eBay To Launch TV Advertising Marketplace

eBay will launch a new pilot program in Q2 2007 that will enable advertisers to bid for TV Ads in an electronic marketplace. Advertisers participating in the pilot program include Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Toyota, Hewlett-Packard, and Home Depot. No announcements were made as to which TV networks would offer their advertisement spots to be claimed by the highest bidder. I'm not sure who this is meant to benefit most: the networks who feel uncertain about the long-term prospects of the 30 minute spot or the advertisers who want more transparency in the buying process. Apparently both: the pilot program is being endorsed by the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

"As you look at the existing media buying and selling process, there is a level of perceived inefficiency in the system," says Bob Liodice, president of the Association of National Advertisers. "The marketers believe there may be a more transparent approach toward the buying and selling of advertising."

It's looks like old media is taking a lesson from new media which made bidding on advertising popular on the Internet, but it looks like Google was left out in the cold on this one. Here's a link to the pilot program http://www.admarketpilot.com/.

technorati tags: eBay, Advertising

Flock Social Browser due to Launch in September

I downloaded the beta version of the Flock browser today, and like it very much. Flock is a "social browser" that is integrated with sites such as del.icio.us, Flickr, Photobuck that makes it easy to comment, share, tag, and post photos and Web sites. It also has a built in blog editor that works with most major blogging services, including Blogger, Drupal, LiveJournal, MoveableType, Typepad and WordPress. I am writing this entry using their editor to see how well it works with Blogger. One problem is that you cannot easily align images, so I'm not sure how this will look after posting. You can read more or write a review about the browser here. Love the concept, but sure is buggy - hope they can resolve in time for the launch in September.

technorati tags:Flock, Browser

Blogged with Flock

Gracenote: Ripe for the pickin'

I've done business with many companies, and one that always sticks out of my mind is Gracenote. Gracenote is a privately held media recognition company based out of Emeryville, CA with a satellite office in Tokyo Japan. Gracenote has a very deep and extenstive meta-data catalogue on media products which they've coupled with recognition technology. Their database includes 4MM albums, 55MM tracks, 8MM audio wave fingerprints, and 17K DVD titles, with all media regionally segmented with 80 countries supported and 15K licensees. Their core markets are portable audio, car audio, and home audio. Who uses Gracenote technology: you do.

Own an Ipod or Creative audio product? Which digital music service do you prefer: I-Tunes, Yahoo! Music, AOL Winamp, Real Rhapsody, or Napster? Own a Sony Vaio? Listen to music in the car or at home using Alpine, Clarion, Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, or Sony product? If yes to any of these questions, you're using products with Gracenote technology. Gracenote has recently completed deals with cell phones and PDA manufacturers to embed their technology into handhelds. Imagine being at the club and hearing that killer new tune and not knowing who the artist is. You hold up your cell phone and it immediately recognizes the artist, album, track, and then you just click "Download now." That's super cool, and why they have 8MM wave fingerprints and are continually expanding that number. The market for media recognition technology is expanding, and they control most of the major patents in this area. Competition: little to none, which is why all the major digital media companies use them.

Gracenote was recognized this year at CES with an Innovations Award Honoree, Software and Embedded Technologies, and was named Top 100 Private Companies in 2005 by AlwaysOn and Red Herring. I have no expertise in M&A, but it seems to me this little gem would be a valuable asset to any company in the digital media space, and wouldn't be surprised if someone like Apple acquired them. I'm just surprised that no one already has.