3 Comments on Another Bubble
Another Bubble
Thanks to Kara who tipped me to this (I'm in it for all of .1 seconds):…
Thanks to Kara who tipped me to this (I’m in it for all of .1 seconds):
Month: December 2007
A Morning Lecture at Berkeley: Facebook, Time to Find the Value for the Individual
If you've read The Search, you know that my fascination with media and technology flowered while an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, in the Anthropology department. From my first real book related post on Searchblog: Back in the mid 80s I was an undergraduate in Cultural Antropology, and I had…
If you’ve read The Search, you know that my fascination with media and technology flowered while an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, in the Anthropology department. From my first real book related post on Searchblog:
Back in the mid 80s I was an undergraduate in Cultural Antropology, and I had a class – taught by the late Jim Deetz,which focused on the idea of material culture – basically, interpreting the artifacts of everyday life. It took the tools of archaeology – usually taught only in the context of civilizations long dead – and merged them with the tools of Cultural Anthropology, which interpreted living cultures. He encouraged us to see all things modified by man as expressions of culture, and therefore as keys to understanding culture itself. I began to see language, writing, and most everyday things in a new light – as reflecting the culture which created them, and fraught with all kinds of intent, contreversies, politics, relationships. It was a way to pick up current culture and hold it in your hand, make sense of it, read it.
At the same time I was making extra money beta testing some software on a brand spanking new Mac, vintage 1984. Anthropology and technology merged, and I became convinced that the Mac represented mankind’s most sophisticated and important artifact ever – a representation of the plastic mind made visible. (Yeah, college – exhaaaaale – wasn’t it great!).
Read MoreNO, Wait, *we* Own the Zeitgeist
I was at Berkeley today, lecturing to a room full of undergrads (I plan to write that up tonight, man, interesting…), so I was a bit behind in email, till I caught up tonight. And there in my in box was a press alert: GOOGLE'S MARISSA MAYER TO ANNOUNCE…
I was at Berkeley today, lecturing to a room full of undergrads (I plan to write that up tonight, man, interesting…), so I was a bit behind in email, till I caught up tonight. And there in my in box was a press alert:
GOOGLE’S MARISSA MAYER TO ANNOUNCE FASTEST-RISING SEARCH TERMS FOR 2007 AND HOST GOOGLE TRENDS TUTORIAL
Every day millions of people use Google(TM) (NASDAQ: GOOG) search to find information, and a snapshot of these searches presents a revealing look into the ideas, opinions, preferences and interests of internet users across the globe. Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience at Google, will host an interactive webcast to give reporters an early look at the fastest-rising searches conducted on Google.com in 2007. And, in time for end-of-year story planning, she will demonstrate how Google Trends(TM) can be used as a reporting tool to add color and even visual illustrations and elements.
Given that my book came about, in part, from the first ever annual zietgiest in 2001, I am interested to see what Marissa does. Of course, I am in staff meetings all day, so I cannot attend. Maybe one of you will, and tell us what happened in comments?
Yahoo’s Top Trends
More to come, from Google in particular, but here are Yahoo's trends for 2007….
More to come, from Google in particular, but here are Yahoo’s trends for 2007.
FM and Facebook
Sure, Facebook had a tough weekend, but it's still a phenomenon, and FM's found two extremely talented developers – the folks behind Graffiti Wall and Watercooler – to work with on Facebook's platform. Here's the release on FM's move into Facebook land, and here's the results of one of…
Sure, Facebook had a tough weekend, but it’s still a phenomenon, and FM’s found two extremely talented developers – the folks behind Graffiti Wall and Watercooler – to work with on Facebook’s platform. Here’s the release on FM’s move into Facebook land, and here’s the results of one of our first conversational marketing campaigns on Facebook (one of the results is pictured at left).
Welcome to the Scrutiny of the Masses, Facebook.
Ouch….
FM and BabyCenter: An Appreciation
I don't use this space very often to talk about my "other" business, but as loyal readers know, that "other" business has become my passion, so much so that it has taken the best of my time away from Searchblog. I often say to folks that I started FM…
I don’t use this space very often to talk about my “other” business, but as loyal readers know, that “other” business has become my passion, so much so that it has taken the best of my time away from Searchblog. I often say to folks that I started FM to create a model that would allow me – and hundreds like me – to write and publish full time. Well, two and a half years in, I’m proud to say that’s true for scores of FM partners, but I’m not quite there at Searchblog. I have so much I want to write about, but so little time to actually write – as writing, of course, also requires reporting, reflection, and editing. And FM requires, well, full time focus.
But given that the last two posts have been about pals – Casey at Dell, and the team at Six Apart – I figured I may as well do a bit of log rolling with regard to the latest deal FM has consummated – our partnership with Tina Sharkey and her colleagues at BabyCenter.
The mainstream media world has woken up to the power of conversational media in the past six or so months, with nearly every major company announcing a blog and/or social media strategy. At FM, we knew this was coming, and we welcome it – it’s a validation of the authors we work with – from Om and Mike to ProTrade and Graffiti. We’re at more than 50 million uniques worldwide, which makes us a pretty big media company, if you want to look at it that way. But we don’t, really. We focus on each of our authors, and the federations they are part of.
Read MoreSixApart Sells Live Journal
It's an evening of news from friends, this time, Six Apart, a company I have a very soft spot for, given that four or five pals are senior execs or founders, has sold its Live Journal business to SUP, a Russian company that plans to go big in the…
It’s an evening of news from friends, this time, Six Apart, a company I have a very soft spot for, given that four or five pals are senior execs or founders, has sold its Live Journal business to SUP, a Russian company that plans to go big in the blogging market in Russia. I know this will be great for SA, allowing it to focus on Typepad and MT. Congrats, SA team!
(the link is not live yet, but will be soon I am sure).
Dell Makes a Strong Move
After a long process that was referred to in this interview, Dell has chosen an agency partner, WPP, and together the two companies are going to start an entirely new agency. I've had the pleasure of speaking with Casey Jones, Dell's VP Marketing, as he's gone through this process,…
After a long process that was referred to in this interview, Dell has chosen an agency partner, WPP, and together the two companies are going to start an entirely new agency. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Casey Jones, Dell’s VP Marketing, as he’s gone through this process, and I’m certain that this new agency will create all sorts of fascinating new models. Not only that, but it looks like the agency might be located here in the Bay area, which would be great for our media community. Congrats, WPP and Dell!
From PRWeek’s coverage:
The controversial move, which is unprecedented in scope, will bring Dell’s entire external marketing communications function under one profit and loss statement. WPP and Dell will create one agency, comprised of all marketing disciplines and staffed with professionals, at least initially, devoted full time to Dell. The agency and Dell will also co-invest in a significant analytics tool that will map the efficacy of all marketing disciplines against each other and provide measurement for marketing initiatives against business goals.