It might be a geek thing, but since I was a teen and started playing with computers I have always admired the box of video cards. They always had some beautiful graphic art. Dragons, knights and other creatures that inspired my fantasies about the games I would play.
Thinking about that I decided to create a collection with pictures of video card boxes. Enjoy.
And I don’t agree with it.
Their first argument is this one:
The inconvenient truth is that for all its new-media spin, display advertising is “old” media — a commercial message to be placed next to editorial or entertainment content. And we know by now that measured-media growth has pretty much ground to a halt as marketers continue to increase their dollars in unmeasured disciplines such as web development, public relations and database marketing at the expense of paid advertising.
Well, I think there is a huge different between an ad that appears on a paper newspaper and ones that appear on the online website of that same newspaper. For one thing, the results of the latter are much more measurable. You can track how many times the ad got displayed. How many people clicked on the ad. How many people ended up purchasing a product after that click. Heck, you could even know the country, browser and operating system of the people that saw the ad.
When hard economic times come, companies will want to spend their money in places where they can track the results more efficiently.
The the article questions:
Sure, dollars are shifting within those media budgets, with some moving out of traditional media into interactive. But most of the top 100 advertisers that wield the big budgets are still primarily TV and print spenders. The question is: Should the fact Procter & Gamble spends only 1.5% of its marketing budget on display ads be viewed as a warning signal by online ad sellers, or as an opportunity
The author of the article apparently thinks that this is a warning signal, he goes: “For all its glory, the internet still has not proven itself capable of being a primary branding medium.”
Well I think he is wrong, I think that the fact that the advertisers still spend 90% of their money on television is definitely an opportunity for online advertising. Why? Because eventually everything is going to migrate to the web. That is, everything is going to travel on IP. Your television, your telephone conversations, and even the bits that your fridge will send to the local supermarket when you run out of beer cans.
Sure it might still take some years for that to realize, but it is a matter of when and not a matter of if.
As a result, I think that online advertising will keep growing strong, and perhaps new forms of advertising will emerge, but they will certainly be based on web technologies.
Anyway you can read the full article here and take your own conclusions.
I was browsing through my RSS feeds today and came across a cool little game called Ragdoll Cannon. The concept is pretty simple: you have a cannon that shoots dolls, and on each level you must make the dolls touch a “here” stone.
Simple but addicting, now I must finish all the levels! Check it out, it is Friday after all…
In the ever expanding panorama of online media services a new service eases the effort it takes to go live. Qik ( pronounced as ‘Quick’) provides live video streaming from a wide array of mobile phones to the net.
In many ways this is a logical evolution from the Youtubes and Metacafes of our times. As mobile devices proliferate, becoming computing devices of choice, services will grow to fit this medium.
An excerpt from InformationWeek:
Basically, if you’re a mobile video fanatic, you need to sign up. I shoot video using my cell phone all the time. Transferring it to other sites was a major pain until Qik came around. Using Qik, any video you shoot is streamed live, and also archived at the same time, so you can watch it again later. For those who need to share what they see and don’t think picture messages or MMS messages are enough, this is the avenue you need to take.
The list of mobile phones supported by Qik includes the Nokia NSeries and ESeries, several Windows Mobile and S60 devices.
The features offered by Qik Are:
What’s more, the service has recently moved into public beta. It could be another enabler in taking memory limitations off phones and heralding yet another viral medium of expression.
So what’s next ? A juxtaposition of virtual worlds wrapped around user generated video bringing more realism to Avatars ? Perhaps.
Last year, Google was at the center of much speculation that it would be making a gallant entry into the mobile devices space with a device tailored towards openness and flexibility of use. The rumors were confirmed to some extent when Google announced that they were working on a mobile operating system (Android) that would finally bring openness in its true meaning to all mobile users. For once it seemed that a truly open device focused on the requirements of the user would be available. But that vision has got a bit hampered in recent developments that have seen Apple making huge strides with its iPhone 3G and Nokia wooing for more developer attention with open sourcing the Symbian OS. And added to these are the few steps taking by Google that has invited the ire of several Android developers.
First of the hits that has come to Android concerns the recent uproar in the blogosphere about Google making available the recent versions of the Android SDK to a select few of the developers community (winners of the Android Developer Challenge). The action has invited the ire of several developers who are miffed about Google not considering all developers of Android on an equal footing.
Google’s grand vision of an open OS that gives independence to mobile users on several fronts is a big move against the closed garden that telecom space has always been. Low cost handsets with a multitude of applications supported by local ads could make communication more accessible to many. But for that vision to carry through, Google needs the support of the developer community and they cannot afford to draw lines of separation among them.
While Google continues parry questions on the delay of Android handsets, Apple has completed the second phase of its mobile act with near perfection. Folks were lining the streets outside Apple stores days before the release of the iPhone 3G. The new devices, faster and less costly than the previous version is also the first time that Apple will support third party applications via the App Store. A million plus sales and 10 million plus downloads via the App Store signify a great success. And all this should add to Android’s chagrin. But Google would be taking measures to hedge its bets and there is no doubt that its vision to dominate in mobile search is no way limited by Android.
And lastly the news that Symbian, the smart phone OS that currently leads in market share, is going to be made open once Nokia acquires full ownership may represent a direct jab at Android. There are several advantages that Nokia could gain here – a readily available developer base, a real market share – both of which are essential differentiators that Android lacks.
Its great opportunity and great fragmentation out there. There are several developers who have taken to the Apple App Store since the model seems pretty sound and viable. Google Android does have several important issues that need to be addressed if the interest of the developer community is to be maintained. I was initially interested in working on Android but could not continue owing to inability to commit sufficient time. But considering that Google is not all that eager to roll out updates to the larger community, perhaps, it was not much of a loss after all.
Lastly, there are still more rumors that Google was after all working on a Google branded mobile device. Not much of a surprise considering what Apple has achieved in this area. Google would be looking to gain some market share in the mobile space, if not to be an outright leader. But perfectly blending hardware and software is a very esoteric art.
I am a big RSS fan. Not sure if you noticed last May 1st, but we had an RSS Awareness Day going on. I started it.
Anyway browsing on the web today I came across an interesting article outlining 100 cool uses for RSS.
Here are the first 10 ones: