Month: March 2010

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Media Bob Techno Bob

Four Square fatigue

When Internet advertising talk turns to targeting, people start to twitch. Just consider the maelstrom Facebook walked into with its Beacon blunder. The concerns about online privacy are quite valid. It’s important to be vigilant about how your personal data are being used. The snarky PleaseRobMe.com drove this point home beautifully. But I  think it’s important to seek a middle ground, a place where the use of your data provides value to you while you retain control of who sees that information and under what circumstances.

Venture capital blogger David Hornik does a great job finding that middle ground in his post: Four Square Fatigue and the Evolution of Privacy. He’s not flapping his arms yelling the sky is falling. Not by a long shot. His post is more a meditation on how our notion of privacy is evolving, and how online companies need to understand that as they devise ways to leverage this data.

Hornick writes:

“The coming generations of consumers may not abandon the idea of privacy in its entirety, but they will certainly have very different views of the appropriate balance between privacy and utility. That balance has already clearly shifted in the direction of utility and I believe the trend will continue.

“To some this will be viewed as a warning — a cry of the coming privacy apocalypse. I don’t see it that way. As technologies and standards evolve, doors open to new products and services. We are on the verge of an explosion of new ideas.”

I think he’s right on target here. It will be interesting to see how this progresses …

Categories
Media Bob Techno Bob

Google’s take on the future of online display ads

Google has begun a series of blog posts laying out their “vision for online display advertising in the years ahead.” The first post, by Vice President of Product Management Susan Wojcicki, looks back at the foundation Google has built for online display ads, including the “hundreds of thousands of engineering hours” they’ve invested in the problem. It cites the acquisition and subsequent enhancements to DoubleClick. And Wojcicki says Google has put “hundreds of thousands” of engineering hours into display ad technology, including enhancements to DoubleClick and the creation of the Ad Exchange.

It all sounds great, but overall, the post is little more than a hagiography of Google’s efforts to date. No mention is made of how ad exchanges have encouraged a race to the bottom on rate. There’s a lot of bullish talk about “the incredible creative units that we see today.” Not so much talk about consumer tendency to ignore ads, the rock-bottom rates most display ads command and the anemic clickthrough rates they generate. I’d also like to know where Google sees the “branding” function of online display ads going. Clicks aren’t the only way to measure value. Impressions do matter. How is Google planning to help advertisers understand the value that impressions can create?

I hope that as the series progresses, Google will address some of the specific problems publishers are seeing as they try to build business models that rely on display ads. What I’d really love to see are some case studies of how things are working (or failing to work) now and how Google’s vision of the future would alter these case studies …

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Music Bob Uncategorized

Exploring jazz …

I like jazz. A lot. But in that way most ignoramuses like things. In that “I know what I like” kinda way.

It’s left me with a sketchy, eclectic knowledge of jazz. Then I stumbled across an amazing book: “Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It.”

Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro managed to collect dozens of first-person accounts of the birth and growth of jazz. The book was published in 1955, so it doesn’t address what’s happened during the past half-century. But it does offer incredible insight into the musicians who created this American art form. Hentoff and Shapiro stay out of the way, letting the musicians do all the talking.

I particularly liked the early sections that offer detailed accounts of New Orleans in the early 20th century. If you’re interested in jazz and haven’t already found this book, go out and do it. It’s a great read, as witnessed by these excerpts:

People used to ask Bix Beiderbecke why he didn’t play his music the way he recorded it. He’s quoted as explaining: “It’s impossible. I don’t feel the same way twice. That’s one of the things I like about jazz, kid. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you?”

Billie Holiday describes the first time she sang at a club. She and her mother were in dire straits, practically starving, and she went to the Log Cabin Club in search of employment. “I asked Preston for a job, told him I was a dancer. He said to dance. I tried it. He said I stunk. I told him I could sing. He said sing. Over in the corner was an old guy playing the piano. He struck ‘Travelin’ and I sang. The customers stopped drinking. They turned around and watched. The pianist, Dick Wilson, swung into ‘Body and Soul.’ Jeez, you should have seen those people — all of them started crying. Preston came over, shook his head and said, ‘Kid, you win.’ That’s how I got my start.”

The book focuses on a lot of musicians, not just the Holiday/Beiderbecke/Armstrongs of the genre. I’m still an ignoramus where jazz is concerned, but “Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya” has given me a lot of new ideas and sounds to explore.