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TinEye – January 6th, 2009
posted by Joel Witmer
TinEye is a reverse image search engine, meaning you give it a picture and it finds that picture elsewhere on the web. If you already have the image you’re looking for why would this service be helpful? Here’s what they say:
- Find out where an image came from, or get more information about it
- Research or track the appearance of an image online
- Find higher resolution versions of an image
- Locate web pages that make use of an image you have created
- Discover modified or edited versions of an image
This seems like a rather anorexic list of useful functions for what is actually a pretty cool concept. TinEye is currently in Beta, but it works as advertiesd.
Newspaper Bailout? – January 6th, 2009
posted by Sarah Wunder
According to this post, newspapers might be next in line for a government bailout.
I’d hate to think about a world without newspapers, and as many in the industry have pointed out, the future of the medium isn’t too bright. There have been predictions of the death of newspapers for years, and it always seemed like something that could never really happen. However, over the last few weeks on a journalism school alumni listserve I belong to, there have been tons of posts from recently laid-off journalists. Alternative weeklies have eliminated positions, or sometimes, whole departments. Daily newspapers have done away with certain beats. Some international papers have eliminated coverage of entire countries.
But, is a government bailout the answer? I’d argue that most journalists, even the ones who just lost their jobs, would rather be unemployed than witness government-controlled media in America.
Facebook #2 – January 6th, 2009
posted by Joel Witmer
Facebook was the second most visited webpage on Christmas, accounting for one out of every 22 online visits for a market share of 4.65%. This is a 69% increase from 2007. Only Google was more visited on Christmas.
Learning To Blog – January 5th, 2009
posted by Joel Witmer
Arianna Huffington, the eponymous brainchild behind the Huffington Post, has published a guide to blogging. Strike that. A complete guide to blogging. If you have the resources and social cache to lure famous people to write posts for your blogging conglomorate then this might be a helpful resource. Otherwise the book, at 7.9 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches thick, would likely be helpful for a table with uneven legs, knowing as we do that most uneven tables are off by a measure of less than an inch but more than a half inch. Just stick the book under the short leg and watch as your table not-so-miraculously stablizes. It’s extraordinary in a completely ordinary way.
As Jeff Bercovici notes, “Why would anyone pay a dime to read professionals’ advice on breaking into an amateur medium that rewards people who make up their own rules?”
That’s a good question.
Here’s another: Is anyone who reads this book planning on starting a website blog that features a few hundred contributors?
Having Huffington teach you about blogging is akin to learning about how to establish a successful fast food franchise from Wolfgan Puck. Yes, Puck technically works in the same industry as McDonalds, but beyond that the two are not comparable. Same with the HuffPo and 99.99% of the successful blogs of the sort readers could realistically start.
Failing Newspapers – December 23rd, 2008
posted by Joel Witmer
The profit margins on gas at gas stations is incredibly slim. For every gallon of gas sold station owners make a few cents. This is why the vast majority of gas stations include convenience stores. Station owners make much more money selling lotto tickets, coffee, and snacks than they do through selling gas. Gas stations have never been in the business of selling gas. That was just the hook to get you into their stores.
Similarly, newspapers have never really been in the business of selling news. The saleable goods in newspapers are not the articles but the advertisements. Newspapers are just another vehicle for delivering ad content. This is as true today as it was 100 years ago. This has always been the busines model.
So what happened on the way from print to digital that prevented newspaper owners and publishers from recognizing sooner what sort of business they were in? To be more specific, why did newspapers let some guy named Craig corner the market on classified ads?
Just a thought.
Interesting News – December 19th, 2008
posted by Joel Witmer
Facebook is seriously gaining on Google for time users spend on their respective sites, according to this article from TechCrunch. While that’s certainly a good thing for Facebook and online stalkers across the globe, it’s a little troubling to this writer as Google is used almost exclusively as a means for obtaining primary information, which almost always has some educational component. When you search Google you learn something. That’s what it’s for. Meanwhile Facebook is used almost exclusively for exchanging photos from last night’s Christmas party and stalking that person who didn’t go out with you in high school. In terms of the greater good Google certainly has more ulitity than Facebook. So this writer thinks this development is a bit disconcerting.
Classy Christmas Card – December 18th, 2008
posted by Joel Witmer
Fox Business Network sent out the Christmas card below. The face on the Grinch is CNBC’s Jim Cramer — the Mad Money host who didn’t exactly have the best year making predictions. It includes the following jingle:
“You’re a mean one, Mr. Cramer; You rant and rave every day; You told us all that Bear was fine, there’s nothing more to say, Mr. Cramer; Take your money out of the market right now is what you said on Today!
“You’re a mean one, Mr. Cramer; You put fear in your viewer’s minds; You said to buy Wachovia, how can you look ‘em in the eye Mr. Cramer; Can’t believe you told us all to — buy, buy, buy!
“Now FOX Business is the place to be; We’ll make sense of it all for you; We don’t believe in fear mongering, we only stick to the truth, unlike Cramer; FOX Business Network — is your place for business news!”
$300,000 for 3 Seconds – December 17th, 2008
posted by Joel Witmer
From the WSJ:
As the Super Bowl nears, Weatherproof Garment Co. is hoping to use the big game’s hefty advertising price tag — about $3 million for 30 seconds — along with the recession, to draw attention to itself. Weatherproof is proposing to divvy up a single 30-second spot with nine other corporate marketers, with each company paying $300,000 for three seconds of TV time.
If the primary aim of advertising is to raise brand awareness it’s certainly reasonable to think that mission could be accomplished in three seconds just as easily as it could in thirty. How long does it take to make an immediate impression? Done creatively and boldly, three seconds could be ample time for a good ad. The benefit of those extra 27 seconds is not so much more time for that signle impression as it is more time for people to notice your ad — and thus increase the likelihood of more impressions. When your ad is only three seconds long you risk people missing it.
Making Money from twitter – December 16th, 2008
posted by Ashir Badami
This article from the Venture Beat has been making its way through the ‘twitterati,’ with much excitement. It’s easy to see why. Web 2.0’s Achilles heel is that many of its limbs haven’t been easy to mine from a revenue perspective because a fair number of organizations jumped in without putting much thought into using Web 2.0 and social media tools in a manner that supported/augmented their existing business model, organizational structure or business objectives. Clearly, as the Venture Bear article indicates, Dell did.
The lesson: you can make money from tools like twitter, if you make room for tools like twitter in your approach.
ESPN.com Beta – December 16th, 2008
posted by Joel Witmer
I just glanced at the new version of ESPN.com, which you can see here. What struck me immediately was how ESPN is positioning video content on their homepage. The main story window now has two tabs, one for Top Story and the other for Top Videos. Video is slowly moving from a supplement to the writen content on the site to featured content.
About ‘How Do You Connect?’
Imagination is the leader in custom publishing, custom content and relationship marketing. We create and deliver printed and digital content, magazines, streaming media, podcasts, webcasts, blogs and email. In “How Do You Connect?” we discuss how marketers can use custom content to deepen their relationships with their own customers.
