Can you buy virtual goods? Can you sell them? Are they real?

Ask Brock Pierce those questions and he'd likely be forced to admit that he hasn't a clue--despite the fact that he at one time owned the most promising virtual goods company in the world: Internet Gaming Entertainment.

Check out this fascinating tale of the rise and fall of a crazy business that dealt in the sale of stuff that doesn't really exist.

Using social media... the right way

How should a company use social media effectively? What srategy should they adopt? Well here's one answer at Marketing Vox (h/t iab).

The man, the myth, the legend, who inspired me...

...in every way imaginable, and whose words launched the great truck that is this blog, finally got the boot. Good riddance.

What's it cost to make a website?

That's the question posed by a new Ad Age article (subscription required) (h/t iab)--and my days at Saatchi confirms what's in this report. Figuring out how much a website or a microsite or even a rich media ad unit should cost is like reading tea leaves--there's a lot of hocus pocus involved.

Not enough porn on the Internet

So says Mark Cuban anyway...well actually he's being more specific than that--it's not the whole internet but YouTube that he's got the porn problem with. It's funny to see a guy who created one of the first YouTubes and fail at it (though make tons of money in the process), critique YouTube...a site that for all it's problems is doing okay--and best of all: it works.

GeoSmart is helping us academics

and boy it sounds cool! according to geekzone, they're gonna be giving away their web cartography tools to academic and non-commercial use--which is great news.

A Mobile App that works!

NZers now can get flight info pretty much instantly using their mobiles. Which is a good and useful thing, though it does cost money (50 cents a pop)...but oh well, at least it's useful.

At least the NZ Herald is trying

This looks like a smart move from the NZ Herald...though i don't think it goes far enough. But hey, at least they're trying...

Just ran across this Nielsen stat--thought I'd post

the Internet is surely on the rise in NZ but as of 2007 only 66% of NZers had access to the Internet at home--according to Nielsen Media Research. The WIPNZ research, of which I am involved, shows that 78% of NZers use the internet. So the figures are different probably because the question is different--one is about home use the other about use from anywhere.

Nevertheless, the 66% of home users have broadband is still low compared to the rest of the world....hopefully things will get better soon--the WIPNZ 2009 will hopefully reflect that change.

It's also interesting to note that according to Nielsen there are still some 70% of households who have a vcr at home. But when I was in Wellington in 2007, though my hotel room only had a vcr, I couldn't find a movie rental store that had any tapes whatsoever. what's that about?

My New Favorite Video of All Time!!!!!

Finally, the best video of all time is here:

i mean here

PodCasting is so OVER....isn't it?

Well maybe not...as RWW is reporting, one of the biggest podcast services (if not the biggest) claimed over 1 billion downloads in 2007. That's a lotta downloads. But be warned--there are still questions as to how many people actually end up viewing/listening to podcasts...but still--1 billion downloads.

My Take on the Giants Victory

I'm pretty sure all you football fans are going to totally understand where I'm coming from with this analogy:

The Giants victory in Super Bowl XLII over the New England Patriots was just like that time when Sarah Hughes won the women's figure skating championship in the 2002 Winter Olympics over the huge favorite Michelle Kwan (except that Kwan came in third instead of second like the New England Patriots...second went to some Russian chick).

As I recall, the whole world was just waiting to coronate Michelle Kwan...just like everyone was waiting to coronate Brady and the New England Patriots--I'm sure she was practicing just what to say to Dick Buttons at the end of her routine (just like Brady was practicing what to say to Pam Oliver)...but then Kwan fell on her ass during the performance (just like Brady when he got sacked all those times) and Sarah Hughes came in and nailed it--just like the NY Giants did with that drive at the end of the game.

Hughes nailed it! She clearly wanted it more than anyone else out there--just like Eli Manning and the Giants. She was small and overlooked--just like Eli Manning. And I think she is half-Jewish...just like Eli Manning!

It's really the perfect comparison. And I know all you Giants fans are just nodding your heads in agreement: "Fuckin-A! This internet is not a truck guy/gal is really fuckin smart! I cried when Sarah lifted her arms in the air at the end of her routine with that beaming, innocent face--just like I did when Eli raised his hands in the air with that beaming, innocent face..."

And speaking of faces...probably the most creepy similarity would have to be the fact that Sarah and Eli look like identical twins. These two were definitely separated at birth...you be the judge:

Web games and advertising

mystery games on the web are fun--kind of like that movie The Game--where things happen, people find things, post their findings to the web, new things are revealed eventually leading to a revelation of some company, band or what have you. recently, Nine Inch Nails made use of one of these web mysteries and it created a mini-web furor among fans.

that said, such games need to be carefully planned and considered before going forward--they can backfire or worse create absolutely no interest. so buyer beware.