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January 17, 2008

Revision3 Continues Social Strategy with Digg Reel

Say what you will about the wisdom of the crowd, it sure makes for a great site. I find myself visiting Digg.com twice a day, where I'm led toward interesting corners of the Web. Because of Digg I read more science news and political news. Similarly with the site's videos, I find Internet sensations, potential memes, and even fun time-wasters.

Today, Revision3 launched a new show, Digg Reel, that makes finding video on the Web much easier. Hosted by Jessica Corbin, cohost of the company's Tekzilla show, Digg Reel features a rundown of the site's top weekly videos. As Jim Louderback, Revision3's CEO, describes it, "It's great for a top level filter of all the videos that are out there." After watching the pilot, I must say I enjoyed Jessica's banter, the way choice comments are lifted out of the usual Internet mire, and the fact that I can see a clip of the best fifteen seconds without having to watch the entire movie.

Digg Reel also supports the social aspects of Digg by fusing a collaboration between Web surfers and a particular site, and leveraging it into a conversation between you and the host. The viewer is drawn into a faux-intimacy with Jessica, aided by her geek-next-door likeability. It's a lot like Diggnation and the dude-tastic conversation between Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, where the audience finds it necessary to participate.

Will Revision3 continue to find success? I don't see why not, as long as the company's shows continue to fill a social niche in its fan's Web life. "Our strategy is to launch more programming that appeals to niche audiences on the internet," Louderback says.

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 6:00 AM | Add Comment

November 15, 2007

Technology: Revision3 and Blip.TV BFF!

Web video companies Revision3 and blip.TV have formed a partnership to share content, with each website posting a portion of the other company's videos. As the Internet TV space continues to evolve it is inevitable that such partnerships will happen. As another Web video exec, Azureus CEO Gilles BianRosa, told me, "The market isn't really firmly established. It is easier to identify competitors when you have a market and market share." Moves like this will help create a more robust market.

And this makes perfect sense for both companies -- Revision3 creates video content, but its site isn't much of a destination. Now Revision3 will have videos accessible in more places, and blip.TV gets a variety of content with a built-in following. Perhaps I should have seen it coming -- When asked who he considered his competition, Revision 3 cofounder Jay Adelson replied: "We really not overlapping yet. Where I see competition is who is trying to get the same advertising dollars as I am."

My guess is that the playing field for web video creators and distributors will continue to get muddy as partnerships will continue to form and the public gets more comfortable with following online television shows. Where do you see Internet TV heading?

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 12:16 PM | 2 Comments

September 19, 2007

Innovation Wednesday: Unique Social Networking Site helps Iraq War Veterans Find Work

Some returning Iraq war veterans are facing another battle at home: The fight to find a job. In fact, unemployment among young veterans is significantly higher than non-veterans in the same age group, mostly 22-24, and dramatically higher than the general population at large. This is frustrating from a moral standpoint, but also troubling from a practical one: Why aren't the skills taught in the military translating more easily into the private sector?

Continue reading "Innovation Wednesday: Unique Social Networking Site helps Iraq War Veterans Find Work"

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 2:10 PM | Add Comment

September 14, 2007

Momentum Growth Conference: Help Me Pick The Next Facebook.

In case you haven’t noticed it’s startup fever back in the Bay Area/ Silicon Valley; my trusted sources tell me that they’re partying like it’s 1999 out there. Do you blame them? Many of the hottest young companies leading the web 2.0 trend today are based there - an interesting fact in and of itself – and according to Comscore web traffic rankings, these companies are gaining hyper speed traction. So what, you say? Well, what if you could identify the next break-out company of the year? Is there a company on the horizon as interesting and disruptive as Facebook?

Continue reading "Momentum Growth Conference: Help Me Pick The Next Facebook."

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 12:44 PM | 2 Comments

August 6, 2007

Tech Monday: Fake Steve Jobs Outed

The New York Times website this Sunday had a little surprise for us all. One of the paper's best known journalists, Brad Stone, put the pieces together on who the Fake Steve Jobs really is: Dan Lyons, Senior Editor and tech writer at Forbes. I personally couldn’t have been more surprised.

Now Forbes.com has released an exclusive interview with Lyons, and the 14-month-old blog will be published on the site as of August 6th.

For all the FSJ followers out there, or even for those who've ever read a post or two, what does being busted actually mean for the satirical, and often cuttingly sardonic, voice of the FSJ's blog?

"Fake Steve Jobs will add a different voice to Forbes.com, but one that is in the Forbes tradition…" states Forbes.com Editor Paul Maidment. Hmmm… FSJ in the Forbes tradition…?

While Forbes has, in the past, demonstrated the ability to be unafraid to be controversial, how much can Dan Lyons get away with now that he's inextricably associated with the 90 year old conservative publication run by a highly controlling Steve Forbes.

States Lyons about the future publishing of his blog on Forbes.com in an interview for the site: "The deal is that nothing changes. They want it to be really edgy and fun. They're not going to edit it and they're not going to censor it in any way. They really want it to let it rip..."

It's hard to gauge reactions just yet, but companies, people, and the Real Steve Jobs now have a real live person to direct any complaints to. Forbes has its relationship with Apple to think about as well. One can't help but wonder whether Steve Forbes and company really are going to be entirely hands off about exercising editorial control of any sort on a blog that is posted by one of their employees on the official Forbes website.

And then of course there's the fact that this really is somewhat surreal. Lyons looks and sounds like an unassuming, good-natured, pretty normal sort of guy, and I for one had to make a definite leap of faith to picture him writing some of the more outrageous things that the FSJ is so revered for. Part of the problem with blowing Lyons's cover is that one now pictures the FSJ's posts as coming from a middle aged Forbes tech writer.

Will following episodes of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs be able to retain their irreverent, snarky entertainment value? I for one am curious to read on.

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 4:19 PM | 3 Comments

July 27, 2007

EarthLink's Rethink: Build It and They Will Come?

For cities that do it right, citywide Wi-Fi is cooler than just being able to check your e-mail while sipping a latte downtown – it could save money, save time, and maybe even save lives, when used by first responders and other public workers.

But to have a nifty wireless network, you have to build it first. Enter Atlanta-based EarthLink, which has been building and planning networks in some of the country's biggest markets. The company's new President and CEO Rolla Huff announced today that the company would be rethinking and likely rolling back its rollouts of Wi-Fi networks across the country.

In most cities where it's formed partnerships with local governments, EarthLink has signed on to build a Wi-Fi network at its own cost and recoup it by selling network services. But build it and they will come isn't turning out to be as much of a winning strategy as originally hoped, as I discussed in an article this week. And cities in all stages of the process are finding that legal, technical and financial roadblocks truly abound.

In EarthLink's second quarter earnings call this morning, Huff told investors that "The Wi-Fi business, as currently constituted, will not provide an acceptable return," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

EarthLink, which reported a $16.3 million loss for that period, is realizing what competitor MetroFi realized a while back – that if you're going to bear all of the costs upfront for building a Wi-Fi network, you need a good plan for making that investment back. It might not be easy convincing cities that thought they were getting a freebie to instead commit to a bigger buy-in upfront, but that's probably what EarthLink will have to do if it wants to keep unwiring the country.

Posted by Elise Waxenberg at 5:58 PM | 1 Comment

July 25, 2007

Innovation Wednesday: Advertising In User Generated Nation-Must We Do Everything?

As if programming debates and blogging endlessly about the minutiae of our collective lives wasn’t enough, we the people are now taking matters into our own cams to show the Madison Avenue ad geniuses how it’s done.

The latest entrant into consumer generated advertising is Heinz. Ketchup lovers and wannabe filmmakers have until August 6th to create and upload their own Heinz commercial to the super special website, seeking internet fame, glory and a grand prize of $57,000. (Get it? 57?) The company is using ketchup bottle labels to promote the contest – 57 million specialty bottles were made! – and according to their website, more than 1200 videos have been submitted.

"If the old model was to spend money on TV advertising to get people to go to the store to pick up a bottle, the new one is to use the ubiquitous Heinz packaging to ask consumers to generate TV ads for us," said Michael Bollinger, director of client services for Smith Brothers Advertising, via Media Post.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the impulse. A lot. I’m just watching the great User Generated pile-on and trying to make distinctions between what is truly authentic, and thereby ground-breaking, and what is merely a creative (and thrifty) use of distributed talent.

Continue reading "Innovation Wednesday: Advertising In User Generated Nation-Must We Do Everything?"

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 11:47 AM | 2 Comments

July 23, 2007

CNN/YouTube Debate: Final, Random, Biased Thoughts

The debate is over and the group is back on a conference call, ready to be debriefed by the Clinton campaign. There's a surprise guest scheduled to talk to the national throng, but a fairly heady debate breaks out while this group waits for the breathless campaign recap.

The conversation, which nearly devolves into a fight, is inspired by one of the YouTube questions: Does it bother anyone that only two families -- the Bushes and the Clintons -- have inhabited (or want to) the office of the President for the last decade and a half? The issue of dynasty bothers one member of the group, but not others. (An intense discussion of the meaning of legacy follows, along with some unprintable comments about the current President.)

The group abandoned the call entirely -- they've been on hold for a while -- in order to debate the debate, a discussion which at time got passionate. Which leads me to one of the big winners of the night -- the questions themselves.

It seems that the questions excited the group more than the candidates. The true YouTubish fare - the singing tax guy, for example - didn't get much love. But sincere questions, like the young woman who wanted to know why there were no nationwide standards for processing votes at the polls, or the man who wanted to know if Senator Clinton expected that she'd be taken seriously by Muslim countries that have alternate views on women's rights, impressed the group. These questions inspired long, heartfelt side conversations that spanned everything from modern campaign tactics to slave reparations to whether women were unfairly dismissive of other women candidates. For a liberal enclave, the debate was surprisingly varied, and in times quite emotional. In fact, the group did a better job than the candidates did in baring their souls and making their cases.

The other big winner was YouTube, which managed to solidify its brand by forcing the campaigns to create their own "YouTube" style videos which were interspersed between the question and answers - as if being able to be authentically YouTube was proof of something substantive. (FYI: My group just didn't think Biden's effort was true 'Tube.)

I didn't think a candidate emerged as a true winner, the structure didn't allow it. There were only a few truly unscripted moments, and the front runners all managed to pull off some emotional highpoints without shooting themselves in the foot.

But according to this (admittedly biased) group, the winner was Hillary Clinton. Their random thoughts:

* She articulated a viewpoint, didn't sloganeer but presented the thought process behind her viewpoint. Winner hands down.

* She seemed the most moderate - the rest seemed like left wing lunatics to me.

* Barack Obama continued to make no impression on me. I think he's clearly very smart, but just not ready.

* Yeah, but she won by not losing - it wasn't a great showing for anyone.

*She doesn't make a caricature of herself. Obama doesn't say much, so that's the reason he's number two.

* Bill Richardson is quite possibly the least likeable person I've ever seen on television.

*Biden is smart and incredibly capable, but comes across as angry. (The group graciously agreed that Biden could be Secretary of State.)

*The group expressed compassion for Obama: He's failing to meet the unrealistic expectations of the crowd. Clinton has the reverse problem of being assumed as unlikeably - so she surprises and delights by being even mildly funny or warm. (A fight breaks out about whether Clinton is mildly funny or terribly funny.)

*"I'm mildly offended by the way Clinton is being marketed by her team as "a compassionate friend" - I'm really impressed when she's being strong on the issues, not being positioned as a woman who may or may not have baked cookies."

As I unplugged, the group was still talking.

Looking forward to the view from the Republican side, when the CNN YouTube Republican debate airs in September. (I'll be hunting for a Facebook Republican group near me.) But unless the structure of the actual debate is different, I'm expecting that any group of viewers will learn more about each other than they will about the candidates.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 9:15 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate: Climate Change

A global warming question was asked by a YouTube snowman character that sounded an awful lot like Mr. Bill.

Gravel makes his case for a "fair tax" -- a retail sales tax which would encourage an overconsuming nation to stop overconsuming.

Dodd wants a federal fleet of hybrid vehicles and a corporate carbon tax.

Awkward moment alert: Show of hands -- who took a private jet here?

Clinton, Obama, Edwards all raise their hands, trying not to look sheepish. Richardson joins in with a late hand that would have gotten him disqualified from any well-officiated rock, paper, scissors contest.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 8:37 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate: The Crowd Likes The People, Could Give or Take Anderson.

Random comments from the house party (now 8 strong) on the format:

It seems disjointed and the flow is disrupted.

I like debates that have a strong moderator and that can do strong follow up, and bring the correct candidate into play.

I like the theory, I like the concept, you know the whole "democratic thing", but I think that it's basically not that different because it's the same old editorial process.

YouTube questions are more hard hitting. Some exceptional questions, but there is no follow up.

(They seem to miss Chris Matthews, even Wolf Blitzer. Anderson Cooper not cutting it.)

I like the idea, but I think it's a little misleading. It’s a "democratic hearing the people approach" but it’s obviously being edited. Some candidates are getting tougher questions, that's not working for me. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth -- it’s an editorial process. It’s being packaged as democratic and open discourse. And it's just not.

I'd rather have the journalists ask the questions and do a strong follow-up.

But some of the questions are fantastic -- and that's great.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 8:28 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate: New Format, Same Show

Although there is a poignancy of hearing from real people -- for example, the mother of a deployed Iraq servicemember, the crowd agrees that there is little different about this format that moves the ball forward in terms of debate structure.

An unfortunate close-up causes one house party attendee to wonder if John Edwards has a rash. Discussion ensues. Proof positive that the content is not that compelling. Yet.

Side talk alert: The women in the group just learned about selective service -- didn't know about it, never heard of it. Thank God for Tivo. The men are schooling the women on the issue -- raised by a questioner. The screen is frozen, sadly, on John Edwards facial rash, while we discuss.

Clinton: Women should register for selective service. Draft not so much, universal service, yes.

Obama, same question: Mentions Tuskegee Airmen, proof positive that he's black enough. And women should register, forshizzle.

Q: Will Clinton Be Taken Seriously be Muslim States Who Deny Women's Rights?

Short answer, she assures us she will. She makes her case, the crowd goes wild. Clinton looks pleased, my hosts nod approvingly.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 7:47 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate: Mary and Jen Want To Get Hitched

Kucinich: Uh, duh. Cites constitution, gets applause from the crowd.

Dodd: How would I want my daughters treated? Compassion for all; civil unions, not marriage. (He has daughters five and two? The mind reels.)

Richardson: I would do what is achievable - full civil unions and full marriage rights. Push for hate crimes legislation and abolish Don't Ask Don't Tell. Eliminate discrimination.

House party nods appreciatively. Long debate on the definition of marriage versus civil unions ensues, lasting well beyond the commercial break.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 7:29 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate: First "Third Person" Violation of the Night

Joe Biden, in a question about bi-partisan along-getting and theoretical Republican running mates, chooses Chuck Hagel as his symbolic Republican VP. He then reminds us in the ill-advised third person that Joe Biden was responsible for many great bi-partisan things. Other candidates wisely dodge the question, thereby throwing Joe Biden under the Joe Biden express.

Oooo -- Obama takes on the race card by complaining about not being able to get a cab in New York. The house party, all white New Yorkers, (not that I see race) chuckles appreciatively. Obama looks appropriately annoyed for being asked, once again, if he was black enough yet.

Hillary Clinton openly acknowledges being a woman, and manages to avoid looking annoyed at being asked if she were woman enough to do a man's job.

John Edwards doesn't want the vote of anyone who wouldn't vote for someone based on race or gender. The house party wrinkled their collective noses -- nice, but cheesy -- is the call.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 7:23 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate: Thank God For Mike Gravel

Always entertaining; the only thing that would make this house party more fun is if he were actually in the room. Watching him take wild swings at his fellow candidates is never dull.

He actually sputtered: You'll never get CHANGE if you vote for THESE PEOPLE. Utter contempt. Then he went right for Obama, and attacked his claim that his campaign doesn't take PAC money. (Question to the crowd: What's a bundler?)

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 7:15 PM | Add Comment

CNN/YouTube Debate. First Question

First question: Will you be different than do-nothing politicians who can't do their jobs?

Answer from Chris Dodd: Basically, no.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 7:08 PM | Add Comment

My New Facebook Friends: CNN/YouTube Debate

I'm happily ensconced at my liveblog HQ, aka Stacey and Sascha's house, and trying not to dissolve into major apartment envy. (The happy couple have a killer river view and a gourmet kitchen.) But more important, they are hosting a Club 44 houseparty, 450 of which are happening around the country to engage female voters in all things Hillary. (Sascha is one of two men in attendance so far.)

The mood is warm and congenial, and the couple are excellent hosts. But Stacey is deadly serious about why she's here: She's shocked that women aren't more engaged voters. "How about the women who only vote after they get married?" she asks rhetorically. "I have a friend, 35 years old, she's never voted. That's not unusual."

The party begins with a conference call from the Clinton campaign, starring, among others, Mary Steenburgen, a long time Hillary friend. It was a moving tributed, and the assembled throng - all six of them - were thrilled.

Here comes the debate....

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 7:01 PM | Add Comment

You Watch, You Vote, YouTube the Democrats on CNN

Tonight marks the much hyped debut of the CNN YouTube Debates, in which ordinary citizens run the show by asking the candidates questions via videos which they've posted on YouTube. It sounds like the making of revolutionary, true voter generated debate... except for the fact that CNN honchos have vetted all the questions in advance.

So, it seems unlikely that any full-on YouTube freakery will make the cut. (We could find out once and for all who had a sense of humor.) But whether forcing the candidates to answer questions that have been "personalized" through the experiences of real people will trigger any true authentic responses is anybody's guess.

The debate is being hosted by The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. Candidates will be squaring off against a giant video screen, which will play a couple of dozen questions that were culled from the more than 2,000 videos that were submitted.

I'll be watching and liveblogging the debate from the home of one of my new BFF's - the administrators of a Facebook group called "I'm a Girl and I Vote!" so stay tuned.

I'm optimistic. Anything that changes the current nature of political debate, certainly televised debate, would be progress. But I gotta wonder if the medium itself isn't part the problem. Anyone who has been one of a handful of citizens who have shown up at a middle school basement in the dead of winter to hear a Presidential hopeful sling chili and press the flesh has seen the low tech version: Candidates facing real questions from real people, often with a remarkable degree of authenticity. It feels like a real conversation - the good, the bad and the profound - because it often is. Showing up matters. Getting rid of the journalists may be a good first step - I admire the impulse. But perhaps losing the blinking lights, the logos, the urgent music, and the silly American Idol vibe might not hurt either.

But one issue is still nagging me. Does it matter more who asks the question or who chooses the questions that are asked? It might have been nice, as a hat tip to the participatory promise implied by a wired world, if the "people" got to choose the questions by voting for them online, rather than simply letting the usual suspects frame the debate.

How CNN chose the questions.

Check out the submissions on YouTube.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 4:29 PM | Add Comment

July 19, 2007

Web: Facebook Makes Its Move

Facebook is about to send IPO speculation into overdrive again with its latest business move. This time they are not turning away suitors. Instead, they've made their first acquisition - the company announced ten minutes ago that they've acquired Parakey, a startup run by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, co-founders of Mozilla Firefox, an open-source and non-profit web browser.

From the company's press release:

“Blake and Joe built the Firefox web browser and then turned to the developer community to build on top of the foundation they’d established, not unlike what we’ve done with Facebook Platform,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. “The work they’ve done with Firefox and Parakey and their approach to building products fit right in at Facebook.”

Ross and Hewitt are best known as the co-founders of Firefox, which has been downloaded more than 300 million times by people worldwide. Hewitt went on to build popular web development tools such as Firebug. In early 2006, Ross and Hewitt founded Parakey to build a platform bridging the gap between information on the web and the desktop.

No, we don't know how much they shelled out for Parakey. But Facebook has been on a remarkable roll with the expansion of Facebook Platform - they've grown to a stunning 31 million registered users. The only question I want answered: How many employees does Facebook have now?

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 5:38 PM | 1 Comment

July 18, 2007

Web: Can A Social Network Save Business 2.0?

Yesterday, I completely missed the news. The New York Times's Brad Stone wrote about, "Ad Downtown Threatening the Survival of Business 2.0." Forbes Brian Caulfield had even covered the impending demise of the publication, "Bye-Bye, Business 2.0."

And while I was sleeping on the development of this story, I even missed that a faithful reader, Colin Carmichael, had started a Facebook group called, "I read Business2.0 - and I want to keep reading!" The magazine's Editor in Chief Josh Quittner, who has been trying to secure private investors to keep the magazine afloat has even joined the group, along with various Web 2.0 luminaries, like Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; Matt Cohler, VP-strategy at Facebook, and others as reported by Advertising Age in "Can Fans Save Business 2.0?"

Carmichael just launched the Facebook group yesterday, and it has already escalated to 281 members.

Yet, as the Advertising Age article reports, fans have been known to save television shows on the Internet -- via blogs, forums, and online positions, but bringing this method to the print media is an entirely different thing.

The power of social networking, though, can't be denied. Sites like MySpace and YouTube have broken music artists' careers, effectively launched products into the marketplace, and have even affected the 2008 Presidential Campaign -- just look no further than sites like techPresident, a group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the Web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign.

It's definitely a telltale sign about what the future of media looks like. Not that I think print will cease to exist, in fact I'm rallying against that, but the ways in which we receive our news will be more converged. And though I know that was promised in good 'ole Web 1.0, the reality is here now.

For instance, Red Herring was completely dead in 2003, but was later resurrected by publisher Alex Vieux and a group of investors. Now led editorially by Joel Dreyfuss, the magazine has a heavy focus on its Web content, particularly its blogs, and it offers an interactive digital version of the magazine.

Using Red Herring as a case study, we could say that it's possible that if enough people want something, they'll get that something. So maybe Time won't save Business 2.0, but if the enthusiasm and evangelism of the Facebook group ends up wielding any real powers, then maybe someone, somewhere, with a fat bankroll will come to save the day.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 5:01 PM | 3 Comments

July 16, 2007

Web: Why Your Web Marketing Strategy Needs A Widget

The thing about Web 2.0 is that it keeps us on our toes, constantly changing the game. For instance, whoever thought that Travelocity's Roaming Gnome would need a MySpace profile page or that there'd be a presidential debates channel on YouTube or that JetBlue Airways could become your Twitter friend?

Honestly, there are far too many social networking sites on the Internets nowadays for any one company trying to build a brand to keep up. First you had to have Web video as part of your online marketing strategy, then you had to plug into social networks. Now the latest thing you must have, is a widget.

Back in October, Frank Gruber of the blog Somewhat Frank wrote an interesting entry, where he explained:

"A widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate html-based web page. A widget can be created for just about every site or service possible thus allowing users to pull it into personalized homepages (Netvibes, Spotback and Pageflakes), blogs (WordPress and Typepad) or other social website pages (AIM Pages, TagWorld and MySpace). "

So why does your business need one? Gruber discusses Widgets as a Web 2.0 tool, but after visiting last week's Widgetcon, an event expressly focused on widget marketing, Daniela Capistrano wrote about widgets as a Web 3.0 concept.

As page views are nearly out the door already and clickthroughs are likely not very far behind them, consumers are interacting with brands in entirely different ways than ever before.

Capistrano had this to say:

"Welcome to the Me2 Generation aka Web 3.0. It is their world, we just live in it. And as precious as your content may be to you, ultimately it means little to them if they are unable to interact with it, share it, and personalize it...

Have you made it possible for your content to live in the worlds that are important to your audiences?

We are not serving content to a passive generation anymore, satiated with just digesting our messages without any opportunity for interaction. We are dealing right now with an active generation, and we should be excited about that, because it opens avenues for not only boring-but-necessary things (like new methods of monetization) but for new ways of distributing truly creative content to passionate, informed, and engaged audiences. A true brand experience should be able to thrive in all sorts of environments."

Now that's not really her talking, it's more or less the overall message she took away from the conference. What she really had to say was this:

"I understand the urgency to monetize, to track, to measure, to control. But in the scramble to place a dollar value on every eyeball we just might be losing track of the real point - to strengthen the bonds between our content and our audience. Providing users with the tools to carry on the brand experience in useful and engaging ways is essential to remaining culturally relevant. A widget should not be seen as just a method of repackaging or recycling your existing content, nor as just a tool to create compelling experiences that inspire a viral sharing effect. I don’t believe there is a “super widget” that will save your company."

Like Capistrano, I've seen widgets used really well in teen marketing. It works because it enables younger generations to pimp out their profile pages on social networking sites, their blogs, or their signatures in HTML-based e-mail or forums. In fact I've even used a few widgets myself, to port my content from one site to another. Mostly, I use widgets as gadgets in my Mac OS on my computer. They provide quicker methods of my accessing some of my Web-related applications.

Yet it wasn't until I heard that Widgetbox created a set of widgets for Forbes.com that I started thinking about the potential for widgets beyond entertainment content and social networking.

But it also made me realize that there is the potential to overdo a widget marketing strategy. I'm not saying that Forbes has. In fact, they've created very useful widgets for their users. But what I mean is, companies could get it wrong. Companies that don't really need them may create them just because of the thinking that widgets are the next killer app -- that widgets are better than advertising.

The truth is, in this new age, the name of the game is engagement. So it's not really a banner vs. widget argument here. What it is though, is a time to be creative about your brand and about how you market your brand. What points of engagement work best for your constituency? If you're marketing to 65 year olds, maybe widgets won't matter much.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 6:42 PM | 1 Comment

July 13, 2007

CEO: I Am Rubber, You Are Glue

John Mackey, the vegan pulling down $1 a year as head of $5.7 billion company Whole Foods, the organic/natural/crunchy/gourmet chain, is taking a lot of FTC anti-trust-flavored heat for posting anonymously -- for years -- on a Yahoo investing forum about his company's own stock. Besides routing for the home team under screen name Rahodeb (Mrs. Mackey, don't you feel flattered?), Mackey also talked a heck of a lot of smack about competitor Wild Oats, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday in a front page story.

Courtesy Nicon Engineering

It gets a little more complicated: Whole Foods has found itself embroiled in an antitrust case for trying to merge with Wild Oats, that same company Mackey had described as "floundering" and a whole lot of other things in previous months online.

Oh, John. Couldn't you have just deployed a PR peon to sing your praises on the silly message board?

Despite the odd revelation yesterday, Whole Foods' stock picked up a little over 3.5 percent today on NASDAQ.

At first glance, this might look like a woefully regrettable mistake on Mackey's part. At minimum, it's certainly embarrassing, and at worst, it could help kill the deal with Wild Oats.

But on closer look, it's a very nuanced case, and the implications aren't clear. Mackey posted information and opinions about his and other businesses, but all of his posts were anonymous (though some on the boards suspected his identity).

It's certainly a faux pas, but does what Mackey did count as foul play, or was it merely "fun," as he describes it?

One ABC reporter thinks it smells like deception, and compared the Mackey gaffe with last year's controversy over the Wal-Mart fan blog that was exposed to have been funded by Wal-Mart's very own PR firm, Edelman. But is it really a fair comparison? When you put the Wal-Mart case next to Mackey's furtive forum posts, I think there's something a lot more sneaky to me about a big PR firm secretly backing what's made to look like a homegrown website.

The jury on the FTC case will be out for a while, which means we've got some time to render our own judgments. (Whatever happens, Mr. Mackey, I love those free fruit samples at my store in Chelsea - keep 'em coming.)

UPDATE: Mackey's sorry.

Posted by Elise Waxenberg at 4:51 PM | 2 Comments

July 3, 2007

Cyber Bullying: It's Not About Sticks and Stones

A lot of things have transitioned into the cyber realm. People talk online, watch television online, shop online -- they even 'date' and have 'sex' online.

A nationally-representative phone survey of 935 teenagers released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project draws attention to the fact that just one more formerly real world activity has transitioned into the online arena: Cyber Bullying.

According to the survey, "about one third (32%) of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online." However bullying was still widely identified as happening far more often offline.

The Group reports that making private information public appears to be the most common form of cyber bullying.

Fifteen percent of those polled claimed to have had someone take a private email, IM, or text message they had sent them and forward it to someone else or post it where others could see it. Thirteen percent claimed to have had a rumor spread about them online, while another thirteen percent reported having been sent a threatening or aggressive email, IM or text message. Six percent had had an embarrassing picture of themselves posted online without their permission.

Certain groups were identified as being more likely to be bullied. Girls are reportedly more likely to be bullied than boys, particularly older girls -- with 41% of online girls aged 15 to 17 reporting such experiences. Intense internet users, social networking site users, and content creators are all more likely to report being cyber bullied than others.

While the ramifications of cyber bullying may seem small to many, to those being bullied, the ease with which the Internet allows the replication and dissemination of content can cause rumors and consequences that are both far-reaching and potent.

"Bullying has entered the digital age. The impulses behind it are the same, but the effect is magnified. In the past, the materials of bullying would have been whispered, shouted or passed around. Now, with a few clicks, a photo, video or a conversation can be shared with hundreds via email or millions through a website, online profile or blog posting," writes Amanda Lenhart of Pew.

Another key factor as to why cyber bullying can be so severe: cyber bullies can take advantage of the anonymity that the online interaction often offers. This makes them more confident and less concerned with the consequences.

Fourteen year old Kirsty Perkins, who made a suicide attempt last year that was then gossiped about online, told the BBC: "It's easier for people to say things about you on the internet. People are scared to say things to your face."

An interesting direction in which to further extend existing research on cyber bullying could be to examine the premise that the characteristics, and perhaps the demography, of cyber bullies may different from those offline. Someone who is bullied severely in school may use the Internet as a forum to vent his frustrations by targeting others online -- acting as a cyber bully himself. Bullies in cyber space don’t have to be the biggest kids in the school yard, and in a world where sticks and stones really can't break your bones, it is those most adept or loose with their words who can hurt others the most.

Have you ever been the target of bullying, threats or aggressive behavior online? Why do you think people bully others online? Do you think the characteristics of cyber bullies are different to those in 'real' life?

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 4:46 PM | 1 Comments

July 2, 2007

Internet/Web: The Weekend I Got Pownced

This weekend I was whisked into the thrilling world of a private beta launch of a new Web 2.0 site, started by Digg founder Kevin Rose. A select few had invites, and they used a pay-it-forward system for sharing entry into Pownce. I got mine from Mashable.

Rose's new community site features one-on-one and group communication with friends, as well as file and event sharing, and challenges other microblogging services like Twitter and Jaiku.

I'm not certain about the benefits of Pownce just yet. It's visually appealing and has a great user interface, but for many who already use social networks, adding just one more will become overkill. Whether it can kill Twitter is still to be seen. Twitter, founded by Evan Williams, founder of Blogger and Odeo, already has a headstart with applications -- such as plugins in Facebook, Firefox, and desktop applications. Besides Twitter is mobile reader, through both text messaging and a simple mobile browser interface. Yet, that Pownce enables file sharing is definitely a major advantage. For branders and marketers, especially those of gadgets and tech products, both already have the built in audience of early adopters that you want to reach.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch did a feature by feature analysis yesterday on his site that you can read here. In his review, Arrington says:

"Frankly, unless you really like the mobile aspect of Twitter, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two services. I expect Twitter will add most of the Pownce features in the short term anyway. And many of the unique features of Pownce - like file sharing, group messaging, etc., are handled pretty well already by…email. Gmail, for example, lets users send files of up to 20 MB. Pownce lets you send up to 10 MB files, unless you pay for a pro account (then the limit is 100 MB). And email is certainly very useful for private and group messaging.

People use Twitter to quickly tell the world (or at least the people who care) what they are up to and what they are looking at on the web. Like blogging, it’s a one-to-many application that works very well. Twitter does that perfectly, and does little else. Pownce does it, too, but all the other features are really just distractions."

As expected in beta, Pownce has been choking a lot lately. Most likely it's growing faster than expected and the system wasn't yet quite ready. In fact, that might be the only thing that stops me from testing it out and figuring out whether it's a better communications tool than the umpteen others I use or not. From the point of registration, I was quickly setting up, adding friends and sharing messages about the site's advantages and disadvantages. We were even discussing Pownce on Twitter. But once I had problems getting into the site and became inundated with email notifications of all of my friends' actions (I have since turned them off), it suddenly became yesterday's news. Just like that.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 3:30 PM | Add Comment

Internet/Web: Robert Scoble at FastCompany.com

Internet personality, technology evangelist, PodTech VP, and Scobleizer author Robert Scoble now has a column in Fast Company magazine. You can find his columns on the website here. The page also features a video interview between Scoble and Ed Sussman, President of Mansueto Digital, in which they explore his column in greater detail.

Our Scoble page contains more than just his columns and videos, though. We are also providing a glimpse into Scoble's life on the Web with his link blog. Here, Scoble links to interesting items about the Internet and other technologies that he finds during his day. And he discovers a lot, often 100 links in a day.

So check out the Scoble page and delve into the insight of one of the Web's true enthusiasts.

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 2:08 PM | Add Comment

June 27, 2007

The Sound of Silence, or A Hypothetical on the Demise of Internet Radio

Internet radio underwent a "day of silence" yesterday to protest the impending royalty rate hikes that will be levied on Web radio come July 15. The protest was orchestrated by the SaveNet Radio Coalition and included popular stations like Pandora, Rhapsody, Live365, and LA-based KCRW.

The controversy has been brewing since March, when the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board determined that webcasters would have to pay a per-play fee (instead of the existing -- and much preferred -- method of allowing small webcasters to pay a percentage of their revenue). Adding insult to injury, when the increase goes into effect, it will be retroactive to 2006 -- imposing rates that, in many cases, far outweigh the yearly revenue of Internet radio stations. (To check the math equations done by some incredibly ambitious Consumerist commenters, go here.)

Continue reading "The Sound of Silence, or A Hypothetical on the Demise of Internet Radio"

Posted by Aimee Rawlins at 1:16 PM | 4 Comments

June 21, 2007

Al Gore's $100 Million Makeover

When you pick up the next issue of Fast Company magazine, Al Gore will be serenely looking back at you. We were fortunate to have Good Morning America do a quick mention of the story -- check it out here. (The video screen for the segment is to the right.) The story will be available in its entirety early next week on FastCompany.com.

As all the cash register sound-effects clearly indicate, Mr. Gore has generated a significant amount of personal wealth since he left office; this in itself is not entirely unusual for someone who enters the private sector after a lifetime of public service. Money has long been a tonic for former politicians who leave, or are invited to leave, their jobs -- think symbolic board posts, memoirs, corporate keynote speeches, a lifetime of hefty honoraria. And, after his dramatic 2000 nonelection, Gore might have limped along to just that sort of life. Significant wealth alone does not a Fast Company cover subject make, however.

In what may be one of the greatest brand makeovers in history, Gore has become an international darling, hailed as a visionary on everything from climate change to Iraq. He's an Academy Award winner, a best-selling author, a front-runner for the Nobel Prize, and a concert promoter who turned out to be a bigger rock star at this year's Grammys than the rock stars themselves.

But what no one is talking about is that Gore has also become a stunningly successful businessman and entrepreneur, using the Petri dish of business to explore his deeply felt ideas about how the world works, doesn't work, and could work better. (In addition to being associated with two of the most successful technology companies in history, Google and Apple, he has also co-founded a cable network and an asset management company, both boasting radically new, and profitable, business models. They are becoming quiet forces in their respective fields.) And this, in many ways, has fueled his extraordinary comeback.

If I believed in the concept of a “natural”, I'd say Al Gore is about the most natural entrepreneur I'd ever met. Instead, we make the case -- with his help -- that a lifetime in government actually prepared him to take full advantage of the possibilities that exist, at least in theory, in the private sector. But he brings a tremendous ability to the table -- some of the very same stuff that tripped him up as a candidate. (If you've seen An Inconvenient Truth, you know he can handle, and prefers, complex data. Tough to get a soundbite out of him. Especially if he doesn't want to give one.) He's also a person of immeasureable charm and persuasiveness; he can work a room and a Rolodex like few others. He's deeply introspective. He's got the guts to invest his own money; he's hands on, yet trusts his partners and team members. (He credits them with much of his success. In every meaningful way, this is their story, too.)

For nearly two months, I've watched crowds filled with people of every size, shape, color and perspective clamor to get a chance to greet the Veep. Just to touch him. He was the star attraction at the Tribeca Film Festival's opening gala; he conversed effortlessly with programmers at an Adobe conference -- he'd circled the globe presenting his slideshow and attending meetings at least twice in the time it took me to write the piece. The "robo-candidate" of Y2K is gone -- he appears relaxed, happy in his own skin, passionately engaged in issues he gets to choose, with an agenda he gets to set. As a result, he's reenergized both his fans and his detractors -- nobody is neutral on the subject of Gore -- to powerfully emotional debates on everything from the issues of the day to his weight. And, he is the subject of endless political speculation. Will he? Won't he? (We give our own best guess in the story.)

It comes a surprise to everyone except the people who know him and work with him, that Gore has turned out to be such an extraordinarily nimble entrepreneur. And yes, he's made a tremendous amount of money. But this profile -- a business tale hiding in plain sight -- is how he did it.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Ellen McGirt at 2:07 PM | 15 Comments

June 19, 2007

An Agile Update for Mansueto Digital

Two weeks, ago, with the launch of a new look for the FastCompany.com homepage, I wrote about our company division, Mansueto Digital (FastCompany.com, Inc.com, and IncTechnology.com) and its adoption of agile software practices as a metaphor for business strategy.

Here's an update: we've been running one of the most complex projects ever undertaken in business journalism, called the Inc. 5,000, using a variation of agile known as a scrum.

Scrum is a rugby term -- it's the clutch of guys on the same team "binding together" around a ball. The heads of one team are literally interlocked with the heads of the opposing team. Great way to communicate fast and efficiently -- but every once in a while someone gets pummelled in the crowd.

Scrum's a pretty complex metholodogy and we're newcomers, so we scaled it down to start -- we kicked off with a weekly meeting to determine our priorities, then ranked them for the coming two weeks. (The "Sprint Backlog" in Scrum terms.)

Small blue index cards recorded each task. After three hours, we dispersed to do our own work. Management (me) signed off and promised not to interfere until the next weekly meeting. In the meantime, every morning, the team gathers for 15 minutes with our Scrum Master -- (David Grossman, Director of Business Development) for a standing meeting. The team literally stands so we can keep the meeting short. We ask only three questions of everyone: What did you do yesterday? Is anything getting in your way of what you're expected to do today? and, What are you doing tomorrow? Wikipedia has a nice summary of how the process works for software development.

So far, no problems have arisen, but I'm sure they'll come up sooner rather than later.

Ironically, our agile methodology hasn't worked out as well this last week with a major software development project. The core of agile, as I see it, is a trust-worthy team. Managment can afford to give staffers great freedom in executing a project (with only intermittant opportunities to review the work in progress and change course if need be) if, and only if, they really trust their people.

Which is not so easy when you're hiring a group of expert developers to build a complex software platform. Since we're investing a small fortune to get this project done, we've had no shortage of great vendor choices.

That said, the world of open source development, and in particular the Drupal community we're working with in building our social network, is filled with both great creativity and big egos. After all, why would someone choose to become an open source developer, giving away much of their work for free, if they didn't have strong faith in their own abilities?

How is the average non-techie manager (like me) supposed to tell the difference between bluster and genius? It's not easy.

The agile process can help you catch weak performers early and correct their mistakes. The fewer mistakes that emerge at the weekly or bi-weekly show and tell for management, the more trust you build. And the more rope you can give the developers during the next "sprint."

We're not there yet with our social networking scrum process -- partly because the team is still in flux. We're nine months into a project that's probably going to run three or four months to get to where we're happy. It's exciting stuff -- our readers will love the end result, I'm sure. And with any luck, we'll build the trust with our software vendors that's necessary to run a great scrum. I just hope to not get too badly pummeled in the process.

Ed Sussman is the president of Mansueto Digital, which runs FastCompany.com, CompanyofFriends.com, Inc.com and IncTechnology.com.

Posted by Ed Sussman at 8:49 PM | 3 Comments

June 6, 2007

NBC Expands Digital Distribution of Content With Clearspring Widgets

NBC Universal has teamed up with Web 2.0 widget maker, Clearspring Technologies to make its news, entertainment, and sports content into portable widgets that can be integrated into blogs, social networking sites, wikis, and other Web sites.

Content from “Dateline,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “Meet the Press” and “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” as well as content from NBC Sports, DotComedy.com and iVillage.com will be the first available in the form of widgets.

“We want to create a fun, shared experience for our users and understand their needs as they interact with our content beyond our online properties.” Sab Kanaujia, Vice President, Digital Product Strategy & Development, NBC Universal, said . “Changes in the behavior of online users and innovation in technology has provided us with new opportunities to grow the reach for our content and brands online. Clearspring’s content syndication and distribution platform provides us a robust distribution and analytics solution for our widgets initiative.”

“By using our premium hyper-syndication platform, fans of NBCU’s programming can now easily personalize their favorite Web sites with NBCU content. This allows NBCU to lead the shift to the new distributed Web and deliver their premium content whenever and wherever consumers chose to enjoy it," said Chris Marentis, CEO of Clearspring.

CBS Interactive also recently chose Clearspring as its widget partner. These recent deals indicate that these major media and entertainment companies are embracing social networking beyond simply meeting the fans where they are by setting up partnerships with YouTube and MySpace. Traditional media companies are now becoming more interested in benefiting from making their content viral and letting fans take it with them wherever they go.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 10:47 AM | 1 Comment

June 5, 2007

What Will CBS Do With last.fm Part Deux

I've been thinking a lot about CBS' acquisition of last.fm since I first posted about it last week. Maybe it's because I'm totally obsessed with the music discovery and listening service, or it's that I'm really unsure as to whether CBS has good intentions for the company other than finding a means to further its own terrestrial radio services further.

But there are a few possibilities that could play out here. I can't deny that however it plays out, it's good for the last.fm team, that's if they actually get to stay on as promised in the deal (or even want to stay on once the true business model is set in place). For one, it makes last.fm stand out from the pack, especially from one if its fiercest competitors, Pandora.

In a recent ScobleShow video interview, Pandora's CTO, Tom Conrad, talks about his Internet radio service developing a mobile service. This is an area that last.fm has yet to tap, and perhaps the deal with CBS could make it possible. Last.fm already supersedes Pandora in technological developments with the creation of a desktop radio player, the ability to scrobble -- sync -- tracks played on your iPod, and a plethora of customizable widgets for use on blogs and social networks like MySpace. There's even integration with Facebook. Last.fm is transforming the way people listen to, track, and discover music. The company is a technological wonder, so CBS has a really good deal on its hands.

But something else I heard in the Pandora interview on ScobleShow made me realize just how beneficial this deal is for the future of last.fm. There's a movement afoot from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to annihilate Internet radio in the form of higher fees charged for playing recorded music, which means that the little guys -- the ones who offer free or suggested donation services -- wouldn't be able to thrive. In last.fm's case the CBS deal could bring a heavy influx of cash in order to keep it alive and playing Internet radio stations based on user's musical preferences.

Things could even be better for CBS. Last.fm could integrate really well into its online Viacom properties, such as MTV.com or VH1.com. Last week I spoke with a senior producer at a major media company who expects that last.fm will become a part of MTV.com's social network, making a more music and videos accessible to users. "It gives the waning MTV.com audience a place to play that is different (and better) than MySpace Music, and stops the MTV.com brand's downward spiral of staleness," he said.

Truth is we won't really know what CBS plans to do with last.fm until it does it. In the meantime I'll keep speculating and talking to experts in the industry about it. Check back in few months to see what really happens.

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 12:58 PM | 1 Comment

The iPhone and the Internet

Sunday night the new iPhone ads appeared on television. They soon appeared at Apple.com in high definition. The news quickly spread. The iPhone is being released June 29. But Apple fans are a tenacious lot and went over the three commercials with an astounding attention to detail. Additional insights and implied features were revealed--the use of the AT&T logo, the changing number of icons between different shots of the phone, the functionality of the map. The Applerati were in their element and doing their thing.

Continue reading "The iPhone and the Internet"

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 11:59 AM | Add Comment

June 1, 2007

Welcome to the New, Agile FastCompany.com

The brand new FastCompany.com homepage design that debuted today is sure to change quite a lot over the coming months.

Not because we don't love it -- we do -- but because we're adopting a business strategy based on agile development, a movement embraced by the open-source software community.

With agile, the idea is to move quickly, launching changes in a constant flow rather than accumulating a bucket of new features and releasing them all at once -- what the software development community somewhat disparagingly calls a waterfall.

Everything is just moving too damn fast to wait around for "Business 2.0" to finally become "Business 3.0." Snore. By the time you wake up, Business 2.0 is already dead.

So what does doing agile business mean for FastCompany.com?

Continue reading "Welcome to the New, Agile FastCompany.com"

Posted by Ed Sussman at 5:35 PM | 6 Comments

Who's Looking at Your Google View?

Google is bringing stalking to a whole new level. With the recent launch of Google's map feature, Street View, people are getting all shaken up about the real-time views that the Internet will allow of several cities, including New York.

According to an article in today's New York Times, one woman was able to see her own cat sitting in her apartment window. For some, this is too close for comfort and feels like a violation of privacy. In the post 9/11 world, it also raises questions of security as anyone, including potential terrorists, could use the feature to get views of anywhere in the city.

Street View is available in San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, and New York. "Street View only features imagery taken on public property," the company said to the Times. "This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street."

The launch of Street View coincides with the New York launch of Microsoft's 3D mapping tool, Windows Live Search Maps. New York is the first city that will be featured in 3D.

While it has yet to be determined the usefulness of these products, aside from the entertainment value, the big technology companies are doing everything they can to one up each other in this realm. It will be interesting to see what comes next. What features do you want to see in the maps and do you think Google has gone too far?

Posted by Lisa LaMotta at 4:41 PM | 111 Comments

What Will CBS do With last.fm?

Last night when I logged into my last.fm account, I noticed a couple of new features, or at least better organization and display of tools on my music profile page. But this is nothing new. It's what I've come to expect of the social networking music site, where members share their listening habits by scrobbling tracks they've been listening to either through the Last.fm downloadable application or a separate plugin that works with their computer music player of choice.

I've been a paid subscriber of last.fm since 2005, and over the course of time, I've watched the site grow in membership and grow in the number of tracks available for listening pleasure on radio stations demarcated by friend, group, artist, genre, or tag. Lately there's been a lot of action on the social network's site to partner with labels and independents to make video available as well. Overall, last.fm has also rolled out more new features and improvements to its UI (user interface) than any other site I've used in the last couple of years. Let's just say that I'm a believer in the product and a very big fan.

So when I heard the announcement that CBS scooped up the Web 2.0 company for $280 million and intended to keep on its management, I both lauded and lamented the acquisition. It's great news for the Last.fm guys if they can actually continue to build the product according to their mission.

What I lament is what every social networker does once their favorite site, app, or tool has been gobbled up by a larger media player. It's something called the foreseeable future, the time when exciting developments begin to cease and the community becomes stagnant. It could even mean that the site becomes an entirely new entity -- one that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the one you once loved.

And so this brings me to the big question -- what will CBS do with last.fm? Like every major media company, CBS needs to figure out how it can fit into the era of portable media, where the public listens to music or watches movies or television when and wherever they want to -- on any device they choose. It's easy to assume that the radio and television broadcasting behemoth will do exactly what was reported in The New York Times yesterday:

"CBS said the deal provided an opportunity to extend its reach online, including adding some of its own programming to Last.FM."

And even more precisely, it could be, as Om Malik wrote very early this morning:

"Last.fm could be CBS’s hedge for its terrestrial radio operations."

Last.fm isn't CBS' first attempt at remaining relevant. The company also recently purchased Wallstrip.com, a popular video and blog financial news site, and made investments in social networking on-demand video site Joost.