Buzz Friday for August 24, 2007

Here is a look at what is happening across social media and new marketing this week. If there is anything that you would like to see in this post or if you have something you think is Buzz-worthy please drop me an email or leave a comment on this post. I want to make this as beneficial for you as I can.

Buzz Friday is also available as part of the Techno//Marketer Podcast on iTunes. Click here to subscribe and take the Buzz to go.

[Feed readers please click through to the post if you cannot see the video.]

Here are all of the items that I think are interesting this week:

• If you like the iPhone, but not AT&T you may be in luck. A group of developers has seemingly unlocked the iPhone. Check out this article on Engadget.
  
• YouTube announced in-video overlay ads this week to much discussion, debate and outright anger from some users. They've since announced that ads will be optional and controlled by content creators.
  
• WalMart is on Facebook....yes I am serious here. Jeremiah has a good first look at what is happening there.
  
• People are still having fun with Microsoft's Zune and the rumors that they're releasing a phone too.
  
  
  
• Do you like bacn? Bacn is the newest hot slang floating around the Net. Basically it means all of the email that you get from social networking sites that you want to read, but wish wasn't in your inbox. More here.
  
• Google may work to create a NYC mass transit guide reports Bloomberg.
  
• Many companies are banning Facebook as office productivity sags. I personally like Neville Hobson's take on it "don't just ban Facebook, provide guidance".
  
• The NY Times launched MyTimes. Is this too little way too late? Seems like it should have come out 6 years ago.
  
• Tired of shopping online by yourself? Visit CrowdStorm and shop in a community of users.
  
• Rumors of a Google phone + CEO talking about "probably" bidding on new wireless spectrum = confused, but possibly excited public.
  
• Patrick Schaber at Lonely Marketer had amazing coverage of SES San Jose last week. Check it out if you want to catch up and see what happened. This post on image marketing was particularly nice.
  
• Are you still pitching bloggers with the same old generic email or press release? Want to pitch bloggers the right way? Take BL Ochman's great advice.
  
• Are you starting a new company blog? Do you want to get a lot of subscribers right off the bat? Tap your client list and optimize your content offering as Brian Clark suggests.
  
• Twitter is finally rolling out some real value-add enhancements. Check out the people search on the main page.
  
• Adobe's new Flash player will support HD video. This will hurt services like Joost, et. al. who were counting on p2p delivery or other non-traditional delivery of video.
  
• MTV, Real and Verizon have joined forces to offer up a new music service. Does this sound like a good move to anybody out there? Real is dead, MTV's audience is on iTunes more than any other group and Verizon isn't innovating anything.
  
• Scott Weisbrod points out a new Forrester report on the death of the traditional marketing funnel. I agree with David Armano that their illustration is confusing and like his much better.
  
• Google's added map embedding now so you can copy a map into a website or blog with very little technical assistance.
  
• Rohit @ Influential Interactive Marketing has a great post on how to sell social media to your boss. Anybody have any other tactics?
  
• Zoho Writer has used Google Gears to offer offline support. This is going to happen more and more as people take the online apps offline.
  
• US-based social net Bebo will offer Windows Live Messenger as its sole IM solution.
  
• Wanna kick it old school with a mix tape? How about Mix Tape USB?
  
• I wish Starbucks would do this. Dominos Pizza is accepting pizza orders via SMS in the UK.
  
• Nokia's killer N95 phone looks to be coming to the US.
  
• Christopher Carfi at the Social Customer Manifesto has a nice presentation about business blogging.
  
• What did you learn from Skype's outage? Some people benefitted.
  
• If you want to get out of your Verizon contract, you will have to actually die. Faking your death will not cut it.
  

Top Five Web2.0 Movers of the Week (using Alexa data)

1. Skype [remaining buzz from service collapse]
   
2. Geni
   
3. CrazyEgg [boosted from controversy with YouTube ad format]
   
4. Slide [Facebook applications keeping them high on the chart]
   
5. blip.tv
   

More

Top Ten Marketing Blogs from Viral Garden

1. Seth's blog
   
2. Gaping Void
   
3. Duct Tape Marketing
   
4. Logic + Emotion
   
5. Search Engine Guide
   
6. Diva Marketing
   
7. What's Next
   
8. Daily Fix
   
9. Drew's Marketing Minute
   
10. Converstations
    

View the top full top 25

Top Ten Marketing Blogs from the AdAge Power 150

1. Seth Godin
   
2. Pronet Advertising
   
3. Micro Persuasion
   
4. Copyblogger
   
5. Search Engine Watch
   
6. Search Engine Land
   
7. Adrants
   
8. Online Marketing Blog
   
9. Adverblog
   
10. Publishing 2.0
    
11. PSFK
    

View the full list here

Top 5 "Viral" Videos This Week

1. Cheney '94
   
2. Insane Wave pool in Tokyo
   
3. Gregorious: NMKY
   
4. Content Aware Image Sizing
   
5. Stop SPP Protest
   

More

---

To help you stay on top of what is happening and to filter the myriad options, you can now subscribe to the Techno//Marketer podcast on iTunes. Get updates in real time when new videos become available.

If you use another podcatcher you can grab my podcast RSS feed here.

---

You can watch this and other Techno//Marketer videos on your video channel of choice:

   
   

Technorati Tags:
trends, buzz, buzzfriday, matt dickman, Techno//Marketer

Comments

[Russell Heimlich]

About the whole YouTube video ad overlay, I don't care what they say these ads are annoying. And because they are distracting they will ultimately be a complete failure for YouTube -> http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/why-youtube-video-ads-will-ultimately-fail/