AllThingsD » Times Square http://allthingsd.com Sun, 27 May 2012 01:54:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 You Know You're Going to Watch It: All About the Times Square Ball http://allthingsd.com/20111231/you-know-youre-going-to-watch-it-all-about-new-yorks-times-square-ball/ http://allthingsd.com/20111231/you-know-youre-going-to-watch-it-all-about-new-yorks-times-square-ball/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:30:53 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=158677 Most days, I work in midtown Manhattan, just a few blocks from where the ball drops. Yes, that ball. The Times Square Ball.

When I first moved to New York 15 years ago, for a few years during the holiday season I’d be asked by people from elsewhere if I’d be among the throngs in the Times Square crowd, watching and cheering as the ball drops. I’ve never done it, and I probably never will. I dislike crowds and I dislike standing in one place for hours on end with nothing to do but cheer. And the Times Square area is, for me, my work environment, and during the holidays I’d rather be at home, which for me means uptown and out of the way.

I’ve worked in Rockefeller Center, mere blocks from Times Square, for about six years now, and watched as the size and density of the crowds of visiting tourists have seemed to increase incrementally during the holiday season each year.

It wasn’t my imagination. New York City’s own official statisticians say that 48.8 million people visited the city in 2010, up from fewer than 43 million in 2005 when I became a Midtown regular. The forecast for 2011 is 50.2 million. Assuming the forecast is correct, the city will have beat by four years Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s goal, set in 2008, of attracting 50 million visitors by 2015. These same statisticians say that one out of every three international visitors to the United States comes to New York City.

And that ball has a lot to do with it. It’s said that 1 billion people will watch the ball drop in Times Square tonight on television. This I usually watch, and not because I’m a Ryan Seacrest fan. But for some reason that makes little logical sense, I enjoy seeing the part of the city where I spend so much of my daily life being enjoyed by so many people. I like seeing my adopted home town being the center of the world’s attention.

So what about that ball? It was replaced last year, and has some pretty impressive specifications. As Scientific American tells it, it is 12 feet in diameter and weighs nearly six tons, or 11,875 pounds.

It’s made up of 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles, and is lit by 32,256 Philips Luxeon LED lights, which is apparently triple the number of lights on the ball last year. All those lights — and being LEDs they’re programmable — are capable of producing 16 million colors, with the number of theoretical combinations numbering in the billions. It’s also more energy efficient — by somewhere between 10 to 20 percent — than it was last year, and consumes about the same amount of power as is required to power two typical electric home ovens. For the geekier minded among you, there’s even more to know in this article in PDF format from something called Lighting Science. It hadn’t occurred to me, for instance, that since the ball is on display year-round that it would require significant cooling during the hotter days of summer.

It has come a long way from the original ball in 1907, which had 120 25-watt light bulbs on it. There’s a picture of one from 1978 included with this long history of the whole ball-dropping tradition.

If you’re in or around Times Square in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, and have the presence of mind to look up, you can probably see one of many test drops of the ball. I found this Associated Press video covering one such test, via the Village Voice.

And if you’re not near a TV, you can of course catch a live stream of the festivities.

Happy New Year, everyone.

(Image of the 2007-vintage ball via Wikipedia.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111231/you-know-youre-going-to-watch-it-all-about-new-yorks-times-square-ball/feed/ 0 App-y New Year! http://allthingsd.com/20111228/app-y-new-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20111228/app-y-new-year/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:54:51 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=157694 Despite the fact that I live and work near Times Square, and that around a million people gather annually in the heart of New York City to ring in the New Year, I’ve never been inspired to stand outside till midnight to watch the ball drop in person.

Now — whether you can’t make it to Times Square or just don’t want to — there’s an app for that.

(Obviously!)

First introduced last year, the Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App — 2012 shows a live stream of the Times Square Ball atop One Times Square, as well as video content leading up to and during the event. I’m told there will also be a live stream of Lady Gaga flicking the switch with Mayor Mike Bloomberg, to get the ball rolling, literally, at 11:59 pm ET.

With the app, users can share photos of themselves via Facebook and Twitter. They can also vote on photos — the photos with the most “likes” will be showcased on the giant Toshiba sign in Times Square that night (so if you’re at home partying in your pajamas and snapping self-portraits, you might want to think twice before sending your photos through the app).

The free app runs on iOS and Android devices, and was created by the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, along with Toshiba and Livestream. And because few things are ever truly free, ads will run at the bottom of the app interface.

Last year’s inaugural Times Square New Year’s Eve app was downloaded 174,000 times by users in 163 countries, during a two-week period. An estimated one billion people worldwide watch the ball drop on television each year.

And 30,000 New Year’s Eve kiss photos were sent through last year’s version of the app.

Unless you’re certain you’ll want to use it again a year from now, this one can go on the short-shelf-life list of phone apps. Meanwhile, there are a few other apps you might check out for New Year’s Eve, to ensure the evening goes off without a hitch.

Like Uber, the free iPhone and Android app for calling a car service when all of the taxi cabs are taken. Uber is currently only available in seven cities, including San Francisco, Boston, New York, Seattle and Paris, and the company also sometimes adjusts pricing for holidays, like it did on Halloween this year. Uber has not yet responded to an inquiry about whether prices will go up on New Year’s Eve.

You might also want to check out an app that tempers your holiday wild side, such as the Webroot Sobriety Test app. Or an app that tests your cognitive abilities before you drunk-text, like the $.99 Textalyzer.

Or, for all those good intentions, how about an app not just for making resolutions, but for keeping them, like All My New Year Resolutions?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111228/app-y-new-year/feed/ 3 Tech Is Glamour-ous: Mag Hosts Panel on Women in Tech (Video) http://allthingsd.com/20111013/tech-is-glamour-ous-mag-hosts-panel-on-women-in-tech-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111013/tech-is-glamour-ous-mag-hosts-panel-on-women-in-tech-video/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:03:26 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=130907

Earlier this week, I flew to New York to moderate a panel on women in tech for Glamour, part of an article I did for the magazine’s recent issue.

As loyal readers know, I now and then get a bee in my bonnet about the issue of gender imbalance in tech. As in: Too many dudes and not enough ladies in key jobs.

So, along with the piece, there was also an event to talk about it all, which was held at the Times Square HQ of Glamour’s publisher, Condé Nast.

My panel included women execs from high-profile tech companies, including: Stacy Brown-Philpot, director of Google-owned and operated properties; Julie Larson-Green, corporate VP of program management for Windows at Microsoft; Kati London, director of product for Zynga; and Hilary Mason, chief scientist at Bitly.

My video interviews with them are below, as well as another of the whole session:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111013/tech-is-glamour-ous-mag-hosts-panel-on-women-in-tech-video/feed/ 0 More Fake Videos As "Viral" Web Advertising–Where Is the Old Spice Guy When You Need Him? http://allthingsd.com/20110317/more-fake-videos-as-viral-web-advertising-where-is-the-old-spice-guy-when-you-need-him/ http://allthingsd.com/20110317/more-fake-videos-as-viral-web-advertising-where-is-the-old-spice-guy-when-you-need-him/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:15:23 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41725

Ugh, yet another attempt to pass off “authentic” online videos as real ones, in order to hawk something.

This time, it’s a video of a geeky man using a little transmitter, a red balloon and an Apple iPhone to change screens in New York’s Times Square.

Except not.

The effort is a fake for an upcoming movie called “Limitless,” according to an article in the New York Times.

That has not stopped it from getting more than one million views on YouTube, created by a viral marketing company called Thinkmodo.

“We represent the new age in advertising,” Thinkmodo’s James Percelay told the Times. “Virtual offices and the ‘YouTube aesthetic’ are ushering in a sea change enabling creatives with minuscule overhead to go head to head with those with massive ones.”

I am not sure when rank fakery qualified as a new age or even creative, but whatev.

Because besides the media attention the movie gets once the jig was declared up, which seems silly, the only time you see “Limitless” is in a video trailer on the big screen that is displaced by the balloon nerd’s one.

I hardly noticed it.

Oddly, the Times compares the lame stunt to the wonderful Old Spice online advertising campaign, which I thought was genius in its innovative use of social media combined with a clever professional effort.

Not so this one from a pair of guys who also did another faux video for a product called HeadBlade, by making a pretend video titled “The Shaving Helmet.”

You can see that, as well as the “Limitless” video below, along with a much more clever fake promotion for NZT, a pill that the main character takes in the film to become supersmart.

I wish some viral marketing types would take one of those more often.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110317/more-fake-videos-as-viral-web-advertising-where-is-the-old-spice-guy-when-you-need-him/feed/ 1 Polyvore Goes Sky High With Times Square Billboard http://allthingsd.com/20110314/polyvore-goes-sky-high-with-times-square-billboard/ http://allthingsd.com/20110314/polyvore-goes-sky-high-with-times-square-billboard/#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:20:58 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=3538 Polyvore, the site for aspiring fashionistas to mix and match products from various brands to create their favorite outfits, is making its debut on the Times Square catwalk.

The sky-high billboard is part of a contest that the four-year-old Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up conducted along side American Eagle, the teenage clothing retailer.

The contest challenged participants to come up with the best American Eagle spring break outfit. The grand prize winner received $1,000, and first and second place received gift cards.

Polyvore, which touts its ability to track brand engagement, said users created 13,732 entries, which generated 47,653 “likes,” and 3,552 comments.

Overall, the contest generated 735,808 impressions, and helped American Eagle skyrocket to become the fourth-most popular brand on the site during the campaign.

The first-place prize went to Lauren.y.b, who paired a racerback navy tank, a pair of white-washed skinny jeans, a stripped string bikini with accessories such as ballet flats and a studded wood bangle.

The four winning sets will be featured on the billboard from March 11th to March 18th, and will run twice an hour each day.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110314/polyvore-goes-sky-high-with-times-square-billboard/feed/ 0 The My-Fill-In-the-Space Reset Is Here, as Struggling Social Network Morphs Into Entertainment Hub http://allthingsd.com/20101026/the-my-fill-in-the-space-reset-is-here-as-social-network-morphs-into-entertainment-hub/ http://allthingsd.com/20101026/the-my-fill-in-the-space-reset-is-here-as-social-network-morphs-into-entertainment-hub/#comments Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:56:52 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=36209

Empty bracket or no empty bracket: Will it work?

That’s pretty much the big question at News Corp. tonight, as its much beleaguered social networking site, Myspace, rolls out a new beta version aimed at shifting its fortunes.

And how will it do that? By moving dramatically away from its roots as a social networking site–and far, far away from powerhouse Facebook–and becoming a “social entertainment” hub aimed directly at the Gen Y audience.

That means heavy emphasis on the sharing and discovery of music, television, movies, games, videos and photos from within Myspace and without. There is also an upcoming new mobile site and better apps for smartphones and tablets.

And it also includes a new logo that features “my” with an actual fill-in-the-space bracket after it.

By the way, it’s now “Myspace”–dropped second cap–rather than the old “MySpace,” and the new color palette is black, not blue.

It is a bold, if risky, move, which could result in a dramatic decline of users or–despite the grim reality of second acts on the Internet–reset Myspace to begin a new cycle of growth.

For sure, as you can see from the screenshots below, it is a cleaner, hipper and much more attractive offering, with a tile format, ridding Myspace of its longtime cheap and noisy feel.

You can still toggle to a list or video view of the homepage.

Still, Myspace continues with the irksome moving parts, such as continually updating live notifications and real-time rolling number tickers that move constantly as people share various content.

It sort of reminds me of that national-debt clock in Times Square in Manhattan, but not as riveting.

Amid the better ability for bands and artists to more easily attract fans and promote themselves on Myspace, regular users can also become social arbiters–called “curators”–by active and useful sharing of their tastes.

And, perhaps most important of all, you can bring in a lot of outside sources, broadcast out to Facebook and have a two-way feed with Twitter.

Behind the scenes, Myspace has also done a major overhaul of its tech structure, which has been much maligned. In fact, it was once described to me as being made of “bubblegum and baling wire.”

Here’s an appalling stat, for example: There have been 117 different Myspace logos created for the service.

We’ll see how it goes, but here are videos Myspace did about the launch, including a logo-ganza:

And here are more screenshots than you ever would want (click on the images to make them larger):

Finally, here is the official press release:

MEET THE NEW MYSPACE

Myspace Debuts New Brand, Beta Website and Suite of Products That Focus on Social Entertainment for Gen Y

Beverly Hills, October 27, 2010 – Today Myspace announced a new brand, beta website and a suite of products that together redefine the company as a social entertainment destination for Gen Y. Myspace is creating a rich, highly personalized experience for people to discover content and connect with other fans who share similar interests. The entertainment experience will span music, celebrities, movies, television and games and will be available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices and offline events.

“This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace. Our new strategy expands on Myspace’s existing strengths–a deep understanding of social, a wealth of entertainment content and the ability to surface emerging cultural trends in real time through our users,” said Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace. “Myspace is unique in that it is powered by the passions of our users, who program the site by expressing interests, sharing tastes and knowledge around particular topics, and scouting out up-and-coming subcultures. This is the just the first step and there will be many more features, programs and improvements to come.:

Specifically, Myspace will provide people with the ability to:

  • Discover and engage with Myspace’s broad array of programming, including originals, exclusives and content from around the Web.
  • Express, collect, and display their creations and interests on their profiles and through sharing tools.
  • Connect to other fans with similar tastes.

Myspace will also focus on promoting curators–a subset of its audience whose reputation and knowledge around particular entertainment topics and emerging cultural trends make them uniquely influential–by supporting them with the resources, tools and a platform to expand their reach within the Myspace community.

    Newly Designed Beta Site

Myspace has completely rebuilt its website, with a new visual identity and product features that put content center stage. From the color palette to the way the site is organized to the improved navigation, everything has been redesigned to help people easily find relevant content.

The redesigned Myspace welcome page showcases fresh content as it bubbles up across the beta site in real time. Additionally, once a user logs in to Myspace, the page will instantly populate with content based on the individual’s interests, creating a unique, contextually relevant discovery experience.

Registered users can now also toggle between three different views of the homepage, each specifically designed to display their stream in the way that resonates most. These include:

  • List view: Traditional view
  • Grid view: A magazine-like format
  • Play view: A video format that allows users to watch, forward and resize their updates to full screen

To complement the online experience, Myspace will soon release a mobile version of the beta site, accessible on any mobile browser. A new Myspace app for iPhone and Android devices will follow later this year.

New Products

Myspace has released a suite of initial features that empower people to discover, collect and display entertainment content, while also offering tailored recommendations. These features include:

Topics–Myspace features more than 20,000 entertainment-focused, dynamic pages organized around topics. These pages provide a centralized location to view aggregated information about specific subject matter from a wide variety of news sites and blogs including MTV, Los Angeles Times, Access Hollywood, New York Times, Village Voice and Just Jared.

Content Hubs–These comprehensive entertainment destinations are specifically dedicated to movies, television and celebrities. The pages combine programmed editorial with trending articles that feature news, videos and photos from various content partners. Additionally, each individual article within the hubs recommends related content and topics. Hubs focused on games, comedy, sports and fashion will be revealed in the coming months.

Personalized Stream–The new stream automatically learns what to feature based on a user’s preferences and habits, so they see more of what they love and less of what they don’t.

Recommendations–This feature recommends relevant topics and other fans based on algorithms that learn the type of content a user views, listens to or watches and from whom or where they discovered it.

‘Right now on Myspace’–This feature shows trending content in real time on Myspace, helps fans find recently added music and videos, and lets them listen or watch right from the interactive chart. Myspace uses these trends to inform recommendations that promote discovery and engagement.

Discovery Tab–This always accessible tab combines videos that friends are watching with what’s trending in real time on Myspace. Scroll to the top of any page and the new Discovery Tab drops down as a horizontal film strip.

My Stuff TabMy Stuff is an easy way to see all that’s personal to a user – their profile, photos, videos and uploaded content, structured as a drop-down menu with different content areas.

Badges–This feature recognizes and rewards curators and fans for their social activity around entertainment topics on the beta site and promotes them with badges – graphic icons that appear in a user’s stream.

New Brand Identity

Myspace has also introduced a new logo that captures its revamped brand identity and values. The bracket in the logo represents a space where people can express themselves, enabling users to personalize the logo and make it their own–just as they can throughout Myspace.

The newly-designed Myspace begins rolling out today in beta and will be available to all users worldwide by the end of November. New users will have immediate access to the beta site. For more information, please visit www.myspace.com/newmyspace

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101026/the-my-fill-in-the-space-reset-is-here-as-social-network-morphs-into-entertainment-hub/feed/ 7 First Ben Silverman Online Program–"Ready, Set, Dance!"–Debuts on Yahoo http://allthingsd.com/20100928/first-ben-silverman-online-program-ready-set-dance-debuts-on-yahoo/ http://allthingsd.com/20100928/first-ben-silverman-online-program-ready-set-dance-debuts-on-yahoo/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:31:46 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34370

Yahoo and Electus, the multiplatform content studio headed by former NBC entertainment head Ben Silverman, debuted its first original, branded entertainment programming tonight with “Ready, Set, Dance!”

The site, which is now live on Yahoo Music and sponsored by State Farm, merges the candid-camera phenomenon with reality television and “aims to tap into the pop culture interest in television dance shows and dance videos on the Web….”

The Yahoo (YHOO) site is relatively spare right now, with only one episode, titled “Magic Sparkle Chunk and Frisky Ris.”

Reads the description of the show: “Will’s ‘Magic Sparkle Chunk’ style is invading the tranquility of Madison Square Park, while Marisa and her moves will do their best to win over the Times Square crowds.”

“Magic Sparkle Chunk” is as described, and it is both riveting and humiliating. Which is pretty much the point.

Even though no one knows about it, there are already 29 comments, such as: “He’s got chutzpah–besides, if it’s all about fun, he’s got it. She was a bit too serious and honestly…just not as entertaining as the chunky shiney thingie wingie.”

Yahoo’s partnership with Electus was unveiled in January at the Consumer Electronics Show by Yahoo execs Joanne Bradford and Jimmy Pitaro, both of whom you can see in a BoomTown video interview below.

Ironically, U.S. sales head Bradford left Yahoo earlier this year for Demand Media, and Pitaro, as I reported today, is expected to leave the company soon from his post as VP of Media.

Silverman left the broadcast-television network under a cloud last year, but immediately announced he had struck a deal with Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) to form a studio–called Electus–to make multiplatform content that is backed by big brand advertisers.

The move is similar to a new kind of production company started several years ago by former ABC and Yahoo exec Lloyd Braun and his partner, Gail Berman.

Braun has created online programming for Microsoft (MSFT), including an innovative celebrity site called Wonderwall, as well as producing television shows for networks.

Silverman’s take was to focus on an episodic style, although much of what has been done online so far in this genre by many others has been only moderately successful.

But execs at Yahoo believed that advertisers have been looking for opportunities to put their brands near quality content online.

With the deal, which has been touted by CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo is putting big hopes in Silverman, who had been a successful producer of television programming in his early career.

But his tenure at NBC was marked by a lot of negative publicity about him personally and, more importantly, by a sharp downturn in ratings.

Here is the first of 12 episodes:

And here is Bradford and Pitaro talking about the Electus deal:


[ See post to watch video ]

Finally, here is the official press release:

Yahoo! and Electus Launch ‘Ready, Set, Dance!’–a New Original, Branded Entertainment Program Sponsored by State Farm®

· First program launch from the Electus-Yahoo! partnership

· The initiative, created by Notional in partnership with Electus, introduces a new creative format and taps into America’s interest in dance; Available on Yahoo! Music

SUNNYVALE, Calif., September 29, 2010–Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Electus, an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), today unveiled the first integrated content initiative of the brands’ previously announced content partnership, bringing a new format of original, branded entertainment programming to the web with “Ready, Set, Dance!” Merging the candid camera phenomenon with reality television for digital distribution, the program, which was created by Notional in partnership with Electus, aims to tap into the pop culture interest in television dance shows and dance videos on the Web and will make its premiere debut on Yahoo! Music today. “Ready, Set, Dance!” extends the State Farm® “Why Agent?” brand campaign and creatively engages its young-adult audience. Electus will have overall distribution rights on “Ready, Set, Dance” for all platforms including television, motion picture and digital.

“Ready, Set, Dance!” (readysetdance.yahoo.com) is a 12-episode program that combines Yahoo!’s reach and consumer insights with Electus’s creative expertise to provide Yahoo! Music’s audience with a quick, smart, and high-energy dance competition series. Hosted by pop star Adrienne Bailon, “Ready, Set, Dance!” will live on Yahoo! Music and will be promoted across the Yahoo! network.

State Farm will be seamlessly integrated into the “Ready, Set, Dance!” experience, with a goal of reaching a young-adult audience through fun and interesting content that drives home State Farm’s brand message.

The show features two contestants who will be selected by a series of entertaining auditions. Once chosen, the contestants will be caught by surprise anytime or anyplace, and must immediately break into their dance routines for a chance at “Ready, Set, Dance!” fame and fortune. Each week, viewers can vote on their favorite dancer, and winners will receive $10,000 in each of the six dance contests.

“‘Ready, Set, Dance!’ showcases the best of online marketing and programming by providing relevant and entertaining branded programming at mass scale,” said Jimmy Pitaro, vice president of media at Yahoo!. “Our ongoing relationship with Electus will not only offer great original programming like this for Yahoo! users, but will also give advertisers like State Farm fresh opportunities to integrate their brand into the next generation of digital programming.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Yahoo! and State Farm on this new format,” said Drew Buckley, Chief Operating Officer of Electus. “Yahoo! is known for executing extremely successful branded programming that consumers and advertisers love, and ‘Ready, Set, Dance!’ will look to expand upon that initiative.”

“Yahoo! Music and Electus brought a great concept in “Ready…Set…Dance!!”, said Tim Van Hoof, Advertising Director at State Farm. Understanding the popularity of dance contests among our target audience, State Farm sees this as an innovative opportunity to connect with young adults in the online space in a fun, engaging way.”

Yahoo! has a long history of partnering with marketers to develop custom programs to help them reach their targeted audiences. Yahoo!’s successes in the original programming and branded entertainment space include: “Primetime in No Time,” the most watched original program online; “Tech Ticker,” the most watched finance show online; and “Who Knew?”, which recently became the most successful original program to launch on Yahoo!, with more than 40 million streams in the first four months. “Ready, Set, Dance!” follows State Farm’s first video series partnership with Yahoo! — “Spotlight to Nightlight” — which launched in 2009 and garnered more than 7.2 million video streams.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100928/first-ben-silverman-online-program-ready-set-dance-debuts-on-yahoo/feed/ 3 Flying the Digitally Friendly Skies: Gogo, Google and the Facebook PR Guy in 17D http://allthingsd.com/20091113/flying-the-digitally-friendly-skies-gogo-google-and-the-facebook-pr-guy-in-17d/ http://allthingsd.com/20091113/flying-the-digitally-friendly-skies-gogo-google-and-the-facebook-pr-guy-in-17d/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:11:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=20597 aircell-gogo-logo

So, BoomTown–who cannot be unplugged from the matrix for very long without breaking into a cold sweat–was pretty excited to have free Wi-Fi on my Virgin America flight to Washington, D.C., early this morning.

The service from Gogo Inflight Internet is free since earlier this week until Jan. 15, courtesy of Google (GOOG), on Virgin, as well as at 47 airports. It usually costs anywhere from $6 to $13.

Like the search giant, other Web companies–presumably wanting to goose usage and, more to the point, their brands–have also leaped in.

Delta has a promotion with eBay (EBAY) on several hundred planes for a week around Thanksgiving, and Yahoo (YHOO) is footing the bill for anyone using computers or smartphones in Times Square in New York for one year.

Pretty much what the government and big cable and wireless companies should be doing, but let’s not look a digital gift horse in the mouth.

So far on the flight, the Internet has been pretty solid, although video plays even slower than my Comcast (CMCSA) connection at home.

Also, electricity on the flight has been in and out; when it doesn’t work, it pretty much negates Internet use on a long flight.

But more interesting, as most who use the Web in the air seem to feel, is the ability to make a lot of online connections, including with people on the same plane.

While I was no fan of the goofy seat-to-seat connections offered on some airlines, I did get an email from a Facebook public relations guy sitting in the row behind me on the same flight asking if I wanted to meet the social networking site’s DC staff.

Without ever seeing him I now have a meeting on Monday with them, so–apparently–mission accomplished!

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091113/flying-the-digitally-friendly-skies-gogo-google-and-the-facebook-pr-guy-in-17d/feed/ 0 Merry Christmas! You Get Wi-Fi. http://allthingsd.com/20091110/merry-christmas-you-get-wi-fi/ http://allthingsd.com/20091110/merry-christmas-you-get-wi-fi/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:25:45 +0000 Andrew LaVallee http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=17657 Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) are all offering some form of courtesy Wi-Fi through the holiday season, at venues such as airports, hotels and Times Square.

Each has a relatively new service it’s hoping to attract consumers to, whether it’s Google’s Chrome browser, Microsoft’s Bing search engine or Yahoo’s revamped home page and customization features.

Google is working with Wi-Fi providers Boingo Wireless and Advanced Wireless Group to provide connectivity at 47 airports, including Boston, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami and Seattle from today until Jan. 15 (sorry New Yorkers, JFK, LGA and EWR are not on the list).

“We know that this is a very hectic travel season for people, and we hope that free Wi-Fi will make both traveling and connecting with friends and family a little bit easier,” Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search, said in a statement.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091110/merry-christmas-you-get-wi-fi/feed/ 0 Stock Stronger as Yahoo Preps to Report Next Week–But Employee Departures (and Return of Yodeling!) Rattle http://allthingsd.com/20091014/stock-stronger-as-yahoo-preps-to-report-next-week-but-employee-departures-and-return-of-yodeling-rattle/ http://allthingsd.com/20091014/stock-stronger-as-yahoo-preps-to-report-next-week-but-employee-departures-and-return-of-yodeling-rattle/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:39:11 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=19381 yodelstudio

In one week, Yahoo will report its third-quarter earnings, after the market closes.

And so far, its stock is showing signs that investors are hoping for better days ahead for the Internet giant.

Shares are up 8.5 percent for the month, almost 13 percent for the last three months and almost 39 percent since the beginning of the year.

While that’s not the rocket ship Google (GOOG) has been on–the search giant’s stock is up 70 percent since January, which includes a big boost recently on expectations of a strong earnings report tomorrow–it’s clear investors are hoping an improvement in the online advertising market will boost Yahoo’s fortunes.

Wall Street is expecting $1.12 billion in net revenue and seven cents in earnings per share from Yahoo (YHOO)–and a better performance than that could boost the stock.

In fact, a pair of bullish analyst reports that came out today predicted just that.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Benjamin Schachter raised his price target to $21 a share, noting that after the search and online advertising partnership deal closes, Yahoo “should be meaningfully smaller and leaner, but should also be a significantly more profitable company.”

And Benchmark Co. analyst Clayton Moran moved Yahoo from hold to buy, with a price target of $20.

But a string of recent exec departures in Yahoo’s advertising units are making some within the company’s ranks slightly worried.

The departures include Jim Schinella, the company’s SVP for corporate partnerships, in September.

And yesterday, Glam Media announced that it had nabbed Josh Jacobs as SVP of Brand Advertising Products & Marketing. At Yahoo, Jacobs was a key exec in its display ad platform unit.

Many inside the company expect more departures in the ad and engineering arena at Yahoo, pointing out that many big stock packages given to hold onto talent are about to vest.

In addition, once Yahoo’s search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) is approved, as it is likely to be by the end of the year, hundreds of Yahoo engineers will get the choice of moving to Microsoft.

Some will, of course, but some simply do not want to go and many Silicon Valley companies and start-ups BoomTown spoke to report seeing more resumes recently from Yahoo staff.

Its-You-Marketing-Campaign-2

There is little Microsoft can do to stop possible leakage of tech talent from Yahoo until the deal is approved, since the companies cannot do any integration until it is.

Perhaps worst of all, there seems to be nothing Yahoo can do to stifle its proclivity to yodel, which I begged Yahoo execs to forgo in its recent $100 million “It’s Y!ou” marketing push.

No such luck!

Yesterday, Yahoo launched its online Yodel Studio (no, I am not kidding), where you can record your own yodel in various music genres, like, um, rap.

Yahoo held a kickoff event in New York’s Time Square yesterday–however did I manage to miss it, since I was in Manhattan?–with a passel of celebrity yodelers like Jewel, as well as one in London’s Covent Garden.

Today, there is a yodel event in Mumbai, India. Bollywood yodeling anyone?

Here is a link to the famous Yahoo yodel, by the way, if you are so inclined.

And here is a video of the Times Square event, and also the very memorable Yahoo commercial of Taylor Ware, after she won the Yahoo National Yodel Challenge contest in 2003.

Some things never change (even if they should!).

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091014/stock-stronger-as-yahoo-preps-to-report-next-week-but-employee-departures-and-return-of-yodeling-rattle/feed/ 0 The Yahoo Ad Campaign Creative We'd Like to See http://allthingsd.com/20090922/yahoo-ad-campaign-creative-wed-like-to-see/ http://allthingsd.com/20090922/yahoo-ad-campaign-creative-wed-like-to-see/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:41:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=18729 3941699976_328c3c6564

Yahoo introduced its new $100 million marketing and branding campaign in New York today with “It’s Y!ou” as the new motto, making use of the Internet giant’s famous exclamation point.

Sure, it’s clever and all, but BoomTown felt the need to jump in and help Yahoo (YHOO), since our posts have been a little tough when it has come to the Silicon Valley icon’s tumultuous ride over the last two years.

So, while CEO Carol Bartz (pictured above as a giant lady on the Nasdaq Jumbotron in Times Square) explained–as reported by MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka–that “Yahoo is the only site where you when you wake up in the morning and you want to know what’s going on everywhere about everything, you can find it one place,” I’d say there’s more to the brand that just that!

In fact, there’s Bartz herself, a sassy and ofttimes salty exec whose pugnacious utterances have become legend quickly.

Today, for example, when asked about a comparison with its search rival, she noted, “Why not be cynical about fricking Google?”

That was mild in comparison to her cursing me out at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference when she thought I was insinuating she was too old to be an Internet exec (you can see that exchange in the video below).

Thus, please take a gander at our branding effort for Yahoo below.

(While Yahoo has Ogilvy & Mather to do its work, ATD has the very clever Photoshop stylings of Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski to work our marketing magic.)

Best of all, you can switch out the picture and moniker to denote any Yahoo foe–Google (GOOG); Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer if he does not behave in the new search-partnership deal; billionaire investor and Yahoo board member Carl Icahn; and more!

Fondly dedicated to Carol–and the rest of the Yahoo crew, especially Judy–here’s our ad (click on the image to make it larger):

fyoukara

And here is Bartz in action at D7, cussing me out at 00:57 in the video of the interview:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090922/yahoo-ad-campaign-creative-wed-like-to-see/feed/ 3 Craigslist Gives Its Red Light District the Times Square Treatment http://allthingsd.com/20090513/craigslist-gives-its-red-light-district-the-times-square-treatment/ http://allthingsd.com/20090513/craigslist-gives-its-red-light-district-the-times-square-treatment/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 16:32:54 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=7334 times-squareMany moons ago, in the good old/bad old days, New York’s Times Square used to be known as a den of iniquity. That started changing in the mid-1990s when city officials managed to move most of the strip clubs, porn shops, etc., out of the neighborhood and into ones where people wouldn’t complain as much.

Looks like Craigslist is trying to do the same thing. The online classified ad service is shutting down its “Erotic Services” section under pressure from state and local officials from around the country. In its place, Craigslist will open an “adult” category. It promises to keep said area cleaner by having employees sweep it periodically for ads that are obviously soliciting prostitution, etc. AP:

“We’re very encouraged that Craigslist is doing the right thing in eliminating its online red light district with prostitution and pornography in plain sight. We’ll be watching and investigating critically to make sure this measure is more than just a name change,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Good luck. As Gawker points out, this stuff is very likely to end up somewhere else on Craigslist because that’s the nature of the beast.

But still, not a bad idea. Internet + sex is always an attractive target for crusading lawmakers with an eye for a good headline (see MySpace, “sexting,” etc.). Craigslist is a higher-profile target than ever these days as it shares boogeyman status with Google (GOOG) for people looking to blame the death of newspapers on… something.

And the “move it somewhere else” strategy can work. Spread the bad stuff around–or at least into lower-profile places–and it seems less upsetting. As a reminder, here’s a semifictionalized version of what Times Square used to look like circa mid-1970s, via “Taxi Driver”:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090513/craigslist-gives-its-red-light-district-the-times-square-treatment/feed/ 0 Intel Jokes About its Own Culture in New Ads http://allthingsd.com/20090506/intel-jokes-about-its-own-culture-in-new-ads/ http://allthingsd.com/20090506/intel-jokes-about-its-own-culture-in-new-ads/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 22:22:42 +0000 Don Clark http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=11497 There are some novel techie elements to Intel’s (INTC) new “Sponsors of Tomorrow” ad campaign, which the Journal covered in an article Tuesday. For example, next Monday a digital billboard in Times Square will display messages from texters at the New York intersection and those in other locations, including Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, where other digital storefront displays will be “linked for a multi-site, international texting experience,” as the company puts it.

But the real experiment will be to see if consumers warm to Intel’s attempts to make light about its own culture.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090506/intel-jokes-about-its-own-culture-in-new-ads/feed/ 0 Intel Outside http://allthingsd.com/20090505/intel-outside/ http://allthingsd.com/20090505/intel-outside/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 22:58:39 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=16983 intel_ad“Sponsors of Tomorrow” is the new “Intel Inside.” The chipmaker is gearing up to launch a massive new advertising campaign, and that slogan is to be its anchor. Its purpose: to make us all more familiar with the Intel brand–as if it wasn’t ubiquitous enough already. And so, beginning this week we’ll see Intel ads in a variety of media–including a giant digital billboard in New York’s Times Square–touting Intel (INTC) as a driving force in innovation.

Gone are the days of the silly clock-speed race, the megahertz myth, “performance per watt” war and the great AMD (AMD)-Intel dual-core PR shootout. Now Intel wants us all to know that while it’s still “inside” our PCs, it’s outside them in a variety of other ways as well. “Many people take for granted what we as a company helped drive,” Intel spokesman David Dickstein told MarketWatch. “We’re hoping that we’re not just known as a microprocessor company, but as a move-society-by-quantum-leaps company.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090505/intel-outside/feed/ 0 Music Retail Going, Going, Just About Gone: Virgin Shutting Two More Music Stores http://allthingsd.com/20090228/music-retail-going-going-just-about-gone-virgin-shutting-two-more-music-stores/ http://allthingsd.com/20090228/music-retail-going-going-just-about-gone-virgin-shutting-two-more-music-stores/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:54:05 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=4688 amoebaThe people who run the Virgin Megastore chain have already announced plans to close their Times Square outpost, which is the highest-volume music store in the U.S. So news that they’re shuttering even more of their stores isn’t shocking. Just telling. Billboard:

The six-unit Virgin Megastore chain will close two more stores, the Union Square location in New York City at the end of May and the Market St. store in San Francisco at the end of April, sources say….

In August 2007, the Virgin Entertainment Group North America was acquired by two real estate companies–the Related Cos. and Vornado. Since then, the chain has been reduced from 11 units–with the industry awaiting word of the fate of the three remaining stores in Denver, Los Angeles, and Orlando, Fla.”

At this point the real news should be when people buy music at brick-and-mortar outlets at all. They still do: CD sales continue account for the majority of big music’s revenues.

But as the handful of remaining music stores vanishes, and the big boxes like Wal-Mart (WMT) and Best Buy (BBY) keep cutting back the space they allot to discs, that won’t remain true for long.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090228/music-retail-going-going-just-about-gone-virgin-shutting-two-more-music-stores/feed/ 0 BoomTown on Yahoo's Tech Ticker: Apple, Blogging, MicroHooGoogOl and the Econalypse http://allthingsd.com/20090205/boomtown-on-yahoos-tech-ticker-apple-blogging-microhoogoogol-and-the-econalypse/ http://allthingsd.com/20090205/boomtown-on-yahoos-tech-ticker-apple-blogging-microhoogoogol-and-the-econalypse/#comments Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:00:38 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=9449

Last week, an obviously jet lagged (and badly dressed, as some troglodyte commenters on Yahoo pointed out, but it was snowing!) BoomTown visited Henry Blodget at Yahoo’s Tech Ticker studio in Times Square in Manhattan to talk about a range of digital topics.

The video interviews included: How well Apple (AAPL) will do without Steve Jobs on deck; whether blogging reporting and professionalism standards need to rise; when Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL will stop dancing around various deals; and finally, how the recession is impacting Silicon Valley.

The short answers: Fine; yes; the anticipation is killing us; and badly, but tech will get through it with some pluck and baling wire!

But if you want a longer explanation, watch the videos.

Apple and Steve Jobs:

Blogging Standards:

A Deal for MicroHooGoogOl?:

The Recession’s Impact in Silicon Valley:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090205/boomtown-on-yahoos-tech-ticker-apple-blogging-microhoogoogol-and-the-econalypse/feed/ 1 BoomTown's 2009 Predictions: We Don't Know Jack (Except for AppleAppleAppleApple) http://allthingsd.com/20090105/boomtowns-2009-predictions-we-dont-know-jack-except-for-appleappleappleapple/ http://allthingsd.com/20090105/boomtowns-2009-predictions-we-dont-know-jack-except-for-appleappleappleapple/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:17:02 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=8117

Oh, I’m sorry, is this the part where BoomTown is supposed to make a list of some sort of what I like and don’t like, what’s hot and what’s not, what’s going to happen and such to all the various players in the digital space?

I don’t think so.

Why? Well, when I have in the past or have read them from others, it’s a lot like Nostradamus. You can read into it anything you want.

For instance: Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs wrote a public letter today that essentially says he is not dying, as many speculated he was last week–without a trace of proof.

And, presto-chango, the thickest in the blogosphere then does another twisteroo and uses it as confirmation that he is in indeed sick and it was the true reason for his Macworld keynote pullout, even though Jobs says no such thing in the letter.

Or, more mundanely, I write: “Mobile will be bigger than ever.”

Well, to start, it is a kind of duh-prognostication. Plus it is essentially meaningless, since obviously more folks on the planet means more cellphones.

Or, what about: “Twitter/Facebook/Digg/Fill-In-The-Overhyped-Start-Up will sell to a major media giant.”

Okay, maybe, if any of those major media stocks were not in the toilet and their execs decided to do another Bebo/CNET/Fill-In-The-Overhyped-Start-Up cash belly flop like last year.

You get the idea.

But the real reason I am not inclined to go all Miss Cleo is simple: I have no idea what is going to happen and neither does anyone, even in their heedless guessing.

Did we imagine Microsoft (MSFT) would launch a hostile attack on Yahoo (YHOO)? No, we did not.

Did we guess that Google (GOOG) stock would tank to half its value in a massive U.S. economic collapse? Nope, sister.

Did we know that Apple apps would take off like gangbusters, even as rumors of Jobs’s imminent demise would too? Sorry, but we didn’t, including you in the back there insisting you did.

Did we foresee that the insane valuations for Web 2.0 companies like Facebook and others would drop like the ball in Times Square on New Year’s?

Wait, we got that one right.

Here are the only predictions I can make, which is that these will be the topics that everyone will be chattering about in tech in 2009:

AppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleApple
AppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleApple
AppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleApple
AppleSteveIsSickAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleApple
AppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleAppleApple

Also:

TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitter
TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitter
TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitter
TwitterTwitterTwitterDidYouKnowSteveIsSick?TwitterTwitterTwitter
TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitter

And:

Yahoo!

Wait, that’s just me.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090105/boomtowns-2009-predictions-we-dont-know-jack-except-for-appleappleappleapple/feed/ 3 NYC Cop Caught on YouTube Decking Cyclist to Face Charges http://allthingsd.com/20081215/cop-caught-on-youtube-decking-cyclist-to-face-charges/ http://allthingsd.com/20081215/cop-caught-on-youtube-decking-cyclist-to-face-charges/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:13:23 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=2130 One of the real benefits of our document everything/share it with everyone world: The ability, on the rare occasion, to help right a wrong.

In July, cyclist Christopher Long was charged with resisting arrest after participating in a bike rally through New York’s Times Square. But anyone who saw the video below–and since it has generated more than 1.6 million views on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, that’s a lot of people–would have a hard time figuring out what Long did to get arrested.

And viewers might also wonder what the city of New York would do about police officer Patrick Pogan, who is the one knocking Long to the ground in the clip.

In September, charges against Long were dismissed. And now Pogan is about to be indicted–presumably for “felony charges of filing false records in connection with the police report that Officer Pogan filed after arresting the bicyclist”–reports the New York Times. Pogan could also be charged with a misdemeanor count of assault, says the NYT.

The Times, via its City Room blog, has been doing bang-up coverage of the story, which is pretty much designed to be consumed on the Web. Check out the fascinating story behind the video clip’s origins, and its journey to YouTube, here.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081215/cop-caught-on-youtube-decking-cyclist-to-face-charges/feed/ 0