Quote o’ the Day
Friday, August 26th, 2005
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
—Clive James
Archive for August, 2005
The Way We Were?
Thursday, August 25th, 2005
What would tech news have looked like 20 years ago had today’s blog tools existed back then? Engadget has the answer.
The ascii art headers are classic, and you gotta love bits like this: “Someday we’ll all have phones as portable as the 11-pound Mobira Talkman,” and: “One day in the future we’ll all work at 200MHz tower desktops with 9600 baud modems, but until then we’ll just have to keep dreaming.”
It sorta feels like thumbing through back issues of Popular Science magazine (which would be fun, come to think of it, and PopSci ought to vastly expand this area of their site). Great stuff.
As If AOL Needed More Headaches
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005
Here comes Googletalk.
Extending The Brand
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
NICKELODEON LAUNCHES CHANNEL FOR KIDS IN UTERO
New York (Aug. 23) — Nickelodeon today announced the formation of the NickU network, to launch nine months from now. NickU (the “U” stands for “uterine”) will focus on programming for children developing in the womb.
“For years, parents have played classical music for children in utero to stimulate their developing minds,” explained Richard Brompton, VP of In Utero Programming for MTV Networks. “Similarly, NickU will be designed to stimulate, educate, and entertain. We’re always looking to extend the Nickelodeon franchise to wherever kids are. NickU is a very logical step for us.”
Programming for NickU is still in development, but two initial series include an as-yet-unnamed brand extension of Spongebob Squarepants, in which Spongebob and pals engage in hilarious antics not beneath the sea, but in the amniotic fluid, and Dora the Vaginal Explorer, intended to prepare fetuses for best experiencing the miracle of birth.
Okay, satire’s over. But: they’re getting closer. So are they.
0-for-32? C’mon, Google …
Monday, August 22nd, 2005
Google’s AdWords is on the right track, now allowing advertising to be purchased on a site-targeted CPM basis in addition to a keyword-targeted CPC basis. However, there are still quite a few bugs in the system.
Seems that just because a site is available in AdWords doesn’t mean that a site is available in AdWords. One site-targeted campaign I’ve set up for one of my clients includes 32 individual sites. I have zero impressions. Google’s FAQ explains (bold emphasis mine):
Why is the site I want not available?
An individual site must be part of the Google Network in order to be available for your site-targeted campaign. Being part of the Google Network means the site has agreed to run ads provided by Google, which in turn allows your AdWords ad to compete for that space.
The site must also be a content site in order to be available for site-targeted campaigns. Some sites on the Google Network run ads only on search results pages, which can’t be selected for site targeting. If you’d like your ads to appear alongside search results, or in related products like Gmail, try running a keyword-targeted campaign.
It is also possible that the site you selected may have opted out of site targeting. Some publishers, for reasons of their own, prefer not to run site-targeted ads.
Here’s an idea: If the site has opted out of site targeting? Don’t list it as an available option for site-targeted ads!
Takeaway for marketers: Google’s site-targeted ads: great in theory, frustrating in practice.
