Report on Game-based advertising

ClickZ has this report on adver-gaming and advertising in virtual worlds.

BBC reveals iPlayer

Revolutionising the way we watch television, the BBC have released iPlayer, the non-linear online platform that lets us watch any BBC content after is it has screened. More here. The BBC also comments here.

Facebook: the schoolyard popularity contest

Although I've posted about it here, I've never really used Facebook or any other social networking site. I have a spoof account that I opened so as to have a 'poke' around and have the grand sum of three online friends, including my girlfriend and her sister. The other shares an interest in my namesakes concepts on quantum reality. To be honest, I just don't see the point. I should probably also state upfront that I am over 30.

My SO's sister showed me how to use it in full and even how to 'zombie' people but it still leaves me dead and wondering if this is all a bit sad? Why do we offer ourselves up so readily to the sacrificial alter of data-gatherer's? Thankfully I am not alone. More from MSNUK.

Google maps

In the colonial era cartography was a method of dominance and the exercision of power over another set of people. This is because a map can never be objective. For example, UK readers, open a map and look where the UK is in relation to the rest of the world (in the middle). Now things are different, perhaps? Users are now being asked to chart local space to build 3 domensinal representations of the world. More here.

News from the fringe: Bruce Sterling

Bruce Sterling, a sometime Cyberpunk and wired visionary reports back from the near future. This is what it looks like.

One we can all identify with

Perhaps one of the most infuriating aspects of Netiquette is how to sign off an email. I prefer the non-salutation approach, but this might not be the right approach for all email. Guardian Unlimited has this to say on email conventions.

Unilever Web campaign takes top prize at Cannes

The "Evolution" film for Unilever's Dove has won top honors at this year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. The ad is being heralded as a milestone for the segment and an underscoring of mainstream marketers' embrace of the Web, where the film was widely distributed. More from MSNBC here. Ads and more info from the Cannes site here.

[edit: making of the ad here]

New media: emancipation or enslavement?

Slashdot has this piece discussing the ideology of the new and the acquiescence we display daily to the Gods of high-technology.

Preferred formats for mobile telephony

Research from mobile pay-per-call ad provider Ingenio notes that search-based advertising is the preferred format for consumers. More here.

Global Internet Usage

Click Z Stats cites this report from Nielsen//NetRatings on global Internet usage. They also comment here that the UK is Europe's heaviest Internet user.

Advertising networks used to infect computers

ClickZ has this article on ad' networks inflecting personal computers.

Cyberattack imminent?

The NYT has this assessment of the likelihood of all out cyberwar and what the implications might be. High-tech harassment or could key services go down?

t-commerce

Manolo Blahniks, Bulgari or the effortless knives from Ready Steady Cook, interactive product placement is on its way. More here.

Any lessons for advertising?

BBC Click has this article on online maps and the move to 3D representation. I've long wondered why advertisers and the creatives they pay don't have more fun with media itself and modalities of representation. Car advertisers, are you listening?

EU privacy directive to go to the US?

Europe and the US have different approaches to privacy. A poster on Slashdot suggests the EU styled privacy may be coming to the US some time soon (post here). Have a look at at my paper on the right (privacy/online advertising/user) for a wider exposition.

DARPA create robot army

The US research facility that brought us the Internet have now developed robots that can move around streets and amongst houses. Avon calling! More from Slashdot here.

Your phone or a million pounds?

CNET.co.uk has this piece on mobile phone usage in the UK. Supported by research from the LSE, it comments that one in three people would not forego a mobile phone for one million pounds, concluding that most young people view having a mobile phone as a vital part of their life.

IPTV making moves

Staking their claim on the convergence of TV and computer, Microsoft have launched Microsoft Mediaroom
in the US. More here.

More power to the iPhone

A major criticism of Apple's iPhone has been the lack of battery life. Well, suckers like myself have another reason to look forward to the UK launch as it looks like Apple have sorted it out. More here. Slashdot posters also have this to say

Relevance and online advertising

In the new advertising economy, personalisation and relevance are the buzz words to watch. Moreover, through behavioral targeting we are the ones being watched. More here.

The inexorable rise of online advertising

Reuters have this report on the growth of online advertising in the US.

YouTube launches in nine new countries

YouTube is set to launch native sites in nine different countries, including the UK. Owned by Google since their $1.76 billion takeover last year. It is envisages that closer target market profiling will attract advertising revenue. More here.

The greatest gadget ever

Apologies in advance for blatant 'stuff' fetishisation. Wired have this blogpage dedicated to the greatest gadgets ever.

Second Life and Censorship

Second Life makers Linden Lab have come under criticism for meddling in content. Whilst for some a forum for sexual experimentation and identity, Linden Lab are concerned about paedophilia online. More from Wired here

Pigs With Cellphones, but No Condoms

The US has seen two of its major television networks ban an advertisement for Trojan condoms. Rather than promoting sexual health, they have been criticised as preventing pregnancy. More here.

Alcohol advertiser goes it alone

Reyka, an Icelandic vodka has opted to eschew all other media in favour of utilising solely online. Whether foolhardy or media savvy, it certainly highlights what the 20-somethings are doing with their screen time. NYT has this this.

Censors ban first computer game for ten years

The Media Guardian reports that Manhunt is to be the first computer game to be banned in the UK for ten years.

The Media Guardian has this story on the ban placed on the re-run of the famous "Go to work on egg campaign".

Schizophrenia and branding

Brandweek has this article on branding and teenagers.

Could the Internet overload?

BBC's 'Click' has an interesting story on overloading the Internet. Although there will be no imminent crash, they do note the rise in Internet trafic since the inception of MP3 sharing in 1995 and the more recent advent of YouTube in 2003 and that the technology is not limitless, particularly closer to home. It is worth reflecting on the extent to which we are reliant on hardware, as well as the software, ideas and social formations that make the Internet what it is. Article here.

The History of Photoshop

Now a verb describing the manipulation of digitised photographs, Photopshop continues to be the software of choice for image manipulators and enhancers. More on the history of Photoshop here.

Antique IT ads

Slashdot also has this report on ads for computers and IT related hardware from the past. Although tongue in cheek it is worth considering the impulse to the 'ideology of the new' and the modernist drive to optimal velocity on viewing them. Has anything really changed in 30+ years of advertising 'stuff'?

The End of Broadcast Television?

It seems like aeons since the soothsayers predicted the death of broadcasting and the rise of TiVo. Still, practice moves slower than fantasy. In the UK we have dramatic changes with the advent of Sky+ and Virgin On-demand. Slashdot has more on how users will influence scheduling, content and of course advertising.

US warns of 'cyberwar' threat to security

The Telegraph has this article, claiming that China's military has boasted of making cyberwarfare a top priority, and apparantly also believing that American companies such as Microsoft cannot be trusted not to help the CIA spy on Chinese government computers.

Looking at you looking at me

John Wanamaker famously claimed that "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". Although online advertising and its clearer ROI metrics have partly put paid to that, now it's the turn of billboards to offer advertisers a clearer idea of what's happening to their ad' spend. Wired report here on new billboard eyeball tracking technology from the Canadian company xuuk (not a typo).

Minisodes for Honda on MySpace

The New York Times has this report on new minisodes for attention-poor MySpace audiences.

Rupert Murdoch: HisSpace

Rupert Murdoch has been vindicated in his purchase of MySpace. Although Facebook has been the talk of the town this year, Advertising Age (Digital) has the figures for users and visitors of all major social networking sites here that reveal MySpace has nearly as many visitors as the UK has citizens!

Taking a very different approach to the social networking phenomenon, Adbusters (link to Adbusters homepage, article only in paper form) inquires into the meaning of 'friends' online. Personally I find the incessant emails to be someone's 'friend' both annoying and aggressive. Adbusters takes this further and comments that we are now prizing quantity over quality where friends are collected and as such are exchanging intimacy for clever irreverance, conceit and e-jargon. They also note that diction is becoming shorter but sharper. Are we all now advertising copywriters?

RNA: does the revolution start today?

Although I'd be stretched to make the link to advertising and current conceptions of new media I couldn't resist including this one. The Economist leads this week with a description of RNA and although normally measured in language, they claim RNA is 'Biology's Big Bang'. Although my knowledge of biology is shaky at best, I think it is fair to say that over coming years we are going to see more striking relationships between hardware, software and wetware. For those of a scientific leaning, the New Scientist has this report.

Roll on the AOIR

The Association of Internet Researchers conference takes place in Vancouver this year in October. Although a while to go, keynote speakers have been released and I'm excited to say it includes Cory Ondrejka , one of the makers of Second Life. More here. For students interested in healthcare and advertising, I will also be presenting in Lugano, Swizerland next week on scientific communication, risk and trust. Drop me a line if you want a copy of my paper.

Is there a difference between privacy and anonymity?

Privacy International in an open letter this week has criticised Google as being "hostile to privacy". Guardian Unlimited has more here and here. They also carry Google's retort here. Wired also cover the story here.

Interactive paper

The New Scientist describes how paper has gone through four revolutions. The first being for display, the second for wrapping, the third for hygeine and now the interactive fourth. The implications for media and advertising are huge. Be sure to have a look at the MP4 video within the article.

The Everlasting Battery

Whilst mobile consumer technology comes and goes, we still depend on battery power to fuel our fetish for all things hand-held. No longer. Some bright spark has worked out a way around it. More here.

The ultimate in data storage?

The New Scientist has this fascinating article on storing data in live human neurons.

The Third Act

Steve Jobs, the man responsible for bringing us the mouse, the point-and-click graphical user interface (GUI) and the iPod now brings us the iPhone. Launching in the US this month the UK can expect to see them later this year. What's interesting here is the shift from computers to the wider electronics market. Remembering that the central component of new media is not in the hardware or software, but in users' experience of these, interesting times are ahead as Apple spread their net across the handheld devices market. The Economist has more here.

The industrialist and the innovator

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs perform for 600 tech' excutive Californians here

Democracy in Second Life?

OK, not quite yet. But, you do get a voice? More from the Grauniad (sic) here.

The scramble for online advertising (2)

Advertising Age has an interesting article describing how recent buys such as Doubleclick have left commentators scratching heads. I don't pretend to know the answers, but I'll wager it is in the data: article here

More Web 2.0.

The notion of Web 2.0 always had a scent of marketing/journalistic spin. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who thinks so: more from the BBC Click team who deliver such fine edutainment on a Sunday morning. Marc Andresson, the inventor of the first commercial browser similarly comments that Web 2.0 is more froth than bubble. Still, at the same time, as Geert Lovink has alluded to on the Nettime board, Web 2.0 does paint an interesting simulation of user-centricism under the wider media economics of media convergence, i.e. companies buying each other and technologies melding.

Jobs for Ad' students

Want a Job in Online Media? Your Timing Is Great: an Ad Age article here. Really, you folk coming through now need to exploit the vantage point you have over the industry.