Silverlight Video Search
Monday, April 30, 2007
Will Microsoft be able to make an impact with their Silverlight multimedia offering? Hopefully it has more substance than its current promotional video. Of course Microsoft is guaranteed a small audience for the technology through its own devices. No doubt the Xbox 360 and Zune players will support the plugin in short order. Yet can they seriously challenge Flash? Microsoft has shown before in its bastardization of Java that not every platform it creates is always accepted by the industry. Flash is a product with over a decade of backing in the multimedia industry, and the primary reason Adobe bought Macromedia for $3.4 billion. It's the product that enabled YouTube to be sold for $1.4 billion. Millions upon millions of people have the Flash plugin installed. So most people are probably not going to care what kind of video that Silverlight delivers because Flash has already delivered quality through a codec by On2 Technologies (a former Connors client). The one weakness in Flash is search. Google and its brethren will continue to have difficulty indexing Flash for the foreseeable future. Even if search engines can figure out how to find the text in the animation, what frame do you lead users to? If Silverlight can solve this problem and intelligently incorporate text so search engines can actually find this content without relying on user-submitted tags, then the battle will get exciting. Labels: Adobe, flash, Microsoft, search, silverlight, video
posted by Adam Edwards
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The Cobbler's Children DON'T Live at Connors
Saturday, April 28, 2007
OK, here's the remarkable thing to make my point about blogging, SEO and the long tail. This page is in the first page for the term "cobbler's children".
I was merely stating that the Connors Communications PR firm that created HitTail is NOT a victim of cobbler's children syndrome, because we do practice what we preach.
Did that earn us the first page of Google on this 2-word term, as if we were a Wikipedia entry? I don't think so, but hey, you be the judge. Comments welcome.Labels: Cobbler's Children, Connors Communications, HitTail, PR firm, PR firms, seo, The Long Tail
posted by Mike Levin
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MySpace in '08
Friday, April 27, 2007
In early April, MySpace announced that it will hold faux primary elections on January 1st and 2nd of 2008. "The MySpace community will give America its first Presidential primary winner in 2008," commented Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace. But should we care what the MySpace community thinks? We absolutely should! As TechCruncher Michael Arrington points out, MySpace has more people registered than Mexico has residents, making it the 11th largest country! MySpace also consists of American youth, who are notorious for omitting presidential elections from their list of priorities. Do you recall P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign in 2004? Various celebrities were photographed giving the peace sign with those three questionable yet authoritative words sprawled across their chests. Later we found out that Paris Hilton, who was among the Vote or Die'ers, hadn’t even bothered to register to vote! Guess that wasn't "hot" enough for Paris. In addition to the elections, MySpace is also taking part in a new reality show, Independent, in which the country will vote on an Independent candidate that can potentially run for president in '08. The show will be the first of its kind, with the MySpace community deciding on the challenges that the contestants have to face. The elected official will win $1 million, which will have to be either donated to a political cause or can go towards their own presidential campaign. Jeff Berman, general manager of MySpace Video, explained that "this is about enabling people-powered politics. It seems bizarre that in our day and age, "people-powered politics" are being enabled. With the tools available, a push to create a true democracy is long overdue. In 2000, we learned our lesson the hard way, yet it is almost 2008, and we are still getting ready to fill out those same antiquated paper voter registration forms. I offer MySpace my personal kudos and hope that their efforts reap benefits in inspiring young people to go through the low-tech registration process and vote. The democracy in our country is in a sad state with less than half of citizens under 25 voting, and I am excited to see what type of impact MySpace can have on the ambivalence. Labels: Myspace, politics, Techcrunch
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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Playing Catch Up
Friday, April 20, 2007
The tragedy at Virginia Tech taught us many lessons this week. While most relate to social and psychological matters, the PR field learned that citizen journalism is becoming more prevalent with every major event. First Post, an online magazine, referred to the phenomenon in an article titled “Citizen journalists seize the day”.
This Monday, we were glued to our computer screens and not to the television as we watched the unbelievable horror unfold. The traditional press was slow and clumsy to stay on top of the events, while the students and passersby wasted no time chronicling their accounts on websites like Twitter and Flickr. Students’ LiveJournal entries were later used by the traditional media outlets to compile their stories.
So what was the role of the media giants that we are accustomed to for news?
On Wednesday, The Today Show was taping from the Virginia Tech campus and the entire three hour show was devoted to covering the tragedy from every imaginable angle.
In the middle of the three hours, Meredith Viera interviewed Regina Rohde, a young woman who was a freshman at Columbine High School during that incident in 1999 and is now a senior at Virginia Tech.
After she shared her raw emotions with America, Meredith brought up the fact that Rohde was hesitant to do an interview with Today, because she had ill memories of how the media’s attention on her community at Columbine had affected her as well as her peers and family.
The community needs time to grieve without cameras recording their every tear, Rohde explained. A community needs space to heal on its own.
At the same time, Rohde acknowledged that the news has an obligation to report these tragic events to the world and to honor those who were affected. But there is a fine line between reporting and prying.
In the days of the Columbine tragedy, citizen and online journalism was in a premature state, yet Rohde’s point remains relevant to this issue of the role of traditional media. For example, does Today have to be parked outside of the campus and devote their entire three hour show to interviewing various affected parties? Is this even news, or is it a tactless attempt at tear jerking?
As we come to rely more on the Internet, perhaps news shows, such as Today, will focus on providing commentary to events as opposed to reporting them in the traditional newsy fashion. In the midst of this transition, we will undoubtedly encounter more of these awkward attempts to offer original content. Certainly, a new set of standards and ethics will come into play.
Because while this week it was Virginia Tech – an event that probably deserves the air time it is getting – last week it was Imus and some months ago, Anna Nicole Smith.
Viewers, if they haven’t already, will surely come to rely on the Internet for breaking news and might only tune into their television for something extra.Labels: media
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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A Company’s Virtual Voice
Thursday, April 12, 2007
“Google bombing” is personal online defamation, but can companies fall victim? This week’s BusinessWeek explores the topic in an article by Michelle Conlin titled, “Web Attack”. The article cites various examples of big name corporations that have fallen victim to online badgering. Home Depot, for example, took the brunt of MSN Money columnist, Scott Burns. In his column, Burns accused Home Depot of wasting its costumers’ time with poor service in the stores. The response he received from his column was unprecedented! Thousands upon thousands of angry Home Depot costumers concurred with his accusations and demanded change. Instead of pretending it’s 1985 and there is no Internet, Home Depot CEO Francis S. Blake decided to respond timely and meaningfully. He posted an apology on the MSN message board stating that he is sorry for the inconveniences and promises to fix the problem by hiring more staff and training them properly. He also thanked Scott Burns for brining the problem to his attention and asked for costumers to voice their concerns “like Scott Burns did.” For this, Blake received a thumbs up from customers and even Home Depot employees, on whose blog his letter received approval. This story, amongst many others, teaches us that sometimes an admission of guilt and promise to change is all that is necessary to break the fall of a corporate giant. The lesson learned hits the point home: Don’t hide behind your computer screen; use it as your megaphone! When describing the birth of the Web, Conlin jokes that it was perceived as “the new public-relations nirvana!” She then goes on to make the argument that now, after the negative potential of the message boards, blogs, and online news has been unleashed, the Internet has turned into a public relations nightmare. We, the PR people, beg to differ. Hasn’t negative press, in its varying shapes and forms, been around since the beginning of time? The online world gives everyone a voice and it is up to companies to recognize theirs and implement public relations teams to deal with the space. In some cases, perhaps exclusively.
Dell, for example, has a blogger-in-chief, Lionel Menchaca, who gives Dell a voice in the industry and overall online community. When that inevitable crisis hits Dell, Lionel will be the front lines of defense. And people will listen, because he has established a relationship with the community (AKA his blog is not an ever-changing commercial for Dell).
A few years ago, companies were wondering whether they really needed a website. Now the question becomes, do we really need a blog? The answer is clear. Labels: blog, MSN, pr
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
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Windows Vs. The Web (and Linux, OSX, Java and Apollo Too)
Monday, April 09, 2007
One of my online heroes, Paul Graham, is getting a lot of attention this week by predicting the death of Microsoft. It was a grandstanding headline, and Paul does reposition the story to making Microsoft simply less dangerous, the way IBM is less dangerous today than it was up to and through the 80's. He says Google is the one to look out for.
And right on cue, BusinessWeek's story is about Google-noia. And Google releases their own 1-800-GOOG-411 service, as if to state "yeah, we're testing the Starship Enterprise voice recognition user interface, predicted by Google engineer, Craig Silverman at Search Engine Strategies of years past (before he was predicting smart yeast). In addition to an advertising-offset delivery platform (the Google phone or GooglePod), voice recognition is what makes Google truly ubiquitous.
But instead of a Google rant, I think I want to linger on the death of the desktop question for a moment. Of course, Microsoft is not dead. I had earlier made this article about Sun's vision of the network being the computer finally arriving. But the point is repeatedly made around the Internet that until Web software works as well as desktop software, the desktop is still king. But then Adobe came out with Apollo. And it's no longer a matter of capability. It's a matter of consolidating an anti-Microsoft camp with sufficient momentum to make a difference.
And as an XP user at the office, and Vista AND OSX user at home, and occasional tester of Linux distributions on VMWare, I've got a pretty good perspective on OSes. Not to mention I was a Mac user since Drexel University was the first school ever to require computers, and have been an Amiga user since 1987. I KNOW what a cool platform feels like.
And the Web ain't it... yet.
Software running in an API closely coupled with the capabilities of the hardware is always the coolest feeling software. And so far in my experience, software written in languages like C++ are by far the snappiest and most fun to use. That's what PhotoShop was, and Amiga software like Deluxe Paint. Java, even with the Swing UI, doesn't even come close. That's that feeling you get in LimeWire and Azureus, where things just don't feel right. That's why Adobe's demo of PhotoShop running on Apollo was such a big deal. Web-based AJAX apps like Yahoo Mail run a distant third.
And it's the Geoffrey Moore technology adoption curve that dictates that until things become significantly better, and acquire enough un-fragmented users in the early mainstream, the desktop as we know it has A LOT of like left in it.
It would take something VERY disruptive to change that.
Like Nick Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative brought to the masses.
Or a tablet PC delivered to everyone's door by Google.
Or Cable companies adopting a REAL program platform for their set top boxes.
It would have to be deployed in a massive way, disrupting all the financial incentives to keep things working the way they are. Making the move off the desktop will have to be easier AND cheaper than a home PC upgrade.
Because despite the obvious dominance of the Web, people love their home PCs. And they hardly know the difference between running a Web app and a desktop app anymore. Desktop Widgets and Gadgets are further blurring the line. And PCs are still just vastly cheaper than Macs. And as a daily user of OSX and Vista, OSX really isn't as much better as all the Mac people say. It's downright flakey when it comes to multi-tasking. Us old Amiga folks know what real multi-tasking is, and today's PC is it. Macs just sort of stick.
So think about what happens when Microsoft makes all the same clever decisions as Google, to release their own uber-cheap advertising-subsidized ubiquitous voice-recognition tablet PC that connects on-the-fly to keyboards and printers, offers coupons, and lets you rent software for whatever ails you, protecting your documents for a lifetime and beyond, using Web Services.
Microsoft is still on much more equal footing that some people think. While yes, PCs are starting to feel a bit like your Grannie's PC, like Paul Graham says, all those baby boomers are about to become Grannies.Labels: Adobe Apollo, Google, Java, Linux, Microsoft, OSX, Paul Graham, Sun, Web 2.0
posted by Mike Levin
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