Friday, November 14, 2008

Viral Vid: The Perils of Pale

Profoundly disturbing, especially the nipple laser beams. A strange and profoundly distressing form of "white power."

It's a Pale Christmas


My pasty pallor there again,
I wish that I was pale.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Classic Ad: Baby Laugh A Lot

Remember the Twinkie Defense? How About the O'Reilly Defense?

From the AP:

PALM BEACH -- Employees at a Palm Beach County restaurant say their boss posted racist notes in the kitchen and on their time sheets on election night.
Patricia Gatti said she "got crazy with FOX News."

She acknowledged writing "KKK" on signs and employee time sheets, but said it was a joke and she tried tearing up the papers before they were seen.

Gatti's co-owner at 264 The Grill is black. She said she was an ardent McCain supporter, but was just trying to tease her business partner.

Police won't release further information, saying the matter was under criminal investigation. Gatti has not been charged with anything.

Perfect Pour: Majestic Beer Pours, From a Rooftop!


Perfect Pour - For more amazing video clips, click here

Is this a Coors Light ad? Methinks yes.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

From Steve Peace: Trailerific

Our Hollywood arbiter of excellent has outdone himself this week. Enjoy!

-----

The movie trailer. It’s why movie marketers spend so much money on television. In the hands of a skilled cutter, any film can be made to look like a masterpiece for two minutes. How many products can claim that people actually regularly seek out their ads? Yeah, yeah, Ax and Apple. But besides, them? Movies, folks, that’s who.

Maybe you already know that most trailers are not created by the film’s director. In fact, the film’s director typically doesn’t have any say in how the film will be depicted in a trailer. It’s the studios last safety valve, a way for them to maintain ultimate control over the success or failure of the film. Below are some of my favorite trailers of all time. There are ten of them. Watching them makes me want to open another browser tab and add everyone one of the films to my Netflix list. They get the job done. Regardless of how good a media plan is, or how smart one’s targeting may be, it’s the creative that really sells a film. Enjoy.

10. The Prestige. Who could resist the best magic trick of all time?



9. Sin City . The visual style and cuts between live and cartoon images seemed completely new when it came out.



8. A Clockwork Orange . Dark, cynical, crazed. Love it.



7. The Matrix. Makes you question the substance of the chair you’re sitting on.



6. Pink Flamingos. Republicans have used the ‘wedge’ technique pioneered by this trailer, to great effect.



5. Dark City . Stunningly creative and odd as all get out.



4. The Shining. Wicked. Guaranteed to make your skin crawl.



3. Alien. Space doesn’t get much more terrifying.



2. Fight Club. Taps into bourgeois anomie better than anyone.



1. Kill Bill. Seriously. Not the top movie of the bunch, but the pacing, music, and imagery are perfect. Like blood dripping on an orchid with The Super Suckers playing.

Apple Versus MSFT: 40-Love

Darth Vader Toast?

The culture arbiters at culture catalyst have a fascinating little post on the Star Wars toaster. Not making this up.

9 Questions for Andy Atherton, Display Ad Evangelist and COO of Brand.net



I had the chance to meet Andy Atherton, COO and Co-Founder of Brand.net, a couple of weeks ago, and had an intriguing conversation about branding and display ads -- so intriguing that I thought I’d ask him to answer a few questions for you you you! I found his views surprising and fairly unorthodox, always qualities I’m happy to encounter in someone sitting across from me. ;-)

But enough of my rambling, let’s let Andy speak and stir the pot himself.

Note: I have no business relationship with Brand.net or Andy, nor does Catalyst:SF. I don't agree with everything he says, but I definitely value it as a strongly argued and distinctive POV.

---

1. For those who don’t know you, can you give us the fast food version of your background?

I am currently COO and Co-Founder of Brand.net. Prior to Brand.net, I was Vice President of Global Pricing & Yield Management (PYM) for Yahoo!, responsible for maximizing monetization of Yahoo’s $2B+ annual worldwide portfolio of display advertising. I created, developed and globalized the PYM function in my five years at Yahoo! Prior to Yahoo! I co-founded and was president of Optivo, a venture backed start-up that developed price optimization software for e-commerce retailers. I began my career at R.B. Webber & Co, a Silicon Valley strategy consultancy and venture fund. I received a B.S. in Engineering from MIT.

( You can find a more extensive bio for Andy here: http://www.imediaconnection.com/profiles/andyatherton )

2. Suppose I could wave a wand and put you in charge of a giant brand’s digital marketing. What three things would you do immediately? Valuable cash prize if you can resist making all three about buying enormous amounts of inventory on your network. ;-)

The answer would vary depending on whether or not my supply chain terminated primarily in an online or offline transaction. Since we do most of our work with companies who primarily sell their products in offline retail environments I will answer assuming the “giant brand” in question is one of these customers.

A. I would want to understand in detail what my agency was buying and why – what the strategy was behind it, what were the key metrics and goals over time. I would work with them to make sure that my entire team and theirs was working against a common set of well-defined objectives with simple, clear, consistent and meaningful metrics to measure progress. Easy to describe, lots of work to accomplish.

B. I would work with my agency to design a comprehensive online test plan for the next 1-2 years that included both attitudinal (e.g., brand awareness, purchase intent) and econometric (in-store sales) analysis. The goal would be to compare the effectiveness of online media in driving offline sales to offline benchmarks established in other media. Simultaneously, given the time-lagged and approximate nature of measuring the response of offline sales activity to advertising, I would be looking for correlations between the econometric results and more responsive attitudinal or even traditional delivery, reach & frequency metrics. The econometric analysis would give me “proof” and the more responsive metrics would give me management tools.

C. I would focus on developing scalable operational processes to drive consistent, measurable improvement over time. I would set aside some portion of my budget for ongoing experimentation, but my focus would be on incorporating the online medium into my broader marketing mix in a consistent, scalable, repeatable way. Focus on steak, not sizzle.

3. What do you think big brand marketers are looking for from digital that they aren’t getting yet?

Big brand marketers need to see 3 things - quality, scale and value – from the online advertising environment before they will put serious money to work there. Currently it’s just too hard (impossible) for Brand advertisers to get all three of those things in one place. Fragmentation of media makes manual site-by-site approach to branding increasingly inefficient and today’s DR networks simply aren’t designed to handle brand campaigns. So I think big brand marketers are missing a scalable, standardized, horizontal solution that leverages the power of the Internet, but accommodates the unique requirements of Brand advertising. A solution that allows them to leverage online media’s advantages without abandoning everything they have learned about media in general over the years or the organizations and systems they have built to apply that learning.

4. In talking to you, it seems you are one of the few people wholeheartedly and publicly defending banners. How do you answer critics who say no one even sees them anymore?

Don’t get me started. It’s just as easy to tune out ads in other media as it is online. So saying “nobody sees banners anymore” is like saying nobody sees TV, Print or Outdoor ads anymore. It’s totally arbitrary. Are we seriously saying that all of the $100Bs spent each year on all of these media are wasted? Is some of it tuned out and/or wasted? Sure. But it’s impossible to believe that the global 1000 would spend these astronomical sums of money year in and year out if they didn’t get a positive return overall. And at least with online you know when an ad has been delivered – a serious challenge for TV with DVR penetration at 20% and projected to double over the next 5 years, or for Print with exposure and pass-along rates that have always been uncertain. I personally think there’s a lot of room for creative to become more engaging, so I think that’s a productive conversation, but online display ads (including rich media, video, etc) are not going away. The bottom line is that advertising needs to go where the eyeballs are. Increasingly that’s online and we’re not going to squeeze $100Bs of global ad spend into 70 characters of text (or widgets, or virtual gifts, or…)

5. Can you give an example or two of companies whose standard banners get it right?

Even though I mentioned it above, I am not a creative guy – we’re really focused on the media side – but I have seen a lot of good creative from both P&G and Unilever.

6. One of the major portals, and a number of other sites, used to promulgate a set of best practices for banner design. Make the CTA button red and have text on it that says “Click here.” That sort of thing. Would you care to give us your thoughts about what works in a banner?

The answer will vary widely based on the campaign objectives. There are certainly a plethora of great creative options these days, but again - I’m not a creative guy. What I will say though is that we should be thinking more about how to do compelling creative within a standard size unit. The best TV creatives figure out how to do a compelling TV ad in 30 seconds – they don’t ask for 35. Similarly, all the fancy expanding and floating and skins and tearbacks (and…) have their place, but for the medium to scale we need to think more about standards at every level.

7. In a branding context, what metrics do you think are most important to measure and optimize for display ads?

Talked about this quite a bit above in my answer to question 2. At the end of the day all marketing is about driving sales. So the bottom line is that each marketer and their agency needs to figure out how to measure as well as possible, then get a stable, meaningful set of metrics that help them manage consistently and not get distracted. We can’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Not everything will ever be perfectly measurable – focus on meaningful and reliable you’re most of the way there. And beyond that, there’s no substitute for good old fashioned experience and intuition.

8. Most brands still view digital as a supporting medium – one that does some of the DR heavy lifting, or essentially reminds the user of the TV. Do you agree with that assessment?

No, because of the points I raised earlier about changing media consumption habits and DVRs. The Internet is a great DR medium – probably the best ever. But the story doesn’t – it can’t – stop there.

9. Is there anything else you’d like to say on the topic of graphical display and branding?

Just that I see a bright future ahead and I am very much looking forward to working with our customers to push things forward.

Thank you Andy!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Great VW VIral: Poppin' in the Rain

Dizzee Rascal - Hip Hop Made Obama Victory Possible!

Disney-Pixar "Up" Trailer - Another Hit On the Way...

My love for Pixar continues. A new one is a coming...err...up...in the Summer! Check out the trailer.

White Paper Wednesdays: "Email Marketing Goes Social"

A thought provoking white paper on combining email with social media is available here from SilverPop. I found it rather valuable and interesting -- a compelling take on getting more accountability in social and more reach from email.

They describe it as follows:

Now you can combine the targeting and metrics of email with the viral nature of social networking to create powerful, far-reaching campaigns.
Registration is required, but SilverPop is most definitely an outfit that does NOT SPAM.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Bigtime Mobile Consolidation: First Verizon/Alltel, Now ATT/Centennial



Are there too many mobile providers? That is a bigger question than I could possibly answer. But ATT and Verizon have made big moves this week toward further consolidation of the industry. Big stuff, people.

First was the FCC's approval of Verizon's acquisition of Alltel -- a move that put the big V at the top of the heap subscriber wise, with over 80 MM subs.

Now ATT has announced a buyout of Centennial Wireless, a Midwest provider. This puts ATT's subs total at 76 million.

I have to believe that both will continue to make such moves as they battle for that number one slot.

What of the timing? Well, might it relate to the upcoming change in Presidency, and the possibility that the incoming government will be less friendly to big mergers?

Oh, too big a question for my noggin, but the Verizon acq does represent the disappearance of a low cost alternative to the big lads. Though perhaps Verizon will have to make provisions for low cost plans given that they will lose those value oriented subs if they just jack the rates. With the declining barriers to brand switching, I would expect above average churn in both of these subscriber bases -- I mean, there must have been a reason why someone chose a Centennial or an Alltel instead of the providers with the largest national footprints.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Microsoft's Small Basic: Launching a New Generation of Programmers - Literally



My interest in computers was launched, oddly enough, byt the basic programming language. With it I wrote a spelling program that was used by a teacher friend of my Moms -- for 17 years. The secret? I flatter myself that I invented digital bling -- you cannot IMAGINE the horror of colors and graphics that displayed when the user got the spelling right for a word.

But enough of my self flattery. Let me let ReadWriteWeb provide the rationale for Microsoft's new, simplified version of Basic.

After a year in the making, and with very little fanfare, Microsoft last month launched Small Basic, a free programming language aimed at kids. Unlike Scratch and Alice, tools designed for kids to learn programming in a 'codeless' environment, Small Basic is essentially a small version of the BASIC language.

BASIC has undergone many changes since its inception 40 years ago and while its growth has made it more powerful and capable, it has also become almost overwhelming for a beginner. Even though Small Basic is primarily aimed at children, it just may be the ideal way for anyone interested in programming to dip their feet in the water.


And here's how MSFT describes it:

Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.

Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .Net platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords and uses minimal concepts to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.

The Small Basic development environment is simple, yet provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ and instant context sensitive help.

Small Basic allows third-party libraries to be plugged in with ease, making it possible for the community to extend the experience in fun and interesting ways.


I love this idea - by making computing more accessible, there will be an explosion of interest in programming -- the sort of thing that means additional creativity in the years ahead.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

eMarketer: Composition of Video Game Users - It may Surprise You

eMarketer has reported the following data on the composition of video game players:



I was aware that women played a lot of games, but I was NOT aware that they composed almost half of the VIDEO game business. Add to that the fact that fully 7% of gamers are now over 18 and you'll perhaps agree that this tiny chart packed a lot of wallop.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Wednesdays: Digital Marketing for Pharma

Manhattan Research is offering a very good white paper about the ins and outs of marketing pharma brands in digital environments. This is a must for people working in pharma as those Mr. Curiouses and Ms. Curiouses out there that are interested in ways to address absolutely fascinating marketing challenges.

Find it here.

The exact title of the white paper is: Catch the New Pharmaceutical Marketing Wave:
Trends & Strategies for Reaching Today's Healthcare Consumer.

Registration is required, and worth the info share.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

An Open Letter to Jennifer Aniston

Dear Jen,

I love ya, loved you on Friends, and was a proud member of Team Aniston when Brad cheated and the break up happened. In 2005.

But it is 2008/almost 2009.

And today I was greeted with this on page one of Yahoo:



For the love of God, woman...move on! He's not aging well anyway...

And at least you got to miss the Grizzly Adams period.

Cool TokBox Update From a Fan

I like it when users of a service take it upon themselves to evangelize for the product. With that in mind, see what this Tokbox user has to say about recent service improvements!



Thanks for reaqding, and don't forget to write.

Now I Have Seen It All - An iPhone Tuner Equips God's Gift To Telephony With a KeyBoard!

StarDoll: Celebs + Avatars + Interactivity + Tweens/Teens: Tough To Go Wrong With That Combo!





If you have read this blog for any length of time you know that paper dolls are not dead, they’ve just traded pulp for electrons. A few months ago I wrote about a site in the GoFish! Network called Cartoon Doll Emporium with a manically loyal user base and a variety of revenue streams.

Today I want to talk about Stardoll, a site that adds real celebs to the mix by offering users the opportunity to dress up and interact with virtual Mary Kates, Avril LaVignes, etc.

Here’s how they describe themselves:

Stardoll is a virtual paper doll community site for everyone who enjoys fashion, design and making friends. At Stardoll you can create your own MeDoll or choose from our ever growing collection of celebrity dolls and dress them up in our wide selection of fashions. Every celebrity doll has a wardrobe full of unique clothes and there are new dolls released every week. The membership is completely FREE and most of our members are girls between the ages of 7 and 17. Stardoll is one of few places on the Internet developed with an emphasis on girls' self-expression through fantasy and fashion play. Stardoll is a great place to spend time with friends and to meet other kids from all over the world. We are committed to Stardoll as an inspiring, safe and creative environment.

With a broad range of advertising and sponsorship models, this site may be just the thing for your brand if you are aiming at connecting at fashion forward girls 7-17.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

British Courts Need PowerPoint???

You can't make this up. ARS Technica is reporting that:

The Rt Hon Lord Igor Judge of Draycote oversees the English and Welsh judiciary in his position as the Lord Chief Justice. In a recent speech covered by the UK's Telegraph, Lord Judge noted that young jurors "are technologically proficient. Many get much information from the Internet. They consult and refer to it. They are not listening. They are reading... "

Sir Igor stumps for screens

He believes that tech-savvy youngsters have, in a very real sense, either lost or failed to cultivate the ability to process large chunks of oral information. Accustomed to skimming articles, multitasking between projects, constantly clicking links to other sites, such people would better process key information if presented on screens instead of simply through oral argument.

One shudders to imagine a court system awash in bad Powerpoint presentations with gruesome font choices and questionable transitions, but the Rt Hon has a point: concentration gets harder for webheads.


Let's put aside the fact that the man incharge of the courts is named Igor Judge. Well, let's try to put that aside anyway. Now, everything is going to have to be visual to be processed?

Oh, honestly...

will.i.am's New Vid: "It's a New Day!" Oprah Approved

Stand By Me Around The World

So How Long IS That Tail?



The long tail has been so often discussed that I hesitated to even make this post, but there's a great guest post over on the HitWise blog you may want to hear about.

Bill Tancer, head of research for Hotwise, says that that tail is a lot longer than you might have expected.

The percentage of searches represented by the top keywords is actually a lot smaller than you might thing. What that means is that searches are a lot less concentrated in a few terms than you might have thought. Here are the stats for the percentage of all search traffic represented by the following numbers of words.

• Top 100 terms: 5.7% of the all search traffic
• Top 500 terms: 8.9% of the all search traffic
• Top 1,000 terms: 10.6% of the all search traffic
• Top 10,000 terms: 18.5% of the all search traffic


You should read the post to hear the methodology, but the implications are pretty clear. In Tancer's own words:

In summary, the long tail aspect of the search is true, but the data tells us that there may really be no head or body. When it comes to search, virtually all traffic is long tail and the word “long” doesn’t do the length of the tail justice.


Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Pup-abulous!

Blogging savant Ryan Digicrest has introduced me to a new web obsession - puppy of the day. Check it out here.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Wednesdays: Morgan Stanley's Internet Trends Report



Morgan Stanley released a comprehensive examination of Internet Trends last week, and a pdf of it is available here online. It contains a total treasure trove of info and insights -- and with the Morgan Stanley moniker on it, you know it will have significant impact of the industry and its outlook.

No cost, no registration, just get it while it is smokin' hot.

thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Online Christmas Sales? Up 10% Projects eMarketer



eMarketer has a new report about the upcoming holiday season, and has projected a sales increase of 10% versus year ago.

10% growth, in THIS season, would be a pretty strong performance. this weekend at a nearby mall, I noticed that practically every store has good sales running already -- you don't do that in a year where offline sales are expected to be anything but in decline.



You can find out more about the holiday report, and the cost, here.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Monday, November 10, 2008

iPhone v. G-1

Cory has a thought provoking post on the iPhone and the G-1 here. Check it out!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Change.gov and The Social Media Presidency


The Internet enabled the Obama campaign to transform campaigns and camapign finance this year. And it appears that the Obama team is planning to continue the transformation track record with Change.gov, a website asking citizens to participate in the transtiion of giovernment and the establishment of priorities for the new Administration.

Bearing some visual and organizational similarlity to the old Obama campaign site, Change.gov offers a variety fo ways for people to get -- and stay-- involved. Currently there are two key sections soliciting imput, your vision and your story. Each asks for thoughts and experiences to help guide the future direction of the country.





What I think is great about this from a pragmatic standpoint is that Obama will need all the help he can get handling issues as large as two wars, the financial meltdown, education, healthcare, restoring morale to the Justice Department, etc. etc. etc.

If you are as old or older than me, you know that Reagan was able to marshall the public toward his goals over and over again despite who was in charge of Congress. Obama can do that with social media. AND he can perhaps reduce the power of lobbies and special interests by putting his fundraising millions in the services of those who support his agenda.

We all need to watch this site evolve, particularly after the 20th of January.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Microsoft Drops Live Mouse Out Of Plane To Sell Pointing Devices

If it's a fake it's a good one. And if it is real, I'm sending $30 to PETA. Cuz it's just plain WRONG.



Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Craiglist Takes Aim At The World's Oldest Profession



You are doubtless aware that Craigslist has been under fire of late from a looong list of state's attorneys over the large number of prostitute connections that are made through the "Erotic Services" channel of the site. Until now, such ads were free and essentially untraceable by law enforcement authorities, except through stings.

Well Craigslist has made an agreement with 40 states to try to do a better job of curbing use of the site by individuals offering illegal services.

Under the agreement, Craigslist will charge $10 for these ads, and require payment by credit card, which will make such missives very traceable. The other virtue of the system is that it may prevent child prostitution listings since credit cards are generally limited to those over 18.

OK, so first thing we need to talk about. Does this make Craiglist an electronic pimp? Well, perhaps, but it will be a generous pimp, as all fees charged for erotic service ads will be donated to charity.

As is often the case with discussions of prostitution, there is a bunch of controversy on the interwebs -- many appear to be complaining that this does nothing to protect the sex workers. Well, that's true. But it may serve to reduce the growth in the number of acts of child prostitution -- which I understand has been a big problem because of Craigslist.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Incredible Viral Vid - Star Wars A Capella Tribute To John Williams

Middlespot Makes Online Research Fun, Fast, and Visual



I heard about Middlespot last week, and wanted to tell you about this new take on non navigational search. This powerful search platform works like regular engines in that you input the topic you want to explore, but differs markedly in the presentation of results.

Middlespot still offers a list of text based results, but it also offers a checkerboard of miniature screenshots so that you can make a scanner assessment of which of those results might prove most useful to you.

What you do is you select the visual results you find most potentially valuable and move them to your workpad. Then, you can grab others, conduct other searches if you desire, then explore all of the promising results at once from your middle spot -- that work pad. At least that is how I have used it. I am sure there are other processes to use, but this one seemed a big time saver to me, and I liked the glut of gratification that work pad makes possible.

Here's how they describe their own service:

middlespot.com workpads allow you to gather together only results that you find relevant to your research. You can collect search results together that are from multiple searches, over any amount of time. We've even built a number of tools that allow you to add to your workpads even when not using the middlespot interface.

workpads are feature rich. You can rename them to better reflect what they contain, leave a comment describing the contents of the workpad, open the entire workpad in the middlespot.com interface, and add any url you want. Your collected result is stored as a screenshot that you can uniquely annotate with your own comments. You can also have as many workpads as you want.

to make accessing your workpads easier over multiple sessions, we've placed your workpad tabs on the start page of middlespot.com.


Another excellent set of features comes through the ability to share the results from your work pad with others. Through this powerful offering, you can make search and research truly collaborative and communal.

This offering is not the way to find a place to buy a book or something. But, if you are doing bona fide research on a topic, as I do on multiple occasions every day, this tool can be a welcome addition to your process.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

HobbyThing.com: The World of Hobbies Made Social



The nichification of social media has progressed remarkably, and HobbyThing is a powerful entry in the space. Based around the deep, sometimes bizarre, wonderfuly quirky personal hobbies virtually all of us have, HobbyThing offers an opportunity to share these interests with other quirky people.

I like the idea of a common portal for all hobbies versus totally niching out into hundreds of individual hobby nets, because many of us have more than one interest, and may indeed cultivate new obsessions through browsing the site.

The set of features on this site is very comprehensive and totally expected and I mean that in an entirely positive way. There is no need to remake an absolutely proven feature set.

One key focus of the site is to empower people who are turning their hobbies into professions. In their words:

And not only that, if your hobby is your work (again: lucky you!) you can also create your profile, throw some pictures and write some stories about your experiences.

We understand how difficult it is for a new business to kick off. We would like to help!

We want to give a chance to hobbyists, who put their first steps turning their passions into professions. Members are more then welcome to advertise their work in their profile for free. They can also find others with similar interests, make friends and maybe get some advice on the subject too.


Hobbyist groups also play an important role on the site, and the list of available groups demonstrates both the depth and breadth of the community at large:

Music Listening
Chocolate
Blogging
Coffee
Travelling
Formula 1
Belly Dance
Reptiles
Craft Tour
Lewis Hamilton Fans
Light Sport Aviation
Bird of Prey
Ghosthunter
Painting
Quilting and Patchwork
Doll House Miniatures
Coincidences, or Not
Silly, Unbelievable Facts
Creativity
Beading
Card making
North London Tai Chi
Good Food


Storytelling is also a cornerstone of this community, and hobby related stories abound. The range of such tales is rather broad and many are rather interesting.

Give it a look see, and you may find some kindred spirit hobbyists to compare beanie babies with!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Moody Or Not? Well...Are You?



There's a fun, eminently viral website called MoodyOrNot? that I suggest you take advantage of. It's a pretty simple premise. You go, and rate your mood on a five point scale. And then the system compares your mood to that of your friends and the world.

It;s not going to cure the economic woes of the nation, but it's fun in a pseudo statistical way to evaluate our collective psychology.

You can track your own, your friends', and the world's mood over time as well, and draw likely unsubstantiated and possibly irresponsible conclusions from said data. For example, I noticed that the mood of the world went very positive on election day, which naturally seems rather logical to me. McCain supporters may feel differently as to whether there is veracity in my conclusion.

I am apparently happier than many people. How about you?

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Enormo.com: Real Estate Site Goes Global



Real estate search sites are a place for anyone with even the remotest interest in buying a house or condo to waste countless hours evaluating options.

And now the temptation will be even stronger now that Enormo is on the scene. OK, OK, it sounds like a bad sci fi movie title, but Enormo is a monster of an addiction -- though a delightful sort of friendly monster like a purple dinosaur or a blur brontosaurus.



Offering property listings in 50 countries, Enormo has to be the most broad based real estate listing anywhere. The site is very easy to use, and the listings themselves are attractive and very informative.





Here's they describe themselves:

Enormo is the world’s largest property portal, with listings in over 50 countries. We’ll help you find a property wherever you are, or wherever you’re looking to go. We’re not an estate agency and we don’t recommend properties. Instead, we bring you the best of the web by aggregating millions of properties from just as many estate agents and property websites.

Enormo started from humble beginnings in late 2006. One, two, three, and four million properties later, we’re now the largest property listings website in the world.


The site naturally supports itself through real estate listing fees. Having now listed 4 million properties since 2000, I would expect that they are supporting themselves very well indeed. There are other global property concerns out there, but this one seems far less focused on super high end offerings, which bdes well for reach and revenue.

Enormo is based in Barcelona, and backed by Mangrove Capital Partners in Luxembourg.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Get Them In FaceBook App: Cool, But Please Don't Send ME a Drink



I learned about this interesting new app that extends the real world into FaceBook. Yes, you read that right. The GetThemIn app lets you buy friends and acquaintances of legal drinking age booze and snacks that they can pick up at participating retailers.

Here's how it works, from their site:

STEP1: CHOOSE A GIFT...
We have many gifts to choose from including several beers, wines, spirits and champagnes. Simply choose the brand and product you'd like to send.

STEP2: CHOOSE YOUR FRIEND...
We make it easy for you to select a friend from your current Facebook friend list.

STEP3: PAY...
By using Google checkout, one of the world's largest and most reputable payment systems, we can take secure payments from almost every major credit and debit card.

STEP4: WRITE YOUR MESSAGE...
Simply write the content of your Facebook message to your friend and off it goes...

STEP5: THEY RECEIVE GIFT MESSAGE...
Your friend then receives an instant notification and SMS message (if you entered their mobile number - which is free) informing them that you have bought them a drink.

STEP6: THEY COLLECT THE PHYSICAL GIFT...
When they add the GTI application, their gift becomes instantly available in their account as an egift. They can redeem this at any time by selecting the 'redeem gift option' which sends out a secure product voucher in the post. The voucher can be taken to their local GetThemIn participating store and used to collect the physical product.


The service launched in the UK, and booze and nibbles can be redeemed at over 1500 locations across the nation:



According to the app page, service in the US is "just weeks away."

DOing anything with alcohol nationally in the US is a nightmare, as we have states from practically anything goes California to the state sells it Pennsylvania. Wanna hear war stories? Talk to the people at Wine.com who have spent a huge amount of time putting together a national distribution system amid an environment of more than 50 state and local regulators.

I like the ida of this service -- both as a business and a social outlet. Given that soc nets are essentially becoming subinternets, having easy buying opps in these environments seems a good idea.

But before you send me any booze, don't, as I am in recovery. ;-)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

An Open Letter to Joe Lieberman



I understand that you find being relieved of your committee chairmanship unwarranted. I understand you are entertaining offers from the GOP.

First your words:



What a reasonable sounding statement. Not so these.



Here's my advice. Go join the GOP. Have four years of complete powerlessness, followed by the bloodiest ever campaign, with the most well funded Senate opponent in history. Be totally not trusted by anyone, including the GOP -- because let's face it, no one trusts a turncoat.

Face it Joe. You hold NO cards. This is not a negotiation.

So go, Joe, go. Please. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

will.i.am's New Vid: It's a New Day!"