Marketing Pilgrim

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler had a busy weekend. In a nutshell, he reported that by reviewing the code of the touch screen version of Facebook it was “confirmed” that Facebook’s location service was indeed set to become a reality. In his first post from Sunday he reports

Code doesn’t lie.

Over the past several weeks, there’s been a lot of speculation about Facebook’s location functionality. At least part of that speculation can end now. We now know what Facebook is planning to launch with regard to location shortly, because it’s right there in their code.

Read the post in its entirety to get the full scope of what was revealed and what the service may ultimately look like and how it may offer other location based factors (Like altitude, heading and speed? What the heck are people doing when they check in these days?)

Some may feel that this is “just desserts” or that this is only the beginning but the weekend hack of a Facebook board member’s account may prove a point whether that was intended or not.

The apparent account breach was reported by peHUB, which is a Thomson Reuters property that (according to the site) is an interactive forum for the private equity community, which includes venture capitalists, buyouts professionals, attorneys, bankers, entrepreneurs, MBA candidates studying PE, and assorted hangers-on. Its mission is simple: To help you do your job better, by feeding your head with news and views from/about your peers.

Considering the intended audience it is certainly of interest when Facebook board member Jim Breyer’s account was breached.

There are two things you won’t typically find me doing:

1. Watching any YouTube video longer than 3 minutes–who has the time for that?

2. Watching Conan O’Brien–I don’t normally stay up that late.

So, trust me when I say that all 48 minutes of Conan’s interview at the Googleplex is worth watching. I laughed so hard, I may have to start drinking coffee at night so I can stay awake when Coco debuts on TBS–that, or just set the DVR.

Enjoy!

I just had to chime in on this whole kid who got “tased” (shot with a Taser gun) by a Philadelphia cop as he ran onto the field at Citizen’s Bank Park during a Philadelphia Phillies game.

Here’s two video versions of the same event. Both are considered content but how is the event perceived when you see the ESPNized version vs. the fan from the right field seats raw video and audio?

ESPN VERSION

PHILLIES FAN VERSION

Personally, I think the second one tells the better story especially if you are a familiar with Philadelphia. The fans go from screaming “Tase him!” to stunned silence that he was actually tased, to booing the fact that he got tased to then applauding the kid even though what he did was just plain stupid. (By the way, I love Philadelphia and its sports fans because there is nothing like them on the planet.)

Yeah that’s right Google is turning into a pop-culture boy band. Soon adolescent girls from across the country will be giggling and blushing at the sight of the Google logo. Okay maybe not, but one thing is for certain, Google is starting to make important decisions based on superficial trends that have little relationship with the fundamentals of search technology or information retrieval.

A few weeks ago I wrote about iconic graphic designer Paul Rand. Rand, was one of the first to combine modern artistic thought with business strategy. In 1992, Rand, resigned his position at Yale University in protest of the University hiring a “postmodern feminist designer.” Now before we start calling names and making assumptions over Rand’s decision it’s important to understand why Paul Rand was opposed to postmodern feminist design.

Here’s a groundbreaking study: Eyeblaster, Microsoft Advertising and comScore have found that the longer people stare at an ad, the more likely they are to search for brand-related terms. Eyeblaster also found that “ad dwellers” are more likely to buy, too. Somehow, I don’t think that means we’re supposed to make all our creative into a “Where’s Waldo” type quest.

Reports MediaPost:

The results of the study indicate consumers who were exposed to campaigns that typically get people to linger longer are more likely to search for brand-related keywords as compared to users who were exposed to campaigns with a low dwell times. The research found that consumers who were exposed to campaigns with low dwell times increased brand related keyword searches by 12%, while consumers exposed to campaigns with high dwell times increased brand-related keyword search by 39%. This suggests that campaigns with high dwell times are three times more effective at driving search than campaigns with low dwell times.