As the theory goes, Internet advertising is more effective than traditional models because advertisers can be sure to get their messages directly to the targeted audience.
But according to Peter Kafka writing for AllThingsD, that theory isn’t proving true. He suggests that these methods only work “for some stuff, some of the time.”
“An ad on the Web may do a better job of reaching its audience than, say, a magazine ad. But that doesn’t mean it does a good job,” writes Kafka.
According to data from Nielsen, which tracked a recent ad campaign aimed at “a manufacturer of women’s personal care products” designed to target women aged 25-54, the most accurate publisher got the ads in front of that targeted group only 40 percent of the time. Nearly half of the time, those ads were served to men.
The Nielsen study suggests that Facebook is a better candidate for targeted advertising than other sites, because of how much information the social network has about its 800 million users.
“The Web’s sorta-close, sorta-not targeting problem hasn’t hampered Google, obviously. But that’s because Google’s search ads respond directly to your input and your intent,” comments Kafka. “Now, Facebook, Google and everyone else are going after the branded ads that dominate TV, where the really big money lives. And if they want to get bigger bites of that, they’re going to have to get more accurate.”
The PlayStation Vita and Skype have teamed up for voice and video chatting on the gaming device, which can even receive calls in the background while games are being played.
It’s been a while since people predicted that the Vita would attempt to become a sort of tablet device for gamers, notes TechCrunch. This brings that prediction one step closer to reality.
“While the addition of the Skype app doesn’t make the Vita a fully-fledged cellphone, the app does support Wi-Fi and 3G WLAN calls and essentially makes the device the N-Gage everyone always wanted,” according to the post.
The free Skype app is available in the Vita app store starting today.
Consumers purchased 56 million tablets in 2011. According to a new report from Forrester Research, that number will significantly increase in the next several years.
Forrester says that there “will be 375 million tablets sold by 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate of 46 percent, and that by 2016 there will be 760 million tablets in use overall.”
While those numbers would still put the tablet behind the projected total numbers for PC’s, Forrester believes that tablets are fast becoming the computing device of choice for consumers, especially within emerging markets.
Because tablets are not as fully functional as an average PC, Forrester predicts that “a new class of consumer electronics” will emerge to “fill that gap,” according to TechCrunch. One such product is the “frame,” a dock which Forrester predicts will “become a common way to give tablets more features, more power and link them up to other devices, like TVs, to use them to consume content.”
Could the growing app Socialcam do for video sharing what Instagram did for photo sharing? According to the app’s founders, it attracted 4 million new users over the last weekend.
Socialcam is available on iOS only and is now in competition with another video-sharing service, Viddy, which saw 5.5 million new users in 11 days and has funding coming in from rapper Jay-Z.
“Its addition of 4 million users in just two days is all the more impressive considering that the team behind the app is just three people strong,” according to The Next Web.
Within the app, users can create videos with custom filters, store them in the cloud and share via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email and SMS. It also includes the familiar community elements basic to social networking like browsing, commenting and sharing.
The U.S. International Trade Commission judge overseeing the lawsuit between Motorola Mobility — now being acquired by Google — and Microsoft found that Microsoft infringed on four Motorola patents in making its Xbox gaming consoles, but the fifth patent in question was not violated.
“The patents in the complaint are for technology like wireless connections for the Xbox to the Internet and video compression to speed transmission,” explains Reuters.
A final ruling will be issued in August after the full commission reviews the judge’s decision.
Motorola Mobility is looking to have the infringed devices banned from importation into the U.S. Even so, Microsoft remains “confident the commission will ultimately rule in Microsoft’s favor,” the company said in an emailed statement. Motorola Mobility is also “confident in our position,” the company said in a statement.
According to a report from The Consumerist, eBay could be removing listings for digital copy codes on the grounds of copyright infringement, setting a standard that selling digital copy codes bundled with Blu-ray discs is illegal.
One user claims that eBay removed his listing for an UltraViolet movie code on the basis of copyright infringement. “The owner claims that despite the existence of similar listings and explaining that the code was legally obtained, eBay maintained its stance,” reports The Verge.
“The resale of physical media, such as DVDs, Blu-rays, and games has long been sanctioned under the first-sale doctrine, while the rights for owners of digital content have been hotly contested,” explains the post. In regards to digital copy films, only the individual who accesses the one-time use code is affected by service terms.
“Ultimately, the rules for digital copy versions of films require further definition, though it seems unlikely that this particular instance will spark the debate,” the post suggests.
Your tweets are now less protected following a decision by New York Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. who ruled prosecutors need not obtain a subpoena for deleted tweets, since “they are considered public information owned by a third party,” reports TG Daily.
This decision is strongly opposed by Martin Stolar, a lawyer representing Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris who was arrested for disorderly conduct.
“There’s a whole other recent series of decisions from Supreme Court and New York State, about whether or not using a GPS device to track someone uses a warrant,” Stolar told the Atlantic Wire. “People’s locations while on the street are generally public, like tweets are, but it’s the accumulation of all that information, like someone’s whereabouts, that the courts have said a subpoena is necessary … I think that’s more analogous to tweets than the bank records are.”
Stolar is working to reject a subpoena of Harris’s user information and three months’ worth of tweets.
While Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that his company is in good shape, Wall Street has its doubts. That concern resulted in Netflix shares dropping 16 percent to $85.45 directly after its first quarter numbers were announced.
Netflix added 1.7 million new streaming subscribers in the first quarter — considered only light growth for the second straight quarter.
Growth for Q2 is predicted to be lower. “During the analyst call, Hastings appealed for calm and said the problem was temporary and seasonal. The second quarter is typically tough on Netflix,” reports CNET. “Skeptics, however, worry that the problems could be more lasting and have more to do with the company’s inability to secure film licenses and growing competition in the streaming-video sector.”
In order for Netflix to remain competitive and elite, it has to secure more content to encourage subscriber growth. “But licensing costs have gone through the roof,” CNET notes, and “Netflix failed to renew a licensing agreement with Starz, the pay-TV cable service that supplied Netflix with films from Disney and Sony Pictures.”
In the meantime, the competition is growing stronger as Hulu, Amazon and HBO Go continue to expand, along with Comcast’s new Xfinity Streampix service.
Even though Facebook saw sales rise 45 percent to $1.06 billion, the growth was a drop from the 55 percent increase in December. Along with the slowing sales growth, Facebook saw its marketing cost more than double, causing the company’s first-quarter profit to drop 12 percent right at the brink of its initial public offering.
Facebook is looking for a $75-100 billion IPO valuation, which would raise $5 billion in the largest-ever Internet IPO.
“Facebook unveiled a new benchmark that showed monthly revenue per user climbed 6 percent to $1.21,” Bloomberg reports. “The company valued its shares at $30.89 apiece at the end of January, up from $29.73 at the end of the last year.”
Advertising still provides the majority of Facebook’s revenue but it dropped to 82 percent from 83 last year. The company’s revenue from social gaming company Zynga also dropped to 11 percent of the total from 13 percent in the last quarter.
“Our costs are growing quickly, which could harm our business and profitability,” the company said in the filing. “Providing our products to our users is costly and we expect our expenses to continue to increase in the future as we broaden our user base, as users increase the number of connections and amount of data they share with us, as we develop and implement new product features that require more computing infrastructure, and as we hire additional employees.”
Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, has a vision of lighter traffic and fewer fender-benders, a goal he considers within reach if car makers can collaborate on “an integrated system that uses real-time data to optimize personal mobility on a massive scale,” he said in a TEDTalk.
The plan would develop a mobile network to redirect drivers from congested areas and allow cars to communicate with one another. One potential problem is the demand on wireless carriers’ bandwidth, which would be overwhelmed with Wi-Fi in every car. The bigger hindrance, however, could be lack of cooperation.
“But competition between automakers may prevent that vision from ever happening, since companies pioneering the technology, like General Motors, see it as a competitive advantage and not something to work on together with rivals,” Mobiledia writes.
For now, many innovative apps are working to address the traffic issue. One app, Waze crowd-sources traffic navigation while another, Signal Guru (not yet public) gives suggestions of alternate routes and tells drivers how fast to drive to make lights.
“Ford’s vision for smart cars requires a lot of cooperation from automakers, wireless providers, phone makers and government regulators, and it may be difficult to pull off without a nudge from the government to entice businesses to stop competing and work together towards a common goal — cars designed to avoid clogging up the streets and running into each other,” explains the post.
Coursera, a new start-up from Stanford computer scientists Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, has attracted some $16 million in venture capital and will offer online interactive courses in the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and engineering.
Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley have already been offering courses. They will be joined in the venture by the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.
Stanford offered an online course in artificial intelligence last fall, which attracted more than 160,000 students from 190 countries. Some 22,000 students completed the course and received “certificates of completion,” but not Stanford credits.
Coursera has not yet determined their business model, but one idea is to offer premium services that students can purchase.
Other start-ups including Udacity, Minerva and Udemy are also targeting free online education.
Coursera breaks lectures into 10-minute segments and has a quick quiz for each segment. Essays are graded by fellow students. And support also comes from the student community. Interestingly, an early test showed that questions were answered in 22 minutes. One problem is there is no way to address possible cheating.
Still, the potential for teachers to reach hundreds of thousands of students has attracted great interest from universities, instructors and venture capitalists.
In a deal worth $550 million, Microsoft has agreed to sell 650 patents and patent applications to Facebook.
“The Haüs of Zuckerberg will stump up the cash in exchange for various social networking patents that were registered by AOL and sold to Redmond for $1 billion a fortnight ago,” according to Engadget.
Microsoft will hang on to the remaining 275 patents in its portfolio “and cross-license those that it’s sold on, but not the 300 patents that AOL licensed but kept hold of,” adds the post.
Engadget explains that with this deal, “the social network will likely utilize the portfolio to better defend itself from litigation like the lawsuit brought by Yahoo back in March.”
“Today’s agreement with Microsoft represents an important acquisition for Facebook,” said Ted Ullyot, general counsel, Facebook. “This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term.”
Samsung has announced three new compact cameras with Wi-Fi connectivity for instant photo sharing. The NX series offers the first compact system to feature Wi-Fi connectivity.
“Each new NX has a Samsung-developed 20.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, with the ability to record 1080p high definition video, plus they’re all compatible with the NX range of accessories, including lenses and flash units,” reports Digital Trends.
Once connected to a Wi-Fi network, photos can be shared via social networks and email, or uploaded to a cloud storage service.
“Samsung’s selection of ten Smart Filters may sound small in comparison to mobile applications like the iPhone’s Camera+, but all the old favorites are here, including a retro, vignette, old-style film and even a cartoon filter,” explains the post. “If you’re using a Samsung smartphone to provide a Wi-Fi Hotspot, there’s also the option to use the phone as a remote viewfinder too.”
The new Samsung series includes the $699 NX1000, the $899 NX210, and $1,100 NX20. All three cameras will be available in May.
“The Hollywood Reporter has announced the launch of The Hollywood Reporter Social Reader, a free Facebook app that allows readers to read and share entertainment news, reviews, blog posts and videos from the leading entertainment news outlet,” according to THR.
Users will be able to access “nearly all” of the THR.com content without having to leave Facebook.
Dubbed “the first social reader for entertainment news,” it will provide readers with the ability to comment on posted content, in addition to “like” and share articles, blog posts and videos.
THR, which has already launched iPhone and iPad apps, has experienced an 85 percent increase in traffic to its site in the past year.
“People love to share and talk about anything that has to do with Hollywood and the entertainment industry. The Hollywood Reporter Social Reader offers readers a seamless way to share and discuss the entertainment content they love,” said Janice Min, THR editorial director.
Apple is making a push for smartphone business users by launching a new page on its site for iPhone’s use in the enterprise market.
“The info-packed page shows how the iPhone is used in the business setting to organize days, manage projects, setup meetings, read mail, set calendar appointments, keep contacts organized, and more,” reports 9to5Mac.
The company is highlighting related apps available in the App Store including MicroStrategy, OmniFocus, GoToMeeting, and TripIt. Another Apple page highlights businesses using the iPhone, including Lowe’s, GE and Gap Adventures.
Over the last year, Apple has been working to better compete with Microsoft and RIM in the enterprise space.
“At the end of the day, I think more and more businesses are starting to realize where they need to put their money,” comments the post. “Apple’s new page should help IT heads to choose the products from Cupertino, rather than the plastic phones from up north.”