MySpace said "hajime-mashite" (nice to meet you) to Japan today as the News Corp.-owned site teamed up for a 50/50 venture with Japanese telecom powerhouse Softbank Corp. to launch MySpace KK (MySpace Japan).

"The launch of a Japanese community is a huge step for MySpace's international expansion," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace and Board Member of MySpace KK.

"We're responding to user demand by creating a community that is localized in terms of language and culture while connecting members to the rest of MySpace's global network."

The companies say MySpace Japan, headquartered in Tokyo, will run as a separate company, with MySpace US teams playing significant roles to build the localized operations.

"Localization has been key to MySpace's success around the world and Japan will be no exception," said Makoto Kouyama, CEO of MySpace Japan.

News Corp. finds itself in powerful company with Softbank, which owns Yahoo Japan, Yahoo BB ADSL, Japan Telecom, and Vodafone KK.

"We are confident the Japanese community will take to MySpace just as passionately as millions of others around the world," said Masayoshi Son, Chief Executive Officer of Softbank, and now the chief enemy of the leading Japanese social networking site, Mixi.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch was quoted by Reuters yesterday as looking for a way to reach the Japanese market via mobile phones. Softbank will have just the way to that, so it's reasonable to expect a MySpace Japan mobile photo and blogging service.

Brad Greenspan, a board member at Intermix, the former owner of MySpace, now also has a new reason to be upset now that the social network is moving into the Asian market. Greenspan filed suit against News Corp. last spring alleging that the site was intentionally and maliciously undersold.

A judge recently dismissed the case, but Greenspan wheeled around quickly to file another lawsuit accusing News Corp. of mass censorship within MySpace, including references to Greenspan's competitor sites.

Tag: MySpace Japan

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With streaming video footage on the Internet now becoming a key component in all recent high-profile website successes, Atlas and Doubleclick, two marketing technologies providers, are both offering up competing video platform systems for e-commerce customers.

It seems that the Internet's ‘video revolution' happened almost overnight, but with the broadband cable connection explosion paving the way for this consumer demand-cum-expectation, it's only natural that companies are dashing out with new streaming video upgrades which will appeal to the burgeoning e-commerce marketplaces.

Atlas Marketing Technologies recently touted the availability of Atlas In-Stream Video, video ads that can be put on websites as easily as display banners. An offshoot of its video-on-demand offerings, the video ad system will also keep track of important things like how many consumer impressions each video ad generates.

"As video begins to transform the online environment, advertisers and publishers are looking for technology solutions to assist them in the delivery and workflow of digital video," said Scott Ferris, SVP and general manager of Atlas Emerging Media in a recent press release.

Nipping at Atlas' heels is DoubleClick's Dart Motif For In-Stream (built with the television workflow in mind), intended for online publishers but also providing similar tracking information, which might be very beneficial to video ad buyers. Viewers will also be able to be very interactive with these video streams as the system gives them the ability to mute, pause, and view video material on full screen, making it more like the traditional home video experience. The new product complements DoubleClick's video ad division, Klipmart, which is aimed directly at agencies and advertisers.

Doubleclick fully intends to continue developing both products concurrently because they are complementary of each other and "there is a need to run video on a lot of sites and to [standardize] the technology," said Ari Paparo, vice president of rich media at Doubleclick, in a recent interview with MediaPost.

One thing is for certain: these evolving technologies are sure to help continue pushing video to the forefront in everyone's cyberworld experience. Stay tuned for more!

Tag: Internet Video Providers

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Microsoft aids in the design of a $46 million Philadelphia public school that will pave the way for schools in the future.

The Philadelphia public school that Microsoft aided in designing is slated to open its doors sometime in the next year. Microsoft's design incorporates computer technology into every aspect of the school, from classrooms to administrative functions.

The school's administrators say they envision the school as being, "a paperless building where students study in online textbooks, teachers quiz their classes on laptops and automated systems order cafeteria supplies as they are depleted."

The $46 million cost of the school will be entirely funded by the school district itself. Microsoft has not announced plans to contribute any major donations; they offer only their technological expertise.

Technological equipment in the school itself does not have to be from Microsoft, although they are involved in the bidding. It is speculated that Microsoft is involved in the project to gain brand loyalty at an early age.

Apparently there is more to come for the Philadelphia school system. Paul Vallas, the chief executive of the school district says, "What we are trying to do is expand the options for K-12 students, and give them more school choices. Our goal is to build 11 new high schools like this."

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Yahoo! Tech has tried to make it as painless as possible for holiday shoppers to find gadgets with the launch of it's holiday gift center.

Thanksgiving turkeys have yet to be carved, but it's not too early to compile your holiday wishlist. That is where Yahoo! Tech's new holiday gift center comes in.

Yahoo! Tech has attempted to make it as easy as possible for people who are not technologically informed to find gifts for the holidays. The Holiday Gift Center website has tools and features designed to make gift buying as simple as possible.

The site includes features such as a celebrity wish list which consumers can actually view the holiday lists of celebrities such as Tyra Banks and the Girls Next Door.

Another great feature of the site is the Gift Finder. The Gift Finder allows the consumer to input information regarding the recipient of the gift, such as budget, age range, and features, then suggests a gadget.

Having trouble finding a gift for your friend or family member? Simply check out the Advisor Gift Lists that are specifically tailored to the type of person being bought for, such as a working guy or a gadget hound.

The Holiday Gift Center even goes so far as to provide consumer reports and the top tech categories of the week.

Yahoo! Tech Holiday Gift Center has taken the headache out of shopping for gadgets this season.

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Microsoft's annual Employee Giving Campaign raises $63 million for various chartiable organizations, and receives almost no media coverage. Meanwhile search engine giant Google donates $30 thousand to Creative Commons, generating 2100 times the media coverage of Microsoft.

For the first time in years angry bloggers do not have ammunition to fire at Microsoft. The company's annual Employee Giving Campaign generated $63 million to disperse among deserving charities this year, but do not be surprised if you haven't heard much about it. Apparently philanthropic accolades are strictly reserved for those with the best marketing departments.

After Microsoft concluded it's annual Employee Giving Campaign, they announced to their employees and the public that they had raised $2.5 billion for charity since 1983.

In 2006 alone Microsoft's employees donated over $31 million of his or her own money to the campaign. In turn Microsoft matches any employee donations, generating a grand total of $63 million for various charities and AIDS research.

The Employee Giving Campaign, according to Microsoft's website, "allows its employees to direct corporate contributions to thousands of nonprofit organizations working to improve lives in the United States and around the world. Donations that U.S.-based employees make to eligible nonprofits are matched dollar for dollar by the company, up to $12,000 each year".

Search engine Google has also recently made a charitable donation, to the tune of a whopping $30, 000, to Creative Commons to enable the company to open a licensing organization.

While donating money to any organization could be considered charitable, the amount seems to be petty when the fact that Google grossed over $800, 000, 000 in the last quarter alone is taken into consideration.

This donation garnered a tremendous amount of press and earned Google praise from critics in a time when the company is in a proverbial rut.

Why then, has a company that gave so much of its employee's donated money to charities received so little press? The answer lies in the marketing departments of both companies.

Google's marketing department, based on the dollar amount donated by each company, generated 2100 times the press than that of Microsoft's.

Apparently no good deed goes unpublicized, and the amount of publicity depends not upon the generosity of the organization, but rather the marketing department.

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As we all head out to vote on our favorite candidates and issues on this Election Day '06, a bigger question looms in the minds of many as we recall the well-documented disorder of elections' past: Will my vote really even count?

Recent studies have indicated that not only is it more difficult to actually cast a vote in some states due to confusion on exactly what kind identification is required to vote, but there are the very real possibilities of malfunctioning computers and lines so long (due to a shortage of voting machines) that it will frustrate lunch hour voters, causing them to leave without making their choice.

In Election '04, voters in Ohio waited hours in line because of problems like these, including the inherent ‘technical difficulties' of electronic voting. Each state has its own way of dealing with these problems of the past, but according to independent studies, most states have not fully addressed the issues. For example, in Ohio, a law was recently passed mandating one machine for every 175 registered voters. But the law does not go into effect until 2013.

Then there are the conspiracy theories running rampant in blogs across the Net, adding further confusion and paranoia to the proceedings. Whether true or false, talk of rigged voting machines, buttons manipulated so that they will actually count for the candidate opposite of the one you want, and computer tampering that could erase the voice of the people in the tap of a keystroke have allegedly soured many on the whole process.

Recently, the PBS television show Down For The Count tested a government-sponsored $3.1 billion dollar investment spread out between states to ‘fix' computer voting systems and found that "the upgrades were made too fast and the same problems that can ‘declare losers as winners' still exist." Rolling Stone magazine ("Will The Next Election Be Hacked?" RS1010) also did a recent expose on electronic touch-screen computer voting systems.

Many have also pondered whether or not the folks manning the ballot booths even know how the new technology works. Most states, however, have recruited younger people to help monitor and oversee the electronic voting processes during the '06 Elections. It is believed that the younger generation understands the new technologies better and will be able to help ensure that everything runs smoothly and that your computer vote ultimately will count.

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Tag: Computer Voting

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ChaCha, which describes itself as "the world's largest live search engine," is now available in beta form. The interesting feature is the defining one - ChaCha can supply "a human guide who assists you in real-time via an instant-message chat."

"Even expert searchers don't always have the answers," reasoned CEO Scott A. Jones. "ChaCha's search-with-a-guide process connects you to a live person who has knowledge about your particular topic and who knows the best resources on the web for that topic."

Search Engine Watch's Greg Sterling has reviewed the site in both its alpha and beta forms, and writes that "there have been some significant improvements." He provided a transcript of his experience with one guide, though, and it's not overly encouraging - Sterling's inquiry about non-toxic household cleaning products led to what he called a "philosophical argument."

The experience calls into question whether a "live search engine" is even a desirable thing. According to Jones, ChaCha users feel it is. "I would have thought 95% would search without the guide, but it's been more like 40% using the guides," he told Sterling.

The company's guides come from an interesting mix of backgrounds. "I thought our target market for guides was going to be college students, but the thing that took off was work-at-home moms," Jones continued.

Although the guides are paid (on the basis of user ratings), ChaCha is free. What's interesting is that a significant number of users seem to be looking for other search engines: Sterling reports that the most popular search on ChaCha is [google.com].

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Tag: ChaCha

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The creators of the online gift sharing community known as Drop Spot restore a little faith in the human race by starting a chain of giving, linking cities across the United States.

Scavenger hunts are no longer reserved for children since the creation of Drop Spot. Thanks to Drop Spot, gift exchanges which are mapped online have made it possible for adults to recapture their sense of whimsy. According to the creators of Drop Spot, the idea behind the site is to be a, "kind of alternative mailbox. It's a hiding place in a public space, where people can leave things for exchange."

The basic idea behind the city and statewide gift exchange is to hide a small gift somewhere in the city in a location, which can not be seen by passers by. The individual which hides the gift must then post the location of the gift on a map on the website.

The gift itself should be something unique that expresses the giver's personality, and does not have to be anything purchased in a store. Along with the gift the giver may also attach a letter or any information they wish to share about themselves.

Participants that are curious to find out what happened to their gift may check its progress on the site's map and may also post pictures on the site's gallery.

Anyone wanting to participate in the Drop Spot can simply visit the website and visit the map to see if their city is a participant. If there are participants within that particular city there will be locations of gifts posted on the maps, which are can be found by anyone. In return they must also leave a gift in the spot in which one was previously found.

Be a trendsetter in your city and start your own Drop Spot by hiding a gift in a random hiding spot in your city, then placing on the website's map.

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A recent estimate by eMarketer concerning the advertising spending on social networks has the figure at $2 billion by 2010.

In 2007 the ad spending on social network sites is projected to explode to $865 million up from the 2006 figure of $350 million.

Sites like MySpace will remain the most popular accounting for 60% of all US online social networking ad spending in 2007. MySpace, which has 125,632,282 users, is the largest of the social networking sites.

Competing sites like Facebook and Piczo have 7,700,000 and 10,000,000 respectively. The trend towards growth on the social networking sites continues.

This is something advertisers cannot afford to ignore. With the estimates of advertising spending increasing in 2007 it is reasonable to believe that by 2010 the advertising dollars would easily meet the prediction of $2 billion.

With a steady increase in interest in the social networking scene, it makes sense that advertisers would flock to the sites with the most buzz and popularity.

Another reason advertisers are becoming increasingly interested in social networking sites could be the findings by the Online Publishers Association.

In a study called "A Day in the Life: An Ethnographic Study of Media" found that avid internet users spent more money on purchases per year than fans of TV.

On the international front eMarketer estimates that spending in 2007 on worldwide social networks will reach $1.1 billion.

Author of the eMarketer study Debra Williamson said "The longer existing social networks take to develop adequate ROI metrics, the bigger the opening for a next generation of networks that are built from the ground up to accommodate advertising"

Tag: social networking

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This is good news for the advertisers and good news for the social networking sites but will it be good news for the users of these sites?

For whatever larger reason, Democrats seem much better at utilizing the Internet, and e-marketing in general, than the Republicans to get their messages out. From YouTube, to Google bombs, to SEM and SEO, the Democrats own the Internet, inherited from its inventor, former Vice President Gore

The top three political websites sending visitors to YouTube were left-leaning Daily Kos, What Really Happened, and Democratic Underground, according to Hitwise's Heather Hopkins, perhaps to watch President Bush flipping the bird on television.

But also, Democrat websites control traffic from YouTube, as visitors are directed most to JibJab, but then to Daily Kos and John Kerry.com.

Compared to the first week of October, YouTube generated 63 percent more US traffic for political Websites in the first week of November. That spike is lifting user-generated content to a par alongside blogs, email, and search.

"This data shows how consumer generated media is growing in significance to several aspects of Internet use, from photo sharing and communication and now to political websites in advance of the mid-term elections," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise.

"As we look to the future, consumer generated media and the participatory nature of sites like YouTube will be along side search and email as important marketing vehicles when it comes to political campaigns."

Not that that fervor stretches all the way to Election Day. Just last week, half of the top ten linked-to viral videos were connected with US politics, Antony Mayfield reports. As of today, the Web-video viewing public has gone back watching two different versions of an animated gummy bear dance.

It's not just blogs, activist websites and popular video sites, it's a search game, too. Google alone sent nearly 19 percent of traffic to political sites, with search engines overall sending just over 28 percent.

The Democrat-planted Google bombs have been widely covered since the "miserable failure" search war in 2004. That was continued this election season as well with MyDD organizing a massive offensive against Republican candidates that included AdWords advertisements.

A search for George Allen brings a sponsored link to a YouTube video of the "macaca" incident. Search for Conrad Burns and you'll be greeted with "Defeat Burns" and "Burns Earns and F." Mike Dewine got the same grade.

While this year's top political keywords have gone relatively unchanged since 2004, the Democrats have taken full advantage of buzzy keywords to drive home their damning points.

As also revealed by Hitwise, seven of the top ten keywords leading to liberal websites involve some variation of a Mark Foley. The rest involve other Republican scandals, like the controversy around country music singer Sarah Evans' political husband and the naked pictures that surfaced of him.

Keywords leading to conservative websites are fairly standard vanilla - even self-centered perhaps - three variations of "republican," the top is "gop," and the rest seemed mostly concerned about illegal immigration, Katie Couric ratings, and how a death row inmate cheated the system by committing suicide.

Democrats are taking full advantage of the negative buzz , utilizing the greatest communication vehicle since the printing press, while Republicans seem barely aware of what, exactly, is traversing that series of tubes.

Tag: Politics On The Internet

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