Month: March 2003

Categories
Analysis

The future of journalism apparently doesn't include Mac and Linux

Cyberjournalist has a link to a 3D map of Iraq, saying;

Online journalist Ernst Poulsen points out an interesting 3D map of Iraq on The Jutland-Post’s Web site, which highlights a few basic things like oil-fields, cities and military forces. “In a few years time, 3D maps like this could help journalists explain stories about military tactics and the layout of the country,” he says. [3/19]

I went there to see if this site would dispel my natural suspicion of 3-D maps, which doesn’t seem like an inherently useful concept to me. But the link took me to the home page of something called TurnTool, which says

TurnTool Viewer Not Installed

Your browser either failed to install the TurnTool Viewer or does not support ActiveX content at all. To install the Viewer download and run ViewerInstall.exe.

Supported platforms:

Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT4, ME, 2000 and XP with Internet Explorer 4 or greater.

Apple Macintosh & Linux systems are currently not supported.

I will never understand why journalistic organizations continue to tie their future to Microsoft’s domination of the Internet.

Besides, does anyone still use ActiveX? Microsoft’s Activex web site has hardly been updated since 1999.

Categories
Analysis

Free speech for advertisers, but not for unpopular opinions

I understand why Puma was upset by the brilliant, revolting parody Puma ads that are making their way around the Net.

The real issue isn’t the ads, but that we’re all ready to believe that they’re real. And why not? The recent controversy over a FCUK ad in the Boston Globe shows how plausible it all is. The position of the advertisers and their media enablers is that of a young child caught pooping in the kitchen.

First, deny the obvious:

French Connection UK spokeswoman Laura Bernstein acknowledges that the discovery of the acronym a few years ago sparked a sales boon. She demurs on the meaning of the word. ”It isn’t the play on words people often think it is,” she says. However, a visit to the company’s online store (you can buy T-shirts with such logos as ”fcuk on the beach” or ”too busy to fcuk”) suggest otherwise.

Then, explain to Mom that “Everybody is doing it.”:

Critics, says Bernstein, should note the far more provocative ads produced by other companies. ”I challenge them to look at what other fashion magazines are doing,” she says.

As I said, the media have enabled this behavior and cloaked it in the First Amendment.

‘We believe in freedom of speech, and our inclination is to run ads rather than not run them,” said Mary Jane Patrone, senior vice president for marketing and sales.

It’s unfortunate that this attitude didn’t prevail when MTV refused to accept antiwar advertising, or when PayPal unplugged an antiwar web site.

Corporate media are eager to beat the first amendment drum in support of soft-core pornvertising, witless consolidation, or ugly know-nothingism, but they’re unwilling to permit their channels to be used for the promotion of unpopular points of view.

Today I found a link on MediaGeek to a Washington Post profile of Amy Goodman. I don’t agree with her on most political issues and MediaGeek is right about her humorless earnestness, but she’s the closest thing I have to a media hero these days. She actively defied a renegade board of directors and made huge personal sacrifices to make a difference and tell the truth. That is what the first amendment is about.

Categories
News

Why was the market surprised that Overture is vulnerable?

The big news isn’t that Overture’s stock dropped 10% on a rumor that Yahoo was set to buy a European competitor. The big news is that Overture’s stock price has dropped 50% in the last two months. The ostensible target of the takeover denies the rumor, but why was the market surprised that Overture is vulnerable to a change of heart on the part of Yahoo?

Categories
Uncategorized

The browser of tomorrow will be…a browser

In observance tenth anniversary of Mosaic, I got an email from a reporter asking me what I thought about the future of the browser. It got me thinking.

Why can’t the browser just be a browser?

We’re still paying for Netscape’s hubris and poor strategy, long after the company ceased to exist for all practical purposes. They tried to replace the entire operating system with a browser, and their browser still contains too much stuff. There was a while there when Netscape employees actually weren’t allowed to use the word “browser”.

We’d all be better off Netscape hadn’t started the tradition of junking up the browser with an email client, address book, WYSIWYG HTML editor, IM client, “push” client, multiple sluggish and unnecessary software platforms (java, javascript, XUL, whatever Microsoft is pushing this year), and lots of advertising buttons and links.

The future of the browser is in being a better browser. There’s plenty to do just in being fast, standards-compliant, and easy to use. Opera is leading the way. Camino has turned Netscape’s rendering software into its first decent browser since 1996. Safari confirms that the best bower is just a browser.

The most important innovations in browser design advance simplicity and ease of use. Until Camino introduced tabbed browsing and storing ID/password combinations securely with the Mac’s keychain, the most important innovation was forms autofill, which is at least five years old. Safari’s most important innovation is that it is (astonishingly) the first browser to have decent bookmark management.

The browser of the future will:

  • Render pages instantly and more consistently with other browsers
  • Have tabbed browsing, better bookmark management, and password management
  • Give the user total control of popups and advertising
  • Give the user total control of his cookies

Browsers need to support improvements in document structure, such as XML for content and CSS for markup. But these formats shouldn’t be developed by the people who create the browser. We need to eliminate proprietary formats and I’d be happy with eliminating Flash. Apparently, Flash is so awful even Macromedia’s customers don’t want to see it on their home page. It’s mainly used to make ads more noticeable by making them annoying and any information that might happen to be in a Flash file can’t be found on Google.

In many applications, the browser should be invisible, simply rendering HTML for applications like email and help.

The browser is not be the best client for cell phones. The more I use RSS, the more clear it becomes to me that RSS is a superior format for picking news sources, reviewing headlines, and reading stories. Real estate on a cell phone is too precious to waste on anything but the most concentrated information. Others may believe that RSS aggregation belongs in the browser, but it’s already in Netscape and no one’s using it.

Too many users (and businesses) make the mistake of thinking the browser should be the only interface to the Internet. The web is not the Internet, and the browser is not always the best way to use it. IM and P2P are proof that we need more clients (not fewer) if we’re going to take advantage the Net. Why implement an application with Java in a browser when you can create a standalone application?

The website of the future will help make this happen by

  • Permitting full use by any browser (not just IE)
  • Permitting browsing with Javascript turned off
  • Using more standard HTML and CSS
  • Using fewer tables
  • Using no Flash
  • Providing usable RSS for anyone who wants it
  • Not using Java unless there really is no other way to solve a problem

Categories
Uncategorized

Overture is contemplating a partnership with Gator, the most-hated company on the Net

Just in case you needed to be reminded about the difference between Google and Overture, Overture is contemplating selling ad results to Gator for distribution in their Search Scout software. Overture says,

“I understand that you may have some concerns about Gator. There has been a lot of recent media coverage about “spyware,” “scumware,” or applications that embed themselves into an Internet user’s browser and possibly track online behavior. Overture has evaluated Gator’s practices and determined that they are not consistent with what the media defines as “spyware.”

I’m a big believer that lightweight advertising placed in an appropriate context. “Lean-media advertising” will be an important revenue source for legitimate content sites.

But Gator is the perhaps the most-hated company on the Internet for a good reason. They exploit the limitations of Microsoft Windows to install unwelcome advertising spyware on people’s computers and sell those people to their advertisers. Overture (formerly Goto.com) has bought a measure of legitimacy through sheer profitability, a more-dignified name, and the acquisition of some powerful search brands. But a deal with Gator would pretty much put the torch to that.

Perhaps they don’t understand how fragile an Internet brand can be.[Thanks, Marketingfix]

Categories
Research

Why advertise online? Why the hell not?

Emarketer has a good overview of current research supporting online advertising:

  • The audience is more affluent
  • It’s effective in changing users’s perceptions of brands.

Robert Losch at Marketing Fix adds

  • It’s the best way to reach the work/school audience
  • Consumers are using it to find product information

DoubleClick claims that by increasing the amount of Internet advertising in your media mix, you can increase frequency and brand awareness.

I would add that it’s the best or even the only way to reach people who have begun to limit their consumption of commercial media: TV nonviewers, DVR users, or NPR listeners. Many of the people are as influential as they are difficult to reach.

Categories
Research

Content companies are only 4% of Internet M&A

Content destinations and content management software companies each represented 4% of the Internet M&A activity last year, according to Webmergers. Most of the activity was in infrastructure, consulting, and access businesses.

Buyers last year acquired 1,087 Internet-related properties for total spending of $23.3 billion, 15% fewer companies for 70% less money. In 2001, acquirers bought 1,283 Internet-related companies for a total deal value of $78 billion.

Top 10 Internet Categories – 2002

Sector % of 2002 spending
Ecommerce destinations 16%
E-business enablement 14%
E-business payments 10%
Internet equipment 9%
Internet security 6%
Outsourced business services 5%
Internet systems integration 5%
Enterprise applications 4%
Content management 4%
Content destinations 4%

Source: Webmergers Database

Apparently, even the bottom-feeders aren’t interested in the content business. At least not yet.

Categories
Research

Alexa's sampling error

Kevin Werbach points out that two of the top five sites on Alexa’s Top 500 are in South Korea.

While Korea may lead the US in broadband and cell phone Internet access, I find it hard to believe that two South Korean portals are more popular than Google.

Could it be that Koreans are more likely to install and use Alexa’s software? I would take any data from Alexa with a grain of salt.

It’s nonetheless amazing how much of the Web may now be simply invisible to English-speakers.

Categories
News

At-work users are valuable and elusive

Both comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings announced daypart media planning tools yesterday. However, the dayparts themselves are still a subject of debate.

Meanwhile, Forbes is promoting a survey of 11,000 executives and senior managers that says the Web is an excellent tool for reaching C-Level executives (these are not executives who earned a gentleman’s C at Yale and then attended Harvard Business School):

management-level workers actively use the Web in the early part of the day, with nearly half (46 percent) going online before leaving for work. In comparison, 38 percent said they read a newspaper before work. Of so-called “C-level” executives (CEOs, CIO, CFOs, etc.), the numbers were even greater, with 53 percent going online before work and 41 percent turning to the paper.

…

In even better news for advertisers, executives are surprisingly willing to engage online advertising: nearly half of respondents (47 percent) said they click on advertising of interest. E-mail marketing fared less well, with 26 percent saying they read work-related promotional e-mails.

This recognition of daytime Web users as an audience that is valuable and hard to reach is long overdue — if we can only figure out how to count them.

Categories
News

Synergy alert: AOL is privately distributing a list of its fattest customers

AOL is promoting cruises in conjunction with Health magazine, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

AOL Travel has launched its first-ever AOL “Caribbean Cruise To Fitness” with Health Magazine. AOL members can get a cabin on the one-week cruise for $599 and up. Members who have participated in AOL’s online weight-loss support group are targeted for marketing.

Never heard of Health magazine ? Neither had I. It’s part of Southern Progress, an AOL/TW division that has a deal with Disney which includes an agreement to publish happy stories about Epcot..

Apparently, AOL may have put you on a list of fat people.