Bigmouthmedia merger with LBi

Big news today folks…big news for the Bigmouths at Bigmouthmedia that is.  I saw the tweets come flooding in this morning at about 9am, shortly followed by the official press release which reported the merger of LBi and Netherlands-based Obtineo (amalgamation of Bigmouthmedia plus €40m from capital investors) and I have to say it’s no big surprise.  It has been on the cards since Phil Gripton came on board as MD and then Mark Bole, who replaced the the original Bigmouth, Steve Leach as CEO late last year.

I started my online career with  Global Media back in 2004 and so was there through the merger of Global Media and Bigmouthmedia back in 2006, in a move engineered by the Carlyle Group, estimated to have been worth EU 60m.  That was a fantastic move for bigmouthmedia and so I wait to see what happens to them going forward.  Interesting times!

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Does Google Make Us Stupid?

Hmm….good question, and one posed as a magazine article by Nicholas Carr back in July 2008.  The gist of the article was the Internet’s effect on cognition,the ability to read and absorb content and not take on a staccato effect when looking at different material. And my favourite quote from it has to be…

Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski

Beautiful.

Bruce Friedman, who blogs about the use of computers in medicine, said in agreement “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that…”.  Well, I wouldn’t beat yourself up about that too much Bruce.  I never made it to the end either, with or without the Internet.

So why bring this up again?  Well, a recent, and fourth survey of, “Future of the Internet” , conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center, asked people to consider the future of the Internet-connected world.  Respondents were asked to consider a couple of statements on Google and its impact on intelligence.  76% of the experts agreed with the statement, “By 2020, people’s use of the Internet has enhanced human intelligence; as people are allowed unprecedented access to more information they become smarter and make better choices. Nicholas Carr was wrong: Google does not make us stupid.”

Doc Searls, co-author of “The Cluetrain Manifesto” responded to Nicholas’ diving reference with… 

Besides finding that a little hard to believe (I know Nick to be a deep diver, still), there is nothing about Google, or the Net, to keep anyone from diving — and to depths that were not reachable before the Net came along.

There are some interesting debates here worth a read, but personally, I think how can the Internet not make a positive influence in your life should you choose to let it.  It’s about being informed, helping you solve problems and be creative, amongst other things.  I live and breathe the online life, being my job and all, but I still read a lot of books, and read them from cover to cover.  I have to admit, when faced with sifting though tons of articles or news feeds…I will skim through it – that’s not a concentration problem, that efficiency (or at least I hope it is!)

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Google Executives Prosecuted in Italy

In a potentially groundbreaking case, an Italian court has today convicted 3 Google Executives in a trial over the publishing of an autistic teenager being bullied. Whilst all 3 were absolved from defamation, they were convicted of privacy violations: The BBC reported:

“The three employees, Peter Fleischer, David Drummond and George De Los Reyes, received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant, product manager Arvind Desikan, was acquitted.

David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google and one of those convicted, said he was “outraged” by the decision.

The verdict is likely to have ramifications for content providers around the globe.

Google said at the trial that pre-screening all YouTube content was impossible.

The video at the centre of the case was posted on Google Video in 2006 shortly before the firm acquired YouTube.

Prosecutors argued that Google broke Italian privacy law by not seeking the consent of all the parties involved before allowing it to go online.

Google’s lawyers said that the video was removed as soon as it was brought to its attention and that the firm also provided information on who posted it.

As a result four students were expelled from their school in Turin, northern Italy…..”

For the full article click here

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Yahoo include Live Twitter Feeds

In a bid to improve users social media experiances, Yahoo has followed Google lead by intergrating real-time twitter feeds into their search results.

The Brand Republic reported:

From today (24 February), users will be able to experience real-time Twitter feeds in Yahoo! search. Real-time public tweets will also be visible on Yahoo!’s media properties including news, finance and entertainment

Yahoo!’s integration of Twitter aims to run deeper than the deal Twitter struck with rivals Google and Microsoft at the end of last year, to launch real-time feeds on their search engines….”

Related Links: Brand Republic Article

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Twitter hits 50 Million Tweets per day

Twitter has today hit the landmark of hitting over 50 million tweets sent per day. This is over 20 times the volume of traffic the site was  generating only a year ago, and means that is now passes myspace that is estimated to be hitting around 33 million status updates below. The Brand Republic had this to say:

“The growth in tweets has put Twitter ahead of MySpace which is estimated to be hitting about 33 million status messages per day. In January 51.6 million unique users visited MySpace in the US, according to Nielsen, compared to 21.79 million unique users that visited Twitter. The data suggests that while Twitter has an overall lower number of users they are more communicative.

The leap to 50 million tweets per day, or 600 tweets per second, which does not include spam, shows the huge growth the service has notched up in the space of three years.

In 2007 Twitter users were racking up just 5,000 tweets a day. By 2008 that figure had grown to 300,000 and to 2.5 million per day in 2009. Last year proved to be the microblogging service’s breakthrough year growing to 35 million representing an annual growth rate of 1,400%.

However, Twitter is still a long way behind social networking leaders YouTube and Facebook. YouTube is estimated to be serving as many as 1 billion videos per day…”

Related Links: Brand Republic Article

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My Fave facts from SES

I was lucky enough to attend some of the SES talks in London on Thursday the 19th. Here are some key fact from my messy notes:

- In the new MSN/Yahoo search deal – Yahoo still keeps ownership of mobile search – they ain’t so dumb afterall

- Its 2010 and we are still all struggling to prove the worth of digital to grow brands. Maybe it was a mistake to emphasize the value of a click way back when… With big brands moving lots of digital spend to Facebook will they lead the charge?

- YouTube gets 1 Billion views per day

- Facebook now has 400 Milliion users

- Last year 240 Million web enabled phones were shipped and only 200 Million laptops – was 2009 finally the year for mobile?

- ‘cheap’ and ‘free’ are the most used search terms on the Apple app store – its like search engines in 1999!

- Apps in the apple store are starting to rank in Google

- Augmented reality – well its just really cool

- New mobile buzzword – ‘location based experience’

- In April 2011 European parliamnet has decreed that all cookies will be optin – what are we doing about it?

- There are currently 2M advertisers using adwords – there are only 50,000 display advertisers worldwide! How do we increase the longtail for display?

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Google shopper launches on Android phones

Google shopper is a little like a cut down version of the previously released Google Goggles. This one however focuses purely on shopping. Just take a picture of a book/album cover etc and it will search the internet for that product and find you the lowest price. So far it works well on all the book’s we’ve tried in our office although it only finds products in dollars, heres hoping UK and worldwide results get included soon. Just search for shopper on the Android Market to find it.

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Microsoft / Yahoo Deal Approved

The European Commision and US Department of Justice have approved Microsoft’s plans to buy Yahoo’s internet search and search advertising business. The EC said the ten-year deal, which will see Yahoo’s search service powered by Microsoft’s Bing, “wouldn’t significantly impede effective competition”.

NMA Had this to say:

“The deal was struck by the two companies last July to allow Microsoft and Yahoo to compete more effectively against Google, which has almost 90% market share in the UK alone.

For the first five years Yahoo will take 88% of the revenue from all search ad sales and will be given the chance to sell ads on some Microsoft sites. For the remaining five years Yahoo will retain 93% of revenue earned.

The deal was announced a month after Microsoft lauched Bing, its lastest attempt at breaking the search market. In the six months since rollout Bing has gained traction, being the fastest growing search engine in the US in December.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said, “This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo can focus even more on our own innovative search experience. Yahoo gets to do what we do best: combine our science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for our users and customers.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, “Although we’re just at the beginning of this process, we’ve reached an exciting milestone. I believe that together, Microsoft and Yahoo will promote more choice, better value and greater innovation to our customers, as well as to advertisers and publishers….”

Other related articles: BBC

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I’d buy them…

Well, this is unheard of at Tug.  No one has mentioned/blogged/tweeted about the iPad for at least 24 hours.  I’m getting withrawls, so here’s my contribution…

(Not quite sure why I find it so funny, but I do!)

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Google Buzz Vs Yahoo Buzz …….. Erm!

Well no, this isn’t accurate at all. Yes they have the same name and yes they are both social and that’s just about where the comparison ends! So what does our Brand Spanking New Google Buzz have to offer?? Well, nothing too spectacular if you ask me, which you didn’t, so lets take a little look closer!!!  With Google Buzz you can be Social from Gmail which will send email notifications of your status and photo updates to Buzz users; but you can also send updates to Twitter…..wooooop! Anyway, i personally know more hotmail account holders than Gmail and so we find ourselves at the first obstacle. The second being our old friend Facebook! Its going to take something a little more innovative to tear us facebook addicts away from trusty old reliable, and to do it with an open mind? Good luck Google!!

Related Links: Pocket Lint Article

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