Some Signs The 3D Web Is On It's Way

A few days ago I read an article in the New York Times about initiative being taken by IBM and Sun


that deal with the future of the internet. In my immediate sphere of influence I have been hearing


 people like Mark Wallace write about things of this nature for a while but it is always great to see further


validation from the large companies.


In a press release by Sun today I saw some more ammo for these contentions.


Here are some of the things they are working on:



Project Darkstar -- A Java technology-based game server technology that helps
solve many of the distributed computing problems associated with modern online gaming



MPK 20 -- Sun's Virtual Workspace, powered by Project Darkstar, this "serious game"
is the basis for research into collaborative work environments

There were many other projects that were mentioned but these were the ones that caught my attention.
You can find the release here

I am very excited about the concepts that Sun is rallying around
"The Network Is The Computer"(TM)
The Participation Age

http://sun.com/news.


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Google Earth and the AIA-- Adding 3D Layers to The Conversation




The AIA is seeking to expand the conversation about architecture by adding layers of peoples favorite architecture to Google Earth.


This will allow for a more open dialogue between the AIA and it's members, as well as conversation between members of the AIA and the population at large.


To some this may simply appear to be a technological /architectural endeavor. To me this stands for a lot more. This initiative symbolizes the type of interaction/ experience that will occur during the next phase of the web.


It is my contention that the next movements in interactive media will be more immersive, experiential and social than ever before (and potentially more so than ever imagined by most people). As displayed in the above clip, people will be able to actually experience some of their favorite architecture in a 3D (as opposed to staring at static 2D images of the same structures) environment from the convenience of their home.


To my knowledge Google has not yet added a social layer to the Earth product whereby individuals in different locations can enter the 3D space simultaneously, however I imagine that they are not far off from adding this functionality.


This initiative is further validation that Web 3.D is on its way!


Read More Here


America's Favorite Architecture




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Let The Advertisers Support The Music


What does the future have in store for the music industry?


Will the industry be able to revitalize what was once a lucrative business model?


From a consumer standpoint I am very happy with the current state of the music industry as I feel there is more choice than ever before and I am able to download any music I want in a variety of formats.  The music industry on the other does not see it this way and are struggling to redefine their business model.


I just read an article in the NY Times that spoke about a new venture called Qtrax. Qtrax is seeking to help revitalize the music industry by creating an ad supported P2P network. I am not familiar with any successful ad supported, p2p music model, however that does not mean it is not a viable solution. In fact, maybe this solution can also help with the current issues that labels and music retailers are having with DRM. In light of Steve Job's recent comments on DRM this is certainly an area of opportunity.


While the idea of ad supported music not new it is sure an exciting space to watch. The added ability for advertisers to target based on some degree of relevance (style of music etc.) makes it even more interesting for people in the new media /marketing /advertising space.


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Ad Sense For Second Life?

I got a note from John Swords about contextual advertising in Second Life.


While the technology appears to be far from perfect, it is nice to see people thinking of creative ways to advertise in virtual spaces, however what will this mean for the community?


When you opt in to Gmail (for example) you are opting into an ad supported environment. When you enter Second Life this is not the case (per se).


I, for one, am very used to ad supported environments and am fully comfortable with things such as Behavioral Targeting, however many are not. I think that Second Life residents will be even more uneasy knowing that their text is being used for dynamic ad insertion at first, but if the sim where the advertising is occurring adds value in the form of entertainment, I think people will learn to be ok with it. Especially if the advertising is relevant.





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So you say Virtual Worlds Are A Fad....

Take a look at the next generation. A generation born with a mouse in hand. A generation that thinks email is for their grandparents. A generation that will be born into the metaverse without knowing how we ever survived with 2D web pages.


You say Second Life is a fad....you say you have seen this before and it is all hype. Well, maybe you are right, maybe Second Life is a fad (I still love it) but you cannot deny the power of 3D virtual worlds...well...you can deny the power of 3D virtual worlds however if you wish to have a job in the interactive space in 20 years I am afraid to tell you that it will be tough times.


3pointD reported on Barbie Girls yesterday and I had to try it. This my friends is what the future will look like (well, maybe it will not all be in pink)













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Once Again, Proof It Does Not Take Budget To Be Brilliant/Virtaulive.tv


The prosumer has been a hot topic these days in the days of UGC/CGC/CGM. But what about the "would-be" pro without the budget to produce.


Director Stas Lipovetskiy showed me that the great ideas will shine through, despite a lack of budget. Does that make him any less professional? I say no. His ideas are great and to be honest, the look and feel may not be that of a Pepsi commercial, but I prefer it this way.


Stas my friend, hats off to you! You are man of the hour.


Oh and Robert Coghan (who works here at Morpheus Media), you are a cross between a young De Niro and Tom Cruise :) Nice Work








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Julie Roehm Driving Interactive/Marketing 2.X

Overall my trip to the motor city was a success. I got learn more about the auto industry and share some of my own thoughts on how the industry could be better leveraging virtual worlds.


The highlight of the event for me was Julie Roehm. Sure, she mentioned the pink elephant a few times, but she did not harp on it and it was eclipses by her spirit, vigor, intelligence and understanding of the marketing landscape that I have rarely seen. Below is the abstract about what her talk was about as well as a video she played that I had never seen before. Here are some concepts from the video that I particularly loved



  • A New Way of Getting Things Done

  • The Human Network

  • Body Language is Business Language

  • People Subscribe to People (not magazines)

  • Drag and Drop People Wherever They Want To Go

  • We are more powerful together than we ever could be apart


Julie Roehm, Marketing Communications Consultant
In the 1.0 world, television was king. In the 2.0 world, the internet came of age. In the 3.0 world, all our screens will be connected to the network of information and entertainment on demand. This world will tear down the walls between brands, media, studios, agencies and consumers (and already is). The question isn't if it will happen. The question is "what are we doing to get ready for it?" M2.x looks at the coming changes and explores what forward-thinking companies can (and are) doing to thrive in the 3.0 world.





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Driving Interactive Day One Sessions (raw notes)


John Durham- Jumpstart


Moderator Joe Kyriakoza. VP Product Strategy, Jumpstart Automotive Media


Kevin Brown, Senior Partner and Managing Director Ford Motor Media


Robin Cooper, Vice President Advertising and Business Development, Kelley Blue Book


David Duncan, Regional Sales Manager, BMW


Mary Carpenter, President GM Planworks



  • Redefining the tunnel

  • Auto consumers don’t necessarily going down the same funnel they once did

  • Carpenter- The funnel sends the signal that the process is way to linear

  • From a funnel to a tumbler


  • Brown- at any given time prospect are at some stage. The funnel helps frame the process.

    • “The lower funnel issue”



  • The funnel helps define certain elements of media mix


  • Cooper- “I blow up the funnel except in many way Kelley Blue Book is a Funnel”

    • Even when they get to pricing, 79% have not made a decision

    • It presents a challenge to sites to provide the right content



  • Cooper- As we move into more local type of advertising the complexity will increase dramatically

  • Tier 2

  • Creates different complexities that were not there before

  • The tier 2 marketer needs to be online

  • The reality is the millions are spent on local media with what are largely tier 2

  • How do you create efficiencies across 200 markets?

  • “Search it the most direct path to their door” Brown on Tier 2

  • The sites have enough trouble on a tier one level…

  • Cooper- ops dept. had a 7000% increase in line items

  • Cooper stresses the important of local regional integration and content

  • Bridging the gap from consideration to acquisition

  • BT is going to be an important solution

  • The answer is going to be a more macro solution…the right content for the right consumer

  • The existence of DMA’s is shifting in meaning online

  • The diminished digital advertising talent pool

  • College curriculums not addressing the business as they should

  • Video

  • Are we an industry that reads or watches the internet

  • The on demand show room

  • Set top boxes are not quite there

  • Talent rights and licensing an issue with online video

  • Networks having issues with how to own their content online


  • Virtual Worlds

    • Brown- - “It is not a move that is going to turn their business around” in reference to Pontiac



  • 10 years later- Is the internet a branding or direct response medium


  • What’s the hottest topic affecting your business today?

    • Tier 2

    • Engagement

    • Technology solutions




Min Cho Senior Analyst II, Digital Marketing Solutions, J.D. Power and Associates



  • Improving the brand site experience

  • The Upper Funnel- Upper Funnel advertising

  • 43% of visitors to sites such as KBB are not in market

  • If you are only catering to people who are looking to purchase you are not catering to a majority of your audience


  • Brand image study- consumers respond more favorably to sites that seem more technologically advanced

    • Demo videos



  • 90% of new vehicle buyers access the internet

  • Plan for efficiency as well as brand awareness

  • You are missing the point if you are not looking at people who are not willing to consider you

  • Avoiders have the greatest impact on sales

  • Look at engagement metrics, time spent, how many videos/photos did consumers watch

  • Think of avoiders in terms of relevant messaging

  • Sales integration can provide a higher value proposition



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Off To Dearborne Michigan To Drive Interactive

I am hoping that American Airlines does not perform as usual (ok, so there is a monsoon out there) and can actually get me to Detroit in order to make it on time for iMediaconnection's "Driving Interactive" summit where I will be on a panel talking about New New Media :)  (Mark Wallace, I think they stole that from you)



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Virtualive.tv Gets Some Industry Chatter

For those of you who have paid attention over the last few weeks, I am working on an event called Virtualive.tv.


The great thing about the chatter around Virtualive.tv is that it is being done by all types of people. Second Lifers, Musicians, Media Execs and now a PR blogger. Blogger Mark Rose of PR Blog News did a great piece on Virtualive.tv (and I am not just saying that because he did a piece on Virtualive.tv).


Mark was able to cover the event from a new perspective, PR. It is very cool that this event has been able to mean different things to different people. For example, to me it means a long nap on May 11th :)


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Exclusive Spike Lee Footage On Babelgum

Democratization of media in the 21st century has been spurred on by many factors. Low barriers to entry for content creators as well as open distribution have served the prosumer with everything needed to enter to public media ecosystem.


Renowned director Spike Lee is proving that it is not only the prosumer leveraging new, democratized content distribution channels. A recent press release announced that Lee will be premiering content on Babelgum, the new global Internet TV network. Following the premier this content will be available on Babelgum for a period of three months.





"The accessibility of Babelgum for both users and content providers is ground breaking.




It means independent producers and content providers can showcase their work free of charge




to a global viewing audience and not have to compromise in terms of quality, length or artistic
integrity."



While I have not spoken to anyone at Babelgum and have not gotten the full low down, it is my understanding that Babelgum employs a very unique system of which content will be aired based on supply and demand. Similar to You Tube, Babelgum also allows user to create their own channels creating, in essence, networks syndicates of each one of us.


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Google's Metaverse

via Google Blogoscoped


Okay, so this is far from a metaverse in and of itself but, think of the possibilities. Sure, Google's aim here seems to be purely informational, but a company as forward thinking as Google no doubt has other things in mind. I will keep my speculations minimal however I am hoping to hear from some of you. Is Google jumping into 3D virtual worlds any time soon?


As always, I would love to hear some comments!



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Adam's Female Parts/Lifelogging

Ok, perhaps I should not be posting this on a blog that I promote as an extension of what I do for living (interactive marketing).


Eh, who cares, right!


We cannot be all business all the time. If a client sees a photo of me like this what I hope they would say is,



"he does a great job for us and he knows how to party...so long as he keeps doing a great job for us who cares...and maybe we can party together"



This brings up the notion of lifelogging. I am not really sure of it's origin but I have heard Mark Wallace, Jerry Paffendorf and many others talk about this idea. The essence of lifelogging, in my estimation is equivocal to your digital identity. While in it's early stages lifelogging may be something that takes a concerted effort  (i.e.. Four Eyed Monsters) but as the younger generation grows up in a digital society, naturally employing all the digital tools we are still getting used to, lifelogging while happen, to a certain degree, under the radar.


 As for me, I am still looking for the perfect aggregator that will help with my lifelogging efforts so I do not have to login to Flickr, my blog, Second Life, Twitter, etc. etc. separately. I am waiting for that  moment of digital convergence. Mark Wallace refers to such tools as identity-information aggregators


I did a search for lifelogging and much to my surprise there is not even an entry in Wikipedia. For now I would say turn to luminaries like Mark and Jerry for some more information (what are you guys waiting for, get on Wikipedia).


Photo By TheDivaRockin



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SES NYC The Search Landscape (raw notes)

What's the most popular search engine? The most used search engine? What vertical areas of search are growing? Are people using search toolbars more or less? Representatives from major ratings and traffic analysis services share stats and info on topics such as these, in this session.


Moderator:




Speakers:



Bill Tancer



  • Google continues to grow at a rate 18.7% compared to april 2006

  • Yahoo and MSN have been relatively flat in terms of market share of visits

  • The top 3 engines captured 78% of all searches

  • Google is up to 64%, Yahoo 22.5%, MSN, 11.8%, Ask 3.5%


  • Google

    • 70% done on google.com

    • 10% You Tube

    • 8% Google Image search

    • 5% Gmail

    • 1.4% Google Video



  • Yahoo is the dominant player in terms of email services

  • Myspace hold 33% of emails service search market

  • Gmail only hold 2.79% of email search market share


  • Prediction- Pay Attention to Google Base

    • still very small

    • has to have critical mass of buyers and sellers

    • Coldwell Banker and other realtors uploaded a significant amount of content to Google Base

    • Top two site as downstream sites from Google base are real estate

    • Traffic from Google base 14.7% employment, 12% real estate, 10.3% auto




Kenneth Cassar- (metrics are from Nielsen Netrating)



  • Google 55%, Yahoo 21%, MSN 10%, Ask 2%, AOL 5%, Other 7%

  • Google share up about 8%


  • Search is the dominant means of referral to retailers

    • Search 19%, 67% direct to site, comparison shopping 2%, 12% traditional online ads

    • conversion traffic is Direct to site 82%, search 8%



  • Google drove 54% or transactional search, yahoo 17%, MSN 14%, Ask 6%


James M. Lamberti



  • The qSearch Landscape

  • Importance of monitoring latent transactions

  • 6.9 billion queries in january 2007

  • more people searching month over month

  • heavy searchers are 20% of the searching community and are searching more and more often

  • Google 46%, Yahoo 27% MSN 11%, AOL 5%


  • Why?

    • Brand Equity

    • Distribution

    • Performance in key vertical markets



  • Consumers are overwhelming satisfactory with search results, no matter which engine they use

  • Google users are 49% loyal as opposes to Yahoo 33%, MSN 24% Ask 24%


  • Clicks

    • 38% growth

    • Pay attention to SEO, it commands most search clicks

    • Sponsors clicks up 11% jan to feb 07




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SES NYC SMO: Social Media Optimization (raw notes)

Community-built web sites, the popular Wikipedia and new sites allowing content being shared through "tagging" can be a great way to tap into links and search-driven traffic. This session looks at some social media services and strategies to tap into them in an appropriate manner.


Moderator:




Speakers:





  • Social Media Optimization


Rand Fishkin



  • Show the community that you are a participant

  • Build traffic from alternative sources

  • Influence Traditional Media

  • SEO= Perceived as spam in the social sphere

  • Control your brand before others do

  • mention of the McCain debacle on MySpace


Neil Patel



  • Leveraging Digg and StumbleUpon

  • "Picture of the craziest urinals around the world"

  • Be sure to stay away from obvious self promotion

  • Best time to submit 11 am pst?


Andy Hagans



  • Titling is half the battle...can it be on a magazine cover

  • you need to win people in 3 seconds or lose them

  • Link out generously


Overall a way less than inspiring session. Aside from telling me a lot of what I already know (which I understand, there are different skill levels at these things) some very bad practices were covered.


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I Have Seen No Sheep at SES NYC and They Are, In My Mind, The Hottest Thing In Search Today

I am at the Search Engine Strategies conference in NYC all week listening to people talk about, for the most part...well, things they spoke about last year. Sure there are some new ideas (I am not knocking anyone but sometime I feel like I am being sold something at these things) but I have not heard anything that I felt was a game changer.


As the world of content grows exponentially how will we find everything? As virtual worlds grow we are faced with the same issues. Leave it to the Sheep to help figure this issue out!



Giff Constable's post goes into more depth


I love the fact that they have called their crawler the Grid Shepard



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SES NYC: Sitemaps & URL Submission

 The major search engines have recently united around a common "sitemaps" standard to provide them with bulk URL submissions. This session looks at how sitemaps works, along with other submission options.


Moderator:




Speakers:




Priyank Garg



  • Yahoo- Sitemaps

  • XML Schema and a protocol to publish you sites urls to search crawlers

  • Adopted by all major engines

  • Sitemaps are expected to be valid XML

  • All URLS must be entity escaped

  • Sitemaps can take 50,000 urls each

  • You can point to RSS feeds from your XML file


  • How do you get a sitemap to engine----

    • Auto discovery of sitemaps via robots.txt (yahoo, Ask is joining as well)

    • A new robots directive called "sitemap"



  • Yahoo Site explorer out of beta

  • you can track multiple sites in Yahoo explorer

  • Site explorer now accepts mobile files

  • Authentication via key file or meta tags

  • Report Spam Inlinks -Automate the reporting of spam


Maile Ohya



  • Maximize exposure to search engines

  • More crawled content

  • Commonly formatted as TXT, RSS/ATOM as well as XML

  • One of the primary reason for using sitemaps is helps Google (engines) improve index freshness, increase efficiency

  • Google News Sitemaps recently released in Beta

  • 2 ways of entering search ranking ...WWW and Sitemaps

  • Always include the the URLS full path

  • The protocol and hostname od the the listed URLS must match the sitemaps location

  • Syndication Feed Sitemap

  • Google Sitemap generator ...Similar to Python

  • Autodiscovery with with Sitemaps.org


Vivek Pathic



  • Moving into another stage now that they have added the ability to submit sitemaps


Nathan Buggia



  • Excited that all the major search engines have come together with sitemaps

  • Should help innovation and competition


Eric Papczun




  • How can we make the sitemaps tool actionable/how can you compare and contrast to other sites?

    • Sitemaps usually picked up in one or two days

    • Crawl within a week or two

    • Small sites with low PageRank take longer



  • Don't forget about the importance of a native sitemap

  • Make sure that redundant content is excluded

  • Use preferred domain tool to tell Google if you want www.domain.com or domain.com

  • Sitemaps have forced people think about URL management

  • Use tool to reduce redundancies

  • Link Report, New Feature


Todd Friesen



  • Search Submit Pro


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SES NYC- Keynote Conversation with Steve Berkowitz (raw notes)

 Steve Berkowitz is the Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Online Services Group, which includes MSN and Windows Live. He talks with conference chair Danny Sullivan about Microsoft's moves and ambitions in search



  • Ex-CEO of Ask.com

  • Figuring out how to unlock the potential of MSN products that have yet to be tapped into

  • Focus on Navigation/Search

  • MSN= Technology Provider/Audience Aggregator

  • Unified search and ad platform

  • "The Ad Platform and search are reverse engineering of each other"

  • "You need to have a simple delivery platform"

  • Windows Live Value Proposition...You can take your digital identity with you- extension of Windows onto the net

  • Much more social content into MSN

  • More current events and UGC


  • What will make Live Search Pop?


    • "No it's never ever satisfactory not to be number one"

      • Destination driven search

      • Convenient search- mail, messenger





  • Innovative ways to delivery search in the experience you are in as opposed to mere destination search

  • Creative new ways to deliver search will be the key to gaining market share

  • "Does it have to be a slugfest every time you want to get on the desktop?" Sullivan in reference to deal with Lenovo

  • "I want the consumer to get pissed off that someone has decided to force it on them" Berkowitz in reference to the battle for the desktop

  • "Its about buying developing and earning" in reference to desktop


Ok, Mrs. Dewey makes a guest appearance in a ridiculous show of cheap marketing....wrong venue, wrong time and not that funny. Which makes me think of the debacle I saw outside of the hotel put on by Looksmart. I will certainly write about that garbage later but, what is going on here? Give me good search and I will work with you. I don't care about the brand. I don't care about gimmicks. I just want good search and value. Sheesh!!!!




  • Danny: What puts you ahead of Google and Yahoo?

    • "Where people do better than we do is engagement"

    • you are going to see search better integrated in the MSN platform

    • Microsoft has the advantage of maturity

    • We are going to be a great partner to advertisers and publishers

    • I use Live 90% of the time -Berkowitz

    • "We are more than search"...it is about integration



  • How do we bring Rich Media into search

  • "We are moving fast, we are just not where we need to be yet"


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Lauren Driver and I Rock The Metaverse Marketing Scene

I have a new writing partner. I am sure that all of you who have read my stuff before will notice a marked difference in everything from grammar to wit. Well, that is due to the co-author of my latest article in iMediaconnection, Lauren Driver.


We had a lot of fun exploring different segments of the social metaverse and the result is quite positive. I would love to here some feedback so feel free to comment or shoot me and email.