Where J.J. Abrams goes for Inspiration…
May 10, 2009
In the spirit of a huge opening weekend, many may wonder where J.J. Abrams gets his creative ideas from, check out this video from T.E.D. in March of 2007, where JJ talks about his “mystery box”.
Why are text messages 160 characters?
May 10, 2009
Because that is what Friedhelm Hillebrand, a German researcher found to be ”Perfectly sufficient.”
Interesting article from the LA Times.
Text messaging pioneer was a good judge of characters
One day in 1985, Friedhelm Hillebrand sat at the typewriter in his home there, tapping out random sentences and questions on a sheet of paper. For the rest of the article click here.
New Yankee Stadium – Cheap Tickets
May 05, 2009
I have been reading about all of the missteps that the Yankees have taken with the new stadium and it just hit home. I was poking around the site and wanted to see if they still had tix available when they played their cross town rivals. If I had an extra $5,300 + shipping it would be great to attend (and that is face value)!
What is a family of four to do, show up to the stadium and buy four tickets for $10,000?
Wifi on Virgin America
Apr 12, 2009
I know that there has been a lot of press about it, but its pretty cool.
- Written from in the air!
Google Chrome Default Search Engine on HP’s
Mar 28, 2009
Interesting that Microsoft’s Live Search product is default when you download Google Chrome to a HP. I would recomend giving Chrome a shot – I have been using it since Beta and feel that it is the quickest browser on the market.
Google Chrome Browser Screen Shot
Ad Supported Internet Video on your TV – Round 1.5
Mar 22, 2009
This is a quick follow up to my earlier post on Ad Supported Internet (web) Video on your TV, where I brought up the concept that if users stream web video to their TV, you take the interactivity out of the Ad unit and so goes the value to the advertiser for using the web as a more powerful vehicle to spend their ad dollars.
Now it looks as if the big wigs are responding to the problem and the reason that NBC has been resisting is simple, “because it hasn’t figured out how to make money off Web video yet — and needs you to keep watching TV on your TV.” Check out an interesting piece from Silicon Alley Insider that goes into more detail.
The shift back to get web content on the TV continues….
Shared characteristics of successful ad supported Internet companies
Mar 21, 2009
Below is a draft of a few characteristics that successful advertising supported Internet Companies embody. This is just a simple table – and a start to taking a birds eye view approach for what makes the great companies tick. Thoughts are welcome.
Advertising Supported Internet Industry Overview
| Purpose | Connecting with Friends | Consuming Content |
|---|---|---|
| Success is Driven By: | - Controlled platforms (you control who you are friends with) | - Current Fads |
| - The size of each users network (the bigger the better - to connect, you must be on the platform) | - Respecting Super-Users | |
| - Users generate their own content (self service platforms) | - Multiple content providers (self service platform) | |
| Sample Companies: | - Facebook / MySpace | - Google / Wikipedia (close to being ad supported)) |
| - AOL IM / Skype | - Pandora / Digg | |
| - YouTube / PhotoBucket / Twitter (email / embed functionality) | - YouTube / PhotoBucket / Twitter (destination site) | |
Thanks to Scott, Adam & Evan for thoughts.
A futuristic look into the newspaper business – From 1981
Jan 31, 2009
AdAge ran an article on the video below which predicts the direction that the newspaper industry will go (circa 1981).
Ad Supported Internet Video on your TV – Round 1
Jan 25, 2009
SlumDog Millionare
Dec 14, 2008
I know that I am a few weeks late to praising this one, but I was catching up on my Ad Age readings on a recent flight, when I found this article. Usually brands line up to be in films.
