Top 5 in Digital | June 22, 2009

1. CSI, Simpsons, are for the first time commanding higher advertising rates at Web sites than on prime-time TV. http://tinyurl.com/n82pjp

2. Internet Accounts for One Third of Consumer Media Day (US adults double their Internet consumption in past three years) http://tinyurl.com/lsedh9

3. Twitter to monetize through analytics http://tinyurl.com/n7d69w. And more on the Twitter front from the UK where more than half of Twitter traffic is sent to other content-driven online media siteshttp://tinyurl.com/lqo8e9

4. Google to launch telephony service http://tinyurl.com/nfj2p6

5. Web scoops TV with celebrity deaths. http://tinyurl.com/kllvav

Top 5 in Digital | June 15, 2009

1. By far the biggest news this week was the U.S. State Department asking Twitter to delay taking down the site for service so that communications would not be disrupted during the election protests in Iran. http://tinyurl.com/klv36p

2. Also, in a show of support, some Twitter users changed their location to Tehran to make it difficult for the Iran government to target dissidents. You’ll also note green profiles throughout Facebook and Twitter, similar to the Obama me icons during the US elections.

3. Google prepares to launch a service that indexes and ranks content from microblogging services like Twitter. http://tinyurl.com/lx2krc

4. YouTube offers users a choice to watch ads they want. http://tinyurl.com/lbcnjs

5. New search service, Spezify, launches. http://spezify.com

The Internet as a tool for political organization

Twitter has gained a lot of attention this week, not from Oprah and Ashton Kutcher, but from the U.S. State Department, which asked Twitter to delay maintenance on the site to avoid disrupting communications in Iran during election protests.

What's significant is not that Iranians are using the Internet to communicate, rather it's that the U.S. State Department has finally recognized its significance. It's certainly not the first time the Internet has been used for protest. In fact it has a long history of supporting political organization and protest.

Here are just a few examples.

1971
CTSS user at MIT sent a system-wide message (supposedly the first spam) with the following anti-war statement: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the Way.“

1989
While there is little documented proof, email was rumored to play a role in The Velvet Revolution, which toppled the communist government in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The fall of the regime has been credited to an anonymously donated valise of 2400-baud modems that were used —to circulate manifestos, declarations of solidarity, rumors, and riot news (http://tinyurl.com/lcvzow).“

1994
A revolution occurred in Chiapas, Mexico and the revolutionary Zapatistas used the Internet as a communication tool, both to post their issues and concerns to outsiders, as well as to gather and disseminate information within their community. Thus the first cyber-revolution demonstrated the Internet‘s capability to not only communicate on both a local and global level, but to also gather worldwide support.

1999
The World Trade Organization conference assembled in Seattle, along with thousands of protesters from around the world who used the Internet, including newsgroups, listservs and websites, to raise awareness, solicit volunteers and organize rallies (.

2003
The UFPJ (United for Peace and Justice) used the Internet to organize mass anti-war protests on February 15, 2003. With less than $10,000, the group organized 10 million people across 792 events on a global level in only five weeks. It was the single largest day of protest in world history (Boyd 13).

And then there's Obama, and we all know that story.

Top 5 in Digital | June 8, 2009

1. Twitter growth flat-lining http://tinyurl.com/ltvsz3

2. Is Bing the 3.0 search engine? It’s "learning" to serve ads http://tinyurl.com/nu77r4

3. Internet traffic to increase fivefold over the next five years http://bit.ly/NdgMp

4. Just a mere three years after MySpace, Facebook allows user to sign up for a vanity URL starting 12:01 EDT.

5. Web 2.0 named millionth word (other new additions include n00b, cloud computing and sexting) http://tinyurl.com/nmtnhg

The Top 5 in Digital | June 1, 2009

1. Facebook launches payment system (http://tinyurl.com/rxpjru)

2. DIGG allows community to choose advertisement (not new but gaining ground) (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/)

3. Business people: Twitter more important than LinkedIn (http://tinyurl.com/mzt6lk)

4. Why Web 3.0 should not be called Web 3.0 (http://tinyurl.com/mumuzq)

5. Zooppa social advertising network tapped to develop creative pieces for Sun. Note: these guys will be in next week presenting. (http://tinyurl.com/m34pty)

Top 5 in Digital | May 25, 2009

1. Google announces Wave, “a new in-browser communication and collaboration tool that is already being hailed by some as the next evolution of email.” (http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave)

2. 83% of the Internet population, ages 13 to 54, participates in social media, according to Knowledge Networks.

3. 31% of U.S. CEO’s are on Facebook. 14% have a Twitter profile. (http://tinyurl.com/qw5hkw)

4. NY Times names first-ever social media editor (http://tinyurl.com/6x2k9d)

5. Location-based mobile advertising takes off. “In just three months, the number of Smartphone users seeing ads inside a location-based network has almost tripled to 15%. At current growth rates, the study predicts that some of these formats will surpass mobile web and/or SMS in 2009.” (Mobile Advertising Report by Brightkite and GfK Technology 5/27/09)

Crate&Barrel launches customer reviews

I received an email today from Crate&Barrel announcing that they've launched customer reviews, along with a contest for those who submit them. I heart Crate&Barrel, and I was curious about their process, so I went ahead and reviewed my coffee maker (those of you who know me well know that coffee is near and dear to my heart).

Here are my thoughts:

First of all, good for you Crate&Barrel. Every retailer should host customer reviews. And nice job of tying the launch in with a contest to seed your efforts.


Also, good job on the process. It's easy to navigate and allows people to participate at the level they desire. They can simply rate a product or they can provide details including the type of home they live in and their style. If Crate&Barrel is really smart, they'll use this collective data one day to help guide purchases, for example, "67% of customers who live in a town home in Seattle have this type of coffee maker."



Also good ... integration with other types of social media. For example. You can easily post to Facebook. But not so good job on how this showed up on my Facebook page -- instead of showing the review or even "Laura reviewed the Cuisinart Coffee Maker at Crate&Barrel," it just provided basic text about the site and a link to the coffee maker itself. From a user experience perspective that's a fail. Maybe you can fix that?



But overall, I'm happy to see another retailer giving their customers a voice on their site. It makes me like Crate&Barrel even more.