8 posts and columns on Rick Boucher

Boxee: Either Jeff Zucker or Jason Kilar Is Lying About Booting Us Off Hulu

in Media on February 4, 2010 at 2:21 pm PT

Little Boxee, the much hyped Web video service, played a cameo role at today’s Congressional hearings on the Comcast-NBCU deal. And as sometimes happens when Boxee and big media intersect, controversy ensued.

Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Regulatory Update: "Eh"

in News on October 7, 2009 at 7:31 am PT

Unlike the gripping back and forth of the fight over Yahoogle last year, the approval process for the search and online advertising partnership of Microsoft and Yahoo is chugging along slowly but surely as the Justice Department has deepened its investigation by reaching out to a broad range of publishers, advertisers, public interest groups and rivals for comment recently. But, so far, there is still no significant external challenge to the MicroHoo deal, even from Google, the likeliest company to try to scuttle or, at the very least, slow down the deal. In other words: Zzzzzzzzzzz…
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Congress Readies an “Opt-In” Privacy Bill, and the Web Industry Cringes

in Media on June 23, 2009 at 1:41 pm PT

Here comes the battle the online ad business has been dreading: Congress is drawing up a bill that would require users to sign up to let advertisers track their online behavior–and, if you believe online publishers, more or less destroy the online ad business.
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Who’s Watching Google Watch You? Web Publishers Face Congress Today.

in Media on June 18, 2009 at 6:48 am PT

The man who wants to regulate Web advertising, or more precisely, Web advertising that knows who you are and what you do, puts Google, Yahoo and Facebook on the Congressional hotseat.
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Online Ad Snoop NebuAd Gives Up the Ghost. Who’s Next?

in Media on May 18, 2009 at 2:47 pm PT

Talk to online ad folks for any amount of time and you’ll walk away thinking that behavioral targeting–whereby marketers track and chase Web surfers based on which sites they visit and what they do there–is both old hat and the wave of the future. But I’m still convinced that there’s a very big gap between the way the ad industry views this stuff and the way politicians and average Americans do. For a reminder, head on over to NebuAd’s Web site, which no longer works. That’s because the targeting firm, which once employed 60 people, closed up shop on Friday.
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Weekend Update, 3.14.09–Special Roman "Ides of March" Edition

in Social on March 14, 2009 at 11:54 am PT

In Silicon Valley, it’s hard to believe that not everyone follows each shiny new thing on the Web, tracks OS versions as intently as the storyline for “Battlestar Galactica” and remains jacked-in pretty much 24/7. But it’s been known to happen. For instance, BoomTown was in Rome earlier this week attending a conference on business, brand and innovation that happens only once every seven years–and one of the biggest takeaways? Hardly any Italians have heard of Twitter, and those who have don’t really use it.
roman

Weekend Update, 3.14.09–Special Roman “Ides of March” Edition

in Social on March 14, 2009 at 11:54 am PT

In Silicon Valley, it’s hard to believe that not everyone follows each shiny new thing on the Web, tracks OS versions as intently as the storyline for “Battlestar Galactica” and remains jacked-in pretty much 24/7. But it’s been known to happen. For instance, BoomTown was in Rome earlier this week attending a conference on business, brand and innovation that happens only once every seven years–and one of the biggest takeaways? Hardly any Italians have heard of Twitter, and those who have don’t really use it.
roman

Google Starts Targeting, Too. What Will Congress Do?

in Media on March 11, 2009 at 5:01 am PT

Behavioral targeting–serving up ads to Internet users based on the sites they’ve already visited–has been standard practice on the Web for a couple of years, but not at Google. That changed this morning when the search giant rolled out “interest-based advertising.” Expect to hear from Congressional critics like Rick Boucher very soon.
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