august 2007

A while back I wrote about Google's call for submissions for a short video promoting their GMail product. Each person had to submit a clip where the GMail icon travelled from one side of the screen to the other in order to patch them all together into one continuous handoff. The concept is old, but the community-powered nature makes it intriguing at the very least.

Technorati Tags: Google, marketing, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, video, Word of Mouth

A while back I wrote about Google's call for submissions for a short video promoting their GMail product. Each person had to submit a clip where the GMail icon travelled from one side of the screen to the other in order to patch them all together into one continuous handoff. The concept is old, but the community-powered nature makes it intriguing at the very least.

Technorati Tags: Google, marketing, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, video, Word of Mouth

• Forrester's Marketing Blog: New Research On Engagement (tags: forrester socialmedia measurement engagement)
• YoungGuns (tags: advertising awards)
• Stare Out - Never Surrender - Rugby - blueroom - O2 Cool concept for O2 uses your webcam to pitch you against three UK rugby players in a stare down. (tags: interactive uk rugby videos)

• Forrester's Marketing Blog: New Research On Engagement (tags: forrester socialmedia measurement engagement)
• YoungGuns (tags: advertising awards)
• Stare Out - Never Surrender - Rugby - blueroom - O2 Cool concept for O2 uses your webcam to pitch you against three UK rugby players in a stare down. (tags: interactive uk rugby videos)

• A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods An interesting and extensive chart of visualization methods. (tags: architecture visualization design diagrams tools concepts)
• ?South Park? Creators Win Ad Sharing in Deal - New York Times Interesting deal for Comedy Central (a Viacom unit) for content distribution and ad sales (tags: advertising content revenue)
• wis.dm Social network driven by questions. The community asks and answers some though-provoking scenarios. (tags: collaboration social network community)

In this age of hyper connected, social network overload, where small is the new big and you can never have too many connections comes NoSo. NoSo is an art project and online network where you are just a number. Literally. Nobody knows your name, there are no photos and you can't friend people.

NoSo lets you log onto the site, find "no" events that are in your area and sign up. That's where the technology ends. You show up at the cafe, park or other location at the designated time and just do whatever you were going to do. That's it. You don't talk to anybody, don't network or exchange business cards. You drink a coffee, read some poetry or work on your laptop, but you know you're all there together.

Sound weird? I don't think it does. NoSo is in the order as flash mobs where the act of being in the same location at the same time for the same purpose is the reward. Sometimes you just need to unplug.

Technorati Tags: innovation, Matt Dickman, social networks, Techno//Marketer, technology, NoSo, art

Here is a look at what is happening across social media and new marketing this week. If there is anything that you would like to see in this post or if you have something you think is Buzz-worthy please drop me an email or leave a comment on this post. I want to make this as beneficial for you as I can.

Buzz Friday is also available as part of the Techno//Marketer Podcast on iTunes. Click here to subscribe and take the Buzz to go.

[Feed readers please click through to the post if you cannot see the video.]

Here are all of the items that I think are interesting this week:

• If you like the iPhone, but not AT&T you may be in luck. A group of developers has seemingly unlocked the iPhone. Check out this article on Engadget.
• YouTube announced in-video overlay ads this week to much discussion, debate and outright anger from some users. They've since announced that ads will be optional and controlled by content creators.
• WalMart is on Facebook....yes I am serious here. Jeremiah has a good first look at what is happening there.
• People are still having fun with Microsoft's Zune and the rumors that they're releasing a phone too.
• Do you like bacn? Bacn is the newest hot slang floating around the Net. Basically it means all of the email that you get from social networking sites that you want to read, but wish wasn't in your inbox. More here.
• Google may work to create a NYC mass transit guide reports Bloomberg.
• Many companies are banning Facebook as office productivity sags. I personally like Neville Hobson's take on it "don't just ban Facebook, provide guidance".
• The NY Times launched MyTimes. Is this too little way too late? Seems like it should have come out 6 years ago.
• Tired of shopping online by yourself? Visit CrowdStorm and shop in a community of users.
• Rumors of a Google phone + CEO talking about "probably" bidding on new wireless spectrum = confused, but possibly excited public.
• Patrick Schaber at Lonely Marketer had amazing coverage of SES San Jose last week. Check it out if you want to catch up and see what happened. This post on image marketing was particularly nice.
• Are you still pitching bloggers with the same old generic email or press release? Want to pitch bloggers the right way? Take BL Ochman's great advice.
• Are you starting a new company blog? Do you want to get a lot of subscribers right off the bat? Tap your client list and optimize your content offering as Brian Clark suggests.
• Twitter is finally rolling out some real value-add enhancements. Check out the people search on the main page.
• Adobe's new Flash player will support HD video. This will hurt services like Joost, et. al. who were counting on p2p delivery or other non-traditional delivery of video.
• MTV, Real and Verizon have joined forces to offer up a new music service. Does this sound like a good move to anybody out there? Real is dead, MTV's audience is on iTunes more ...