Counting the real Second Life population

As of today, Second Life counts 2,341,910 residents, as defined as "uniquely named avatars with the right to log in to Second Life, trade currency and visit the community pages". Critics make the distinction between registered users and active users, using a 10% conversion rate (confirmed by Linden Labs). This puts the number of Second-Lifers in the 200,000 to 230,000 range only. See CNet article.

GigaOm commented on the topic a while ago. Read the comments.

Tags: second life

French protest against 2007

Hundreds of protesters in Nantes (France) marched in the New Year waving banners reading: "No to 2007" and "Now is better!". Give it a few more days guys, the government will cave in and roll back the year.

Via BBC.

PS: Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you for keeping up with my erratic posting schedule.

'Paris Syndrome' strikes Japanese

Dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what's become known as "Paris syndrome"...

Tags: paris, japan

Pay per post is a no go

My friend Farhan forwarded me a link to Rockstartup (web 2.0. reality TV…). They are following up “the Internet's next monster company” payperpost.com “from its initial concept to international fame.”

I do not like the concept of pay-per-post at all.

If you are a business, you cannot win. A blogger can trash your product and get paid for it. A blogger can rave about your product but who will believe what he/she says? They are being paid after all. There is an irreconcilable conflict between providing independent opinions about a product and being paid to talk about a product. You just cannot be independent if you are paid by the company those products you are reviewing. As a customer, who are you going to trust? If there is no trust, what is the point to get bloggers talking about your product? The whole think sounds desperate. Are your products so bad or insignificant that you need to pay people to talk about them? If you want to be seen on blogs, join a blog advertising network or Adsense.

The only upside is that you get nice text links in context to your site, thus boost your search engines ranking. Other than that: avoid.

Tags: pay-per-post, rockstartup

Skype to launch Web TV service

Quality TV programmes for free to consumers who have a broadband Internet connection. Next year. Reuters.

Time Magazine person of the year: You

Article.

Sony PSP: All I want for Xmas is a real blog

Sony America has admitted that a blog from "real life PSP fans" was in fact part of a marketing campaign. Sony: "Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP."

Via GamesIndustry.biz

Children swap music via phones

A survey of almost 1,500 eight to 13-year-olds found almost a third shared music via their mobiles. via BBC
Will the music industry push for a tax on mobile phones or children?

YouTube? You Leave!

StarHub employees fired and disciplined for " misconduct in our office premise" after posting funny video clips on YouTube. Via ChannelNewsAsia.

Tags: youtube

BBC: My science fiction life

The BBC is running a special feature on Science Fiction on its website. You can submit your favourite book, comic, film, TV series... The highlight is a science fiction Flash timeline from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to "Children of Men". You are invited to contribute and send your recollections/comments on science fiction classics. I cannot get the Flash version to work in Firefox or Explorer so here is a link to the static timeline, organised by decades.

Tags: bbc, scifi

France 24, a French CNN?

Just launched: http://www.france24.com/live/ exclusively online now (in English, French and Arabic).

NY Times: The Future of Online Advertising Is in the UK

I am in the Big Apple today for a workshop on Marcomms/Netcoms integration. Just read this in the NY Times: "Online advertising is racing ahead in Britain, growing at a roughly 40 percent annual rate, and is expected to account for as much as 14 percent of overall ad spending this year, according to media buying agencies. That is the highest level in the world, and more than double the percentage in the United States". See NY Times article which has more interesting data comparisons.

Tags: advertising

Need help with UK regional accents?

Listen in to the diverse voices of the British Isles: 1,200 people talking about language – slang, dialect, taboo words, accents and all sorts of subjects. Only on the BBC.

Tags: bbc

Virtual communities as important as real-world counterparts

The Center for the Digital Future surveyed 2,000 US based individuals about their attitudes to the web. Some results from survey respondents:

• Web consistently outrank TV as major source of entertainment and information
• Respondents spent an average of 8.9 hours a week online (1 hour more than in 2005)
• 43% feel"as strongly" about their web community as they do about real-world friends
• Each respondent made an average of 4.65 virtual friend this year
• 40% were using the web to stay in contact with people
• 37.7% believed the web allowed them to communicate more with friends and family
• 12.5% maintain their own website
• 7.4% kept a blog
• 23.6% posted pictures online

Report abstract (in PDF)

Human brain responds to strong brands differently

Strong and recognized brands create activity in parts of human brain linked to self-identity and reward, according to a study by a team of German scientists. Article.

Tags: marketing, brands, brain

Guy Kawasaki's Venture Capital Aptitude Test

Should MBA grads get into Venture Capital? Guy Kawasaki has a wonderful answer:

"Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first one."

Find out why on his blog post and take his Venture Capital Aptitude Test.

Tags: VC, venture capital, kawasaki, mba

ING Direct: the art of breaking bad news

The Bank of England raised the base rate from 4.75% to 5%. ING Direct decided not to follow this increase for their saving rate. As an ING Direct customer, I was of course disappointed... until I received this email:

"At ING Direct we want to offer all our customers a consistently good rate. On this occasion this means we have made the decision to maintain our ING Direct Savings Account interest rate at 4.75% AER*.

While some people may be willing to follow headline-grabbing rates, we know from talking to our customers that the majority prefer their savings to be earning consistently and want to relax knowing they don't have to constantly check Best Buy tables. "

I feel more relaxed now as I know I will be earning less but consistently so. Thank you ING.

Pontiac Motoratilife in Second Life

A cryptic title to link to the Pontiac Motoratilife blog covering the company's activities in Second Life. Jimmy Kimmel, car races and mashup DJs. Nice program.

Tags: second life, pontiac, motoratilife

Every Bond Movie Trailers

Watch trailers from every Bond movies. Courtesy of Kevin Kelly.

French more active European bloggers according to Forrester

• 3% of online Europeans blog.
• France, Italy and Spain combined = 57% of European bloggers. Germany is only 13%.
• France leads the pack with one million active bloggers (don't know how they define "active blogger").

Could not find the original survey online. Anyone?

Article in French on Journal du Net.

Be a winner, not a sinner!

This post may only appeal to Londoners who pass by Oxford Circus on their way to work or shop. One man has been a stalwart of the West-End landscape for nearly a decade: he has a megaphone and relentlessly preaches about Jesus with his famous catchphrase: "Be a winner, not a sinner" to the amusement and irritation of anyone at hearing distance. B3ta.com, a satirical online community is running an interview with London’s most famous street-preacher. While I will keep my non-beliefs to myself, I am encouraging you to read this excellent interview to discover the man behind the apparent madness. Thumbs up for B3ta.com and Phil: they both try to make the world a better place. One by making us laugh and the other by making us think.

UK's fourth largest religion, Jedi Knights demands UN recognition

In the 2001 UK Census 390,000 people listed their religion as Jedi Knight making it the fourth biggest belief in the country. Now they are delivering a protest letter to the UN for official recognition. May the force be with them.

New bus lanes in Manchester

Who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Viral here.

Blogging in Europe: Brits least aware, France rocks, blogs more trusted than television.

Research by Ipsos Mori found that only 50% of UK residents have heard of blogs compared to 90% in France, 58% in Italy, 55% in Germany and 51% in Spain. Other findings from the research:

• 30% polled consider newspaper most trusted media, 24% favoured blog, 17% television and 14% email marketing.
• 52% said they are more likely to buy a product if they have read a positive review online.
• 34% said they opted-out of buying a product because of negative reviews online.

Press release here. Article here. First read in PR Week, 10th of November.

Tags: blogs, europe

Euroblog 2007 Survey

If you are a Public Relations or Communications practitioner and working in Europe, please take part in this survey and share your opinion on the impact of weblogs and social software on public relations and communication management. All participants have the opportunity to register for a free summary of the results at the end of the survey. Survey link.

Social bookmarking services review

Article on Wired. Highest rating went to ma.gnolia (well deserved). Via Micro-Persuasion.

Tags: social bookmarking

I want a winepod for Christmas

A winepod is a state-of-the-art fermentation, pressing, and ageing personal wine making unit. It is designed like a cocoon, packed with interactive features (you can control temperature, post videos, connect with other winepod users...) and it holds 57 litres of wine (average consumption in UK is about 12 litres - 49 liters for France - so you and your friends won't run out.. of good things to say about the Winepod).

The Dark Side of Social Media

Rohit Bhargava comments on the risks for consumers to be turned off from blogs, who supposed to be genuine voices but who are increasingly tainted by "flogs" and "astroturfing". His 5 lessons:
- Be as transparent as you can
- Don't be affraid to admit you are marketing,
- Understand who your detractors are and assume they will always hate you
- Make sure you have supporters that will fight for you
- Listen, participate and respond

Add social bar on blogger.com

VideoWrap has written a nice piece of code to insert into your Blogger.com template to allow your readers to automatically bookmark to Digg, Del.icio.us, ReddIt, Slashdot, Furl, Newsvine and Yahoo. I am trying it on this blog.

The nail that stands out will be hammered down

The Internet Society of China has recommended to the government that bloggers be required to use their real names when they register blogs. CNN Technology.

Teenagers, MySpace, Google: the tale of an imperfect web

Dr. Sam Vaknin writes on how Google, MySpace, Blogspot and Wikipedia feed on each other and distort natural positioning in search engines. For example if website A has 700 incoming links from 700 different websites and website B has 700 incoming links, all of them from various pages on MySpace, website B will be ranked higher in Google's search results.

He concludes that since MySpace users are predominantly teenagers, they are the ones who control which websites feature in Google's first results, therefore control the web.

Via Steve Rubel

Tags: google, seo, wikipedia, myspace, blogspot

South Korea invents the "wifelogger"

Korean housewives are keen on blogging. They are known as "wifeloggers", earning fame and apparently US$2,000 monthly on average from their online diaries . See article on Channel News Asia (Singapore). Interesting facts about South Korea (SK):

• 2/3rd of SK's homemakers are online
• 300,000 are active bloggers
  
• Internet users in SK prefer pictures over text and videos over still photographs
• They spend an average of 47 hours online every month, highest after Israelis and Finns.
  

Tags: asia, south korea, blogs

Nissan won defamation lawsuit against French blogger

Stephanie Gonier is an ex-Nissan executive. She took parental leave and was unhappy about how she was treated when she came back. She started a blog where she recorded her story including scans of her correspondence with the company, culminating to her dismissal. Nissan took the matter to court. While the tribunal acknowledged her right to self-expression, she published personal data about her colleagues, violating their right to privacy and was accused of defamation.

Via Liberation (in French)

Tags: nissan, blogger, france

Advertising and the end of the world

Fantastic documentary from Sut Jhally that was shown in an elective at school. A video preview can be found on Youtube as well as on the Media Education Foundation website.The documentary’s main points can be found here .

Tags: advertising, jhally

Wal-marting across America

Business Week runs a feature on “fake blog” Wal-marting across America. A few years ago, many A-List bloggers woke-up up the PR world to the blogosphere with calls for transparency and genuine engagement. I learned a lot from them. Today, most comments on this story revolve around disclosing your relationships with your clients, or any parties central to the topic of your blog, disclosing being paid for blogging or sponsorship as well as lack of response from interested parties. I don’t have enough information to comment and I don’t want to (my employer is a competitor to Edelman so it will be misinterpreted) but surely we should know better by now?

Tags: wal-mart, blogosphere

Web overtakes newspapers in Europe

According to Jupiter Research, Europeans spend four hours per week online on average compared to three hours reading newspapers and magazines. France, which has the highest rate of broadband access, has the highest average number of hours spent online per week.

I tried to locate the research paper, an abstract or even the original news release on Jupiter's website but I was overwhelmed by cluttered information, poor usability and slow response time.

via Brand Republic

Tags: jupiter, media_consumption, media, europe

Youtube: a message from Chad and Steve

The rumour is confirmed. Google did buy Youtube. Is that the end for Google video? A message from Chad and Steve: thank you, we'll develop more functionality, all for the community. My personal note: I followed youtube since the beginning and I am addicted. Don't turn it into advertising galore and keep the edge. Well done.

Tags: youtube, google

Current TV comes to the UK next spring

Current TV is like youtube, but on television. It's user generated, there are editors who choose what goes on air but mostly people vote for what they want to see and it's a pretty unique experiment. It's founded by Al Gore (the man who invented the Internet then redeemed himself by saving the planet through his excellent documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" - which I cannot stop recommending to any living being unfortunate enough to cross my path).

Current TV is coming to the UK through BSkyB next spring says the Sunday Times. Another bastion of old media falling under users' control.

Tags: CGM, IPTV, currentTV

Google to buy Youtube for $1.6Bn?

If you can't beat them, join them. The rumour goes.

Tags: google, web2.0, youtube

Bournemouth University's CEMP is wiki-ing too!

Following on my post on Standford's wiki, David Phillips pointed me to the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice's wiki from Bournemouth University.

One of my favourite feature is the "dialogue box", a visual forum where you can see which way opinion is swinging, and individual comments. I like the interface and see that working well for some online polls for marketing clients.



I am taking this opportunity to apologise for my lack of frequent (and quality) postings to my readers. Juggling work, studies and family life is hard and often what gets sacrificed is social life, offline and online.

Stanford starts a Wiki

Steve Rubel's comments and link.

Good opportunity to remind of the London Business School blogging community.

Tags: mba, wiki

All talk, no digital

Campaign (UK print edition, 29th of September) is running a special report on "how good are advertising agencies' digital departments". It is a topic close to my heart as I spent 4 years with Grey Interactive in Paris then London. In a nutshell, the report is a tale of deception. There is much talk of integration but few agencies have credible in-house interactive capabilities or truly partner with their digital counterparts. It is rather ironic considering that back in the late 90s, we all thought that the stand-alone full service interactive agency would have disappeared by now, absorbed by big ad agencies who would have wisen up to the trade. Reading the report, it seems pretty far off. Here is Campaign’s verdict. The first figure is how the agency rates itself, the second how Campaign rated them. 1 is for poor, 7 for outstanding. For the narrative bit, you’ll have to buy or steal the magazine.

• AMV BBDO: 5/3
• BBH: 7/6
• CHI: 6/3
• DDB: 6/5
• Euro RSCG: 6/3
• Grey: 5/3
• JWT: 3/2
• Leo Burnett: 5/3
• Lowe London: 5/2
• M&C Saatchi: 5/4
• McCann Erickson: 4/3
• Mother: 6/6
• Ogilvy & Mather: 6/6
• Publicis: 4/4
• RKCR/Y&R: 4/2
• Saatchi & Saatchi: 4/4
• TBWA: 5/2
• WCRS: 5/4

I’d like to see that for PR agencies now. PR Week anyone?

Tags: advertising

kartoo: visual search engine

Kartoo.com maps your search engine results. I like the interface and the connections between search results.

Tags: kartoo

Kermitt the frog enters the matrix

Great animation piece: The Muppet Matrix.

Tags: muppet matrix, mashups, matrix

An Inconvenient Truth

I saw it last week-end in London. It certainly doesn't leave you indifferent. Read the facts on the official website, check-out the blog for updates, go and see the movie or rent the DVD when it will be released. Invite your colleagues, your friends, your family, and your children. Spread the word and help make a difference before it is too late.

Tags: inconvenient truth, climate change, global warming, environment

How to pretend to listen when playing with your Blackberry

Attend Dogbert's communication seminar.

Tags: fun

I am not blogging in India...

In case you wonder why I am so quiet, I am doing a study trip with the London Business School in India. It involves doing an audit in a local company for a week with presentation to their management and to our school. While in Mumbai, I had the pleasure to meet up with a fellow PR practitioner who happens to read my blog!

I am back in the UK next Thursday.

Download free books with Google Books

Google launched Google Books. Full download is restricted to public domain books (copyright free or expired). It is similar to Project Gutenberg which has 19,000 free ebooks for download. Google's value is that you can search any books like you search websites.

Search Engine Watch does a great review of the service.

Tags: google books

Myspace users balk at phony profiles, advertising

There seems to be growing complaints about Myspace getting "too commercialised". We are talking here about fake profiles "in which brands can create their own pages and have their own friends list". It reminds me of Mazda or Captain Morgan.

Rachel Honig, from Digital Power & Light comments: "(...) at some point the fictional character isn't going to be able to interact with you anymore, and the novelty will wear off (...) As a marketer, it's all about creating a long and meaningful relationship with the consumer, and if you leave them feeling sort of cheated, as it were, that's not helping."

The Online Media Daily points to a Universal McCann survey that found that only 10% of users said corporate messaging in blogs "can add value to my experience."

Tags: Myspace, advertising

How web 2.0. aware are you?

My colleague Guy sent me this "web 2.0 Awareness test".

Tags: web 2.0

Advertisers wary of advertising on social networks

New Media Age (Print edition – 24.08.06) carries a short article on how major advertisers are wary of putting ads in social network sites. The main concerns are that brands could be seen in an "inappropriate context" and could be “destroyed by teenagers”. Control, control and old models...

I like Jeremy Verba’s quote: “Brand marketers will go where the audience is (…) when MTV and cable TV launched, advertisers didn’t want to be there.”

Google Myspace deal

Google will provide search and ads to MySpace. Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corp: "The real potential for a home run is combining Google technology with our demographic information".

Article on Marketing Vox

Tags: google, myspace

Agency.com's extra cheesy pitch video to Subway goes viral

I came across this story through Steve’s bellicose posting. I started to write a contrarian post to defend Agency.com’s much mocked-after video pitch to Subway, diligently posted on Youtube for the world and its viruses to enjoy. However, after reading comments on AdFreak, Adrants and on Youtube, I changed my mind. There is ground for reputational damages.

I thought that the clip’s cheesiness was a cultural trait but to my relief, most bloggers across the pond found it heavy to digest too. Yet, I do like the idea of doing a pitch video of a team doing a pitch video and I can see while a client would like to work with such motivated, jargon-savvy and enthusiastic team. There is nothing remotely interesting happening throughout this 9 minutes movie. It’s like watching “The Office” without the irony. Yet it was viewed 20,720 times since it was posted 2 days ago (that’s a big number). It attracted 170 comments (that’s big too, even if we minus the agency’s staff). It certainly didn’t let its viewers indifferent... and that is the snag: this viral effect was fuelled by derision.

This will impact Agency.com’s credibility and could drag Subway’s down too, by association. A perfect example: Coudal, a Chicago based integrated agency made a spoof video where they take the piss of Agency.com’s movie while spitting out Subway’s sandwiches. I could see that easily snowballing into an Agency.com & Subway spoof video parody frenzy. Both brands will not escape unscathed. I hope that Agency.com gets the business to bring a happy ending to this.

Tags: Agency.com, subway, viral, video, advertising

The Long Tail explained in video

The London Blogging School

London Business School launched its own blog. It is designed for MBA applicants who want to know more about life as part of the London Business School community. The site is managed by the MBA Admissions Team with content provided by students and alumni.

Very proud!

Via Divine Miss N

Tags: london business school, MBA, lbs

Advertisers' opportunities in video-games

Following from my previous post on in-games advertising, I found this video from bruceprokopets showcasing different ad formats for video-games. Nice work and there is a CNBC report thrown in too.

Tags: in-games advertising, advertising, games

Youniversal Branding: in-games advertising and online communities

A superb and comprehensive report from trendwatching on opportunities available for brand in games and virtual worlds. There are several case studies mentioned but I will just highlight some numbers here:

• More than 100 million people worldwide log on every month to play interactive computer games (source: NYT, December 2005).
• Gaming is, for gamers, the third-most-popular use of media entertainment in the last week, after watching TV (96%) and listening to music (94%) (source: Mediaedge:cia, December 2005).
• In 2005, advertisers spent approximately $56M placing ads in video games, up from $34 in 2004.
• In-game advertising results in a 60 percent increase in awareness for a new product and animated 3-D ads achieve twice the recall of static billboards (Nielsen Interactive Entertainment)

Tags: games, advertising, online communities, virtual worlds, trendwatching

It's me and me again!

I rarely comment on my public speaking engagements or publishing mentions but I decided to be more upfront. So with a total lack of subtlety, I am pointing out to two recent contributions: an article on blogs in Corp Comms magazine and a merit award for Atticus, WPP's thought-leadership magazine for the piece I submitted to Global PR Blog Week 2.0. last year. Apparently it will be published in the next issue.

It has been a long time...

Since my last post. I have been incredibly busy with work, travel (for work) and studies, finishing my third term core courses exams. Two words: corporate finance... I am starting my electives with our summer school, and it does feel like summer. Nothing to do with workload as we have courses throughout the day, and often assignments to hand out for the next day, but because we are enjoying the heatwave that is striking the UK. I am very much looking forward to my first weekend without any homework sine the beginning of this year and will be back blogging next week.

Hitler Cats

Only on the web, a blog dedicated to cats that look like Hitler....

It's France v. Portugal in the semi final!

And they did it without stamping on any Brazilian! The sky is the limit now... I see a France v. Germany final, which doesn't bode well for us as we always struggled against the Germans (no pun intended here).

Tags: world cup, france

Chinese blog more popular than Boing Boing

The directory of wonderful things lost its crown as most popular blog to an online diary by Xu Jing Lei.

Tags: xujinglei, boing boing, technorati

5 reasons why social networks fail, succeed

Tristan Louis gives us 5 reasons why social networks fail and 5 reasons why social networks can succeed.

I would add that social networks can fail or succeed depending on whether they attract the right type of crowd at the first place, then balance members quality and quantity. Example: if you and your friends joined a social network, only to find out that the coolest kids in your class are on another one, will you switch? Most likely because cool people will attract more cool people. This networking effect is behind the success of Linkedin, who has many members at VP level and above. So if I were to look for a job, would I go to the place where VPs hang out or just any social network as long as it has loads of functionality?

Tags: social network, social networks, linkedin

Geoportail: exclusive picture

I managed to get as far as the homepage. One day I hope to click on these promising maps of exotic places such as St-Martin, Wallis and Futuna or even "la France continentale".

Tags: geoportail, planning a website launch, anticipating traffic

Geoportail offers closer look on France (when working).

The French government launched a rival to Google Earth in France with more detailed maps and photographies of the French territory. The service, a joint project by the National Geographic Institute and the Office of Geological and Mineral Research is called Geoportail and it went down a few hours after launch due to an"unforeseen number of visitors". I wanted to use this post to question the role of public funds v. private sector for such initiatives or highlight the lack of an English translation on the temporary error message but I am in a bad mood and rather keep my praises for the actual service, when it will work.

Tags: google earth, geoportail

Geoportail offers closer look on France (when working).

The French government launched a rival to Google Earth in France with more detailed maps and photographies of the French territory. The service, a joint project by the National Geographic Institute and the Office of Geological and Mineral Research is called Geoportail and it went down a few hours after launch due to an"unforeseen number of visitors". I wanted to use this post to question the role of public funds v. private sector for such initiatives or highlight the lack of an English translation on the temporary error message but I am in a bad mood and rather keep my praises for the actual service, when it will work.

Tags: google earth, geoportail

Cannes Lions Advertising Festival Slams Google on Failure to Build Brands

From Publishing 2.0. quoting an article from the FT where the Chief Executive of Mediavest USA admonishes Google for not putting enough branding in its search results. Google and Yahoo! push back and argue that traditional agencies and clients need a bit more "self education".

I understand Mediavest's concerns: they are not making a lot of money when their clients spend their media budgets on Google AdWords v. TV or online ads. And yes, most advertisers are still in the dark as to how AdWords work.

Yet, to advertisers 1.0's credits, their brand (and clickthroughs to their sites) would certainly benefit from having pictures or videos displayed in search results. Google AdSense already does that with click-to-play video ads. When searching for designer perfume, to use Publishing 2.0. 's example, I could tolerate some visual ads in the sponsored results. This is the thin line between providing me with relevant information and enticing me to click and as long as these two do not contradict each other, why not? Note of caution: I would recommend Google to test whether its users would accept seeing Google’s purist white layout turned into a billboard before wide-scale rollout…In the meantime, advertisers will have to relearn writing compelling copy.

Tags: Cannes Lions, advertising, google, cannes

Marketing to avatars: American Apparel opens in Second-Life

American Apparel opened a store in virtual world Second-Life (via Micro-Persuasion)

Business week ran a comprehensive article last month on Second-Life highlighting business opportunities and how companies are seeing more than fun and games when looking at virtual worlds.

Harvard Business Review has an excellent article on "Marketing to Avatars"

Tags: american apparel, second-life, avatars, virtual world, marketing

Italy 1 - USA 1

I just caught the last half of the Italy v. US game. I usually tend to cheer for the underdogs and it is not very often that the US are underdogs but in football. They really fought it and came to a draw (thanks to Keller among others), earning a precious point to keep them in the cup. Congratulations to my american friends and readers. Now you've got a reason to watch the "soccer".

Pentagon to tap social networks?

The National Security Agency is funding research into harvesting information people post about themselves on social networks and online communities and could possibly combine these with other data to build extensive personal individual profiles. Sounds like a big brotherish conspiracy theory but the Centre for Research on Globalisation that published this article states the New Scientist as it sources. We know who you are hAcKEr345!

Tags: pentagon, nsa, privacy, social networks, online communities

Social Media: Big Numbers

From ComScore Media Metrix, unique visitors in may 2006:

1. MYSPACE.COM: 51,441,000
2. Classmates.com: 14,792,000
3. FACEBOOK.COM: 14,069,000
4. YOUTUBE.COM: 12,669,000
5. MSN Spaces: 9,566,000
6. XANGA.COM: 7,146,000
7. FLICKR.COM: 5,163,000
8. Yahoo! 360°: 4,936,000
9. LIVEJOURNAL.COM: 3,904,000
10. MYYEARBOOK.COM: 3,048,000

I am lazy to copy it but look at ComScore Media Metrix's press release as it also includes the top 50 websites in the US per number of unique visitors. You'll need these figures the next time you try to convice a client that there is a world outside press releases.

First seen at Steve Rubel's.

Tags: Myspace, Classmates.com, facebook, youtube, xanga, MSN Spaces, Flickr, Yahoo, livejournal, comscore, media metrix

Tagfetch

Tagfetch retrieves and displays on one single page all content listed on various sites for the tag you are searching for. Handy time saver.

Via Steve Rubel who retrieves and displays on one single blog all new applications you are searching for. Handy time saver.

Tags: tagfetch

Diet coke + mentos = unhappy brand managers

There has been a renewed interest in practical science recently as seen in hundreds of video clips demonstrating that if you drop a mentos into a bottle of diet coke, a natural chemical reaction occurs and turns a refreshing carbonated beverage into a spectacular geyser. The story was even featured in Monday's issue of the WSJ. Coke's reaction has not been very enthusiastic: "It's an entertaining phenomenon ... [but] doesn't fit with the brand personality of Diet Coke". I sympathise, it is a far cry for Diet Coke's more feminine and sophisticated image. But it is very entertaining. Rich Smith thinks Coca Cola should capitalise on this user generated trend instead of snubbing it.

Yet another example of consumers 2.0. derailing a campaign from traditional advertisers' carefully laid out tracks.

Tags: mentos coca cola, mentos coke

Is the blogosphere too US centric? Technorati's World Cup's tags say no.

Today's Technorati's hot tags:

1. world cup
2. Zarqawi
3. Microsoft
4. Football
5. soccer
6. Iraq
7. Bush
8. England

Given football's popularity in the US, we can assume that:

• Joga.com, the Nike - Google's social network for football fans is becoming popular,
• US brands are integrating blogs into their world cup themed sponsorships,
• Like the World Cup, the blogosphere is becoming a global level playing field.

Tags: world cup, blogosphere, joga, nike, google

Au delà du PR: Beyond PR goes global.

Beyond PR is now mispelled in Franglais, Italian (Soprano style), Spanglish, Beginner's Chinese, Japlish and World Cup tourist German.

Thanks to Trevor Cook who gave me this bad idea from looking at his excellent blog.

Blogger spreadsheet screenshot

Got my invite yesterday. Unfortunately, I had and have very little time to review it. It looks to be comprehensive enough for basic Excel usage though. I haven't located the charting options yet but the sharing options are shown on the right hand side. Instead of a thorough review, I am posting a pretty picture (typical marketing guy really...).

Tags: google spreadsheet

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia... the fear of number 666!

Today is the 6th of June 2006, the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year... If you suffer from Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, the fear of number 666, you should not join thousands of bloggers who pushed 666 has the hottest technorati tag today. Unfortunately, it will be harder to avoid "The Omen"'s remake and the launch of hundreds of books, albums, parties with a "number of the beast" theme.

Al Lewis sums it up nicely: "It's good day to hawk books, films, CDs, beer or anything else - because if there's a devil, he's got to love marketers". See his article.

If 666 is the number of the beast, did you know that:

• 670 is the approximate number of the Beast
• /666 is the Beast Common Denominator
• $665.95 is the retail price of the Beast
• 666 F is the oven temperature for roast Beast

For more insights into 666.

Tags: 666, Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

Google launches spreadsheet application

Sneak peek here. I am a heavy Excel user now, thanks to the London Business School so I will definitely try it when it is released to compare. Noteworthy from Google's early description:

• Choose who can access your spreadsheets.

Just enter the email addresses of the people you want to share a given document, and then send them a message.

• Share documents instantly.

People with whom you share a given spreadsheet can access it as soon as they sign in.

• Edit with others in real time.

Multiple people can edit or view your spreadsheet at the same time as you - their names will appear in an on-screen chat window.

• Edit from anywhere.

There's nothing to download; you access your spreadsheets from any computer with an Internet connection and a supported browser.

• Never lose your work.

Online storage and auto-save mean you need not fear hard drive failures and power outages.

Via Damien Mulley

Tags: google spreadsheet, google, excel

No man is an island

Cheyenne Morrison sells private islands for a living and has a blog. Just what the doctor ordered for a monday morning in the office.

Create technorati tags automatically in Blogger with Greasemonkey script for Firefox.

Works for Firefox.

1. Go to a consuming experience
2. Follow instructions

Cheeky monkey but if I can do it, so can you. It's simple and well explained.

Tags: technorati, firefox, script, greasemonkey, blogger, tags

7 millions French web users read a blog once a month

According to Mediametrie (French audience rating agency), 27.6% of French web users visit blogs at least once a month. . 4 millions wrote comments and 3 millions created their own blog.

Most popular blog platforms are Skyblogs (from radio station Skyrock) with 4.17 millions visitors, followed by MSN Spaces (2.95 millions visitors), OverBlog (2.32 millions), Six Apart (1.87), Blogger (1.56) and BlogSpirit (1.3).

Article in French at ZDNet.fr

Mediametrie report in PDF here (en francais)

Problem: One thousand paintings and counting.

Sala is a young artist living in Zurich. He paints 1,000 paintings representing numbers 1 to 1,000 and sells them on his website. The price is computed as the difference between 1,000 and the number represented. Discounts apply but decrease by 10% for every 100 paintings sold. Sala's website was picked-up by Boing Boing and Seth Godin's blog, both high traffic blogs. The local Swiss press ignores him. Sala calls it an experiment in mathematics and art. Joel thinks he is brilliant.

How long will it take him to sell one million pixels?

Nikon Owns Flickr

At least for the time of an ad campaign, where Nikon banners will be displayed on Flickr and a dedicated Nikon gallery will showcase Nikon pictures. Mediapost highlights that it is the first time a major campaign (outside Yahoo! search ads) runs on Flickr. Steve Rubel thinks the move could alienate non Nikon users as photo enthusiasts tend to be loyal to one brand.

I agree. Flickr is a community and therefore belongs to its members, not to a single brand. There is a danger of backlash. While I like the idea and I am sure Nikon will run a great campaign, my advice to whoever is running it is to make sure the campaign is not too intrusive and respect the community spirit, as would any members. Seth Godin's permission marketing principles come to mind: an opt-in to see ads on Flickr for community members is now needed.

Newspaper Industry: Deep Depressing Dive

This is how Merryl Lynch titled its report on the US newspaper industry. The culprit? media consumption habits are changing (more screen, less paper) and advertising/classifieds business is moving online. Interestingly, the report's analyst think that when they push their online services, newspapers are underpricing. My personal experience talking to newspaper ads sales guy is that they will throw in the online ad if you book ads in their paper... Time to rethink that business model.

Via Mediapost

I enjoyed reading more about this from Adhurl who thinks Mr. Murdoch ultimately has a plan (MySpace?) and Maddie Hanna.

Bloggers can shield sources from Apple

A year ago, I blogged about how Apple was forcing some bloggers to reveal their sources via the courts. Apple won the first ruling but a court of appeal just reversed that judgement: bloggers, like traditional reporters, have the right to keep their sources confidential. See article on SFGate.com

LSE Study: WOM drives business growth

The London School of Economics (LSE) compared the results of a telephone survey on a random sample UK consumers against the 2003 and 2004 sales data from companies mentioned in the survey. They found that word-of-mouth, both positive and negative were statistically significant predictors of sales growth.

• A 7% increase in WOM advocacy (willingness to recommend a product) unlocks 1 per cent additional company growth.
• A 2% reduction in negative word of mouth boosts sales growth by 1 per cent.

See press release on LSE's website.

BBC News: wrong expert interviewed

Guy Coma went to the BBC to attend a job interview as an IT manager and ended up being interviewed live on the Apple v. Apple case when he was mistaken for Guy Kewney, editor of Newswireless.net

He looks a bit baffled (to say the least) but managed to answer three questions...

Story on BBC
Video on ">youtube (thanks to another Guy for the link).

Google Trends: Search Analytics

Google just launched Google Trends and I already like it. You can visualise search volume for up to 5 queries over time. You can sort results by years, cities, countries and languages. You can do comparative searches. See my example on comparing searches for French cars in France. It seems to match with market shares.

The bonus is that Google maps news stories (from its Google News service) on the graph so you can see correlations between news and searches. A news volume graph is also displayed underneath the search volume graph.

Google explains that the results are extrapolation from a sample, therefore cannot be entireley accurate.

Considering that 81% of consumers aged 30 to 64 years old use the web to research products or services (Pew Internet Survey 2005), I can see Google trends being used for "share of searches" (share of voice) over time to assess popularity of brands and products or look at the impact of marketing campaigns. It is fair to assume that more people should search for a particular brand after an awareness campaign is being aired (or PR through media coverage on Google News). You could roughly compare how this trend matches sales volume.

YouTube launch mobile upload service

YouTube members can now shoot video clips with their mobile phones and e-mail them to YouTube, where the clips are automatically posted under their profile. Another step in the citizen media direction. And the announcement is already in Technorati's top ten searches.

Via cnet

Newspaper sales dip, but websites gain

According to the Newspaper Association of America, newspapers circulation declined 2.5% in the six months ending March 31 compared to the same period last year while visits to their websites grew. Story on USA today.

Via Micropersuasion

Wired online video guide is a must read

Wired put together the definitive guide to online videos and vlogs in its May issue.
See the new networks for video portals, Watch this way for animations, diaries, documentaries and vlogs for... well for vlogs.

As a bonus: a guide to making your own clips.

The impact of blogging has reached a tipping point

See article on BBC online from Julian Smith, senior analyst at Jupiter Research. Noteworthy quote:

"When a company's marketing story differs from the one being told by online consumers, a credibility gap will emerge that could have dire consequences on brand perception and favourability. "

Biggest task is alignment then but that often goes way beyond PR agencies remit...

BTW, I just came back from a fantastic social media event organised by my colleagues and friends at Digital PR in Milan. More on that Monday when I'll have more time to blog (study, study...)

AQA: Any Question Answered

If you live in the UK, you can text any question you have to 63336 and get an answer back. The service is provided by Issuebits Ltd and combines search technology and human researchers. When meeting someone for the first time, try texting "who is" and their full name" to get a lead in the conversation.

Podcasts: a legal guide

Colette Vogele, with some help from the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet & Society and other contributors have released a legal guide to podcasting.

This will save you thousands in legal fees.

Via New Media Musing

Google sketchup gives a second life to Google earth

Google just released Google Sketchup, a free 3D modelling software that allows you to create objects (house, trees, spaceships...) you can import in Google Earth and share with others. Business 2.0. thinks that Google could venture into Second Life's territory. As it stands, the application currently lacks the avatar creation, animation and interaction that makes second life literally come to life. But it could be a step in that direction. It is also a clever way to get users more involved, both in time spent and emotionally with Google Earth, beyond its initial novelty factor. Inviting other users to visit your house will certainly contribute to increase Google Earth's network effect and draw in more users/more usage. I wonder if this will kick-start a range of new virtual careers, a la Second Life where talented 3D designers could sell their architect and builder talents to others, or cunny businessmen will start trading real estate or set-up shops. May be this is a new beginning for the stillborn virtual shopping mall trend of the mid-nineties :-) Anyway, I'll give a go at building a new home in the coming days...

Via The Business 2.0 blog

New World, Old France. Nouveau Monde, Vieille France

French journalist Thomas Blard posted on his blog a video interview of Nicolas Baverez, an economist and historian who authored the 2003 best-seller "La France qui tombe" (Falling France). Nicolas Baverez talks about his new book "Nouveau Monde, Vieille France". The interview is in French only but if you speak the language, I strongly recommend it to understand what is going on with the French today.

Amazon Wikified

The New York Time (you need to register) reports on how Amazon is boosting its user generated comments capability through product wikis to complement its shopping experience with a social experience.

See comprehensive article on the Motley Fool

American Express: 15 seconds film CGM competition

Amex invites consumers to create and submit 15 seconds clips around "aspirational themes" such as childhood ambition, proudest moment, perfect day and so on. There are some pretty good and amusing clips already posted there (see director Dane Boedigheimer's wildest dream: being hit by an asteroid...).

ComVu broadcasts live from Phone to Web.

Steve Rubel comments on ComVu, a new service allowing people to broadcast live video from their mobile phones. This technology (which I have not tested yet) sounds like a major milestone in reshaping the traditional media landscape to a consumer generated mediasphere. It could potentially turn the billion mobile phone owners into TV broadcasters. This will prove challenging for media rights owners. Picture me going to a football game and broadcasting it live to my friends (provided I have a good seat, a good camera phone and some snappy comments, I could compete with some paid-to-watch sports channel :-). Bloggers can already provide live coverage but nothing replaces the emotional impact of watching an event unfolding live before your eyes.

IPA Q1 2006 Bellwether report: Advertising, sales promotion and direct down, online marketing up.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has released its Q1 2006 Bellwether report. From its press release :

• Marketers cut traditional media budget for the 6th quarter in a row,
• Only 22.7% of marketing budgets were increased for 2006-2007 (the lowest percentage since 2002)
• Online was the only media to have budgets increased in Q1 ; the strongest gain since Q1 2004.

I am reproducing a quote verbatim from Sir Martin Sorrell which sums-up clients' mood:

“The IPA Bellwether report confirms our experience. The UK remains one of the weakest geographical markets at the moment. But new media and new technologies are growing rapidly as clients experiment with different approaches and question the value of traditional media.”