Robert Scoble today posted his commentary on the whole Perez Hilton thing. I’ve been withholding comment on it for a little bit while I did a bit of research on they whys and hows of exactly where he screwed up. Perez, according to an interview in TVWeek, says that he only made $5,000 in revenue from 25 million video views over at Google’s YouTube.

Henry Blodget does the math on exactly how badly that sucks, but comes to the absolute wrong conclusion: don’t expect to make money from online video. I could spend a few hundred words explaining why that is a completely wrongheaded answer to Perez’s problem, but I’ve covered that ground on this blog before.

Instead, I’d like to comment on Robert Scoble’s ridiculous assertion that audience size doesn’t matter.

As I’ve ranted about before, the power of New Media is the engagement factor. Interactivity is what makes blogs, podcasts, tweets and video superior to anything the Old Media can cook up. The reason? It returns actual communication to the realm of journalism.

Is that what advertisers care about? Not hardly. Don’t get me wrong, Robert Scoble is a talented tech pundit and web journalist. The problem is, though, I don’t think he has ever been in a position where he’s had to build a significant mainstream audience from the ground up. Scoble, from the time he entered blogging, seems to have been fairly well connected within the industry, and had essentially a built-in audience of influencers.

What’s good for Scoble isn’t the hard and fast rule for everyone, as Allen Stern noted earlier this evening. Not every production on the internet can rely on having influential highbrow audience members. Perez Hilton is a perfect example of that. The rank and file of the world could care less about our ramblings on the nuances of technology. They want to know if Britney Spears wore panties today.

And you know what? The folks that care about Spears’ panties vastly outnumber the folks who care which video sharing site got funded this week.

Just like with Old Media, advertising agencies know this, and only care about one thing: ROI. What is the return on the investing dollar? How many dollars do I have to spend advertising tampons, t shirts and air freshener next to Britney’s crotch before someone in the audience buys them?

Does it matter of Make Magazine or Loren Feldman talk about Perez Hilton’s latest crotch expose? Not hardly, unless it will work to increase the number of folks who gander at it.

For another example, look to marketing using Google’s AdWords program. With AdWords, there is very little communication and engagement happening between the marketer and the user, or even the content being served and the user. I type what I want in the search box, Google gives it to me. Sometimes, I see things on the ad strip that compel me to click, sometimes I don’t.

To the advertiser, though, it’s all about ROI and raw numbers. If the copy works to convert a reader into a buyer, then the advertiser will crank up the number of advertisements run to as much as he can afford.

Sure, engagement in rich media is important, as it creates a better experience overall, and works to increase audience loyalty. By that token, some companies are certainly interested in an engaged audience.

Saying that size doesn’t matter in all cases though is quite plainly wrong.

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Filed under: Cellphones

What's that we see? The Nokia N95 8GB listed on the Nokia US retail site? Okay, calm down, it's not the US-specific version (read: it uses 2100MHz WCDMA, i.e. European 3G), but you'll still have a 2.8-inch mammoth screen, A-GPS, a five megapixel camera, and the rest of the goodies that maybe, just maybe, you'll be willing to fork out $780 for, even knowing that a US version HAS to be right around the corner.

[Thanks, Preston]

 

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Private Equity Hub is reporting that AOL has finally completed the acquisition of online advertising company Quigo. Quigo is a provider of contextual advertising on third-party publisher Websites, much like AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network. The company offers a variety of different advertising formats including text, banners, and video, and sells them on a CPC, CPM, or “cost per time” basis.

Financial terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, though we’ve previously published reports that the sale is said to be around $340 Million. Quigo will become part of AOL’s “Platform A” group, which is focused on unifying the company’s many online advertising divisions, which include Advertising.com, Tacoda, Adtech, and others. Quigo is expected to bring in $100 million a year as it stands.

Now that the acquisition is final, and AOL is showing intentions to actually do something with a company it purchased, the unification strategy could actually work to make them a significant player in the online ad world in the face of the present dominant force of Google.

Quigo’s original backers include Highland Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Steamboat Ventures (a Walt Disney company).

[via PEHub]

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Filed under: Handhelds

We're still trying to decide whether or not we've become acclimated to Raon Digital's Everun, but regardless of where it sits on the scale of unsightly devices, it's still a fairly potent handheld. For those parked in South Korea, you've got another reason to lust after it, as the firm is cranking out a WiBro-enabled version and dubbing it the S60H WiBro. From what we can tell, this iteration remains identical to the prior version save for the added connectivity, and should be available soon for around ₩799,000 ($853).

[Via MobileWhack]

 

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The Australian Government has announced that they will be joining China as one of the few countries globally that broadly censor the internet.

The Labor Party’s policy was announced prior to the Australian Election in November (release here) and was justified on the basis that the previous Government’s policy of providing free copies of NetNanny to all Australian households who wanted it didn’t adequately protect children.

As recently as the week prior to the election, Labor Party candidates were telling those concerned about the proposed law that the censorship wouldn’t be compulsory, and that the “clean feed” would be opt-in, not opt-out. Today’s announcement by Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy states that the censorship regime will be mandatory, although people will be able to opt-out of it. The problem of course then becomes if you opt-out questions will be asked as to why you want out, which in itself may lead to Government monitoring.

To be censored by the Australian Government is “pornography and inappropriate material.” X rated pornography is illegal online in Australia, as are casino style internet gambling, certain forms of “hate” speech and R rated computer games. BitTorrent would be a possibility, even if certain downloads for personal use may be legal under Australian law, sharing those downloads would not be. How far “inappropriate material” may extend was not made clear, for example questioning Government policy where it comes to Aboriginal people could be deemed to be discrimination under Australian law and hence blocked by the censorship regime. Worst still, bloggers or those (such as forum owners) who allow users to comment or post could find themselves blocked under this proposal should someone say or post the wrong thing. If there is one certain in any country that implements broadscale censorship, once they start blocking content it doesn’t stop, and certainly every do-gooder group and special interest lobbyist will be wanting the Government to add to the list.

There is also a potential cost involved to Australian Internet users. The previous Government regularly cited feedback from ISP’s stating that the cost of implementing a “clean feed” would be passed onto internet users, who already pay some of the highest internet access costs in the Western world for on average slow services.

Notably Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was a former Australian Diplomat in China, and speaks fluent Mandarin; given Australia’s boom is fueled by mineral exports to China, it would seem that Australian Government policies are now by China in return. This video from before the election may have foretold some of the future.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Filed under: Laptops

More laptop leakage going on here, this time courtesy of some online retailers and even Sony's own site. The subjects: VAIOs SZ7, TZ2. Rundown on some of those specs:

TZ2 series

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9300
• 13.3-inch XBRITE display
• 4GB RAM, Vista Biz

SZ7 series

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9300
• 13.3-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) LED-backlit XBRITE display, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics
• 4GB RAM, 250GB drive, DVD±R/RW
• 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, gigabit Ethernet
• Sprint WWAN, ExpressCard34, PCMCIA
• Webcam, media and biometrics readers
• 12.5 x 9.3 x 1.5-inches

Like the others we've been seeing crop up, it stands to reason these will make a guest appearance at CES next week.

[Thanks, Kiwi616]

 

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We're not quite ready to believe these things function as advertised just yet, but it seems that multi-region Blu-ray players are beginning to pop up on a few overseas websites. We're seeing a region hacked Samsung BD-P1400 and Sony BDP-S300 / BDP-S500, each of which are reportedly modified to play nice with BD regions A / B as well as DVD regions 1 / 2. Aside from that, each player looks to be unchanged, but you better believe the convenience won't run you cheap. Over at Stegen Electronics, a multi-region BDP-S300 will demand €599 ($878), while the modded BDP-S500 rings up at €899 ($1,318), and until someone bites the bullet and confirms that these things actually do what they claim to, we'd recommend holding off.

[Via TheImportForums, thanks Frode A.]
Read - Stegen Electronics
Read - DVD Direct

 

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Omnipresence was another big theme in 2007 with Twitter brining always on, always available communication to the masses. Whether this is merely the beginning of a broader trend, or something that will pass in 2008 is still to be seen. Certainly I’m not sure if I want to see lot of people live twittering births, like we saw from Robert Scoble this year, but perhaps overall we’re all the richer for the networking Twitter delivers.

NC Winters at Freelance Switch sums it up nicely; Twitter fans can substitute Twitter for blog. For our coverage of Twitter this year, click here.

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Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Filed under: Laptops

If you've just now finished shuffling through yesterday's barrage of mobile Penryn-based laptops, here's yet another helping for you to try and digest. Up first is a pair from Toshiba (13-inch Satellite U300 / 17-inch Satellite X200), followed by a refreshed ThinkPad T61 and R61 from Lenovo and a trio of HP Compaqs (6820, 6720 and 6520). Just as before, there's entirely too many specs to dish out here, but if any of the above caught your eye, head on over to the read links below to find out more.

Read - Toshiba Satellites
Read - Lenovo ThinkPads
Read - HP Compaqs

 

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New Year’s Eve is only hours away for many readers, and unless you plan on sitting in your house watching the ball drop on television (or you could watch Radiohead drop an album), you may want to check out this short list of web-based tools for finding, planning and getting to a New Year’s Eve party.

“Just the Party, Please.”

Going.com - tells you where the event is, and who’s going

Socializr - see what party you’re friends will be attending

I’m There - local event information with nice mobile integration

Down2Night - shareable local venue directory so you and your friends can get it together

GoLark- Digg for events, for leveraging recommendations

CollegeTonight - an obvious focus on a partying demographic; will you be on campus for New Year’s Eve?

Metromix - this Chicago-based local guide to events & restaurants has gone nationwide just in time for the holidays

Socializer - still-in-beta local event search tool that does the same thing as Socializr

(more…)

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