interpipes

Weekend reading

Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability

“Selling ads doesn’t generate only profits; it also generates torrents of data about users’ tastes and habits, data that Google then sifts and processes in order to predict future consumer behavior, find ways to improve its products, and sell more ads. This is the heart and soul of Googlenomics.” 

Students finally wake up to Facebook privacy issues

“young people are very engaged with the privacy settings on Facebook, contrary to the popular belief that their age group is reckless with what they post publicly.”

The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut

“I need my umlaut,” Blomkvist said. “What if I want to go to Svavelsjö? Or Strängnäs? Or Södertälje? What if I want to write to Wadensjö? Or Ekström or Nyström?”

Related to this, Stieg Larsson recently became the first member of Amazon’s ‘Kindle Million Club.

The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

“We can segment it all the way down to one person,” says Eric Porres, Lotame’s chief marketing officer.

I think Mr. Porres may have lost the meaning of market segment (which implies groups sharing certain characteristics) in his excitement about his company’s technology. A question I’d be interested in is whether the law of repetition in advertising holds true for online ads that “follow people around the Internet”? A host of ads for Evony have followed me around the Internet for well over a year now and I have so far clicked on none of them. Context is also relevant here – will users be more prepared to click on ads on certain sites?

 

 

Flipboard – but is it legal?

I only caught the last part of last night’s TWiT (#259, Next Stop, Gilbert Arizona) but did come across an interesting snippet of information about iPad darling app du jour, Flipboard.

According to Baratunde Thurston of the Onion, the app goes beyond aggregating RSS feeds and “de-uglifying” them and seems to be using machine and/or human based scraping to pull in third party content from publishers. In doing this, ads placed on the third-party sites are removed. Flipboard has stated that it will enter into revenue sharing arrangements with the content publishers as it will be including it’s own ads, which will allegedly deliver ten times the amount of advertising revenue that publishers currently receive. Further details of these arrangements have yet to be revealed.

Whilst the app itself looks pretty and their team have done a masterful job of seeding it through the early adopter community, this (if true) is a step backwards into an issue that seemed to already been resolved. It also means that publisher’s shaky online advertising revenues may be squeezed even more.

Audio via twit.tv (1:51:28, iPad and Flipboard segment starts at around 1:23)

http://er7radio.net/wp-content/plugins/audio-player/player.swf

Weekend reading

A Review of the Droid X, Wr item Written on the D rod Droid X

“I am an Old and the Droid X makes me uneasy. Somehow I hVe have switched it to another typing mode in which it thrums gently each time I touch thw screen. It offered me a tutorial in this input method. Learn from your Droid. Learn the new ways.”

Warning: Your reality is out of date

“We recognize rapid change, whether it’s as simple as a fast-moving object or living with the knowledge that humans have walked on the moon. But anything short of large-scale rapid change is often ignored. This is the reason we continue to write the wrong year during the first days of January.”

Europeans Cast Critical Eye on Homeopathy

 “Homeopathy is a speculative, refuted concept,” he says — no one has yet proven that it has any medical benefit. “And there isn’t any need for any further research,” he says. “The issue is settled.”

Using Spin To Control Social Media

“to censor effectively has become prohibitively expensive. So governments turned to spin, building what I call the “Spinternet,” as a way of maintaining control over what is being discussed.”

Gene Weingarten column mentions Lady Gaga

“Fortunately, this new system enjoys the services of tens of thousands of fact-checking “citizen journalists” who write “comments.” They will read the Uzbekistan story and instantly alert everyone that BARACK OBAMA IS A LIEING PIECE OF CRAP.”

The Machine

“The good consumer never learns.”

Global Impositioning Systems

“neuroscientists are starting to uncover a two-way street: our brains determine how we navigate, but our navigational efforts also shape our brains. The experts are picking up some worrying signs about the changes that will occur as we grow accustomed to the brain-free navigation of the GPS era.” 

Real Bear Rescues Stuffed Bear From Humans