doych

Why all the SOPA fuss??

As someone who creates content for the web, earns a living from it, and has had her content pirated numerous times, I do feel that we need protection against online piracy.

I do not, however, think that SOPA or PIPA are the legislation we need.

SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won't be effective at their stated goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners, like myself, to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites like mine won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves.

Over the weekend, the Obama administration issued a statement, saying it would oppose PIPA and SOPA as written: "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

Learn more about the blacklist bill.

Detailed information about these bills can also be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia.

Tell Congress: Don’t censor the Web

How to get beyond the message

Found a great conversation starter on Edward Boches' blog. He asks his creative audience to watch this video showcasing an idea to launch Discovery Channel's upcoming season of Most Evil.

After viewing it I thought - Absolutely brilliant. But with projects with these my left brain goes into overdrive with my right brain - I'd stress forever on userflows, and that perfect moment to reveal the show. Is there a perfect moment? Does it matter? Can the experience keep going on until each user finds their own unique "dead end" to the experience - ok, pun sorta intended but sorta not...

I smiled in the video where it says "after a while this happens to your screen..." No one seems to be able to define that perfect "while" moment for best impact on a broad audience.

Still wish I thought of it.

Japanese IA

No express lines on this one... Here you'll find a 2008 web trend map - pinned down to the greater Tokyo-area train map.

Dylan gets a Facelift.

Sorta. For all the Facebook freaks out there, Bob Dylan now has his own app where you can type in any message and have it loop. Not sure if this makes Dylan look cooler or you older for referencing, um, Dylan.

(Via fabric of folly.)

Went to OMMA

Overall a good show. The general session keynotes and panels were more interesting to me than some of the session tracks. It always comes down to how well the speaker can battle the distraction of people pouring in late from another panel that ran late.

I stuck my head into a Widget session for about 8 minutes. It was more worth the walk over for the pack of gum branded by TheEggnetwork.com. Now that's handy conference swag. Once I heard the word "Facebook" in the widget session over 33 times I knew it was time to head to "Leveraging Online Video to Drive Conversational Marketing." Saw some great examples by Coca Cola's Director of Global Interactive marketing of creating experiences through conversation, not just commercial pre-roll.

Sat in on the luncheon where James Lipton interviewed David Verklin, the CEO of Carat Americas. I think the crowd was more interested in interviewing James Lipton. That and the lovely chocolate pie dessert.

My favorite lines for the day:
JWT's Ty Montague claiming he's never seen the LowerMyBills banner eye sores. But to his defense it was presented to him as the "green alien banners" when I think they're better known as the "rooftop badonkadonk banners."
Tim Hanlon on the media panel saying "the difference with a bigger company... is that they're bigger."

Goin' to OMMA

My head is spinning just a little bit...

Video Search Optimization: Prime Time for Prime Positioning Enabling Communication to Consumers as technologies and channels evolve: The evolution of communicating to consumers Leveraging Online Video to Drive "Conversational Marketing" Widgets: Designing a Viral Brand Phenomenon Access And Activism: Harnessing Video Distribution and the Clip/Mash-Up Revolution Search Specialization and Social Collaboration: Precision for the Advertisers, Power for the Publishers Branded Games and the Many Ways to Play Email Acquisition, an Integrated Ad Inventory Model Metrics For Emerging Technologies Does Today's Online Video CPM Discussion Make Sense? Search & Display: How Effective Campaign Management Can Achieve Integrated Online Marketing Success The Future of Behavioral Targeting Starts With the Limitations of the Present Social Media: The User in the Driver’s Seat: How To Effectively Market, Advertise, and Stay Ahead of the Curve What's Going on With Media Metrics? The iPhone for Marketers The Online Video Ad Format Flop--And Boy, It's Painful to Watch!

It's all about the melons

Forget META tags... After 10+ years building and producing community websites, I can tell you that there are 2 subject areas that will always put you on top in the search engines - naked boobies and food recipes.

Even pet recipes are top in searches, especially after this year's pet food recall.

Food and cooking destinations captured fifty million readers in mid-June. Somehow, among those top 10 sites sits Pizza Hut (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings NetView):

Food Network
Kraft Foods
OmahaSteaks.com
Allrecipes
About.com Food & Drink
Yahoo! Food
Cooks.com
Betty Crocker
Pizza Hut
Recipezaar 

My curiosity led me to research the top branded search terms for the food industry (occurred last month, courtesy ClickZ)

My arteries clogged upon viewing the results. It goes hand in hand with the top 10 pharma searches - containing terms for weight loss pills, depression, and of course ED.

Food and Beverage Brands and Manufacturers		Pharmaceutical and Medical Products
Search Term	Search Volume	Search Term	Search Volume
pizza hut	2.62	alli	1.55
starbucks	1.09	chantix	0.54
mcdonalds	1.00	lexapro	0.46
transformyoursummer.com	0.96	myalli.com	0.46
candystand	0.78	viagra	0.42
subway	0.74	phentermine	0.36
dominos pizza	0.64	cymbalta	0.33
burger king	0.52	lyrica	0.30
candystand.com	0.51	herpes	0.28
dairy queen	0.50	pfizer	0.27

 

Hooray San Francisco!

So I wasn't exactly in Jamaica and I wasn't drinking Red Stripe beer - Mojitos were getting me into trouble at the Starlight Room in the Sir Francis Drake.(Wednesdays really are the best - beautiful people everywhere).

This was one time I didn't mind the need to usability test population samples around the country. I was in Evoc's hometown for a few days last week, watching high cholesterol patients interpret a website. It was great to get out of the balmy NJ weather and into the cool high 60's in San Francisco. As much as I hate the touristy shopping area of Union Square (there's a GAP or Banana everywhere, people) I admit I put down $200 in the Levis flagship store. Every girl needs a new pair of jeans that come with a hole already in the butt. And the sales woman tipped me off to a great thai restaurant.

So on my second trip out there, I once again had 2 very productive work days fueled by a healthy mix of time out on the town.

Faking it in a digital world.

Digital forensics has come along way since Lee Harvey. Check out the work being done in an interview over on Black Star Rising. (Courtesy of Scott over at Spin Thicket.)

Banner ads going for the throat

Here's a banner ad that Michael Vick might design.

Hit the smash button, start a dog fight? Luckily during the "smashing" 3 minutes I'll never have back in my day, I only witnessed: evil elf-men smashed open a dog cage; dog mauled the evil elf men.

Hmmm. Maybe the ringtone is Vick voicing over "Face your dogs!"
The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. Nice detail on the top right - "Participation Required."

Calling all space hogs

How many Earth's are needed if everyone lived like you?

This quiz is based on national consumption averages and is meant to give you an idea of your Ecological Footprint relative to other people in the country you live in.

We'd need 5.3 planets for all to live like my wasteful ways. Shame on me.

Ooo, those goody-goody Smurfs

I grew up with The Smurfs on my daily TV diet. My adoration lead me to follow this link that my friend just sent. It's a quiz, and you guessed it, called "What kind of Smurf are you?"

It's pure entertainment value for 3 minutes of your life. You'll be shown a list of Smurfs that will make you think "Oh yeah! Forgot about Snappy Smurf!"

I am proud to report I am Brainy Smurf, apparently "the only Smurf that takes everything seriously." Sounds appropriate - after the quiz I hit up Google Images to look up Snappy.

You can fit a Heiny anywhere

I stumbled upon a Dutch blog moments ago - I love when I chase a rabbit trail that only leads to a stranger beast. I have no idea what the written words are exactly saying, but this blog looks damn interesting. Enough so, that I attempted to translate the whole page in Systran with some luck.

The words I read look smart. Must be the extra vowels. They're accompanied by interesting photos and sidelined by links to such blog subjects as Film, Boeken, Filosofie, Architectuur and Schilderkunst. Thanks to Systran I learned of an art opening in The Hague called "Sixties!" and based on, what else, the 1960's.

I also learned about new Dutch postage stamps which will - get this - have mini Heiny's on them! Ten icons were created for the new 44 eurocent stamps to "represent" the Netherlands, including the Heineken Longneck, Philips spaarlamp and Bugaboo pram. And seems typical Dutch to include a smoked sausage (sponsored by UNOX).

I guess when weighing the popularity of an image of the queen over smoked sausage... well we know what won.

One icon I didn't see was a nice healthy marijuana leaf. If not, maybe a plate of hash brownies?

I swear this stuff finds ME

Uh, I don't wanna look either, buddy, but you're too damn funny not to post.

I went to flickr. I wanted to start a new group of public images to help out a friend who does great work. I researched what was out there in the construction field. I started searching for the terms "carpenter", "construction", and the like.

I soon learned that a search in flickr groups for "blue collar builder"  lists results with a group actually named "You Wearing A Glass Bowl on Your Head"

I have no idea where "blue", or "collar", or "builder" falls into this group's keywords (except maybe the blue towels), but it's entertainment that can't be coached.

If you're into latex fetishes (or maybe silicone, rubber, or vinyl), have fun searching flickr groups for simply "blue collar" (check the #1 result). It's closely followed by a group on Beaded Knitting & Crochet.

Needless to say I was too disturbed to create my own group so I'll venture back at some point. I have to wonder - don't those guys in latex overheat easily? Especially when they're photographed on a latex sheet...

Oh my god, I, like, totally like this!

You must speak valley girl while surfing this site: Like.com.

It's so pretentious that material girls everywhere are wasting their company's time spending their lunch hour surfing for black pumps like Angelina Jolie's, watches like Orlando Bloom's, handbags like Mischa Barton's, and must I go on...

Like.com's superficial displays are what they call a "visual search" site. It uses what I admit to be an impressive Likeness™ technology by Riya. They have thousands of celebrity photos with visible accessories for you to search by that accessory's "likeness." I hate the fact it starts off with the in-your-face-look-at-hot-celebrity-now-and-shop-so-you-can-look-like-them attitude geared towards the low self esteemers and teeny boppers. But I love how once you're in the search results, you can continue likeness searches on any item.

For instance, when I click on "shoes", this search allows me to pinpoint and click on what I like - a heel, a toe, a platform, and the results are visually close to what I must add to my Fall collection like. You can specify the sensitivity to price, color, shape and pattern. Whoa.

Of course some of my shoe likeness results include a $358 pair of Stuart Weitzman, or the $292 Via Spigas, but there's some reasonably priced items as well. I've only spotted a handful of retailers including Zappos, Amazon, 6pm and Yoox. So far there's no blatant advertisers other than the offering retailer, and the site does not offer clothing items.

I'll continue my search as I, like, personally, want to look just like Scarlett Johansson, so maybe these earrings will do the trick.