May/101
Q1 Sees Increase in Internet Advertising Revenues
A recent jump in online advertising sales could be sign that a turn in the economy is just around the corner. A report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoppers (PwC) announced a 7.5% increase in digital advertising over the same period in 2009.
Ad revenues fell $22.7 billion (3.4%) last year acting as the first economic decline in online advertising since the 2001-2002 recession.
While Q1 's $5.9 billion revenue reflects an expected decrease from 2009's fourth quarter it also reveals continued improvement into this year which was less predictable. Search brought in almost half of 2009 ad revenue. Search, display advertising and banners also saw jumps in ad sales.
"Successful business woman" by Flickr user tum_camen
Now the question on everyone’s mind -- is this development the beginning of true change or just a false start?
David Silverman, partner at PwC, happens to believe we've left our tough times in the dust. In the report he states, “The record $6.3 billion spent on Internet advertising in the fourth quarter of 2009, while certainly aided by seasonal demand, is a strong indication that the worst of the economic impact on the internet advertising is over and that the seeds of growth have been planted.”
In my inexpert opinion, I doubt the economy as whole will mirror the recent improvements in the online advertising world. Nonetheless, I have a good feeling that this new trend in internet advertising will continue, at least through 2010. If the increase in online spending is any indication, companies are looking for innovative ways to meaningfully engage with their customers and see that reflected in their profits. The overall improvement in first quarter statistics provide a bright and optimistic outlook for the rest of the year.
Apr/100
April Fool’s Day
Here at Image Space Media, when we aren’t plotting to change the online advertising paradigm we love perusing the web for choice nuggets to share with our readers. Today of course, we’ve been taking note of the creative, *ahem sometimes cruel pranks that are being pulled all over the interwebz.
Here are a few of our favorite April Fool’s Day pranks:
No stranger to the April Fool’s game. Google, Inc sets the bar for online shenanigans. This year, the search engine formerly-known-as-Google, changed its name to Topeka to honor the mid-western city whose mayor infamously renamed their city Google.
Now, Instead of reciting “let me google that for you,” exasperated co-workers will now have the pleasure of spouting “let me Topeka that for you.”
Feb/100
The Friendliest Moshpit in the World
Photo via Flickr user kirstiecat
Let's talk about common misconceptions of internet users. One fairly common belief is that the web is full of creepers -- people who post weird things on Craigslist and spend too much time stalking people on Facebook. Or, the internet is perceived to be full of nerds obsessed with 4chan and World of Warcraft. The last, possibly more recent misconceived notion of internet users is that they are plain old oversharers who Tweet, blog, and vlog every banality. The underlying understanding of the internet, based on these web archetypes, is that it is not a particularly earnest or friendly place.
Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor, co-founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and open source advocate, begs to differ. He believes that the internet is "made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust." Watch his TED talk, where he illustrates using three examples that the transfer of data over the internet is best understood as crowdsurfing in a crowded moshpit, or as the process of passing a beer from the aisle to its recipient in the middle of the crowded row -- where none of the people in the middle who receive and then pass on the beer have any stake in its arrival but they do it anyway. Ignore the fact that I can't seem to write a blog post without talking about beer and pay attention to Zittrain, especially his example of the Wikipedia entry for Star Wars Kid.
Beyond Wikipedia and CouchSurfing, the inherent friendliness of the internet has very real implications for social media, for marketing, and for the work that we and you would like to accomplish. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, illustrates how social media, aided with the use of LOLz, can harness the group-consciousness of the internet (his speech is shorter, don't worry).
Jan/100
MetaCurators Scour the Web So You Don’t Have To
Where do you go to find the most interesting internet news? Are you a traditionalist who just reads the New York Times? Or - like a new generation of media consumers, do you rely on the host of internet personalities with thousands of Twitter followers to find the best of the web?
Nick Bilton wrote today about the best of the web metacurators for the Nytimes.com Bits blog - people like Atul Arora and Maria Popova who spend hours every day culling and aggregating interesting links for their friends, family, and thousands of semi-anonymous readers across the web.
Maria Popova aggregates some of the most interesting and thought-provoking links on her Twitter account (aptly titled BrainPicker). She describes her process of content discovery as "controlled serendipity." What did I learn from checking out her Twitter? Some pretty awesome stuff:
From the blog Giladon-line, a visualization of the spread of a Twitter hashtag, #CheeringForTheYankeesIsLike. Check out the two videos, and see how Twitter really is one big network of funny people. RT @abcdude #CheeringForTheYankeesIsLike pulling for Regina George in “Mean Girls.”
The Inhabitat blog breaks the news that the Olympic Stadium being built in London for the 2012 Olympics will be made out of recycled guns and knives! What will those crazy environmentally-friendly architects think of next?
And finally, the site Universe Today links to an audio recording of Saturn's rings picked up by the Cassini spacecraft - proving yet again that outerspace is pretty creepy.
Bilton writes that metacurators like Maria Popova are a part of the new philosophy of sharing content: "Great content going viral isn’t new. But the sharing mentality is no longer confined to the occasional gems. It’s for everything we consume online, large or small."
Who are the influential metacurators in your life? Whose Twitter is particularly interesting, or whose blog has the best content? Let us know in the comments!