Quote of the day
“You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”
- Albert Einstein
Mark Twain Quote of the Day
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
- Mark Twain
Viacom, Google Aim Ad-Backed Videos At Web Sites
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), are collaborating to test an innovative video distribution model that will serve consumers, web publishers and advertisers.
Google will distribute ad-supported content from MTV Networks to targeted website publishers, allowing publishers to showcase clips from premium programming like Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and MTV’s Laguna Beach to enhance the content on their websites.
As the first-of-its-kind offering from both companies, this new model will provide users with new ways to experience content and create targeted marketing vehicles for advertisers.
It will also serve to promote programming that is available via cable, satellite and other distribution platforms carrying MTVN’s on-air channels. The companies expect to be testing the model later this month.
This venture marks the first time integrated video programming and advertising will be made available directly to Google’s extensive AdSense network, which delivers targeted text and image ads to its network of websites and blogs.
This also represents the first time clips from MTV Networks’ kids and family, music and entertainment programming will be available to consumers widely across the Web on an ad-supported basis on sites outside MTVN’s proprietary sites.
“Collaborating with Google gives us a terrific opportunity to take our content and distribute it even more widely on the web in a seamless and targeted way,” said Tom Freston, President and CEO, Viacom. “This deal fits in perfectly with our strategy to deliver the best content to our audiences – wherever they are. We’re very happy to be working with Google, a true innovator in content distribution.”
“We’re excited to work with MTV Networks on new ways of distributing its content to consumers via the Internet and on Google Video,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO. “With the combination of our video technology, and extensive advertiser and publisher network, Google is in a leading position to help content owners, web publishers and advertisers generate interest and increase revenue opportunities.”
Source: Google Press Release
Google Breaks 60% Search Market Share
Yes, it’s true. Google is kicking some major butt for being the search engine of choice. Granted, Google’s stock price may have declined in recent weeks but its share of the U.S. search market continues to rise. Yay Google!
During the four-week period ending July 29, 60.2% of U.S. based Internet searches were executed at Google, according to Internet metrics company Hitwise. This is up from 59.3% in June.
In the same period, Yahoo Search also gained market share, moving from 22.0% to 22.5%. MSN Search saw a slight decrease, falling from 12.1% to 11.8%.
These top three search engines accounted for over 94% of all searches in the United States. Other search engines together accounted for just 5.5% of U.S. searches.
Moral of the story? Google rocks. Now if we can just get more people using Firefox instead of Internet Exploder.
SanDisk Cruzer Titanium USB Flash Drive
Today I received a gift from a client of mine. A brand new SanDisk Cruzer Titanium USB Flash Drive with a whopping 2.0GB of storage space.
Not only does it have 2.0GB of space, it’s lightening fast with 15MB per second of read and write power which is really fast.
It’s also in a rugged liquid metal case with a retractable USB connector. This thing is totally geektastic!
Having a USB Flash Drive with this much space will allow me to store and run a lot more portable applications which will be really nice because my 1GB Flash Drive was starting to get full.
As an added bonus, in the package came a gift from Skype with a free month of Skype voicemail.
I’m already good to go on my Skype account, so if anyone would like a free month of Skype voicemail, comment and/or contact me and I’ll give you the voucher code.
Great Attorney Quote of the Day
Just imagine that you ask your attorney a very important question about what he or she is working on for you and they answer with the following:
You know, I really have mixed feelings about that. It’s kind of like when your Mother-In-Law drives off a cliff in your brand new car. Its really good, but at the same time it kinda sucks.
Due to attorney-client privilege, I can’t say who or what attorney firm said that but lets just say he’s a very highly paid Los Angeles attorney.