Update on Jobs Postings Idea

Some time ago I asked people whether they thought it would be worthwhile for me to post jobs on this blog. The response was very mixed (with many people responding in email). A number of people liked the idea and said they thought it would be helpful if the information was there but not too prominent. But lots of people didn’t want job notices to clutter up the content.

Right now I’m holding off but think that eventually it would be valuable to do this if I can find a way that isn’t too obtrusive.

Google Trends Now with Site Traffic

Google Trends has integrated some new metrics for websites, not just search queries. Traffic is estimated, based on several sources. Barry Schwartz has an extensive write up at SEL. Now with Trends you can compare sites and see relative traffic and traffic by country or city:

What it shows you is relative traffic (not uniques; though Compete will), as well sites that people who visited those sites also visited and other content that those users searched for. So there’s some interesting and helpful information here.

You can also see traffic by location (DMA) on Quantcast (under the media planner tool).

Eye-Fi Uses Skyhook for Auto Photo Geotagging

Eye-Fi, which makes memory cards for digital cameras, has introduced new cards that allow wireless uploading of photos and automatic geotagging, using Skyhook Wireless’ WiFi triangulation technology. The premium card includes WiFi hotspot access for a year.

From the press release:

Eye-Fi Explore allows users to automatically send photos directly from their camera to their PC or Mac, and to one of 25 online photo sharing, printing, social networking, or blogging sites using their home wireless network. Eye-Fi partnered with Skyhook Wireless to provide geotagging capabilities and Wayport to enable hotspot connectivity for the Eye-Fi Explore.

Through a partnership with Skyhook Wireless, the Eye-Fi Explore will allow users to map where their photos were captured with automatic geotagging. The card uses built-in wireless technology to locate nearby Wi-Fi access points when pictures are captured within the Skyhook coverage area. The Eye-Fi service uses this information to encode each photo with geographic locations, and the images arrive on the user’s computer and online sharing account automatically tagged.

The Eye-Fi Explore wireless memory card will also give users the freedom to upload photos while away from home at one of Wayport’s 10,000+ hotspot locations. By simply turning on the camera in a Wayport location, the card will automatically connect to the Wi-Fi network and begin uploading photos to the Web and the user’s PC or Mac.

Flickr, Panaramio and other services that overlay images on maps will immediately benefit from this kind of capability. Indeed, cameras so equipped could be used to automatically create databases of place specific images, local business storefronts and so on with comparative ease. Most digital cameras will have WiFi in the next year or two.

ZocDoc: One Doc at a Time

After being aware of ZocDoc since launch I finally got a chance to talk to founders Cyrus Massoumi and Oliver Kharraz, MD. They pitched it as “Open Table for healthcare.”

Other than general, horizontal review sites and parent/mom sites (e.g., Baby Center) the only other site I could think of that solicits reviews of doctors is Steve Case’s Revolution Health. However, there are few actual reviews on the site that I could find.

ZocDoc by contrast only solicits reviews from actual patients after they’ve booked appointments through the site. I was told by Kharraz that 25% of first-time patients do write reviews, which is a much-better-than-average figure for user-generated content sites.

In one sense, ZocDoc competes with HourTown, Booking Angel, Libersy and Genbook because it provides online booking. It charges a fee when bookings are made. However, it’s really competing with other health sites and consumers destination sites that offer recommendations for health care providers. But because of its methodology it prevents gaming — doctors and their families are unable to write reviews — and brings a potentially higher level of trust to its ratings.

Also, by combining reviews with online booking, ZocDoc has removed a potential barrier for first-time patients in doing online appointments. That is because, in absence of quality indicators, some first-time patients might want to have a phone conversation before committing to an appointment. In fact Massoumi told me that they had an 800 number and a call center when the site launched but have since removed it given how few people were using it relative to online bookings.

Massoumi and Kharraz are only focused on Manhattan and won’t say when they’re going to roll out more broadly. They want to get that market right before going to others, which is the right strategy.

Transparansee Still in the Game

A couple of years ago I met Steve Lavine, the CEO of Transparansee, which provides a range of search capabilities to publishers and content sites. Lavine was featured at DEMO and seemed to be on a fast track to raise a venture round. However he told me in a recent catch-up conversation that the company did not end up closing the round.

But the company gained customers and is currently about to announce large two strategic deals. Lavine said it would also reach profitability soon. That’s a lot to say in this environment, especially for a company targeting local markets.

Lavine said he may want to take VC money for the next round of growth but was relieved that he didn’t have to.

Yelp CEO on ‘Sort by Friends’

In the context of my briefing on Yelp for Business yesterday I asked Jeremy Stoppelman about the “filter by network” or friends directories (e.g., Loladex, GigPark, etc.) that are cropping up. He agreed that the idea was good in principle but that in practice it’s very hard to pull off.

He reminded me that very few people actually create content, despite the popularity of reviews, which typically means that your friends won’t have written anything about most of the businesses you’re interested in. He also said that services that ping your network when you have a request are also going to be challenging because some people aren’t going to want to receive emails all the time (see Facebook fatigue). Some of the Q&A services, however, can work quite well and I’m not sure I totally agree on this latter point.

Stoppelman added that Yelp started as an email-based system that was intended to query contacts for recommendations. He said that didn’t work for them. Hence the Yelp that exists today.

Local Matters’ ‘Lite’ Platform

Local Matters, which provides search, directory assistance and mobile platform technologies to local media companies, has introduced a “Lite” platform. The company said in a release that:

Destination Search LE offers publishers compelling local search functionality along with a cost efficient and rapid time-to-market strategy. Publishers are able to present consumers with an expanding set of capabilities that provide detailed, relevant local business content and an array of useful consumer planning tools.

Destination Search LE provides an ideal platform for publishers just entering the online market, migrating from a page or list product or seeking to improve their overall site experience in order to build strong traffic and revenue growth.

The company has a couple of destination properties itself, AreaGuides which got a facelift at some recent point, and the more intriguing Guidespot. As I’ve previously written, the latter is an interesting mix of verticals, local and social media. To some degree, Guidespot and AreaGuides can cross-pollinate. The company also has some other interesting consumer stuff in the works.

The company also recently acquired Copenhagen’s MobilePeople, a company that has done some strong work building mobile applications and WAP portals for directory publishers and newspapers in the UK Europe and Australia.

EBay Sues Craigslist over ‘Dilution’

EBay bought a roughly 28% stake in Craigslist in 2004 from a third party no longer associated with the site. It then proceeded to “go to school” on Craigslist and launch competitor Kijiji, which is reportedly doing very well (especially in Canada and outside the US). The site is directly competitive and seeks explicitly to overtake Craigslist if it can.

In that context I find it ironic that EBay has now sued Craigslist and directors Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster for “diluting” the value of its minority interest:

In 2004, after negotiating the transaction with craigslist’s board, eBay acquired a minority ownership interest in craigslist of 28.4 percent.

In January 2008, however, Newmark and Buckmaster adopted measures that, among other things, unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest in craigslist by more than 10 percent. By taking these unilateral actions, eBay believes that Newmark and Buckmaster breached their fiduciary duties in violation of Delaware corporate law.

Craigslist may currently be worth up to $5 billion. Eighteen percent of $5 billion is roughly $900 million — serious money.

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Here’s Jim (Buckmaster?) responding on the Craigslist blog.

Study: Traditional Media Drive Search

A study by Google intended to showcase the value of its Google Print offering to advertisers (written up in Marketing Charts and MarketingVox) shows that newspapers remain very much relevant to this Marketing 2.0 world. Newspapers (and other traditional media) drive online activity. Here are some of the top-level findings based on an October, 2007 survey:

• 42% reported that in the last month they had purchased at least one product they saw in the newspaper
• 44% reported that in the last month they had researched at least one product they saw in the newspaper (with some overlap between the groups)
• Overall, 56% had either purchased or researched at least one product they saw in the newspaper in the last month
• Where did that 44% of readers do their research? 67% of people who did research after seeing a newspaper ad did it online.
• Overall, nearly 30% of Internet-using newspaper readers went online to research at least one product that they saw in the newspaper (on average, they researched nine).

What medium did you use to conduct the research which resulted from seeing a newspaper ad?

Source: Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo, Inc. (n=441 US adults who perform a search with a search engine at least once a month)

These data are consistent with findings in the recent BabyCenter research I discussed, where WOM (online and off) was frequently stimulated by traditional media.

The following diagram is from slides I presented at Idearc recently, trying to convey that integrated marketing is now required in a more complex and fragmented consumer environment. Accordingly traditional media remains very relevant.

The newspaper research above and other research show that consumers are often stimulated by WOM or traditional media and then search or otherwise conduct online research to learn more. They eventually buy locally. This behavior is what everybody needs to consider and understand in their marketing efforts. And it’s why local is so important.

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Related: Gannett is developing a single platform (One Gannett) for agencies and media buyers across media types: newspapers, digital outdoor (Captivate) and TV. Google is doing the same and a little-known company called Live Holdings (LiveAdMarket) has already gone fartherst of anyone in this “multi-platform” direction.

BuzzLogic Acquires BlogRovr

BuzzLogic is one of several companies that seeks to monitor “conversations” on blogs to determine their influence on particular topics. Nielsen’s BlogPulse, for example, offers a somewhat less precise version of this capability. The company however is also a burgeoning ad network and describes itself as follows: “an online influence-targeting company and growing social media ad network.”

The clever (and logical) thing that BuzzLogic did some time ago was to recognize that once marketers and brands discovered who was influencing “conversations” online they would then want to place ads on those very same properties. And BuzzLogic is currently doing that through AdSense (which most of these blogs use). (I had not remembered this but AdSense offers specific site targeting.) However the company is quickly expanding beyond the Google content network to include other networks and direct sales.

The thing that’s different about BuzzLogic is that it’s capable of identifying issues and topics with great precision. During a briefing they used “iPod battery life” as an example with me. In other words, the blog or blogs most influential (as determined by the company’s algorithm) on that precise subtopic can be identified. Apple can then target those blogs for advertising. BuzzLogic refers to this as “conversational targeting.”

In order to further improve the company’s algorithms it has recently acquired the assets of Activweave, which operates the “browser companion” BlogRovr. BlogRovr is a browser plug-in that enables people to monitor coverage of issues on blogs that they select. Once installed a “tray” appears from the side of the browser that shows coverage about content appearing on pages the user is visiting, whether other blogs or not. Data from both the blog selections that people make and their subsequent click-stream information will now factor into the BuzzLogic algorithm for greater accuracy.

Below are screenshots of its analytics display, showing influence and its ad-buying interface:

In contrast to a more conventional blog-ad network such as Federated Media or the new Six Apart ad network, BuzzLogic offers analysis of “influence,” which isn’t always synonymous with traffic.

Microsoft and Yahoo vs. Google: The Battle for Audience and Keystrokes

The Redmond giant has sprung to its feet from its long and comfortable slumber.

Much like the browser business before it, Microsoft has realized it had better get into the search advertising business before its too late.

I think we all know who won the browser war. We also know how they did it.

Even with its proposed acquisition of Yahoo!, Microsoft may have already overslept and thus lost this battle.

On the surface this acquisition looks like a grab for a piece of the search advertising business.

However, just below the surface lie its real targets: the Internet audience and their keystrokes.

Internet Audience?

Keystrokes?

Both beachheads Microsoft has or has had control of nearly since their inception, keystrokes via the personal computer desktop and the Internet audience via browsers - not from birth but before the web’s infancy ended.

Like their importance to Microsoft’s franchise before, both have an equally and even greater importance going forward. Audience begets keystrokes and vice versa. However, It’s hard to control one if you don’t control the other.

Microsoft’s $44 billion offer to acquire Yahoo and its audience is an admission by Microsoft that if they aren’t able to augment their present audience now with an acquisition the size of Yahoo, they won’t ever be able to stem the audience gains being made by Google and their control of the largest and most valuable part of the internet audience – the search audience.

At this point, Microsoft’s not getting control of Yahoo’s audience is the single greatest risk facing their business – hence their offer price and the need to get the deal done. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but let unabated Microsoft faces continued losses in both audience and keystrokes.

Its not a market position Microsoft is familiar with or comfortable.

Why search is the most valuable audience on the Internet.

There are two types of audiences on the Internet. The old and familiar audience type, which is the one served and supported by display advertising.

Advertisers buy ads to reach an audience based on what content a publisher assembles to attract a particular audience. Ads are then priced and sold based on the desirability advertisers have in reaching that particular audience.

At any one time, a large percentage of the publisher’s audience is inactive - not interested in what the advertiser is selling.

Advertisers still have to pay to reach the publishers entire audience regardless of how many people may or may not be interested in the advertiser’s ads or products. Because display advertising is inefficient i.e., reaches more disinterested audience than audience of potential buyers - it sells for less and thus generates less income for publishers.

The other type of audience available to advertisers on the web is search advertising.

Unlike display advertising, search advertising reaches only an active audience - people who have explicitly requested advertisers information about their products or services - by their clicking on ads.

Search advertisers only incur costs to reach their audience when consumers click on their ads. Thus search advertising is significantly more efficient in delivering advertising messages to the exclusively active segment of the Internet audience – people who are actively searching for information.

By definition, search advertising only delivers advertisements to people actively seeking what the advertiser is advertising and selling. Because of this efficiency in targeting and delivery, search advertisers are able to reach more qualified prospects for less than through traditional media.

In turn, search advertising providers like Google are able to charge advertisers commensurate with the value the advertisers receive from reaching a efficiently targeted and active audience.

The result?

By my calculations, Google’s annualized gross revenue from advertising per visitor is roughly twice that of Yahoo’s and nearly four times Microsoft’s (gross advertising revenues divided by web property visits)

At a minimum, a search driven visit is worth at least twice - up to four times more than a non-search driven visit.

This is why Microsoft desperately needs Yahoo’s audience.

Although there are wide discrepancies over what percentage of search each company gets, Google receives between four to twenty times more search traffic than Microsoft and three to five times more search traffic than Yahoo, combined and assuming no market disruption – the two companies would still only generate one fourth to one half the search business of Google.

This acquisition also assumes Yahoo’s ad platform can continue to harvest one half the value Google does whether through Yahoo! or Microsoft’s search product without cultural distraction or interruption from the merger.

Even with their proposed clean room assembly, Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo! does not answer how they will make up difference (search volume + gross revenue per visitor).

By doubling their performance (revenue per visit) post merger to meet Google’s present level of performance, a MicroHoo search advertising business gross revenues per visitor would be half of Google’s.

In order for Microsoft to retain Yahoo’s audience, publishers and advertisers- the combined company will also need to produce:

Highly relevant search results for its audience, a functional ad platform for its advertisers, profitable ad distribution for its publishing partners and most importantly: a greater return on its advertisers’ investments.

Without which any new ad platform and search product may grab the attention of a larger audience and gain its keystrokes only to see it lost after they are unable to deliver what the internet audience has already come to expect, find and get from Google.

Of course, this also assumes Microsoft is somehow precluded from using its expanded platform and footprint to reroute ancillary chunks of audience to its new web properties acquired through the proposed acquisition along with their accompanying keystrokes.

In the absence thereof, there may be no stopping Google’s march.

The Battlefield Defined: Local Audience and Mobile Keystrokes

Let’s look at two areas where search will play a role in winning new audience and their keystrokes: Local and Mobile search.

Here are how Microsoft, Yahoo and Google web property’s search are performing today.

Its been reported nearly 50% of searches are local in nature. Let’s see how Microsoft’s Live handles a local brand search for Verizon Wireless in New York, NY.

Live is able to locate Verizon Wireless stores in New York and provides five viewing options: Road, Aerial, Hybrid, Bird’s Eye and Traffic. Are their results relevant? Yes. Could we make our way to Verizon Wireless store or reach them by phone with the information Live provides? Yes.

With the Bird’s Eye view we may even be able to see what our destination looks like. Pretty cool.

Microsoft (US) Brand Search: Verizon Wireless New York, NY

Microsoft Live Verizon Wireless NY Road Map

Microsoft Live Verizon Wireless NY Aerial Map

Microsoft Live Verizon Wireless NY Hybrid Map

Microsoft Live Verizon Wireless NY Bird’s Eye Map

Microsoft Live Verizon Wireless NY Traffic Map

How does Live perform outside the United States? A search for HSBC in London yields similar results. This particular brand search result is for a location near Trafalgar Square. If you aren’t going to be able to stop by a bank branch in London today, you can still take in the sights.

Microsoft (UK) Brand Search: HSBC London, England

Microsoft HSBC London UK Bird’s Eye Map

Now let’s try the same searches in Yahoo. Yahoo offers similar results. The look and feel isn’t too much different from those we received from Microsoft.

Initially though, I had difficulty locating the results I was hoping to find. Eventually I did find them - must have been my error.

Our options for connecting with one of the stores include: Getting directions, Save for later, Send to phone and Write a review.

Yahoo (US) Brand Search: Verizon Wireless, New York, NY

Yahoo Verizon Wireless NY “Find a Business”

Yahoo Verizon Wireless New York

I can get the same type of UK map results from Yahoo however; I have to pull Yahoo’s UK web property up to get London results whereas with Microsoft I was able to get results from their US site.

Yahoo (UK) Brand Search: HSBC London, England

Yahoo HSBC UK Brand US Search

Yahoo HSBC UK London UK Search

Now, let’s run searches for the same terms in Google. Like Microsoft, Google returns five types of views albeit under different button terms: Map, Street, Traffic, Satellite and Terrain Views.

The look and feel of Google’s views seem more visually pleasing than both the Microsoft and Yahoo products, however my appraisal is subjective.

Microsoft’s search and map features seem to be evenly matched with Googles’ and beyond those of Yahoo’s. Microsoft’s “Bird’s Eye” view does appear to ahead of its counterpart - Google’s satellite view.

Google (US) Brand Search: Verizon Wireless New York, NY

Google Verizon Wireless NY Map View

Google Verizon Wireless NY Street View

Google Verizon Wireless Traffic View

Google Verizon Wireless NY Satellite View

Google Verizon Wireless Terrain View

Google offers only three viewing options in the UK at this time compared to Microsoft’s five, yet I can fetch the results from Google’s US property unlike with Yahoo.

Google (UK) Brand Search: HSBC, London England

Google US HSBC Brand Search London UK Map View

Overall Microsoft, Google and Yahoo each offer their version of both business and brand rich search results.

From what I can tell, businesses and brands have yet to scratch the surface so to speak when it comes to reaching their potential customers in this new geographically rich and fertile target marketing environment.

Mobile Search and Reverse Business Telephone Number Lookup, a Visual 411

As local information requests are being keyed in from mobile devices, 411 and driving directions are becoming more visually rich and available via search.

Case in point: The business telephone number reverse lookup.

How does Microsoft’s Live render a reverse lookup for Microsoft’s own telephone number? Microsoft delivers the correct result along with the five previously mentioned view options: Road, Aerial, Hybrid, Bird’s Eye and Traffic. The map view does however default to Chicago, IL even though Microsoft is located in Bellevue, WA.

I can find the Microsoft campus on the map after scrolling over a couple thousand miles. I ran several more queries with each defaulting to the same Chicago starting point. I am not logged into a Microsoft account so I wouldn’t think it was based on my computers cookies or IP address which by the way is still several hundred miles south.

Evidently, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google all seem to generate their map results based on your past location specific searches.

Microsoft’s reverse lookup offers: 1 Click Directions, Add to collection, Send to Email, Mobile and GPS and Reviews. The send to GPS requires MSN Direct compatible navigation systems.

Reverse Business Lookup– 425-882-8080 Microsoft

A reverse lookup for Yahoo’s telephone number in Yahoo produces two results both of which are Yahoo locations. The map provides the same functionality found in their standard searches: Get Directions, Save for later, Send to phone and Write a review. If a web address is associated with the location it will be displayed too.

Reverse Business Lookup– 408-349-3300 Yahoo

A search for Google’s telephone number yields the same five view options: Map, Street, Traffic, Satellite and Terrain Views as with the brand or business category search before. Additionally, Google provides a dialogue box with more options.

Searchers options are: Get directions, Search nearby, Street view, Save to My Maps, Send to phone and Edit. More information about the business and reviews are also one click away.

With “Search nearby” a searcher can locate additional businesses and services like finding Chinese takeout from their hotel.

Where Microsoft’s Bird’s Eye view appears to have bested Google’s satellite view, Google’s “street view” takes visualization to the next level.

With Google’s street view, Google provides eye level images of locations. It’s not available in every area yet. Coordination with volunteer picture geotagging projects may eventually speed the population of their street level image file.

Google’s new Edit feature lets anybody correct the location of a business. It also prompts business owners to “claim” their business in Google’s Local Business Center. These two options should eventually help them improve their data.

Reverse Business Lookup – 650-253-0000 Google

Google Street View

Edit Map Feature

By pushing more information out to users third screen (mobiles), Google, Microsoft and Yahoo regardless of their corporate status, have greater potential to attract ever-larger audiences and their keystrokes - a situation where all consumers ultimately win.

Tim Cohn
Search Marketing Communications

ContactAtOnce Gets Funding

ContactAtOnce, which offers “presence” applications (via IM) and marketing, has received a $1.6 million A round. I’ve written about the company in the past a few times.

Presence or IM-based marketing is a very interesting adjunct to other mechanisms and channels and is like a call but distinct in many respects. Assuming there’s appropriate staffing, you can potentially “reel in” prospects by getting them to engage with the IM client and the person behind it around inventory questions or services.

Multiplied Media’s IYP ‘Poynt’ on AOL, MSN IMs

Multiplied Media, which offers local search and YP listings on IM clients (via Poynt), has formally launched on the AOL IM client. It also operates on the MSN Messenger platform, as well.

The company currently has content/distribution deals with Superpages and YellowPages.ca and is moving to expand into European markets.

Content partner Superpages is promoting the angle that its content is now distributed to “70 million North American users through Windows Live Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger.”

The Internet on TV

I’ve just spent too much time trying to capture some thoughts about what’s happening with online video, set-top downloads and the Internet on TV in a post over at SEL:

Almost since its mainstream introduction in the 1940s and 1950s, television has been the dominant mass medium. Today, television ad revenues in the US are estimated to be between $60 and $70 billion. But the internet, like cable TV and DVRs before it, is shaking up the industry and fundamentally changing consumer behavior. There are what might be called “structural shifts” happening in viewing habits. The TV itself isn’t going away but TV as we have known it may be.

I’m fascinated by the prospect of the Internet coming to TV and how that may affect applications, content presentation, social media and search.

If you’re interested, the post is here.

Have a Wonderful Holiday

Despite my best intentions I didn’t get my act together to send out cards or gifts to people this year. I’ve been extremely busy and have been just scrambling to get everything done. In fact, I’m still coming down to the wire on several projects.

I want to take a moment to say however that I very sincerely appreciate the people who read this blog, who invite me to speak and have hired me to do work for them. It’s humbling and gratifying. For those who don’t already know, I started a mobile program this year with Opus Research, called LocalMobileSearch, and it’s been fascinating, fun and challenging to dive deeper into mobile. Look forward to more stuff from that program next year.

Most of the time I exist in something of a vacuum, expressing my opinions on this blog and elsewhere. But whenever anyone tells me that they heard me or read something I wrote or spoke to me and found it valuable, I’m always somewhat surprised and pleased.

I’m unable to adequately respond to all the people who contact me — though I try. Sometimes things fall through the cracks or I don’t get back to someone. But I do my best to be diligent and responsive.

Anyway, this doesn’t sound much like holiday card but it’s an attempt to express gratitude. And, if I can help myself, I’ll try and stay “off the blog” for the duration of the year.

Let me say: may 2008 bring you health, happiness and success. And let’s hope the world is a little more peaceful and a little bit cleaner and greener next year than it was in 2007.

Video CPM Rates Exposed

Valleywag has a rundown of what top sites charge on a CPM basis for video ads (for largely pre-roll). Here are some highlights:

• Wall Street Journal: 15-second preroll. $90 cpm.
• Advertising Age: Preroll and videos in banner. Flat rate of approximately $15,200 for four weeks and $124,800 for 48 weeks.
• YouTube: Homepage video ads, video ads, traditional display ads. At least $50,000 spent within 90 days. On brand channels, $250,000 across Google and YouTube with $100,000 to YouTube only.
• MySpace: Preroll, midroll, 5-second preroll bumpers, banners and display ads on pages with video. $25 CPM

Interesting numbers . . .

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Related: Despite earlier reports that the product was a disappointment, AppleTV apparently leads the market of Internet-to-TV devices.

We’re All in The Truman Show Now

If you haven’t seen Peter Weir’s 1998 film The Truman Show you should. It’s a great, darkly satirical movie that anticipates the rise of YouTube, online TV, the no-privacy future — and numerous people turning their lives and experiences into fodder for online entertainment.

Apropos of that is this video interview with Sarah Meyers. It almost plays like a parody of itself, but both she and her interviewer are in total earnest. I had never heard of her until I read this post on TechCrunch.

On the one hand you could see this young woman as a shrewd self promoter, bootstrapping herself into a career in “TV.” But on the other you could see her as a representative of a generation (I’m 43) that has a diminishing sense of the value of privacy and has been raised on Oprah and Jerry Springer where people willingly exploit their own lives for attention, celebrity and financial gain.

I’m struck that is woman, as a “lifecaster,” is simply an extreme version of something that many people now aspire to: notoriety for its own sake. By the same token, making all your interests and activities known on Facebook is another example, on the continuum, of this phenomenon.

As a friend of mine said to me this morning, “it’s a perfect marriage of narcissism and voyeurism.”

Superpages to Offer Entertainment Coupons

It sure took Entertainment a long time to get its online strategy going but now the company (a subsidiary of IAC) seems to be on the move. It most recently did a deal for coupon distribution through sister company Ask (City).

Today there was an announcement of a similar distribution deal via Superpages:

With the availability of more than 125,000 Entertainment coupons, consumers can now access substantial savings through Superpages.com’s robust business listings. Consumers can view coupons offered by local businesses on Superpages.com and print coupons with a free 14-day no-obligation trial of the Entertainment online membership. With the no-obligation trial, consumers have full access to the entire Entertainment coupon database across the country.

Entertainment is apparently using these deals as a kind of teaser for membership sign-ups. It’s not clear how successful that will be but consumers love discounts obviously.

I had thought Judy’s Book had a decent shot at becoming a successful local coupon destination but the site is obviously shutting down. There are really no (or few) top of mind coupon destinations online, although many shopping sites offer “deals” of one sort or another.

Even Google isn’t making it easy for consumers to find local coupons, despite the fact that it has them.

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Here’s more on coupons on Google from Mike Blumenthal.

Ever Wish You Had Three Arms, Heads?

That’s what kind of day it’s been. There’s lots of interesting news but the Google Mobile announcement has consumed my time and I haven’t been able to get to anything else — which I will try to do now.

Attention PR Folks: My Correct Email

My email is “greg.sterling” at gmail.com. There’s a poor guy who has an email address close to mine and he continues to receive pitches and lots of stuff meant for me. Much of the time he forwards these incorrect emails to me but I can’t imagine his patience will last. Many future emails may thus wind up in the trash.

That means if you’re not careful and don’t pay attention to my email address you may be sending your email/pitch to someone else and it may wind up never getting to me.

Thanks