With no blueprints for the future and no clear exit strategy for the government, Fannie and Freddie are focusing for now on the U.S. loan-modification program.
UBS reported its first net profit in five quarters, but continued to lose assets from wealthy clients, underlining that the Swiss bank has yet to regain trust it lost during the financial crisis.
Congressional investigators examining Toyota's safety troubles are questioning whether the company and regulators have fully grasped what caused the sudden acceleration problems.
The trans-Atlantic stock-exchange operator posted a $172 million net profit in the fourth quarter after goodwill impairment charges had dragged it into the red a year earlier.
The company's revamped 747 took off on its maiden flight. But the new jetliner has been slow to attract orders as Boeing again redesigns a successor to a plane that has been flying for forty years.
Photographer Josef Schulz has a game for all the semioticians out there.
If Lacan and Rosenquist went on a road trip, they might come back with something like Dusseldorf-based photographer Josef Schulz's Sign Out photo series. Schulz traveled the country photographing highway signs and then photoshopped out all the text, leaving only bright colors and clean geometry. Can you tell what they are?
Heroin, like any product, relies on branding to tell its story. GOOD Magazine alum Liza Vadnai has teamed with the Stamp Collective to gather photos of heroin stamps (branded stamp-sized bags of heroin), blow them up to poster size, and eventually show them in an exhibit entitled "Edge Markets: Heroin Use, Stamp Aesthetics, and HIV."
According to the Collective:
Blown up larger than life, these beautiful, fascinating and unsettling images of the stamps hint at a complex chain from supplier to dealer, the dynamics of drug markets and the story of the marketing of addiction on the streets of NYC. Their disturbing beauty compels the viewer to consider addiction and some of its preventable consequences (e.g. HIV and HCV infections, mass incarceration). The graphic images on the stamps mirror the political and social climate of the moment, creating a fascinating narrative.
The project still needs more cash to get off the ground, however. $1,171 has been raised on microfunding site Kickstarter--$2000 is required before April 1 to make sure the exhibit has enough funding to cover production costs, an opening night event, and educational materials. You can learn more about the project (and donate) here.
When you're active on the Web, keeping up with all your online accounts can feel like a full-time job. You want your high school friends to find you on Facebook, your co-workers to follow you on Twitter, and business associates to find you on LinkedIn. But there are only so many hours in the day, and too many Web sites to check in and update. The good news is that you don't have to hire a personal assistant to update all your profiles. With the right strategy, you can manage multiple accounts with minimal effort. Here's how.
First, make social network activity come to you. Pick your primary channel of communication and route all your notifications from various services to come through it. I call this funneling. For example, you check your email every day. Most every service can send you email alerts when you receive a message or get a new follower or comment. You can funnel Facebook messages, Flickr photo comments, Twitter direct messages, and LinkedIn questions all to your email inbox. (Don't forget: if email alerts come too often, change your settings to reduce the volume. On LinkedIn, for example, you can get a weekly digest email instead of instantaneous alerts every time.)
Second, interact with multiple services from a single interface. If some of your friends use Facebook and others use Twitter and others update their own blog, keep up with all those news streams in a single place like your RSS reader, or a tool like TweetDeck or FriendFeed. You can maximize your time even more and broadcast updates to multiple services in one shot. From TweetDeck or Digsby, for example, you can post a status update to both Twitter and Facebook at the same time.
Finally, split up your social media accounts for personal and business purposes. You don't want your boss to see that you're tweeting from the beach on a sick day, and you don't want your Mom to read about the hot date you had last night. Designate different accounts for different purposes and configure your privacy settings accordingly. While you don't want your social life to feel like work, keeping up a presence online and doing it well can pay off in business contacts and job leads down the road.
Yale's high-performance Kroon Hall also pulls off the near-impossible feat of looking at home on a campus with legendary Gothic architecture.
Kroon Hall, the recently completed home of Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, has just been awarded a Platinum LEED--the highest designation offered by the U.S. Green Building Council. That's a great-big green feather in the school's cap: While LEED has grown to encompass thousands of buildings, Platinum is still quite rare in developments as big as Kroon, due to the added expense it requires. Solar panels and LEED certified architects don't come cheap--so it's pretty awesome to be Yale and have so many rich folks to tap for donations!
Designed by Hopkins Architects, Centerbrook Architects, and Atelier Ten Environmental Designers, the building's performance stats are impressive: It uses 81% less water and 58% less energy that a typical, comparably sized building. The first is thanks to a system that uses waste water from sinks and showers in the toilets and irrigation system; stormwater is also collected for the later uses, after being collected on the roof and grounds and being filtered by aquatic plants on site.
Meanwhile, much of the energy savings come from the solar panels covering the roof--these provide 25% of the building's energy needs, despite New Haven's often-grey weather.
But really, what's kinda remarkable about the building is how well it suits Yale's Neo-Gothic architecture. It isn't super-sexy, but it solves problems with aplomb.
Academic buildings are always a difficult challenge: It's rare that a modern building--much less a green one--fits in so well to such an historic setting. (Just witness Columbia's hideously bland student center, Lerner Hall.) For example, the roofline manages to integrate the solar panels while being just interesting enough to draw attention away from them. It's not too wild, just nice looking, so it blends. Meanwhile, the exterior brickwork does a pretty solid job of fusing the modern and classical.
Chris Jordan's body of photographic artwork focuses on the startling statistics of American consumption. Numbers are translated into visual representations--what would all the pollution in the ocean look like? How much space would five seconds of waste take up? Some of these depictions take up whole walls of gallery space. Here are some of the images from Jordan's latest book, Running the Numbers.
Slate recently released its annual list of the largest American charitable contributions, and the results may surprise you. Familiar faces abound, with Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and George Soros all taking top spots. But Stanley and Fiona Druckenmiller? John M. Templeton? Who are these people and why are they giving so much money?
Stanley Druckenmiller, the CEO of Duquesne Capital, has opted to give $705 million to the Druckenmiller Foundation, which supports medical research, education, and poverty-fighting initiatives. Just last year, the foundation gave a $100 million grant to New York University's Langone Medical Center to build a neuroscience institute.
The late John F. Templeton, dubbed "the greatest global stock picker of the century" by Money Magazine in 1999, offered up $573 million in 2009 for the Templeton Foundation. The organization was founded in 1987 to research relationships between science, religion, spirituality, and health. Templeton's latest cash infusion makes his foundation among the 25 richest grant-makers in the country.
It's hard to say if these are actually the most charitable people in the country--if you have $100 to your name and you give up $75 to charity, you have billionaire Templeton beat. Nevertheless, we can't begrudge anyone on the list for hoarding their wealth. Check out the top 10 below.
We've seen and heard this commercial a thousand times, the one with the flawless model posing in an ad for facial-blemish cream... an extremely powerful cleaner that removes every trace of dirt in one effortless wipe... the picture-perfect baby modeling the 100% waterproof diaper. In these scenarios, there's not even a hint of a single red spot, a stubborn stain, or a bedraggled mother. This is the story of the past 50 years of commercials, and they all have one thing in common: perfect brands in perfect environments.
But there is a strong case to be made for imperfection. Nothing is ever perfect, and even when it appears to be so, we are subconsciously looking for the flaw. Because our point of connection lies in imperfection--it's what makes something unique and, ultimately, authentic. Since perfection can now be had at the stroke of a digital brush, and the food we eat can be manipulated to look brighter and fresher, rounder, and yes, perfect, we have an increasing need to know what's real.
Let me share a story about what happens when a brand does give in to imperfection. Some months ago a major European cosmetic brand was forced to cut costs. They were not alone, but the only way they could do this was by reducing the length of their TV commercials. They decided to cut their regular 90-second spots down to 30 seconds. The big dilemma they faced was about which scenes to cut out. Instead of taking the conventional route--opinions and guesswork--they used a neuro-scientific tool based on EEGs whereby brainwaves of consumers were measured and evaluated. By scientifically analyzing the commercials they were able to assess which scenes were the most emotionally engaging.
To everyone's surprise, one scene--the one all the senior executives wanted to cut out--showed to be the most powerful of them all. It was a scene in which two ladies were huddled close, with one touching the other's cheek as she was crying. For want of a more diplomatic description, the client referred to it as "the lesbian scene." Whether it was the notion of lesbians or crying women, the prevailing thought the client had was that this particular scene would negatively affect their brand.
But based on the EEG results, the 30-second commercial was cut and tested. To everyone's surprise it showed that not only were consumers substantially more emotionally engaged, but when asked to pick a product in a simulated retail store, they ended up 'buying' 35% more of the brand. Consumers embraced what advertisers were scared would not be perfect enough for them. In fact you may very well recognize the commercial--it's still running.
When you stroll down the aisles of a supermarket, every product stacked on the shelves--from bread to bath salts--features perfect pictures of the perfect fruit or the perfect smile or the perfect cookie. But if you ask customers about the criteria they want their products to have, more and more will say they're looking for a product that's authentic. The thought of gigantic factories churning out millions of cookies, or food being injected with additives that boost the 'natural' color or enhance the aroma, or irradiation processes that keep old fruit looking new--well, all these sophisticated processes just seem to generate feelings of enormous distaste and even horror in the minds of consumers.
I recently visited Trader Joe's where the luxury chocolate Ghirardelli was on sale. Ghirardelli was selling "bulk" chocolate chunks packed in large brown paper bags branded with old-fashioned handwriting. The bag contained hand-made chocolates cut into uneven pieces--some large, some very large and some tiny bits. There was no doubt that this looked as fresh and authentic as it could be --until I happened to buy two bags and coincidently discovered that all the uneven, hand- cut pieces had a perfectly matched partner in the second bag. The broken chunks were no accident at all but were molded to look like random broken pieces.
There was a very clear plan to appear home-made, and for a while, I believed it...and bought it.
Studies show that the people we relate to best are those who we perceive share our weaknesses--those who mirror, or at least seem capable of mirroring the mistakes we tend to make. Take for example the most watched videos on YouTube. Are they perfect? Hardly. Most are by amateurs whose work looks amateurish. We watch reality shows on television, and despite all predictions that they're on their way out, reality shows keep inventing ever-new situations (Jersey Shore, anyone?). Regardless of such evidence, brands continue in their quest to present only the perfect, because it's quite simply not in the vernacular of advertising culture to really tell it like it is.
Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not asking the ad agencies to focus on the negative aspects of a brand. What I'm suggesting is to show how life really looks. Babies do not stay clean when eating their pureed food, and apples are never all the exact shape and size and color. Messages portraying perfection are not trustworthy. No one actually believes them. We don't believe candidates applying for jobs who claim they do everything perfectly. We don't believe the person we sit beside at a dinner party who tells us everything in their life is just perfect. So why should we believe in perfect brands? We don't. So it's about time advertising changes their tune and strives for a little imperfection.
MARTIN LINDSTROM is a 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine's "World's 100 Most Influential People" and author of Buyology - Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Lindstrom is the CEO and Chairman of LINDSTROM Company and Chairman of BUYOLOGY INC. (New York and Tokyo) as well as BRAND sense Agency (London).
You have probably been wondering what the company that brought the world Zhu Zhu Pets last holiday season has planned for next week's massive toy fair in New York City. Well wonder no more!
That company, Cepia Inc, has moved some $70 million worth of furry product, capitalizing on the parental desire to give kids what they want-- specifically, a pet--so long as there is no mess and no stink. Now they are adding a slight edge to the cute crowd already owned by about 7 million American households. The new lines, Zhu Zhu Rockstars and Zhu Zhu-Wild Bunch, feature the same sort of lovable, wheel-riding hamsters, only now they have fashionable haircuts and--could that really be?--even pet fauxhawks. And the new breed has names like "Kingston," "Rider," and "Roxie," which CnnMoney.com says are taken from the kids of celebrities. The desired audience for these Zhu Zhus skews a little older than the previous editions.
A cynic might find fault with this faddish line and the gullible public's lust for the latest must-have little critter. But that same cynic is not charged with finding new and clever ways of making cash-strapped Americans open their wallets. And at $10 a pop, Cepia has landed on a price point that even the hardest-hearted cynics among us have to admire.
Loopt, the location-based sharing service, has taken the logical next step for its system: Loopt on the iPhone now includes location-based advertising. We've been expecting this, but is it a sign the floodgates of location-ads are open?
Loopt is in roughly the same game as Yelp, Foursquare, and a number of other players in location-based social networking. It's also a little like Google Latitude, in that users can see in more-or-less real time where their friends are located (and what they're up to, via status updates), rather than having to "check in" to specific locales like in Foursquare. So it's really perfectly logical that it take the step to deliver specific location-based ads to its users in geolocated real time too.
It's partnered with Mobile Spinach to give its users special offers and discounts from businesses that are near their specific location--meaning that you'll be able to get a discount by showing the Loopt alert message to a restaurant, for example. To start with it'll only work in San Francisco, since Loopt is combining its user demographic data with Mobile Spinach's list of local business to ensure that the right kind of service is delivered as an ad to its users, as well as being merely location-specific. Ultimately the system will roll out in New York, L.A,. and other U.S. cities, and it'll become more sophisticated in time.
This sophistication will actually give the advertising partners an amazing new vehicle for influencing sales: Say a coffee shop has a regular lull between 11 a.m. and lunchtime--it could time its Loopt-related discount ads to try to attract more drop-in trade at this time, or it could associate your Loopt account with a "10 drinks and the 11th is free"-type loyalty system.
All of which means that the business of advertising is going to get ever-more deeply wormed into our daily lives. Because though not all of us are users of location-based social networking, it is clear that it's an exploding phenomenon, and it'll continue to be so as more and more of us carry around location-aware smartphones. The reason location-based ads will boom is that they enable a degree of precision in audience targeting that's rarely been possible before, and that could mean lucrative returns for the companies concerned. And though your mind may be filled with Minority Report-style horror visions of nagging ads at every turn in a public street (assuming this tech develops to its highest possible level), this might actually be good for us as consumers: If you're going to get ads served up to you, come what may, wouldn't you prefer it if they're actually for stuff you're interested in?
Oh, and one last thing: We know Apple's going to be getting into the mobile ad game itself, thanks to its purchase of Quattro Wireless. It's also recently forced developers to strip any location-based ad powers out of apps, indicating that it too will be playing in this space (and who better to exploit the full powers of the iPhone but its inventors?). But Loopt escapes this injunction because location-sensing is actually a core feature of the application. Meaning Apple is, for the time being, happy to have competition in location-based ads.
A little over a month after the half-mile high tower opened in Dubai (and exactly a month since a pair went base-jumping from the top) the Burj Khalifa is closed for business--at least temporarily. The owners of the world's tallest structure, Emaar Properties, released a statement claiming "unexpected high
traffic" as well as "electrical problems" prompted the closure. Construction workers at the base, however, were unaware of any issues, and it was unsure whether elevators were effected.
Only the observation deck had been operational so far--a ride to the top cost $27. Question is, how long before debilitating problems for the Burj make it an inescapable symbol of an over-inflated development. The tower's 12,000 residential and office tenants, due to start moving in this month, were to represent a new hope for the slumping Dubai economy. But they, presumably, aren't too keen on taking the stairs.
Editor's note: Is Apple going too far with its restrictions on developers? Alistair Goodman thinks so and explains why in this guest post. He is the CEO of 1020 Placecast, a location-based mobile advertising startup.
Apple?s recent behavior bears an increasing resemblance to carriers with respect to the walled garden they are creating around the iPhone. Restricting applications, restricting the use of location on the device, blocking Flash, and now potentially taking advertising in house?these moves are taken from the carrier?s playbook with the hope of locking out meaningful competition. Ironically, Apple may very well become the barrier to open innovation in mobile in much the same way as carriers have been before the iPhone came along.
What is clear from the announcement to developers last week about plans to deny some apps that deliver location-based advertising is that Apple intends to control the flow of marketing dollars on the iPhone. Less clear are their plans for sharing the wealth with the ecosystem?but if you look closely at acquisitions like Placebase, key hires and patent filings, what emerges is a potentially more ominous view of a company that can only compete in the direct advertising business head-to-head with Google by seizing control of location-based advertising.More
Foursquare continues to sign interesting deals with major players in a wide range of fields. Following the service's Bravo deal a couple weeks ago, they've reached a deal with restaurant rating guide Zagat, according to The New York Times. And AdAge has some details about deals with even more partners, including HBO, Warner Brothers, and the History Channel.
The service has been on a roll lately. They're now seeing over a million check-ins a week, with that rate doubling in the last month alone. And these new deals can only help them as they bring the type of mainstream appeal that it took services like Twitter so long to find.More
Nowadays, buzz around brands on the news, blogs, tweets and other social media that spreads through product launches, PR campaigns, earnings reports are as valuable as traditional ad campaigns. But buzz and social dialogue on the web is tough to quantify. General Sentiment has released a report that calculates the dollar value of the buzz, content, and conversation taking place online. General Sentiment's technology evaluates the volume of mentions and sentiment value regarding a brand, company or person. The algorithm combines this data with website traffic and online news readership figures to determine the purchase-equivalent dollar value of the brand exposure across more than 30 million sources by gauging sentiment, frequency, and exposure of news mentions and social dialogue.
Google topped the rankings, with value of its "buzz" itemized at $669.6 million. Google's social media reach costs $402 million, with its Twitter reach alone valued at $22.8 million. On the other hand, Apple came in fourth with total buzz reaching $293.2 million; social media buzz valued at $223.7 million; and Twitter reach valued at $5.6 million.More
YouTube might be streaming more than 13 billion videos a month, or nearly 40 percent of total individual streams, but when you measure by time spent YouTube only accounted for 26 percent of all viewing minutes on the Web last year. It is not surprising that it commands a smaller share of time spent watching videos than number of streams watched, since most YouTube videos are so short. But what is surprising is how fragmented the Web video landscape remains once you go out past the top 25 sites.
According to comScore's 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review, more than half of all time spent watching videos on the Web (52 percent) last year was on Long Tail video sites beyond the top 25. What you see is a real barbell distribution, with Youtube on one end and the Long Tail sites on the other. Total video views more than doubled between December, 2008 and December, 2009, from 14 billion to 33 billion streams. So there is hope yet for niche video producers.More
With the continued success of Twitter and other social networking tools, any criticism (or praise) of products and companies is becoming increasingly public. Finding a way to manage these external communications in the internal decision-making process is an ongoing challenge for many businesses. Today, in an effort to help marketers and community managers better deal with such outside correspondence, blueKiwi, an Europas shortlist finalist, has announced the introduction of a free version of its Social Business Platform aimed at integrating outside conversations into daily internal communications to improve the decision making process.
Instead of community managers simply engaging with outside audiences via social networking tools, blueKiwi pulls outside conversations into internal discussions in order to leverage the thoughts and ideas of its user base, much like Salesforce aims to do with Chatter or Bantam Live. It is social CRM. BlueKiwi combines a slew of web 2.0 capabilities: such as collaboration, document sharing, blogging, event posting, and polling, into a single, unified solution. The use of social analytics tools ensures that the most pertinent conversations reach the eyes of the community managers.More
It actually took longer than I would have expected for someone to come up with a good mocking of Google's "Parisian Love" commercial that played during the Super Bowl yesterday. But today brings us just that.
The video comes compliments of the Upright Citizens Brigade Beta Team "The Brig." They've named their video "Parisian Oops" and have given it the tagline, "Romance, Consequences, Awkwardness. Search on." Watch it below.More
Last year, Yahoo still dominated display advertising on the Web in terms of sheer number of ad impressions on its properties, but social networking sites MySpace and Facebook came on strong. Some new data from comScore in its just-released 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review ranks the top Web properties by the number of display ad impressions.
Yahoo served up an estimated 521 billion impressions last year, according to the report, followed by Fox Interactive Media (i.e. MySpace) with 368 billion, and Facebook with 330 billion. Microsoft sites (No.4) only served up 218 billion display ads, whereas Google (No. 6) served up only 70 billion. (These numbers do not include paid search text ads)
Here's the full ranking:More
Since the launch of the Nexus One, early adopters have likely had one question lurking in the back of their minds: who to take the phone to if it broke. You see, when the phone was first launched, Google was directing people to either T-Mobile (Google's carrier partner) or HTC (the device manufacturer) depending on the problem, which could lead to an endless circle of hold times and few results. Today, Google has just rolled out its solution: it's launching its own phone support line specifically for Nexus One customers. Call 888-48-NEXUS (63987) and within a few minutes, you'll be talking to a real live Google support tech (the line is open from 7AM to 10PM EST).
This is, of course, a fairly major departure from Google's standard protocol of making it incredibly difficult to reach anyone for phone support for most of its products. More
Probably the most controversial thing about the blogging service Tumblr is that it doesn't have a built-in way to comment on posts. You sort of can do it now if you reblog an item and add your own note (which then shows up under the original post), but it's not the same. And while they still haven't added comments, tonight they've temporarily turned on a new feature: Photo Replies.
While it doesn't appear the feature is working just yet, Tumblr notes that they're going to turn it on for the next 48 hours as an experiment. When it is on, you will presumably see a new photo icon in your dashboard which will allow you to upload a picture in response to a Tumblr post. So yes, basically it's a photo comment.More
There’s no denying it: Google’s Nexus One, although being one of the best Android-based smartphones on the market, isn’t sellingwell.
One of the reasons behind sluggish sales is lack of true customer support. Who does an owner of a Nexus One turn to in case of trouble? HTC, the phone’s manufacturer, mobile network operator, or Google itself? This issue is still not solved, but at least now Google gave customers live phone support.
Live phone support is available at 888-48NEXUS (63987) and it works from 07:00am to 10:00pm PST; unfortunately, you can’t request tech support, as this line seems to be limited to status and shipping issues. Furthermore, as an international user, my best bet is still going through online forums in case of problems. Google is getting better at this, as they finally realized that providing proper support for a smartphone is a not as easy as launching a support website. Still, Google has a long way to go to make Nexus One users really happy.
Hello, Hollywood. On the heels of the Foursquare-Bravo TV deal, news of several additional major media partnerships involving the location-based social networking app have dropped this evening.
According to various reports, Zagat, Warner Bros., HBO, the History Channel and ExploreChicago have all been added to Foursquare’s media and entertainment mix. Here are the partnerships that appear to be live or coming very soon:
Zagat
The New York Times is reporting that Foursquare has signed a deal with trusted restaurant review service Zagat. Zagat’s official Foursquare page is already live and includes official Zagat rated tips and recommendations that users can add as to-do’s to their Foursquare experience.
Zagat is calling the partnership, “Foodie Love,” and there’s even a new accompanying foodie badge. What’s also interesting is that Zagat.com is extending the partnership beyond Foursquare and starting a “Meet the Mayor” online interview series that will feature discussions with prominent Foursquare mayors.
Foursquare’s relationship with Zagat is clearly an answer to Yelp’s introduction of check-ins, especially given the trusted and prestigious nature of Zagat content.
Warner Bros.
Earlier this evening we received some intel in our inbox about a Warner Bros. partnership with Foursquare around the studio’s upcoming movie, Valentine’s Day. Per Foursquare’s other big media partners, the deal includes content in the form of tips and to-dos, but these are themed around romance and Valentine’s Day activities. Of course, it wouldn’t be Foursquare without a badge to go with the campaign.
The Valentine’s Day Foursquare page includes text that reads, “Visit and check-in on Foursquare at any of the locations on our Valentine’s Day inspired list of the most romantic places in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston to get a Valentine’s Day badge! Then go see the movie, in theaters on February 12!”
HBO
We found HBO’s Foursquare How to Make it in America page via AdAge. The series premieres on February 14th, and although HBO isn’t ready to go on the record about their Foursquare relationship, a page packed with show-related tips is already live. The deal appears to be structured in a similar fashion as the others, and includes the addition of show-specific badges for “Culture, Living, Cocktails, and Nightlife.”
The idea seems to be that viewers can turn fiction into reality and live like the show’s main characters, Ben and Cam, who are “two enterprising Brooklyn twentysomethings as they hustle their way through New York City, determined to achieve the American Dream.”
More Major Media Deals
AdAge is also reporting that the History Channel is exploring similar options with Foursquare, and thanks to a tip sent in via email, we uncovered an ExploreChicagopage that is reminiscent of Metro News’ relationship with the location-based game.
ExploreChicago happens to be Chicago’s official tourism site, and the deal includes three Chicago-themed Foursquare badges (which we believe to be the ones above) that users can unlock by checking-in across the city.
In last week’s Faceoff Series we asked about music consumption models: Do Mashable readers prefer to own their entire music collections or do some of you gravitate toward subscription services?
One week later and the results are in: Ownership wins the day at a full 50% of the vote. Of all our past Faceoffs, though, this edition had one of the highest “tie” votes constituting people who really like both models. The music subscription model still came in second place behind ownership at 28% of the vote, but the “Tie: I like them both!” option was very close behind at 22%.
The results seem to indicate both a growing contingent of folks warming up to the idea of music subscription services, and the idea that there could be room in the market for both approaches to be sustainable business models. Which option got your vote in our poll, and why? Let us know in the comments!
This isn’t the way you should learn about the death of your 17 year old brother.
According to Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, twins Angela and Maryanne Vourlis had just woken up on their 20th birthday. Like most young adults, they logged onto Facebook to check their walls and inboxes for birthday greetings.
Instead of finding happy birthday wishes, the two twins found messages of “RIP Bobby” (their brother) and “RIP Chris Naylor” (a friend of his) all across their Facebook news feeds. Completely shocked, baffled, and hurt, the two rang their brother’s phone in the hopes it was a mistake. It was to no avail.
Next, they rang their mother. While she didn’t receive any word from the police or others about Bobby or Chris Naylor, she did know that Bobby was with his friend that night. After a call to the police, they confirmed what they had learned on Facebook: that Bobby Vourlis was dead. He passed away along with Chris Naylor in a fatal car accident that also took the life of a third teenage passenger.
You can read the whole heartbreaking story over at the Daily Telegraph, but it’s clear that the real-time nature of the web spread information far faster than even the police or phone calls could. While we understand it takes time to identify victims and send an officer to a residence to inform family of the news, the process can simply take too long in today’s world.
We offer our condolences to both families for the tragedy they are enduring. We could not imagine learning about it the way they did.
Award-winning director (and three-time Oscar nominee) David Lynch (of Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks fame) and the David Lynch Foundation Television have teamed up with mobile video marketer Mogreet to bring video MMS messages to Lynch fans.
We spoke with Mogreet and the David Lynch Foundation about the technology, the purpose of the campaign and how the DLF is using social media and technology to further its message.
Spreading a Message With Mobile Video
The ever-increasing pace of smartphone adoption only underscores the growing importance of mobility. As we’ve seen with everything from mobile app stores to the Red Cross’s text message for Haiti campaign, mobile is an extremely valuable platform for brands and nonprofits to get their messages across.
Video is an important communication driver, too, and when you combine the two technologies together, you end up with something potentially amazing.
Last month, we wrote about Thwapr, a company that specializes in doing mobile-to-mobile video. We see mobile video messaging as something that’s only going to continue to grow, especially as more and more companies realize just how many users are able to actually view video on their phones.
One of the companies that is really focused on mobile video marketing is Mogreet. Mogreet works with companies so that they can send video MMS messages to users that request their information. Because virtually every mobile phone sold since 2005 or so can support MMS messages that include video playback, the potential audience for these sorts of messages is huge.
I spoke with James Citron, the CEO of Mogreet, and he told me that the company has more than 2,700 device profiles in its database, meaning that if you have a cell phone, chances are, it can play one of Mogreet’s video MMS messages. Each video is encoded in a variety of different formats and it is sent to phones in the best format for that phone, so that users of an iPhone get a different experience than someone using a Motorola Razr, but each user gets the best possible experience for his or her device.
While this has primarily been used for commercial advertisers, Mogreet is interested in getting into the non-profit space too, because that’s perhaps an even better market for this sort of service. Think about it, what if you could donate and then get a video message back showing someone who is helped by your donation saying thanks? Or what if you could see what is going on in Haiti or some other place that needs aid? The non-profit organization’s message might be that much more powerful. After all, images often speak louder than words.
To that end, Mogreet decided to work with the David Lynch Foundation and bring some of Lynch’s talents — and messages — to his fans.
David Lynch Goes Mobile
The David Lynch Foundation Television is dedicated to documenting programs that awaken creativity and transform lives. To that end, the foundation has a website, DLF.TV, that has lots of video content of David Lynch and of people the Foundation has helped, as well as of other artists and friends who have support the Foundation’s vision.
The first mobile video message that the DLF will be sending to fans is of a short film that Lynch directed featuring the musician and artist Ariana Delawari. Delawari’s debut album, Lion of Panjshir was recorded in Kabul and Los Angeles, and reflects the cultures of both places. Delawari’s decision to return to Afghanistan in 2007 to record the album influenced her work and its overall sound. Like Lynch, Delawari is a student of transcendental mediation and like Lynch, it has also influenced her life and her work.
Lynch directed a six-minute short showing off Delawari’s style and voice. The style is unmistakable Lynch, from the background to the sound mix to the camera angles. It’s also a piece that works well when viewing on the web or on a mobile phone.
To spread the word about Delawari — and to kick off a mobile-type of initiative — fans can text ‘LYNCH’ to 647338.
It’s an interesting approach to spread a message from an always-interesting director. It’s also something we expect to be a growing trend, especially as nonprofits start to embrace the power of mobile.
What do you think about mobile video? Are you a fan of David Lynch? What do you think of this initiative? Let us know!
Update: Netflix contacted CNET and retracted its statement regarding plans for 1080p streaming, saying it has no plans for 1080p this year. However, the company stood its ground on the 5.1 surround sound plans, so you can still keep your ears open for that upgrade.
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Netflix plans to bump the video quality of its Watch Instantly streaming service up to 1080p on some devices, CNET claims. It will also roll out 5.1 surround sound support. Both upgrades will occur by next year.
Currently, Netflix Watch Instantly is available in 720p HD on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and some set-top boxes. 1080p is a much higher resolution, and the existing devices don’t stream Netflix content with 5.1 surround sound.
No time frame for the upgrade has been given, but the core technology that powers Netflix Watch Instantly ? Microsoft Silverlight ? got the capability last year. You can already watch 1080p streams on the Xbox 360 through the Zune Marketplace using Silverlight.
In some ways, streaming stole HD’s thunder. While the high definition digital video disc format Blu-ray was counting on viewers’ interest in quality, it turned out that more users have been interested in the convenience of watching content when and where they want. That has meant a sacrifice in resolution among other things, but 1080p Netflix is a first step towards closing the gap between quality and convenience.
The highly compressed 1080p streams that are possible over the United States’ broadband infrastructure are still not high enough on the quality scale to beat Blu-ray head-to-head, but they will still be better than most people are used to.
What was your favorite moment during the Super Bowl? Was it the fast-paced game or the ads that got your attention?
If the ads caught your eye, which moment stood out for you? If it was the game, which play was most memorable? Why did it stick with you? We want to know!
FLO TV, which ran its “Moments” commercial as one of the Super Bowl ads this year, has provided three FLO TV Personal Televisions (value: $290 each with 6 months free service) as prizes for this contest.
To enter, leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite Super Bowl moment of 2010, either during the game or the ads. We’ll pick three winners based on the originality, humor and creativity of your comment.
Because FLO TV works in the US, this contest is US-only. The contest will run for 24 hours and winners will be notified via email by Friday February 12.
About the Prize: FLO TV Personal Television
The FLO TV is a way to watch TV on the go. Here’s how the company describes the device:
FLO TV brings live mobile TV to the small screen. The FLO TV service combines the best content, an intuitive user interface and a superior multicast network to deliver a true quality TV viewing experience for consumers. FLO TV offers full?length simulcast and time?shifted programming from the world?s best entertainment brands, including ABC, CBS, CNBC, COMEDY CENTRAL, Disney Channel, ESPN, FOX, FOX News Channel, FOX Sports, FUEL TV, MSNBC, MTV, NBC 2Go and many more.
The FLO TV Personal Television is available through Amazon.com, Best Buy and RadioShack among other leading retailers at a suggested MSRP of $199 and comes with 6 months free service, for a total retail value of about $288.94 USD.
Disclosures: FLO TV is not a Mashable sponsor or partner. Mashable and its staff receive no payment or incentives for running this contest.
We’ve already looked at how on-air Super Bowl advertisers fared with audiences during the Big Game, but how did online viewers react to the spots? Check out which ads were the biggest winners — or losers — with the Hulu crowd.
The 2010 Super Bowl was a big win for more than just the New Orleans Saints, CBS scored big-time, too, garnering the biggest Super Bowl audience on record, and, with 106 million U.S. households tuned in, the most-watched television program of all time. That means a lot of eyes were on the ads — both online and on-air. And now more than ever, we can ascertain almost instantly how these commercials resonated with viewers.
Similar to YouTube’s AdBlitz channel, Hulu’s AdZone features all of the nationwide Super Bowl spots and lets viewers vote, Siskel & Ebert-style (that’s thumbs-up or thumbs-down) on which ads worked and which ads fell flat. You can even see how many users from different demographics and locations liked or disliked certain ads, and you can compare those metrics with other ads.
Hulu explains the whole process in its blog, and voting continues until tomorrow night should you choose to check it out. Still, Hulu shared some of the rating charts with us (at least as they stand right now), and we think the results are pretty interesting:
Motorola clearly scored big time with its Megan Fox photo ad. Why? Not only is it the most-viewed commercial, it is the fifth most “liked” ad and the third most “disliked” ad. That’s some pretty serious buzz.
Other big winners? Doritos’ “House Rules” ad got high marks from viewers and racked up the online views. Likewise, Google’s big Super Bowl ad played well with audiences and got lots of views.
Proving that controversy does indeed lead to viewership, Focus on the Family’s Tim Tebow ad is one of the most watched, even if it is also the most disliked.
What was your favorite ad from the Big Show? Least favorite? Let us know!
There’s some good news and some bad news. First, the good news: sources tell Engadget that multitouch browsing will be added to the Motorola Droid in its next software update.
Multitouch was one of the most requested features on Android, at least until the Nexus One gained multitouch browsing last week.
The bad news: the update won’t add the ability to install live wallpapers, a coveted feature of Android 2.1 seen in the Nexus One.
The point of live wallpaper is essentially to let your homescreen behave like an application, making it animated and interactive. Live wallpapers have the same access to the platform functionality that apps do, giving your homescreen the ability to change dynamically and to bring relevant information to the background of your phone. There’s no word on when or even if the Droid might support live wallpaper, but it looks like it won’t be included in this upcoming update.
Other tidbits from the new build — based on Android 2.1 version 1 — include pre-installed Google Goggles experimental visual search, and versions of the news and weather widgets first included with the Nexus One.
The official word on the street from Motorola is that the new update will roll out this week, so it won’t be long now before Droid users finally get to enjoy the multitouch browsing experience their Nexus One counterparts have been privy to since last week.
If these pics are legit, then the new iPhone will actually be one-fourth of an inch taller than all of the previous three models. Presumably this is to make room for a new component ? or more than one new component.
iResQ also observes that the front panel has a “reflective, mirror-like surface” near the top of the phone, and speculates that this is a relocated proximity sensor. The current iPhone’s proximity sensor is used to detect when you’re holding the phone up to your ear. If you are, it shuts off the screen to save battery life and to avoid blinding you with light.
If the reflective surface is the proximity sensor, then Apple might be planning to use the sensor for other functions as well.
If Apple is planning to launch a new iPhone this year, it will likely be announced at WWDC this June. We’ll have to wait until then to see if these photos are real. Take a look at the photos below, but remember that it’s best to pile this in with the rest of the rumors for now.
All the huge Facebook gamesmakers (Zynga, et al) will soon allow users to buy virtual goods with Facebook Credits.
We've always assumed this rollout will be a death blow to other payments providers on the platforms, such as Zong and Social Gold.
Naturally, Social Gold CEO Vikas Gupta thinks we're dead wrong.
He gave us three reasons why:
There's no intermediate currency with Social Gold. When gamers use "Pay With Facebook" to buy virtual goods their money goes from cash to Facebook Credits to the game's virtual currency. With Social Gold (and other independent providers), gamers' money goes from cash to the game's virtual currency. For developers, this keeps more of the money inside the game's own economy.
Social Gold has a white label offering. Small developers who don't have the resources to build a currency platform on top of their games, can license one. This group will probably find it easier to accept payments via Social Gold.
Social Gold has an entirely in-Flash payments solution. Flash games lose a lot of paying customers -- about 50% of them -- when gamers have leave the game to go to an HTML page to put money into the system. Only 50% of them come back. Vikas says in-Flash payments provide a 30% to 50% revenue lift.
Here's another reason Vikas didn't mention: Facebook will charge 30%. Social Gold and its rivals charge <10%.
If this is anything like Google's previous attempts to "get" social -- OpenSocial, Orkut, Google Friend Connect, Latitude, etc. -- it will not be a winner.
Why not just buy Twitter? Could probably get it for $2 billion at this point. And then you're in great shape versus Facebook when Facebook launches Gmail killer. And you're tops in real-time search as well.
Google could have bought Twitter a year ago for $500 million and 6 months ago for $1 billion. Price keep going up. And NO WAY is this new feature going to derail Twitter.
Time to get out the checkbook, Eric.
This isn't the first time we've argued that Google should buy Twitter. The biggest difference: The price tag keeps going up.
TweetDeck is rolling out an update to its popular desktop Twitter application, TechCrunch Europe reports.
TweetDeck is making more media accessible through TweetDeck. For example, you can watch a YouTube video directly in TweetDeck, instead of opening YouTube in a Web browser window.
In this regard, TweetDeck is erasing your need for a browser. It saves you the trouble of opening a new page or tab for small pieces of media. Obviously, you still need and want a browser, but maybe far down the road TweetDeck becomes a browser. (Twitter apps on the iPhone already do this.)
Version 0.33 will be hitting TweetDeck users in the next few days. Or, users can go get it themselves here.
Here's a video with all the new features explained:
Steven Kydd, the executive vice president in charge of Demand Studios, made the rounds last week when he visited New York, stopping at a lunch hosted by the Magazine Publishers of America, where he pitched Demand Media's bevvy of content (about 4,500 pieces of original content, for low costs, per day).
Kydd told us there are several major publishers who are experimenting with Demand Media but some of them are not ready to announce partnerships yet.
He did say Atlanta Journal-Constitution's travel section and Yahoo! use some of Demand's content.
So does Hearst, which has experimented with offering Demand Media content on their new beauty site RealBeauty.com. Demand provided ten articles, out of more than 1,000, on the site, according to Hearst reps. But executives at Hearst say Demand Media does not necessarily "power" their site's content. Their own writers do.
For the past few years, Demand Media has been focusing on powering their own portfolio of sites, like Livestrong.com and eHow.com. Demand Media's CEO Richard Rosenblatt recently responded to name-calling about the company with a manifesto, noting his team is trying to find a way to make content production profitable.
Now, Demand Media's next major goal is to supplement publishers' sites with their original content, according to Kydd. In other words: They want to make friends with major media companies--for profit.
Kydd, a former business development executive for Yahoo! and internet marketing director for News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox International, sat down with us over a cup of hot chocolate last week, the day after he pitched to magazine publishers at the luncheon. He showed them a behind-the-scenes view of Demand Media's technology, which allows writers, editors and other content producers to work with each other in one giant system.
He opened up his laptop in a cafe by the Flatiron and clicked through his slideshow. There are charts with data on how many articles are produced by Reuters and the New York Times in a day, compared with their editorial staff numbers. Demand Media almost doubles the amount of articles produced, for much less money.
Kydd said after he presents this slideshow, the first question he gets from publishers is: "How can I get a license of this platform?"
But Demand isn't looking to hand out their technology for a fee.
They plan to broker partnerships with an army of quality content patrollers.
Kydd said each article goes through about 11 checks from real humans before it even hits the Web. And "we qualify everyone," Kydd said. Some might make some mistakes, as David Carr points out in the New York Times today.
But out of Demand Media's 7,000 freelance editors, writers, and video producers, who make about $20 to $25 per hour working on content for the company, Kydd said each one is ranked based on their education, past real-world experience and how well they have done in Demand's system.
Copy editors must have three years of real-world experience under their belt before they can work for Demand, according to Kydd.
Copy editors (there are about 650 working for Demand Media) grade each piece of a writers' content before it's published. They tell the Demand Media system if the writer has good grammar, writing skills and productivity.
Each writer's profile also includes information on how well a writers' stories do in traffic and pageviews.
Publishers will have access to those popular content producers, according to Kydd. Demand Media has a few Emmy award winning videographers at the ready, and veteran journalists from around the world, he said. These content producers are paid a slightly higher amount of money for their articles, he said.
Although Kydd was not prepared to name names of publishers who are considering taking on more of Demand Media's content, he wanted to assure all of them that Demand Media doesn't plan on taking over news.
"We're never going to cover Haiti," he said. But there might be a Demand Media article on how to purify water or how to travel to Haiti that might run as a sidebar to other publishers sites.
Demand might have a hard time shouting over the noise against the company. Tony Silber wrote for Folio: "Demand Media Can Go To Hell:"
I hope no magazine ever partners with Demand Media. In fact, I hope Demand Media and any site like it goes out of business.
But with staff cuts and struggling revenues, Kydd hopes he and his Demand team can appeal to them.
An anonymous writer has detailed his experience applying for a job at Facebook on All Facebook.
It sounds like a depressingly typical job-hunt.
Facebook kept him in contention for three and half months before unceremoniously dumping him with an email that essentially said "We've filled the position."
The anonymous applicant was applying for a non-engineering position. He hints it was a developer spot where and ability to code wasn't needed, but would be useful.
His background is "a combination of coding, database, business analysis, writing and inbound/social media marketing skills."
While the overall experience was similar to any hiring process, there's plenty of specifics to learn for would-be Facebook applications.
It's helpful to know somebody. The position was listed online but this guy had a friend put his resume in front of the right people. So go make friends with Facebook employees.
First there was a phone interview, then a coding test, and writing assignment. The applicant had one week to complete them.
The next interview was a much longer one, and it had a surprise quiz. The applicant had to go a computer, "type in the algorithm (aka “pseudocode”) for a coding problem," he says. His interviewers saw the code as he created it, and tested it.
Two months after the first phone interview, he gets a sit down, 3 hour interview at Facebook's offices.
During the interview he was asked a number of technical questions, because he had certain skills listed on his resume. In retrospect, he wishes he had answered a few questions with "I don't know," as a response. Rather than stumbling through answers, he thinks it's okay to admit he'd have to look certain things up.
Six weeks after the sit down interview, Facebook emailed to say it wouldn't be hiring him.
Never heard of Demand [Media]? You’ve probably seen its products.
According to the company, its YouTube videos are streamed 2.5 million times daily. And in those five days it took me to write this column, the company published 20,000 new articles or videos about losing weight, learning new tricks on a skateboard or tips for job hunting
Hoping to tap the gaming market that's made rival Zynga a $200 million per year company, Electronic Arts (ERTS) subsidiary Playfish plans to release a version Madden Football for Facebook.
“We have to make ‘Madden’ more accessible. You’ll see us on Facebook going forward,” EA Sports president Peter Moore told Bloomberg.
Max Levchin, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur best known for cofounding PayPal, has spent the past five years running his latest startup, Slide Inc, from two San Francisco offices and his home.
Meanwhile, Slide has gone through -- by our count -- five business model overhauls.
In 2005, the company began as a desktop-based, photo-oriented shopping search engine. Max built it for his wife, so she could shop for shoes faster.
"The idea was to encourage her to spend more time with me and less time browsing for shoes," Max told CNET that year.
The plan was to make money sending traffic to ecommerce sites.
But later that year, Slide became a photo-sharing embeddable widget for MySpace and Facebook profiles.
Then, in 2008, Slide took $50 million in funding at a $500 million valuation. It began describing itself as an ad network built on top of a portfolio of widgets including hits like Top Friends and SuperPoke. During this era, Slide opened a New York sales office.
But by July 2009, Slide exited the business of selling standard ad units. The new plan, Slide VP Keith Rabois told us at the time, was to sell " integrated sponsorships" for $500,000 to $1 million a pop. It shuttered its New York office.
Now, in 2010, Slide is a company that plans to make its money selling to users -- and allowing users to sell -- virtual goods. Max tells us virtual goods sales accounted for roughly 75% of Slide's revenues in 2009. The goal is 90% by the end of 2010.
The new business seems to be going well -- and not just for Slide. Making and selling virtual goods, one of its users made $16,000 in one month last year. ("That's more than I make in a month," volunteered Keith.) Slide hopes to build a business on attracting more of these types of "power users."
In a world where Microsoft, Apple, Netscape and AOL all began life as something very different than the companies they would become -- AOL sold on-demand videogame consoles, you may recall -- Slide's ever-changing strategies are not sign of failure, but a sign that Max and his team are willing to keep evolving until they get it right.
Remember, going back to the drawing board paid off handsomely for Max the last time around.
Before it became the company and service we know it as today, PayPal was actually two companies: a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography company founded by Max, called Confiinity, and a financial services company called X.com. They merged in 2000, went public in 2002 and sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in the same year.
Last time we were in San Francisco, we toured an office full of people who hope Max can pull off that kind of trick again.
As of this morning, location-based mobile app Loopt now offers exclusive deals and discounts at roughly 20 San Fransisco area restaurants, bars, and other businesses.
Users will see information about special deals near them when they use the app, and will be able to collect on them by showing their phones to vendors.
These offers have been worked out by Loopt partner Mobile Spinach. For now, Mobile Spinach only operates in the Bay Area, but Loopt plans to bring this program to New York, Los Angeles, and other cities in the coming months through similar partnerships with other companies.
Loopt has not provided any details about its terms with participating businesses.
These days, 2.3 seconds seems to be the average time between sending out an email and getting a response. We live in a world of immediate interaction and a general information immersion and real-time availability.
Generationally I am pre digital native but I embraced the new communication and media consumptions paradigms early on, and though I have never had the patience or passion to be a bleeding edge adopter, I am a fast follower. End result is a blog and an active Twitter presence and all the trappings of the world weary tech world participant (the multiple filtered Gmail accounts, the Dropbox, a fully digitized personal life that I keep carefully away from the public eye).
Real time is best left to Twitter
I have had a number of debates over the last few years with Max Niederhofer about whether high availability (the notion that one responds to emails within seconds) is "a feature or a bug". Max thinks it's a feature; I am more batch oriented. I thin it may be a feature in him but a bug in most.
For every person that manages "efficient high availability" well, I find 10 who respond too fast and with insufficient information and hence create more overhead and interaction than the problem at hand would warrant. The result is a deluge of IM like conversation between pushed over email, SMS or twitter and leading to a feeling of busy-ness but a clear loss of control. Dealing too fast with emails that were written too fast is a good recipe for absolute entropy and a fatal divergence that could I assume lead the world into an abyss of information chaos. Thank god you can scroll down 300 emails, hit "Del" and see what comes back (the important stuff). Entropy reduction at the touch of a key, heaven, it's like an emergency exit door. A guilty pleasure :-)
Multitasking efficiency is a myth
There is a fair amount of research coming out that is highlighting what common sense would tell you is true: the human brain cannot deal sustainably with "continuous partial attention" and the perception that one achieves more is wrong: general efficiency on the tasks individually is decreased and overall output is of a lower quality (see this fantastic Frontline broadcast on the topic including a humbling moment for Stanford grad students and great insights from Douglas Rushkoff).
In other words, cognitive ability goes down the drain and so does actual output, whilst the feeling of busy-ness creates an addictive misperception of hyper performance. Hooked on fast tasks but achieving nothing much. As Linda Stone puts it: "over-stimulation and lack of fulfillment". [For a more structured and intellectual look at the issue, head over to Edge Annual Question 2010 and see contributions from Carr, O'Reilly, Shirky and others].
Slow can be (very) good
I was reminded of the negotiation we undertook when Stefan Dolezalek of VantagePoint Venture Partners invested in Inxight Software (since acquired by BOBJ). Stefan would take his time answering emails even in the heart of the deal discussions. It used to infuriate our CEO John Laing who was a high octane sales guy and could not get his arms around this particular close. But Stefan would always come back with a thoughtful, studied response that would meaningfully move the negotiation forward with a good eye for win-win outcomes. He would also get some benefit from letting us stew for a few days:-) Net-net, he was an incredibly efficient communicator and once you understood that delay did not equate with dropping the ball, it was a great way to work.
Don't get we wrong, there are many aspects of real-time goodness I love. But the web used to be something we do and now it's part of who we are. So isn't it time to reassess how we interact with it?
Get back in control and write your own rules
We need to reclaim real downtime: Kids need downtime for their imagination to develop; they thrive on boredom. In the same way we need downtime and we need disconnected time to let the synapses reset and refresh. Shoot email on holiday, it's an addiction and a disease. The world can survive without you for a week, you're not that important. "Don't try to reach me on holiday, you will figure it out without me".
Stop confusing speed and efficiency: momentum matters but it has little to do with your average response time to email. Be precise, thoughtful, deep and action oriented. if you want something done (such as setting up a meeting) spend the time to determine time frame / urgency / participants / objectives / timeslots instead of exchanging 255 coordination emails and clogging everyone's inbox.
Prioritize and focus on outcomes: VC's are masters at creating entropy. VC's only function on information (we don't actually "do" anything besides manage information and money flows) and hence information is perceived to be power. So we spend an awful lof of time staying on top of said information, and hence asking other people (typically our overworked management teams) to produce this for us. The right way to go is to to ruthlessly determine which are the priorities of the company (a certain milestone, a change of culture, a new release) and what specific action you are going to take within a measurable timeframe (a recruitment, a strategy session, a bus dev deal). I try to determine 1-2 things a month or even a quarter that I want to get done with a company, communicate this to the CEO and get it done. The rest is noise in the system.
Allow yourself to reach the zone: I am still struggling with the illusion that I can efficient and multi-task. In recent months I have gone back to a more disciplined approach when taking phone calls -- I take notes. It forces me to stay absolutely focused on the task at hand. It takes me about 10-15 minutes to really reach a point of "flow" and any interruption can break that.
Automate information production: Information production should be systematized and automated. Board meetings should be run without PowerPoint slides and take a few hours to prepare. Anything that can be mediated by tech should be.
Segregate (and mostly ignore) breaking news: one of the biggest drain on my neuronal ability has been "breaking news". An unending daily stream of non-critical information that has social value ("did you hear...") but creates way too many open loops in my brain and ultimately serves no lasting purpose whatsoever. I have now bifurcated my news consumption between real-time for anything that concerns the companies I look after (e.g. DMGT buys Globrix is relevant to Zoopla with immediate impact) and weekly or monthly consumption of everything else. At the risk of shocking you, I did not not follow the Haiti developments day-by-day as the crisis unfolded. I find the body counting and dramatic pictures are a way of making you feel better (you are driving your own awareness of the people; feeling "concerned" makes most people feel better about themselves), whereas the reality is you are better served getting a complete overview of the crisis ten days into and deciding where you may want to send charity money based on the actual needs as they are emerging.
Have a Continuous Partial Attention slot: it's fun and game-like to immerse yourself in the flow of twitter and Facebook updates and to dip into the real time river. A time to reconnect and socialize and waste time browsing around. Just accept that your brain can only do so much of it and that you are not, actually, being productive. You're hanging out.
I don't care about the latest acquisition by X or investment by Y. I will let you know when I am on holidays and you will do without me for a week. I don't care about answering comments on my blog as they get posted. I decide where and when and how I interact. I decide when I am online and not the other way around.
[Voila. Written in one go with web shut off, 30 minutes, 15 minutes to find links and edit. 45 minutes round trip, but fun and interesting. And now back to work :-)]
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MARTIN LINDSTROM is a 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine's "World's 100 Most Influential People" and author of Buyology - Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Lindstrom is the CEO and Chairman of LINDSTROM Company and Chairman of BUYOLOGY INC. (New York and Tokyo) as well as BRAND sense Agency (London). 
Editor's note: Is Apple going too far with its restrictions on developers? 
Nowadays, buzz around brands on the news, blogs, tweets and other social media that spreads through product launches, PR campaigns, earnings reports are as valuable as traditional ad campaigns. But buzz and social dialogue on the web is tough to quantify. 
YouTube might be streaming more than 13 billion videos a month, or nearly 40 percent of total individual streams, but when you measure by time spent YouTube only accounted for 26 percent of all viewing minutes on the Web last year. It is not surprising that it commands a smaller share of time spent watching videos than number of streams watched, since most YouTube videos are so short. But what is surprising is how fragmented the Web video landscape remains once you go out past the top 25 sites.
According to comScore's 
With the continued success of 
It actually took longer than I would have expected for someone to come up with a good mocking of Google's "Parisian Love" 
Last year, Yahoo still dominated display advertising on the Web in terms of sheer number of ad impressions on its properties, but social networking sites MySpace and Facebook came on strong. Some new data from comScore in its just-released 
Since the launch of the 
Probably the most controversial thing about the blogging service 
We're big fans of 
From the New York Times
These days, 2.3 seconds seems to be the average time between sending out an email and getting a response. We live in a world of immediate interaction and a general information immersion and real-time availability. 
