Mobile Phones As Mass Media: The Upcoming Technological Revolution

I found an interesting article by Alan Moore on www.masternewmedia.org that talks about the mobile phones being the 7th mass media that will revolutionize media communications.

He states that an evolving historic technological revolution is under way, which is creating new industries, new products, new services and, unmercifully redefining or even destroying others. It is more powerful, with greater reach and is growing faster than any other media-ecology. It is the grass roots of the mobile mass media.

The story is in two parts

Part I - Mobile as the 7th Mass Media

Part II - Models For Content Distribution

Kudos to Walgreens!

Massive Ad Network Consolidation Is Occurring

The big boys are on a buying spree!

Microsoft just announced they are paying $6 billion for aQuantive, the parent company of Avenue A | Razorfish. The acquisition comes after recent big acquisitions by Google and Yahoo in this space. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April. Later that same month, Yahoo acquired competitor RightMedia for $680 million. Just yesterday, WPP Group acquired yet another company in this space, 24/7 Real Media, for $649 million.

New Google Analytics Interface

Well, I tried taking a look at the new Google reporting options, but all I got was this:



I will try again later, I think Google is having a few roll out hiccups

Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC

I just read an interesting article on physorg.com that talks about Microsoft's research on developing the cell phone to be the next 'PC' platform - a project they are calling 'Fone+'
I agree with this approach. People don't want to carry all kinds of devices with them, the cell phone is going to evolve into the 'communicator'
http://www.physorg.com/news98525702.html

New Study from Pew Internet Project

Pew has just released an interesting study as a PDF that groups internet users into three categories
1. Elite Tech Users
2. Middle-of-the-road Tech Users
3. Few Tech Assets



Their study shows 51% of Americans utilizing some sort of internet technology (the first two groups above) and 49% with little or no usage. From studying the demographic data it looks like the largest divide was for older users, but lower income also played a large factor

Google Announces New Version of Google Analytics

The Google Analytics Blog announced they are starting to roll out a new version of Google Analytics. A few of the new features include:

• Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.
• Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.
• Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.

You can view a demo of the new service here.

Over the next several weeks, Google will be migrating all existing Analytics accounts to the new Google Analytics interface.

Great Six Minute Video On ClimateAppraisal.com

KUAT TV in Tucson, AZ published a great story on ClimateAppraisal.com!
Check out the video:

Climate Appraisal Services Gets Written Up in USA Today

Climate Appraisal Services LLC (CASL) had a nice write up in the 3/28/07 USA Today.

You can read the article here.

My Brother Busts Up a Fake ID Ring

My Dad called me today from Arizona where he and my mom and little brother got to meet the latest addition to the Nork Clan Aubrey Nork (what a cutie). Congrats to Gary and Susan. I'm sure that nork.com will have all the latest pictures.

He told me to Google "Gary Nork" - it seems my brother Gary is getting national press for breaking up a Fake ID ring in Georgia! Way to go Gary!

Transatlantica - The First (And Only) Fanzine for Miracle Legion

Great things happen when you clean your office! The spring cleaning bug hit me today and low and behold, when I moved my file cabinet i found this little gem! Back in 1992 Rob Silk put together this fanzine for my favorite band - Miracle Legion.
Discussion of this newsletter came up on the "As Far As We Know" message board a few years ago and Rob responded that he had lost his original copy. As far as I know, this is the only living copy! Enjoy...

transatlantica-opt.pdf

Testing Out Picnik and Flickr

I've been playing around with Picnik to edit my photos on picasaweb and then uploading them to Flickr. I like the functionality and integration with both Flickr and Picasaweb that it offers.

Check out my albums:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsjack
http://picasaweb.google.com/itsjack

1st Address-Based Climate Reporting Service Launched






Our client - Climate Appraisal Services LLC has issued a press release announcing the launch of the first online service to help home buyers determine if there are any environmental factors that could impact their purchase. The premium report includes information on shoreline reduction, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, drought and fire, flooding, health and disease risks, and industrial factors.



Check it out at http://www.climateappraisal.com/

I Signed Up For My Google Pay-Per-Action Beta Account

Some of our clients have already defined their Return On Investment calculations and know how much they would like to pay for a lead through AdWords. I'm looking forward to getting my beta account for Google Pay-Per-Action as announced in the AdWords Blog. I'll let everyone know when I get my invite.