tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90773172024-11-20T05:12:26.371-05:00Advertising LabAdvertising tomorrowUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2824125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-77398609683934009392017-09-22T14:50:00.003-04:002017-09-22T14:50:17.022-04:00Does Subliminal Advertising Work?We attempted to reconstruct a famous 1950s experiment with subliminal advertising by inserting very brief flashes of certain words in this video clip. Take a look at this <a href="https://www.vedrashko.com/thisisbig/can-you-spot-subliminal-advertising">video with subliminal messages</a>: can you tell what the words say?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-2768979558524989172013-06-04T02:23:00.000-04:002013-06-04T02:23:22.353-04:00The Power to Do More<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztEUuHxIbcqd0nMZrjfemA1J6ymLKUaQuep_Dl1OHjHzfV74eLUOSvEzhv8NTYLVeMTtWglyKzDP_IzUXsltV2XlwGeieEKksvqWJmJPws_evBXxWw9vDFrCSu5DSBCKDYpjiZQ/s1600/the+power+to+do+more.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztEUuHxIbcqd0nMZrjfemA1J6ymLKUaQuep_Dl1OHjHzfV74eLUOSvEzhv8NTYLVeMTtWglyKzDP_IzUXsltV2XlwGeieEKksvqWJmJPws_evBXxWw9vDFrCSu5DSBCKDYpjiZQ/s1600/the+power+to+do+more.jpg" /></a><br /> Every time I see this, I wonder if it shouldn't be the exact opposite.<br /> <br /> Nobody sells the dishwasher promising people that now, finally, they can do more dishes.<br /> <br /> The washing machine rumbling in my basement means me doing less laundry on a washboard by the river.<br /> <br /> The Nest thermostat promises I won't ever have to touch a thermostat again.<br /> <br /> Roomba takes doing out of vacuuming.<br /> <br /> Has there been an ad for the iPhone where people have a phone conversation? &nbsp;Since I got mine in 2007, my phone bill has been averaging about three voice minutes per day, for which I am forever grateful. Tweeting, Facebooking and messaging have replaced the hard stuff.<br /> <br /> I am struggling to think of a single thing I would want to <i>do</i> <i>more</i> of on a computer.<br /> <br /> I would like to be sending fewer emails. I also would like having to delete fewer of them. I would like for a computer to notice if I keep deleting something without reading.<br /> <br /> I like taking pictures, but I would like to spend less time organizing and retouching them.<br /> <br /> I don't want to do more Excel formulas. I want to type in "how likely are people who peel bananas from the handle end to have red hair and two kids", and get an answer without having to do more pivots, smart filters, regressions, or whatever. <br /> <br /> First I thought I would definitely like to play computer games more.&nbsp;Then I thought of all the games I quit in mid-level because of how inflexibly, frustratingly and randomly difficult for my inferior thumb reflexes they would eventually become. &nbsp;It would be nice if games could sense my frustration and lower their guard a bit and let me through. It would be nice if a game would just let me <i>play</i> it my way instead of insisting that I <i>do</i> what feels a lot like work.<br /> <br /> Hey, computer! &nbsp;It's your memory that doubles every two years while mine probably degrades at about the same rate. So I think&nbsp;<i>you</i>&nbsp;should be doing more.<br /> <br /> What I would like for myself is the power to do less.<br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-52518074658979925062012-11-27T12:32:00.000-05:002012-11-27T12:33:44.117-05:00I Miss My Old Media I miss all the news that <i>fit to print</i>&nbsp;-- not all the news, and pseudo-news, and churnalism, and press releases published verbatim, and gossip, and updates to gossip, and galleries, and listicles &nbsp;that drive &nbsp;just one more page view.<br /> <br /> I miss editors who say no.<br /> <br /> I miss reading Playboy -- or anything -- for the articles.<br /> <br /> I miss cutting things out to save them for later.<br /> <br /> I miss ads that sell hard from a full spread and feel good about it; &nbsp;ads that don't stalk you, and nag you, and creep you out.<br /> <br /> I miss hearing from my friends once a year and spending all night catching up and telling them how much their kids have grown since I'd last seen them because the last I'd seen them was a year ago.<br /> <br /> I miss organically yellowed pictures.<br /> <br /> I miss the way old film cameras used to smell.<br /> <br /> I miss having just one TV remote on my couch.<br /> <br /> I miss turning the dial on my radio, and hearing crackling, and static, and then catching a faint song that sounds like it's played thousands of miles away because it is.<br /> <br /> I miss songs on the radio being selected by someone but a playlist algorithm.<br /> <br /> I miss knobs, and buttons, and dials, and switches.<br /> <br /> I miss running to my mailbox and finding a handwritten letter.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-50147130983524439432012-09-09T01:35:00.001-04:002012-09-09T01:35:43.483-04:00New York Agency To Host Competition for Marketing Technology Start-ups<i>A note from EDGE Collective:</i><br /> <br /> On September 27, <a href="http://edge-collective.com/">EDGE Collective</a> is hosting their inaugural event Expand My Brand, an all day symposium matching up today’s top brands with emerging technologies and startups to explore how social technology is impacting brand marketing and advertising. At the end of the event there will be a startup competition where 5 new emerging startup technologies will pitch their product to a panel of brands and thought leaders, Shark Tank style, for a chance to win $30,000 in startup assets from EDGE Collective.<br /> <br /> Buy your tickets <a href="http://edge-collective.com/expand-my-brand/">here</a>.<br /> <br /> If you have a startup and are interested in participating, <a href="http://edge-collective.com/expand-my-brand-registration/">click here</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-84166540644119569802012-07-09T13:55:00.002-04:002012-07-09T13:57:26.851-04:00We Must Blaze A Trail To New Media [1946]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKBMyPT3zCVj3GxFuXTuZtHL89x83AyQ550l7TbmnjqOkdIruTCpChE216ccEE5iqkx-UO1pfh-hmZGIW-2E_81yaJxWt5VARfkL8CreEV-2_jG1KMFNH2aU5qdxAogEEuLeTgw/s1600/television-grey-matter-1946.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKBMyPT3zCVj3GxFuXTuZtHL89x83AyQ550l7TbmnjqOkdIruTCpChE216ccEE5iqkx-UO1pfh-hmZGIW-2E_81yaJxWt5VARfkL8CreEV-2_jG1KMFNH2aU5qdxAogEEuLeTgw/s320/television-grey-matter-1946.png" width="320" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Found a <a href="http://old.grey.com/greymatter/">small stack of PDFs</a> of scans of old issues of Grey Matter, Grey's research newsletters the agency sent out to media ("since 1935"). Particularly cool is a 1997 retrospective (<a href="http://old.grey.com/greymatter/pdfs/GreyMatter97Retro.pdf">pdf</a>) of what Grey had published about television over the years. <br /> <br /> From a 1946 issue:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: white;">"Throughout the still-raging dispute concerning the precise position television will occupy in the advertising firmament, a point has been missed... television is just one phase of a new advertising age (we might call) the "electronic age" of advertising...</span></blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> We hope we will not be charged with being anti-newspapers, anti-magazines or any of the established media... but we see a brilliant future for radio, for television, for (other electronic media). And we would be sadly remiss in our duty to advertising... to clients.. to future clients if we did not firmly resolve to explore those new media intensively and utilize them to the maximum of their potentials."&nbsp;</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-16039748664931854752012-05-16T17:12:00.001-04:002012-05-16T17:12:15.595-04:00Going to ARF's Audience Measurement ConferenceFor a recent experiment, we divided respondents into two groups. To both groups, we showed a trailer for an upcoming movie. One group was given two different descriptions for the trailer (as if there were two different trailers) and asked to chose one or the other. We have found that the presence of this "choice" had a significant effect on recall of key facts from the trailer. We are doing some follow-up work now to clarify a few things, but what we found was pretty interesting.<br /> <br /> My colleague&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thearf.org/am-7-speakers2#stlouis">Rob St.Louis</a>&nbsp;and I are going to the ARF's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thearf.org/am-7-speakers.php">Audience Measurement conference</a>&nbsp;in New York in June to present a paper with the results.&nbsp;Come say hi if you are there. &nbsp;<a href="https://thearf-org-aux-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/events/am70/AM7_Key_Issue_Papers_grid.pdf">Our thing</a> starts at 1.50pm on Monday June 11 in Majestic on the 6th floor of, I think,&nbsp;Marriott Marquis.<br /> <br /> Oh, and we have also just published the <a href="http://www.hhcc.com/blog/2012/05/smartphones-distract-people-away-from-tv-mobile-ads-help-bring-them-back/">results of another study</a> that showed how fiddling with smartphones distracts people from TV and what could be done about itUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-9515273065259334272012-05-15T18:59:00.002-04:002012-05-15T19:00:09.033-04:00A Cheat Code in Halo 4 Box Art Puzzle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNbTjRKdj9Rehu0k0hRDoHKzDakNeEPvU2TiA9epv86-ybiLeD9pB3rRy3ddv8_-kCJyy_Ja3UUtHA0jmvCXG9BS0aj09WPGjmI4P0F_Aq2xZqcY4dpBGoU_x8g6-j1TxRY7xZg/s1600/xbox-halo-box-art3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNbTjRKdj9Rehu0k0hRDoHKzDakNeEPvU2TiA9epv86-ybiLeD9pB3rRy3ddv8_-kCJyy_Ja3UUtHA0jmvCXG9BS0aj09WPGjmI4P0F_Aq2xZqcY4dpBGoU_x8g6-j1TxRY7xZg/s400/xbox-halo-box-art3.png" width="400" /></a></div> <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span> <br /> Microsoft <a href="http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/15/behold-halo-4s-box-art">unveiled the box art</a> for the upcoming <i>Halo 4</i> game by emailing Xbox community members one of the 32 pieces of puzzle that when <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=37869936#post37869936">assembled together</a>&nbsp;reveal the image. &nbsp;The puzzle was cracked in <a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37870409&amp;postcount=1">about an hour</a>, probably helped by the fact that the remaining 31 pieces could be seen by changing the last two digits of the image URL before the ".jpg" part, a fact that <a href="http://www.game-tuts.com/community/f34/halo-4-puzzle-110840/">wasn't lost on the fans</a>:<br /> <br /> <span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">http://image.engage.xbox.com/lib/feca167070610c7c/m/4/12993-H4_</span><span style="background-color: #666666; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">02</span><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">.jpg&nbsp;</span><br /> <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipvcuM6iVdMDWWBZYJH7TNlzGS6ToqbXE-83wHNjao1GqTVYhq9zQldYyUExeNojtVdQXdDqmDcyheUDQJwUs-xTVBvpPGuoB07buipq0OiOzbtvKT-B6hGCPl7HQ5Das9pW6bkQ/s1600/xbox-halo-comment2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipvcuM6iVdMDWWBZYJH7TNlzGS6ToqbXE-83wHNjao1GqTVYhq9zQldYyUExeNojtVdQXdDqmDcyheUDQJwUs-xTVBvpPGuoB07buipq0OiOzbtvKT-B6hGCPl7HQ5Das9pW6bkQ/s400/xbox-halo-comment2.png" width="400" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-8743744239419513622012-05-11T02:14:00.000-04:002012-05-11T02:30:21.211-04:00Google's Screenwise Project Listens To TV Habits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhjYjEmhat_z0jSEq2Ye1tgu1pKoB83QpRM-fydAJyCEBAukVUwGc6VKLrYhQNxp_P2doyMkLFn3S_Hc9cSREplU7IVe7-LyEHnhok2bOW3WhS5hVX-iZPqAgg9uqlRV8YSKGOg/s1600/screenwise-cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhjYjEmhat_z0jSEq2Ye1tgu1pKoB83QpRM-fydAJyCEBAukVUwGc6VKLrYhQNxp_P2doyMkLFn3S_Hc9cSREplU7IVe7-LyEHnhok2bOW3WhS5hVX-iZPqAgg9uqlRV8YSKGOg/s400/screenwise-cover.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Google's <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel/">Screenwise</a> research project <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/02/google-paying-users-to-track-100-of-their-web-usage-via-little-black-box/">announced back in February</a> is designed to collect data on more than just Internet behavior. In addition to custom wireless routers that gather information on participants' browsing and downloading habits, the recently mailed recruiting brochure describes a device "a little bigger than a smartphone" called Screenwise TV Tab. TV Tab "captures audio signals that enables the study to identify which TV programs are being viewed."<br /> <br /> The information TV Tab collects includes:<br /> <ul> <li>Identity of person logging into the Screenwise TV Tab</li> <li>Timestamps indicating time of log-in and log-out</li> <li>Duration of television usage per session</li> <li>The total amount of time a television is used in the household</li> </ul> [<i>source: Screenwise Select privacy policy</i>]<br /> <br /> I haven't seen the device, but I think it could be based on Android and powered by <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mrl.fixed&amp;hl=en">this TV Tab app</a>&nbsp;developed by <a href="http://www.mobileresearchlabs.com/">Mobile Research Labs</a>. &nbsp;Android market lists the number of installs for this app at between 10 and 50.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3UTtsYjO6mP-X2HiN5i4biypCOLBz2Q-NWxsPAAYaGL62Wr7kqgoOndVCZdqk5_TuW23i4xCO64bt7NZkKcwj_7f1FK0y1_SjYrquTSS-oarwTF9EzLZQXX1WO-Vs-uDpuCy2A/s1600/screenwise-app.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3UTtsYjO6mP-X2HiN5i4biypCOLBz2Q-NWxsPAAYaGL62Wr7kqgoOndVCZdqk5_TuW23i4xCO64bt7NZkKcwj_7f1FK0y1_SjYrquTSS-oarwTF9EzLZQXX1WO-Vs-uDpuCy2A/s400/screenwise-app.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <br /> In addition, a <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apadmi.screenwise.android&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5hcGFkbWkuc2NyZWVud2lzZS5hbmRyb2lkIl0.">different Screenwise app</a>&nbsp;(which looks like a version of Lumi's <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apadmi.analyzeme.android&amp;feature=also_installed#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwNCwiY29tLmFwYWRtaS5hbmFseXplbWUuYW5kcm9pZCJd">AnalyzeMe</a>) captures participants' smartphone habits. Among the more interesting things the app collects are:<br /> <ul> <li>Frequency of use of device calendar</li> <li>Battery status</li> <li>Whether you are using your smartphone inside or outside your home</li> <li>How long music is played, and the title and artist for each song</li> <li>Timestamp and duration of any video viewed on smartphone</li> <li>all URL's and advertisements viewed</li> <li>When a Panelist opens or closes an application</li> </ul> [<i>source: Screenwise Select privacy policy</i>]<br /> <br /> <br /> Google, who is conducting this research together with <a href="http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/">GfK</a>, is offering a sign-up incentive of $100 with up to an additional $50 for each month the participating household stays in the study.<br /> <br /> Some people who were randomly selected to receive a recruiting mailer (<a href="http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/8066397/img/8066397.jpg">accompanied</a> with a crispy two-dollar bill), <a href="http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1841413/pg1">are concerned it might be a scam</a>, or worse: "The money is real too! A $2 Dollar bill? SO weird man... never heard of anything like this."<br /> <br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-88635074703341563012012-05-10T14:10:00.003-04:002012-05-10T14:13:23.164-04:00In Case of Emergency, Eat This Book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFzOrb8skr243R8abTSM5HIKR1790fu5XUT8F0tlMvkmom0TaB_vGEwS-nmv4mLXLGSX6VxtwnLiSPSkZpKfl-NgIOQ_gzWhie8uHP3eF6AeIZ5A2YuWsRvQq7Sdiwz8Vu8UcUSg/s1600/edible-book-land-rover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFzOrb8skr243R8abTSM5HIKR1790fu5XUT8F0tlMvkmom0TaB_vGEwS-nmv4mLXLGSX6VxtwnLiSPSkZpKfl-NgIOQ_gzWhie8uHP3eF6AeIZ5A2YuWsRvQq7Sdiwz8Vu8UcUSg/s400/edible-book-land-rover.png" width="340" /></a></div> <br /> Land Rover in the United Arab Emirates printed 5,000 edible copies of a desert survival guide. Twenty-eight pages of potato-based starch paper have a slightly sugary taste from the glycerin-based ink and are bound by a spiral that can be used as skewers. The book comes in &nbsp;a reflective cover that can be used to send help signals.<br /> -- Y&amp;R Dubai; thank you, GuillaumeUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-58064019472986669882012-05-08T02:52:00.000-04:002012-05-08T03:11:23.831-04:00Pinnable Ads<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zJKD190g83SqR2y1CzqMcgLjgLRQKNpls6XXvMHe-qHVEt-iM2IeHQ9LnLl0xLRX2rey_RePx9iz0AZWzhav6nJcgz5a3oT9ieENeMdll0BFYzVErvmoUUyBuYbWnlgNaUreNA/s1600/pinnable-ads.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1zJKD190g83SqR2y1CzqMcgLjgLRQKNpls6XXvMHe-qHVEt-iM2IeHQ9LnLl0xLRX2rey_RePx9iz0AZWzhav6nJcgz5a3oT9ieENeMdll0BFYzVErvmoUUyBuYbWnlgNaUreNA/s400/pinnable-ads.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Saw <a href="http://www.adkeeper.com/pinterest">this page</a> on AdKeeper, the company that is trying to make online <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/05/bookmarkable-advertising.html">advertising bookmarkable</a>. This could be an interesting way for Pinterest itself to make money: becoming a network for ads that people will want to hold on to. Won't be a huge stretch for them, most of the pins are already very ad like. You will easily find pins for a&nbsp;<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/1266706115440720/">book</a>, <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/1266706115439713/">iPhone app</a>, <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/94505292150097272/">music</a>, movie <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/120963939961473319/">posters</a> and <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/1688918580323087/">trailers</a>, and even <a href="http://pinterest.com/ampm2buy/you-need-cash/">payday loans</a>.<br /> <br /> And I already see people <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/80713018292075628/">pinning coupons</a>. Here's <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/238198267760888875/">one from Jiffy Lube</a> someone has pinned after filing out a <a href="http://www.jiffylubefeedback.com/thankyou.htm">satisfaction survey</a>.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-N_f66hfOR-HrsDyDH2dW40epYxqh6xdBBtl0-5-MHXGjLWME5V1ewgoBP22jQeK7_ft4epRjMG_2cmYRDYDyPbnehEUjUsMaeSJKim-hL-bQNssIYADdYtW5ALrGQ_3-ZT65Qg/s1600/pinterest-jiffylube-coupon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-N_f66hfOR-HrsDyDH2dW40epYxqh6xdBBtl0-5-MHXGjLWME5V1ewgoBP22jQeK7_ft4epRjMG_2cmYRDYDyPbnehEUjUsMaeSJKim-hL-bQNssIYADdYtW5ALrGQ_3-ZT65Qg/s400/pinterest-jiffylube-coupon.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-15284917104275551992012-04-27T18:44:00.004-04:002012-04-27T18:44:46.034-04:00Do People Hear Ads When They Are In a Coma?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMTnhCoIas_QRU3Ef8Cv35e-1hQISFT0WqNr8Ih456K4k3cAaAQTPx-t4Kelh_QBa1vlSzWclYv3CdkFPdrmMlgZ-UpCn_mduckp6v_dsBcFdae8diOP0thyphenhyphenJpZwy_m6h_ZEA-g/s1600/ads-in-coma.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMTnhCoIas_QRU3Ef8Cv35e-1hQISFT0WqNr8Ih456K4k3cAaAQTPx-t4Kelh_QBa1vlSzWclYv3CdkFPdrmMlgZ-UpCn_mduckp6v_dsBcFdae8diOP0thyphenhyphenJpZwy_m6h_ZEA-g/s320/ads-in-coma.png" width="320" /></a></div> <br /> "...when they run to the bathroom" is what I meant to ask.<br /> <br /> In case you are wondering, some studies show that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/geoffrey-lean-i-was-in-a-coma-but-i-could-hear-every-word-415327.html">people in a coma can hear</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-83077472014080556802012-03-06T15:38:00.001-05:002012-03-06T15:38:52.474-05:00Pinterestorama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY7mwiEGDbTAc0V5pcL3Mvou4w8sOvUqcO2U_g3fj1yle93pIt2UO0NCPhOuQw6oqXrDTo9Uh6s04jy7_BKAKezMMwRNlvx9ji7NoyjEXydIuS2ivmpuXsl5OmZjYk30gHHUnPew/s1600/pinterestorama.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY7mwiEGDbTAc0V5pcL3Mvou4w8sOvUqcO2U_g3fj1yle93pIt2UO0NCPhOuQw6oqXrDTo9Uh6s04jy7_BKAKezMMwRNlvx9ji7NoyjEXydIuS2ivmpuXsl5OmZjYk30gHHUnPew/s400/pinterestorama.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <a href="http://pinterest.com/ryanjz/">Pretty</a>&nbsp;-- a panorama made of Pinterest boards.&nbsp; Saw <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2009/04/another-way-to-flickr.html">something similar on Flickr</a> a few years back.<br /> - via <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Grant27/status/177127423509397505">Grant</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-2090217590904078142012-03-06T02:16:00.000-05:002012-03-06T02:16:03.667-05:00Play Scrabble Over Twitter With TwitterScrabble<iframe width="500" height="284" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O5a1djT-m1w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <br /> <br /> Arrange 100 characters into the highest-scoring tweet of the day to win your box of Scrabble Trickster with this brilliant Belgian <a href="http://www.twitterscrabble.be/">Twitter Scrabble promotion</a>. Alas, only in Dutch.<br /> - via <a href="http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/twitterscrabble-the-ultimate-game-of-scrabble/">Digital Buzz Blog</a><br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0RI1LDSVP0Jg5YVhpiMJDB0lthfeW8YEe_VPhCK9Zg6_ltEDn4dGeI2RAqdv9KMvOYHV5v2qakA-FWdlp8r2SGlfDjyrBK6Hh6qz1jJlMOTl4y7Gy_cLTyg19wvrT8c4T8H-VQ/s1600/scrabbletweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0RI1LDSVP0Jg5YVhpiMJDB0lthfeW8YEe_VPhCK9Zg6_ltEDn4dGeI2RAqdv9KMvOYHV5v2qakA-FWdlp8r2SGlfDjyrBK6Hh6qz1jJlMOTl4y7Gy_cLTyg19wvrT8c4T8H-VQ/s400/scrabbletweet.png" width="400" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-56100678659236667692012-03-06T01:33:00.002-05:002012-03-06T01:36:06.957-05:00Google Still Indexes AdSense Ads As Content; Top Search Result Are PDFsFour years ago, I noticed that <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-indexes-adsense-copy.html">Google was indexing AdSense ads</a> as if it were content on the host pages.&nbsp;I thought I'd check to see if they were still doing it. &nbsp;The reason I care is that, &nbsp;for Google, &nbsp;indexing ads it serves creates wrong incentives around ordering pages in search results. Here's a hypothetical scenario. &nbsp;"Hey, look, here's a page with <i>just the query</i> you are looking for". The user clicks on the <i>organic</i> search result and <i>then</i> clicks on the AdSense ad. (My own experience with site analytics has shown that organic search visitors are the best AdSense clickers.) &nbsp;Ka-Ching! Google is a dollar richer.<br /> <br /> <a name='more'></a><br /> I copied the text -- <i>"Review Your Debt Settlement Options Online. Calculate Your Savings!"</i> -- &nbsp;from a debt consolidation AdSense ad found on a random page and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?ix=seb&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=%22Review+Your+Debt+Settlement+Options+Online.+Calculate+Your+Savings!%22">pasted it into Google</a>. <br /> <br /> The short answer is yes -- copy from AdSense ads still shows up in Google's own search results as if it were &nbsp; &nbsp;content.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkmfdsd1YABKL9KyuKSodD2jzcIQDEir9HYvK8zXINt0C7x7-PIW3aVvHsuhzey5nDeo8Z58bECTug2vmZ15cl_C1YCUlSLaL9GekjYHzIKTa-c44TITssTlUbK1AA3_mOdGcffg/s1600/debt+consolidation+page.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkmfdsd1YABKL9KyuKSodD2jzcIQDEir9HYvK8zXINt0C7x7-PIW3aVvHsuhzey5nDeo8Z58bECTug2vmZ15cl_C1YCUlSLaL9GekjYHzIKTa-c44TITssTlUbK1AA3_mOdGcffg/s400/debt+consolidation+page.png" width="381" /></a></div> Here's a <a href="http://yellowpages.aol.com/business/nc/burlington/collateral-recovery-solutions/0-911719873/?query=Repossessing+Service&amp;fromSearch=%26query%3DRepossessing+Service%26area%3DCarrboro%2C+NC&amp;area=Carrboro%2C+NC">YellowPages page with the AdSense ad</a> in question -- it was the third organic result for me.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCF-LEtgGCPrPM_I6Y3uzYm5fCAKhT7DqATGqF7idSUhHilkuoeBHCFBGr-cyKQ4cWKNH9WgPw_DRjTzFx_qVy1k9G9YY6p37MwX3Rk0zEFHGqRn8r96Me1vCOqQFgG4BNWnBptg/s1600/aol-debt-consolidation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCF-LEtgGCPrPM_I6Y3uzYm5fCAKhT7DqATGqF7idSUhHilkuoeBHCFBGr-cyKQ4cWKNH9WgPw_DRjTzFx_qVy1k9G9YY6p37MwX3Rk0zEFHGqRn8r96Me1vCOqQFgG4BNWnBptg/s400/aol-debt-consolidation.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> But it was the first organic result that surprised me the most. &nbsp;It was a <a href="http://cdn2.getoutofdebt.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Peak-Leads-Reaches-Target-Generating-Over-100000-Debt-Settlement-Leads-Weekly-PR.com_.pdf">PDF of a press release</a>&nbsp;with &nbsp;<i>clickable</i> AdSense ads baked into it and subsequently indexed along with the rest of the text. The second organic result, too, was a PDF; it was a copy of a job posting and it, too, had clickable AdSense ads in it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIZzF-5aB8NUkEaC4sICSNrarHsDfmFwgJlCfTj5gsYLi0bOgcYH1OdKaIJqW2JZywEAOq7Hh6gEsbwjW5Q6AeMDoXP1Cqi6MenFqTp35-G2cYI2yT8k_nmYoxId7ZYZ1T2vLMw/s1600/pdf-with-adsense.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIZzF-5aB8NUkEaC4sICSNrarHsDfmFwgJlCfTj5gsYLi0bOgcYH1OdKaIJqW2JZywEAOq7Hh6gEsbwjW5Q6AeMDoXP1Cqi6MenFqTp35-G2cYI2yT8k_nmYoxId7ZYZ1T2vLMw/s400/pdf-with-adsense.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-57317185925256867842012-03-02T18:49:00.000-05:002012-03-02T18:49:14.754-05:00Putin, Viagra, and The Unfortunate Ad Placement of the Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdGUy5f6InNE6hJEyIxAq-YfJFkWpgKk89LNBwxELBKfpYiHhMreXms-qPNWCAQzPIKDj7dOIA8VXyFwwvublykedwzPvMl55vGArQFgqyQvo5-gVZILN3Ho2rYY93hc59pIaVg/s1600/putin-viagra.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdGUy5f6InNE6hJEyIxAq-YfJFkWpgKk89LNBwxELBKfpYiHhMreXms-qPNWCAQzPIKDj7dOIA8VXyFwwvublykedwzPvMl55vGArQFgqyQvo5-gVZILN3Ho2rYY93hc59pIaVg/s400/putin-viagra.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> A new puppet show in Russia shows Vladimir Putin&nbsp;fighting&nbsp;the loss of his penis, according to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/02/us-russia-putin-satire-idUSTRE82112B20120302">this Reuters story</a> that was accompanied by a I Can't Believe It's Viagra banner.<br /> <br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-30871287910492903152012-03-02T00:50:00.002-05:002012-03-06T01:35:18.658-05:00California Dogs Tune Into Their Own TV Channel<iframe width="500" height="284" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/01DbqMLNJUw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /> Cats can has cheezburger, but dogs are getting their own TV programming.<br /> <br /> San Diego dogs subscribed to Cox or Time Warner now have their own 24/7 TV channel called <a href="http://dogtv.com/">DogTV</a>, soon to roll out nationwide. "DOGTV offers scientifically designed content for dogs of all ages, and all breeds. If your dogs can hear or see, then DOGTV is right for them. DOGTV is working hard to produce fresh content all the time, so your dog will always get new, exciting visual and auditory stimulations."<br /> <br /> DogTV will make money through monthly subscriptions, although dogs look like a promising advertising audience. According to the site, "nearly half of those surveyed had dogs that showed some interest in what was happening on the television screen." Which is more that can be said about most people. Besides, dogs are also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhs4ibVBwNI">afraid of remote controls</a>.<br /> <br /> For the busy dogs on the go, DOGTV also offers a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/DOGTVWORLD">YouTube channel</a> and a <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/tv4dogs">Twitter feed</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-59347078112012587372012-02-29T19:54:00.003-05:002012-03-05T16:43:34.375-05:00How To Hijack Facebook Likes, and Other Social EngineeringThe <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2012/02/illustrated-anatomy-of-viral-pinterest.html">Pinterest Giveaway Scam</a>&nbsp;got pretty big today; at one point about 10% of Pinterest homepage pins were scam pins. In addition to the <a href="http://giftinterest.com/coffee_4y8l1">Starbucks offer</a>, I <a href="http://pinterest.com/vedrashko/scams/">counted</a>&nbsp;at least three others -- for <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/225180050088459425/">H&amp;M</a>, <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/225180050088459422/">iPhone</a> (of course), and <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/225180050088459423/">GAP</a>.<br /> <br /> What&nbsp;fascinates&nbsp;me about the scam is the authors' crafty use of recognizable social media symbols to create an illusion of authenticity, and -- more importantly -- an illusion of endorsement. In other words, exploitation of cognitive biases, also known as social engineering.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh144FH-viVVfZBkpoPX17SxGBlZpP-bhEXbOVJfPCm-ocXwd5VLjv_4mHxl59-hVn5Rw1U_f6jAjjNif2Ee6DYwIT0dvPl6wX2H3rPMggve6QkQd11hxvRJtouz6vH1-z5YRKCQA/s1600/starbucks-scam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh144FH-viVVfZBkpoPX17SxGBlZpP-bhEXbOVJfPCm-ocXwd5VLjv_4mHxl59-hVn5Rw1U_f6jAjjNif2Ee6DYwIT0dvPl6wX2H3rPMggve6QkQd11hxvRJtouz6vH1-z5YRKCQA/s400/starbucks-scam.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> Let's take a closer look at the "Starbucks" page (now available at&nbsp;<a href="http://giftinterest.com/coffee_4y8l1">http://giftinterest.com/coffee_4y8l1</a>&nbsp;but likely not for long). What do we see?<br /> <br /> <a name='more'></a><br /> 1. <a href="http://passets-cdn.pinterest.com/images/favicon.png"><b>Pinterest's favicon</b></a>, hotlinked directly from Pinterest's servers. &nbsp;Other variations of the scam used Facebook's favicon.<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiroNJpbr2TxzPYJKIbWKyndhsjQLwqC2RbF1APjj1j5x5OSIc3ppsRkCrriG_uslBh_8OmEtcL3d66fjeCLI6jwncLpfiRHIeRrA6CASlFu-gZX9tyTnGKUfuar01Ykzao8t7zA/s1600/favicon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="53" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiroNJpbr2TxzPYJKIbWKyndhsjQLwqC2RbF1APjj1j5x5OSIc3ppsRkCrriG_uslBh_8OmEtcL3d66fjeCLI6jwncLpfiRHIeRrA6CASlFu-gZX9tyTnGKUfuar01Ykzao8t7zA/s400/favicon.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> 2. <b>A countdown</b> of "packages remaining". &nbsp;The counter resets at a random number lower than 500 (probably between 200 and 500) at the first page load, and then counts down to zero.<br /> <br /> 3. <b>Fake "Pin It" button</b> with a fake pin count set at 39K. The "counter" is a <a href="http://i.imgur.com/1UjPf.png">static gif</a>, shared by the four different scams.<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOP9856PHxrjb-w8dmMPFtFNc-6R9ojysLgqdCsuHXWD2KZ0J8mSENv3uEVv6whE1LkVrwkdAFSnFUYUX3ASj2uOoohto2E3RjN_I6ZvR0T7AJ2yawpWElkEywUnBXpbcOWRraw/s1600/pinterest-counter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwOP9856PHxrjb-w8dmMPFtFNc-6R9ojysLgqdCsuHXWD2KZ0J8mSENv3uEVv6whE1LkVrwkdAFSnFUYUX3ASj2uOoohto2E3RjN_I6ZvR0T7AJ2yawpWElkEywUnBXpbcOWRraw/s1600/pinterest-counter.png" /></a></div> <br /> 4. <b>Hidden "pinnable" images</b>. If you use the official Pinterest button on the scam page, it will tell you it can't find images or videos that are large enough to be pinned. &nbsp;When you push the fake "Pin it" 39K button on the page, the more advanced variations of the scam would serve a randomly selected image and serve it up together with with a randomly selected page URL to appear in the pin description. Here's <a href="http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/242209286178996895_pkCxkt9W_b.jpg">one such image</a>&nbsp;from the iPhone/iPad scam site (<a href="http://pinterestpromo.info/i/?start">http://pinterestpromo.info/i/?start</a>).<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJwzUcXgSp0RXvJwQl2cMaF3qdL-tyxM7Em1ctqb_FxCkmPf8mAMmNTI5tXjUzWV0wuYshf4Nyedwq5azlQJ5ZqShKMyMdVFh5IhP43CmyzN4F3U3JU4pYuS7GtObAIFq5GAfqA/s1600/image-arrays.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJwzUcXgSp0RXvJwQl2cMaF3qdL-tyxM7Em1ctqb_FxCkmPf8mAMmNTI5tXjUzWV0wuYshf4Nyedwq5azlQJ5ZqShKMyMdVFh5IhP43CmyzN4F3U3JU4pYuS7GtObAIFq5GAfqA/s400/image-arrays.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> You'll see how all these images are hotlinks from Pinterest -- they are actual but unrelated pins by the site's users. &nbsp;For example, one of the sources is <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/151292868701454863/">this pin</a> from a year ago, a picture which in turn was pinned from Apple's site. <br /> <br /> <b>5. Friends' endorsements</b>.<br /> At first, I was puzzled by the pictures of my eleven friends who, it seems, all have liked this site. My first guess was they all got somehow tricked into clicking the Like button during one of the later steps of the scam funnel. I asked a couple of them to go through their recent Like history, and none of them could find a record of "liking" anything related or even remember seeing the scam in the first place.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOB9cPGaAycTjOYqdVXEJNwR9IApSUrq9ec9v6ESKSbocEchQsdvxwaCmi110Vn7laobo3TLH6G9FSHtvTLkyvwiGYKYamgv9X97tnibq6Fil7O-qGb7hzvl5ljx0rl4zzpavGA/s1600/facebook.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOB9cPGaAycTjOYqdVXEJNwR9IApSUrq9ec9v6ESKSbocEchQsdvxwaCmi110Vn7laobo3TLH6G9FSHtvTLkyvwiGYKYamgv9X97tnibq6Fil7O-qGb7hzvl5ljx0rl4zzpavGA/s400/facebook.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Look closer at the source code:<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUOeteDDPqrOAvUNc4pGzC2grPLcTDoN8HmnCKsQ5Gt96T-kO1lPhEK92AMLwT8uEAUfyqPMG_MYvK2Ubj9ysxWP1QfDXwIxY23RSeHV1w3gj2gJIYDDbllx-NyEPN77U8YjshA/s1600/facebook-facepile.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="46" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUOeteDDPqrOAvUNc4pGzC2grPLcTDoN8HmnCKsQ5Gt96T-kO1lPhEK92AMLwT8uEAUfyqPMG_MYvK2Ubj9ysxWP1QfDXwIxY23RSeHV1w3gj2gJIYDDbllx-NyEPN77U8YjshA/s400/facebook-facepile.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> These pictures are displayed through a Facebook widget called <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/facepile/">Facepile</a>, and what these pictures show are the faces of my friends who liked <b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/facebook">Facebook's own page</a>&nbsp;</b>and&nbsp;not the scam site (all four scam sites I saw used the same widget and showed me the pictures of the same eleven friends.) &nbsp;The trick is not immediately obvious because each time you load the page the widget shows a different set of three names and a random sequence of userpics. &nbsp; <br /> <br /> <br /> Here, let me try to embed the same Facepile widget into this blog post:<br /> <br /> <br /> <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/facepile.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffacebook&amp;size=small&amp;width=500&amp;max_rows=1" style="border: none; height: 75px; overflow: hidden; width: 300px;"></iframe> <br /> <br /> If you are logged into Facebook, you should see pictures of your friends who liked&nbsp;<b>this. </b>What "<b>this"</b>&nbsp;means is left to reader's imagination.<br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: large;">In other words, anyone can grab a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/facepile.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcocacola&amp;amp;size=small&amp;amp;width=500&amp;amp;max_rows=1">list of someone's friends</a> who liked <a href="http://facebook.com/cocacola">facebook.com/cocacola</a>, for example, and use it to fake their endorsement of an unrelated site.</span><br /> <br /> Oh, and the author behind at least one of the scam sites is open to employment offers, with his email address tucked into the source code:<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsv-2RhabCHkcb6ZZCcyF9FkIRcQnLkTwWJvlZxqjvGP-Zlem8TU1aqcGrXuDWxtNs6_xc2E0bC-VJbu8s65CsUpSUVW0ofPHxGLRtCSzcY7LTRmdgiZfXvfiyew88n0F1MEuP-g/s1600/hiring.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsv-2RhabCHkcb6ZZCcyF9FkIRcQnLkTwWJvlZxqjvGP-Zlem8TU1aqcGrXuDWxtNs6_xc2E0bC-VJbu8s65CsUpSUVW0ofPHxGLRtCSzcY7LTRmdgiZfXvfiyew88n0F1MEuP-g/s400/hiring.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <span style="color: red;">Update</span> (March 6, 2012) Most of the scam pages have been taken down, but here's <a href="http://pastebin.com/TYKYDvcP">the source code</a> of one of them:<br /> <iframe src="http://pastebin.com/embed_iframe.php?i=TYKYDvcP" style="border: none; height: 200px; width: 100%;"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-89193782394572170922012-02-29T15:22:00.000-05:002012-03-06T01:36:55.886-05:00The Illustrated Anatomy of a Viral Pinterest Scam<i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="color: red;">Update</span>: Part II - <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2012/02/using-social-media-for-social.html"><b>How The Scammers Hijacked Facebook Likes</b></a></i><br /> <br /> It started with a <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Aleks_Todorova/status/174937198020399105">tweet from a friend</a>: <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfZjr6fuh4Z3ZXcjly6iDP-dR7tnXhtRfDA1YMqHDRVX8-Q7pzIl63YEbcFS-5ECWnsu9ZpbKIJozEl0icyzEFRUpW4jqwCBKgl-Z2TqEi9TjYJH2ZBvCx4BavXwSpQlsavOCuA/s1600/giftinterest-pinterest-tweet2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfZjr6fuh4Z3ZXcjly6iDP-dR7tnXhtRfDA1YMqHDRVX8-Q7pzIl63YEbcFS-5ECWnsu9ZpbKIJozEl0icyzEFRUpW4jqwCBKgl-Z2TqEi9TjYJH2ZBvCx4BavXwSpQlsavOCuA/s320/giftinterest-pinterest-tweet2.png" width="320" /></a></div> <br /> Never one to pass a scam, I dutifully clicked and landed on a page with this URL:&nbsp;http://giftinterest.com/coffee_ob9ve<br /> <br /> <a name='more'></a><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUSFaS5deZyq4Qn9akO0uFVbXMERyS7wRcG2or5qSCKNNxswVS4VBYuc1sj_Xocsv9RmQ_njnZzk5Xro8NS6yys37K2rMUGToLyMPVYRiS3uXusLwGLGUqsBOQKzE_80aVeIp5_Q/s1600/giftinterest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUSFaS5deZyq4Qn9akO0uFVbXMERyS7wRcG2or5qSCKNNxswVS4VBYuc1sj_Xocsv9RmQ_njnZzk5Xro8NS6yys37K2rMUGToLyMPVYRiS3uXusLwGLGUqsBOQKzE_80aVeIp5_Q/s400/giftinterest.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> The ticking "packages remaining" counter communicates the sense of urgency. &nbsp;I am feeling lucky; I am WAY ahead of the Internet crowd. Of 500 available packages, only 74 have been given away and 424 are left. Even if the total number of pins is already in excess of 39K. But who are you going to trust - your lying eyes or an unforgiving counter? &nbsp;(<a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2012/02/using-social-media-for-social.html">More: see the source code of the scam page.</a>)<br /> <br /> The page beckons: "Pin it". I pin it. Step 1 - check.<br /> <br /> This is <a href="http://pinterest.com/vedrashko/assorted/">my pin</a>. The picture of the coffee cups was not on the page I just pinned. Who cares. Five other&nbsp;<strike>schmucks</strike> users&nbsp;have already liked it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDl0AwCu_SMmtUoWPrFvpufB50lQyvAzdKNCfhexm6KBILt0GfO2ImDXpKqg4wAM4hyWkRShfgLCUpxMSmS6l3g8JkWvjoymVDp1KC_xT-5lfW6P6VmeOMVnhxI2uFYAoBhyphenhyphenlUVw/s1600/giftinterest-pinterest2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDl0AwCu_SMmtUoWPrFvpufB50lQyvAzdKNCfhexm6KBILt0GfO2ImDXpKqg4wAM4hyWkRShfgLCUpxMSmS6l3g8JkWvjoymVDp1KC_xT-5lfW6P6VmeOMVnhxI2uFYAoBhyphenhyphenlUVw/s400/giftinterest-pinterest2.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> I am thinking "Hey, that was easy. I am going to get not just one, but TWO cards". I open another browser and type in that giftinterest URL again.<br /> <br /> Oh, what a stroke of luck. Look, the number of packages remaining - 442 - now is larger than it was a minute ago. Someone must have returned theirs. I refresh the page. The number is different yet again. Eventually, if you let the page just sit there, it will go down to zero. Refresh the page, and it reset to &nbsp;some random number greater than 0 but smaller than 500.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp2V0LAHwvbbaQIjoCBrzm7EyTU1T7y7I3JDf7JTtbAKP8_8RHtZPDFMef7-mVsELIC4YM6-vpsaG3SIht6febXYhrzwPFpXhHSheH-pj_f3cOA0qw3yLfNpQ0CMxS8vLqtPiUUg/s1600/pinterest-giftinerest-11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp2V0LAHwvbbaQIjoCBrzm7EyTU1T7y7I3JDf7JTtbAKP8_8RHtZPDFMef7-mVsELIC4YM6-vpsaG3SIht6febXYhrzwPFpXhHSheH-pj_f3cOA0qw3yLfNpQ0CMxS8vLqtPiUUg/s400/pinterest-giftinerest-11.png" width="400" /></a></div> But whatever. I pin again.<br /> <br /> This time, the <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/225180050088458315/">pinned picture</a> is different.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71syKcaFhLzY9ajN_jMUDsnJdoGa04sDr6abcbm9uO8xURI8MI0LZF6KWoSG91FpRx1HfvXQS3vG2ts3YvLSPsWnsFNyd_3UEUqNFr0DPyS18s4mjKgfwDSzTHBLA-TEjRfSCdQ/s1600/pinterest-giftinerest-10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71syKcaFhLzY9ajN_jMUDsnJdoGa04sDr6abcbm9uO8xURI8MI0LZF6KWoSG91FpRx1HfvXQS3vG2ts3YvLSPsWnsFNyd_3UEUqNFr0DPyS18s4mjKgfwDSzTHBLA-TEjRfSCdQ/s400/pinterest-giftinerest-10.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> I figure since I don't drink coffee anyway two cards are enough. I go back to the giftinterest page and click "Final Step".<br /> <br /> Yes! Here I learn that the value of the card is $100 (<span style="font-size: xx-small;">but only if you qualify</span>). &nbsp;The page asks me for my email.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhikYGXw8MzijhCjnLMNUKfFk1mbPijGAWVixHit7Q2Sb7czm04DpBXTU239YvL2-iP88ZrR06kzPn2SAa0jrazBTIm1nYEXEsIFoz_RjorvWU6pkmPcUN5Tc_gtUu7jp4cpaLzKw/s1600/giftinterestgiftcard2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhikYGXw8MzijhCjnLMNUKfFk1mbPijGAWVixHit7Q2Sb7czm04DpBXTU239YvL2-iP88ZrR06kzPn2SAa0jrazBTIm1nYEXEsIFoz_RjorvWU6pkmPcUN5Tc_gtUu7jp4cpaLzKw/s400/giftinterestgiftcard2.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CGXU6ZIazFzg-yaFGtKS89kM-6xTFwo5U_kHYREVTJmYrOHwmpE5bA0F3F0rJpfSl7C93APEMoLK12CY1GKZFAx5RMUOpFGASINC83qesoLqcATggGRuhhvm-WJPTcaQLyY4Cw/s1600/giftinterestgiftcard3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3CGXU6ZIazFzg-yaFGtKS89kM-6xTFwo5U_kHYREVTJmYrOHwmpE5bA0F3F0rJpfSl7C93APEMoLK12CY1GKZFAx5RMUOpFGASINC83qesoLqcATggGRuhhvm-WJPTcaQLyY4Cw/s400/giftinterestgiftcard3.png" width="400" /></a></div> The pop-up window tells me to write "I Love Starbucks" on Facebook. That I can't do. I love <a href="http://www.hhcc.com/work#8/dunkin-donuts">Dunkin' Donuts</a>.&nbsp; <br /> <br /> The rest of the story is familiar to everyone who has ever taken <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2010/02/get-free-ipad-or-nine-here.html">Free iPad surveys</a>. &nbsp;You get into the funnel...<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju9pWERv-B2jh0jdMTQEn_NK8G-K2yjpIwp4DZC-ucGdqihfvqkw5U2XkFMiA7tyyIPJ7p2uHAlv6Lg81G1IjGEi-l6uTdX3TpnyPD18L0BTrbj3Qi1hg3YwjJTle0-QZTOc4zeQ/s1600/giftinterestgiftcard4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju9pWERv-B2jh0jdMTQEn_NK8G-K2yjpIwp4DZC-ucGdqihfvqkw5U2XkFMiA7tyyIPJ7p2uHAlv6Lg81G1IjGEi-l6uTdX3TpnyPD18L0BTrbj3Qi1hg3YwjJTle0-QZTOc4zeQ/s400/giftinterestgiftcard4.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> ... and fill out a bunch of surveys and leave your personal info...<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0T97Ac33UUFni53pXhsVBwDmvQifRvS9GnavEqIejVGP6w-AF6d1SFkOz3ViadKPihs-RmXfUZRrlDZkcnZnGmqwVQAMnuppY50tW2ap4zb2l4WXxFZ_LA7gk5vAnIxlni1pF9w/s1600/giftinterestgiftcard5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0T97Ac33UUFni53pXhsVBwDmvQifRvS9GnavEqIejVGP6w-AF6d1SFkOz3ViadKPihs-RmXfUZRrlDZkcnZnGmqwVQAMnuppY50tW2ap4zb2l4WXxFZ_LA7gk5vAnIxlni1pF9w/s400/giftinterestgiftcard5.png" width="400" /></a></div> ... and at some point you are gently prompted to install some spyware...<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfpbI21HKIa7t3TtTA9bNTix4MwEjlWj4q4tlxx57Fq8Ui-GPgjMKVTMntJv7tX8sPJVVhzqtemN9PRSY-0iwMoQI4sVKIAbYIcsW5xlWwKaUMckiXFrUc-BDmLQQWqiolLlgtQ/s1600/giftinterestgiftcard6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfpbI21HKIa7t3TtTA9bNTix4MwEjlWj4q4tlxx57Fq8Ui-GPgjMKVTMntJv7tX8sPJVVhzqtemN9PRSY-0iwMoQI4sVKIAbYIcsW5xlWwKaUMckiXFrUc-BDmLQQWqiolLlgtQ/s400/giftinterestgiftcard6.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Needless to say, it is very unlikely that Starbucks has anything to do with this project. Giftinterest.com was registered on February 24, 2012 in private, and both coffee-blends-now.com and yesusrveymedia.com (the two domains that popped up in various fine prints) are registered to a company in India.<br /> <br /> <b>Bonus track</b>: &nbsp;An <a href="http://pinterestpromo.info/hm/?start">identical scam</a> is promising free H&amp;M cards to the <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/225180050088458728/">unsuspecting pinners</a>.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OFxWlRiX4rU_G-q_-EmDIYkl5CoGGiOawDt0lAxC6oek8_7d3Ez83xVeZR3tONdwHkqdiFhboiIrvSZCHRJtp86n5t2aXMk_YwKWqErzWXLz5q836a3jOW6dGexzR8YlLN_4uw/s1600/hm-pinterest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OFxWlRiX4rU_G-q_-EmDIYkl5CoGGiOawDt0lAxC6oek8_7d3Ez83xVeZR3tONdwHkqdiFhboiIrvSZCHRJtp86n5t2aXMk_YwKWqErzWXLz5q836a3jOW6dGexzR8YlLN_4uw/s400/hm-pinterest.png" width="400" /></a></div> <i style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="color: red;">Update</span>: Part II -&nbsp;<a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2012/02/using-social-media-for-social.html"><b>How The Scammers Hijacked Facebook Likes</b></a></i><br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-1354411135472244442012-02-08T00:26:00.000-05:002012-03-06T01:37:21.207-05:00Instead Of Sales, They Seek Applause<i>From a book about which David Ogilvy is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Advertising">quoted</a> as saying: "Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times":</i><br /> <br /> &nbsp;"Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman's standards. <br /> <br /> Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales. It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong. The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman. <br /> <br /> <a name='more'></a><br /><br /> A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertisers mistake may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade. <br /> <br /> Many think of advertising as ad-writing. Literary qualifications have no more to do with it than oratory has with salesmanship. One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent, creates corresponding resistance. <br /> <br /> So with countless questions. Measure them by salesmen's standards, not by amusement standards. Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want. That is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their parts. They forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause. <br /> <br /> The reason for most of the non-successes in advertising is trying to sell people what they do not want. But next to that comes lack of true salesmanship. Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are written to please the seller. The interest of the buyer are forgotten. One can never sell goods profitably, in person or in print, when that attitude exists."<br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Claude C. Hopkins, <i>Scientific Advertising</i>, 1923 (<a href="http://www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdf">pdf</a>)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-6195172836401986632012-02-03T03:55:00.001-05:002012-03-06T01:37:53.204-05:00Why Facebook Will Do Search And Why Google Needs SocialMark Zuckerberg posted a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100230247154651&amp;set=p.10100230247154651&amp;type=1">picture of himself</a> in front of his computer, and an eagle-eyed blogger <a href="http://sefsar.com/post/16915595901/yo-zuck-whats-that">noticed</a> that his version of Facebook sports a larger-than-usual search box. An unintended leak or not, Facebook competing in search is only a matter of time just as, in retrospect, it was inevitable that Google would integrate social elements deeper into its main product.<br /> <br /> This is why.<br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-q7JICeTc7zsTRf8pMsvKAlGn5K2QTTk0Q7rN2zWelyiPw6Ozr44mPovmvApaGdHLkSKHpgbspHecNdyT2ZSEJnpqUDOo5mSvIjmN1949B6YERsxn_953zjpCx6PRry0wOF7YUg/s1600/facebook-google.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-q7JICeTc7zsTRf8pMsvKAlGn5K2QTTk0Q7rN2zWelyiPw6Ozr44mPovmvApaGdHLkSKHpgbspHecNdyT2ZSEJnpqUDOo5mSvIjmN1949B6YERsxn_953zjpCx6PRry0wOF7YUg/s400/facebook-google.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <a name='more'></a><br /><br /> It wouldn't be a revelation to say that no large-scale <i>ad delivery system</i>&nbsp;is perfect.<br /> <br /> Reason one is that, at any given moment, only a fraction of the exposed audience is actively on the market for the benefit that the advertised product delivers. &nbsp;Yes, I actually <i>might</i> be interested in switching to your cell phone plan, but talk to me in 15 months when my contract is about to expire. This is the <b>efficiency problem of advertising</b>: in order to reach the few people who are interested <i>right now</i>, the delivery systems by necessity overshoot and spam the <strike>crap</strike> bejesus out of thousands who promptly <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2010/05/study-people-share-room-with-tv-ads.html">tune out</a>.<br /> <br /> Reason two is that few would admit they believe advertising. People consider the source and recognize the nature of the claims as self-serving and discount them accordingly. &nbsp;This is the <b>effectiveness problem</b>. The advertisers' typical recourse is to bypass rational thought altogether and to beat the claim into the audience's&nbsp;subconscious&nbsp;through incessant repetition.<br /> <br /> (Now is a good time to note that we are are talking only about ad&nbsp;<i>delivery</i> here. Effectiveness of <i>creative</i> is a different topic.)<br /> <br /> That's what the main media planning principles of "reach" and "frequency" are about -- solving for efficiency and effectiveness. In the picture above, this situation is illustrated by the undesirable lower-left quadrant that says "You Are Here." You are there because most of the existing large ad delivery systems are both inefficient and ineffective.<br /> <br /> Except for two.<br /> <br /> Google with all its imperfections is the most <i>efficient</i> way to deliver ads -- only people who <i>need something now</i> would actively look for something and see an ad for it.<br /> <br /> And even though it took them awhile, Facebook is figuring out that they have this whole <i>effectiveness </i>thing down. According to many studies (the one below, and others, including my own), friends are the most trusted source of product information. Facebook has hundreds of millions of friends, and Facebook also sells advertising, and now Facebook is putting two and two together to make <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/web/37334/">advertising that comes from friends</a>.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkhiLw0GMIIXQIaZQDAJ3RuQ_BopY44H2Z0_M6HGcIZziPxRP_GcChmA9r7vLsU1uNKGpv3HuOG4-xn2BFjEv1BOnA8Fc3nIMjtmPtz2b6FjRdZDBDZgzOk7OfvWndLw8Dn0Ze8w/s1600/trust_in_advertising.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkhiLw0GMIIXQIaZQDAJ3RuQ_BopY44H2Z0_M6HGcIZziPxRP_GcChmA9r7vLsU1uNKGpv3HuOG4-xn2BFjEv1BOnA8Fc3nIMjtmPtz2b6FjRdZDBDZgzOk7OfvWndLw8Dn0Ze8w/s400/trust_in_advertising.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> But Google and Facebook each solve only half of the efficiency/effectiveness problem. &nbsp;The impeccably timed search ads Google delivers are still self-serving. And the perfectly trustworthy social ads on Facebook still show up at the wrong time. In other words,&nbsp;&nbsp;Facebook and Google each have what the other doesn't,&nbsp;and they are going to fight for it. <br /> <br /> On Google's end, this is what the whole <a href="http://www.google.com/insidesearch/plus.html">Search Plus Your World</a> business is about -- fixing the source problem. &nbsp;That's why the push to get people to +1 stuff, and then connect people into social graphs via Gmail and Google+, and then use +1ers as implicit endorsers. Not, you might notice, unlike Facebook. <br /> <br /> And Facebook needs to fix its targeting. "Interests" have an expiry date and "likes" of pop-culture icons are only tangential indicators of predisposition towards, say, vacuum cleaners. Facebook does have several more precise mechanisms for intent targeting useful for certain categories (a recent change of status to "engaged" is a reliable signal for the wedding industry), but by and large nothing as precise of an intent indicator as search.<br /> <br /> Hence the picture of Zuck in front of an extra-large search box.<br /> <br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-13193012930763223102012-02-03T00:17:00.000-05:002012-02-03T00:17:03.926-05:00Convert Your RSS Into Email Newsletters With Ads<i>This is a sponsored post. </i><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhvAnO_6PyU0BfmbokAnEOsmM4XZzTJm17on29Z3zK8utHhMJi0eFC1DP-8qAhJ1BZxyn_W5T3stviEkU4uHCvdan_pDqC0ljTALoct4WyILBaRraYL0fqyZya5JPc8sF082YLNg/s1600/revresponse-email-rss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhvAnO_6PyU0BfmbokAnEOsmM4XZzTJm17on29Z3zK8utHhMJi0eFC1DP-8qAhJ1BZxyn_W5T3stviEkU4uHCvdan_pDqC0ljTALoct4WyILBaRraYL0fqyZya5JPc8sF082YLNg/s400/revresponse-email-rss.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> RevResponse, a company that helps bloggers make money by selling and giving away white papers and magazine subscriptions, has a new nifty tool that converts a blog's RSS feed into an email with automatically inserted promo offers.<br /> <br /> RevResponse's aptly named <a href="http://www.revresponse.com/emailrsstool.html">RSS to Email Tool</a> is a welcome addition to the pretty small group of &nbsp;RSS converters. A field once teeming with start-ups, it is now the domain of a few email newsletter providers, <a href="http://mailchimp.com/features/rss-to-email/">notably MailChimp</a>, &nbsp;and Feedburner, &nbsp;a once innovative product that has become stale after its sale to Google and the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/feedburner-founderceo-dick-costolo-to-leave-google/">departure of Dick Costolo</a> to the greener pastures of Twitter.<br /> <br /> Like other similar tools out there, RSS to Email takes your most recent posts and packages them into a template of your choice. The templates come in a range of colors, and while they are not likely to win any beauty pageants the tool does come with a fairly flexible scheduling system that allows you to send digests of your brilliance either once a month, once a week, or on any combination of days of your choice.<br /> <br /> Importantly -- and uniquely -- the tool adds rather&nbsp;unobtrusive ads for contextually chosen whitepapers or other publications right into your blogomail: either a set of text links or an ad with a thumbnail of the publication's cover. If you run a marketing blog, advertised publications could range from HubSpot's white papers and something called <i>Chief Social Marketer</i>&nbsp;to the awesomely esoteric niche B2B pubs such as <i>Perishables Buyer</i> and <i>Archery Business</i>.<br /> <br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-89516910184121007902012-02-01T12:07:00.001-05:002012-02-01T12:07:45.175-05:00How To Remove Ads from YouTube Videos<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="284" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SJDUN44I94o" width="500"></iframe> <a href="http://youtu.be/SJDUN44I94o">Simple</a>. Except for the pre-roll.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-53871129444988286472012-01-24T18:25:00.001-05:002012-01-24T18:25:38.419-05:00Future: The Pirate Bay Loads Up on Physical Goods<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Sf8hP3Sh9npgEImhhzjZjzzYsVNsk8cXyDVvXTTkBQX_mQvmdiJ2azROZXX-AhndnBhAyUjAdr7lR2FxS_KPopGV3eetxyxDRrxefwA_p4inO6AkZ_j3mGtDnxwxCsrvDEE0rQ/s1600/physibles2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Sf8hP3Sh9npgEImhhzjZjzzYsVNsk8cXyDVvXTTkBQX_mQvmdiJ2azROZXX-AhndnBhAyUjAdr7lR2FxS_KPopGV3eetxyxDRrxefwA_p4inO6AkZ_j3mGtDnxwxCsrvDEE0rQ/s400/physibles2.png" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Not science fiction anymore, <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2006/11/fortune-on-personal-fabricators.html">this</a>: "Once chairs and other things become content, the prospect of rampant chair piracy turns from unimaginable into very real." &nbsp;The Pirate Bay is opening a <a href="https://thepiratebay.org/browse/605/">new category</a> for the new kind of piratable stuff: "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years."<br /> <br /> <i>In the world where all merchandise is either basic materials or data about how to arrange them, what is the role of brands?</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-35535977345007023842012-01-19T13:50:00.000-05:002012-01-19T13:50:03.541-05:00In Memoriam: Kodak Scenic SpotsI took my first Kodak Photo Spot&nbsp;(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Photo_Spot">wiki</a>)&nbsp;pictures at my spring break trip to the Disney World in the mid-1990s, and through all these years I've never stopped admiring their genius. It's a marketing idea whose elegance has rarely been emulated. I love how&nbsp;organically spreadable the signs were, how they subtly nudged you to spend another scarce frame of &nbsp;film, and how they made people's lives a little bit better by giving their memories just the right composition.<br /> <br /> Of course today the Kodak Picture Spot is something that could probably be <a href="http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2010/03/future-camera-suggests-best-shot.html">built straight into the digital camera</a> wired to recognize the subject and to statistically analyze thousands of photos taken from the same spot to recommend the optimal composition and camera settings.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ19SCrqk4sAV3LLzEEI0mUWzX94jahp4An4FYXr2DXoVDd7Rv1U7OosFk__tq7s4pDFHYFhGHWLXGQYvsUXxzL97cz3gYIVMurHz-9TM32ElvIsLRb5ksQp5F7-nDAPQa5l3dNg/s1600/kodak-photo-spot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ19SCrqk4sAV3LLzEEI0mUWzX94jahp4An4FYXr2DXoVDd7Rv1U7OosFk__tq7s4pDFHYFhGHWLXGQYvsUXxzL97cz3gYIVMurHz-9TM32ElvIsLRb5ksQp5F7-nDAPQa5l3dNg/s400/kodak-photo-spot.png" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A Kodak photo spot, (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmikeym/2618503155/in/pool-1236944@N21/">K. Mikey M on Flickr</a> / <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/photospot/">group</a>) </i></span></div> <br /> <a href="http://support.eastmanhouse.org/eastmanhouse/topics/kodak_picture_spot_road_sign?from_gsfn=true">Eastmanhouse.org</a>:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "As photography became more engrossed in American culture in the early 20th century, The Eastman Kodak Company began to look for new ways to advertise photography and its cameras. With the rise of the automobile industry and the development of American highways, the company began a campaign called “Kodak Scenic Spots.” Starting in 1920, Kodak began to place signs throughout American highways that advertised both their name and the practice of photography by marking interesting and beautiful scenery. Initially, these signs appeared on the roads outside of Kodak’s hometown of Rochester, NY in order to test the effectiveness of the idea. Within a year, they began sending members of their advertising department across the country to select the most scenic views to be awarded signs. By 1939, Kodak had placed 6,000 scenic spot signs across the country. </blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> The exact phrases used in these signs changed over time. When the company began the campaign, the signs read: “Picture Ahead! Kodak as you go.” Eventually, the use of the work “Kodak” as a verb was stopped and the signs were changed to read: “Kodak Scenic Spot.” After the initial campaign ended in 1939, Kodak continued to place these signs sporadically in theme parks and tourist locations until the late 1980s. These signs also carried a new label, which read: “Kodak Picture Moment.” </blockquote> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkhJ12sTY6akM4pVKnxEr9oUxWATa4c0m0V1-19EBQiFxWNf_RsaxqvQl7CLHDZW5dvquVGnPT4ECggpQ2kmtmEfZGnMtUSc7csBijXIn_7N17kT1Eup73WuP69cL5piSzM87MFQ/s1600/kodak-photo-spot-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkhJ12sTY6akM4pVKnxEr9oUxWATa4c0m0V1-19EBQiFxWNf_RsaxqvQl7CLHDZW5dvquVGnPT4ECggpQ2kmtmEfZGnMtUSc7csBijXIn_7N17kT1Eup73WuP69cL5piSzM87MFQ/s400/kodak-photo-spot-map.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Map of Kodak Picture Spots at Magic Kingdom (<a href="http://1000words.kodak.com/thousandwords/post/?id=2360195">source</a>)</i></span></div> <br /> <br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077317.post-63605796050067072792012-01-17T18:06:00.000-05:002012-01-17T18:06:06.579-05:00Spy Plane As Propaganda Tchotchke<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6GPnvJka5wKzDNI80b_AsciUyefd6FiGK7PWBpsA_MFXYTJJs4m7O3I33j_CKyOG3B7y7QDw0YxdDSF2RYYsJbd3J-Y1fwqpfuuZ-WpcmZxxW1wd8jt8tWVwwSUPM4-2Jq0Czw/s1600/drone-propaganda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6GPnvJka5wKzDNI80b_AsciUyefd6FiGK7PWBpsA_MFXYTJJs4m7O3I33j_CKyOG3B7y7QDw0YxdDSF2RYYsJbd3J-Y1fwqpfuuZ-WpcmZxxW1wd8jt8tWVwwSUPM4-2Jq0Czw/s400/drone-propaganda.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> An Iranian company <a href="http://www.aaye.ir/">Aaye Art Group</a> ("designer and manufacturer of artistic and cultural goods") is <a href="http://www.aaye.ir/RQ-170/">making replicas</a> of the American RQ-170 drone aircraft <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iran-says-it-downed-us-stealth-drone-pentagon-acknowledges-aircraft-downing/2011/12/04/gIQAyxa8TO_story.html">downed in Iran</a> last month: &nbsp;"Most of the toys, which come in several colors and are made of Iranian plastic, have already been snapped up by Iranian government organizations. [...] The firm is now making 2,000 of them a day. " &nbsp;(<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/us-drone-that-crashed-in-iran-goes-miniature/2012/01/17/gIQAAzAi5P_blog.html">Washington Post</a>)<br /> <br /> If you want to buy one but are affected by the embargo, you could <a href="http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=rq-170">pick up a similar one on eBay</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0