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Google buys into the in-game ads game

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Adscape MediaAdscape Media is a company doing ads for games, as in in-game advertising. And now they’re owned by Google. This has been rumored for some time, but now it seems official.

So what does it mean? Adwords for online gaming? Living billboards in Counter-Strike showing perfume ads? Could be, but it seems Google haven’t decided yet themselves. Some sort of video ads seem likely, and Counter-Strike is a good example of a game where they could easily be implemented. It would be a lot harder to launch a cell phone ad campaign in World of Warcraft since it’s just out of place…

We’ll see. Google jumping into the in-game ads business is an expected move, and although they’re not talking about how this will work out, they are likely to have a plan. After all, the concept isn’t that new.

Originally posted on March 19, 2007 @ 6:15 am

Interview with Eric Heikkinen of Pligg

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Pligg, for those that don’t know, is a content manage system package that allows you to have your own socially driven site up and running in a matter of minutes.

Pligg is unique compared to most other content management systems because of its flexibility. A web designer can do pretty much anything with Pligg because the software was designed to be used in as many ways as possible. Not only can a person with very little knowledge of PHP and MySQL install it, but they can modify and administer it with relatively little difficulty. For those who have a greater understanding of web languages, Pligg can act as the first step in a highly customized personal content management system.

But there is legal trouble in Pligg paradise, and it’s not coming from Digg or any of the other major players in the socially driven space. A former contributor to the CMS is planning on taking the rest of the Pligg development team to court. Free Software Managed to get an interview with Eric Heikkinen, the co-founder of Pligg.

Originally posted on March 19, 2007 @ 1:32 pm

One Number To Rule Them All

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If you are a minimalist with only one phone number that everyone can reach you at, and you are satisfied with that, this post is obviously not for you. On the contrary, if you are like the rest of us and have a cell number, a home number, a work number, and on the off day you’re traveling, a hotel number, there is a new way to use your phones.

GrandCentral, a new service fast approaching release, solves the multiple contact numbers problem. By signing up, you get one unified number that you can hand out to people, and when they call that number, all your contact numbers ring simultaneously, allowing you to pick up whichever one you’re closest to.

No longer will anyone have to track you down by dialing each of your numbers in turn. No longer does it matter if you’re home, at work or on the road. Your new GrandCentral phone number will find you.

Furthermore, all your voice-mails are aggregated in one place, and you can access them in three ways:

  1. Receive a text message on your cell and dial in from any phone number.
  2. Listen to them on GrandCentral.com
  3. Be notified via email and check them online.

The service is free if you are unifying only two phone numbers, but costs $15/month for up to six phone numbers.

Tim O’Reilly thinks the Web 2.0 address book may have arrived. [via NYTimes]

Originally posted on March 18, 2007 @ 2:11 pm

The pre-loaded search war escalates

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Windows LiveArs Technica reports that PC manufacturer Lenovo will pre-load their computers with a Live.com search bar. This is of course a result of a deal between the Chinese company and Microsoft, just like Google and Dell are doing.

While this is not a craplet (a piece of unnecessary software forced onto the user by the manufacturer) it might be annoying enough to have to change your default search engine and perhaps start page on your brand new computer. It’s easy enough, but the idea is that users won’t bother with it, or just be as happy with Live.com search as they were with Google or whatever they previously used.

Expect more embedded online services in your computer. Vista gadgets and OSX widgets, stuff like that will be pushed on us with our OEM operating systems. The way out of it, of course, is to buy a stand-alone system, format your brand new pre-installed computer and install a clean system without all this crap. I’ve been doing that for years and won’t change the tactics.

Still, the majority of users won’t bother, or even consider, reinstalling. They accept the craplets and pre-loads because they don’t know they can remove them.

Originally posted on March 16, 2007 @ 4:15 am

New Media Wire – Fri Mar 16, 2007

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Types of Blogs – A Taxonomy

Tom Haskins has defined four types of blogs and different motivations for blogging [via Creative Think]:

  1. Distraction blogs.
  2. Archive blogs.
  3. Conversation blogs.
  4. Democratic blogs.

Each type has a different value to its respective bloggers. Of course some blogs may be a hybrid of two or more types – particularly #2 + #3. Haskins also talks about three transitional forms of blogs, which do not fit into the above four categories.

Top 100 Media Blogs

Mequoda Blog publishes their own Top 100 media blogs list, with a break down for a number of categories: # of unique visitors (UV) from the USA, # of sessions per UV, # of pageviews per UV, # of seconds per UV, and the origin of the brand. In the top 10, there is one media blog with a newspaper origin (#2, USA Today) and one with a TV network origin (#7, MSNBC). All the rest began life online.

The good news for print publishers is that a signficant number of media blogs in the rest of the Mequoda Top 100 are of newspaper, book, magazine, or newsletter origin. However, contrast this statistic with the fact that these sites are also amongst the lowest in terms of number of sessions per UV (i.e., repeat visitors). Which means they have some work to do in drawing back visitors.

Where To Sell Your Blog

So maybe your blog isn’t in Mequoda’s Top 100 media blogs list. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value that someone else might want. If you’re thinking of selling your blog or website, chek out Amit Agarwal’s suggestions at the ever-popular Digital Inspirations, which includes a short list of resources.

Originally posted on March 16, 2007 @ 7:44 pm