Cameron Olthuis

I think my TiVo is THE greatest thing since sliced bread, it has literally changed the way millions of people consume television. It allows us to watch TV on our rime. I can rewind, pause, and of course fast-forward through all the commercials. And that’s the very reason why a product loved by some many millions is hated by advertising executives all around the world. Even though I’m sure they all secretly fast-forward through commercials themselves.

According to the New York Times, TiVo is now looking to get into the research business. TiVo is able to track the viewing habits of users but it’s limited on what it can do with data because of its privacy policy, which the company is looking to change this year. At this time TiVo isn’t able to share any of the demographics from their customers but they are able to provide the information about which commercials are watched and those that are skipped during recorded TV shows.

This information is extremely valuable to advertisers because they can finally see that no one is actually watching their advertisements anymore. The networks on the other hand don’t want this information to get out, as it will hurt their ad sales. Maybe this is what it’s going to take to wake these executives up so they can finally realize push marketing is giving leeway to pull marketing, at the very least it opens up a new revenue stream for TiVo.

I came across a post tonight in Wired News titled “Why I love Apple.” The author mostly talks about Apple’s Mail program and why he likes it so much. Being a recent convert myself with a MacBook Pro I feel compelled to tell you a few reasons why I love mine.

First of all, it helps with my productivity big time. But rather than go into detail I’ll point you to a post from Paul Stamatiou. He does a much better job breaking it down than I could anyway. The second thing that comes to mind is OS X, man the UI is just so sweet. Between the simplicity and the slick icons it can’t be beat. Of course it’s super fast too. I also love all the software I use on my Mac, I was hoping when I got it that I wouldn’t need to install windows and so far so good.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know everything about Apple computers because I don’t. I just know that they work for me and I won’t be switching back to PC anytime soon. It’s all the little things that get me. You really need to try one for yourself.

Got bored and started surfing around on Flickr, lucky me came across some screenshots of the new Digg spy (aka Digg spy on crack). Enjoy!

Hopefully it launches soon.

btw - These were found on Mike Arrington’s Flickr account.

Update: Mike posted the screenshots on his blog with a nice little write up about the new digg spy. These features will be called Digg Stack & Digg Swarm.

I’ve been tagged, by Will McInnes. The meme is for the top 5 social media & blogging tools.

My top 5 social media tools are…..

1) del.icio.us
2) Digg
3) Bloglines
4) Techmeme
5) Akismet

Read the rest of this entry »

Burger King loves their viral marketing, they just can’t get enough. Today I came across a new site that BK put up where a puppet king dances to different musical beats. You can then email the videos to your friends. These videos are pretty fun and I can see them really being a hit.

I first wrote about BK a few weeks ago when they launched the Huckin’ Chicken web site, it features videos of the chicken mascot performing stunts on a dirt bike, better videos unlock after a certain number of page views. This isn’t the first experience BK’s had with viral marketing either, there’s also the infamous Subservient Chicken site.

Burger King is doing a great job with viral marketing. These sites are also great examples of what we call “linkbait” in the SEO industry. That basically means these type of sites bait people into linking to them. I guess the question is how many more customers is this bringing in?

The NHL is gearing up to launch a social network in time for the 06/07 hockey season. The network, dubbed NHL Connect, is currently in private beta and can be viewed here.

Pete Cashmore (Mashable*) has the scoop…

users can create profiles, add friends, upload photos, insert YouTube videos, add comments, join groups and subscribe to new content via RSS. There are also some hockey-specific features: the latest NHL news, lists of scheduled games and the ability to find users based on their favorite teams and players.

I’m a hockey nut and I was delighted to wake up this morning and read about this. I can hardly wait for it to become public.

Social networking is a natural step for the sports community and I’ll be watching for the NFL, NBA, and MLB to follow suit. Fans are passionate and these leagues already have huge community followings which will make adoption of these services pretty easy. It will be especially nice for people like myself who live 1000+ miles away from any serious hockey civilization. Now we can connect with other fans to share a common interest. Kudos to the NHL for recognizing this huge opportunity and going for it. Go Flames in 06/07!

I think TheWeblogWire, which launched today, is a brilliant idea. Mashable broke the news….

The idea itself is interesting: The Weblog Wire allows companies to submit press releases, and bloggers to subscribe to these releases via RSS. Submitting a press release costs $99, or $149.99 if you want The Weblog Wire to write it for you.

Two reasons why I think this idea is a good one..

1) Bloggers want to break the news as quickly as possible, they will signup to receive the feeds.

2) Marketers want bloggers blogging about their product, services, etc.

TheWeblogWire’s success will be dependent on their own marketing strategy, unfortunately getting a little buzz from some blogs won’t be enough for them. It’s just not the right channel to reach the people submitting through other news wires, such as PRWeb. I’m excited to see what else, if anything, they have up their sleeves for marketing as I would really like to see them gain traction.