Year: 2006

Google Video and Pack

The big news today is clearly Google's move into selling video (read: an entirely new revenue stream and a very disruptive market force for cable, on demand, DirecTV, etc) and its more aggressive focus on becoming a desktop software distributor (with Pack). I'll have more to say on this,…

The big news today is clearly Google’s move into selling video (read: an entirely new revenue stream and a very disruptive market force for cable, on demand, DirecTV, etc) and its more aggressive focus on becoming a desktop software distributor (with Pack).

I’ll have more to say on this, but I’ll have to be content with taking a “second day” approach to the story. Why? I’m under embargo. I spoke with Google about this stuff earlier in the week, and agreed to not divulge the contents of our conversation until Google lifted its embargo (in this case, it’s when Page speaks today). This practice of embargo is fine with me, nearly every tech commpany does it. And I always honor them, though I have a policy of writing about things if they break early, as this news did.

But because our conversation had more details than have hit the press, I’m going to wait to post. It’s Friday in any case, and who knows what else might come up?

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Recommendation Systems Gone Bad

Xeni at BB notes an offensive – though not clearly intentional – result at Walmart.com. This product listing on Wal*Mart's website for a Planet of The Apes DVD suggests films about black historic figures Dorothy Dandridge and Martin Luther King, Jr. as "similar items." Reader comments continue: I recall…

Xeni at BB notes an offensive – though not clearly intentional – result at Walmart.com.

This product listing on Wal*Mart’s website for a Planet of The Apes DVD suggests films about black historic figures Dorothy Dandridge and Martin Luther King, Jr. as “similar items.”

Reader comments continue:

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Updated: Net Neutrality: In Peril?

More noise from the telcos that they want a multi-tiered Internet. Watch this space. Paid Content reports from CES: Verizon CEO is now on the band(width)wagon…in a Q&A at CES, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said that providers of bandwith-intensive Internet applications, including Google and Microsoft, should "share the cost"…

More noise from the telcos that they want a multi-tiered Internet. Watch this space. Paid Content reports from CES:

Verizon CEO is now on the band(width)wagon…in a Q&A at CES, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said that providers of bandwith-intensive Internet applications, including Google and Microsoft, should “share the cost” of operating broadband networks. He joins AT&T (then SBC) CEO Ed Whitacre, who last year put his foot in the mouth in a rather harsh interview with BW.

According to Seidenberg, Verizon and Google are already talking about how such compensation might be structured. While Seidenberg said Verizon “intuitively” believes that the Internet should be open to all applications, he also said that “we need to make sure there is the right economic model,” especially in regards to so-called “free” or advertising-supported applications, which generally do not offer any direct compensation to the network service provider.

Update: Good comments starting to flow below, and this Journal story focuses on the issue, though it’s paid walled. From it:

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When Might the PPC Gap Close?

In conversation with folks equally besotted with all things search and marketing, the talk often turns to click fraud. After some mandatory clucking of tongues, I go off on my own little riff about the subject – how it's difficult to prove as a percentage of overall PPC revenue…

FtdIn conversation with folks equally besotted with all things search and marketing, the talk often turns to click fraud.

After some mandatory clucking of tongues, I go off on my own little riff about the subject – how it’s difficult to prove as a percentage of overall PPC revenue (beyond the anecdotal), and how – for the time being anyway – it really doesn’t seem to matter. Click fraud is something of an ecosystem “tax” – advertisers who are putting $1 into AdSense, for example, are (usually) getting more than $1 back. Whether they get $2.00 or $1.75 is not that important, if, say, 12.5% of the clicks are fraud, who cares? You can always petition Yahoo or Google for a refund (though not all do).

Only when they start getting back 99 cents (or less) for that $1.00 will the “margin pressure” build to “do something about click fraud” in any real sense. In the meantime, advertisers are happy with AdSense, because, well, it works well enough, and there’s no incentive to change it.

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News Tags

Innaresting, check this out. Google News as a tag cloud, from the fellow who brought you Buzzingo….

Innaresting, check this out. Google News as a tag cloud, from the fellow who brought you Buzzingo.

Newszingo

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Federated Is Hiring

Every so often I use this site to promote something – well, something besides the book, of course. This is one of those times, so bear with me. FM is hiring. If you're interested or know someone who might be, here's the info…….

Every so often I use this site to promote something – well, something besides the book, of course. This is one of those times, so bear with me. FM is hiring. If you’re interested or know someone who might be, here’s the info….

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CES

Now, look. I've been to a lot of CES's. I'm not there this time, but…. this is a big deal. You have three major CEOs/Founders – Gates, Semel, Page – duking it out to be the most spectacular, most important, most talked about (oh, and yeah, Dell, Otellini, Stringer…)….

Now, look. I’ve been to a lot of CES’s. I’m not there this time, but…. this is a big deal. You have three major CEOs/Founders – Gates, Semel, Page – duking it out to be the most spectacular, most important, most talked about (oh, and yeah, Dell, Otellini, Stringer…). Really cool.

So Gates started today. Semel is later in the week. Then Page Friday. All will make announcements, I am sure. Gates already did. All about search and entertainment. Scoble’s notes are here.

Update: Journal is reporting (via CMP) that Page will release a full throated, pay service video and a software bundle. I’ll have more to say on this Friday afternoon. WSJ link.

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Oh No, Don’t Cut Off My Xoogle Fix

This is worrying. Xooglers, keep it up, and don't let them twist your arms…(hat tip Philipp)…

This is worrying. Xooglers, keep it up, and don’t let them twist your arms…(hat tip Philipp)

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Is The Database of Intentions Just a Concept?

Nope. (Thanks, BB). From the post: Vast deposits of personal information sit in databases across the internet. Terms used in phone conversations have become the grounds for federal investigation. Reputable organizations like the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, and the Vegan Community Project, have come under scrutiny by FBI "counterterrorism" agents….

Nope. (Thanks, BB).

From the post:

Vast deposits of personal information sit in databases across the internet. Terms used in phone conversations have become the grounds for federal investigation. Reputable organizations like the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, and the Vegan Community Project, have come under scrutiny by FBI “counterterrorism” agents.

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Om Says: Watch Google Video Announcement

So Larry Page is giving a keynote at CES this Friday, which is what got the whole Google Cube/PC thing fibrillating, but Om thinks what he's going to launch is some kind of Google Video enhancement/deal….

So Larry Page is giving a keynote at CES this Friday, which is what got the whole Google Cube/PC thing fibrillating, but Om thinks what he’s going to launch is some kind of Google Video enhancement/deal.

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