Fortune tackles "web services." A sign that either the concept is finally mainstreaming ... or ready for burial. Fortune also wins the prize for the word of the day: gird. Software's giants gird? Was it really that important to have a quasi-alliteration in the title of the piece. What a weird word.
Software's Giants Gird for Upheaval
A vague new thing called web services is stirring up new battles among Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and all of software's biggest names.
by David Kirkpatrick
The software industry is seething. It's the beginning of the biggest competitive reshuffling since the early days of the World Wide Web. Some major players are fraught with fear. Others suddenly envision new empires. Longtime alliances are falling apart, and old enmities are getting more bitter even as new ones spring up. The cause of all this instability and drama: a vague new thing called web services.
Thursday, February 28, 2002
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"How many of you know how to watch television?" I asked my class one day. After a few bewildered and silent moments, slowly, one by one, everyone haltingly raised their hands. We soon acknowledged that we were all "experts," as Harold Garfinkel would say, in the practice of "watching television."
The purpose of our un-TV experiment was to provoke us into seeing television as opposed to merely looking, and to stop the world as the first step to seeing. Here we engage in stopping the world by stopping the television.
For the experiment, students were asked to watch TV consciously. Insofar as this is sort of "Zen and the art of TV watching," I said to them, "I want you to watch TV with acute awareness, mindfulness and precision. This experiment is about observing television scientifically, with Beginner's Mind, rather than watching television passively with programmed mind. Ordinarily, if you are watching TV you can't also observe and experience the experience of watching TV. When we watch TV we rarely pay attention to the details of the event. In fact, we rarely pay attention."
The Zen TV Experiment
Adbusters, by Bernard McGrane
Saturday, February 23, 2002
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Now that instant messaging has taught us all to "lol" and "brb," there is a high-stakes race on to monetize the popular application. Can America Online's AIM win that race?
Can AOL Make Money from IM?
Silicon Alley News
Saturday, February 23, 2002
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Pretend you're in prison and make a license plate!
ACME License Maker
http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
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A few more articles on blogging. The ones I posted last time from Time, BBC and The Guardian are here.
Blog This
MIT Enterprise Tech Review
Henry Jenkins director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT, offers a fascinating look at the media/cultural fallout of the blogging trend, noting that, ''like cockroaches after nuclear war, online diarists rule an Internet strewn with failed dot coms.'' Jenkins writes ''bloggers are turning the hunting and gathering, sampling and critiquing the rest of us do online into an extreme sport. We surf the Web; these guys snowboard it. Bloggers are the minutemen of the digital revolution.'' Blogging is an important trend, the author says. ''We’re in a lull between waves of commercialization in digital media, and bloggers are seizing the moment, potentially increasing cultural diversity and lowering barriers to cultural participation.''
Blah, Blah, Blah and Blog
Wired Magazine, by Farhad Manjoo.
Weblogs are in the mainstream, with their stories being told in major media outlets, which in turn is creating a whole new generation of bloggers, for better or worse.
The Blog Phenomenon
PC Magazine, by John C. Dvorak
Weblogs Make the Web Work for You
Business 2.0, by Dylan Tweney
Weblogs, or "blogs," are spreading faster than mushrooms on a wet lawn. Most are awful. But a few are well worth your time.
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
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Anatomy of the "Dinner Roll"
Salt Lake 2002
My skiing hero, Jonny Moseley, describes his latest phat trick. There is also a nice flash animated "explanation" as well.
Jonny Moseley - profile
His "Official" profile on the Winter Olympics site.
Moseley Returns Amid Controversy
New York Times (free registration required), by Bill Pennnington
Although judges frown on the move, Jonny Moseley plans to perform his Dinner Roll maneuver
HUNTSVILLE, Utah, Feb. 10 — Jonny Moseley will perform his controversial, inimitable Dinner Roll trick in Tuesday's Olympic men's freestyle moguls, whether the competition judges like it or not.
Win or lose, he's on a roll
Plain Dealer Reporter, by Susan Vinella
Salt Lake City - When Jonny Moseley talks about his trick called the "dinner roll," his face lights up and his body begins to contort in demonstration.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
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The Treo ... I love this thing.
Handspring starts U.S. shipments of Treo handheld phone
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Handspring Inc. Monday opened its doors to U.S. orders for Treo, its new pocket-sized combination phone and organizer, a move experts say puts them a step up on rival handheld makers, but thrusts them into the bulls eye of the formidable cell phone industry.
Monday, February 11, 2002
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"shakeitbabe"
http://www.lebonze.co.uk/stuff/move.htm
"The Blue Marble"
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
Saturday, February 09, 2002
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This fight is better than Ali vs. Foreman.
Overture Shares Plummet on News of Google Competition
VentureReporter.net Wednesday, February 06, 2002, 5:01 PM ET
Investors, once confident that Overture Services (Nasdaq: OVER) was dominating the syndicated search space, had their confidence severely shaken with today's news that the Pasadena-based company losts its contract with Earthlink to Google's new AdWorks product. As a result, even though an Overture spokesperson told Reuters that the change would not have a material impact on the company's earnings, investors were apparently deeply concerned that Overture faces new, potentially serious competition. By the end of the day, Overture shares fell a whopping 41 percent, closing at $17.92.
Overture Raises Earnings Projection
By Michael Liedtke. AP Business Writer
SAN FRANCISCO –– Hoping to reverse a 41 percent drop in its stock Wednesday, Overture Services Inc. predicted its advertising-driven online search engine will make substantially more money this year than investors anticipated.
Saturday, February 09, 2002
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Innovation Comes a Full Circle: The Top 10 Online Ad Campaigns of 2001
VentureReporter.net, by Rafat Ali
In a year where the economic atrophy took a toll on more companies than one could keep track of, it seemed we may have reached an end to media innovation. At the first Online Advertising Awards, announced at Silicon Alley Reporter's Online Advertising Summit held on Tuesday in the Hudson Hotel in New York City, though, the judges and participants gave some hope to the future of online advertising.
The Top Three Advertising Campaigns of 2001
1. First place went to the Volvo "Road to the S60" campaign, developed by MVBMS Fuel North America.
2. The second place winner was Playboy.com/Jack Daniel's Hef Mega ad campaign, which ran on Playboy.com.
3. Third place went to the Pepsi/Britney Spears-Oscar campaign, developed by Tribal DDB Worldwide.
Friday, February 08, 2002
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Fad or Fashion? ... Blogging gets some mainstream press.
Pssst. Wanna See My Blog?
Impromptu online journals are popping up all over the Web. If I can figure out how to build one, you can too
Time Magazine, by Chris Taylor
I blog, therefore I am
Monday, 4 February, 2002, 12:02 GMT
BBC News
A tale of one man and his blog
Blogger has revolutionised personal websites. Now, its only member of staff tells Neil McIntosh it's time to take blogging to the next stage
Thursday January 31, 2002
The Guardian
Thursday, February 07, 2002
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An interesting article which draws on theories and studies by MIT Sloan School professor Dan Ariely.
The Compromise Effect
. . . And the New Thinking About Money Is That Your Irrationality Is Predictable
By Steven Pearlstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 27, 2002; Page H01
NPR interviewed Dan Ariely, Professor at the Sloan School of Management, earlier this week.
All You Can Eat: Not All That Economical (RealAudio)
Do You Watch Your Wallet's Waist?
NPR, Tuesday, February 5, 2002
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
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Micorsoft launches mobile MSN portals in Europe.
Microsoft today launched two mobile versions of its MSN Internet portal in Europe. The two mobile MSN portals -- launched in France and Germany -- are designed for the small color displays of Pocket PC handhelds. British and Spanish versions of the mobile MSN portal will make their debut in a few weeks. Microsoft recently launched SMS versions of Hotmail in Denmark and Switzerland, generating 27 text messages per user per month in the first month of service. Hotmail is currently the world's most popular Web-based email service, claiming 110 million users.
CNET
http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-8717435-0.html?tag=ats
News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-830358.html
Telecom.Paper
http://www.telecom.paper.nl/index.asp?location=site%2Fnews%5FTA%2Easp%3Ftype%3Dabstract%26id%3D12870
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
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Looking for the Super Bowl ads? Links to the ads as well as reviews are below. My favorite? Well, I must admit ... I liked the Bud ad in NYC. Sure, it was a tear-jerker, and some people said it (over)mixed the emotions of 911 and the Bud brand, but I thought it was in very good taste. I'm a New Yorker, and it made me feel good. It is not often that I say that about an advertisement. We've seen those Clydesdales pulling the Bud beer wagon through the snow for years. This time, instead of a catchy tune by Steve Karmen like "Here comes the King" or "When you say Bud,You've said it all!" the horses come across the Brooklyn bridge into Manhattan where they bend a knee and bow their heads near ground zero. On the lighter side, I thought the Levis "Si Señor" was the best I've seen from them in a while.
One last note ... AdCritic, perhaps one of the most original sites I'd come across, is dead. Victim of the Dotcom meltdown, they have closed their doors ... along with their extesive archive of worldwide advertisements. A real shame, since if you needed to find pretty much any advertisement (and on an increasingly gobal scale), you could have found it there. Think about it: People who wanted to do nothing on a web site but look at advertisements. While most advertisers were trying to get a fraction of a percent of a clickthrough for their silly banner ads, here was a business that had people coming to see ads. I thought it was pure genius. Like Kozmo, this was one of those companies that seemed to have tapped into such a pure and simple business plan, you would have thought there was no way that it would go out of business. Such a shame ...
Yahoo! - Super Bowl Entertainment
News. Reviews. Links. Yahoo-style full coverage.
iFilm has all the ads.
Free. (Traffic to the site is, as you would expect, very heavy.)
Ad Age has a number of the ads in RealPlayer format. Free.
Super Bowl Ad Winner: A Demure Britney
Restrained XXXVI Game Commercials Feature Less Sex, More Humor
AdAge, Bob Garfield
AdAge - Full Coverage: Super Bowl XXXVI
Super Bowl ads: Mix of moods
From solemn to silly, the big-bucks ads rolled ...
The Associated Press, CNN Entertainment
SuperBowlCritic has all the ads ... but you have to pay $5.95 to see them. Why would anyone do this?
http://www.superbowlcritic.com/
Insurance? Nope ... AT&T Wireless. When I first saw this campaign, I thought it was MetLife, too.
AT&T Wireless launches new brand - mLife, negotiates brand name with MetLife
AT&T Wireless yesterday launched its new brand, mLife, with a series of commercials run during the Super Bowl. The new brand touts the advantages of a mobile lifestyle that combines mobile data and voice. MetLife, the biggest U.S. life insurance company, threatened to sue AT&T over the ads, but withdrew its lawsuit late last week. The two companies agreed to further meetings this week to settle their issues over the brand.
Monday, February 04, 2002
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The Internet has become the primary communication tool for teens, surpassing even the telephone among some groups, according to a study by AOL.
Demographics: Internet Key to Communication Among Youth
CyberAtlas/AOL
The national survey of more 6,700 teens and parents of teens was conducted by AOL subsidiary Digital Market Services, Inc. It found that 81 percent of teens between the ages of 12 to 17 use the Internet to e-mail friends or relatives while 70 percent use it for instant messaging to send instant text messages both from ones' computer and via wireless devices. Among older teens (18 to 19 years), these statistics jump to 91 percent for e-mail and 83 percent for instant messaging. Fifty-six percent of teens aged 18 to 19 prefer the Internet to the telephone.
Friday, February 01, 2002
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Two companies. One gavel. Just the online gavel ... at least for now. A busy day for eBay, which also partnered with Priceline.
The Journal and FT have the business angle ...
Sotheby's, eBay Form Alliance To Sell Fine Art on the Internet
WSJ [subscription required]
Sotheby's and eBay form joint venture
Financial Times
Reuters and MSNBC offer a more press-release style approach ...
eBay forms alliance with Sotheby's
Reuters
eBay sets pact with Sotheby’s
MSNBC
The British poke fun ...
Sotheby's struggling online auctions going, going, gone to internet giant eBay
The Independent
Sotheby's sides with eBay
BBC
The French take a few extra pot shots at Sotheby's (the established, venerable company) for having to partner with the likes of eBay (the brash, online newcomer). Their words, not mine. Don't cha just love the French?
eBay et Sothebys.com font marteau commun
Journal du Net
Friday, February 01, 2002
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