 The New Freemium: WiFi
GigaOm et al.
Free WiFi -- it's the gift that just keeps on giving, which partly explains why so many online companies are giving it to consumers this holiday season. This fall, both Google and Microsoft announced free WiFi promotions. As of today, Google is providing free WiFi on every Virgin America flight throughout the holiday season. (Google is also giving away free Wi-Fi in 47 airports across the U.S., including hubs such as Miami, Seattle, Houston and San Jose, Calif. The promotions will last through Jan. 15, 2010.)
Microsoft is teaming up with mobile ad network JiWire to provide free WiFi at airports and hotels, so long as users agree to conduct a single search on Bing. A JiWire executive tells MediaPost's own Laurie Sullivan that response has been "off the charts." eBay, meanwhile, is sponsoring free WiFi on 250 flights on Delta Airlines during the week of Thanksgiving, and WiFi users will get access to the eBay home page and an invitation to shop there.
Also as of today, Yahoo is providing free WiFi for an entire year in Times Square, to "be at the center of people's online lives," a company rep tells paidContent. The center of consumers' lives idea is also the theme of the company's ongoing $100 million ad campaign.
GigaOm's Om Malik -- who doesn't suffer fools, or foolish marketing ploys, lightly -- actually applauds the efforts. Reminding us that these services are only "free" as long "as long as you watch an ad or a promo for whichever company is sponsoring it," Malik says "the idea of free WiFi-based marketing is actually pretty smart."
With regard to Google's efforts, he says: "Given that many of the estimated 100 million travelers who will spend time in airports with Google-sponsored Wi-Fi will at some point in time encounter Google ads, the decision is more than a nice gesture. Google providing access to free Wi-Fi is kind of like publishing those free magazines littering coffeehouses. It's all about the ad revenue."
Regarding Microsoft's campaign, the Blog Herald says "it might actually achieve its purpose -- that is to make more people aware of Bing and let them try the search engine. But the question is, will this be enough to make users continue to use it once the Wi-Fi access is no longer free?"
"Who expected the search wars to open a new front involving WiFi?" remarks Greg Sterling on Search Engine Land, adding: "All these efforts are welcome but they're only temporary ... Eventually there will be ubiquitous WiFi/4G connectivity that will enable people out in the world to connect at higher speeds, hopefully for lower cost, than they can today through traditional WiFi networks."
Either way, we have to agree with Gizmodo's final analysis that "Holiday season air travel just got a little less crappy." - Read the whole story... Early Droid Sales Close, But No iPhone
Bloomberg
During its first weekend on the market, analysts are estimating that Motorola sold a respectable 100,000 Android-powered Droid phones. By contrast, Apple sold more than 1 million of its latest iPhone model in its weekend debut in June. Still, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie tells Bloomberg that the numbers are "encouraging." "There seems to be pretty good demand -- they've taken the right steps and picked a good partner with Google on the Android side."
Verizon Wireless, the carrier for the device, had 200,000 Droid phones on hand, and most stores sold at least half of their stock. Including other models, Motorola will sell 1 million phones based on Google Inc.'s Android software in the fourth quarter and 10 million in 2010, McKechnie estimates. - Read the whole story... Is LinkedIn's Twitter Tie-Up Desperate?
eweek
LinkedIn will now let members of its community feed their status to Twitter, and to their LinkedIn connections. Status updates have been an important part of LinkedIn, with working professionals using it to alert others to sales leads, new jobs and other business opportunities, writes eWeek. But, Twitter is fast becoming Web users' official status update, with millions of users blasting out messages to followers each day.
Also of note, LinkedIn's membership growth has cooled in the last two years, while Facebook has soared to more 300 million users, sparking speculation that many people have turned to the leading social network for their personal and professional connections. The move is therefore being perceived as somewhat desperate -- even every company, from Google to Microsoft, is racing to partner with Twitter these days. - Read the whole story... Amazon Bows Kindle App For PCs
PCWorld
Apple isn't the only company churning out apps these days. Amazon just released a Kindle for PC app, available as a free download for Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Similar to the Kindle for iPhone app, Kindle for PC syncs a consumer's Amazon e-book downloads, and shows them on their computer for convenient reading either when they're away from their e-book reader or don't own one. Amazon also says a Mac version is "coming soon." "Though not necessarily revolutionary," PC World says "the Kindle for PC app does the job." By offering additional portability, Amazon's broader aim is to dissuade e-book users from adopting competing technologies. Yet, argues PC World: "Until Amazon loosens its DRM and embraces the burgeoning ePub standard, the company may experience roadblocks as e-book readers evolve." - Read the whole story... Google Street View Completes U.S. Effort
Softpedia
Google Street View has officially finished visually cataloging all 50 US states. To mark the occasion, Google has launched an online gallery with some of what it considers to be most interesting imagery in Street View, including Alcatraz Island in San Francisco and the Kennedy Space Center. Google has also been working to bring even more locations to Street View, which have been previously impossible to reach. With the Street View "trike," Google can go to many places it otherwise wouldn't be able to go to and, after visiting some famous locations in Europe, it's bringing it stateside. In total, Google has gathered over 25,000 suggestions and has culled them to create several categories in which people can vote to support their favorite locations. - Read the whole story... Twitterer Lands CBS TV Deal
THR's The Live Feed
CBS has picked up a comedy project based on the Twitter account "Shit My Dad Says," which has attracted over 700,000 followers since launching in August. "Will & Grace" creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are set to executive produce and supervise the writing for the "multicamera" family comedy, which author Justin Halpern will co-pen with Patrick Schumacker. Halpern and Schumacker will also co-exec produce the Warner Bros. TV-produced project. After moving back in with his parents in San Diego, Halpern, 28, launched the Twitter account to document his 73-year-old father's priceless rants and remarks such as, "Sometimes life leaves a hundred-dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't realize until later that it's because it fucked you." - Read the whole story... |
You are receiving this newsletter at phamquochuy1980.haiphong@blogger.com as part of your free membership with MediaPost. If this issue was forwarded to you and you would like to begin receiving a copy of your own, please visit our site - www.mediapost.com - and click on [subscribe] in the e-newsletter box. 
We welcome and appreciate forwarding of our newsletters in their entirety or in part with proper attribution. 
I was only a little leery about the event itself because last time I went to the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts for a "private show," it was pouring buckets of frog-sized rain plops and the line was too long to deal with. When we arrived, there was no line to be seen, yay! Should there be a line, it was split into two, one for printed tickets and one for, gasp!, mobile tickets. 
by Laurie Sullivan 
by Laurie Sullivan 
by Mark Walsh 
by Laurie Sullivan 
I'm not convinced that any court case is so critical that waiting until you get out of the room is too much to ask. The "public interest" can hold out until the judge says "dismissed" and the "need" to tweet live is no more than the desire to be first to report.
What does the justice system have to hide if it won't allow this?
Brian Hayashi, ConnectMe 360 (Nov 9, 6:11 PM)
Paula Lynn, Who Else Unlimited; hollywood5459@gmail.com (Nov 9, 5:57 PM)
Second, the source for the mobile web browsing statistics is provided as conveniently as possible with a hyperlink within the text of the post.
The iPhone has proved to be a 'category killer', both because of its user interface (touch screen, operating system and mobile access) and its apps (open source for developers and shared revenue model). As distribution spread globally and competitors move in, this one device has accelerated mobile Internet use exponentially. That is brilliant corporate leadership and evidence of not just being creative with technological innovation, but combining that with business model reinvention/innovation.
Nice historical clip regarding the iTablet here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yd36jy9
Plus some insights into what Google's "Wave", in combination with mobile browsing, could mean to making any marketing done on the Internet global, not local or national: p://preview.tinyurl.com/ydpyc5r
Malcolm Rasala, Real Creatives Worldwide (Nov 10, 4:50 AM)
Howie Goldfarb, Sky Pulse Media (Nov 9, 8:30 PM)
To good times with great people and to the blue marble that afforded many underprivileged children and families the opportunity to learn how to search, and be safe online with a shiny new HP computer.
News Corp is doing something that will add value to it's papers and should be followed by all newspaper companies. Sure, there are other sources of national and world news, but only your local newspaper covers your local news from your own city. It doesn't get written and reported for nothing. Let a few newspapers in smaller cities and towns shyt down leaving citizens no local new sources and... - Read more
The problem is too many news sources. Back in the day you had networks news, radio and your local paper. Now you have cable, TV, News Websites from around the world, radio, print etc etc. Too much content for too few consumers.
<a href=http://www.dallasseoblog.com/2009/11/seo-is-voodoo-cmon-man-really.html>blog response</a>
You guys need to vet your guest writers a little more throughly. It is stunning that 13+ years after marketers started making a decent living engineering search - visibility, distribution, traffic, sales! - someone in a trade would publicly appear so clueless.
TK
Would I do a search in exchange for free internet - of course - who wouldn't.
Granted the ads that admob keeps showing me kind of suck.
Apple has a significant advantage to Google. Google lives to serve Ads. Apple lives to sell technology. So while every time someone creates Ad Blocking Software, it hurts Google and not Apple. And with the Tablet in the works with a larger screen for video/TV/Web in the works from Apple I would be betting on the technology to win vs Advertising just like it is winning the Mobile Phone arena.
Reality is, people need a reason to engage with a brand. And the best reason is usually a deal. period. Just more blurring of the lines between DR and brand.
Garrick, you need to get out more.
Bravo Jacob for finally saying what needed to be said. Yes, we don't measure hard ROI for traditional media buys (unless there's a direct response mechanism). But you're right, it's no excuse not to measure it for Social Media Outreach.
To further Scott's phone example, phones are a communications channel, a conduit for conversation with our customers. While we may not be able to quantify the precise ROI of having phones, we can certainly understand the cost of not having phones. And the cost incurred by slower, clunkier, less advanced ways of communicating: Snail mail, courier, etc.
Missed customer service calls, inability to... - Read more
Unfortunately there seems to be an epidemic of poor email as I discuss in my blog: http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/its-an-epidemic-poorly-executed-email-marketing-campaigns/
It's the "marketing tools" that I discuss in my blog that will be the death of email marketing.
Mark Allen Roberts
www.outbsolutions.com
Ice to Eskimos implies selling something the buyer does not want or need....a market loser salesperson.
Market leaders listen and connect their product or service as a solution to the known and understood buyer problems.
Mark Allen Roberts www.outbsolutions.com
I was also wondering if boomer women find shopping in person to be more hostile due to being surrounded by signage and advertising featuring very young models, if they're treated differently because of their age or appearance, and the like. Are there any boomers here who can weigh in?
Not every one has to build a google...google never built a yahoo or msn style company
Take this agency for example: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3168134.htm
BTW Jeff, this goes way beyond social media!
As @oilman says: If Rupert's threats turn to reality grab the popcorn, sit back, and watch and an empire crumble.