Archive for February, 2008
February 14th, 2008
I’ve stayed off the subject for long enough. There have been a few times when I wanted to add my two penneth into the Yahoo! debate, and then thought better of it as there was always going to be so much more to come. But today is the day – you lucky, lucky people.
It’s been a busy week in the world of Yahoo!, and there’s bound to be more following the recent board meeting. Here’s a quick recap assuming everyone knows the Microsoft bid was rejected last week. Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive, has spoken of his feeling that Microsoft’s bid ‘substantially’ undervalues the company. The News Corp share option, which has gained a load of coverage today but has been discussed for a few days, is looking more attractive if Yahoo! want to save face, or at least bump up the price. And all this after the Yahoo! workforce was trimmed by a 1000, undoubtedly in preparation for a sale. Oh and the purchase of Maven also went through to strengthen Yahoo!’s online advertising offering, focused specifically on video. And breathe…
So where does that leave the current state of play? Well on the sidelines we have Google and AOL, but they appear to be remaining quiet so for the moment it’s a straight shootout between Microsoft and News Corp. Who will the winner be? Well the one that wants it most. Sounds obvious, but Microsoft need Yahoo! in my opinion. It is already too far behind Google in delivering the web for consumers, so missing out on this purchase may be a step too far.
It also very much depends on whether Yahoo! want out or not, in which case News Corp is more attractive, but to be honest I don’t think this will ultimately be Yahoo!’s choice.
So when it’s all said and done, what will Yahoo! be? Unfortunately I think it will be a fond memory for some and part of a wider offering for the next generation.
Full details on the BBC, TechCrunch and NY Times
Del.icio.us ‘too hot to handle’ list
February 12th, 2008
Don’t you just hate it when you have a blog post in mind, get distracted, and go back to it a couple of hours later only to find the idea you had in mind isn’t going to work anymore!
Earlier today my attention was drawn to an intriguing new service called Feng-GUI, through the Del.icio.us hotlist. The service creates heatmaps of websites based on where it thinks the human eye would be most likely to travel. According to Feng-GUI, these reports are 70 per cent accurate, i.e. they are able to capture 70 per cent of what traditional eye and mouse tracking would report.
We know a fair bit about eyetracking through our client Foviance, and so I was keen to give the Feng-GUI service a go. However, on clicking through to the homepage, via the ReadWriteWeb blog post on the subject, I received the following message:
“Thanks to ReadWriteWeb blog site, Feng-GUI service is under heavy traffic. Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Clearly Feng-GUI has been a victim of its own social media success!
If anyone does get to try out the service, please let me know!
New Liberate Media social media and web 2.0 resource map links for week ending 8th Feb 2008
February 8th, 2008
Below are new the links we have added to the Liberate Media resource page,
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Firefox social media browser set-up
February 6th, 2008
At Liberate Media we swear by the Firefox browser, as we use it to keep up-to-date with all of our social media profiles and research. Firefox offers us speed, flexibility and efficiency to keep ontop of things in the quickening pace of social media.
We would like to share with you how our company computer browsers are set-up in Firefox. Please see below links for the add-ons and a short description of what they do. We have also taken a short screencast which you are able to view at the bottom of the page, which shows you the various add-ons in action.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138
LinkedIn Companion
LinkedIn is an online network of more than 10.5 million experienced professionals. It helps you be more effective in your daily work and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your network of business.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1512
This extension seamlessly integrates your browser with del.icio.us, the leading social bookmarking service on the web.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615
1-Click Answers TM will save you even more time with AnswerTips that instantly deliver the information you are looking for. Just point at any word, hold the Alt key (Ctrl in Linux) and click. Upon letting go, an AnswerTip in the form of a pop-up.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/735
Screengrab saves entire webpages as images
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on your screen.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/539
Share and send links with ease. Shareaholic makes it easy for you to submit the web page you’re viewing to: * digg * del.icio.us * facebook * google bookmarks * magnolia * reddit * stumbleupon * truemors * twitter. If you prefer, you can also e-mail the web page to a friend.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5457
The Smart Digg Button allows you to see whether or not the web page you are currently viewing has been submitted to Digg and lets you submit it if it hasn’t.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4878
An extension for Firefox which enhances Google (all international flavours, too),
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/211
FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648
The quickest and easiest way to get things done on the Web: Search, References, Conversion, Translation , Shopping, Blogging, Tagging, Email and more .
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1941
Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271
Blogger Web Comments for Firefox is an extension that makes it easy to see what bloggers are saying about a page you’re viewing in Firefox and even make your own blog post about it, all without leaving the page you’re on.
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/webcomments/index.html
http://eco.netvibes.com/tools/
TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends’ tweets of Twitter. (former name is TwitterNotifier)
This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar that notifies you when your friends update their tweets. Also it has a small text input field to update your tweets.
http://www.naan.net/trac/wiki/TwitterFox
The tool is the the ultimate time saver to building powerful social media accounts. One of the secrets of top Diggers, Stumblers, Navigators etc… is being the first to submit stories already becoming popular on other social news sites. For example you can browse Reddit to find good stories already submitted and be the first to submit them to Digg. You can browse Digg and be the first to Stumble pages that are becoming popular there. Most if not all articles on the front page of Digg are submitted to StumbleUpon and will get a lot of Thumbs up.
http://www.97thfloor.com/social-media-for-firefox/
InFormEnter adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in a web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted – no typing required.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/673
ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730
Search Facebook, Get Notified, Connect with Friends, Share Content
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3794
PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen 3D experience for viewing images across the web.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579
Highlight any name on a web page and see matching information from Wink, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Facebook, Google News, Technorati, Yahoo Person Search, Spock, WikiYou, ZoomInfo, IMDB, MySpace and more…
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1912
The easy way to download web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/15-coolest-firefox-tricks-ever.html
If there is anything you think we should add please us know.
Coca-Cola blog – the real thing
February 4th, 2008
Excuse the pun, but the sentiment is spot on in my opinion. Coca-Cola’s corporate blog has been causing a bit of a stir in the blogosphere over the last few days, and for once it’s for the right reasons. I’ve lost count of the times that corporate blogs have been hounded and despised by the masses of eager blog critics, but Coca-Cola conversations has been roundly welcomed.
I checked out the blog recently and have to say it’s certainly a breath of fresh air. No hard sell, no stuffy marketing messaging, it’s not even focused on Coke’s business model, corporate opinion or any thinly veiled marketing message. It focuses on Coke’s core strengths of brand and heritage.
Allow me to introduce you to Coca-Cola’s chief blogger – his name is Phil Mooney, director of Coke’s archives…hang on – not CEO, CMO or any C-level position? A real guy with a passion for his subject and access to the seemingly endless Coke memorabilia and advertising materials. Madness i tell you.
Here’s a quote from Phil’s first post: ‘However, the blog only works if there is a two-way dialogue.’ Brilliant!
Now admittedly that does go against my earlier point that this isn’t a just a marketing vehicle – of course at the end of the day it’s about bringing you closer to the brand, but the way it’s carried off is unique, refreshing (no pun) and interesting.
So, credit where credit is due – i think this is a triumph of corporate communications. The test will come when Coca-Cola’s next phase of blogs are launched, on what i assume will be more wide-ranging and serious subjects.
New Liberate Media social media and web 2.0 resource map links for week ending 1st February 2008
February 1st, 2008
Below are new the links we have added to the Liberate Media resource page,
- Virgin Megastores Launch First-of-Its-Kind Social Media Online Newsroom | Market Wire | Find Articles at BNET.com
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