The "Perception of Free" could be the new "Free"

So Chris Anderson's latest Wired article (about how "free" is the future of business) is now the #1 viral business idea getting emailed around corporate board rooms, marketing departments, and Marketing 201 classes.

Based on how his previous concept "The Long Tail" had a long tail of its own (it still shows up in marketing presentations), you can expect this one to have a decent half life. Especially with the book version coming out next year.

It will be interesting to see how the “perception of free” works its way into the e-commerce model.

I pay $79 a year for Amazon Prime, which gives me “free” 2 day shipping on almost all orders regardless of purchase amount. Which causes me to buy more things, more frequently throughout the year. E-commerce snacking.

Apple and Nokia are looking into an “all you can eat” music device that gives you a lifetime of “free” music downloads.

Which could lead to a Long Tail of Free essay from Mr. Anderson in 2010, followed by a book. Which probably won't be free.

No Shit Sherlock headline of the day

"Clinton Promotes Elton John Fundraiser On Facebook, MySpace"

Next up: "Sliced Cheese Maker Places Animated Banners on Recipe Site"

Jakob Neilsen Trumped by Webcrawlers

Google recently announced a new modification to their natural search rankings, based on site page file weight/download time. Sites with excessive file sizes will be ranked lower than other sites with similar content. According to this Mediapost blog:

Google states that this initiative will: 1) improve user experience and 2) help advertisers improve conversion rates. Google plans to roll this out over the coming weeks and provide advertisers with load-time calculations for review. Site owners will have 4 weeks to review their load-time stats and make changes before Google will integrate load time into the Quality algorithm.

Is this Google's first step into enforcing good usability practices across the world wide web? In a world that increasingly goes broadband, does it really make a difference? Or maybe a strategic move to get sites ready for their Android mobile platform, which would benefit from faster page downloads. Whatever the motivation, MySpace page owners are screwed.

You have to imagine that the sites penalized the most will be the big marketers. The ones spending money to build big beautiful, and often Flash heavy, sites. The same ones who buy Google keywords through Adsense. Bumping them down the natural search results would be one way to force them to buy more keywords.

I'm sure the SEO companies are loving it. Especially the ones who have been quietly building up site creative/production capabilities. Nothing helps a new business pitch like showing clients that not only do they rank on page 3 of search results for cherished industry keywords, but their current agency's bloated Flash content is the cause. Better pull those HTML 3.0 developers out of retirement.

Unfortunately the sites with the slimmest file size are the fake content ones. Those run by people trying to make a quick buck by serving up a bunch of ad links on their landing page and collecting the referral fees. Which means Google might be inadvertently promoting search spam.

Next Up, Viral Email!

I think they are taking this a little too far...

Discover the power of Web 2.0 email marketing:

Take the 5 steps that lead to customer-centric campaigns delivering unrivaled results. Silverpop's "Web 2.0 Email Marketing" will show you how to fully utilize rich recipient data for strong customer engagement.

Do No Evil... Yet.

Google is hilarious. Everyone thinks they are "just a search engine." That now owns one of the largest online ad networks, the largest video repository, photos of every place on Earth, is trying to scan in all the books ever printed, and probably 15 other scary things that you haven't heard about yet.

Forget about Microsoft's monopoly of computer systems/software. Google will have a monopoly on information itself. Which, as long as they are open about it, is fine. But once they go cloak and dagger on us, then get nervous.

Two reports this week that start to make that point:

Google to media companies: We're your friend
Google has no plans to become a provider of content, but wants to be viewed as a partner by traditional media companies, according to David Eun, VP, content partnerships. Eun, speaking at a conference Monday, dismissed speculation that Google will evolve into a full-fledged content producer. "That's absolutely not the case for us," Eun said.

Google Goal: Collect All Advertiser Assets
If Google has its way, all the world's ads will belong to it. Speaking at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference, the firm discussed its brand and display ad goals, revealing its hope to become a virtual warehouse for every advertiser's ad assets. "We have a long term horizon here which is we want every advertiser in the world to put all of their assets into our system," said Tim Armstrong, Google's president, advertising and commerce, North America. "That's really what we're focused on." Kate Kaye, The ClickZ Network, reports.

No Shit Sherlock headline of the day

Online Video Will Not Replace TV

"There is no correlation between US Internet users watching video online and a potential audience for television content delivered on the Internet. Just because consumers are currently watching free, short-form video does not necessarily indicate there is a viable business model to support viewing of traditional TV content online."

Shameless Work Plug

We launched our first branded widget. Supports a music promotion for teens. Install from the promo site:

http://www.bodybymilk.com/music/

Includes streaming music and video clips. We partnered with Clearspring to produce it and measure performance.

Social Networking Marketing Reduction

Quote of the Day:

Campaign Aims To Create Buzz For Next 'Narnia' Film
"You can visit the Web site and click on the widget to upload onto the page to share," said HarperCollins spokesperson Elyse Marshall.

You know Dotcom is back...

..when the fake names outnumber the real ones:

http://www.techcrunch40.com/2007/

At Least We Beat BudTV

Our Kraft site for Easy Mac (U-Starvin) got 2nd place at the International Caples Awards.

You know Dotcom is back...

...when the Internet becomes dumping ground for things that failed in the real world:

The WB to Be Resurrected Through New Web Site

Warner Bros. Television Group plans to resurrect The WB television network in the form of a new Web site. On the site, whose working title is wb.com, users will be able to catch free streaming episodes of all WB-produced series airing on the net during its 1995-2006 run, including Gilmore Girls, Everwood and What I Like About You.

Coming Soon: Sundance Video Game Festival

One step closer to an Indie Video Game festival on par with Sundance or SXSW.

Video game industry opens its doors to upstart developers

The video game industry is welcoming upstart developers whose titles may lack polish but have style, quirkiness, humor.

This supports the trend of video game platforms going open source and user generated, about 2 years behind the Internet trend. So expect all the social media habits identified and exploited by YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, etc. to weave their way into the video game industry.

News from the recent Game Developers Conference:

Microsoft's XBox to Adopt Player-Developed Games

Microsoft Corp. said it will make Xbox 360 videogames developed by players available for download through the console's online service. The new service will double the size of the Xbox 360 game library to 1,000 games within a year of its launch, scheduled for this holiday season

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Nintendo, Microsoft Bow Indie Games Services

Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd unveiled on Wednesday new online services or their video game consoles to showcase games by independent developers, part of a push by the companies to tap enthusiasm for so-called casual games.

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Microsoft to Democratize Gaming Via Community

In a frenetic keynote address at the Game Developers Conference here, Microsoft showed off the next phase of a strategy it claims will "democratize" game development and distribution. For several years, Microsoft has been working on its XNA Studio, a platform that allows anyone to create games for the Xbox and for Windows.

But now, the company is expanding the XNA offering to allow the best community-created games to be uploaded to and distributed from Xbox Live. Microsoft is calling the new offering its "Creators Club," and the idea is to present the Xbox Live and XNA communities with a way to create games using the XNA tools, submit them for peer review, and then put the best of them up on Xbox Live.

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Wii Fit, Other Innovations Unveiled

In another move, Nintendo will launch a new online service in the U.S. on May 12 called WiiWare that will allow game publishers to distribute new titles over the Internet directly to users instead of on discs. For games distributed over WiiWare, game makers won't need any approval from Nintendo, though they must get their games rated by an industry rating system.

Just another reason why it continues to kick Hollywood's anti-consumer on-the-same-path-as-the-record-company ass.


UPDATE 12/08 = most of these links are expired. Here's more info on Nintendo's WiiWare initiative from Wired Magazine. Xbox's independent game developer community (XNA Studios) is now live. A more recent Wall Street Journal article that doesn't require a subscription to view (at least for now).