Silicon Valleywood

Welcome, Forrester. Seriously July 31, 2008

Eh, seems I’ve used this gag before.

Jim Thistle July 30, 2008

A good teacher for me, and a talented TV news guy, as anybody who lives in NYC, LA, or SF, and has compared their pitiful offerings to Boston TV news, knows.

End-of-Tunnel Lights in Redmond? July 29, 2008

If this is real, it’s just what they need. There may be life in the old dog yet. Now buy Yahoo. Or Facebook.

Microsoft is incubating a componentized non-Windows operating system known as Midori, which is being architected from the ground up to tackle challenges that Redmond has determined cannot be met by simply evolving its existing technology.

I think I’ve said this before.

Who’s a Pepper? July 28, 2008

I’m a Dr Pepper fan — yes, it does taste a little like prune juice — but I suspect this comment’s meant to be as ironic as the new ad campaign:

The study’s findings resolved a conundrum for Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the Plano, Texas-based company behind the soda. “How do you find new ways to talk about old brands?” asks Jaxie Alt, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. “This [research] was really exciting because we found something new and unique to tell our consumer.”

I think the Journal reporter gets the joke, but I’m not a hundred percent sure:

What’s more, the research’s implications could be good for sales. “We know heavy users drink it slower so if we can get the people that are usually light users to have that better optimal taste, they become heavy users of Dr Pepper and thus increase sales,” says Ms. Alt.

Still, bringing the research to life in advertising was no easy task. Dr Pepper had to tap several agencies for ad concepts that incorporated the research findings.

The campaign uses “Doctors” J and Kelsey Grammer to make the medical case that drinking Dr Pepper slowly makes it taste better.

Puzzled by Mister Softee and Zuckerbook July 24, 2008

Okay, re-upping with Facebook is good (certainly, Facebook itself is clueless about how to make money advertising), and adding search is extra spice. But Google’s whining about its MySpace deal because it can’t monetize search on a social network. The key to social network marketing is branding marketing, not direct marketing (i.e., search).

At the same time, Microsoft claims its online strategy is all about search. So remind me, Steve, why don’t you still want Yahoo? You claim it’s search that you’re serious about, right? Search happens at search engines and at traditional portals, right? Not on social networks?

Somebody, please clear me up on the “strategy” here.

NY Times iPhone App cont’d July 23, 2008

I still like it, but bunches of sections don’t actually update. Including “Technology” it seems. How can that possibly be the case?

Not *That* Big a Fan…. July 22, 2008

I’d say over the years Jupiter has been as bullish as anybody on subscription-based on-demand music services, but we’re still pretty conservative in our forecasts ($235M in 07 going to, um, maybe $600M in 2012) and analysis, and we may be even more so this year as the number of players shrinks. Don’t get me wrong. Rhapsody, Napster, and Zune Pass are great products. For niche audiences, at least as they’re priced today. Advertising likely will have to play a much bigger role for them to reach broader audiences.

And we’ve never been believers that all music will be consumed via subscription-based jukeboxes in the sky. Does anybody say that anymore?

Would You Like Fries with Your News? July 22, 2008

Eh, whatever it takes, I guess.

Two cups of McDonald’s iced coffee (BUY!) sit on the Fox 5 TV news desk, a punch-you-in-the-face product placement (BUY!) to chase down your morning news.

I chuckled more at the Las Vegas Sun’s coverage than at the NY Times‘. But the Times revealed a bunch of “sinners”: Meredith, Tribune, Fox, and Univision.

“I Don’t Have SpongeBob. I Have SquishyGuy.” July 22, 2008

Guess who’s side I’m on in this one? That’s not a mashup, or commentary, it’s thievery ;->

Sue the b@stards!

Leslie Ann Hooker, a Fort Lauderdale costume-company owner, thought she had found a way to run her business without running into trouble. “I try to make my costumes look 40% different,” she said early this month, adding that she didn’t explicitly offer trademarked characters: “I don’t have SpongeBob. I have SquishyGuy.”

NYTimes’ iPhone App Does the Job July 21, 2008

Thanks to a tip from former Jup, Joe Wilcox, I am now addicted to the New York Times app for the iPhone. Nice clean interface, default tabs include Business and Opinions (wise choices), and….it comes with ads. That you can click through! Wow, this whole mobile marketing thing just might happen after all. Right now, I’m getting a Westin ad with a weak call to action, but a satisfying landing page. It takes up the same space as the tab controls, so about 1/8th of the screen.

Back to the Times app, I find it more satisfying than newspapers on Kindle. Kindle’s NY Times was like the worst of both worlds: an RSS experience – that is, stripped down, lacking context and rich storytelling/interactive features – but not fresh either. On Kindle, you get the early edition of the Times, and it doesn’t update during the day, even if you download it in the middle of the afternoon. That’s a problem that should be fixable.

In contrast, the Times on the iPhone gives you an RSS like easy-to-read on the small screen version of the story, but supports links back to the main site, photos, etc. I thought a lead story with photo made me click one more time than necessary to get to the story’s text. But overall, a really solid effort of converting a newspaper to the phone.

Oh, and it seems my Facebook iPhone app has an update already. Whew, photo support (MySpace had that day one). And it really updated, that is, it replaced the old version on my phone, as it should.

I am still amazed at free song ID via Shazam, and over the air webcasting from Pandora and AOL Radio. I thought the economics of unlimited data contracts wouldn’t support radio. Maybe they still won’t. But the experience over Edge is decent; it’s probably just fine over 3G.

My favorite feed reader, NetNewsWire from NewsGator, is still a little wonky on the iPhone. Keep working, guys, you’re almost there.