Micro Persuasion

Yahoo Video Launches

The new Yahoo Video site has launched. It includes a mix of consumer-created and professional content.

Google News Considers Becoming More Open

The Online Press Gazette in the UK interviews Krishna Bharat, the inventor of Google News. In the article Bharat defends how Google labels press releases. We learn that in the browseable headline view, Google never shows press releases. However, they do show up in searches. Bharat also responds to my recent call for Google News to be more transparent about who gets in and who doesn't by saying that they will consider explaining this further. Good to know they are listening.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google+News

When the Clients Know More Than You

What do you do when your clients know more than you? You watch and learn. Over the past few months I have come to know Kevin Nalty. By day he works in marketing. By night, he's an artist, creating fantastic videos like the Google Heads that spread like mad. Go Nalts go. Watch and learn. Don't miss this one on an emerging Web 2.0 company.

Flickr to Get Contextual Nikon Banner Ads

Nikon has struck a deal with Flickr to place Nikon branding on the site, including small logos next to photos that were taken with their cameras. In addition, there will be branding on the login pages as well as special Nikon-only photo galleries. As Mediapost notes, this is the first major brand advertising campaign to run on Flickr, which to date has only had text links.

It will be interesting to see how the Flickr community reacts to these ads - particularly the ones that appear next to their photos. Many shutterbugs are loyal to one particular camera brand. So I can see Nikon lovers really taking to the campaign and those who take to other brands not liking the promotion. I sure hope that Flickr makes this optional for Pro users because a backlash could erupt. People should have the option to opt in or out of companies putting certain banners around their photos. (Disclaimer: Edelman works with Canon, a Nikon competitor.)

UPDATE: Tom Biro from MWW (Nikon's PR firm) writes in that Flickr Pro users should not be seeing the Nikon branding along with the EXIF data on photographs when those users are logged in, and non-Pro (or non-logged in) users should not be seeing the Nikon branding when they are viewing photographs taken by Flickr Pro users.

Technorati Tags: photos, Nikon, Flickr

TypePad to Blend Social Networking, Blogs

Michael Arrington got the scoop on a brand new TypePad blog service coming tomorrow called Vox (formerly Comet) that will blend blogging and social networking. This blog is powered by TypePad so I look forward to taking this for a spin when it debuts.

Technorati tags: TypePad, SixApart, Comet

links for 2006-05-31

• MercuryNews.com | 05/30/2006 | The new must-see on your PC: YouTube
  Video sharing shifting entertainment options, says the Merc.
  (tags: youtube video TV)
• MediaPost Publications - Pew: Creating Content No Longer 'Elite' Endeavor - 05/30/2006
  Pew: 35 percent of Americans had posted to a blog, created a Web page, shared online photos, or otherwise generated content. This is up more than 2x from 2002.
  (tags: cgm blogs stats research pew)
• A RainCoat for your notebook-toting backpack - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  I have had this happen to me in the past. Great solution to a common problem.
  (tags: notebook macbookpro powerbook lifehacks)
• Mini-Microsoft: All Good Things...
  So long mini, you'll be missed.
  (tags: Blogs Microsoft)
• Four memediggers compared: Digg, Reddit, Meneame and Hugg - The Social Software Weblog
  (tags: memediggers aggregation digg Hugg Meneame reddit)
• Google Trends: "web 2.0"
  Mommy, when did Web 2.0 start?
  (tags: Web2.0 Trends)
• Tom Morris is a very funny fellow, right - Valleywag
  A great Web 2.0 comic.
  (tags: Web2.0 fun)

Get Serious! Corporate Flirting with the Web Must Stop

If I were the Web, I would be tired of all the dating games by now and would have moved on to someone else. It seems as though all global corporations want to do is flirt, date or maybe have a fling or two with the web and then move on. Many don't want to invest in it like it's a long term relationship. Corporate America's love affair with the Web is hot and heavy for a while and then it dies. In other words, it's cyclical and this has to stop.

I have been watching the whole brouhaha over the Web 2.0 service mark controversy. And honestly, I think the entire issue is a joke. The truth is we should not be talking about Web 2.0. The only reason we are is that the excitement in the Web as a business platform went from boom (Web 1.0) to bust (Web -2.0) to boom again (Web 2.0). We're like the guy (or lady) who won't commit. Shame on us.

Consider the recent rash of media articles about corporations going Web ga-ga. Exhibit A: a big splashy cover story package in Fortune about Hollywood's Web 2.0 group hug. Exhibit B: the FT says Old Media is embracing Internet startups. You could have read very similar articles in 1998 but you would never have seen them in 2002.

Now that the love affair with the Web is back on, we need to get serious in this relationship or get out for good. Don't flirt with the Web. Commit for the long haul. That way, there won't be a Web 3.0.

Panasonic, YouTube Team for Ho-Hum Promotion

Panasonic and YouTube have launched a special promotion where consumers create a live-action or animated video and upload them to a YouTube group. The prizes are naturally Panasonic products.

This strikes me as a largely uninteresting promotion. At a minimum, Panasonic should have been more creative. All they're doing here is looking for funny videos. They should be giving the community a challenge to create videos around a speicific theme related to their products - like Firefox Flicks did - and then use the best submissions in another medium, such as a TV commercial.

Technorati Tags: panasonic, youtube

On OPML and Marketing

PR Week writes what I believe is the first look at the impact of OPML on marketing. OPML is a great technology that is just getting going. It will be a few years before it starts to impact our world in a major way, but there are some easy ways to dabble in it today. I am excited long term about OPML-based contextual advertising, but that's still a way's off.

One is Dave Winer's Share Your OPML. This site delivers big benefits - like definitive blog readership numbers - the more people can easily share their data. Andy Lark, meanwhile, touts its use inside a PR team. For more, see Michael Arrington's musings.

Technorati Tags: OPML, shareyouropml

links for 2006-05-30

• MediaPost Publications - Buzz Focus: Surf's Up at These Hot Sites - 05/29/2006
  A guide to where teens and tweens are pointing and clicking
  (tags: teens stats research COGs community)
• Read/WriteWeb: Mini apps - Bitty Browser and Wampad
  A review of two picture-in-picture web apps.
  (tags: pictureinpicturemarketing Web2.0 bittybrowser wampad)
• PodPolitics.net - Campaign California
  Podtech.net expands into politics.
  (tags: podcasting politics podtech.net)
• TechCrunch » Blog Archive » CNET’s AllYouCanUpload Is Disruptive
  Mike says "AllYouCanUpload is a site that makes uploading photos as easy as it can possibly get."
  (tags: photos uploading)
• Amazon.com: The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense
  Amazingly this is a top 50 bestseller on Amazon.com. What does that say?
  (tags: Adsense Google Blogs Advertising)

NY Observer, Huffington Go Picture-in-Picture

The New York Observer and the Huffington Post have started a new picture-in-picture marketing program. Each site will feature boxes of links to the other.

Technorati Tags: pictureinpicturemarketing

links for 2006-05-29

• iMedia Connection: The Keys to Podcast Advertising
  Five tips for successful podcast advertising
  (tags: Advertising Podcasting Podvertising)

Writing a Weekly Column for AdAge

I am thrilled to report that starting this week I will be writing a weekly column for the brand new AdAge Digital. The new section - which appears in print every other week and online weekly - will cover emerging technologies that impact brand marketers. This includes everything from advergaming to VOD, IPTV, mobile marketing, online video,  and entire social media world. The URL isn't live yet, but it will live at adage.com/digital.  My opening salvo is posted here.

I share this news for other reasons than making a plug (which I openly admit). I believe this is another sign that advertising, brand marketing, public relations are becoming one big mush. If you work in on one of these disciplines, you need to know what's happening in the others. In a world where consumers control your brand - and they do - marketing doesn't fit into neat little boxes the way it used to. So much of it is dialogue driven and that means PR and advertising share the same soup bowl.

Technorati Tags: AdAge, Advertising Age, AdAge Digitial

Yahoo Research Brings Us "TagLines"

Yahoo Research brings us TagLines, a quick visual look at the evolution of Flickr tags over a year.

Technorati Tags: Flicrk, TagLines, Yahoo

links for 2006-05-28

• Podcasting News: Indy 500 Podcast
  The IndyCast is the official podcast of the Indianapolis 500 and will feature extensive race coverage through May 28th.
  (tags: podcasting sports)
• Podcasting News: Dave Winer Intros Geektastic Top Podcast List
  Dave Winer has introduced a Top Podcasts list for users of his site Share Your OPML.
  (tags: Podcasting OPML)
• NewsFox :: Mozilla Add-ons :: Add Features to Mozilla Software
  Nice three-paned RSS news reader.
  (tags: firefox extensions RSS)
• Northstar, The software as a service network™
  Run Windows apps on a Mac using the Northstar server. Costs $99 per year.
  (tags: Apple Windows Emulation OSX)
• The Apple Store (U.S.) - Northstar
  Apple Store listing for Northstar.
  (tags: Apple Mac OSX Windows Emulation)

Adobe Pilots a Blogging Tool

Adobe Labs is working on a concept project called NoteTag that allows users to capture notes during meetings and assign tasks within those notes to individuals. NoteTag can turn the notes around and post them to a blog or del.icio.us and tag them. The product also supports RSS. You can watch a screencast of NoteTag or track the project on their blog.

NoteTag right now is a test and it's complex to install but I can easily see Adobe eventually making a big splash in the blogging space since their heritage is publishing and design (Adobe is a client of A&R Edelman). (Via What's the Next Action)

Technorati Tags: Adobe, NoteTag

Google Video Adds Feeds

Google Video now supports RSS. They also sport the universal RSS icon at the bottom of the Google Video home page.

Apple Loses to Bloggers

Wired reports that a California appeals court has smacked down Apple's legal assault on bloggers and their sources, finding that the company's efforts to subpoena e-mail received by the publishers of Apple Insider and PowerPage.org runs contrary to federal law, California's reporter's shield law, and the state Constitution. This is a significant legal win for citizen journalists everywhere. We now have a precedent we can turn to and say - "see?" (Via Dave)

Technorati Tags: Apple

Wikimapia

What if maps and other reference sources adopted wiki technology? Well, they're starting to thanks to mashups. Wikimapia allows users to add tag and annotate locations found in Google Maps. You can edit them as well. Here's a screengrab. (Via Google Maps Mania)

TV News for Sale?

PodGuide.tv notices that a whole batch of video programming from NBC News is available for sale in the iTunes Music Store. To my knowledge, this is the first time that I have ever heard one of the "big four" networks making people pay for their news content. I am surprised that this didn't attract more conversation. To me this is a sure sign that paid video and audio podcasts are coming next.

Technorati Tags: NBC News, iTunes