Marketing Pilgrim

Ok, you’re probably tired of me touting our online reputation monitoring (promo) services, but I’m telling you, this is going to be huge in 2006.

CNet takes a look at some of the companies monitoring the blogosphere and examines some of their experiences.

[Hewlett-Packard] considers bloggers–especially chief-level executives, journalists and “influencers in our market”–to be valuable filters for what people think about its products and services.

“The blogosphere is a great place for customer intelligence,” he said. “Things are happening very fast. Bloggers are considered to be people with real strong opinions. So it’s a place where people are being really honest about what they think.”

Canon, Ford Motor, Microsoft, Nokia, Philips, Sony, Procter & Gamble and Toyota are just a few of the many companies tracking their online reputation.

The LA Times is reporting Google may announce the launch of a Google home computer system.

Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft’s Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.

Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called “Google Cubes” — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets.

British student Alex Tew sells each of the million pixels for $1 each on his Milliondollarhomepage.com. The result? Almost $1 million in the 21-year-old’s pocket.

Why didn’t I think of that?!?

Via CNet.

SFGate.com has details of Page and Brin funding a low-budget movie…

The Internet moguls are the executive producers of “Broken Arrows,” the story of a man who loses his pregnant wife in a terrorist attack and then takes a job as a hit man…production costs are just under $1 million, Gershbein said. Brin and Page funded about half the film, barely a dent in their personal fortunes, which are estimated at $16 billion each.

Any bet the lead actor uses Google to look-up how to become a hit man?

The January ’06 edition of Inc. magazine includes a list of challenges CEOs confess they’ll face in 2006.

No online edition yet, but here’s a taster…

“… they’re likely to find that they have two concerns: one, whether they need to launch a corporate blog to get their message out, and, two, what the blogosphere is saying about them.”

They also interview Go Daddy CEO, Bob Parsons about his experience with a company blog.

Good news for all of us in the online marketing/advertising space. According to Bloomberg…

The market for online ads will increase 32 percent to $16.6 billion next year, fueling growth at companies including Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Heath Terry said in a research report. He had previously forecast 21 percent growth.

Looks like rich media ads will see the largest growth next year.

Sales of online ads that have animation, sound or interactive features will jump 66 percent next year to become the fastest growing area of Web ads, Credit Suisse predicts. Yahoo, the most-visited Web site, and No. 1 search-engine Google are winning business at the expense of publishers and broadcasters.

Hat-tip Battelle.

Humorous story from AP looks at how a fake news release announcing the “successful the reintroduction of wolves” made it into Tuesday’s edition of the LA Times.