June 13th, 2008 by Fiana de Guzman
After reading an interesting blog on valleywag.com, I started thinking about, how Google manages to offer such a great amount of information about almost anything, with just one click. Obviously, the company has to have ways to somehow work itself around privacy privileges, confidentiality agreements and the like. Google’s lawyers usually busy themselves trying to defend their right to keep content online — so Google’s search engine can index it, of course. Currently, however, it seems they are busy trying to get – and preferably keep – their own name out of the ‘search results’ when it comes to the YouTube revenue-sharing program – the video site’s new program for ads sold by video creators.
Stacey Wexler, litigation counsel for Google, instantly reacted to a blog on Silicon Alley Insider that posted the entire advertising contract. Via email, she asked Silicon Alley Insider to take down the references to this particular contract. Wexler claims the contract is confidential. First, the email was posted to its site, but now displays an error where Wexler’s email once appeared. The original post about YouTube, however, remains online, and a reader has even reposted Wexler’s email in a comment. This comment has recently been deleted from the site. Fortunately, valleywag.com has posted the email and the contract on its site. As a result, a discussion about why Google’s made such a big fuss, legal matters and an ‘evil rank’ has started:
A contract cannot be considered binding on people who didn’t sign it in the first place, so the actual CONTENTS of the contract are irrelevant.
How apt coming from a company that espouses to organize and spread “information”. Google made such a big fuss that they be free to flout copyright laws and be able to scan and publish electronic copies of all the books in the world. And then here they are, whining when one contract gets published on the net. Its not surprising though – this has always been Google’s modus operandi. It’s only evil when someone else does it.
On this note: Google might be the world’s biggest and most used search engine, but this rather embarrassing incident clearly shows that there is still a lot to learn.
June 10th, 2008 by Fiana de Guzman
The whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down, said Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer in an interview with The Washington Post on how he expects the media to change in the next 10 years. In this respect, he addresses interesting ideas and problems everyone might have already thought about themselves.
Ballmer starts off stating, that at some point in the future, there will be no media consumption that is not delivered over an IP network. Interestingly enough, he even expects magazines and newspapers to be only available in electronic form leaving their original paper form behind. A change that sounds quite sci-fi – at least to me – and is hardly going to happen in the near future, but rather in the next 20 years or so.
Another very important aspect Ballmer addresses is the one of ‘Social Interaction.’ He argues that, in order to make TV more interactive, it would have to be delivered over an IP network:
I mean, it’s sort of funny today. My son will stay up all night basically playing Xbox Live with friends that are in various parts of the world, and yet I can’t sit there in front of the TV and have the same kind of a social interaction around my favorite basketball game or golf match. It’s just because one of these things is delivered over an IP network and the other is not. . . .
Furthermore, Ballmer predicts the existence of far more producers of content than there are today – a phenomenon that can already be observed in the online world. He underlines this thought by bringing up his favorite case: Why can’t I sit in front of my television and watch the Country Day [his old High School] basketball game when I know darn well it’s being video-recorded at all times?
To the question whether internet content will be available for free, with ad support, in contrast to fees and subscriptions, Ballmer reveals that he already watches his favorite TV program “LOST” on the internet instead of buying it on iTunes even though he has to put up ads. He therefore thinks that subscriptions will be the exception in the future.
Why? Because it’s free. . . . I have to admit that I’m annoyed by the four 20 seconds [of ads], but not annoyed enough to pay a buck . . . I think at the end of the day most people say, “Heck, if I can get something that’s pretty good that’s ad-funded and the ads don’t kill me, I’ll take that over the thing I gotta pay for.”
True, isn’t?!
June 2nd, 2008 by Nils Maier
This weekend I read on techcrunch a nice article about Dave Sifry who started a new company called Offbeat Guides which produces custom made travel guides. The pdf Version you can receive within minutes and the print version within 4 working days.
Check out the article on techcrunch
