Inspector Mickey Bradley, who purchased facecrook.us for $17 after making sure he wasn’t violating any copyright protection laws in regards to Facebook, believes that the site will help them track down wanted criminals. As a result, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office feels the number of outstanding warrants will effectively diminish. Although the site currently features a number of fugitives, the department doesn’t know how many criminals are currently on the loose.

Presently, the one piece of information that the site does not contain are the crimes themselves, though the department has stated that they may decide to add this data at a later date.

With all of this public information at your fingertips, you may feel that a little Charles Bronson-style vigilante justice is in order. That, apparently, is against the terms you agree to upon entering the site. By taking a stroll through this virtual rogues gallery, you agree to not “intimidate or harass” another human being using this data. Additionally, the department includes a “do not apprehend” warning on each profile, indicating that you should leave the rough stuff to the professionals.

“We make it clear on the site that we don’t want anyone to approach these people,” a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office explained.

This is the picture of the protester in the article I linked to above. Nothing in the photo has been Photoshopped.

(Credit: The Shield at USI)

The man who is known as John King has struck yet again, this time at a Kentuckiana Gay Pride parade. Where he stood lone, holding a protest sign which housed remarks I don’t want to repeat in typing. If you’re curious what these signs say, you can watch the video below. I will warn you, if this kind of stuff deeply disturbs you then I don’t recommend watching it. His sign makes disparaging remarks towards Tyler Clementi, the college student who killed himself after being harassed by his roommate.

So what I really want to know is – where are the socks and loafers?! I watched over six minutes of this non-sense and didn’t get to see if King tried to pull the combo off a second time. Foiled again.

King provides his contact information in the video (at the 5:56 mark). It should be noted that his Twitter account has been suspended, so we won’t be able to read the clever use of language he could have used in 140 characters. Needless to say, he probably would have ended up on the funniest tweets of the day for all the wrong reasons.

When visiting the website, you at first might think you’d be met with KKK references, confederate flags, and bad grammar. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. The site’s rhetoric is comprehensible, well articulated, and all sorts of scary. There’s an occasional triple exclamation point, but when you’re trying to get people to eat from your stew of stupidity, sometimes you need extra exclamation. On their about page, the site’s founder cuts to the chase about what the movement’s true intentions are…

We believe that the White people of the world has every moral right to persist upon planet Earth, simply because it is part of Creation. To establish our self-determination, it is our goal to bring about the creation of our own exclusive country, which for now, we shall call the White Republic.

We are not affiliated with any particular group, faction, or religious organization. We do support collective groups of individuals who keep at the forefront of their actions what is best for the White people of the world in a legal manner.

So, what does a person look like who subscribes to these beliefs? Luckily, they have a photo of a “demonstration” which took place at the University of Southern Indiana. There are no words to describe…

(Credit: The Shield at USI)

If you want to research further, their handbook is a real eye-opener.

Save White People Handbook

Signs and wonders.

Jason James, vice president of interactive marketing for DC Entertainment, said this of the new design, “The new sites are a true representation of DC Entertainment, and the depth and scope of our characters and brands across all media”, he continues, “Our goal is to be the one-stop destination for all fans looking for the latest news on comics, TV, games and movies, and a place where fans can engage with us and each other about all things DC Entertainment. Fans should visit DCComics.com daily – we have a lot of surprises in store for them over the next week and beyond.”

Along with new visual updates, the site touts more in-depth character experiences. So if you want to see where Batman and Krypto (Superman’s dog) have gotten together in the past, you can find those issues easier.

DC Comic’s announcement also mentioned that the site will now feature more exclusive content, and sparing no expense, their first example was this Lee Bermejo ‘Before Watchmen’ image which is a site exclusive.

Upon watching the video, I wonder if “It starts with us” will be a campaign slogan moving forward. Along with the video, there are prominent links to President Obama’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can sign up for email updates, and there’s already a store to purchase 2012 gear.

The heart of the site looks to be the “Get Involved” page, which features a list of the most current updates involving the campaign, upcoming events, groups, fundraising information, and volunteer information. On the latest updates list, you’ll find the two announcement tweets from President Obama:

From a purely objective standpoint, President Obama’s campaign site is exceptionally well done. It features quick navigation, with a simple layout. As with all sites which rely on donations, the “Donate Now” button is prominently featured without being too in-your-face about it.

Obama’s online presence is believed to be one of the important factors of his victory in 2008. He won the attention of the people through viral campaigns, and becoming a hit on the social networks. If this initial site redesign is any kind of barometer to go by, the same online savvy which benefited the President in 2008 will look to continue during his reelection as well.

If you’re reading this then I’m guessing you know much of the history surrounding Cyber Monday. It was a term coined by Shop.org in 2005, signifying the increase of online shopping during the Monday after Thanksgiving break. Since the term was established, we’ve had CyberMonday.com conveniently placed to let us know of impending deals. The site promotes an honorable pursuit with the Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund. A scholarship given to students pursuing an e-commerce career.

So, that’s a small piece of history surrounding Cyber Monday but is it still a factor?

Like so many things in life it depends on who you ask. There is a large congregation of people who call Cyber Monday nothing but a myth. Permuto.com claims it’s a marketing ploy for creating a hype with consumers, and driving them to the online retail arena. Their study shows  the Monday after Thanksgiving isn’t close to being the busiest online shopping day of the year. The greatest holiday sales actually occur between December 5th-15th.

The question now remains, if Cyber Monday isn’t the busiest online shopping day of the year then what’s it’s significance? Turning back to Shop.org, their Executive Director Scott Silverman once said, "It was not the biggest day, but it was an opportunity to create some consumer excitement"

Visiting CyberMonday.com it was surprising to see the amount of deals they have posted which have nothing to do with actual Cyber Monday. They’re just deals in the general ‘holiday sense’. The companies who are offering exclusive Cyber Monday deals seem to be smaller online only stores. Amazon.com still doesn’t acknowledge Cyber Monday on their site. Hybrid companies like Best Buy will be offering their Black Friday ‘Doorbuster Deals’ at brick-and-mortar locations along with purchasing online. Wouldn’t that make it Cyber Friday, along with Black Friday?

Throughout my journey in the world of online holiday shopping, I’ve seen nothing that would make me think Cyber Monday is a bigger deal than any other holiday online shopping day. Like so many traditions during the holiday season the truth behind them is a lot less appealing than the perception. However, when marketing online and attracting consumers perception tends to be more important than reality.

Yahoo! already has a homepage redesign looming, which is scheduled for launch in Fall this year. The redesign was delayed by Carol Bartz back January when she took over the reigns. Perhaps she knew then what we’re starting to see unfold.

Kara Swisher, author of the BoomTown blog on All Things Digital, quizzed Carol about the rebrand plans at the D: All Things Digital conference back in May, and this is what she had to say:

The best way to change the perception is to do a good job and then talk about it…We just have to get our story out there; we have to continue to appeal to the people that come to us, and frankly, at some point people get sick of having us as the underdog and say, ‘Thank God, Yahoo’s back.’

There has been endless pressure on Yahoo! over the past few years with significant market share lost to Google and public perception of the company at an all time low.

To make matters worse, last month saw the big unveil of Bing, Microsoft’s re-emergence into the space. And with a shiny new brand and some new tech under the hood, Microsoft has reclaimed some of its lost lustre.

So will Yahoo! be able to emulate the success of its foe with a relaunch of the Yahoo! brand.

It’s always difficult to predict the real impact of a rebrand, but I’m sceptical it’ll have the long term benefits they’ll be hoping for. With out real substance (innovation, improved performance etc) – the bells and whistles will only impress for so long.

That said, the marketer in me is keen to where they take the brand. Will the infamous yodel remain, or will they start a fresh? Who knows, but my money is on the Yodel being laid to rest!

Well until we see the results of this major rebrand, here’s one of the old Yahoo! adverts. If you want to see more – visit Kara’s Boom Town blog.

Comments

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Well, okay. It’s not called that. It’s called the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Same difference, right? The faces along the top of WEF website pretty much say it all: Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Tony Blair, Bono. It’s kind of a big deal.

The list of industry partners is impressive, too, made up of all the companies in the world that have, generally, created our current reality.

As the Masters of the Universe, then, gather this coming January to discuss the world’s pressing issues, Google and YouTube will be presenting them with user-submitted answers to the pressing "Davos Question," which is: "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

YouTube users have until January 1st to submit their video answers.

Now, before you gasp and worry that answers like "We need more cowbell" or "More boobs in more places" will slip through to our world leaders, thus wasting the opportunity, you need to know there is a user-generated, wisdom-of-crowds, populist filtering mechanism in place.

The YouTube community will be ranking the answers, and the highest ranked solutions to the world’s problems will be featured at Davos. So, unlike the debates, the submissions will be filtered via the community instead of a group of CNN suits, who we remember ignored some of the better questions.

Still there’s a chance that the crowd gets unruly, which could be a lot of fun (or embarrassing for the populace), or even that the winning answer is deemed unfit by a Google suit – hopefully that’s not possible.

But here’s where my cynicism really kicks in: Though it’s a wonderful idea that offers unprecedented access to world leaders and an unprecedented voice to the populace, I wonder how many suits watch the presentation and respond, "That was cute; now back to building the empire."

Nay, there’s still hope I hope. And it seems like a good start.