Articles Selected by Tim Hawthorne
Why the San Fran Chronicle Is Running Demand Media Content
Summary:
Two Hearst newspapers' websites have gone live with new sections from Demand Media, one of the content-generation companies that tap thousands of freelancers to generate countless articles.
Some observers argue that these so-called content farms are winning web traffic and ad revenue away from traditional publishers without matching the quality that traditional newsrooms provide.
As Display Ads Take off on Facebook, Don't Discount SEO
Summary:
Facebook's ad traffic is expected to post phenomenal growth - even as its ad prices rise, according to comments made by the company's COO Sheryl Sandberg. Advertisers have taken advantage of the stable pricing, with some of Facebook's biggest advertisers boosting spending 10-fold and a few increasing spending by as much as 20-fold or more, Sandberg told Bloomberg. (via MediaBuyerPlanner).
Facebook Launching Live Video Channel
Summary:
As if Facebook wasn’t live enough, the top social net recently debuted Facebook Live — a live video streaming channel. Along with special celebrity-oriented videos, the live video channel will be used for official Facebook announcements, press events, live chats with Facebook engineers and live streaming of its developer conference, f8, ReadWriteWeb reports.
Revamped Ad System Brings in Cheese for StumbleUpon
Summary:
StumbleUpon CEO and cofounder Garrett Camp recently talked about the social discovery site’s revamped ad system.
About six months on, the site reports that on top of a 20% growth in users, the year-over-year ad inclusion rate has doubled, with about 2,000 active monthly customers (a 20% increase) running around 3,000 campaigns daily.
Qoof Makes Rich Media App-tacular
Summary:
Since the iAd announcement, the advertising world has been delighted by the idea of apps within apps. Video tech company Qoof is the latest to offer a similar solution — apps within rich media.
enableTV Leverages New Relationship with S3 Group to Launch InterActive TV Application Center
Summary:
enableTV, the interactive TV software and services that in 2008 was spun out of Vidiom Systems by Vidiom founder, Tim Wahlers (see the article published on itvt.com, September 29th, 2008), announced its InterActive TV Application Center, which it bills as a "fully integrated solution providing a robust interactive application delivery and test system."
Rachael Ray Adds to iPhone Foodie Apps
Summary:
Rachael Ray, the best-selling cookbook author and TV personality, is expanding her brand in the digital arena with a new iPhone app and Twitter account.
The app, called Tasty Bytes, is similar to the growing number of foodie and celebrity chef apps in that it has a range of tools designed helps users get a meal from the grocery store to the table - besides, of course, the obligatory signature recipes.
Apple Hires Wireless Payment Guru, Prepare for iPhone Credit Cards
Summary:
Apple's hired an expert in near-field communications to be its new product manager for mobile commerce. This is big news, in ways you may not immediately grasp: Propelled by Apple's cachet and iPhone's appeal, wireless payment tech may now be about to sweep over the world.
Cox on TiVo Premiere box
Summary:
Cox Communications, the third-largest cable company in the United States, will promote the TiVo Premiere digital video recorder to its subscribers in conjunction with its own video services. It is the first time that an American cable operator will make its full video-on-demand library available through a retail digital video recorder, while enabling access to competing online video services.
Foursquare’s Future Slowly Takes Shape
Summary: Foursquare wants more folks to use its application-programming interface (API), and thus build an ecosystem around Foursquare’s data.
The more apps are built on its API, the easier it is for Foursquare to grow faster, which in turn would allow the company to start monetizing its efforts to bridge physical and digital worlds. Foursquare (and others like it) can essentially bring a cost-per-action business model to the real world, perhaps either supplanting or complementing traditional forms of advertising.
TV Guide's New iPad App Incorporates Social TV Functionality into its Listings Grid
Summary: TV Guide Digital has launched a free TV Guide App for iPad in the Apple App Store. According to the company--which says that its iPhone app has seen over 1.3 million installations--the new app, which is sponsored exclusively by Showtime Networks, features what it calls "social TV listings," as well as a day-by-day primetime schedule, entertainment news, photo galleries, original videos, and TVGuide.com's "signature" fall TV preview coverage.
Why Companies 'Click' on Twitter
Summary: When people follow a brand on Twitter -- a behavior mystifying to many non-Twitterites -- what motivates them to do so? A report released this month by ExactTarget takes a look.
FLO TV Round 2: Let's Try This Again
Summary:
For those who are old enough to recall over-air broadcast TV it feels scandalous to pay for the same kind of sparse collection of channels that once came through the ether when you turned on the old TV set. For the younger generation, the obvious question becomes, didn't I already pay CNN and Nick for their content on my cable bill? The business models still haven't caught up with consumers' basic common sense.
Twitter's Next Move: A Tweet Button
Summary:
Twitter has plans to launch a Tweet Button that will let users share articles on websites and count how many times a Tweet has been retweeted, according to a Mashable exclusive.
Will Users Revolt Against the New Mobile Ad Formats?
Summary:
A new generation of mobile ads are coming to market that are more entertaining and engaging than earlier banner or search ads - and all encompassing on the screen.
As more of these ads make their way into the mainstream mobile environment, it will be interesting to see how users react.
Apple And Google Set To Capitalize (And Compete) On Internet TV
Summary:
Connected TVs and set-top devices enabling consumers to view video from across the Internet on TVs could ultimately drive online video ads and marketing content budgets. The online video ad segment should grow at a 39% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) during the next five years, becoming a more than $5 billion market by 2014, estimates analyst firm Piper Jaffray.
Amazon Now Taps Into Facebook For Social Product Recommendations
Summary: It appears that Amazon has rolled out a new social feature integrating Facebook into your recommendations. If you go your recommendations, Using Facebook Connect, Amazon will now serve you social recommendations based on information in your Facebook profile.
Report: Mobile Location Services Not Ripe for Marketers Yet
Summary: Just 4 in 100 online adults has ever used a location-based mobile service like Foursquare, Gowalla or Loopt, and only 1% of these people "check-in" on such services more than once a week, according to a report from market research firm Forrester.
Consumers Embrace Geekdom
Summary:
It's a geek world these days, and non-geeks just live in it. With new technology and the flow of information taking on unprecedented importance for consumers en masse, people once derided as geeks now find themselves at the vanguard of sweeping social change. And the number of people who've internalized at least some geek characteristics has grown to make them a majority of the online population.
The BBC iPhone App Prepares To Stand And Deliver
Summary: Pundits and analysts have long predicted that digital devices could seriously damage the market for printed news -- if not outright replace it -- and that was before the widespread adoption of the iPhone, iPad and Kindle. According to some members of the Newspaper Publisher's Association (NPA), the largest trade association of British national newspapers, that grim, non-printed future is now. And they argue that it's being ushered in because of the BBC's new iPhone app.
