One of the proverbial axioms of the “publishing world” is that sex sells. Pornography, in particular, is a massively popular business. Indeed, where porn goes, so goes technology. At least this is the oft-repeated claim. So what does it mean for the universe of print publishing when porn mags are having problems?
In a report today, while chopping estimates slightly for Yahoo, Thomas Weisel analyst Christa Quarles takes a look at “2009 Potential Catalysts” for Yahoo shares–revolving, of course, around the matter of a potential deal to sell Yahoo assets to Microsoft.
NBC seems to be having a change of heart this week. The network recently wrapped up its streaming of the Olympics using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. However, if you tuned in for this week’s NFL season opener, NBC was using Adobe’s Flash technology instead of Silverlight
As major TV networks in recent years have embraced the online video movement in big ways, viewers are slowly trickling in. While you generally won’t find entire libraries and back catalogs waiting for you, the major players have made serious efforts to make current content extremely accessible online.
For a certain subset of Internet users, “Sudo make me a sandwich” may as well be “Take my wife … please.”
Perhaps some explanation is in order. Before giving up the goods, however, we should heed the warning of Randall Munroe, the 23-year-old creator of xkcd, a hugely popular online comic strip (at least among computer programmers) where the sandwich line appeared. Mr. Munroe believes that analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog–it can be done, but the frog dies.
We’ve known since our first studies of how users read on the Web that they typically don’t read very much. Scanning text is an extremely common behavior for higher-literacy users; our recent eye-tracking studies further validate this finding. The only thing we’ve been missing is a mathematical formula to quantify exactly how much (or how little) people read online. Now, thanks to new data, we have this as well.
It was another indication of the emerging paradigm shift in Internet comedy. In a San Francisco nightclub this past Wednesday evening, a noisy crowd gathered for the weekly taping of “Internet Superstar,” an online-only TV show that chronicles goofball Web celebrities. Since the people behind the program have been plowing this field longer than just about anyone, you would expect them to be unbeatable at what they do.
There’s been a bunch of buzz this week over an Ad Age report suggesting that firms are finally realizing that no one pays attention to online banner ads. For all the hype about online advertising, this one point should have been obvious from quite early on.
Nine Inch Nails is taking cues from Radiohead’s experiment, and has launched their new album online, with record-setting options on both ends … free to very expensive. Its new instrumental album, “Ghosts I-IV” went live tonight. (The site’s very sluggish right now as fans hit the site in presumably crazy numbers).
Last year was a “banner year” for U.S. newspaper Web sites, an industry association announced in a recent press release, headlined, “Online Newspaper Viewership Reaches Record in 2007.” The Newspaper Association of America also noted that the fourth quarter set a record for any quarter since the group started tracking online audience, in 2004, and October set a monthly record. But placed in the context of an overall increase in Americans’ online usage, newspapers’ electronic march forward looks a lot slower. More people are spending more time loading more Web pages, lifting the boats of lots of online categories.
An online directory that claims to provide 90 million mobile telephone numbers is raising concerns among cellphone users and privacy advocates about unwanted callers who rack up the minutes on their calling plans and the difficulty of opting out of the list.
Silicon Alley technologists and Madison Avenue advertising executives have been meeting yesterday and today at the AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC conference. Here are some of the trends people were talking about:
We natter on these days about how people are becoming social online. But we have always been social; the Internet merely provides more ways for us to connect with each other. What’s truly new is the opportunity for companies, especially media companies, to be social.
HBO will begin offering an all-you-can-eat buffet of its programming online to subscribers. But in an ironic twist, an HBO corporate sibling is ready to exercise portion control. Last week, Time Warner Cable disclosed its intent to experiment with a billing plan for high-speed data that charges customers based on how much bandwidth they consume. If such a model catches on in the U.S., it could have big implications for content companies trying to find traction online–like HBO.
Major media sites have started to get the religion of audience participation, but there’s been one big hitch: How do you harness the audience’s knowledge and participation without the forums devolving into a messy online brawl that requires time-intensive moderation?
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