Google Ready To Bid For Wireless, Maybe

If Google bids for the 700MHz spectrum, they could do so with someone else putting up cash alongside the substantial pile of currency the search ad company has accumulated.

The Wall Street Journal summarized several steps Google has taken with regards to becoming a mobile business player. They left out a couple, namely Google’s acquisitions of Grand Central and portable graphics engine maker Skia earlier this year.

When Google does take that big step by grabbing some of the valuable 700MHz spectrum, they are as likely to do so with another deep-pocketed bidder alongside them as they are to go solo to the auction. That’s speculation by the Journal, citing the usual ‘people familiar with the matter’, but it makes sense for Google to arrive with a partner.

Serving the public with a GoogleNet wireless network should benefit the mobile-using public with less expensive service and broader availability. But serving the public involves customer service, and no one will ever confuse Eric Schmidt with Bruce Nordstrom in that discussion, as Google prefers to shunt its users to newsgroups rather than take questions by email, much less by phone, about its non-revenue generating products.

If Google chose to do so, it could provide world-class customer service. Financially it makes more sense for them to foist that dirty work onto someone else, which makes a partner scenario more likely once the bidding begins.

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Read/Write Web reports on the impending announcement, which will presumably be about SocialAds—and possibly about these SocialAds being “portable”:

The rumored technology would work like this: Facebook would place a cookie on your computer (the site already requires users to have cookies enabled to log in), every time you visit a third-party site that runs ads utilizing the “Social Ads” product, they would be targeted based on your social networking profile data. So, theoretically, if you’ve professed your love of Pepsi on your Facebook profile, you might see Pepsi ads while reading the news at MSN.

It’s a good explanation of a complex concept—but is it in the cards for Facebook? Seven days till we find out.

In one of the more negative stories of about the social network (or just realistic, depending on your point of view), Ad Age addresses one of the inherent weaknesses in a Facebook advertising system (which I’ve mentioned in passing before)—honesty. We all know that some people lie in their social networking profiles. *cough* Tom *cough*.

But is the practice common enough to spark concern for potential advertisers? Ad Age doesn’t come right out an say it, but they do lay out quite a bit of evidence that Facebook isn’t the perfect online mirror of our offline social networks.

So what? No, online social networks aren’t like offline ones. Does that mean they’re less valid as an advertising medium? I doubt it.

Finally, Valleywag reports from an unidentified Facebook employee that Facebook employees have the ability to look at not only your profile and personal information, but also see what profiles you‘ve been viewing. Scary? Perhaps. Outrage worthy? Perhaps not.

Or, as Lisa points out, Fake Steve Jobs puts it all into perspective:

Some of us are still trying to get our heads around the idea that Valleywag is pretending to be outraged at the idea of someone snooping into the private affairs of other people. I mean, hello? Valleywag? The guys who follow Eric Schmidt around on dates? Man oh man.

Depending on the coverage the Valleywag story gets (having reached the Digg homepage over the weekend, it’s probably past its peak of exposure), Facebook will most likely be able to take both the negative stories in stride.

After all, we’re all too busy salivating waiting for that announcement next week to notice, and Facebook can do no wrong.

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Now they’re working on “EyeLab,” a studio dedicated to turning glossy 30- to 60-minute shows into bite-sized web clips. Even more revolutionary, CBS is also planning to involve users in not only watching video clips but making and uploading their own mashups of CBS clips.

Perhaps most revealing is the attitude of CBS’s President of Marketing, George Schweitzer. He states, “Online video is not just about TV shows as we know them, and EyeLab content is not for TV.”

Expanding on that idea, MediaPost writes:

“By inviting fans to participate, we expect to grow our already vast content slate tremendously,” said Patrick Keane, executive vice president, chief marketing officer, CBS Interactive. “We are well aware that the Internet is the world’s best laboratory.”

The professionally-made clips are ultimately destined for CBS’s online advertising networks, and be geared toward “simultaneously market CBS shows and entertain viewers.”

CBS is working very hard to allow its fans to use their copyrighted material in an “acceptable outlet,” and for that I applaud them. But what are they going to do if when someone uploads a clip that’s half CSI and half The Matrix?

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What Portable Media Player Owners Want

Forty-four percent of portable media player owners said appealing video content and optimized video viewing were their main motivations to watch more videos on the portable platform, while 33 percent are motivated by the cost of content, 19 percent by personalization and connectivity features, and 16 percent by ease of use.

"The PMP market has not reached one tenth of its potential yet, and this data explains why," commented Harry Wang, Senior Analyst and author of the report.

"None of the PMP vendors have a perfect score on these five mega factors, although Apple clearly leads the pack in fulfilling the high-ranking needs of the PMP early adopters."

"If they act quickly enough, Apple’s competitors can take advantage of this rare showing of vulnerability in an otherwise a seamless execution of the iPod+iTunes model," Wang said.

Portable PCs are the reason for the international market growth. Shipments are estimated to almost double to 106.1 million in 2009 from the 56.5 million shipped in 2006.

"The rate of portable PC adoption continues at a surprising pace and is a great sign of market strength," said Loren Loverde of IDC. "However, slow desktop demand and a conservative outlook for commercial upgrades reinforce our view that future replacements and Vista adoption will be spread over several years and not concentrated in 2008 and 2009."

 Bob O’Donnell of IDC said, "Despite solid growth in portable PC shipments, the slump in the commercial desktop market continues, dragging down the overall US PC market. We expect portable PC shipments to maintain double digit growth rates for the next few years, as demand for mobility continues to shift new buyers from desktops to notebooks."

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Podcasting, vlogging, and other incarnations of the new e-business world cannot focus on the way things have been done since mass communication began – which is focus on general content for the lowest common denominator, controlled by advertisers.

Baron referred to LetsKnit2gether.com, a vlog focused on knitting, as a model for this type of niche production. True, there will be a smaller audience, but the audience is so targeted that advertisers should recognize the value of reaching it.

The point podcasters and others have missed, in his estimation is the value of niche content that we’ve learned from blogs like Engadget, the most popular blog: highly focused content serves the audience best, because it is findable by the audience that desires that content most.

Podcasting, then, should follow that model, targeting “very, very, very, very specific” groups, and find a way to engage the audience at a high level.

He said the biggest disadvantage most podcasters have is that the audience is so far away from the access point. Once they’ve downloaded the program to a portable device, which is kind of the point, they are away from their computers while consuming the content. Podcasters and vloggers need to find a way to bring them back to their computer seats.

One way he suggests to this is through the use of wikis. A wiki can be made to match the format of the site, and can have some pages where the public cannot edit them. But, if there are topics created that the audience may have sufficient knowledge about, like video cameras, for instance, then the audience becomes a key stakeholder in the content.

Plus, search engine spiders can find that content, and site operators can spend less time creating text.

“Think about it from the audience perspective,” he said.

For promotional reasons, Baron said not to be afraid to let users use your content and distribute it for you. “As long as people aren’t making money off it, allow it to go wherever it can.” Chasing it down and trying to control is, in his opinion, a waste of resources, as it is free promotion, and more could be done with money spent trying to leverage that control.

Baron said that Rocketboom’s approach to advertising was different than many might expect. When other video sites are including their advertising in a pre-roll situation, Rocketboom ads are post-roll. Andrew is sensitive to his viewers, and imagines them waiting to download and waiting through a 30-second spot just to get to the content they want. And in today’s hectic Internet world, that just won’t do. You don’t want your audience saying “I hate this commercial…I hate Mop and Glo.”

Though a post-roll advertisement may get fewer views, at least he can tell advertisers (though it is a harder sell) that this many people were definitely interested in the commercial.

Other ways to monetize:

Merchandizing

Premium subscriptions

Licensing

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“I said what the hell is a podcast?” They explained it was like a radio broadcast you could download to an iPod or similar device and that they wanted to use it to promote the last five episodes. This is even better. You don’t have to go into a studio, you can do it from your house.”

Moore was sent a simple digital recorder, a recorder he (jokingly?) said he’d donate to the Podcast Museum. He approached it casually, he said, sitting in his leather chair, drinking scotch and smoking. “When I’ve done DVD commentary, there’s scotch in the recording studio. I thought, I’m at home, I have scotch, smokes. They can’t hear me smoking right? Turns out you can hear everything.”

When the blogosphere and forum threads got hold of it, he said, Moore was criticized for his lack of professionalism and the audio quality. There would be a phone ringing, garbage trucks grinding outside, kids playing. He was cursing and drinking and smoking, which they said was a bad example for kids.

“I made a rule,” said Moore, “podcasts are not for whiners. You have to be tough to listen to podcasts.”

But the biggest objections came from the television industry – Moore was being too honest about the production process. He referred to an episode he’d done called “Black Market.” Instead of a “PR thing,” Moore felt his podcast should go beyond the press kit, to “see how the sausage is made.”

“I wasn’t fond of [Black Market]. I was disappointed in it. I thought it was really conventional television and I didn’t see the point in trying to trick the audienceThis show is so clich, we’ve exploded the clich.”

He admitted that it was the script that was to blame, and as the head writer for the show, he had to take responsibility for that.

“At the end of the Black Market podcast, I said the only good part of the show was the ending.”

For him, the podcast is the final part of producing the episode, a “way to put the show to bed.”

“You can sum up the show, what it’s about, what went wrong, what went right. It’s all very fresh. DVD commentaries are made months or years after. With podcasts, it’s still in the moment. You have no reaction before the audience sees it. It’s real and natural.”

Moore mused about how the Internet gives you a live response, a virtual test ground that goes beyond focus groups. His podcast gives him an opportunity to connect with fans in a very real way. And it gives them a real inside look at the whole process.

“I’ve recorded writers meetings. I’ve recorded in the car going to work. I’ve made threats to take it into production meetings and expose the production heads for the evil people they are.”

The point of all this, he said, is that anyone can do this. It shows that you don’t need polish or technical knowledge for podcasting. It’s all about connections.

“I can never imagine having this kind of connection with my audience a couple of years ago.”

Watch our exclusive interview with BSG’s Ron Moore

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You remember 14, right? I do. I spent my days playing basketball, chasing girls, and trying not to look stupid, goofy, and awkwardly colt-legged in the hallways. I wanted to be a rapper – yes, an Eastern Kentucky rapper, JamMaster Jason and his DJ, KS-One (his name was Kenny). We had one song. We performed it in Reading class.

But Robbie, once he finishes a busy day of school, comes home and operates an online business. This, I learned in the hallway of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, right after interviewing Rocketboom-founder Andrew Baron. Robbie’s mother, a big Joanne Colan fan, took me by the arm and asked if I’d like to interview her son.

And I’m all, why?

And then she told me why.

Robbie, who was already providing the hosting, the domain, and the Drupal software, was founded by “Michael F,” who still has influence on the network, along side “Lee R.” and Matt P.”

Well, let’s let the About page tell the story:

Robbie’s mother informs me that she and his father had to attend the conference with him because you have to be 16 to get in by yourself.

Robbie recently “took control” of the network, he told me, presumably because Michael F. has some girl-chasing, or perhaps some world-conquering, to attend to.

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Eventually, the CBS MarketWatch reporter scampered off with his own piece of the Scobleizer, and just as I was settling in for an interview, someone else plops down on the beanbag chair next to him. Robert was reclining on the floor, using the beanbag chair as a pillow, taking a break from the hectic pace of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo.

I’m from the South, where manners and politeness are important. I was taught not to interrupt, but something had to be done or I may never actually get to interview him.

“I know how to settle this,” I thought. I tossed a beanbag chair next to Scoble’s, and spread myself out on the floor next to him. A 250-pound reporter lying in intimate proximity to Robert Scoble was a bit difficult for everyone in the Blogger’s Lounge to ignore. People were staring immediately, their heads cocked doglike to the side with curious smiles.

Gotcha! Roll camera.

“This is going to end up on Valleywag,” he said. And so begins my interview with the former Microsoft blogebrity, Vice President of Media Development at PodTech.net, and author of the book Naked Conversations. Fortunately for all involved, neither of us was naked for this conversation.

Also fortunate, as his position in the Blogger’s Lounge would indicate, Robert is a pretty laid back guy, engaging a man he’s barely heard of, who’s certainly not from CBS MarketWatch, who just threw all the rules of interviewing out the window.

But if you don’t really know the rules, you can’t really break them now can you? Or maybe it’s more that you’re more easily forgiven on your first day on the job. I’m a writer – what do I know about video interviews?

But then again, that was a major theme of the conference: anybody can do this podcast/vidcast thing. It’s raw, honest, unpolished. With that in mind, I think it fits.

We talked about what Robert was doing with his new company, the photo-walk with photographer Thomas Hawk on his new show, the ScobleShow, whether or not Steve Ballmer actually throws chairs, and about swimming in the lake outside Bill Gates’ house.

I asked him if he ever thought blogging would lead him to celebrity status.

“I’m not exactly Paris Hilton,” he said.

Well that’s true, and Miss Hilton probably would be better to look at across the beanbags, but who could stand a conversation with her?

After the interview, Scoble sprang up and switched his attention to the shotgun mic and tripod our videographer was using, more interesting than me no doubt, and began asking Richard questions about where we got them. And who would blame him? We did have some of the sweetest equipment at the conference.

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Baron said a week’s worth of commercial space on the popular video blog Rocketboom, which reaches up to 350,000 fans daily, carries a price of $80,000, or about $55 CPM. But, and this is the big but, if the commercial is likeable, entertaining, and matches what he knows of the Rocketboom audience, the charge is only $60,000.

“Ads should be consistent with the interests of our audience,” he said. Traditionally advertisers have had power over content providers, deciding whether or not their products matched the demographic of a particular audience. Baron’s model would appear to give that power back to the content provider, and, to the audience.

“I’m only going to work with the advertisers I want to work with, and I’m only going to run ads I like,” he said.

One of the themes of the conference, as introduced by TWiT’s Leo Laporte on Friday morning, was that podcasting and vidcasting should steer itself away from the “bladdercasting” of traditional media, focusing on smaller, more loyal and engaged, niche markets. This gives the audience a stake in the content, and though the audience is smaller, the direct purchases could be much higher.

Baron continued that theme on Saturday morning with another crowd-husher. “Soon Disney is going to feel confident with an audience of 10,000 hard-core, dedicated fans focused on specific content,” he said.

He uses an example of Rocketboom’s t-shirt sales. Baron said he pulled in about $4,000 a month in t-shirt sales, a low number because the shirts can’t be found on the site (he seemed embarrassed about that); fans had to do a search in Google to find them. If they were findable on the site, he admits, he could pull in more fan-money.

Baron is also toying with the idea to expand Rocketboom’s content on a subscription model. Subscribers would gain access to longer features, outtakes, specials, and the like, for about $3.50. If just 10,000 viewers, about 3 percent, subscribed, that would rake in an extra $35,000 per month.

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