CBS Unwires Manhattan With Wi-Fi

CBS has been the most aggressive of the major broadcast networks in trying to associate itself closely with the prospects of the Internet. The network announced today they would deploy a Wi-Fi HotZone called the "CBS Mobile Zone" through midtown Manhattan.

This will be part of a joint experiment in the six-month pilot program CBS has running with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Transit. They hope to determine how effectively communications over Wi-Fi will work throughout the area.

One might have expected Google to be part of such a project, considering its previous dalliances with Wi-Fi in its hometown, and past projects with CBS. But there’s no mention of the dominant search advertising company, or any other search company, as CBS holds this effort as closely as possible.

They do have several Web 2.0 names taking part, with Tropos, BIG, Fon, Ning, Goowy, Veoh, Yelp, 1020, Aptilo and Can-Do Entertainment all named in a statement from the network, with plans to add more.

A CBS spokesperson said the network will provide connection speeds topping out at 5Mbps. Connections through the network will support VoIP as well as Internet access.

Their initiative coordinates CBS properties in a sophisticated way. Transmitters will be placed on billboards operated by CBS Outdoor, and on panels above subway entrances within the coverage area. They also plan to offer free Wi-Fi routers to local businesses, so they can offer access to customers and staff.

Monetization potential also looks promising, in a "Minority Report" way. CBS touted its interactive advertising as something they can target to individual billboards within the Zone. Financial giant Citi, and Salesgenie.com, have signed on as initial sponsors.

CBS also promoted the "hyperlocal" focus of the Mobile Zone’s ad-supported homepage, where people will see news, sports, weather, and other information. They also plan to have a social network as part of it, and the ability to search for nearby restaurants, shops, and entertainment, with accompanying reviews from Yelp.

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Cybercitizen(R) Health v7.0 is a multi-year, multi-client study and advisory service focused on understanding consumers’ use of information and technology for healthcare.

Included in the findings are three trends pharmaceutical marketers need to consider for 2008.

The three findings that marketers need to consider are:

1. Justifying the Internet as a Channel to Reach Consumers

2. Taking True Direct-To-Consumer Innovation to the Internet

3. Accepting that Web 2.0 is here and testing next-generation apps

These findings are based on a random digit dial, telephone-based study conducted among more than 4,300 U.S. adults from July 2007 through October 2007. In addition to the data collected, Manhattan Research clients received strategic deliverables including research reports, client briefings, and access to the Manhattan Research analyst team to answer specific questions.

According to Mark Bard, Manhattan Research President Mark Bard:

“With DTC marketing in a state of flux, and a mass industry resource consolidation taking place, it has become paramount for pharmaceutical marketers to use more efficient methods and channels to broadcast their message to a consumer audience…”

Manhattan Research will review the entire study findings and the three emerging trends in an upcoming webcasts to be held on November 7th, 2007. Mark Bard, President of Manhattan Research, and Meredith Abreu, Vice President of Research, will speak at the webcasts.

The complimentary webcasts will be held on November 7th at 11am and 3pm Eastern Time. To register, go here

Additional information about the latest Cybercitizen(R) Health data, including the three emerging trends are listed below:

1. Beyond Justifying the Internet as a Channel to Reach Consumers

With the latest research showing that consumers are online in increasing numbers for health (131.8 million today), most pharmaceutical companies are moving beyond the need to justify a web presence and instead face the challenge of strategically integrating the channel into an overall consumer marketing strategy.

2. True Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Innovation Is Taken to the Web

In an environment of decreasing advertising budgets, flat ROI, and other budgetary pressures, pharma will rely on the web to broadcast its message efficiently to a critical mass of the target audience, while using increasingly complex segmentations to target content to the appropriate audience.

3. A Glimmer of Light at the End of the Web 2.0 Tunnel

Though pharma still lags behind other industries in its overall level of marketing and advertising innovation, pharmaceutical marketers are beginning to test the waters with next-generation applications such as broadband video messaging, pre-roll advertising within embedded video, social networking, user-generated content, widgets and online communities.

In addition to Cybercitizen(R) Health, Manhattan Research conducts numerous research studies and offers advisory services related to consumer and physician pharmaceutical marketing in the US and in Europe.

Each study serves a unique purpose and focuses on different aspects of information technology adoption. Studies can be segmented by more than 50 consumer therapeutic areas and 25 physician specialist segments.

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The Google LatLong blog actually collected four of them over the past week; two center on New York, and two were highlighted for their European relevance.  The first of the NY maps is titled “Queen’s Jazz Trail,” and documents “Homes of Jazz Greats and other notables in Queens, NY.”  Credit goes to David Bellel for creating it, and to Google’s Liz Xu for publicizing his effort.

Xu, a software engineer, also makes note of Bellel’s “Famous & Infamous Manhattan: East Village.”  The map covers a lot of crime-related spots, but if you ever want to turn this into a walking tour, fear not: most of the incidents took place a long time ago.  And many of the points of interest aren’t “bad,” anyway; I don’t think there’s anything wrong with James Fenimore Cooper’s old residence, for example.

On to the other maps, then.  These were highlighted in a post by Thai Tran, a product manager, who writes, “I just returned from a vacation in Europe, and I found two Mapplets invaluable for planning my trip. . . .  Wikimapia.org is a website where people have . . . annotated millions of places all over the world, and you can now view these annotations on Google Maps using their Mapplet.”

Tran then continues, “Booking.com is an online hotel reservation service that has especially good coverage in Europe.  Using the Booking.com Mapplet, I was able to find out which hotels were available and compare their rates and proximity to the locations I was most interested in seeing.”

These sites and maps could be useful to you, if you’re planning on taking on a trip.  They should, at the least, be able to burn a few more minutes until the end of your workweek.

The founder of the site is Farbood Nivi. He has been teaching exam preparation since 1998 and is former employee of Kaplan. On their blog post it reads,” The classes are live, teacher led and highly interactive and engaging. Every class is recorded, so students can review the exact lesson that they had.”

The price for the exam prep is $399 for16 sessions of 1.5 hours. The site boasts that it is a better online value than competitors like Kaplan and TPR. The competitor’s prices are Kaplan online is $1,249, The Princeton Review is $899, and Manhattan GMAT Prep is $990.

According to their site Grockit does offer financial aid. Under their FAQ it says,” We provide financial assistance on a per instance basis and may request documentation to establish financial need.”

The computer requirements for the site are Windows OS, Internet Explorer version 5 and above, audio headset and high speed Internet connection.

If you are considering an MBA program and want to prepare for the GMAT exam than exploring all options online and off would be a good choice.

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Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

The office space at 111 Eighth Ave., which real estate experts estimate is costing the company $10 million a year in rent, is similar in design and functionality to its headquarters in Mountain View. This includes a fully equipped game room that would make any high school boy drool. Foosball, air hockey, ping-pong and pool tables are all available for employees to take a break and “blow off some steam.” The room also has a video game area, bean bag chairs, massage chairs and even a full basketball hoop setup.

CNET has photos.

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.