Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats - Products - Microsoft Office Online
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats - Products - Microsoft Office Online
If you are using Office 2003, please install this compatibility pack so you may open Office 2007 files. (Pete and Mario, this means you. *grin*)
If you are using Office 2003, please install this compatibility pack so you may open Office 2007 files. (Pete and Mario, this means you. *grin*)
What We Learned At Pubcon Las Vegas
We are decompressing from a trip to Las Vegas
and Pubcon. If you are one of those who goes
to events like Web 2.0 or TechCrunch40,
Pubcon might be an eye-opener.
Topix' Chris Tolles who goes every year
summarized the event last year. He's right
about this being a pragmatic crew. We
couldn't find people who are out to change
the world or who are looking to get eye-balls
and will worry about monetization later.
Pubcon'ers seem consumed with increasing
conversion rates by 5% on some obscure
network of web properties that caters to
retiring baby boomers or people who traffic
in auto spoilers. These people will look at
you side-wise if you exert any energy that is
not about putting cash in your pocket. One
speaker derisively pointed out how much
Google juice Nike wastes because it refuses
the advise of its SEOs to use the keywords
'shoes' on their home page - Nike's marketing
department insists on callings its product
'footware.' This is a cardinal sin at Pubcon.
The high priest at Pubcon is Google algo-god
Matt Cutts who gave a keynote address one
morning. Cutts was good to stick around
during the event but he put a chill up the
spine of speakers in one seminar who were
speaking about link-buying.
As our readers may know, Google recently
tweaked its algo to put the hurt on companies
that traffic in paid links such as PayPerPost
and TextLinkAds. The biggest gripe at Pubcon
was that Google has amassed history's
largest, fastest treasure chest by selling
links but now it's is punishing others for
selling links. As in Pubcon blogger put it "I
just won an iPod Nano and now I'm going to
blog about it and link to the company that
gave me the Nano. I'm then going to link to
Matt Cutts blog and ask him if this is banned
behavior."
Perhaps the lightest and most visionary
presentation was given by Demand Media's
Richard Rosenblatt. The former MySpace
frontman ran a short video taken by
Justine.tv's Justine, showing the pair
descending into Las Vegas on the Rosenblatt
private jet. There was really no point to the
video and that's exactly what Rosenblatt
wanted us to leave with. People want to watch
video on the net even if it's lame. So Demand
Media is making a major push to fill up its
legions of web sites with video. And if you
can get users to make and submit video for
free that's all the better.
The big picture that Rosenblatt wanted us to
understand is that the 3 word searches (the
long tail) more often than not do not return
the helpful results that searchers seek.
Rosenblatt is buying domains, working seo and
filling up long-tail sites with content that
he feels will be helpful. That way the
domains that he bought for tens of millions
of dollars will provide greater returns than
what the sellers thought they could achieve.
The exit is clearly an IPO that will enable
Rosenblatt to upgrade his jet.
and Pubcon. If you are one of those who goes
to events like Web 2.0 or TechCrunch40,
Pubcon might be an eye-opener.
Topix' Chris Tolles who goes every year
summarized the event last year. He's right
about this being a pragmatic crew. We
couldn't find people who are out to change
the world or who are looking to get eye-balls
and will worry about monetization later.
Pubcon'ers seem consumed with increasing
conversion rates by 5% on some obscure
network of web properties that caters to
retiring baby boomers or people who traffic
in auto spoilers. These people will look at
you side-wise if you exert any energy that is
not about putting cash in your pocket. One
speaker derisively pointed out how much
Google juice Nike wastes because it refuses
the advise of its SEOs to use the keywords
'shoes' on their home page - Nike's marketing
department insists on callings its product
'footware.' This is a cardinal sin at Pubcon.
The high priest at Pubcon is Google algo-god
Matt Cutts who gave a keynote address one
morning. Cutts was good to stick around
during the event but he put a chill up the
spine of speakers in one seminar who were
speaking about link-buying.
As our readers may know, Google recently
tweaked its algo to put the hurt on companies
that traffic in paid links such as PayPerPost
and TextLinkAds. The biggest gripe at Pubcon
was that Google has amassed history's
largest, fastest treasure chest by selling
links but now it's is punishing others for
selling links. As in Pubcon blogger put it "I
just won an iPod Nano and now I'm going to
blog about it and link to the company that
gave me the Nano. I'm then going to link to
Matt Cutts blog and ask him if this is banned
behavior."
Perhaps the lightest and most visionary
presentation was given by Demand Media's
Richard Rosenblatt. The former MySpace
frontman ran a short video taken by
Justine.tv's Justine, showing the pair
descending into Las Vegas on the Rosenblatt
private jet. There was really no point to the
video and that's exactly what Rosenblatt
wanted us to leave with. People want to watch
video on the net even if it's lame. So Demand
Media is making a major push to fill up its
legions of web sites with video. And if you
can get users to make and submit video for
free that's all the better.
The big picture that Rosenblatt wanted us to
understand is that the 3 word searches (the
long tail) more often than not do not return
the helpful results that searchers seek.
Rosenblatt is buying domains, working seo and
filling up long-tail sites with content that
he feels will be helpful. That way the
domains that he bought for tens of millions
of dollars will provide greater returns than
what the sellers thought they could achieve.
The exit is clearly an IPO that will enable
Rosenblatt to upgrade his jet.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Recommendation Engine MyStrands Expands War Chest to $55m to Go Beyond Music
Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / December 4, 2007 / 4 comments
In a world at risk of information overload, where the line between content producers and consumers is no longer clear and where the pace of everyday life is increasing rapidly - I'd say the recommendation engine business is a very smart one to be in. There is ample precedent and this startup is moving into a relatively established field. Richard MacManus lauded the company's previous multi-million dollar investment and our enthusiasm here for this project continues.
The Money
The company announced this morning
The Initial Product and Sales
The company started with an iTunes plug-in that recommends songs similar to what you're listening to and quickly expanded its offerings to include a full multi-media juke-box platform that lets people personalize public playlists with their mobile phones and profiles from home. With offices in Oregon, New York and Barcellona, Spain - this is a web 2.0 company with brisk sales already. The company says it will bank $12 million in 2007. That's no mean feat.
Why This is Very Smart
Music, however, is just the first of many areas of engagement for MyStrands. A huge part of the Amazon.com story is its product recommendation process. Netflix has some of the world's top scientists racing each other to outdo its in-house recommendation engine for a million dollar prize. Last.fm's music recommendation community went to CBS for $280 million. StumbleUpon built web page recommendation into a tasty morsel for eBay to scoop up.
Now MyStrands has a war chest to hire top scientists and bring try and take recommendation to the next level for any type of data. If you can't see the value in that
MyStrands would be a great place to see attention data made real, be it in APML
When I first saw MyStrands several years ago I thought it looked like a trivial and akward little iTunes plug-in. Like so many startups, though, this company had a much bigger vision all along. Now that vision has $55m in backing, is making big hires and is will record $12m in sales already this year. I'd say this is one company you've got to keep an eye on.
Gaming: The Cal Marching Band's Amazing 16-bit Video Game Halftime Show
Gaming: The Cal Marching Band's Amazing 16-bit Video Game Halftime Show
This is the Cal band playing a halftime show from earlier this month. It's their "video game show," and it's pretty much the coolest thing ever. They run through a number of classic game songs, all while forming scenes from the games out of the band itself. It's got everything from Pong and Tetris to Zelda and Mario, and it's amazing. It makes me want to play Nintendo and join a drum line all at the same time. Well, maybe just play Nintendo, but you get the idea.
This is the Cal band playing a halftime show from earlier this month. It's their "video game show," and it's pretty much the coolest thing ever. They run through a number of classic game songs, all while forming scenes from the games out of the band itself. It's got everything from Pong and Tetris to Zelda and Mario, and it's amazing. It makes me want to play Nintendo and join a drum line all at the same time. Well, maybe just play Nintendo, but you get the idea.
Social Network Aims to Share Ad Revenue with Users
| |
| by Tameka Kee, Monday, Dec 10, 2007 7:30 AM ET |
| THE LUSTER OF FACEBOOK'S BEACON ad program has faded, and News Corp.'s MySpace members have long complained about marketer spam, but entrepreneurs continue go after major advertising dollars with social networks--and Capazoo is the latest entrant in this over-saturated market. While Montreal-based Capazoo officially launched a year ago, the social network got a revamp this October. The community features the necessary tools of profile creation, image and video sharing, and loads of dynamic content--but what makes Capazoo different is its goal to kick back 7% of net profits to its members through a micro-currency called Zoops. With Zoops, members can "tip" each other for posting original images, video clips and other content--and ultimately, Capazoo enables them to cash out those Zoops via a branded ATM card. Of course, users need to purchase Zoops in the first place, so some in the industry have questioned just how the actual profit sharing is accomplished. Although there is a subscription-based membership available, a significant portion of the company's revenue stems from advertising, with contextual, geo- and demographic targeted display inventory, as well as post- and mid-roll video available. There are also the myriad partnerships with companies like Hertz for discounted car rentals, National Lampoon for content distribution and IMERGENZA for band and concert ticket promotions. But according to Matthew Ross, Capazoo's director of communications, the company's model is built to generate revenue without inundating members with ads. "Capazoo is what we call a member-driven economy," Ross said. "They dictate what are the most popular videos and other content, and they tip each other for it. We have a policy of no advertising on personal profiles, blogs or user uploaded video." Members can also earn Zoops by referring new friends to the network. But some in the industry have called Capazoo's operating structure "bloated," noting that for a property with only 13,000 visits in November (as per Compete), 100+ head count and additional offices in Toronto, Atlanta and Miami, the model doesn't seem scalable. |
Conversation 2.0 – Social Marketing and You
Great article on the Frog Desihn blog talking about the importance and future of conversational marketing.
By: Tim Leberecht
I gave this presentation last week in Stuttgart, Germany. Forgive me for the “conversation 2.0″ moniker but it’s a catchy way to pinpoint what’s happening right now in the world of marketing. Marketers and brands have always had conversations, but at a much slower pace and mediated by professional parties. That’s no longer the case. Conversation 2.0, that is, the web 2.0- enabled conversation, shifts places and times; it is ubiquitous and doesn’t pause — it is, in all senses of the meaning, a “never-ending conversation.”
By: Tim Leberecht
I gave this presentation last week in Stuttgart, Germany. Forgive me for the “conversation 2.0″ moniker but it’s a catchy way to pinpoint what’s happening right now in the world of marketing. Marketers and brands have always had conversations, but at a much slower pace and mediated by professional parties. That’s no longer the case. Conversation 2.0, that is, the web 2.0- enabled conversation, shifts places and times; it is ubiquitous and doesn’t pause — it is, in all senses of the meaning, a “never-ending conversation.”
Thus, “social marketing,” derived from the more common “social media marketing,” is all marketing that utilizes the social graph of both marketer and audience (in fact, the interesting thing is that they can be one and the same) to facilitate and cultivate a conversation. Social marketing is whenever more than two individuals collaborate online or offline for content generation and distribution. Social marketers harness the viral power of social networks in order to grow both the frequency and the reach of conversations exponentially. They know how to feed the social orbit with content that catalyzes conversations. And they understand that an “architecture of participation,” that lets employees be marketers, has become paramount for turning brands into live brands.
The media of the new era of social marketing are characterized by the following attributes:
- Hybrid: The boundaries between institutions and players are blurring. This results in the mash-up of producer and consumer (prosumer), fan and consumer (fansumer), professional and amateur (proteur), and the convergence of media, platforms, and communication modes.
- Adaptive: Change happens in real-time and is organically built into the social media mechanisms. The never-ending conversation is in fact a never-ending loop: Feedback is creation, creation is feedback.
- Transparent: Everything is visible to everyone. Self-expression and revelation go hand in hand. Privacy has become a public asset, and the more you share, the more (information) you will receive in return.
- Open: Open is the new closed. Everybody can join. Systems are inter-operable (see Google’s Open Social initiative). The best way to build loyalty and retain visitors is to let them go whenever and wherever they want to go. The best way to lock customers into your business model is if you open it up for everyone. Seth Goldstein just had a great post about this, in which he argued that open systems need to be closed, to a certain extent, in order to function.
- Micro: The online social universe is fragmented into an increasing number of micro-universes that develop their own micro-crowds and micro-formats. Micro is the new macro: Not only is “small the new big,” and “selling less of more” may be “the future of business” (The Long Tail) — communicating more of less is the future of media and communications. More and more businesses identify and carve out untapped niches for their business models with ever more targeted, personalized, and localized offerings.
- Social graph: It’s not just who you know; it’s what you know about what who you know knows. We are “a crowd of one” (Clippinger), an interdependent cohort of individual personas. We experience a widgetization of content, of social behavior, of value(s).
- Instant: “Now is gone” (Geoff Livingston). Everything that happens is happening immediately or not at all. Live-Chat, live-streaming or 24/7 life-casting (Justin.tv) — we want it all and we want it now. The time between action and reflection has shrunk to zero. Beta is eclipsing meta.
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