by
7 Comments

Video Search Getting Smarter

posted on October 30, 2008

Today the WSJ profiles a number of video search engines that actually seem to be getting smarter. Instead of relying on external meta data to determine the content of a clip, these engines are looking to data internal to the clip itself—including dialogue and people (or characters) appearing in the clip. And yep, one day YouTube might not be the #1 video search engine (although they may still be the #1 video hosting site).

Some of the more advanced video indexing technology is capable of indexing by images in the video, including characters and actors, using a form of facial recognition software:

Elsewhere, VideoSurf Inc. is analyzing the actual visual content of videos using technology known as “computer vision algorithms,” which produces more relevant search results, says Lior Delgo, the company’s chief executive. Computer vision is the science of programming computers to process and analyze images and video.

by
7 Comments

Want to Write for Marketing Pilgrim?

posted on October 30, 2008

If you’ve ever read one of my posts and thought to yourself, "Pfff, I could do so much better than that!" Now’s your chance.

For the next week, we will accept applications to become a guest writer at Marketing Pilgrim. We’re looking for writers who can write informative posts, are passionate about an area of online marketing, and can share their opinion without being offensive (believe it or not, that is hard for some folks).

You’ll be writing for the fame and glory, rather than the paycheck. Those of you still reading; you’re the ones I want to hear from. :-)

Drop an email to editor AT marketingpilgrim.com with the following:

  • Your name (duh!)
  • The niche you’d enjoy writing about (see the category list to the right)

by
4 Comments

Pilgrim’s Picks for October 30

posted on October 30, 2008

How much of a shock is it to return from Hawaii to North Carolina and face 50F days? Let me show you what I just left:

Hawaii beach

**sigh**

Oh well, on to today’s Picks:

by
5 Comments

AOL.com Adds Widget; Talking Geckos Next?

posted on October 30, 2008

I think the next GEICO "celebrity" TV ad should feature AOL. You know the ads I’m talking about. GEICO brings in a celebrity that once lived in the limelight but now, sadly, can’t get any better work other than co-starring with an animated gecko.

I say this because AOL has seen better days. Once the 800 gorilla of the internet, AOL has spent the last few years trying to find that one big comeback role that will revive its career.

Its latest comeback attempt is to bring social networking widgets to the AOL homepage. Over the coming weeks, AOL users (you know who you are) will soon have access to the following:

by
9 Comments

Hakkers Yoosing Bad Spellingz to Fool Facebuk Uzers

posted on October 30, 2008

Unless you have a lot of friends on Facebook that are illiterate, I’m betting you won’t have too much trouble identifying the latest attempt to infect your computer with the Koobface trojan. Here’s the type of message that typically accompanies the attempt to infect you:

"Sommebody uupload a viideo witth you on utubee. you shuold ese"

Even my dog can spell better than that.

OK, so the hackers are likely deliberately misspelling words so as to avoid spam filters, but still, would you click on the above?

You might, if you saw that the link went to a legitimate site such as Google. But, don’t be fooled.

by
9 Comments

Gmail IDs Become Open IDs

posted on October 29, 2008

I’ll admit it. I’ve put off purposefully joining Open ID for no real reason. But now, whether we want to or not, you and I (well, I’m guessing you are, anyway) are being jumped in to the world of Open ID. Because not only are Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Mail (aka Hotmail) joining the Open ID ranks, allowing their logins to become Open ID logins, but so is Gmail.

If you’ve forgotten/never learned what Open ID is, it’s like a universal login for participating sites. So now you can use your Gmail address to log in to other participating services. Like Zoho. Don’t everybody leave at once, though.

As TechCrunch notes, it’s not clear whether Gmail will also accept all Open ID logins. I’m guessing not. Says TC,

by
12 Comments

Social Network Advertising: Annoying or Effective?

posted on October 29, 2008

Social network advertising is not only not annoying but surprisingly effective in some segments, according to the results of a new survey by Razorfish. In FEED: the Razorfish Consumer Experience Report 2008, Razorfish surveyed “connected consumers”—1006 people with broadband access who spent at least $200 online in the past year, used a community site such as MySpace and consumed or made some type of digital media including videos and music.

And of those people, 76% didn’t mind seeing ads when they logged in to social media sites including Facebook and MySpace. This percentage is surprisingly large, perhaps so much so that this response is what prompted Razorfish to conclude:

Content, in our view, will become advertising.

Well, I suppose that’s a better outlook than advertising will become content.