While unfortunate for all the people involved, this is the kind of news report that you want to read at the end of a busy day: BERLIN (Reuters) – A German truck driver lost control of his vehicle while trying to swat a wasp and spilled his 15-ton load of jam jars on the motorway, […]
Month: August 2004
Doom 3 rocks to a high spec
My copy of Doom 3 arrived from Amazon yesterday and it was well worth the wait. Not a game for everyone, though. It’s 18-rated (M in the US) and maker iD Software describes it as “Doom 3 is a terrifying sci-fi horror game experience. It is not recommended for the cowardly or the faint of […]
A Real music battle
Real Networks mounts a big challenge to Apple’s iTunes in an effort to win market share at Apple’s expense, according to a BBC News report yesterday: BBC NEWS | Business | Real in online music price war Then, one post by Steve Rubel on his Micro Persuasion blog reported that Real had set up a […]
RSS on your phone with iFeedYou
I discovered a new (to me) RSS service with a difference. Swiss-based iFeedYou offers access to various RSS webfeeds much as some other web-based RSS services do. Where iFeedYou adds value is that you can also view your RSS webfeeds from your mobile phone (WAP or iMode) or a PDA. Looks interesting. How does it […]
Google cuts IPO price
In a sign that Google’s initial public offering isn’t as popular as expected, the Internet search engine has slashed the price range for its IPO and reduced the size of the issue, according to a Wall Street Journal report today. The surprise announcement, made in an email to investors, dramatically changes the size of the […]
Viral marketing ‘backfire’
The Register reported yesterday on a marketing campaign to promote the latest version of the Resident Evil PlayStation 2 game which provoked a panic about the spread of a non-existent mobile phone virus. Phone users have received unsolicited SMS text messages on their mobile phones telling them they are infected by the so-called T-Virus. The […]
Biometric passports on the way
CNET News reports that a number of countries are about to launch trials of passports and visas that incorporate basic biometric information about the document holder alongside the traditional photo and passport number – data such as a digital image of the citizen’s face that will be compared to a facial scan taken at the […]
Yahoo! launches corporate blog
Yahoo! launched a blog yesterday. The first post is an intro by Jeff Weiner, SVP Yahoo! Search & Marketplace, so it’s kicked off with a solid business/customer focus. And, the blog starts out with commenting and trackbacks enabled. Yahoo! Search blog On his personal blog, Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! (Finance) has an FAQ about the […]
Microsoft localization traps
You think selling software in multiple countries is easy? You have localized your product, your distribution infrastructure is set, support systems ready, all the elements in place, and off you go, right? Take a look at some of Microsoft’s experiences over the past 10 years, presented at a conference to address why multi-national corporations must […]
Practical blog to link PR agencies
There’s lots of discussion going on in many blogs about the uses for blogs in a corporate environment. Guillaume du Gardier, owner of PR Planet in Paris, has taken one further step and published an example of a blog that could be used for linking together a company’s PR agencies. Simple, practical and elegant. A […]
Advertorials by another name
Just a matter of time, I suppose, and it’s happened sooner rather than later. Marketing VOX has a brief news item about a US company called Blogversations who offer to match bloggers with sponsors (advertisers); the bloggers would write about the sponsor’s product or service and get paid for it. Hmm. A natural development in […]
Photo blog to stay in touch
Nice article in PCWorld.com today on the benefits of using a photo blog when you’re on a lengthy holiday as a means of sharing your trip and staying in touch with friends and family. PCWorld.com | Blogging Across America A bit surprising, though, that in discussing blog services the article didn’t mention some of the […]
Googling the market
The IPO is done, investors have made some immediate gains and the dust is settling. As Internetnews.com reports, Google must grow bigger, smarter and stronger or face being overtaken by powerful rivals such as Yahoo! and MSN, and compete not only on its stock price but also on its core technology and its marketing. Internetnews.com […]
Olympic blog ban
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has barred athletes, coaches and nearly everyone associated with a team from writing about their experiences for a newspaper or website – blogs included. News report by Network World via Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion: Network World | Olympic blog ban So it’s now official. Also see my post on 12 […]
UK travel chaos looming
If you’re planning a trip to or through London during the bank holiday weekend (27-30 August), you might want to dig out Plan B in terms of how you travel. Air travel to/through Heathrow and Gatwick (and other London airports) looks like it could be a nightmare if a strike by British Airways ground staff […]
The BloggerCon un-conference
BloggerCon III, a conference about weblogs, takes place on 6 November at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, California, USA. If you are keenly interested in blogs, and want to join 250 similar-thinking people and take part in discussions that will influence how blogs develop as a communication medium, this would be an excellent event […]
‘Wordsmith’ Mandelson EU debut
Peter Mandelson, the UK’s new European Commissioner and current whipping boy of the UK’s anti-European factions, put on a star performance in Brussels on Friday during the first meeting of the new commissioners, 25 of them, who will start their new jobs in November. In a great display of political word-smithing, Mandelson said as Trade […]
Global ad industry 4% growth in 2004
Martin Sorrell, CEO of the WPP ad agency group, makes these predictions in a Daily Telegraph report: The 2004 Olympic Games is on target to boost global spending on advertising by about $1.5 billion (€1.2 billion) this year. Growth of 3%-4% for the market this year – helped by the Games, Euro 2004 and the […]
Making Windows XP more secure
Lots of media comment in the past week about how Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP still has holes in it from a security point of view. Most such reports I’ve seen comment on network security issues and further flaws in Internet Explorer security. Microsoft don’t agree with much of the negative comment. I’ve […]
Internet: building better PR relationships
I came across an interesting survey report today on how the internet is changing PR. The survey was conducted by Ireland-based PR practitioner Tom Murphy through his PR Opinions blog. Although the survey was carrried out in February and published in March, I’d not seen it before (I hadn’t evolved into my active-blogging mode at […]