Articles of the Day
Google Unveils Wireless Plan — A Google letter to the FCC reveals the company’s plan for utilising spectrum “white space” - unused broadcast TV channels - to provide broadband wireless internet access spanning the US. “As Google has pointed out previously, the vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilized,” writes Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington telecom and media lawyer, in the letter to the regulator. “Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow.” The company, which was outbid by Verizon Wireless in the recent 700MHz wireless spectrum auction, says it would like to see people surfing the web on handheld gadgets at gigabits-per-second speeds by the end of 2009.
Become.com Strives For Top Comparison-Shopping Engine Status — Who says search is struggling? Financial types may be worried about dips in search traffic and ad clicks on the core engines, but for comparison-shopping engines like Become.com the outlook is bright. While Hitwise is pegging the online comparison-shopping industry to grow by about 30% annually, traffic to Become.com increased by 260% year-over-year. While Hitwise is pegging the online comparison-shopping industry to grow by about 30% annually, traffic to Become.com increased by 260% year-over-year (as per comScore). It’s this phenomenal growth that has helped the engine rake in a $17.5 million Series C investment from San Francisco-based private investment firm TPG Growth.
Catalyst Launches Emerging Media Buying Service — San Francisco-based Catalyst is rolling out a new Emerging Media Buying Service (EMS) that will provide planning and buying expertise for online video, mobile, social media, widgets, and gaming.Catalyst has grown substantially in the last 10 months, expanding to seven people focused on strategy and emerging media. The firm has 14 clients and has carved a niche in emerging media, either building businesses in the category or using the category to re-establish brands.
Bazaarvoice’s ReStyle Lets Marketers Customize User-Generated Content — Bazaarvoice has launched Restyle, A content styling tool that allows marketers to customize the look and feel of the ratings, reviews and Q&A sections of their Web sites. Designed to work with the company’s Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer products, ReStyle makes it easy to link a site’s social media content to various promotions–including seasonal promos, such as letting reviewers add hearts to their comments on Valentine’s Day–as well as ongoing ad campaigns or even for a site redesign.
PlattForm Holdings Reorganizes As Ad Venture Interactive — Based in New York and Kansas City, the parent company, AVI, is a full-service interactive marketing and advertising company encompassing three divisions: PlattForm Advertising (PFA), VentureDirect Worldwide (VDW) and Beauty Schools Marketing Group (BSMG). Together, these divisions offer interactive marketing and advertising services to a number of distinct verticals. PlattForm CEO Michael Platt will assume the newly created role of CEO for Ad Venture Interactive. Platt founded PlattForm as a media placement agency in 1988. In the new position, Platt will oversee and integrate all three divisions of Ad Venture Interactive. He will also manage mergers and acquisitions and work closely with the CEOs of each division to develop the long-term strategy for AVI.
Imeem And Splintering of Open Platforms — Imeem has become the latest social media site to release its software development kit to programmers. It’s also the latest OpenSocial member to do so, putting the social music provider in the company of AOL’s Bebo and News Corp.’s MySpace. But why are OpenSocial members bothering to release their owns SDKs? Isn’t a universal platform the point of OpenSocial? Instead, imeem’s move leads to more splintering. Even though imeem claims that support for the Google-led initiative is “coming soon,” OpenSocial is still limited in what it can offer programmers. For example, the networked platform initiative wouldn’t enable programmers to incorporate Imeem’s vast catalog of music in an application on MySpace or Bebo–as third party licensing agreements prevent certain features from one social network being brought to another.
