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.