Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Marketing/Branding/PR (Page 22 of 29)

Widgets…Gadgets…Wadgets?

May 5, 2007 / / 2 Comments

Could another Web 2.0 technology fusion be on the horizon? As in, widget meets advertising, new love affair blossoms? That would seem to be the gist of the latest online advertising development, with Google now saying it will do a full launch this summer of its Gadget Ads. Wadgetgraphic It didn’t take the 800-pound gorilla long to figure out that advertisers were coveting all the space that content publishers have been devoting to widgets. Many of these advertisers would naturally like to push their wares inside little embedded, interactive pieces of web real estate, too. It’s not just about getting a click-through; these things offer great branding possibilities as well.

Steve Rubel reported yesterday about this latest move on his Micropersuasion blog under the headline, Google Widgetsense Is a Reality. He based his post on a piece Niall Kennedy did a bit earlier, called Google Gadgets Are Now an AdSense Unit. That, in turn, was based on news broken at an event by Tameka Kee of Online Media Daily: Google Tests ‘Gadget Ads’. And it was all later breathlessly reported by Pete Cashmore at Mashable thusly: Gadget Ads!. Got all that? Such is the blogosphere — and all that reporting happened in a matter of a few hours!

Just a few weeks ago, in a guest post I did on Read/Write Web from the Web 2.0 Expo in SF, entitled Widgetsphere: New Playground For Marketers, I raised this question of where does a widget stop and an ad begin? Well, it appears the line is growing fuzzier as we speak. Capitalism marches on!

UPDATE: To accurately label Google as an 800-pound gorilla, not an 80-pound one. 🙂

Apple Blows Through 100; Jobs Safe?

April 25, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Well, the Wall Street Journal just reported Apple’s latest blowout numbers:

“Boosted by demand for iPod players and Macintosh computers, Apple reported its profit soared 88% to $770 million and revenue reached $5.26 billion. The company shipped 10.5 million iPods, up 24% from a year ago. Mac shipments rose 36% to 1.5 million machines. ‘The Mac is clearly gaining market share,’ said CEO Steve Jobs. Separately, a group of Apple board members issued a statement defending Mr. Jobs from accusations tied to the company’s stock-options backdating. The directors said they have ‘complete confidence’ in Mr. Jobs’s ‘integrity and his ability to lead Apple.’ Apple shares jumped 10% to $102.55 in late trading.”

Stevejobs_3 Gee, I guess you could say the market likes it? And this after a page-one Journal story today suggesting Jobs knew more than previously reported about his company’s options backdating. To hell with that, the market seems to be saying — just keep giving us those good results.

Up 10% in one day? Amazing…

Web 2.0 Expo: My Recap on Read/Write Web

April 23, 2007 / / 1 Comment

Just saw the post up on Read/Write Web that includes my recap of the Web 2.0 Expo event last week in San Francisco. Web2expo Richard MacManus published his take earlier, then followed with this one that includes my thoughts and those of two other writers that contribute to R/WW and happened to be at the event.

By the way, congrats to Richard on the fourth anniversary of Read/Write Web! He’s come a very long way since those early days — from spare-time sideline to media property. Quite an entrepreneurial story, and one with a international component, too, since Richard has more of a global bent being based in New Zealand. Readwriteweblogo
Richard also used to blog for ZDnet, but now is fulltime on R/WW. What makes the blog so well followed is that it does analysis, not just news bursts about the latest deals and startup launches (though it covers its share of those, too). It’s been amazing to watch its growth.

Web 2.0 Expo: My Coverage on Read/Write Web

April 20, 2007 / / 1 Comment

My first guest post went up on Read/Write Web a couple of days ago. It’s called Widgetsphere: New Playground For Marketers, and it’s about a session I attended at the Web 2.0 Expo this week in SF. Readwriteweblogo The CEOs of two widget syndication networks, Widgetbox and Clearspring, spoke about how widgets are becoming a must in the Internet marketer’s toolbox. (I covered Widgetbox a bit back in September 2006 when they debuted at DemoFall.) Widgetboxlogo

Anyway, it was fun getting to Web 2.0 Expo and meeting Richard MacManus, editor and publisher of Read/Write Web. What a hard-working guy! And now a media mogul in his own right… 🙂 He’s based in Wellington, New Zealand, but flew to California for a few weeks to attend the Expo and do some other business. Clearspringlogo Watch for another link to Read/Write Web soon, a recap of the whole Web 2.0 Expo experience. And I hope to be writing for this great blog again in the future. It was also fun hanging out again with Alex Iskold, a regular writer at Read/Write Web, who’s also founder of AdaptiveBlue. Alex is not only a smart guy and a great writer, but a fun guy, too! We had some laughs at the party Tuesday night snatching appetizers from the carts as they wheeled by on the way to the buffet lines, which were waay too long to stand in… 🙂

GetGoMN Gets Goin’ – and I’m In!

March 4, 2007 / / 2 Comments

A new web site for Minnesota entrepreneurs, investors, and the people who support them was unveiled this week at a press conference hosted by Governor Tim Pawlenty at the Capitol. I was invited, and did manage to get one good photo of the festivites in the very grand and impressive Governor’s Reception Room. [It was an interesting juxtaposition, talking about a new web site in the midst of all the historic surroundings.] I also got to meet the Gov, and I’ll tell you why I was there in a bit.

Govatpodium499w

GetGoMN is a free service and aims to be nothing less than a MySpace for the state’s entrepreneurs and angel investors. It’s been in the planning stages for more than a year and is a unique collaboration of nine of Minnesota’s leading institutions in education, government, and business. I like the goal of GetGo — it’s simply this: “To make Minnesota a better place to conceive, build, launch, and grow new businesses.”

See how the Star-Tribune covered the news: Website Calling Business Angels. Other local media outlets ran items as well, including The Business Journal. And here’s how my friend and fellow MN blogger, Garrick Van Buren, wrote about it at MNteractive.

GetGo is a great new tool that will help Minnesota entrepreneurs, investors, and supporting organizations find and keep track of one another. But it goes beyond just connecting — it provides a way to share and manage all the documents and information relating to those connections (securely!).

The one-liner is this: “GetGo is where Minnesota’s entrepreneurs get connected, get resources, and get going.” Love that!

Now, more about why I was at the press event, and what this has to do with me: I’m very proud to say I’ve been tapped to be GetGo’s “chief evangelist”! [I’ve always wanted to have a title like that — thank you, Guy Kawasaki, for inventing it… 🙂 ] What does it mean? What will I be doing? Well, I’ll be launching a blog at GetGoMN.org, for one thing — where I’ll now do all my Minnesota-related blog posts. [I’ll reserve Tech-Surf-Blog for things of a more general, national, or global interest. Well, maybe an occasional Minnesota item…] I’ll still be doing my consulting, or course, since this is only a part-time gig. But I’m extremely excited about the potential of GetGo, and really look forward to working with the three founders of this great new site: Tom Kieffer, Scott Litman, and Dan Mallin. They’re really the “chiefs”… 🙂 But I very much share their vision for the site, and I look forward now to working even closer with Minnesota entrepreneurs (if that’s possible!)….

I ask all of you for your support, and keep in mind that the site is just out of beta, so there are still kinks to work out, and lots more good things are yet to come. I’m excited, too, that membership at GetGo, after only a few days, is already exceeding expectations. In the last few days, I’ve invited several of you into my first network at GetGo (which is for my consulting company, GT&A Strategic Marketing), and will be happy to get more of you into that as we get started on GetGo. I’ll have a blog there, too! Many networks are being created as we speak. Start one of your own!

It’s official: entrepreneurship in Minnesota just took one great, big step forward.

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