ZDNet UK has posted a video of Tim Berners-Lee discussing The Future of the Internet. Whoo-hah! I watched it in trepid anticipation. What would the "(grand)father of the Internet" have to say in response to the Facebook craze? Would he perhaps comment on the advertising model and controversy around it? Or the predictions of a Social Media 2.0 collapse? (See what The Atlantic had to say about this – 6 months ago.)

Oh, no. He decided instead to focus on something far more interesting: the broadening of the system. The creation of a unified social network. "Where will we be in 5 years?" asked the moderator. And Tim delivered a speech that would truly send Martin Short packing.

Actually, is anyone else disturbed by the similarities between these two seemingly unrelated people? Think about it. They both talk incredibly fast, to the point where you do not know whether to laugh, cry, or throw a tomato. Both have cult followings – perhaps encouraged by their knowing, devilish grins. And finally, they both cater to kids. Awww.

Let’s get a little snappier. Cory Doctorow lashes out lashes out at the fake ‘walled gardens’ of social networks.

 Facebook is no paragon of virtue. It bears the hallmarks of the kind of
pump-and-dump service that sees us as sticky, monetizable eyeballs in
need of pimping. What a quote! I couldn’t write it better myself.

And about the ad platform: "Even if you’re the kind of person who likes the sound of a benevolent dictatorship this clearly isn’t one."  Ahh, but here’s the best remark, about the wrong people checking out your profile, which was also a concern that Tim also voiced in his (practically indecipherable) speech.

 I’m inclined to think that these systems are subject to a Brook’s-law parallel: "Adding more users to a social network increases the probability that it will put you in an awkward social circumstance. Like the guy who missed work for a "family emergency" i.e. a huge Halloween party — and got busted by his boss when he posted photos from it on his Facebook profile.

So, we should be talking of "will they see, will they not" instead of "will they sell, will they not." –though, the UK has been buzzing with news of a possible LinkedIn takeover. We’d only sell for a "helluva lot," I guess they said. Why am I not surprised.

I understand that it’s a huge company. I also understand that they’ve got, what, thousands of people working like mad (in between bouts of sushi) to come up with the latest and greatest in technology. But all these announcements are starting to drive me crazy. Android, OpenSocial, increased stock prices and 3rd quarter results, okay. And when oh so much is being produced, I guess it’s inevitable that oh so much will be released. Oddly enough, when you Google "google press release" the first thing that comes up is their earth-shattering news of the launch of Gmail. Really?

Some more recent releases:

Green Energy. "…it will open its deep pockets to
foster innovation in solar, wind and geothermal technology in the hopes
of making green energy cheaper than power produced by burning coal." Amazing — money going towards a sustainable future. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Maps on Mobile. Google Earth meets GPS meets mobile advertising. Oh wait, except there’s no ads. Yet.

Open Source Contest for little pre-Google engineers. "Who doesn’t love a contest?" they ask. "I don’t," I answer. No, I don’t have a problem with it; I actually think it’s great to target teenagers for something good, for a change. (I also don’t have a problem with Google. Though I may be just saying this to fend off any potential Comments accusing me of anti-Google sentiment.)

And the best information the public has received from Google this week:
A Taste of Fall  Their Executive Chef, Todd Koenigsberg, posted his recipe for Buttercup Squash Soufflé, with aged balsamic, hazelnuts, and Parmesan. Now that is what I call newsworthy.

Matt Rosenberg over at Organic had a good post on Internet-politik in his post entitled, DNC Looks to UGC to Nail GOP. (Although it looks like some candidates don’t need users to get them in trouble.)

See, the Democratic National Committee has little nice little site called FlipperTV. Playing on the fact that each side has "trackers" who shoot hours of video of each other, looking for that key moment to exploit and turn into campaign propaganda, they turn footage over to the user – so that they might become an abuser, I guess. Rosenberg labels it a rather "non-partisan effort" considering that GOP supporters can also use the footage to "put halos over their candidates’ heads
just as easily as Dems can demonize them." You know, just like Lindsey Lohan in Cannes. Photoshop is not just for 17-year-old boys anymore. Publicists and agents seeking damage control know how to to use it too – or at least how to hire a 17-year-old boy to do it for them.

MR gives the campaign paparazzi a shout-out, wondering if the "Macaca-moment" makers will share any of the spotlight. No?

It’s too much to think that the trackers themselves will again become
the story, and equally easy to think that knowing of this effort will
inspire rival camps and freelance haters to try and create gaffes, but
what really bears watching is whether any of the videos that users
create out of these raw materials has an effect on an election.

So ultimately, we can’t yet predict the true impact of user-generated content is going to have on the 2008 presidential campaign. The political world will have to wait and see.

In the meantime, the Internet has already gotten it’s number written in the financial books. NASDAQ rocks!

1. Holiday Season E-Commerce Spending Up, and Up…and Up Some More. The update from comScore is in. For the first 23
   days of November, more than $9.3 billion has been
   spent online. This is a huge 17% gain versus the
   corresponding days last year. Online retail spending was strong on both
   Thanksgiving Day (up 29% to $272 million) and Black Friday (up 22% to $531
   million), outpacing the season-to-date growth rate. Cyber Monday has come and gone; we’ll keep you posted.
2. In online shopping and advertising, Canada is catching on. England isn’t.
3. The strike is still on. The writers are still far from being as fat n’ happy as they want to be. Though, will that make them less funny? Less productive? What about the concept of "struggling artist"? Well, guess who’s struggling now: the media buyers who have to deal with a new (or should I say, old) January schedule. Sunni Boot of ZenithOptimedia confesses: "I plan to drink heavily over the Christmas period. Because
   it’s a nightmare, really. We have to do everything all over again."
4. Taglines ain’t doing so hot.
5. Europe steps in to be the conscience that America lost.                    Protectin’ privacy like they did in 1399.

Dear Brother Verrone:

The
National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, the nation’s only trade union
dedicated to advocating for the rights and economic betterment of
freelance writers, stands in solidarity with our brother and sister
writers of the Writers Guild of America – West in your fight for
writers’ rights and justice and a fair contract. Our union, too, knows
of the injustice of Internet revenues bypassing the first creators of
written works – the writers. We agree that it has been far too long
that writers are denied their fair share of Internet revenues generated
by their creations. We are hopeful that you will be victorious in this
struggle.

In solidarity,

Gerard Colby

I’m not sure that Gerard is bringing Krispy Kreme, Dominos, or ‘Mexican delicacies’ to the writers on the picket line. But showing solidarity for the cause – along with a few other unions, like the Screen Actors’ Guild and the Teamsters – is an important step. Recognizing the "the injustice of Internet revenues bypassing the first creators" is something that could become a standard battle cry for anyone involved in the creation or production of material used on the Internet – to make money, of course. Can you imagine? Banner-Generators Unite! Stand strong against the evil forces that are benefiting from your creative genius and coding hours!

But seriously, what if? What if, inspired by the Writers’ Guild strike (which, if it continues, will make for slim pickings in the TV network’s christmas stocking this year) the copywriters banded together and made demands? What would they ask for? I have some ideas.

1. Fair working conditions: ban Joss Stone and Buddha Bar from all coffeehouses. In the office, give out Clever Points for every witty comment, email, text, or instant message. Make points redeemable for vegan donuts, Pinkberry, and film festival movie passes.

2. Stop thinking it’s so cool when we misspell. Lite, Skool, Krazy??? Yes, we know Ameri(k)ans love it, but we refuse to continue encouraging ignorance of proper grammar and spelling.

3. Acknowledge The Dream: Shower us with coffee mugs that say "Careful, you may end up in my novel" and "I live between the lines." Redact all the names of writers in the New Yorker and replace with ours. Offer trophies, jackets, money, and fame.

Ok, that’s enough. We’re not striking yet. Back to work…

Microsoft is trying to get itself back in the news. More specifically, back in the rankings. It spent more than $912 million on marketing last year, ranking # 45 on their list of Leading National Advertisers. And now setting its sights on being Number 2? They’ve got some sort of plan for the next 3-5 years, we hear, that  will go for increased share in web
search, page views, percentage of total time online, and percentage of
advertising dollars. I guess everyone’s got to have a dream.

Ad Age writes of its new review for a "consumer-related creative
assignment", worth $300 million. With that kind of money on the table, likely candidates will be agencies like McCann
Erickson (their agency of record), Y&R, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, and the like. But what is that supposed to mean? That’s like making an announcement for an innovative Internet technology. While you’re at it, why don’t you put an ad on Craigslist for local activity partner.

Although details of the proposed project were not immediately
available, it is believed that the campaign will attempt to help
Microsoft improve its image. When asked if it will be a way to get back
at the popular Mac vs. PC campaign from Apple with its unflattering
portrayal of Microsoft, one executive familiar with the situation said,
"It may be."

Blogoscoped has a post called What if Microsoft had designed Gmail? — a critique of some design choices Microsoft has made in the past. Of course, there is always someone who will point out the obvious – it’s a hapless criticism. Like Jack, who throws the ball back, here.

So, all Microsoft-haters, New Media Douchebags, and industry observers, stay tuned for the revelation.

As advertisers search for unadulterated space in an adulterated world, they’ve got to start thinking with their heads – or rather, hands.

This new form of advertising was discussed on the site CoolBusinessIdeas.com, where they note that "it is completely different from the
television commercials and magazine ads people are used to."

They ask, What do you
call advertising on your hands?

"Well I like to call it Handvertising",
said Mike Brown CEO of Handvertising USA. "Almost everyone has been to a county fair, swap meet, bar or club and
had had their hand stamped for proof of entry. We have found a better
use for this space that could make everyone happy."

Everyone? Really? Who benefits from this? Apparently, the venue gets a cut. But what about the person whose hand they are ‘violating’? Do they get a discount on an otherwise prohibitively steep cover charge for the club? Or some sort of free coupon for that company’s goods? I don’t think so.

Trust the Dutch to come up with something like this. And trust California to gladly adopt it.

I may have mentioned yesterday that TV was going down. "It’s dying," declares the NYT’s Damon Lindelof. Because of the writers’ strike? Writers, schmiters.

TV advertising had already hit its peak.

Making room for online video ads. Erik Sass was on a (pre?) roll with 2, count ‘em TWO articles on the same day about online video advertising. Granted, this Pre-Roll was not nearly as delicious as the ones featuring Lotus at Brightroll‘s Billionth Served Ad party at Slide last week, but I don’t think he drinks Cointreau – in the morning, anyway.

The first, entitled Online Video Threatens Traditional TV Spots is just as it sounds. Online video is threatening traditional TV spots. Cheaper, faster, better: you know the drill. The second is a little more adventurous: Online Video Ads Score Well With Users. "Online video ads are doing better than pop-ups and pop-unders, with
only 31% of those surveyed taking a strongly negative view of video
versus 55% for the latter," he reports from OMMA Video. But they do admit that is sort of an imperfect comparison. Like, what would you rather I do, kick you in the shin? Or hit you over the head with a chair? Shin, please. Furthermore, "the number of consumers taking a strongly
negative view of online video ads has been increasing over the last few
years, indicating that the novelty is wearing off."

I’m sorry, but the novelty of this will never wear off. User-generated content was another hot topic at the show. Human kitsch or not, as the WSJ notes, "pseudo-faux celebrity" status is "pretty sweet" and the sheer volume of viewers is something TV should be jealous about — and something that advertisers should start drooling about. On the flip side, you’ve got average Joes entering ad-creation contests for big brands, and winning. "…giving rise to an entirely new class of ‘semi-professional’ content producters."

So what’s next? Ad Booster, for ads on mobile video. And after that, come the aliens.

Lifetime television is making friends with Hearst, Glam, and About.com.

The timing was perfect. Good old Rupert just declared that profits from television advertising are going to suffer from general declining interest from audiences (and therefore advertisers). He stated that "free-to-air television faces a lot of challenges, just from the sheer fragmentation of the audience" and that it is a "highly challenged industry." Heavens to Betsy!

[[TV is, in fact, going down. Has everybody seen the news about yet another Web alternative?]]

So, LifetimeTV has rebranded itself as myLifetime.com – a nice clear example of the transition that television channels are going to have to undergo if they want to stay on top of the trend towards the Web. In this case, they’re realizing that one way to get the eyeballs they want is to target their ‘fragmented female’ through web properties.

"The real challenge is how to talk to women online in a way that’s
unique and genuine," says  Elizabeth Ross, President Tribal DDB West. "And some of these niche sites have
found a way to do it authentically so that moms think about them first
before they think about TV network properties."

We’re talking about Martha’s Circle, an online ad network which represents other websites. We’re talking about iVillage’s deal with Sugar Publishing. These are real, valuable partnerships, and Lifetime wants in. Warner Bros. Group is already up on in it, with their launch of MomLogic.com, the site for "thinking moms who don’t have time to think." What do you think?

What do Amazon, Microsoft, and AT&T all have in common?

Yes, they are all big companies. Good! You get a cookie.

What they all recognized, writes Kate Maddox, is that worshipping the consumer, and only the consumer (til death do they part) is a dangerous thing to do. Small and mid-sized businesses, while they may be a little harder to please, are a much better customer. They have a definite need for services and they often have the money. So it benefits the big guys to reach out, while they still can, to this lucrative segment.

Already there are sites that cater to the small to mid-sizers, such as TechWeb’s bMighty.

TNS Media Intelligence reported that online B2B advertising increased by 17 per cent in the US in 2006, totalling $14.39 billion, up from $14.19
billion in 2005.

Online ads accounted for around ten percent, or $1.4
billion of total ad spending, up 17 per cent from 2005 levels.

So, online advertising it is. That’s starting to be old news. The new news is that

As small businesses get more sophisticated about their own marketing
efforts, software companies are rolling out new products to meet their
marketing and measurement needs.

"We want to do it ourself," the SMB says, and companies are coming up with marketing platforms that are making this possible. Are they going to go completely AWOL and forget about the agency? What do you think?