I’ll be in Vegas next week for the Blog World and New Media Expo. I’ll do down there Tuesday night and for all 3 days of events, so let me know if you want to meet up.
Monthly Archives: October 2007
About the MSFT / Facebook deal
Well I don’t have anything to say about the Facebook / MSFT deal that is any smarter or insightful than anything else already published. But here’s my personal view on how this affects people like us.
The life of the average blogger or other purveyor of Social Media just got better. Google’s Ad Sense, the gold standard of Internet advertising, had started to get a little stale. That happens to everyone making truckloads of cash – the need to radically innovate lessens.
But now, MSFT is locked into Facebook forever, and as Facebook impressions rise, MSFT ad impressions rise, and Google has to do more to please the millions of publishers out there. Competiton is good, and in one investment, MSFT was able to do join up with an established web property haven’t been able to do with any of their homegrown properties – deliver a universally admired user experience, with virtually unlimited growth potential.
And wow, a valuation of $15 billion….. That’s simply amazing.
Al Kaufman Hates Fun
I’m going to add Al Kaufman of Diamond Parking to my list of people who need a new perspective on life.
According to a report in the Seattle Times, Mr. Kaufman is responsible for some idiotic stance by Diamond Parking to tow cars from their parking lots outside Seahawk Stadium, if they see people tailgating with *gasp* beer before a game.
So let me get this right. Mr. Kaufman charges $25-$40 per car for parking outside an NFL stadium, and can’t afford to train or provide security to keep Seattle’s "rowdy tailgaters" under control.
If your average lot has room for 50 cars, and Diamond owns 30-50 lots around the stadium, it’s not inconceivable to surmise Diamond makes $50,000 per Seahawks game. That is a lot of coin. For 50k a day, maybe you want to come up with a better way to deal with a few drunk fans than trying to annoy the entire Seahawk Nation.
But, since he wants to be unreasonable, its up to Seattlites to be unreasonable back. So if you disagree with Mr. Kaufman’s view on parking, or life in general, here are a few ways you can reach him:
3161 Elliott Ave, Ste 200
Seattle, WA 98121-1097
(206) 284-3100
alan.kaufman@diamondparking.com
Heck, here’s the whole list of people to ask about this:
Home Office
605 First Avenue, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 284-3100
(800) 340-PARK
(206) 285-5598 Fax
info@diamondparking.comJoel Diamond – Chairman & CEO
Jonathon Diamond – President & COO
Dave Watson – Senior V.P. Operations
Direct Line: (206) 436-7203
Bob Turley – Chief Financial Officer
Greg Matous – Controller
Seattle Operations
2600 Elliott Ave. Suite A
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 284-6303
(206) 269-6390 Fax
(206) 729-0590 Monthly Parking
seattle@diamondparking.comAlan Kaufman – Regional Vice President
alan.kaufman@diamondparking.comJohn Hjorten – City Manager, Seattle Attended Locations
john.hjorten@diamondparking.comRichard Smith – City Manager, Seattle Self-Park Locations
richard.smith@diamondparking.com
Real Estate
Mike Sherstad – V.P. Real Estate and Market Dev.
mike.sherstad@diamondparking.com
Slide.com Web App
I think I’m about 2 years behind on this post….But I saw this little app on someone else’s web site and had to try it out. I know I’ve heard of Slide.com, but I guess I don’t spend enough time on MySpace to have seen it put to good use. And I really haven’t seen it on Facebook yet. (Maybe my Facebook friends aren’t the creative types.) Anyway, it’s a pretty cool way to add some visual functionality to your web site. Check it out at Slide.com (By the way, the images for this little test come from Imagekind.com.)
Technology Finally Slows Down the Rockies
Well, they’ve won something like 23 of 24 games, so other teams can’t stop them. But the Colorado Rockies finally found a nemesis they cound’t vanquish.
According to reports, "on Monday, there were 8.5 million attempts to connect with the computers in the first 90 minutes after sales started, and only several hundred tickets had been sold before the system had to be shut down."
One has to assume many of these 8.5 million attempts are from the automated robots now being used by ticket brokers and resellers. This indicates the technologies that have been so useful in selling tickets have now become an impediment to getting them to the real fans.
In fact, the Denver Post reports on the issue, including this section. "The bots pose a significant challenge to companies such as Ticketmaster, which won an injunction Monday blocking a Pittsburgh software company – RMG Technologies Inc. – from making and distributing such programs.
"We will not allow others to illegally divert tickets away from fans," said Ticketmaster chief executive Sean Moriarty in a statement.
The flooding process has also come under fire from parents trying to purchase "Hannah Montana" concert tickets for their kids, only to learn tickets are sold out minutes after going on sale."
Feeling Justified About My Taste in Music
I finally found a band that I liked before Apple did. Here’s one of my favorites, The Fratellis, starring in the latest iPod ad.
U.S. Search Engines Have New Pot Hole in Dance With China
When you have a few billion potential customers living inside your country, and a totalitarian monopoly on who gets to sell to them, you wield quite a bit of power on the global business climate.
Such is the case this week as the government of China is now redirecting searches from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft search engines, and sending them to the China based Baidu.com.
The fact that this action comes about 3 minutes after the Dali Lama received a Congressional Medal of Honor is at best, "sketchy."
This kind of activity puts American companies in a tough spot. From everything I know, supporting the Dali Lama is the *right* thing to do. China is effectively pushing American companies to try to convince the U.S. government to change their chance. This will not be the last time a U.S. firm is going to have decide on whether they are beholden to shareholder value or global ethics. Redirecting IP packets is simply the easiest thing China could do. It will be interesting to see what comes next.
Ad Club Seattle Covers Social Media
Seattle’s Ad Club brought Social Media to the forefront today, as Eric Weaver, Principle of Brand Dialogue, and Laura Porto Stockwell, VP and Director of Interactive at Publicis, "explored this new(ish) medium and (taught us) how it affects your brand and you personally."
The house was packed and just about everyone stayed until the end, indicating agencies and professional marketers are at least interested in figuring out how to wrap their arms around this giant mixture of bees and butterflies called Social Media. Look for more events like this in Social Media, and Spring Creek Group will be at many of them.
Stephen Colbert Op-Ed Piece in New York Times
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times dared Stephen Colbert to write an Op-Ed piece this week. Funny Stuff.
Don Imus is Coming Back
According to Drudge (can’t link to it because it’s not a permanent link yet):
"THE RESURRECTION OF IMUS: RETURNS ON NATION'S TOP TALK STATION
Mon Oct 15 2007 07:52:30 ET
In a dramatic and dazzling career rebound, controversial radio host Don Imus has secured a deal returning him to the airwaves on December 3 -- this time on the nation's most listened to talk station, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned!
"Imus In The Morning" will make a high-impact resurrection on WABC in New York City, top sources reveal.
"We'll have him on a standard 40-second delay," a studio source explains. "Don is rested, humbled, and ready for war!"
Specific terms of the deal will not be released, but the host, who was fired by CBS and MSNBC after making disparaging comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, has inked a eight-figure, multiyear contract with WABC parent company, CITADEL BROADCASTING."
Now, I don’t want to claim to be a soothsayer or anything, but here’s what I said a few months ago.
Key sentence: "So Imus gets punished – but watch how the market reacts in the coming months. If the one thing this country believes in, it’s second chances – and grabbing the opportunities to invest in them."