michaelhweaver

Don't Suck

2009-07-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

Like many of you, I read so much nonsense these days about social media that I have a hard time filtering what makes a real difference to the discussion. Sometimes (more rare than not these days) you come across something that makes you go, “Ya, that is smart and moves the discussion along.”

I came across this exact thing today. Alan Wolk, a good friend of KickApps, wrote this today on his blog: http://tangerinetoad.blogspot.com/2009/07/dont-suck.html. It’s a great way of looking at social media for brands.

For KickApps, not sucking is a BIG deal for our brand. I think you’ll agree that we all take a lot of pride in our work, whether that’s on the technical side of things, customer service, sales, KickDeveloper, etc., and one of our differentiators is that we as a company, and a brand, are known for this. There are countless occasions that we can point to where we have gone the extra mile for our customers and treated them the way we wish we were treated. This makes all the difference in creating a brand in this era of the social web that doesn’t suck.

Hayden - June '09 - Weaver Family Photo

2009-06-30T11:15:00.001-07:00

Hayden - June '09 - Weaver Family Photo

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Time Warner Ditches Troubled AOL Unit

2009-05-28T09:39:00.001-07:00

Time Warner Ditches Troubled AOL Unit

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Eight Competencies to Socializing Your Organization

2009-05-28T08:49:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Eight Competencies to Socializing Your Organization

View more OpenOffice presentations from Rachel Happe.

The end of the Web 2.0 advertising myth

2009-05-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

From @bmorrissey

For a long time, I was reminded of The Graduate whenever I met with an eager, undeniably smart and ambitious Silicon Valley founder. After he explained the consumer value the Web 2.0 service created, I’d ask the business model question. Instead of whispering “plastics,” it was “advertising.”

This unflinching belief in advertising as the catchall monetization tool came out of the strange Valley culture, which I’ve found just as inward-focused as the more-maligned East Coast media industry. The VCs, analysts and entrepreneurs all bought into this idea that if you build a large enough audience, you have a media business. Not quite. On one level, I understood this line of thought. Unless you have scale, you don’t have a business anyway, so focus on scale. But it led to a nearly comical belief that the process of actually making money was quite easy, like turning on a spigot. Dave Karnstadt, the Efficient Frontier CEO, spent six months as an executive in residence at Redpoint Ventures. He told me a disturbing number of companies he met with pointed to AdSense as their revenue model. What many companies are finding is even if they build to what they find what they think is scale, it’s not enough.

This is the great unraveling of this Web 2.0 advertising myth. As Wenda Harris Millard said, “There’s not enough advertising to go around.” The Times has a story about how iMeem and other music services have recognized the economics of ad-supported music aren’t there. News Corp's Jon Miller had some interesting things to say at All Things D about how even a behemoth like MySpace needs to diversify its revenues. On a much smaller scale, Om Malik rolled out a subscription service for his GigaOm network of content sites.

Like other unravellings (not a word), this is going to get messy. This is the year these venture-backed startups will have to figure out their business models, and it couldn’t come at a worse time. Web 2.0 companies will come to realize that building a media business is hard work, not just matter of amassing millions of eyeballs. Many services built are communications platforms that don’t perform well on a direct response basis. That means relying on scarce brand dollars. And the process of selling brand advertising is painful and requires a totally different skill set and culture than these tech companies possess. The upside is the next generation of startups will most likely focus on their business models earlier – and be a little more creative than using advertising as a cure-all.

ClearSpring Now Sees What Half of the Internet is Doing (API Coming Soon)

2009-05-27T13:09:00.001-07:00

ClearSpring Now Sees What Half of the Internet is Doing (API Coming Soon)

This article was picked up by The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/05/27/27readwriteweb-clearspring-now-sees-what-half-of-the-inter-13220.html

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Moving Towards One Sharing Platform

2009-05-27T07:36:00.001-07:00

Moving Towards One Sharing Platform

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Is Social Media making Customer Databases Irrelevant? | Creative Agency Secrets

2009-05-27T05:30:00.001-07:00

Is Social Media making Customer Databases Irrelevant? | Creative Agency Secrets

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Press Releases - National Geographic Launches Slate of New Widgets with Clearspring - Clearspring

2009-05-27T05:17:00.001-07:00

Press Releases - National Geographic Launches Slate of New Widgets with Clearspring - Clearspring

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Sexywidget post about Newsgator

2009-03-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

Checking in with NewsGator

NewsGator is a company that sort of snuck up on me in the widget space. One minute I knew them as an RSS Reader, and then seemingly overnight, they have established themselves as a leading player in helping companies leverage widgets to extend the reach of their content. Curious to learn more about them, I sent them over a few questions about their business.

Walker Fenton, General Manager for NewsGator's Consumer and Media Products, was kind enough to conduct this email interview with me. Enjoy:

What is NewsGator?

There are a lot of moving parts in NewsGator. It’s probably easiest to distill the three main things we do: first, and probably what we’re best known for, are RSS-solutions and readers (such as NewsGator Online, FeedDemon, Netnewswire, Netnewswire for iPhone etc.); however, we’re also heavily involved with social computing and RSS for the enterprise – in specific, adding significant tools and functionality to Microsoft SharePoint through our NewsGator Social Sites product (which you could think of as Facebook for the enterprise), which is a behind-the-firewall social computing platform.

The other side of the company is generally referred to as “Media & Consumer” and we focus on ways to help companies extend their brand’s reach, exposure and content, through syndication, in multiple different ways. We have several products that help companies do this, such as our social widgets, our related content offerings, our custom-built, branded iPhone applications, and something we now terming “NewsGator Publisher Suite,” which includes a host of tools that allow companies to syndicate their content, increase brand exposure, enhance revenue (such as our new “AdBurner” program, which is a pre-packaged, integrated ad placement service that can cover a company’s entire ad inventory in widgets, related content, or iPhone applications.)

What is NewsGator's revenue model?

That, too, depends on what parts of the company you’re talking about, but I’ll focus here on the Media & Consumer side. The main way we drive revenue is by charging clients monthly fees in exchange for creating widgets for them (most of which are viral), that can contain text, video, audio, pictures, etc., that allow them to spread their reach across the social web. Some of our revenue also comes from rev-share programs. For example, our AdBurner platform, designed especially for premium publishers, provides a turnkey advertising-based solution to optimize ad revenue around key web 2.0 technologies with no incremental effort on their part; a portion of this ad revenue is shared with NewsGator. We also, of course, charge clients when we build custom, branded iPhone apps for them.

How can companies use NewsGator products?

Our products allow publishers to increase the reach of their content (and visitors’ interaction with it), enhance their branding efforts, and increase visitors’ time spent on site all while monetizing this content. These products all fall under the large umbrella of “syndication.” In addition, we offer several products around data services, which provide businesses with a scalable, reliable source of RSS content and metadata around the consumption of that content across the entire NewsGator Platform. Are products are designed to be a win-win scenario for publishers: they spread their content across the viral web, enhance their branding, and make money while doing it.

Can you give us some background on the evolution of your business from enterprise RSS to include enterprise widgets?

Actually, your question is loaded! Our syndication (widget) and enterprise products grew simultaneously; the widget product didn’t descend from the enterprise product.

NewsGator started with a RSS Reader plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. Soon, there was an online portal that would sync with the client application, so users could read their feeds in Outlook or on the Web and each would synchronize with the other. NewsGator’s management noticed that there were many purchases in lots of 10, 20 (or more) and realized there was a need for an enterprise version.

NewsGator’s engineers created a behind-the-firewall RSS management tool that could present secure content to users and enable IT and business administrators to manage and monitor the RSS feeds their employees were reading.

As NGES matured, NewsGator’s management (and its customers) realized that the RSS protocol provided an efficient method to extend the product’s initial purpose (the management and consumption of RSS) to social computing. This product is now termed NewsGator Social Sites.

During the development and growth of NGES, the user base of the consumer version of the Outlook plug-in and the online reader continued to grow. In speaking with media clients, it became clear to NewsGator management that some customers wanted a way to enable their own sites’ users to personalize content but under their own brands (kind of like “My Yahoo” but branded by the customers). To answer this need, NewsGator created a white-labeled version of its online reader and deployed that solution to USA TODAY, the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsweek, the Denver Post and others. During this time, clients also asked for personalization to extend from this separate experience onto existing pages (like the section fronts of USA TODAY). During the development of that product (NewsGator Buzz), NewsGator realized that the same technology could be used to export branded content to those places where media users’ eyeballs were migrating (Facebook, iGoogle, etc.)

That’s how the widget framework and Social Sites came to be. It was concurrent (and symbiotic) development. One product did not descend from the other.

What parallels do you see between widget development and iPhone development? Can you talk a little bit about NewsGator's iPhone efforts?

Whether through an iPhone or a widget, our focus is to deliver products that show content well, maintain brand, and have interaction models that take advantage of the technology/destination (with appropriate monetization). Having said that, widgets and iPhone applications essentially do the same thing - they promote the latest videos, headlines, images, etc., but in different ways.

When Apple launched the iTunes App Store last summer, they asked Brent Simmons (the creator of NetNewsWire on the Mac) to create a version of NetNewsWire for the iPhone. They result was fantastic - Time.com named NetNewsWire on the iPhone as one of their top 10 iPhone apps for 2008. NetNewsWire for iPhone is just the right experience for the device; it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as the desktop application, just those that are most appropriate for showing content on the device while keeping the familiar user experience that you would expect from an iPhone application. The iPhone Media Application Framework continues to build on this premise, not only showing content well, but making it simple and fast as well.

NewsGator counts among its clients a number of newspaper properties. Can you talk about the challenges and opportunities of working with this embattled sector? Any tips for startups looking to work with newspaper sites?

Yes, there is no denying that it is a challenging environment right now. What it means for us is that we’re working harder than ever to optimize the eCPMs that our publishing partners get against their content. We recently put together a program called AdBurner, where we’ve partnered with several different Ad Networks to deliver on this goal. As a technical conduit, NewsGator is in a good position to best optimize content that is shown in our widget framework or iPhone apps against advertising.

What's new in the widget space? Any new developments that Sexy Widget readers should be aware of?

Typically when people think of widgets they think of portable games or latest broadcasted headlines – but the technology landscape is changing. Now with the integration of social features and the addition of semantic metadata, a publisher’s ability to provide you with content that is relevant to you and your community is quickly approaching. Think, “tell me what I don’t know (that is important to me)”.

Can you share any observations about how the down economy is affecting NewsGator? Any tips for other entrepreneurs?

The only way to survive a market like this (or any market for that matter) is to continually focus on delivering value. Sounds a bit textbook to say that, but it holds true.

What can we expect to see from NewsGator in 2009?

We’re continuing to innovate, to push boundaries in the changing publishing landscape. We’re big fans of helping companies find new ways to reach audiences, and figuring out ways to learn more about these audiences to better address their needs as well. Happy readers are a good thing

http://www.sexywidget.com/my_weblog/2009/03/checking-in-with-newsgator.html

Only in that fleeting calm is truth realized

2009-03-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

Room for tender emotions is almost always stolen. This is not to say that the darker emotions of shame, guilt, despair, etc. are not also prone to distract us from moral agency. In our struggle to survive our emotions, we must pit one against the other. Sometimes a certain neutralization results. Only in that fleeting calm, does truth sometimes make a brief cameo appearance.

Idol Badge

2009-03-09T14:47:00.001-07:00

2009 Online Trends from Jefferies Internet Conference

2009-03-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

What To Look For In 2009: The CEO Consensus From The Jefferies Internet Conference
By Rory Maher - Fri 27 Feb 2009 07:29 AM PST
God knows, there's no shortage of pessimism about the economy and the state of U.S. business these days. But put 70 CEOs in a room together and you're bound to hear something positive. Here, according to the cluster of CEOs that attended the Jefferies Internet Conference this week, are some of the big opportunities for online companies in 2009. (They were distilled from a report on the conference by Jefferies internet analyst Yousseff Squali.)

—More subscription models in 2009 and 2010. As ad dollars dry up in 2009 and perhaps into 2010, digital companies will be forced to find other ways of making money, and some indicated they were already actively pursuing subscription models that generate additional and more stable revenue streams. Netflix said it is likely to roll out a new service that charges customers for online streaming from its catalog, while Shutterfly said it would probably charge customers who use the most storage on its personal-publishing service.
—Consolidation is necessary and likely in online video. The consensus was that there are too many online video companies with high-cost business models chasing too few ad dollars. The result? Some industry shrinkage.
—Display isn't going away even though things look awful now. Most executives believed that when the economy recovers, online marketing campaigns will evolve from narrow buys that focus on either search or display to more integrated campaigns across both types of ads. That would give display a lift, though it is unlikely to ever return to its heady growth rates of recent years.
—Profit margins will improve. The weak economy has caused even the most optimistic CEO to scrutinize the costs of running his/her business—and most at the conference said that was the silver lining of the recession. Comscore (NSDQ: SCOR), Bankrate (NSDQ: RATE), and Valueclick all expected profit margins to improve over the next couple years.

Keep in mind that these conferences tend to be forums for companies to promote themselves, so it's not surprising that much of the focus was on what will go right for online businesses and not as much on what is now going wrong.

New Rules of a New Age

2009-01-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

Today companies operate by new rules of a new age, among them:

• Customers are now in charge. They can be heard around the globe and have an impact on huge institutions in an instant.
• People can find each other anywhere and coalesce around you—or against you.
• The mass market is dead, replaced by the mass of niches.
• “Markets are conversations,” decreed The Cluetrain Manifesto, the seminal work of the internet age, in 2000. That means the key skill in any organization today is no longer marketing but conversing.
• We have shifted from an economy based on scarcity to one based on abundance. The control of products or distribution will no longer guarantee a premium and a profit.
• Enabling customers to collaborate with you—in creating, distributing, marketing, and supporting products—is what creates a premium in today’s market.
• The most successful enterprises today are networks—which extract as little value as possible so they can grow as big as possible—and the platforms on which those networks are built.
• Owning pipelines, people, products, or even intellectual property is no longer the key to success. Openness is.

2009 Widget Industry Predictions

2009-01-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

In the Year 2009, the follow will happen:

1. consolidation of powerful and useful widgets thanks to Flex, JavaFX and Silverlight
2. Lines get fully blurred from the desktop to the browser because of Os Layering, Widget-App Engines and SSB clients.
3. Consolidation of Widget-apps in mobiles thanks to mobile RIA platforms. that are exactly the same ones dominating the desktop
4. Widgetization in pretty much all online service
5. Live FX Framework Widgets now out and showing a new game for Widgets and Widget-apps
6. Google and Yahoo caving in and finally giving direct support for Windows Vista Sidebar
7. Widgets get into a Socialization Frenzy
8. Widgets get into a Federated Identity Connector Frenzy
9. Widgets turn heavy into branding and entertainment. a blur of Widget Utilities and Widget Advertising starts to happen. a small backlash to follow thanks to that and the ties of widgets with Identity and Sociality
10. Widgets hit big money as engagement, branding and code portability gain the spotlight

The Six Widget

2008-12-04T07:29:00.001-08:00

Clearspring is Eating Your Widget for Lunch (OWAs)

2008-11-21T06:12:00.001-08:00

Clearspring is Eating Your Widget for Lunch (OWAs)

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SEO is Dead

2008-11-11T07:45:00.001-08:00

SEO is Dead

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Great Video about Word of Mouth Marketing

2008-10-30T06:53:00.001-07:00

http://www.viddler.com/explore/garyvaynerchuk/videos/50/

Clearspring Regains the Worldwide Widget Lead, Launches Smart Sharing Features

2008-10-28T08:05:00.001-07:00

Clearspring Regains the Worldwide Widget Lead, Launches Smart Sharing Features

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Gigya to Integrate MySpace and Facebook Friends

2008-10-21T05:44:00.001-07:00

Gigya to Integrate MySpace and Facebook Friends

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Layoffs at Heavy.com - Now at 57 employees

2008-10-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

More Layoffs: Heavy.com Shedding 12 More Employees
By Rafat Ali - Fri 17 Oct 2008 12:08 PM PST
Heavy.com, the NYC-based online video site aimed at young men, has laid off about 20 more employees, after doing a round of cuts in June, when it laid off 25 employees. Back then it had about 80 employees after the cuts then...now, with some attrition since then, they are down to around 57, the company tells me. The news comes as the company has recently spun off the online video ad network division Husky Media into a separate company. The troubles of Heavy have been brewing for a while, as it has tried to distinguish itself from the slew of other video players-- both new and bigger media companies-- in the market...some other players in the market have also questioned its traffic acquisition tactics over the years. The company has raised at least five rounds of funding before, including a $20 million round from Polaris last year.

The company’s official statement on the new layoffs: “Given the current economic downturn and related uncertainty in its industry, Heavy today reduced its staff by 14%. With its premium Heavy Men’s Network platform serving 23M young men per month in the US alone, and profitable International operations in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, Heavy is strongly positioned for any dip in the advertising market.”

The news was first reported by SAI.

Posted in: Broadband, Social Media
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Summer Garden 2008

2008-07-11T10:21:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Clearspring Gets $18M to Make Smarter Widget Ads (Mashable Post)

2008-05-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

http://mashable.com/2008/05/20/clearspring-series/

Clearspring Gets $18M to Make Smarter Widget Ads

May 20, 2008 — 11:19 PM PDT — by Kristen Nicole —

Clearspring, the widget company that has broken into the advertising and distributed media realm, has raised $18 million in a Series C round of funding, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Novak Biddle Venture Partners, with existing investors also participating in the round.

Harry Weller, a partner at NEA, will be joining the Clearspring Board of Directors, as will Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, Ted Leonsis, AOLs Vice Chairman Emeritus (who is now Clearspring’s Chairman), Miles Gilburne, and Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One, who also has a great deal of experience in helping companies go public. That’s a lot of new board members to go along with the hefty round of funding, and a pretty powerful set of newcomers.

Clearspring Looking for an Exit, or an IPO?

Aside from wondering what Clearspring would be doing with the $18 million in funding, I also wondered if bringing such high level business veterans onto the team could be an indication of Clearspring hoping to go public or possibly sell. I asked Clearspring founder Hooman Radfar is this was the case, and he told me that he’s out to “build a really big company, and we’re not really looking for an exit. We don’t believe you can build a company for an exit. It’s better to build according to your vision.”

Plans for Putting $18 Million to Good Use: Standardize & Make Smarter Widget Ads

So with $18 in Series C, has Clearspring joined the ranks of Ning, Slide, and the rest? I’d say so. With standards for widget distribution, a platform available for publishers to create, distribute and track their own widgets, a developing advertising network and other tools for widgetizing and monetizing web content, Clearspring is among the most prominent widget platforms out there.

And Clearspring is only going to get bigger. The funding will be used for three main aspects of the company: expanding Clearspring in the ad space, cultivating its data collection and reporting services, and growing its sales team. On aspect of this growth plan that was of particular interest to me was the data collection and reporting services.

As most other widget companies have done for the past couple of years, Clearspring has been gathering demographic information on its users, advertisers, an methods of distribution. While such a sprawled, consumer-driven technique hasn’t become fully standardized for monetization purposes, the space is getting there.

Clearspring is hoping to help provide that standard by further developing its tracking tools. In doing so, widgets and advertisements, whether they be in-widget ads or full widget ads, can be placed on sites more effectively. This improved execution for ad placement is a common goal for online advertising companies, and in my experience, widget companies with advertising components are well equipped to offer a set of metrics that’s useful towards this end.

Next Stop for Clearspring: More Social

So for the future of Clearspring? Radfar hinted that the company’s widgets will become more social, through increased interaction across networks and open platforms, as well as partnerships with other social media companies. We’ll be seeing more details about this plan in the coming year.

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4 Comments »
Brad
2008-05-21 09:24:01
We at Animoto are huge fans (and an early customer) of Hooman and the Clearspring team. We wouldn't be where we are without them. Can't wait to see where this funding takes them.
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News about Popsause Ad Network and Netvibes' New CEO

2008-05-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=82447&Nid=42644&p=460063

Zvue Launches Popsauce Ad Network
by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:00 AM ET
CEO of ZVUE Jeff OscodarPublicly traded digital entertainment company Zvue is redoubling its efforts in the hot arena of ad networks with popsauce--a "pop culture" ad network of video sites targeting 18- to-34-year-old influencers.

The popsauce network, set to debut today, represents a mixture of user-generated-content and licensed professional media from SonyBMG, Showtime, Warner Music, National Lampoon, and Disney-ABC Television Group's Stage 9 Digital Media, among others, Zvue CEO Jeff Oscodar tells Online Media Daily.

"Popsauce delivers on a promise to reach the most valuable consumers online," Oscodar said.

Late last year, Zvue dropped its old name, HandHeld Entertainment, and launched an online video ad network to monetize its library of professional and CGM content.

In April, however, Zvue received a letter of warning from Nasdaq to get its stock price up. If, by October, Zvue fails to raise the bid price for its common stock--which had closed below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days--the company could be delisted from the exchange.

"It's a capital issue, not a business issue," Oscodar said. "We were given six months to show that the stock price can rise above a dollar, and I'm not worried about that."

The bulk of the San Francisco-based company's revenue still comes from the sale of MP3 players. Yet it has increasingly focused on the operation of its network of sites, including holylemon.com, dorks.com and funmansion.com.

With possession of the popular video-sharing network eBaum's World, Zvue Networks currently projects nearly 3.5 billion page views and video streams served annually.

The popsauce network also recently signed distribution agreements with Next New Networks--to feature some of its content, including the popular "Obama Girl" videos--and Stage 9, Disney-ABC Television Group's new digital studio.

The network offers advertisers pre- and post-roll video advertisements, in-stream flash overlay advertisements, and banner and other alternative rich media advertisements.

Zvue Networks also provides advertisers with access to specific psychographics and includes vertical categories such as music, entertainment, and video games.
Gavin O'Malley can be reached at gavin@mediapost.com

Update on 5/29/08

Freddy Mini as Netvibes’ Chief Executive Officer

Netvibes Founder to Remain on Board of Directors as Strategic Advisor

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Netvibes, the pioneer of the personalized homepage and leading universal widget platform, today announced that it has appointed Freddy Mini as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Netvibes founder Tariq Krim will remain on the Board of Directors as a key adviser to the executive team on its creative product and strategic growth initiatives.

Freddy Mini commented, “Tariq is a true visionary who not only pioneered the concept of the widget economy, but helped prove it by creating a universal widget platform that’s currently used by more than 1,000 leading media and technology companies. By painting such a compelling picture for the future of the personalized, widgetized Web, Tariq has also attracted a very large and truly international community of dedicated users. I am grateful for his continued support as a member of the Board and key strategic advisor as we enter our next stage of growth as a global media company for the emerging widget economy.”

Tariq Krim founded Netvibes in 2005 and as CEO oversaw the original development of the Netvibes super-personalized homepage and its adoption by millions of users across the world. Krim established the first models for today’s emergent widget economy by creating the Netvibes Ecosystem, sponsored widget model and universal widget platform that have enabled major media companies and developers to monetize distribute widgets across leading platforms including Yahoo, Google, Apple and Microsoft simultaneously.

“As Chief Operating Officer, Freddy has continually proven himself as an invaluable partner in building Netvibes’ core business operations and global media partnerships,” said Netvibes founder Tariq Krim. “His experience in establishing major online media companies and rapidly scaling operations and infrastructure for global enterprises uniquely qualifies him as the best choice to drive Netvibes’ next chapter of growth as we continue to accelerate as a global media distribution powerhouse for widgets.”

Since 2006, Freddy Mini has served as Netvibes COO, establishing the company’s US operations and leading international business development with hundreds of major media and technology companies, such as CBS, USA Today, Le Figaro, New York Times and MIVA. Mini was also in charge of creating and managing the company’s new marketing initiatives, sponsorships and revenue streams. Previously, Mini served as Senior VP and Managing Director of CNET Networks Europe, where he was responsible for creating and building their operations to more than 200 people while exceeding all profitability goals, and CEO of Ziff-Davis France. Before that, Freddy had also led the music search engine startup musicMe, AltaVista’s worldwide marketing efforts and Lotus Development Corp’s word processing business.

About Netvibes(http://www.netvibes.com)

Founded in 2005, Netvibes pioneered the personalized homepage as alternative to traditional web portals. Today, Netvibes is a global community of users who are taking control of their digital lives by personalizing their web experience. Netvibes lets individuals assemble all in one place their favorite widgets, websites, blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything else they enjoy on the Web.

Netvibes has established the leading universal widget platform that is used by thousands of publishers around the world. Netvibes has offices in Paris, London and San Francisco.

2008-05-06T12:59:00.001-07:00

test test test

Press Release about Widgets as Ads

2008-04-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

CLEARSPRING TO SERVE WIDGETS AS ADS

New Ad Format Extends Advertisers' Relationship with its Audience

NEW YORK, NY, ad:tech New York (Nov. 7, 2007) — Clearspring Technologies, the market leader in widget syndication and tracking, today announced the launch of Clearspring for Advertisers, a new service that delivers widgets as online ads. The new ad-served format enables marketers to replace standard-sized online banner ads with interactive, portable widgets.

Unlike banner ads, widgets are shareable Web applications or components that consumers can easily grab and post to their social networking site, personal start page or blog of their choice. Posted widgets retain their viral capability and can be shared time and again. This allows for the advertiser's message to spread across the Web, creates a direct channel for marketers to engage in continuous conversations with their audience and lets end users establish themselves as advocates for their favorite products, movies, TV shows and brands. Sony Pictures Entertainment, The CW Television Network, Comedy Central, DreamWorks Animation, and Warner Bros. have all recently used Clearspring for Advertisers.

Sony Pictures Entertainment was Clearspring's first partner to use ad widgets for two movie releases this year - Superbad and Resident Evil: Extinction. "By using ad widgets instead of standard-sized banners, we were able to extend our time with the consumer and their network of friends, as they made our ad widget part of their personal pages," said Dwight Caines, executive vice president, Worldwide Digital Marketing, Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The CW Television Network, also used Clearspring for Advertisers to launch an ad-widget campaign this year to build buzz among teens about the fall season premier of the Gossip Girl TV series. The day before the show premiered, thousands of fans had posted the Gossip Girl widget on their personal pages. These fans continue to promote Gossip Girl to their friends. The CW's use of ad widgets instead of standard-sized banners on sites such as People.com and MySpace, generated more than 65 million widget views during the campaign launch period, and continues to receive impressions.

Clearspring for Advertisers is fully integrated with the top ad-serving systems including DoubleClick and Mediaplex. Clearspring also offers a full set of analytics and reporting tools so advertisers can monitor activity as ad widgets traverse the Web and repurpose media placements in response to each widget's viral performance.

Clearspring publishes widgets that can be shared on multiple social networking sites, start pages and blogs like Friendster, TypePad, Blogger, iGoogle, Windows Live, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Webwag, and Freewebs, as well as on Facebook and MySpace. Clearspring provides advertisers the ability to convert ad widgets into fully compatible Facebook applications.

According to Hooman Radfar, founder and chief executive officer of Clearspring, "With Clearspring for Advertisers, everybody wins. Marketers can make one media buy and have the potential to increase impressions and get more bang for their media buck. Creative directors and producers unleash their ideas on a new platform for innovation, and the advertiser sustains a dialogue with the end user, who becomes an advocate for the brand."

Built for mission-critical campaigns, Clearspring's widget distribution service is used by the world's largest media companies and brand advertisers, including NBC Universal, Time Warner and the NBA. Clearspring for Advertisers is a scalable, reliable and fault- tolerant service, with its servers geographically distributed to support the world's most successful campaigns. For more information go to http://www.clearspring.com/advertising

About Clearspring

Clearspring is the market's leading widget syndication and tracking service, used by the world's largest media companies and advertisers, and independent widget developers. Clearspring helps publishers and marketers extend their reach to the leading social networks, start pages and blogs and to respond to growing consumer demand for a more personalized desktop, Web, and mobile experience. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., Clearspring offers a comprehensive set of widget creation, distribution, management and monetization services. For more information about Clearspring Technologies and how to use widgets in your business or to join the Clearspring developer community, please visit www.clearspring.com.

Clearspring To Serve Widgets As Ads
November 7, 2007
Clearspring Announces Launchpad to Empower Developers
October 29, 2007
Clearspring and Freewebs Create Partnership
July 18, 2007
Clearspring and RockYou Create Partnership
July 10, 2007
NBC Universal Launches Widgets to Expand Distribution of Content on Digital Platforms
June 6, 2007
Clearspring Widgets Hit 3 Billion Mark
May 2, 2007
Clearspring Introduces Widget Syndication Services
November 6, 2006

Tear Down This Wall: Clearspring Blurs the Line Between Facebook and the Widget Ecosystem
Sexy Widget
MySpace Widget Explosion: Clearspring, MyCityMate, Pikipimp
Mashable
8 Startups to Watch out for in 2007
StartupSquad
ClearSpring enters the widget space with a developer focus
Read/WriteWeb
Most Interesting Web 2.0 Company?
VCMike's Blog
Wrap-Up from Widgets Live
GigaOM
Clearspring to Track Widgets Across Netvibes, MySpace and More
Mashable

Clearspring PR

Phone: Work 703.677.3999

Fax: Work 703.677.3648

Email: Contact Us

AOL unveils Spot Marketplace

2008-04-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

In the following article AOL annouces a Spot Marketplace to complement PubAccess. The implecation is that remnant advertising products will become more efficient because advertisers can use the new spot marketplace to choose inventory on a performance basis - either cost-per-click or cost-per-action - across such AOL-branded sites like Moviefone, as well as the publisher sites in the Ad.com network.

By David Kaplan - Wed 23 Apr 2008 09:01 PM PST

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-aols-platform-a-answers-spray-and-pray-ad-sales-with-spot-market-system/

AOL’s (NYSE: TWX) Platform-A is unveiling Spot Marketplace, a service that aims to give advertisers a bit more selectivity when it comes to online placements, the company tells us. The new service is intended as a complement to its recently launched PubAccess inventory management tool for publishers in the Advertising.com network. Platform-A also hopes the new spot-buying service will help to separate the company from the “spray and pray” placement description that remnant ads sales are often derided by, since most advertisers have little choice over where their ads wind up in these systems. While this doesn’t offer the kind of specificity ad buys get on vertical ad networks, Spot Marketplace looks like it could narrow the field a bit for online marketers. Advertisers can use the new spot marketplace to choose inventory on a performance basis - either cost-per-click or cost-per-action - across such AOL-branded sites like Moviefone, as well as the publisher sites in the Ad.com network.

* AOL’s Platform-A Makes Its Pitch To Small Publishers With Advertising.com PubAccess Service

Social media news and information for April 22, 2008

2008-04-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

Today MySpace announced The Community Builder platform for advertisers, an article was posted about ad networks that places the low end of display pricing at $4 CPM, and I’ve noted some social media and industry analysts that are being quoted in the media today.

Community ad program opens in beta: Separately, MySpace is testing a program designed to help advertisers create communities around their brands. Dubbed the Community Builder platform, the program has two tiers: Self-Service and Full-Service. Both versions give advertisers instant community updates via blogs and bulletins, as well as Hitbox analytics designed to tell them how effective the campaign is. Self-Service is basically aimed at advertisers who are familiar with MySpace and who have advanced design coding skills and can maintain their own site. Community Builder is powered by Brooklyn, NY-based web shop Deep Focus. Release

of producing a hit movie or TV show.

-- Reuters: Filmaka is aiming for global reach and is developing a local language site for India; it might create a similar site for Japan as well.

Posted in: Broadband, Entertainment, Media, Social Media
Comment
Permalink | Back to Top

The Gold Rush For Ad Nets is On; But Crowded Space Brings An End To Remnants Low Prices
By David Kaplan - Mon 21 Apr 2008 01:46 PM PST

A prolonged economic downturn could turn out to be a upturn for advertising networks, at least in the short term. But, as the space gets more crowded with companies selling remnant, or unsold inventory, the fortunes for many such ad nets could change. As the NYT illustrates, many ad networks that focus on remnant ad space charge as little as $4 CPMs versus the average $40 CPMs commanded by portals like Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) or MSN. Meanwhile, the suddenly trendy vertical ad nets offered by major media publishers dont offer the promise of cheap prices; instead, promising greater placement on top sites and like-minded affiliates.

The following CEOs will be speaking at EconSM:

Come listen to them at our EconSM conference on April 29th, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Dalton Caldwell, Founder and CEO, imeem

Seth Goldstein, Co-founder and CEO, SocialMedia Networks

Keith Richman, Co-founder and CEO, Break.com

Kevin Rose, Founder and Chief Architect, Digg

Toni Schneider, CEO, Automattic

Moderator: Shawn Gold, CEO, Social Approach

Four prominent analysts in the internet / social media space:

Jeff Lindsay, Bernstein
Ross Sandler, RBC
Mark Mahaney, Citi
Mark May, Needham

Clearspring in the News

2008-01-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

Technology | Online Ads Come of Age, or Maybe Not

AOL's Kevin Conroy has emphasized the need for compelling ad delivery. (By Rick Maiman -- Bloomberg News)
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 31, 2007; Page D01

The rise of social networks such as Facebook and wireless gadgets such as the iPhone has set off a small stampede of companies hoping to build on or replicate their success. Many are counting on advertising to pay the bills.

But will it work?

That's one of the big questions for 2008, local technology gurus say. Advertisers want results.

"Everyone thinks they're going to support their business with the advertising model," said Phil Bronner, a venture capitalist at Bethesda's Novak Biddle. "What people don't know about is how effective those things are."

So far, the best known local players have been busy building their platforms in anticipation that advertising dollars will follow.

Silver Spring-based Freewebs and McLean-based Clearspring, both makers of the little applications that sit on top of Web sites, are among the farthest along in the local Web 2.0 space. They're followed by a few smaller companies with experienced management, such as McLean's Mixx, a social news site founded by the former general manager of Yahoo News, and Columbia's CollectiveX, a site where people can create social networks.

Full text available at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/30/AR2007123001769.html?sub=new&sid=ST2007123100485

Cloverfield Widget

2007-12-17T17:51:00.001-08:00

Exclusive footage of film

Press about Clearspring's WAN (Widget Ad Network) Announcement

2007-12-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here are the results of our recent PR efforts regarding The Widget Ad Network, SnaggableAds and our PointRoll partnership.

Widgets Gone Wild (Widgets get cover mention on Adweek and Full cover story on yesterday’s Mediaweek; attached as a pdf file)
Adweek
December 10, 2007
Byline: Rich Brunelli
http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003682974

“Now comes another turning point, as McLean, Va.-based Clearspring on Dec. 10 gears up to roll out the Widget Ad Network, enabling media companies to create ad-embedded widgets distributed via social-networking sites, desktops and mobile phones.”
--Adweek and Mediaweek

Online Ad World Gets Wider with Widgets
InternetNews.com
December 10, 2007
Byline: Clint Boulton
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2230179,00.asp

"Google is getting a new competitor. Widget maker Clearspring Technologies on Dec. 10 said it plans to launch an ad network to help its media publishing customers make money from their content."
--InternetNews.com

"Peggy Fry, senior vice president at Clearspring, said that while Google Gadget Ads are designed to run on the Google content network, Clearspring's widget ads will run on any blogs, start pages or social networks. The competition is likely to be friendly; Google and Clearspring are partners, and are working on how to make Clearspring's widgets run on Google's network."
--InternetNews.com

Clearspring Partners with PointRoll for Ads on your Widgets
Mashable
December 10, 2007
Byline: Kristin Nicole
http://mashable.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-ad-network-pointroll/

"In Clearspring’s evolution as a distribution tool, it’s become somewhat of a one-stop shop, so offering a way to analyze the performance for multiple widget formats and recommending the best formats or combination of formats for various types of websites would give Clearspring another edge."
--Mashable

Widget Syndicator Clearspring Launches Ad Network
Reuters
December 10, 2007
Byline: Eric Auchard
http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN1019024920071210

"Because the content in its syndicated widgets comes from recognized media brands, Clearspring says its service has distinct advantages for advertisers, compared with the "anything goes" ethic of much of the content created on the Web."
--Reuters

Clearspring launches widgets for Madison Avenue
VentureBeat
December 10, 2007
Byline: Julie Ruvulo
http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-launches-widgets-for-madison-avenue/

“Clearspring earned its reputation as the market leader developing widgets for Big Media, and counts among its clients NBC (exclusively), Disney (recently launched over a dozen widgets for ESPN) and Turner.”
--VentureBeat

“Peggy Fry, a former vice president of sales at Netflix and AOL Time Warner, is well-positioned to head up the advertising effort for Clearspring, and several people I interviewed attested to Clearspring’s mindshare in the market.”
--VentureBeat

New service will insert ads into Web widgets
Clearspring launches network to help advertisers more easily target social network users
Computerworld
December 10, 2007
Byline: Heather Havenstein
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=development&articleId=9052098&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_top

“Hooman Radfar, Clearspring's CEO and co-founder, noted that PointRoll is a dominant player in the rollover and expandable ad market. That, combined with the recent growth of consumer use of widgets -- 34% growth in the past two months, according to research firm comScore Inc. -- creates a ‘really powerful advertising communications platform,’ Radfar said. The two technologies will ‘make ads more interactive, having users be able to interact and stay longer with the ad than ever before,’ he added.”
--Computerworld

Clearspring Launches Widget Ad Network
Read Write Web
December 10, 2007
Byline: Josh Catone
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/clearspring_launches_widget_ad_network.php
“For smaller widget creators or those whose widgets are strictly content-based, selling in widget advertising may be a good way to monetize widgets, especially if ads are kept unobtrusive.”
--ReadWriteWeb

Clearspring Technologies & PointRoll Bring Rich Media to Widget Ads
Jack Myers.com
December 10, 2007
Byline: Jack Myers
http://www.jackmyers.com/commentary/media-biz-buzz/12309731.html
“Virgin Mobile, Blockbuster, Lionsgate Films and The Learning Channel have entered into a beta test agreement to distribute viral widget rich media ads through Fox TV (Futurama) and x17 online. The partners will be exploring different widget ad formats to define retention, grab rates, and interaction with the ads. Advertisers who want to reach the Web 2.0 audience can do it more effectively in widgets rather than banner ads, especially now that they are rich media enabled," said Peggy Fry, SVP Business Development.”
--JackMyers.com

Clearspring Launches Widget Ad Network With Major Partners
Digital Media Wire
December 10, 2007
Byline: Mark Hefflinger
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/12/10/clearspring-launches-widget-ad-network-major-partners

“The company said the tool will allow publishers to monetize their digital content across social networking sites, start pages and blogs by creating ad networks to serve ads within widgets. Twelve advertising and publishing firms -- including 20th Century Fox Television, Blockbuster, The Huffington Post, Lionsgate Films, and the National Hockey League -- will use the ad network.”
--Digital Media Wire

The Widget Ad Network
Washington Post’s The WashBiz Blog
December 10, 2007
Byline: Dan Beyers
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2007/12/the_widget_ad_network.html

"Clearspring Technologies is creating another way to deliver one company's ads to another's Web site or desktop. The DC startup said it has started the Widget Ad Network, which will allow people to not only serve up their content on social networking sites, start pages and blogs, but also their ads."
--Washington Post

Clearspring Forms Network to Send Ads to Widgets
E-Commerce Times
December 10, 2007
Byline: Katherine Noyes
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Clearspring-Forms-Network-to-Send-Ads-to-Widgets-60702.html?welcome=seen

“The overall trend behind the widget advertising phenomenon is to try to improve the level of engagement with consumers and the targetability of ads, Harry Wang, a research analyst with Parks Associates, told the E-Commerce Times. “The first step is to generate interest from consumers by giving them the applications to help them access their desired content easily, conveniently and quickly,” Wang explained. In that way, Clearspring’s service “may be the bridge connecting consumers with advertisers -- it’s a good step.”
--E-Commerce Times

“Advertising through widgets is “definitely a trend,” and makes a great deal of sense for publishers since it lets them monetize their content, Greg Sterling, founder and principal with Sterling Market Intelligence, told the E-Commerce Times.”
--E-Commerce Times

Clearspring Unveils Widget Ad Network
ClickZ
December 11, 2007
Byline: Fred Aun
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627843

“Advertisers and agencies are saying the distributed Web is on the rise and they want to reach that audience,” said Fry. She said the Clearspring platform enables widgets to be spread on 14 officially supported destinations, including Facebook, iGoogle, MySpace, Windows Live Spaces and Blogger.
--ClickZ

Clearspring + Pointroll = Ad layers for widgets
Widgetslab
December 10, 2007
Byline: Avatar
http://www.widgetslab.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-pointroll-ad-layers-for-widgets/

“Well, that didn’t take long. It seems like Clearspring is not going to let Google or anyone to have all the fun so they made a partnership with Pointroll to create an Ad network for widgets that can be placed as a clickable layer in the widgets as a way to monetize more of their offerings and offer users and co-developers a way to monetize themselves better.”
--Widgetslab

Stay tuned…

Independent Confirmation of Clearspring

2007-10-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

From: Steve Winton
Sent: 26 October 2007 11:11
To: Anna Carlson
Subject: Clearspring Blog Post

I Can See Clearly Now…
I was recently handed the monumental task of comparing the major players in the wonderful world of widget platforms. No mean feat, I can assure you, this turned into a mammoth undertaking of epic proportions (well, that may be stretching it a tad ;-). This is new and (relatively) unchartered territory and, although undoubtedly a new and exciting area of social media to be involved in, this meant it was tricky to nail down and collate the huge volumes of data and information into something palatable and useful that would enable us to deliver a whole host of wonderful widgets (be they destined for the web or desktop) using the right platform for the right client, and for the right price. Phew!

OK, so who are the ‘major players’ in the widget platform arena at this point in time?

With the help of Ivan Pope, of Snipperoo fame, we were able to narrow it down to a few contenders for the crown:
Clearspring
Springwidgets
Widgetbox
I looked at a number of factors from a technical perspective, ranging from analytics, API richness, deployment options, parameter types, supported technologies (Flash, Flex, ActionScript 3, HTML), hosting capabilities, as well as ’softer’ considerations such as user experience, administrative ease, support responsiveness, and widget exposure (i.e. how many ‘hosts’ we can get our widgets onto, such as iGoogle, Pageflakes, Netvibes, Facebook etc.).

To spare you the gory details, allow me cut to the chase…

The winner is…

Clearspring! And here’s why…
Firstly, I’m really impressed with the definitions/terminology they have in place. They really seem to have thought through all this ‘widgety goodness stuff’ from a fresh perspective, and as a result, I feel they are pushing the envelope with what’s possible (for example, their concept of a widget ‘placement ID’ and widget placement awareness, is unique. What’s more, they will be exposing this to developers through an API shortly, which will make our widgets more flexible and able to do all manner of interesting things!).
I like the publishing process on this platform (both from a developer’s perspective and end-user perspective), the process was really clean and fuss-free. Plus, for privately hosted widgets (i.e. where a widget resides on a private space such as iGoogle) there’s no need to revisit the platform’s website just to change a parameter value, you can do it all right there on the page where the widget resides. Bonus!
Both HTML and Flash widgets are supported (for maximum exposure, stick to Flash widgets as certain sites, notably Facebook and MySpace, don’t allow any scripting in widgets and so simply don’t permit any HTML whatsoever).
They will be exposing more features to their (already well-documented) API in the coming weeks (I’ve been added to their beta-list and await an update in this respect with bated breath!).
I was also pleasantly surprised to receive responses to my questions on support forums! And, from a bona-fide Clearspring employee, no less! This is reassuring to say the least!
Hosting isn’t provided as part of the service (which, incidentally should be provided on a Utility Computing basis, but I digress…) but that could be regarded as a positive thing… no need to hang around wondering when your latest widget amends might finally make it onto the production server, you remain in control of publication at all times.
A tip of the hat in the direction of Widgetbox is appropriate at this point, if only for the fully-fledged Facebook apps you are able to create from your widgets in a few simple clicks using this platform, they really make this a painless process. However, at the end of the day, the sum of Clearspring’s well-thought through concepts, forum support and APIs were the clincher for me!

So, hats off to you Clearspring, for creating what looks like a very promising service, and I hope to be working with you very soon!

Social media goodness. Translated. Created. Delivered.

Steve Winton
Developer
+44 (0)1273 648310
steve@nixonmcinnes.co.uk

21-22 Old Steine t. 0845 345 3462 www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk
Brighton BN1 1EL f. 0845 345 3463

Read our free ebook: Essential reading for marketers
Chapter 5: Mashups - Learn how to distribute your brand aggressively and inexpensively
Registered Office: 14 The Droveway, Haywards Heath, RH16 1LL
Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 4116747

FB App and Widget Quote Relevant to Publishers and Advertisers

2007-09-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Quote from OMMA article that is relevant to publishers and advertisers:

The panelists agreed that publishers or advertisers planning to use widgets need to make sure they have enough quality content to feed them with and an actual strategy for promoting them--because widgets don't just go viral by chance. "Viral growth is engineered," said Goldstein.

"You can't just build a widget, put it somewhere and they come," said Boissiere. "The initial burst comes from seeding a widget inline with content. Users are going to NBC.com for content around 'The Office'--they're not going to go to Facebook first to get that content."

According to the panelists, the recent wave of publisher and advertiser interest in widgets was arguably tied to Facebook's decision to open its platform to developers. "With an app on Facebook, you as an advertiser can build a multipage experience that goes beyond just a widget," said Ro Choy, head of business development, RockYou. "You can create a microsite in a user profile."

The full article can be found at

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=68105&Nid=34724&p=468186

Web 2.0 People in the News

2007-09-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Heavy Lands Another Biggie

by Tanya Irwin, Monday, Sep 10, 2007 6:00 AM ET

HEAVY.COM IS ON A ROLL for nabbing new top executives. In another coup for the online video service, Eric Hadley is leaving Microsoft Corp. to join Heavy as chief marketing officer, Online Media Daily has learned.

He will join Todd Sloan, who left NetRatings last week to be Heavy's new CFO (see Online Media Daily, Sept. 6, 2007).

Online Video Information and Resources

2007-09-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

Sept 10, 2007

Online Video Viewers Looking For News Clips

A new study by Advertising.com, Inc., reports that that the majority of consumers are viewing video online, at 62 percent of survey respondents. These viewers are not just young adults viewing user-generated videos, says the report, but, in fact, 69 percent are ages 35 and older with a preference for viewing news clips online.

Gizmoz.com Avatar TV Campaign

2007-09-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

Gizmoz.com Avatars to Star in Taco Bell Ad

by Karl Greenberg, Friday, Sep 7, 2007 6:00 AM ET

TACO BELL HAS CHOSEN THREE fans to star as virtual actors in an ad for "Fourthmeal," the late-night meal between dinner and breakfast, set to debut worldwide during the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards on Saturday.

The winners were chosen as part of Taco Bell's "TV Me!" contest, in partnership with Gizmoz and MTV. Gizmoz is an online program that enables people to create avatars of themselves. In less than two weeks, consumers created more than 17,000 Gizmoz clips, which were viewed more than 920,000 times.

The contest, launched in early July, earned each of the 3-D animated talking actors 30 seconds of air time during MTV's music awards show. Following the debut on the VMAs, the winning auditions can be viewed on tacobell.com.

Using Gizmoz.com's photo-realistic avatars, consumers were asked to audition by uploading a digital photograph. The Gizmoz program creates a 3-D lifelike head and personalized body. Consumers could also record their voices for their 15-second, lip-synched audition. Contestants were judged on personality, originality, overall appeal and ability to express themselves.

Irvine, Calif.-based Draftfcb created the TV spot, and added the winning avatars into the "World Stops for Fourthmeal" environment. The 15-second spot will run first, followed by the debut of the new spot that includes the three winners.

Karl Greenberg can be reached at karl@mediapost.com

Apple Stats

2007-09-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Lots of news big and small from The Steve Jobs Show (NSDQ: AAPL) now underway, including, as anticipated, a touch iPod with WiFi shipping this month-basically an iPhone sans AT&T and the phone, a WiFi Music Store-and, for the traditional content partner surprise, a deal for WiFi downloads with Starbucks (NSDQ: SBUX) complete with Howard Schultz cameo/sales pitch. (Updated: The full video of Jobs' presentation is here.)

The Cliff Notes version of the incredibly detailed Engadget coverage:

-- The Starbucks deal, allowing WiFi access for music downloads, is exclusive with iTunes and rolls out Oct. 2 in NY and Seattle, followed by 350 stores in San Francisco Nov. 7 and eventually to 5,800 WiFi-enabled stores across U.S, most by end of 2008. It will work on iPhone as well as iPod Touch. (Less clear, whether you need a T-Mobile account for the other WiFi features like YouTube, etc.)

-- iPhone: On track to ship 1 millionth unit this month but lowering price of 8GB, which most people want, to $399 from $599. (Sounds like the 4GB may be toast but unsure.) Jobs: "We want to make the iPhone even MORE affordable for even more people."

-- iPod Touch: Same size as iPhone but even thinner, comes in 8GB at $299 and 16G at $399. Includes Safari and 802.11 b/g. Battery life per Jobs: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. Shipping this month.

iTunes stats: Over 600,000,000 million copies distributed. Over 3 billion sings sold. Over 550 shows, over 95 million shows sold. 125,000 podcasts.

-- KT Tunstall as the surprise performer: "It's fantastic that Steve Jobs is making it more fun to pay for music than steal it!"

Update: In an interview with CNBC, Jobs confirmed that the 4GB iPhone was being discontinued. He also said iPhone would launch in some European countries next quarter with Asia 'probably' to follow in 2008.

-- Some had hoped for the Beatles' announcement today. Jobs: "It's up to Apple Corps. I hope you will see something in the next six months. ... When Apple Corps is ready, we're ready to go.

Mobile Widget Info & Companies to Watch

2007-08-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

Why are Mobile Widgets Important?

MySpace and Facebook are the leading social network sites in the US with 53M and 25M unique users each month respectively*.

There are currently 35M mobile web users in the US*, and this market has grown at more than 50% per year for the last three years.***

There are 206M mobile phone subs in the US (17% use their data plans and 25% have data plans)

The Clearspring mobile syndication platform will be able to publish widgets to all carriers except Verizon when mobile launches and will offer the Verizon system before the end of 2007.

Globally, more people have mobile phones than PCs

There are 2.7 Billion mobile phone users around the world while there are 850M PCs: 800M cars; 1.3B fixed landline phones; 1.4B credit cards; 1.5B TV Sets**

*Source: Web data from Alexa and Quantcast; Mobile user data from Telephia and Comscore.
**Source: Communities Dominate Brands, book by Toni Ahonen and Alan Moore
***Source: Chetan Sharma Consulting

Companies to Watch:

Zyb.com

Mosh - Nokia's video sharing play

Facebook mobile

Netvibes is upgrading their mobile service

YouTube mobile

Yahoo! mobile

Hooqs.com - Application that allows users to easily create a video channel and post that video to a mobile device.

Marketers Start to Use Social Networks for CRM Instead of Ads

2007-08-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

http://adage.com/digital/article.php?article_id=119918

Ad Age Article about Widgets

2007-08-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Three Strategies for Thriving on the Decentralized Web

As Long-form Content Becomes Bite-Size, Make Everything on Your Site Eembeddable

By Steve Rubel

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=119926

Social Network Ads must be interactive and "make people's lives easier, better and richer.

2007-08-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Traditional marketing failing on social networks

Get interactive or get out, says analyst

Ian Williams, vnunet.com 17 Aug 2007

Traditional marketing campaigns are proving unsuccessful on social networking sites, according to a recently published report.

The Forrester Research study suggests that most marketers still use traditional tactics like run-of-site advertising and static microsites to push messages into these networks.

However, the return on investment in these campaigns is very low, and marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value.

Promotions are good in this context, according to Forrester, but information or brand elements that users can pass on to their friends are even better.

"It is clear that successful social networking site campaigns do not follow traditional marketing rules," said Charlene Li, a principal analyst at Forrester and co-author of the report.

"Social networking sites cannot be treated as channels because their members are not passive web pages."

The report suggests that marketers should mimic how music acts promote themselves on sites like MySpace by engaging their fans with frequent backstage gossip and answering their questions.

"During the past 10 years, the evolution of the internet has dramatically changed how organisations interact with customers," said Gurval Caer, president and chief executive at marketing agency Blast Radius.

"Companies are recognising that traditional marketing approaches like advertising are less effective today, and marketers are struggling to deliver value.

"People no longer want 'interruptive' brand communications; they want interactions with their peers and true value from companies through Facebook applications or communities for sharing ideas and experiences."

Caer added that marketing needs to "turn itself on its head" with a much greater focus on building relationships that will make people's lives "easier, better and richer".

The report concluded that companies that want to advertise on social networks should embrace the interactive aspect of the sites in order to gain the full benefit of these campaigns.

Forrester Report: Marketing on Social Networking Sites

Independent Confirmation of Clearspring's platform

2007-08-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

Posted on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at http://mmogwidgets.blogspot.com/2007/08/widget-platforms.html

Clearspring

When I started this project I settled on using Clearspring as my widget platform. It has a number of attractive features that influenced my decision.

It offers turnkey syndication to many popular "start page" or personal page sites like iGoogle, Netvibes, Pageflakes, etc.
It offers turnkey syndication to blogs and other services like Blogger, Digg, Stumble, etc.
It was based on standard and well known technologies like Javascript and Flash.
It has amazing analytics including:

Number of widget views.
Number of unique viewers.
Domains that views are coming from.
Viral hubs that are spreading the widget.
Where people are viewing the widget from geographically.
3D graphs and charts with modifiable date ranges and data sets for custom reporting.

The "get & share" button that makes it easy for viewers who like the widget to simply grab it, customize it's settings, and automatically add it to their favorite pages via their turnkey syndication or by embedding.

All in all Clearspring has turned out to be a decent choice