downloads. Using Liquid Player software, consumers can download full albums or individual tracks, create their own playlists, and burn and transfer songs.
Although the service may only attract a limited audience with Christian music, Matt Smith, vice president of product marketing at Liquid Audio, said the company hopes the amount of available music in that genre will entice consumers, as EMI has 'No. 1 market share in that area.' In terms of sales, he added, Christian music is 'bigger than jazz, classical and new age combined,' selling 15 million units last year and growing at 13.5 percent.
BurnItFirst.com 'is a completely new model,' Smith said. 'It's going to (make) obsolete a lot of the other models, and I think it has really addressed the major issues that consumers and the industry (have) been raising about the existing services.' " [News.com]
They haven't addressed enough issues to make me sign up on those terms. I make mix tapes for myself and my family all of the time, and there's no way I'm going to pay for a song I can only put in mixes three times. No way, no how. I'm not sure why they think people that listen to Christian music would feel differently about this. Like you can't get these songs off file-sharing services now?
8:43:53 PM Permanent link here
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"Hundreds of Internet radio stations and channels across America are shutting off their music streams on Wednesday, May 1st, in a "Day of Silence" to highlight their concern over the upcoming U.S. Copyright Office ruling on royalty rates that may shut down or bankrupt the vast majority of the nascent Internet radio industry. Write your senators and congressmen and women--Here's how--the Copyright office (info here) and the press. Please note: Letters to the editor (which must be entirely original and not contain any pasted material) can also be sent to your local daily & weekly papers. In both cases we recommend that you send a copy of your message to all of your congressional representatives. See congress.org for email addresses. A copy via fax is also recommended, since faxes often carry more weight than email. Snail mail to Congress these days is very slow, due to the anthrax screening. Please write, this is important. And thank you, Su, for reminding me." [MetaFilter]
8:16:04 PM Permanent link here
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"This just in: Web surfers looking for local news on the Internet are most likely to visit online newspapers, beating out Yahoo, local television sites and America Online....
And there's more: seasoned Internet users have a greater likelihood of going to newspaper Web sites than Net newbies.
Now for the news advertisers and newspaper executives have been waiting for: consumers who read online newspapers make more money than Web users in general and are better educated. What's more, they spend more time and money on the Internet than the overall Web population.
Those tidbits and other findings from a survey done for the Newspaper Association of America show that the Internet will not kill off the printed form of the medium and can generate some much-needed cash through advertising....
The telephone survey found that 62 percent of Internet users go to newspaper Web sites for local news and information while 55 percent visit Yahoo, 39 percent choose local TV stations' Web sites and 37 percent consult AOL.
Printed newspapers are the top source of local advertising for general Internet users and online newspaper readers, the survey found. Online readers say that after the print edition, the newspaper's Web site is their favorite source for local advertising - ahead of TV, radio, shopper publications and giveaways, and the Yellow Pages.
Sixty-four percent of online newspaper readers have been surfing the Net for more than four years, compared to 41 percent of general Internet users, and are more likely to have high-speed connections at home and on the job....
But what is it that drives Internet users to a newspaper's online edition? Among those interviewed by telephone, 38 percent go to the Net for breaking news, 34 percent search archives and classified ads, 32 percent look for greater detail of a story in the paper's printed version, and 31 percent are trying to find information not available in print.
The online surveys produced different results: 68 percent like Net newspapers for breaking news, 49 percent search archives and classifieds, and 31 percent each for finding additional background and new information.
Twenty-four percent of those interviewed by phone used online newspapers to replace print editions, and 36 percent of online survey respondents made that claim.
The notion of using the Internet to extend a newspaper's reach did not show up well in survey results, as only 4 percent of online users say they read the Web site only." [Newsbytes]
I guess I'm part of the 4%, although I think we'll see that number grow. It will be fleshed out by NetGens in particular. I get all of my news online now, and those newspapers that I can pull into my news aggregator get the overwhelming majority of my clicks. For example, I was thrilled to find I could pull in the Chicago Sun-Times thanks to a NewsIsFree feed. Too bad I can't get the Chicago Tribune or even better, one of my more local papers.
Does this survey mean I read less news than I did before? Heck, no. In fact, I read far more news than I ever have in my life. But unless someone points out a specific article at a newspaper's site, I pretty much stick to the ones that shift their information to come to where I want it (in my news aggregator).
3:59:53 PM Permanent link here
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"Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe, initiated millions of Americans into the world of reading — and inoculated them with a passion for solving mysteries.
On May 28, the first unabridged audiotape editions will be released by Listening Library. Oscar-nominated actress Laura Linney will read The Secret of the Old Clock, and actor Bill Irwin will read The Tower Treasure. (The Hardy Boys editions will feature vintage music and sound effects from the 1940s.) Each $18 audiobook will be two cassettes running 3 1/2 hours long....
Linney loved experiencing the "sense of joy and adventure" in the Drew books. Irwin was fascinated by the freedom the Hardy boys enjoyed; neither wore bicycle helmets, he points out.
Ditlow is hoping that the audiotapes will find a market not just among parents and children, but grandparents as well. (The Hardy Boys were introduced in 1927; Drew in 1930.) "There's nothing dicey in these mysteries. ... You know you're safe playing these tapes. It's like macaroni and cheese."
Ditlow also notes that families choosing to drive this summer rather than fly will help keep audiotape sales strong. (According to Ditlow, American children spend about 17 hours a week in the car.)" [USA Today]
Another entry in the "Too Damn Cool" department! I l-o-v-e-d this books when I was a kid, both series, too. I remember having an entire shelf in my closet lined with just these titles when I was a kid.
I was at Sam's Club recently and saw five-packs of various titles from each series are now available with covers simulating the originals. It was all I could do not to grab each and every one of them. I can't wait until Kailee is old enough to read them but until then, I really hope Audible can pick up these titles!
1:43:41 PM Permanent link here
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Eagle-eye Will pointed me to Hartford Seminary Library's site because their main page is a weblog that covers library news, articles of religious interest, and even the Library of Congress' 202nd birthday. The site is powered by Movable Type, and here is their great description of why they are doing this:
"A 'Honeyguide' is a small plainly colored Old World bird, known for its habit of leading humans to the nests of wild bees, then sharing in the spoils when the hive has been opened. A Web Log is the Library's way of leading you to some of the riches we've discovered on the Internet. Each Web Log is devoted to a specific topic or simply to the musings of one of our staff members. Check them out! Add your comments! Enjoy!"
Follow the link in that paragraph and you'll find that they are actually running three weblogs, all of which provide interesting and relevant links. In fact, the main guy posting to the blogs, Jack, even uses MT for his bio page!
- Food and Spirituality
- Digital Librarianship
- Christian Spirituality
In addition to standard library content, the Library also offers a page of relevant news that is pulled in automatically from Moreover. This is a great example of how weblog software and RSS can make it easier for a library to present current news and links. Very nicely done!
9:30:40 AM Permanent link here
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Macromedia Promises Better Web Apps
"The software maker is launching the next stage of an ambitious upgrade cycle that it says will offer new Web development and server tools improved for Internet applications.
The new products include Dreamweaver MX, an updated version of Macromedia's market-leading Web design tools used by more than 80 percent of professional Web designers; ColdFusion MX, a set of server scripting tools for creating Web applications; and Fireworks MX for creating Web graphics. The generation of products is also combined in Studio MX, a suite of developer tools that includes the newly released Flash MX.
Most of the new products are meant to improve the way Web applications are created and presented, an effort vital to the continued growth of the Web, according to Kevin Lynch, chief software architect for Macromedia. By integrating Web design and development tools with ColdFusion server tools that Macromedia acquired from Allaire, Macromedia can help developers offer more useful Web services and present them in a smoother way....
As with other Macromedia products, the new Dreamweaver will also require developers to learn a new user interface. But Lowery said Dreamweaver MX makes a big step in the right direction.
'The learning-curve issue, I think, is Macromedia's biggest challenge, especially for Dreamweaver,' he said. 'But (Dreamweaver MX) is a significant advance, as far as usability. Everything is pretty much where you expect....'
Macromedia critics have expressed concerns about a single company having so much control over how the Web works. But Steve Frankel, a software analyst for investment bank Adams Harkness & Hill, said the real obstacle for corporate customers is likely to be the novelty of Macromedia's push for Flash-centric Web pages. Among the implications are the PCs would go from being dumb "thin clients" for Web data, where central servers have to do all the processing work, to smart terminals that can use the Flash player to handle certain tasks....
Lynch points to the new Flash-based stock quote system used by online broker E*Trade. By using a Flash-based application, the broker can deliver quotes with less than 2KB of data, as opposed to the old HTML format that required a 100KB download and up to 20 seconds of waiting for each quote....
The new Dreamweaver includes improvements in a number of areas that users of previous versions have complained about. Lowery said major enhancements include accessibility compliance tool checks that help designers ensure that Web pages will work with screen readers and other tools for disabled users, better support for new formats such as XHTML and cascading style sheets, and code-writing shortcuts that dramatically speed up development work." [News.com]
You can also read the official Macromedia Press Release for their spin. I'll be interested to watch the reactions to this move. If the company name was Microsoft instead of Macromedia, I think we would already be seeing lawsuits filed in a federal court.
And it's not that I am against what Macromedia is doing because they have a point about download times. It should be an interesting pundit day!
8:59:36 AM Permanent link here
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Hey, Andy - check out this new book from O'Reilly!
"Perl and XML. Perl and XML is aimed at Perl programmers who need to work with XML documents and data. This book gives a complete, comprehensive tour of the landscape of Perl and XML, making sense of the myriad of modules, terminology, and techniques. The last two chapters of Perl and XML give complete examples of XML applications, pulling together all the tools at your disposal." [O'Reilly Safari]
7:31:11 AM Permanent link here
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"Postmodernism, Writ Small is a brief history of the Post-It Note: 'Until Fry took an interest in Silver's adhesive, it was considered a failure rather than an invention. As far as anyone in 3M's marketing department knew, there was no great consumer demand for lousy tape. But for Fry's purposes, this new kind of adhesive was perfect. It would allow him to create a bookmark that would stay fixed to a page, but also be easily removable.' " [Kottke.org]
Unfortunately, I don't have time to read this right now, but it sounds fascinating.
7:29:51 AM Permanent link here
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"fiftyfly writes 'Wired's running a story about the Pixter - a sort of etch-a-sketch/palm love child. At an estimated $50.00 I'm sure someone out there must have had a go at hacking it. No mention of anyway of getting the drawings off, I'd imagine that would be a good place to start. For $75CAD I'd give it a go, eh?' " [Slashdot]
I know Meryl mentioned the Pixter, too, as a kid-sized Palm. At my house, we went through this debate a few years ago when we purchased our first ABC and 123 computer games for the kids. Should we buy the kids-version of a keyboard with bigger keys, lots of different colors, and a huge trackball mouse, or should we just stick with standard computer components.
In the end, the kids grew up on a standard PC keyboard, although we did originally have a trackball mouse. But their schools use regular peripherals, so when the trackball died, we put a standard mouse on our computer.
I've thought about buying Kailee a Pixter, but I don't think she'd really like it. Both kids are far more interested in my Palm, and I have an old Palm III that I need to dig out for them instead. I think PDAs are going to be "hand-me-downs" in my house.
The truth is that I don't see the point in buying them a Pixter when they can use Diddlebug on a regular Palm. Sure the screen is bigger and there are a couple of other nice features, but they already think the Palm is a toy. They like to play Solitaire without knowing what to do. They like to draw on it, and I can download all kinds of different games. For ages six and up, I think a Palm is a good choice, plus they'll be able to use the to-do list, memo pad, and calendar if they so choose.
So my advice to you is to spend the extra $25 and get a bottom-of-the-line Palm instead of a Pixter.
7:26:58 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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