Cutting out Google ... may not be as bad for WSJ as it sounds
If you are associated with the media industry, you are watching this news very closely.

I have spoken with many people on what they thought about the Rupert's potential deal with Microsoft. Everyone either believes it is terrible idea or that, with their backs to the wall, the news media industry needs to do something drastic or be ready to be subjected to constant blood-letting over the next several years.

Here is why I feel that this may not be all bad for WSJ: If you are NOT a WSJ subscriber and search for and find a link to a WSJ article on Google, Bing or any other distributor of news, you are allowed to read that one article but not navigate to any other WSJ content. WSJ gives non-subscribers access to that one article for two reasons:

1. To get a chance to try and convert you to a subscriber. I am very sure that the conversion rate is dismal.
2. Monetize the click by displaying ads. The CPM rates on these ads must be terrible as the WSJ does not know you and your interests. The search engine provides the search term used by you to get to the story. However, click-through rates for ads determined by search terms must be very poor.

This is why the deal makes sense.

If you are wondering how it applies to the other News Corp properties, here is a Guardian article on how James Harding, editor at The Times, feels about putting their content behind a subscription.

Ad Networks
Interesting article on The State of Ad Networks. It provides a good list of key Ad Networks and their reach.

Beyond 2d Codes - atom tag
Came across this interesting technology from Daem Interactive that can solve some of the most difficult issues related to the logistics for 2dCodes. Here is an interesting interview of there CTO.

Interesting blog-posts on m-trends.org featuring the company.

SplashCast: Cool Ad Widgets
The future of advertising for the younger generation (COOL!):

Add Open Gym to your page

OpenSource OpenX Ad Server
I had not heard of this before. Seems like they have a lot of traction. I could not find a customer / user list. Noticed in a comment that Federated Media uses it!

Otello: Picture based Search on Mobile phones
Just saw this article on the service that Vodafone unveiled at CeBit (one of the biggest tech shows in the world) in Germany.

They have partnered with a newspaper in Germany where you can photograph specifically marked articles and get more information on them on your cell phones. The picture from a phone is transmitted via MMS service and the search results are returned to the phone.

Internet Ad Revenue growth continutes

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that Internet advertising revenues for 2007 are estimated to grow to $21.1 billion, a 25 percent increase over the previous revenue record of nearly $16.9 billion for full year 2006. Q4 2007 revenues totaled approximately $5.9 billion, making it the highest quarter ever reported and representing a 13 percent rise over the third quarter of 2007 and a 24 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2006. All four quarters reported in 2007 include record level revenues ... full press release.

Intesting article from Guy Kawasaki on the Outlook for 2008 (Courtsey Avenue A Razorfish).

Craigslist has competition: Kijiji
Saw this article on techcrunch. I had not heard of this eBay site before. Clearly eBay is serious about this space (they also own 25% of craigslist).

Location Based Advertising
Interesting article on GigaOm. We have been waiting for this for a long time with not much uptake. However, agree with Om that this might finally happen. In addition to most of the points made in the article, I feel that the uptick in Smartphone sales with an internet connection is a key driver for this market.

Here is an article in NY Times describing a CBS program.

Article in the Post reporting strong focus on the topic from Google at Davos. This is why Google is bidding for spectrum.

One of my 2007 CES posts with some companies I had seen in this space.

Also, a local company, Acuity, that I plan to check out.

Potomac TechWire: VC Outlook 2008
Attended the breakfast event (click for event and panelist details) this morning. My notes

Internet
The primary business model on the internet continues to be ad-based. Where is the opportunity in online advertising (the market continues to grow fast)?
- broad high traffic sites (the top 20)
- vertical narrow sites that allow advertisers to reach a specific demographic (e.g. iVillage)
- ad-networks helping sell residual inventory
- new data types (video, photo, social apps)

The non-ad based subscription model is relevant for sites that the customers are willing to pay for: club penguin (gaming site for kids recently acquired by Disney). When successful, these are very profitable businesses.

Two key issues with the information on the web: trust and quality control. It is interesting that Google today announced Knol, a competitor to Wikipedia, that is targeted to address these two issues (pcworld new-item).

Wireless
Opening of the walled garden will drive opportunities and innovation. Verizon and Google have recently moved this milestone closer. This will lead to the development of new on-the-go services that will go beyond just e-mail. However, this is not breakthrough innovation as we trail the world in this regard.

Software
Interesting opportunities continue to be seen in SAAS, open source, virtual machine, etc.

What is HOT in the future?
- green products (longer term) and services (shorter term)
- smb market
- electronic payment services
- robotics
- security
- China & India

What is NOT SO HOT?
- Web 2.0 Internet companies

Interesting event!

IBM research on the Future of Advertising (article on slashdot)
Links to the IBM article (The End of Advertising as We Know It), report PDF and summary PDF.

Thank you for seeing our billboard!

Google has announced an eye-counting camera (on the right) that can be used on billboards and other public displays to count eyeballs: Here is an article at EETimes. The product is developed by xuuk inc and costs $999. The company claims that the camera can tell if a person looked at it from as far as 10 meters away. I wonder how long does the person need to look to generate a "Click".

Taxi Tech
Was in NY last week. Caught a cab (one of 200) with a touchscreen monitor behind the driver's seat. The driver told me that it was a one year test. I could check news, look at maps and search for other information wrapped in a whole lot of ads.

The taxi driver told me that the product works on the cellular network and was free for now but will cost the taxi driver once the trial period is over.

After I browsed around a bit, I was able to look at the location of the cab on a map in real time. At the end of my trip, the monitor showed my fare that I had to approve before the receipt printed.

Digital advertisements will try to grab our attention at every public place. Interesting piece from O"Reilly Radar on the topic: What Does it Mean for Public Space to go Digital?

CES 2007: Cash? Card? or Phone?

One of the coolest products I saw at the show was the contactless payment solution being launched by Visa in collaboration with major cell phone manufacturers (Nokia, Motorola and Sony-Erricson). Here is how visa describes the program in their press release on Jan 8, 2007:

The initial version of the mobile payment platform launched on Monday offers
contactless mobile payment, personalization over mobile telephony networks,
coupons and direct marketing. Subsequent versions of the platform, to be made
available later in the year, will include remote payment -- also using mobile
telephony networks -- and person-to-person payment.

Here is how it will work:

• Buy an NFC-equipped mobile phone (e.g. Nokia 6131NFC shown at CES)
• Get an NFC-enabled account from your bank (similar to getting a credit card) - will come with all the outrageous fees and hundreds of complicated plans :-(
• Install an application from your bank onto your phone and activate the NFC payment mechanism
• Pay for stuff at any place with a RFID payment device by holding your phone 4 - 5 inches from it

Security is ensured by Mastercard and Visa assuming responsibility for items purchased with a stolen phone as they do for credit cards. Users will password-protect their phone's payment mechanism, and Visa will be able to disable any phone remotely after being notified of a theft. Phones will also not transmit the information all the time.

Other applications:

• Nokia's demoed reading business cards and grabbing hotel information by touching the phone to print ads with RFID tags at the show.
• Customers will be able to get barcode coupons on the phones and show them to cashiers to get discounts.

NFC Forum is the organization setting the standards to ensure interoperability. It claims to have over 100 members.

Finally, we will be able to do cool stuff with our phones that Europeans and Asians have been showing off for a while!

Indian Curry and Advertising on Google SMS

About a week ago, I used Google SMS (short code 46645) for the address and phone number of a South Indian restaurant - Madras Palace in Gaithersburg, MD. Back came the information with an advertisement for an inexpensive calling service to India. This is the first time I saw an advertisement on SMS search.

Google is clearly continuing to open up new avenues for customers to place ads: radio ads, newspaper classifieds, etc.

BTW - Madras Palace is one of the best South Indian restaurants that I have tried in the DC area. The other one my wife and I absolutely adore is Indique in Cleveland Park.

Marketing Blogs

Recently researched technologies to support marketing and loyalty programs. Came across a couple of interesting blogs on the topic:

Helen Keegan (London, UK)
Scott P Shaffer

Comments? Other blogs that I should look at?

Mobile Advertising
Just read a very interesting article on advertising on mobile devices. I know, even the thought of getting ads on my cell phone sends shivers down my spine. However, mobile technologies will continue to invade our private lives over the next several years ... you can run but you can't hide.

The primary reason that mobile advertising promises to become a significant ad market is that the mobile operators have a lot of relevant information about the consumer to target ads very accurately: location, personal information (gender, age, etc.), income.

In addition to the ability to providing web links, mobile ads provide an extremely simple call-back features. This alone can significantly drive up response rates.

Finally, imagine how presence information can be leveraged to send advertisements when you are actually using your device.

I just hope that providers will internalize the concepts of "Permission Marketing"!

So how might QR codes (or other coding technologies) be used?
I did some research: The basic process involves the user taking a picture of the code with a cellphone with internet services enabled. The phone is loaded with special software that processes the picture and connects the user to a specific phone web-site or to a specific sms code. This opens up an interesting set of possibilities:

- Instantly watch a movie trailer from an movie ad / review in a newspaper
- Buy tickets from a movie poster or newspaper
- Sample a song from the CD ad, review or cover; find concert dates and times and buy tickets
- Buy the book after reading a review (could be from a publisher's ad next to the book review)
- Watch a how-to video linked to a recipe or product
- Get a shopping list for a recipes from the paper
- Watch a virtual tour and obtain pricing from a real estate ad or sign
- Enter a contest without mailing anything or logging-on from your home PC
- Purchase items from a mail-order magazine directly from the magazine
- Compare prices in a retail store
- Get an in-store coupon
- Find a lower price
- Get directions and a coupon from a poster at a bus stop
- Acquire real time pricing on airfare from your home city in a magazine ad
- Acquire a vehicle history report from a license plate
- Acquire your medical history from a prescription bottle
- Acquire your doctor recommendation from a prescription bottle
- Text-to-win without entering a long stream of numbers
- Acquire a patient’s medical history from a single barcode
- Click on a code to instantly report a problem

There are several competing coding standards as this is a great way to simplify the user interface to data services on a phone. Here is a link to an interesting summary of the coding technologies and applications in this area (it was the starting point for my list) http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/infolust.htm.

QR Codes

I just read about Quick Response codes (IHT article) that are extensively used in Japan - details on wikipedia. It seems that these are very popular in Japan as a quick way to get product information off advertisements using camera phones. One code can store a very large amount of information: 4,296 alphanumeric characters, 7,089 numeric characters

Try the QR code generator. Absolutely fascinating!

Here is the QR code for my blog (http://yuviontech.blogspot.com):

This would be a great addition to print ads! Might be the way to implement electronically readable coding in advertisements. These can carry so much more information than a bar code (1990s idea).