April 2006 Archives

Billy just sent me a link to a great piece on Google's total unaccountability.

In particular, I am concerned at the fact that both advertisers and syndication partners are denied the right to audit the figures produced by Google. All you are provided is an average cost per click figure, together with the total revenue for the day.

This is unacceptable for many online publishers as it means that you are unable to correctly identify the amount of money owed to you, nor are you able to identify areas of growth (particularly in regards to the type of advertisers your users are clicking on).

and it goes on... well worth a read. In particular, the author also outlines how Google's position on VAT means European AdSense customers will struggle to avoid the Exchequer a knocking...

Mainly I'm telling you this because it permits me to use the word "viscosity" and I never get to do that.

I love the way this guy writes. Less crazy about his baking skills though. thanks chris

So somebody tell me how the creationist mafia is managing to skew Google's video search results? It seems like whatever you search for on video.google the results are at least 60% creationist films. Weird.

• When did IT become IS?
• The bad guy from Goldfinger apears as the prince of Vulgaria in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
• I interviewed a guy who worked in a bottling plant the other day and he keeps a blog, uses a Symbian cameraphone and keeps his photos of rally cars on Flickr--citizens media isn't the voice of the elite it would seem:-)

Prolific Web2 blogger Dion Hinchcliffe comments on the Tahoe campaign fallout (The Web-Powered Control Shift: Social Computing (web2.wsj2.com)) and reading his blog--actually, I tend to spot his awesome graphics on Flickr first--I was reminded how hard it is for ad agencies (such as the one where I spend my days) to generate creative that invites co-creation and does generally give a stake in the outcome.

More often than not, the stake is more of a stick twig, maybe having your words appear on a website or entry into a prize draw. I mean sure, a lot of agencies are 'getting it' but can't we do something better?

After finally tracking the website down (it's all Flash of course, so that even if "moonbathing" had become a popular tag, googling it got you nowhere) I spent ten minutes the other day inputting garbage into the Levi's moonbathing site (something about time travel, base-jumping off a Park Lane hotel roof and a bunch of other gibberish). It just doesn't deliver any sense of satisfaction, worth or fun. Mebbe I'm just getting old, but I've been describing the internet as a collaborative space for the last ten years and if this is as good as it gets I'm a wee bit depressed...

One thing I'm increasingly noticing is initiatives that are much more inclusive being driven by PR companies and I'm guessing this will increasingly become a challenge to us agency folk.

(btw, just dug out the Levis uri again. It's http://eu.levi.com/index.jsp?lang=en&region=uk -- catchy, no?)

American car company Chevy decides to let folks create their own Chevy ads (very zeitgeisty dear, well done...) and then this nice man decides to use the same tool to point out how evil the SUV is.

Nice.

(And yes, I still own a Jeep. It's long story)