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Viral Video: When Forests Attack–Al Gore Is Taping Toy Guns to Trees

Kara Swisher — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:00:05 +0000

Former VP and full-time envirogod Al Gore, who appeared at the fourth D: All Things Digital in May 2006, turned out to be a very funny guy onstage.

And he’s funny on television too, as you can see from his hysterical appearance this past weekend on “Saturday Night Live.”

In the bit, Gore talks about getting his crazy on to get folks to not forget about global warming.

Enjoy the video:

While Microsoft Is Talking to Publishers, Paying Up to "Rent" Content for Bing to Thwart Google Is Unlikely

Kara Swisher — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:55:29 +0000

While it might be a dream of publishers–hard hit by the digital tsunami and blaming Google for the crisis–Microsoft is not likely to fork over the big bucks they’d need for exclusive indexing of their content.

“Microsoft isn’t the monopoly guy anymore,” joked one source close to ongoing talks between Microsoft and publishers, especially News Corp. (NWS) and Associated Press. “So, it’s not going to be the bank for publishers.”

While a spate of reports has Microsoft (MSFT) execs girding the globe offering gobs of cash to content companies to block Google (GOOG) and favor its Bing search service, sources close to the situation caution that it is extremely unlikely that the software giant would pay giant sums for that pricey privilege, which many inside the company think will not help it gain much search share.

“While there is a lot of mutual interest, it’s doubtful Microsoft is going to pay to ‘rent’ a corpus of content that it does not own,” said one source close to the situation. “The economics are not there for anyone.”

Nonetheless, that has not stopped AP and News Corp. from aggressive public agitating recently about how their content has been treated online, accusing Google of a wide range of crimes against them and threatening to “de-index” their content from the search giant.

For example, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch–who has been on what seems like a televised campaign against the search giant–accused Google of pilfering stories from his publishing properties.

Presumably, by yanking Google’s access to them and offering them to Microsoft, balance will be restored in The Force.

Except, not so fast, since such a deal would end up costing Microsoft a fortune, which is why several sources said its execs don’t seem to be keen on doing that without getting a lot in return.

The swirl of chatter about it, these sources said, is coming from publishers–who initiated the very early-stage talks–who are keen on playing Microsoft and Google against each other in hopes the warring tech titans will loosen their fat wallets to battle each other.

News Corp., for instance, has been looking for ways to replace the three-year, $900 million (or less) Google/MySpace search deal that expires next year. The publisher has been talking to Microsoft about some sort of exclusivity since this summer, but News Corp. executives also say they’re happy to work with Google if Google is willing to pay up. But what would either company really be buying?

Another source used YouTube as an example of Google getting a mass of videos, when it paid $1.65 billion in 2006 for the online video company.

“That made sense, since Google got all that content to use,” said the source. “But it is hard to see publishers getting the advertising economics and revenue they want from Microsoft for lending their content out, even exclusively.”

Still a third source noted that the only way such a deal could be envisioned by Microsoft is if a majority of publishers was able to band together to block Google from indexing their sites.

“If it was everyone, that might become interesting,” said the source. “But even that has issues, since Microsoft is not interested in having exclusive news for a temporary period of time by overpaying for it.”

Added the source, noting how much money Microsoft has lost in its online efforts so far:

“It’s essentially a marketing expense, and there are a lot better ways to spend that money to win market share than giving it to publishers.”

(Full disclosure: News Corp. owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

AOL CEO Armstrong Talks About New Branding Effort and the Investor Road Show! (Plus Internal Aol. Logo Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:02:05 +0000

After AOL CEO Tim Armstrong unveiled the newly punctuated AOL logo–big A, little o, little l, period–last night, he got on the horn with BoomTown to chitty-chat about the change in image and, more pertinently, how it’s going on the road show to sell investors on the soon-to-be independent company.

First off–while many suggested it–Armstrong said he never considered dumping the AOL moniker for another name, in an effort to rid the company of the 1990s feel of the brand.

“I wanted to keep AOL as the the brand, because bottom line there was a lot of good will around the name,” he said, noting the billions of dollars invested in it. “As a consumer brand, there was a high level of affection.”

Of course, I have a lot of nostalgic affection for Beanie Babies and the kids from “Saved by the Bell.” But, in no way does that mean I want them back, especially Screech.

But Armstrong prefers to use the revival of the Apple (AAPL) brand as a better comparison. “We think that kind of comeback is the way we’re looking at it,” he said.

In that case: Calling Steve Jobs, stat!

Of course, the AOL name has also forever been linked with Time Warner (TWX)–its current owner–in perhaps one of the worst mergers in history, another ding on the brand.

Armstrong agreed that that corporate debacle left a bad taste in the mouths of investors, which is one of the things he has to change during the road show he is now on to sell the new and improved AOL.

And while he is only two days into it, Armstrong said he is encouraged by the response.

“A lot of initial reaction is what we expected, and we have had to do an update on AOL to change perceptions,” he noted. “People did not know we were doing so much…and, I think, they really like our strategy.”

That would be a leaner, meaner staff with a big focus on content.

Still, Armstrong said, investors are going to take some convincing. “Basically, they want to know where we are on the AOL turnaround and are asking us if we can get this company growing again,” he said. “AOL is still the ‘Show Me’ state.”

Actually, that’s Missouri. Perhaps a better goal would be Florida: The Sunshine State!

In any case, Armstrong said it will be critical that AOL show investors that its change is authentic, innovative and meaningful.

The idea of transformation is obviously and sadly clear with AOL’s recent announcement of massive layoffs and the deleveraging of assets.

In other words, it’s not your father’s bloated online company.

On the more positive side, Armstrong said communicating a new brand image and accompanying logo–whose motto is: “one logo/countless ways to reveal” and will include a marketing and advertising campaign–is also key.

“We want to use the new logo to highlight other things within the service,” he said. “And that would be all the things that you can pivot to that come after the dot.”

Here is a first look at a video of Armstrong talking to his employees about the new logo–and, no, I have no idea what the fawn, the goldfish or the weird-looking ghosts mean–as well as images of some older AOL logos (only the yellow running man is staying put):

[ See post to watch video ]

Google Search Stories–Including Batman!–Or Are They Anti-Bing Commercials in Disguise?

Kara Swisher — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:41:49 +0000

It’s well known that Google doesn’t do much in the way of marketing around its search service.

While you will catch advertising for the Chrome browser or for Android smartphones on the Web, given Google’s huge 70 percent market share in search, it hardly needs to attract users.

So, then, what is one to make of a series of new videos, which look suspiciously like commercials, that Google (GOOG) launched late last week on its blog and posted on a new channel on YouTube?

Called “Search Stories,” there are a half-dozen of the short videos, some more adorkable than others, which star the main search box.

One thing they have in common is that they have the look and feel of a marketing campaign, with the tag line “Search on.”

They also stress a variety of Google products, such as mapping, video, price comparisons, email and more.

One imagines what pre-Batman Bruce Wayne would look for, complete with ominous music, including search terms such as “coping with loss,” “flexible kevlar” and “gotham city crime statistics.”

Another video, called “Newbie,” has a grandmother searching on “keeping in touch with grandkids” and–in a clever dig at the MySpace and Facebook social networking services–“what is myfacebook,” which gets corrected by Google to “what is facebook.”

Could it be that the $100 million marketing push Microsoft (MSFT) launched for its Bing search service, which seems to be slowly gaining share, is starting to get on the nerves of those Spocks in Silicon Valley?

Not that Google would admit this, instead simply saying it was feeling all warm and fuzzy and so decided to make some kids-let’s-put-on-a-show videos.

Wrote Robert Wong of Google Creative Lab in a blog post, in part:

Because while we’re proud of the innovations we’re making in search, we’re proudest of the things people use search to accomplish. In other words, the best search results don’t show up on a webpage–they show up in somebody’s life.

So in that spirit, we made a bunch of videos. There’s one about grandma dipping her toe into technology. One about friends taking a Kerouac inspired road trip. And yes, there’s even one about Bruce Wayne.

Judge for yourself–here they all are:

Parisian Love

Mad to Live

Batman

Newbie

Potholes

High School

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Twitter! Here's the Real "What's Happening!"

Kara Swisher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:16:52 +0000

BoomTown was intrigued when Mind-Your-Own Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, penned a blog post yesterday about the microblogging service changing its prompting question.

Now, above the little Twitter box, it reads, “What’s Happening?” and not the original tweet query, “What are you doing?”

“The fundamentally open model of Twitter created a new kind of information network and it has long outgrown the concept of personal status updates,” wrote Stone. “Twitter helps you share and discover what’s happening now among all the things, people, and events you care about. ‘What are you doing?’ isn’t the right question anymore…”

While the blogosphere covered this development as if it were a moment of monumental meaning, most were ignorant that the true beacon of innovative What’s-Happeningness does not reside in Silicon Valley.

Instead, it would be embodied completely by the 1970s television show, “What’s Happening!”

The sitcom was about three African-American teens living in the Watts section of Los Angeles–Raj, Rerun and Dwayne.

Here’s a video of the opening of the show, episodes of which can be found in their entirety all over the Web, and from which much Hey-Hey-Hey wisdom can be gleaned:

Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester Talks About MicroHoo and More!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:55:03 +0000

While in Washington, D.C., BoomTown can’t just visit the policy wonks from Internet companies (such as my Facebook how-do-you-do here), so I hightailed it several hundred feet and directly across Connecticut Avenue NW to visit with Jeff Chester.

For those who don’t know him, Chester is the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group that works to promote privacy and protection online.

In other words, a professional–and much needed–thorn in the side of Facebook, Google (GOOG) and these days, MicroHoo.

That’s because, while advertisers and publishers are supportive of the massive search and online advertising deal between Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO)–which now looks close to being launched–Chester has a more whoa-nelly attitude.

“There are questions that must be answered regarding the collection and sharing of consumer data by the two companies,” said Chester right after the deal was announced. “While the rationale for the deal is to provide some much needed competition to Google (and income for Yahoo), the further consolidation of the global digital advertising system should be a concern to Internet users, privacy advocates, online marketers, and competition regulators.”

Violations of consumer privacy by such unions or by Facebook’s efforts to use data to better deliver online ads or by any of the myriad ways such companies are honing their behavioral targeting skills worries Chester.

Thus, in patented D.C.-style, he hectors government agencies, politicians and the media to look more closely at such practices.

Here is my video interview with him about all this, which is well worth listening to, especially in an era when online powerhouses like Google are learning more and more about you, and not in a good way:

[ See post to watch video ]

Here Comes Tech-Heavy "Avatar" (and the Inevitable Smurf Spoof)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:00:47 +0000

Hollywood director James Cameron is well known for his heavy use of special effects and techtastic techniques in his movies, which include “Titanic,” “Aliens” and the first–and best–two “Terminator” blockbusters.

In a few weeks, Cameron is hoping to hit geek gold again with a 3-D sci-fi juggernaut called “Avatar.”

Set to come out in mid-December, it is full of all kinds of fancy and innovative CGI animation.

And the use of blue-colored avatars–essentially digitally animated likenesses of the real-life actors–is a big plot point in the movie, which is about a soldier caught in a war between a greedy mining company and a heroic indigenous tribe on a planet called Pandora.

Here’s one of the trailers for “Avatar”:

And, of course, here is a video of a hysterical recent spoof of the movie done by “South Park”–with a little “Dances With Wolves” tossed in, because it is the same exact plot–called “Dances With Smurfs”:

Kara Visits Facebook's Washington, D.C., Office and Talks Policy!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:02:13 +0000

Yesterday, BoomTown paid a visit to the Washington, D.C., office of Facebook to meet its reps in the nation’s capital.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the social networking site has a very small staff–just a trio of on-the-young-side dudes–battening down the hatches from a funky office in a funky section of D.C., Dupont Circle, far from the tonier and lobbyist-rich K Street corridor.

In contrast, both Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) have a massive D.C. presence, trying to influence policy.

Still, as many in government know–such as Sarah Palin this week–Facebook has become a key tool in the basic bag of political tricks, used for organizing, canvassing, communicating and, every now and then, inspiring.

But there is also a raft of thorny legislative issues for Facebook, especially related to privacy, an arena where the company has repeatedly shot itself in the foot (Beacon! TOS!).

The company’s relatively new D.C. staff will presumably be a little smoother going forward.

They include:

Director of Public Policy Tim Sparapani, most recently with the American Civil Liberties Union, who joined in the spring.

Adam Conner, who opened Facebook’s D.C. office and who worked for some pols when he was still a college student, showing them how to use social media.

And, most recently, joining as manager of public policy communications, Andrew Noyes, a former reporter for the National Journal (and the man in 17D who pinged me on a Virgin America flight last week to meet him and the other Facebook policy wonks).

Here’s a video of the interview, in which we discuss all the big issues, from privacy to data retention to how Washington’s view of tech still has not evolved much:

[ See post to watch video ]

Palin Nears One Million Facebook Fans, While Lagging on Twitter

Kara Swisher — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:06:08 +0000

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is certainly giving her Facebook fan page a workout this week, as she nears one million fans.

Using the site to flack her new book, “Going Rogue,” which comes out officially today, it got a big boost from her interview today with Oprah Winfrey, clocking in at close to 995,000 fans last night.

Posts include info on her multipart interview with Barbara Walters, her unhappiness with the recent cover of her in running clothes in Newsweek magazine (“The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now.”) and, of course, how the media were unfairly attacking her.

Interestingly, Palin’s followers for the book in Twitter (#SarahPalinUSA) number a paltry 17,624.

Still, Palin has other Twitter accounts, such as when she was governor of Alaska (153,432), but this is still a very small audience.

(By the way, President Barack Obama is closing in on seven million fans on Facebook and 2.7 million followers on Twitter.)

As the media onslaught gains steam, here is some video of Palin’s television interview on “Oprah” yesterday:

Qualcomm's CEO Paul Jacobs Talks About Smartbooks and More!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:36:52 +0000

When in San Diego recently, BoomTown paid a visit to Qualcomm and its Chairman and CEO, Paul Jacobs, to talk about a new “smartbook” device the wireless-technology company unveiled last week.

Well, sort of–while I got a gander at a prototype, the real one is not actually set to debut until the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January, where Jacobs will deliver his first keynote address.

There, he will show off what is essentially a combination of a smartphone and a netbook using wireless technology and an always-on capability, an attempt to push yet another innovative device type onto the market.

It will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, and the first ones will be made by Lenovo and offered by AT&T (T)–to try to get the device widely used by consumers.

Smartbooks will be videocentric and have a Linux-based user interface, a keyboard and a range of popular widget applications, such as email and Facebook.

Obviously, this will be a competitive market and, really, Apple (AAPL), with its upcoming tablet computer, is also pushing into this mobile-phone-that-ate-computers space.

Moving into new markets has been important for Jacobs and Qualcomm (QCOM), which recently gave fiscal-year forecasts under Wall Street expectations and has had a rocky time in recent quarters.

Along with the econalypse, the company has attributed this to the decline in handsets with CDMA wireless technology, which Qualcomm pioneered.

Here’s my interview with Jacobs about smartbooks, as well as augmented reality and the company’s new FLO TV device, coming out soon. Plus, a wireless bandaid!:

[ See post to watch video ]

The Missing Final Chapter of Auletta's Google Book: 25 Media Maxims

Kara Swisher — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:01:48 +0000

Last week, New Yorker writer Ken Auletta launched his new book on the search giant: “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.”

But one final chapter was actually cut from the book, which Auletta posted this past weekend on his Web site.

Auletta emailed BoomTown, explaining that he killed it because it was “not organic to the book’s narrative, and because I feared it [would] muddy the books purpose, casting it as a How-To book.”

The chapter contains 25 media maxims or things Auletta learned from covering the media and Google (GOOG), kicking off by recounting Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs’s famous “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 (see video below).

Included among Auletta’s maxims: “Passion Is Required,” “Vision Is Required” and “Don’t Ignore the Human Factor.”

Here’s the chapter in its entirety:

And here is a video interview I did with Auletta at his book party in San Francisco last week, followed by the Jobs’s speech:

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

As "Twilight: New Moon" Mania Descends Online, Try "Firelight" Instead

Kara Swisher — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:21:11 +0000

Oh dear, just a single week away and Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and every gossip site on the Web is aflame in expectation of the second installment of the young-vampires-in-lust movie series, “Twilight: New Moon.”

As pictures of its are-they-or-aren’t-they-holding-hands (um, they are) stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, rocketed around the Web last week, prepare for an online and offline outpouring of teenage swooning over the whole overwrought love story, which is set to debut just after midnight on Nov. 20.

Until then, here is a very typical tweet of many-too-many, with a whole lot of exclamations, natch: “6 MORE days until NEW MOON!!!! heading there early to watch twilight in theaters one last time, then its off to NEW MOON!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!”

Thankfully, this digital short video from “Saturday Night Live”–a spoof called “Firelight” with, yes, BoomTown favorite Taylor Swift, pretty much sums up the situation perfectly:

Viral Video: How Much Do I Love Taylor Swift? (Take That, Kanye!)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:30:23 +0000

In this ruthlessly funny video–especially for such a sweet-looking young lady–singer Taylor Swift manages to ice pretty much everyone who ever dissed her.

And Kanye West’s attention-grabbing antics at the MTV Video Music Awards in September are not the only ones getting a musical smackdown from the 19-year-old, who won the Country Music Association’s entertainer of the year award last night.

In her opening on a recent “Saturday Night Live,” the NBC television comedy show, which she hosted, Swift strummed a guitar and sang “Monologue Song (La La La).”

My favorite line, which I was completely not expecting: “I like writing songs about douche bags who cheat on me.”

Sing it, sister.

Here’s the video:

Is Google Scary? Not to Silicon Valley, Even at a Party for a Book About How Scary It Could Be!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:21:47 +0000

While at a book party for author Ken Auletta in San Francisco last night, BoomTown took the opportunity to ask those gathered whether they were scared or not of Google and its growing power.

The Auletta book covers a lot about the search giant, but also drills in on how traditional media and advertising, as well as the government, have all become increasingly wary of Google’s hegemony over key businesses on the Web.

But as it turned out, the Silicon Valley types I queried had nothing but attaboys for Google (GOOG). Oddly enough, many mentioned how they love the food served up at the Googleplex.

Here’s the video of the interviews, with scary up-close shots, with investor–including in Google–Ron Conway, almost-not CBS (CBS) Web dude/almost investment dude Quincy Smith, online classified czar Craig Newmark, Slide CEO Max Levchin and Google PR honcho David “I love my Soylent Green” Krane (see pertinent movie video clip below):

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Author Ken Auletta Talks About Google and Its "Lack of Emotional Intelligence"

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:50:35 +0000

Guess what? Google has too many Spocks and not enough Captain Kirks.

This is one of the many interesting insights BoomTown gleaned from a video interview last night–which you can see below–with well-known New Yorker scribe Ken Auletta, who has just written a new book, “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.”

This “lack of emotional intelligence” at the search giant, said Auletta, reminded him a lot of the subject of one of his previous books: Microsoft (MSFT).

Oh, the delicious irony!

Auletta was feted at a lovely party last night at the San Francisco house of Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, where a range of Google (GOOG) execs, Internet folks and fans gathered to talk about the book.

It’s all about Google, its history and, most important, its impact on the world. And how you look at the powerful search giant depends entirely on whether you are the changer or the changed, as Auletta stresses in multiple anecdotes in the book.

Traditional media, for example, have certainly been mucho irked of late about the impact of digital technologies on their businesses and have not been shy about casting blame most heapingly on Google’s Silicon Valley plate.

And government regulators are also giving the company the hairy eyeball, much as they had previously done to Microsoft.

Auletta and I talked about all of this and more in the video interview below, in which he notes that he told Googlers at a talk at their adorkable Googleplex HQ in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday that they need to focus less on being engineering brainiacs and more on trying to understand how to deal with fears of their growing power.

Here’s my interview with Auletta about this, as well as what old media needs to do to deal with all the change Google has wrought. (And you can see interviews I did with guests at the party, too).

And below that is one of the disturbing number of mash-up music videos about “Star Trek” buddies, the highly illogical Kirk and the Vulcanish Spock, the geek bromance of all time.

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.