Internet giant Google Inc. is considering a plan to offer paid cable-TV services to consumers, a move that could unleash a new wave of competition within the traditional TV business.
The discussions underscore the intensifying battle for control of the TV set. In recent years phone companies have jumped into a market previously dominated by cable-TV operators and satellite-TV providers. Now companies such as Amazon.com Inc. are bulking up their content offerings, while Apple Inc. and others are trying to reinvent the viewing experience with iPads and other devices, and potentially a new type of television set. Meanwhile, Comcast Corp. and other incumbent cable and satellite operators are fighting back, creating their own apps and lining up Internet-rights to programs that tie into their existing offline TV subscriptions.
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Saturday, November 5
Deals Top Social Marketing Driver
According to new research from Nielsen/McKinsey's NM Incite, the top reason for following or liking a brand, company or celebrity on social networking sites is to receive discounts and special offers, according to a recent survey of global online consumers conducted by Nielsen. In the U.S., NM Incite found that nearly 60% of social media users visit social networks to receive coupons or promotions, with 23% saying they do this on a weekly basis. At 45%, North American consumers showed the strongest interest in using social media for deals, followed by consumers in Asia-Pacific regions -- 34% -- and Latin America -- 33%.
Read more here
Read more here
CIA tracks revolt by Tweet, Facebook
In an anonymous industrial park, CIA analysts who jokingly call themselves the "ninja librarians" are mining the mass of information people publish about themselves overseas, tracking everything from common public opinion to revolutions.
The group's effort gives the White House a daily snapshot of the world built from tweets, newspaper articles and Facebook updates. The agency's Open Source Center sometimes looks at 5 million tweets a day. The center's several hundred analysts - the actual number is classified - track a broad range of subjects, including Chinese Internet access and the mood on the street in Pakistan. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become a key resource for following a fast-moving crisis.
Read more from AP here
The group's effort gives the White House a daily snapshot of the world built from tweets, newspaper articles and Facebook updates. The agency's Open Source Center sometimes looks at 5 million tweets a day. The center's several hundred analysts - the actual number is classified - track a broad range of subjects, including Chinese Internet access and the mood on the street in Pakistan. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become a key resource for following a fast-moving crisis.
Read more from AP here
Thursday, November 3
Facial Monitoring
Making online ads that not only know you are looking at them but also respond to your emotions will soon be possible, thanks to the power of image-processing software and the ubiquity of tiny cameras in computers and mobile devices.
Uses for this technology would not, of course, be confined to advertising. There is ample scope to deploy it in areas like security, computer gaming, education and health care. But admen are among the first to embrace the idea in earnest. That is because it helps answer, at least online, clients’ perennial carp: that they know half the money they spend on advertising is wasted, but they don’t know which half.
Advertising firms already film how people react to ads, usually in an artificial setting. This work is now moving online. Higher-quality cameras and smarter computer-vision software mean that volunteers can work from home and no longer need to wear clunky headgear.
One of the companies doing such work, Realeyes, which is based in London, has been developing a system that combines eye-spying webcams with emotional analysis. In fact, webcams that monitor a person’s heart rate are soon to appear. To calculate the heart rate the camera detects tiny changes in the colour of the skin.
Read more here
Uses for this technology would not, of course, be confined to advertising. There is ample scope to deploy it in areas like security, computer gaming, education and health care. But admen are among the first to embrace the idea in earnest. That is because it helps answer, at least online, clients’ perennial carp: that they know half the money they spend on advertising is wasted, but they don’t know which half.
Advertising firms already film how people react to ads, usually in an artificial setting. This work is now moving online. Higher-quality cameras and smarter computer-vision software mean that volunteers can work from home and no longer need to wear clunky headgear.
One of the companies doing such work, Realeyes, which is based in London, has been developing a system that combines eye-spying webcams with emotional analysis. In fact, webcams that monitor a person’s heart rate are soon to appear. To calculate the heart rate the camera detects tiny changes in the colour of the skin.
Read more here
Wednesday, November 2
Amazon’s Flow iPhone App Brings Augmented Reality To Barcode Scanning And Product Search
Amazon subsidiary A9.com has just launched a new augmented reality iPhone app—Flow Powered by Amazon. Flow uses augmented reality to help users explore and discover tens of millions of products in a real world setting... to give shoppers interactive product information about these items in the real world. You can point the app toward a book, video game, CD, DVD or other product with a UPC barcode. When the app recognized the product, it will display the Amazon.com product information, including the option to play multimedia content and read customer reviews.
For some products, you’ll be able to see trailers and other media previews in the app. Flow will also save all of the history of the items scanned.
Read more here
For some products, you’ll be able to see trailers and other media previews in the app. Flow will also save all of the history of the items scanned.
Read more here
Newspaper Circs Sink Again
Many of the nation’s large and mid-sized regional newspapers saw their daily circulation figures decrease between September 2010 and September 2011, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Although there were some notable exceptions, with several newspapers reporting big increases in weekday circulation, the general trend continues the downward slope in evidence over the last decade.
Read more here
Although there were some notable exceptions, with several newspapers reporting big increases in weekday circulation, the general trend continues the downward slope in evidence over the last decade.
Read more here
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