"Open the pod bay door, Google."

Here's an interesting article that asks the question, "Is the Internet changing the way our brains work?"

The argument is that the web has rewired our brains and made us all a little ADD. I don't think it's true at all because...hey look at this!"

Interstitial ads: Too much of a bad thing?

Gerry McGovern wrote recently that finding is the new advertising. Not a new concept really - search moguls Google and Yahoo have been making money for years now displaying targeted ads - not the advertising to the masses that gets done in newspapers, radio, and TV.

But what's really new is the level of ad-receptiveness, or lack of it really. Today we are advertising averse. Ad-blind.

My wife thinks watching the previews is one of the best parts of going to the movies. Why? We expect it. We are receptive to it. We want it. It's entertaining and enticing. It's the Free Prize. Most people are not annoyed by the previews - most of the people that I know like them.

Interstitial ads are all the rage online. But they make you wait for what you want. In contrast, no one I know likes watching these ads and usually looks to see if there's a "skip this ad" button.

The web has brought new powers and capabilities to advertisers to reach people in new ways. The web allows marketers to target niche audiences that would have been cost prohibitive to reach in the past. The incredible success of the Google Adwords program is due to two main factors: (1) they can be incredibly granular and targeted allowing for great relevancy; and (2) they are at times very beneficial - providing useful links to the information, product or service the user was searching for.

In the short life of the web, online advertising has already seen several trends come and go. Pop-ups and banner ads, while still somewhat effective, are considered "old school." The interstitial ads, while very popular now, seem too much like television to me. They are the non-targeted, non-relevant, in most cases non-interesting commercial before the show. They are the painful, annoying opposite of a free prize.

One thing is for certain: online advertising is here to stay. New techniques and technologies will undoubtedly bring us new forms of advertising. But it's obvious we have a ways to go before we figure out exactly how content and advertising will live together in online harmony.

What is Web 2.0?

I feel it's not always helpful to use these terms since people have defined them differently. But the folks at Resourceful Idiot do a good job explaining the difference between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

I want my WebTV

Oprah did an entire show last month dedicated to Youtube. News programs are often showing web videos. CBS Sports recently made video of the entire NCAA basketball tournament available for free on their website. Political pundit shows quote bloggers and vice versa.

For years people have been predicting a "technological convergence" - the Web and television becoming one. Convergence is actually upon us, but not in the way we thought. It's not the devices that are converging, but the content.

Freeconomics

A couple months ago I wrote that free is the new black. In the latest issue of Wired magazine, editor in chief Chris Anderson has an outstanding article on the topic and how it is redefining the way we do business online. Chris was the author of the incredibly influential book The Long Tail. This article is a preview of his next book, Free, due out in 2009.

Back it up

Let's review some web history:

- First there was the online access battle - AOL, Netzero, Compuserve, etc.

- Then there was the email battle - Rocketmail, Hotmail, Juno and Gmail.

- There was the advertising battle - Doubleclick, Adsense and ValueClick.

- Search was (and still is) a BIG battle - Yahoo, Altavista, Hotbot, LiveSearch and of course Google.

A coming battle I see on the horizon is in the area of storage. The amount of digital assets we have has exploded over the last few years. As our hard drives fill up with mp3s, photos, movies and important documents, how are we going to back all of this data up? The days of copying things to a few CDs is long gone.

External hard-drives are becoming cheaper and easier to use. Sites and services like Mozy, Amazon (S3) and the long-rumored gDrive provide virtual backup space. Backing up your files online is a nice idea since something like a fire could take out both your main hard drive and your external backup.

Data storage is not sexy like search or fun like email. But it is something everyone should be doing.

Breakthrough Ideas for 2008

Here's an interesting read from the Harvard Business Review. It's their annual look at the emerging trends in business.

The silent majority

In the one week since I published the Logo-palooza post, this site has been visited over 20,000 times. The source for most of the traffic has been StumbleUpon where the post has been recommended by several users of that site.

The point I wanted to make about this is that you would never guess the popularity of that post by looking at it. As of this morning it has received a total of 12 comments. It has been seen and read over 20,000 times but only 12 people commented.

But the more I think about it, I don't think this is all that unusual. Think about all the articles we read online - all the news stories and blog posts. Most of the time we don't have a good reason to leave a comment. Unless we disagree with the author or feel compelled to add something, we often simply move on and read the next thing.

Long before the Web there was user-participation in talk radio. And with that medium too, a small percentage of the audience called in to offer their opinion. Most people just listened.

As more organizations look for ways to use the Web to "better connect with and engage their customers," the trick will be finding creative ways to comfort, stimulate, and motivate them to action. But companies need to realize that, despite their best efforts and intentions, many of their customers may prefer to stay silent.

Digital footprints

Have you done it yet? Have you Googled yourself?

If you have, you're probably not alone. Potential employers. Your dates. Business competitors. They are all using Google and other search tools to research you.

Message board posts, blogs, photos, old jobs, MySpace pages, LinkedIn profiles - all kinds of information, some not even posted by you, can come up in searches and provide specific information (or misinformation) about you.

Employers are "Googling" potential employees for a possible checkered past. Executive job and networking firm ExecuNet found that 35 percent of executive recruiters have chosen not to hire applicants because of information found online, up from 26 percent in 2005.

College recruiters are even taking a peek in Facebook to see what they can find.

Any time you meet someone new, depending on the uniqueness of their name, you can often Google them and find out where they work or where they went to school, organizations they may belong to or even photographs of them on vacation.

So think twice before posting those racy photos or that controversial opinion. The Internet is not an anonymous playground. We all need to be cognizant of the digital tracks we leave behind and protect our online reputations.

The reviews are in

More and more people turn to the web these days to perform product research before making significant purchases. They find information, advice, pricing, comparisons and product reviews. The end result is a very educated customer who often knows as much about a product as the sales person at the store.

Inside CRM has put together a great list of sites providing product reviews for everything from cars to computers to toys. Read and heed.

Diapers and domains

Interesting story from the AP about online identities and how some parents are securing domain names for their children long before they need them.

There's nothing wrong with thinking ahead, but I'd say it's a little crazy to choose your child's name based on whether the domain name is available.

"...and this is my son, Steve142.com."

From mass media to new media

This article is not new but it's new to me. The Economist gives us a bit of a history lesson and discusses the future of media.

Reading, recommended

The comma as social commentary.

Internet killed the radio star

Esmee Denters is not just another singer. She's a poster child for the webcam generation. She first gained fame by posting videos of herself on Youtube singing cover versions of popular songs. She's now signed a recording contract with Tennman Records and will soon be performing live as an opening act for Justin Timberlake. Esmee may well be the first singer to go straight from the Internet to stardom. No CD sales. No radio airplay.

It's no wonder the record industry is in such a panic. The business model has changed and artists like Esmee and Prince are finding new ways to promote themselves.

The way we were

The year 1994 doesn't seem like that long ago. Until you watch this video. It was created in 1994 by the Digital Corporation to help spread the word about the business potential of the Internet, which, at that time, many people found hard to imagine. Could this much change over the next 13 years? Stay tuned...

Laptop Confessions

I'm a tweener. Not a twitter(er). I don't have a site on MySpace. Or Facebook. I don't use Twitter or Dodgeball. But I have bought things from Ebay and Amazon, have my own blog and otherwise consider myself a technology geek.

But I'm in the "in-between" generation. We grew up with technology (cable TV, microwaves, maybe an Atari 2600) but not nearly to the extent of the youth of today.

My children won't know what it's like to not have a cell phone, a remote control, or power windows and door locks. They may never experience a black and white TV, a rotary phone, or a dial-up modem.

Technology is moving so fast today that we all struggle at times to keep up. Let me give you a quick rundown of my technology profile:

I...

have a smartphone.
own a laptop.
have a wireless network in my house.
own an HDTV.
have an iPod.
have multiple email accounts.
store photos online.
prefer Firefox to Internet Explorer.
shop online.
have a DVR.
have satellite radio.

But I also...

see no need for a Second Life.
rarely text message.
don't own a Mac.
don't have a Wii.
have never used Bittorrent.
don't experiment with Ubunto or Ruby on Rails.
don't have a Facebook or MySpace page.
don't have a navigation system.
don't Pownce or Stumble.

So what's the point of me unpacking my so-called geek life? To demonstrate that there is so much today that could be called "technology," even the geeks like me can't do it all.

People who love to read don't read ALL kinds of books. They pick and choose. It's the same with technology and the web - there's so much of it in our lives today that you can pick and choose and only jump on board for the things that excite you or make your life better.

Online Afterlife

Here's a fascinating read from Alexa about how the web can help people in the grieving process.