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March 15, 2006 | Phil Leitch: Wufoo: Making My Job Easier

Creating nice looking forms for Web sites and intranet applications is always tough with more involved beyond the visual structure. A new site called Wufoo is going to help make parts of the form creation process a lot easier. The site is still in beta so while you can use it to create a very nice looking form you can’t do anything with your creation yet. Even if you have no reason to make a form I’d suggest giving the demo a try to see how nice a Web application can be to use. Web apps don’t need to be clunky, some are just built that way but not Wufoo. They’ve used a combination of Flash and Ajax to make it work and have a nice user-friendly design so even a novice can put together a good looking form.

March 14, 2006 | Greg Ness: More On The Movie Theater Industry

The movie theater industry is facing a big challenge from big-screen in-home TVs, DVDs, IPTV and social trends. It was explored previously here and here. A CNET story yesterday shed more light on the obstacles facing theaters. The CNET article draws a parallel between the movie industry and those issues that have fundamentally changed the music industry.

March 13, 2006 | Dean Froslie: A Dolphin Swallowing a Small Whale

In a move one analyst compared to a “dolphin swallowing a small whale,” McClatchy Co. has agreed to purchase Knight-Ridder, publisher of 32 newspapers across the country. The acquisition creates the nation’s second-largest newspaper chain.

The analyst comment references the size of the two companies: In 2005, McClatchy had less than half the revenue of Knight-Ridder – and Knight-Ridder owns almost three times as many dailies. It’s a bold, gutsy move by McClatchy.

March 13, 2006 | Greg Ness: Mars: We Have It Covered.

The red planet is slowly revealing its secrets, and thanks to the Internet, you can get a daily front row seat to what is discovered. The latest wonderment comes from Google and NASA. Working together, they have developed some amazingly detailed maps of Mars that work just like Google maps here on earth.

March 13, 2006 | Greg Ness: Podcasts…A Surprising Audience and Big Growth

A couple of recent reports raise the ante on the importance of podcasts.  A BIGreseach report (story here) shows some surprising demographic information. Many media pundits have minimized the importance of podcasts asserting the people subscribing to them were either first adopters or young geeks. However, according to the research, the core podcast market is already far more mainstream:
- Average income of $67,854
- Married
- Predominantly 18-44 age group
- Male (64%)
- Occupation is professional/managerial

The size of the market is also accelerating fast. A new eMarketer report highlighted here, shows podcasts will reach 50 million people by 2010. Podcast advertising will also rise from $80 million in 2006 to $300 million by 2010.

March 09, 2006 | Phil Leitch: Google Snaps up Writely, World Domination Sooner Than Later

Google buys Writely and it should fit right in with the other Google apps since Writely is still in beta. Writely is an online collaborative word processor that allows multiple people to work together on a document in the comfort of a browser window. With Google calendar expected out anytime soon and Google Drive sometime in the near future (?) Microsoft could be in for more of a fight than they bargained for. I know that I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to ditch MS Office entirely and use the first good online suite available. Seeing that I already use gMail, Google and Google Analytics quite a bit it would be an easy jump for me to become a part of Google’s world domination plans.

March 09, 2006 | Greg Ness: Online Advertising and Paid Search Post Record Gains

Four recent reports/studies affirm the accelerating growth of online marketing:

1)  A joint press release this week from Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) indicated that online advertising revenues in 2005 will show record 30 percent growth over the previous year’s firgures. The final compilation report is due out in April.

In the release, Greg Stuart who is CEO of IAB said, “As consumers continue to embrace the Internet as an integral part of their everyday lives, marketers continue to acknowledge that Interactive is a critical medium to engage their customers and create deeper brand experiences.” He added, “Furthermore, this continued increase in spending supports the cross media research that proves Interactive is often the most cost-effective way to drive increased ROI. We fully expect Interactive to continue to play an ever increasing role of importance for marketers.”

March 09, 2006 | Phil Leitch: Ad-Supported, Free TV Downloads From ABC

ABC is going to let you download and view some of its programing or free, which makes sense because you already watch it for free on your big new hi-def television. “Lost”, “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” will be free to download when MyABC.com launches in May. The difference from the $1.99 downloads from iTunes, the free downloads from ABC come with advertising. Sounds like a great deal to me particularly if I’m only trying to catch an episode I missed on TV last night (and I suppose my Tivo also missed!). As long as the ads stay out of shows I pay for I’m in favor of the networks approaching digital distribution of shows in as many ways they can think of.

March 08, 2006 | Dean Froslie: Faith, Blogs and RSS

It’s easy to think that large, technologically-progressive organizations are the only ones adopting RSS, blogs and other new media.

Here’s a challenge to that thinking: In a recent For Immediate Release podcast, Shel Holtz reported on the excellent social media tools created by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The third-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. has a blog with more than 15 authors. The site also offers more than 25 RSS feeds ranging from devotions to newsletters and Q&A articles. And, equally impressively, the site has excellent tutorials and FAQs on blog ethics, how RSS works and links to popular news readers.

March 08, 2006 | Greg Ness: Time for Fun

Looking for more fun in your life? Start here.

March 07, 2006 | Greg Ness: Stock Photos: Crutch or Godsend

Before the Web, photos in advertising were usually part of the conceptual development process. Back then, if an art director envisioned a photo in an ad concept, a comp was prepared to show the client how the final ad might appear. If the concept was approved, photographers were hired to help transform the concept into reality.

Prior to the Internet, there were many stock photo houses with thousands of images published in large proprietary printed catalogs. If, through an onerous page-by-page search, you did happen to find a photo that was appropriate for your ad, the royalties could run many thousands of dollars depending on the photo, the photographer, the ad’s total media exposure, and the duration of the ad campaign. Most of the time it was just easier to take the photo than find one in a catalog and try to negotiate a price.

Now, too often it seems, you see examples of ad development that appear to be initiated by finding an interesting photo first, and then building an ad concept around it. This is backward thinking. It is difficult to portray a unique brand image for your company using someone else’s picture album. Why has this happened?

March 06, 2006 | Greg Ness: Software Is Becoming Webware

Do you need an expensive installation of Siebel CRM at your company when you could subscribe to Salesforce.com via the Web for a fraction of the cost? Do you need Microsoft Word when you can use a Web-based application such as Writely? Should you utilize Excel Spreadsheet software or would Tracker,  a lower cost, Web-based application be a better option? Is Microsoft Outlook your only choice, or would a browser-based app such as Zimbra be better? Is it necessary to buy personal productivity software to install on your computer, or would it make more sense to take advantage of easy-to-use Web-based tools such as 30Boxes, Basecamp, Campfire, or Backpack?

In the months and years ahead, many people and companies are going to be asking questions like those above.