Wolf Tracking

Last week, I found myself prodding along with a myriad of other proud parents in an attempt to get good shots of my son singing in his school Valentine’s Day play. Slightly frustrated, I paced back and forth, circling the stage to catch the right frame. And guess what? I never got a good shot.

At that moment, I realized that my bright idea to buy a relatively inexpensive digital camera was a pretty dumb one. In fact, I began envisioning all of the other school functions to come – plays, recitals, soccer games, karate tournaments. Becoming even more frustrated by the thought of it, I then turned to my husband and said, “This camera is a piece of crap, it doesn’t work for me, the zoom function is limited and the picture isn’t clear, I need a better camera.”

Needless to say, I’m now on the prowl for a quality camera – one that will enable me to bypass other cute kids and get good shots of mine, whether it’s video or photos. So I’m doing what any other chief memory officer (MOM) would do. I’m spending time perusing product reviews sites to determine which camera will best suit our family’s needs.

According to a stat I found from the Consumer Electronics Association, sales of digital cameras, especially the higher-end SLRs, have skyrocketed and high-resolution cameras with more than six mega-pixels are the fastest-growing segment of the camera industry.

But in all honesty, I’m just looking forward to finding a camera that works for me.

Earth…Fire..Wind…Water…Captain Planet? With our powers combined we can de-throne…Google? Keep dreaming Yahoo. Last week, Microsoft, a mega-brand itself, put out an offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.

In a move to try and de-throne Google, Microsoft made the enormous bid hoping Yahoo chief Jerry Yang would come to his senses and help move the deal along. Months ago, Microsoft bought a small stake in the infamous social networking site, Facebook for $240 million. But Google has remained unharmed and is still sitting pretty atop the internet throne. People in the industry know that something has to change in order to compete. One of those people is Jon Miller, former CEO of AOL Time Warner. He said, “No one can compete with Google on its own any more. There has to be consolidation among the major players. It has been a long time coming, and now it is here.” But Google has been able to successfully engage the consumer. Advertisers are going to go after the most affluent consumer and Google allows them to do that. Right now, Google is valued at 25 times their respective earnings, while Microsoft is only 14.

I remain quite skeptical. It all leads back to the brand. Larry Paige and Sergey Brin have been able to take their company and become the premier search engine of the internet. Nobody will argue with that. Dictionaries are even talking about them. Do you Google? I Google everyday. Do you Yahoo? I only Yahoo if I’m cheering for the New York Giants.

Now, think back some years….circa Kleenex. When I sneeze, I know I don’t say “tissue.” When I need a copy of something, I don’t say go to the copy machine. I say “Xerox Machine.” These are two perfect examples of what Google as become: A Mega Brand: an ability to successfully engage the consumer to use one’s product, increase loyalty for it and have it become immersed in one’s culture and language. These brands don’t need buzz. They’ve got plenty of queen bees that are here to stay.

Despite what Microsoft and Yahoo do, or what AOL does, they’ll face significant hurdles because of Google’s rise to power, its establishment as a Mega Brand and its inability to not be forgotten by the most important people on earth…you…the consumer.

It’s official – figures just released by web analytics outfit comScore have confirmed what we’ve all been discussing for the last few months – mainstream social networks are loosing steam.

You can check out all the stats here at Creative Capital. What you’ll find is that the average length of time users spend on all of the top three sites is on the decline…big-time!

With MySpace, Bebo and Facebook all posting double-digit percentage hits in Q4 2007, where should advertisers be looking?

According to BusinessWeek, niche social networks – particularly those that break a sweat – are where high-caliber advertisers are spending their money.

For instance, US Olympian and ski icon, Bode Miller, recently launched SkiSpace, a social network that snow-riders can join to meet ski buddies, plan weekend trips, and hear first-hand reviews of ski resorts. SkiSpace grew to a community of 10,000 in its first month.

There are countless other niche social networks that are attracting big crowds – and big money from advertisers. By catering to niche markets, these social networks can offer a channel for targeted ads.

BusinessWeek reported that some ski resorts are spending as much as $50,000 for such campaigns, leveraging new media capabilities such as mobile blogging widgets and RSS feeds to interact more directly with members.

Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg will take those pesky billion dollar offers more seriously this year.

In case you haven’t heard, 2007 was the best year yet for the videogame industry, with nearly $18 billion in US sales – 43% better than last year’s total take. Even when less-than-rosy consumer sentiment produced disappointing holiday sales across the board, videogames moved at a steady clip, with nearly $5 billion worth of software and hardware sold in December alone.

While the numbers are certainly impressive, the most interesting part of this story is where that growth came from. While hardcore gamers came out in force to buy Halo3 and Gears of War this year, the Wii dominated sales all year long, and cemented Nintendo’s push for casual gamers as a sure-fire strategy.

Venerable Japanese developer Capcom and even EA recently pledged to investors that adults who would never consider themselves ‘gamers,’ spend only a few hours (or even minutes) playing games each week, and spend little, if any, money on hardware specifically to play games would be their new focus.

This is a particularly exciting trend for the game development community, because lo-fi, casual games are much easier and cheaper to build than a high-end release like this year’s Madden. Scrabulous was developed by a handful of coders in India, and now sees around half a million plays daily via Facebook.

For advertisers, the shift to casual gaming is an even bigger deal. These lower involvement games have plenty of space to insert logos, and bargain development prices mean one brand can “own” a game from very early in the process.

It’ll be interesting to see how casual-only studios answer the call for both casual gamers and serious advertisers. Keep an eye on Dave Jaffe’s Eat, Sleep, Play and Zynga, the latest venture from SupportSoft founder Mark Pincus and a group of top-notch investors, including PayPal superstar Peter Thiel.

Each year, I vow to myself that I’m going to turn over a new leaf. But this time, I mean it.

I’m starting my holiday shopping early. In fact, I’ve already mapped out my master plan all starting with this weekend, when I’ve committed myself to spending a couple of hours on Friday night (yes, I have an exciting life) perusing online shopping sites such as Overstock, BestBuy, ThinkGeek, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Home Depot and Wow-Coupons to scout out deals. And guess what? I’ll be one among millions who turn to the Internet for holiday gift shopping and ideas.

According to Forrester Research, US online retail sales this holiday season will reach $33 billion, a 21 percent increase over last year. Apparel and accessories will top holiday shopping lists and another projected big winner this year will be gift cards. I, personally, have warmed up to gift cards.

Being the Geekmom in the family, I plan to purchase lots of cool, fun tech toys - most of which will be consumer devices.

Here’s my tech holiday wish list.

Note: I’m just giving you my top three. However, if you want to send gifts my way, shoot me an e-mail at dacrie_brooks@cohnwolfe.com and I’ll be more than happy to send you my entire list.

1. E-Starling E-Mail Enabled Wi-Fi Digital Photo Frame

I’ve been eyeing this one for a while on ThinkGeek.com and it’s pretty cool. It can connect to my wireless network, be integrated with FlickR RSS photo feeds and I can e-mail it my photos and organize slideshows. As far as I’m concerned, this is a must-have item for any one who has tons of digital pics that they want to display in the home or office.

2. Toshiba HD-DVD Player

I don’t care about the HD- DVD vs. Blu-Ray DVD format wars anymore, I have to get this before Thanksgiving. With family coming to visit, I have to ensure that we ALL enjoy our digital living room experience so I’ll be purchasing a Toshiba HD-DVD player (why Toshiba? I have a Toshiba Plasma TV, and it’s important to coordinate brands) probably next Tuesday.

3. LeapFrog’s FLY Fusion Pentop Computer

As a mom, I’m a firm believer in using technology to help the kids enhance their educational experiences and I like them to also have cool tech toys so I’m buying my 8 year-old a LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer and corresponding 4th grade programs to help prepare her for next year.

Ok, I guess now’s the time to leave you with a compelling, final thought of why this is ALL relevant.

While I certainly enjoy shopping, it’s important to remember that getting your hands on the latest and greatest consumer device just to be cool isn’t really the point. It’s about making life easier and more enjoyable.

Thus, I’ll end with a quote by Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google,

“As we go forward, I hope we’re going to continue to use technology to make really big differences in how people live and work.”

Last week, Apple’s mandatory software update for the iPhone may have unwittingly touched off an arms race between their in-house genius software designers, and their formidably geeky loyal fanbase. And really, they should have seen this coming…

In March 2005 Sony launched the PlayStation Portable (PSP) to terrific fanfare and midnight madness launches nationwide. Shortly after launch, Sony started issuing regular updates to the PSP as downloadable patches to the systems firmware – a light-duty operating system that drives a consumer device in the background. In the beginning, they delivered new functionality to PlayStation’s slick little brother like custom wallpapers, better controls for music and movie playback, and compatibility with PlayStation 3 and other devices.

Before too long, however, Sony’s firmware updates became the front line defense for their war against the indie game “homebrew” community and modders. True, some of these modders were getting their PSP to play pirated games, and Sony has a right (and a critical business need) to put a stop to that. But a lot of them were just trying to install Linux, use it to control a Roomba, and basically have fun screwing around with their really cool toy. When the PSP’s most anticipated titles, like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories required new firmware to run, a vocal minority railed against Sony in forums and the blogosphere.

Game sites were littered with vitriol about how Sony was putting a limit on what gamers could and couldn’t do with hardware they already owned. And to a certain degree, it’s hard to blame them. Until very recently, the precedent with consumer electronics has been “the box does what it does. It’s YOUR responsibility to use it legally, properly and safely.” After all, everyone’s DVD player is capable of showing Gigli, and no one’s gone to court for it… yet.

Fast forward to earlier this year. Hordes of Apple disciples waited in ridiculous lines around the country to get their very own iPhone. You might have heard a thing or two about it. Enterprising young programmers quickly found out how to unlock the uberphone, and load it with homemade programs, videogames, and the ability to work with phone providers other than AT&T, much to Apple’s chagrin. Apple responded with last week’s firmware update, and the iPhone’s early adopters, predictably, reacted with rancor. Apple’s legions of fans are no doubt working on a solution to open up the iPhone again, and undo the latest firmware update. Assuming they figure it out, Apple will have to issue yet another firmware upgrade to regain control of the iPhone.

No sooner had Steve Jobs shown us the dirty little trick hidden in his black turtleneck sleeve than a shining beacon of hope, and goodness, and all things customer service came from… Microsoft!? The undisputed king of needless, forced upgrades (I know a guy that had to upgrade Word so he could spell things with umlauts) made the new Zune software available to first generation Zune owners this week. The Generation 2 firmware adds wifi syncing and music rental, two of the biggest selling points for the new Zune, to all the Generation 1 Models. In short, Microsoft figured out a way to upgrade the Zune, without making early adopters feel left out.

Here’s hoping Apple, and every other consumer electronics producer took note – this is how you treat customers. Our always-on, connected devices (including everything from cell phones, to TiVo, to all 3 of this generation’s videogame consoles) give manufacturers more power than ever before to modify their device when it’s already in the consumers’ hands. But with that power comes a set of complex responsibilities to protect their consumers, their partners, and their reputation.

School’s finally back in session and I’m quickly reminded just how much our entire household (myself included) depends on certain technologies, such as video on-demand (VOD) and DVR.

On Sunday night, my five year-old watched me ever so closely to ensure that we recorded his favorite cartoon series, “The Justice League.” It airs weekly at 10:00 p.m. and our pact is that we’ll watch two 23-minute shows – back-to-back – either Friday or Saturday nights. My daughter, on the other hand, has her own set of DVR’ed programs but really prefers watching movies on demand.

And while my husband DVR’s just about anything sports-related, I reluctantly admit to recording and watching shows with no real value. This could be HGTV’s “Divine Design,” TLC’S “What Not to Wear” or The Style Network’s new show, “Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane.”

But the point of this is not to emphasize what we watch on TV, but how we watch it. And more importantly, how our digital living room viewing experiences will continue to evolve and impact the way we live.

Nearly 26 million people use DVR, according to the Carmel Group. They conducted a survey called, “Digital Video Recorders 2007: Time In A Magical Box,” that examined what appeals to or aggravates consumers about DVR usage and related digital services. According to the study, nearly half of all U.S. TV homes will be equipped with a DVR system by 2010. Another research firm also estimates that there will be nearly 65.9 million VOD homes that exist in 2016. Of course, our household is one of the millions contributing to these growth trends.

In the next 5-10 years, I’m looking forward to seeing how DVR and VOD technologies will evolve and how I can use them in every day life – beyond just sheer entertainment. For example, I’m warming up to the idea of being able to – at some point – search through interactive ads and purchase products directly through my DVR.

Ladies, just imagine being able to record and watch your favorite interior design show, and purchase paint and decorating accessories specifically based on one of the rooms featured on your favorite episode. That’d be pretty cool, right?

For the first time since 1952, no incumbent, (President or Vice President) will be seeking the oval office in 2008. Fresh faces are running and major changes have occurred in news coverage. Major cable news networks have tried to brand their networks as “political media centers,” places where everyone can turn to for the latest breaking news on the 2008 presidential election. We say time flies and sometimes when watching these cable news channels I have to remind myself that it is only August, 2007. To compete with one another, the cable news networks reached out to both political parties to plan, host and televise pre-primary debates in various battleground states throughout the country. Debates have been exciting when its five weeks out from the general election, but debates in general normally follow the same old routines. A moderator, typically a television anchor, puts together numerous questions, posing them in no particular order to the candidates on stage. The cable news networks knew that they had to get creative with their debates. One network stood out. That was CNN. CNN put forth a “YouTube” debate platform, where everyone and their mothers could submit a video question for the candidates and the CNN staff and crew would pass them onto the candidates and disseminate it to the TV audience as well.

CNN turned over a new leaf in presidential debate productions. We are moving toward an engagement age and CNN saw that and embraced it. Viewership was 2,622,000. CNN said the Youtube debate was “the biggest audience since measurements began in 1992 for a cable news debate of those between 18 and 34, the demographic most coveted by advertisers.” Watching the debate I saw a number of classic as well as sensitive questions. One of the best YouTube questions and overall moments of the debate occurred when a man in his said, how will you protect my baby? At first nothing was in the screen except him. So my assumption was that he was talking about protecting youth or education. All of the sudden, I saw him grab something in the corner of the screen. It was an M16. Though shocked, I was eager to see not only the looks on the candidates’ faces, but the responses they would give to this unexpected video question. They did not dodge the question. They had straightforward answers and that is when I knew that CNN had succeeded. CNN embraced the social media, extending an opportunity to anyone with a computer and video computer camera to finally have a chance to get involved in the political debate. That guy put a face on a very sensitive question about the right to bear arms, forcing the candidates to not dodge a response to the image just put up on television screens not only for them to see, but for the viewers at home to see as well. For years, the 18-34 demographic has gotten a reputation for being “highly uninvolved” in the political process. CNN’s YouTube debate re-defined the debate forum and successfully engaged its audience, but more importantly opened the door for more people like you or I to become more engaged in the political process, something that social studies teachers and parents have been urging for years.

While I typically LOVE anything new, especially mobile phones, I won’t be one of the millions of people who are expected to switch from current cell phone providers to AT&T (I’m a Sprint customer), trade in their current mobile devices (I have a Blackberry 8703e) and plop down more than $499 for a new Apple iPhone – today.

According to Apple and AT&T, the iPhone is expected to be a “revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service. And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want - just like email.

Personally, I don’t feel the need to be that cool AND I’m not going to spend such an insane amount of money customizing my service plan. I mean, who wants a basic iPhone without all the bells and whistles. It’s like buying a Cadillac Escalade without the rims!

I’ve also heard that there are very slow Internet speeds and some issues with the keyboards. Of course, to be expected with the first-generation release of this product.

But let’s switch gears on the product aspects to talk about the sheer media frenzy of it all.

Talk about dominating the news, media and pop culture. This iPhone is being written about, blogged about, talked about and Googled more than when news hit that Paris Hilton was prematurely released from jail and then sent back to the slammer crying.

Case in point, when I Googled Paris Hilton there were approximately 71,200,000 and when I Googled the Apple iPhone, it took the lead with 72,900,000 results in 0.9 seconds. Ok, granted this is not a true numerical calculation since we’re off by fractions of a second – but I know you get my drift.

My advice to anyone considering buying the iPhone on Friday is this:

• Read the product reviews; just check out this Reuters article in InformationWeek.
• If you’re not a current AT&T/Cingular customer, contact your mobile provider to ask about early termination fees (my early termination fee through Sprint is $250).

There has been a moment in every Internet voyager’s life, where you have asked yourself, ‘I wonder what the Internet has to say about me’. We have all done it, sheepishly looked around to make sure no one is watching and typed our name into Google, waiting on the edge of our seats until we realize the only thing that is published on the Internet about us is our name on the ninth grade honor roll. There is even a new play called I Google Myself that deals with this very phenomenon. And while the play appears to be a manufactured drama about a man trying to find the meaning of life through an Internet search, it reflects a very human instinct—the instinct to locate ourselves in the ever burgeoning world of new media and technology, to question how we fit into the ever expanding web of knowledge and information that is available to us. But as our access to this web grows, we cannot help but ask the question, is there any privacy in the world of the Internet?

Based upon the growing number of social networking sites, it appears that privacy is the last thing that Internet users want—this is an age where you can search for your ex-girlfriend on Facebook, or look up your blind date for Wednesday night on Myspace or read your neighbors Blog posting. And it is exactly this voyeuristic desire that has lead to a new spawn of information data bases, like Stalkerati a website that searches all social networking sites and creates a profile of the person being searched. That’s right… it is the ultimate Internet stalking site. While the appearance of this type of database may seem alarming and invasive, is going to one site to do “Internet stalking” any different then spending time searching up old friends and foes on Facebook and Myspace? The site boasts itself as “a little hack” put together in two hours in order to eliminate going to various networks in order to track someone down, however it somehow feels much more invasive and foreboding…especially because the creator uses the world “cyberstalk” to describe his vision.

It is one thing to sign up for a service that allows you to create a profile, and quite another to be subject to random searches from a third-party source—but where is the line drawn? And do we as Internet users who voluntarily sign up for networking sites have a right to police this type of activity?

This type of access to information however, does not stop or even start with “little hack” sites like Stalkerati, it extends to the big bad wolf of search engines, Google. And even sites like Google do not eschew our privacy anxieties. Recently some 27 countries from the European Union have launched an investigation on exactly how Google stores its user information. And this concern is not unfounded. Google surveys and stores the words visitors’ type into its site, and also tracks surfing behavior between websites searched. And while this is different then providing personal information it comes dangerously close to painting an intimate picture of the user. This lack of Internet privacy is not just alarming because any hacking capable stranger can find information about our favorite websites, movies, or personal photos, but because as The Wall Street Journal notes, this access to information does not stop there. In a recent article about Internet privacy Jason Fry, assistant managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Online and fellow Blogger writes,

“Property deeds, marriage and divorce records, court files, motor-vehicle information and tax documents are increasingly being digitized, and contain a wealth of information that few of us would want online: Social Security numbers, birth dates, maiden names and images of our signatures. Local governments have rushed to put those documents online for a decade or so, often without scrubbing them of such information. And that’s made them potentially fertile ground for busybodies, stalkers and identity thieves. ”

It is for these very personal reasons, that the increasing access to information from the smallest scale of sites like Stalkerati, to the conglomerates like Google, is alarming. Because how do you selectively control information that is all just out there, in the great unknown abyss of the Internet? As the network of social media grows, and we excitedly gather a greater level of knowledge and social connectedness, we are also charting a new territory—a territory ripe with questions of where our desire for unlimited access ends and where our personal privacy begins. This is just something to ask yourself the next time you do a little Internet spying.