All Things Digital

Skip to main content.

BoomTown

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Dear Tim: Here’s a Tour of the It-Takes-a-Licking-but-Keeps-on-Ticking AOL Brand

youve-got-mailjpg

What’s next for AOL?

Reviving the “You’ve Got Mail!” motto?

Or: “The Future. Now Available.”–set to music from “The Jetsons”?

What about: “So easy to use, no wonder it’s #1!”

Or maybe, it should just use a nice loooooooong busy signal as its calling card again?

Well, it could happen, now that new CEO Tim Armstrong has fallen prey to the siren call of the AOL brand name, after years of seeing the company wander in the anything-but-the-AOL wilderness.

Thus, he’s decided to try to welcome the prodigal brand back home, even as he prepares to spin it off in November from Time Warner.

Uh-oh.

Read More »

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Harry Potter and the Half-True Trailers

Last week, BoomTown posted on the amazing number of Joker impression videos related to the hit Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” that were popping up all over the Web.

Next up?

Well, it seems the honor will be going to Harry Potter knockoffs and tributes, due to the upcoming sixth movie in the series about the boy wizard, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

Read More »

Friday, August 8, 2008

“The Dark Knight”: Joker Impressions Abound Online

Here’s a curious trend I’ve noticed developing quickly on YouTube, probably because of the acclaim that the late actor Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” has garnered.

His memorably malevolent turn in the latest Batman movie is likely to result in a posthumous Oscar for Ledger. But perhaps more interesting is the number of fans who are doing video impressions of his performance, acting out various scenes from the movie, and posting them online in tribute.

Read More »

Friday, May 2, 2008

Batman Trailer Mashup Lookalike

One of my favorite things about the Web is how quickly and effectively you can take media and mash it up into all sorts of new forms.
Case in point, this comparison of scenes from a trailer from the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” and that of 1989’s original “Batman.”
Incredibly, many of the scenes [...]

Read More »

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Very Dark Knight

It is hard to look away from the swirl of media that the untimely and tragic death of Heath Ledger has engendered, and the Internet has jacked the frenzy into overdrive.

Along with an explosion of Web stories and video about the late actor–unfortunately too, please-don’t videos from outside the home of his family seem particularly appalling–there has also been controversy around a very prominent online marketing campaign that has been going on related to the next in the blockbuster Batman series, “The Dark Knight.”

Read More »

Latest BoomTown Videos

More Videos »

About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

Read more »