September 2008

The Candidates Are Monitoring Your Mouse

Sens Barack Obama and John McCain are tracking what you do online. The Presidential candidates are so eager for votes this November that their campaign staffs are turning to behavioral targeting, a sophisticated though controversial strategy to pinpoint voters and volunteers online with advertising tailored to their interests. It's the first election in which White House hopefuls are using the approach. Behavioral targeting gives campaigns a potentially powerful new way to slice up the electorate. In the past, politicians used surveys and demographics to target voters with mailings and local TV ads. But much of the effort was wasted. Campaigns had to assume that individuals shared the values of a large group—say, the National Rifle Assn. or a Zip Code on Chicago's West Side. Now the advertising arms of Yahoo!, Microsoft, and others help politicians uncover people's interests by tracking their Web surfing and searches. By mixing these profiles with data such as age or gender, they can build thousands of voter profiles, each a target for a customized pitch.

Comcast's Usage Cap: What Does It Mean?

[Commentary] Comcast has posted a change to its broadband user policy today. It's now limiting subscribers to 250 Gigabytes of monthly usage, which can include e-mailing friends or uploading photos. Near term, the limit may not do much to curtain the average consumer's Web usage. After all, 250 Gigabytes is a lot: You could download 100 HD movies over the Web, and still have some of that capacity left. Chances are, 99% of consumers will not even notice the change — for now. But the decision carries weighty implications for the future. As Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett pointed out in his Aug. 29 note, "While the usage level specified is high, it is now finite.... A line has been crossed." This is the end of unlimited broadband use as we know it. The end of an era. Chances are, other broadband service providers will follow suit and institute similar — or even lower — limits. In the coming years, as users start to download HD movies en masse, and to watch a ton of Web video, even the Comcast cap — a cap that seems ample today — may not seem so high. A growing percentage of users may have to curb their online activities. And that's bad news for Web businesses such as those pushing bandwidth-thirsty videos.

Microsoft Faces New Browser Foe in Google

On Tuesday, Google will release a free Web browser called Chrome that the company said would challenge Microsoft's Internet Explorer, as well as the Firefox browser. The browser is a universal doorway to the Internet, and the use of Internet software and services is rapidly growing. Increasingly, the browser is also the doorway to the Web on cellphones and other mobile devices, widening the utility of the Web and Web advertising. Google, analysts say, cannot let Microsoft's dominant share of the browser market go without a direct challenge. Google already competes with Microsoft in online search and Internet advertising. They both make operating software for cellphones. Google is increasingly competing with Microsoft head-on in software that handles basic productivity like word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and e-mail programs. Google has Web-based software in these markets that are low-cost or free alternatives to Microsoft's lucrative desktop software. Despite the frequent clashes with Microsoft -- including the role Google played in thwarting an attempted acquisition of Yahoo -- Google has come out on top only in search and search advertising. But Google does not have to win the browser war. Strategically, opening yet another front against Microsoft forces it to divert resources to defend franchises.

Hurricane Hannah May Impact Wilmington Test

As Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast Monday, meteorologists have projected that recently upgraded Hurricane Hannah will hit North Carolina just as full-power stations in the Wilmington market prepare to shut off their analog signals and complete the transition to all digital broadcasting. According The Weather Channel, Hannah, with winds currently at 80 m.p.h., is on course to hit southern North Carolina sometime between Friday and Saturday, just two days ahead of the Sept 8 switch to digital. The FCC has said that stations can continue to air in analog if a hurricane, hits, however.

Television Keeps a Hand in the Online Game With Serialized Shows

Serialized Web shows are popping up faster than ever, partly as a result of the recent writers' strike. And the television industry, hedging its bets, is heavily involved in the format, even if the most notable results so far -- remember "quarterlife"? -- won't remind anyone of "Seinfeld" or "Lou Grant." Many "original" series on network Web sites are simply marketing tools for television shows. And a look at a few current, more truly original Web series with television connections demonstrates that if you're not packaging "Big Brother" outtakes, it helps to have an independent revenue stream. Nielsen isn't covering these things yet.

At Movies, Fewer Eyes, Bigger Haul

Fewer people went to the movies this summer than last, confirming Hollywood's fears that this year's slate of pictures would not match the crowd pleasers of 2007. But luckily for an industry that cares mostly about the money, higher ticket prices and a Batman sequel delivered near-record revenue to the major studios. For the crucial summer season, a period from the first weekend in May to Labor Day, when studios record about 40 percent of their annual box office revenue, domestic ticket sales totaled an estimated $4.2 billion, according to movie tracking firms. Despite attendance falling 4 percent (to 586.6 million moviegoers), according to Media by Numbers, that performance still surpassed last year's $4.18 billion. Factoring in inflation, the summer of 2002 still holds the industry record with $4.63 billion.

Republicans, Obama ask supporters to send hurricane relief

Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) are asking supporters to contribute to Hurricane Gustav relief efforts. On Monday, Sen McCain's campaign was directing supporters to CauseGreater.com, a site that lists contact information for the disaster relief funds in each of the Gulf Coast states. The Republican party canceled nearly all scheduled events for the Republican National Convention Monday, save official business, out of respect for those impacted by Hurricane Gustav. However, a few special guests remained on the docket of speakers at the St. Paul Xcel Energy Center here, including Cindy McCain and first lady Laura Bush. Sen Obama contacted his supporters who receive text messages from the campaign, with a text that read, "Barack asks that you give to the Red Cross: give 5 dollars by texting GIVE to 24357 or give more by calling 1-800-435-7669 or at redcross.org/donate. Please fwd." The Obama campaign also sent an e-mail to supporters, urging them to donate to the Red Cross.

Tales From the Cellphone Tour

Cyriac Roeding -- a mobile technology expert and enthusiast -- took a 'round-the-world odyssey to see how the rest of the world uses cellphones. He saw parking meters that talk to phones in New Zealand, teenage text-messaging monks in a Himalayan monastery and cellphone charging stations along the Ganges River in India, right next to a raging funeral pyre.

FCC Ramps up for Gustav Response

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) of the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) has announced the activation of the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) in response to Hurricane Gustav. DIRS is a voluntary, efficient, web-based system that communications providers, including wireless, wireline, broadcast, and cable providers, can use to report communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information during times of crises. The FCC also reminded communications providers of contact information to obtain emergency Special Temporary Authorizations (STAs).

Gustav Takes News Watch Off RNC

With Hurricane Gustav hitting the Gulf Coast, cable news networks on Labor Day morning diverted their attention from coverage of the opening night of the Republican National Convention. Rather than focusing on the GOP gathering in St. Paul, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News Channel had their cameras and correspondents on the ground in the region and in New Orleans, which was still recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Naturally, The Weather Channel was all over the developing story. Weather maps depicting the storm's swirling bands of rain/wind, meteorologists talking about Gustav's path and rising tides and correspondents assessing the strength of levees and how their performance could impact the city's future replaced what figured to be wall-to-wall commentary about presumptive GOP Presidential nominee and Sarah Palin, the Alaska Governor selected as his running mate. Appearances by President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in St. Paul were canceled and the GOP indicated that only "procedural" matters would occur at the RNC Monday. The news nets were forced to redeploy personnel and resources from St. Paul, after a quick tournaround from Denver, the site of last week's Democratic National Convention, to the Gulf Coast. If there was some good news, Gustav, which at one point had intensified to a category 4 hurricane, had been further downgraded to a category 2 -- winds of 110 miles per hour from a category 3, in which winds can sustain 115 miles per hour.

Benton

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