Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy have both long been linked as Trent credits Peter for breaking him into radio (see end of Youtube video below). Matt Cutts pointed out some of NIN’s best practices pointing to Bill Slawski’s post on Indsutrial Music Marketing. I’ll add another example. Last year, Trent and Peter toured together and did some pre-show perfomances together in various places. They were on a page where you could download them. Due to that they are now on Youtube. I post Trent singing the Bauhaus classic “Bela Lugosis Dead” and Peter Murphy’s “Strange Kind of Love” for your enjoyment.
Month: March 2007
The Consumerist Vanishes From Technorati Again
Ben Popken’s blog the Consumerist has had this problem where it is not showing up in Technorati for quite some time.
Ben writes an amazing and passionate blog with outstanding content, much of it contributed by users. Ben was quite helpful to me when my Mom had a recent Comcast problem and got me in touch with the right people to fix the problem. Stated simply, he is a blogger that cares about much more than just himself and truly cares about creating a world where the consumer is treated both fairly and with respect.
We’ve written to Technorati and they’ve in fact added his blog – but Technorati has some programming glitch that keeps dropping his blog out of their index shortly thereafter no matter how many times they add it back. Based on that brief glimpse that Ben and I saw, The Consumerist was on the verge of becoming a Technorati 100 blog. Enough is enough, Technorati needs to fix this permanently as this blog is too good and too popular not to be properly indexed by Technorati.
Chicago GSB – Nobel Prizes
I found this old “ad” from an April 1st issue of Chibus, the Chicago GSB newspapertalking about the nobel prize…I think alumni would also like to see a much higher level of service from the Chicago GSB.
Coffee With Pete Prestipino
This morning I had coffee with Pete Prestipino. Here’s a picture of him and his wife.
Online Publishers Association Releases Web Report
The Online Publishers Association released a report entitled “Going Mobile: An International Study of Content Use and Advertising on the Mobile Web“
Highlights Include:
- Advertising works on the mobile Web — both in terms of receptivity and action.
- Brands play a significant role in driving mobile Web activity.
- People depend on the mobile Web for key content and are actively registering, personalizing and paying for content.
- “While people often think of the mobile Web as the realm of ringtones and messaging, it is clearly a rich platform for quality content and marketing,” said OPA president Pam Horan. “Mobile content consumption is high and growing – in the year ahead, current users plan to spend more time with the mobile Web and new audiences will adopt the platform. Additionally, a large number of consumers are watching ads and acting on them. The OPA ‘Going Mobile’ study indicates that very real opportunities exist for marketers and publishers to take advantage of the mobile Internet.”
If you look through the report, please keep in mind the frame of online publishers as there are other sectors not discussed and to draw broader conclusions based on this subset could be a mistake!
Microsoft Executive Departures
The Wall Street Journal reported today that “Christopher Payne, who most recently served as vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Live Search group(formerly MSN), is leaving the software company, according to people familiar with the situation.
It then goes on to say, “A person familiar with the situation says that Mr. Payne is leaving to start his own company, to be based in Seattle. A spokesman for Microsoft wouldn’t comment. Mr. Payne’s departure comes amid a broader set of changes wrought by Microsoft Senior Vice President Steve Berkowitz, who was hired last year from search engine Ask.com to head Microsoft’s online group. On Monday Mr. Berkowitz named three new marketing managers to the online group, including one who will oversee search marketing.”
The article also states that Vice President of AdCenter, Blake Irving will retire this Summer.
Current analysis: There is evidence in my recent queries that live.com is becoming equal to Google in terms of search result quality. It is my belief that is where the problem resides. They need to be better, different and/or provide unique value by a wide margin to get people to switch. This didn’t happen yet because to date they have hired people from Google and elsewhere to rebuild the same wheel in much the same way. To me, the proper next step is to hire a larger number of people with strong competencies from other businesses that have created world class user experiences in different disciplines to curiously question conventional search industry thought processes to create innovation. To mature fully, successful search companies need to build strong cultures that reward and encourage the hiring of fresh voices with passion to build a product that is differentiated and then be able to communicate that value proposition clearly that resonates with both B2C and B2B audiences.
Illinois Innovation Accelerator Fund (i²A) Launched
It has arrived! The Illinois Innovation Accelerator (i2A) Fund, a $10 million seed-stage investment fund with an initial closing of $6.4 million in capital commitments. The i2A Fund is a member managed fund that will be administered by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center. The fund will make investments in well managed seed-stage companies in Illinois or willing to relocate to Illinois that have a demonstrated value proposition in a given market for their products or services. The fund will make investments ranging from $250,000 to $1 million in each company.
I’m hoping it’s the first of many! There are many fine upstart companies here in Chicago starving for capital. I know David Weinstein and his crew worked hard on this and I’m hoping it’s a great success.