Now, BoomTown likes a good jingle as much as anyone else, but this new one from Microsoft’s Bing search service is sticking in my head like a piece of chewed gum.
Shot at Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham, Pa., it uses 400 very adorable sixth graders, who are dragooned into one very large “Bing Goes the Internet” dance–complete with logo wear. The kids rock, the jingle not so much.
While Nicki Dugan (pictured here) was not one of the top execs at Yahoo, she certainly is typical of many at the company who stuck with it through many ups and downs.
No longer, according to a memo BoomTown obtained, since the longtime PR staffer–who has been at Yahoo for almost a decade and who was previously with an outside public relations firm that worked for Yahoo–will leave the company Monday.
Here’s a new video that has been making the rounds recently featuring “Roller Babies,” which is essentially a computer-generated bunch of babies on skates doing a rap number.
It’s a commercial for Evian Water, but BoomTown laughs every time I look at it anyway–probably because it reminds me of the most famous of all viral videos on the Internet: The Dancing Baby of 1997.
Earlier today, BoomTown posted on the difficulty of making scratch off of popular online videos, including the Jill and Kevin wedding dance video.
Here’s an inevitable spoof about the divorce dance, six months later.
At least someone’s going to pay up!
Oh, who doesn’t just love, love, love the two latest viral videos to hit the Web–“United Breaks Guitars” and the joyful wedding dance of Minnesotans Jill and Kevin? Combined, they have more than 20 million views on YouTube.
While that’s all well and good, like a lot of these kinds of viral phenoms, neither is likely to make much money and become more than watercooler wonders.
Oh horror of horrors–Steve Wozniak got sent home last night on the ABC celebrity hoofer-fest, “Dancing with the Stars.”
Whatever will BoomTown do without the peculiar gyrations of the Apple co-founder to praise effusively and mock relentlessly at the very same time?
But with a truly terrible Tango and the lowest judges’ score (12 out of 30) of the remaining 11 contestants from his Monday night outing, Woz’s only chance was the voters at home.
They let Woz down.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak revved his damn-the-judges juggernaut into high gear this week with yet another low-scoring performance on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and a full-bore mangle of the Argentine tango last night.
Interestingly, as the trio of judges dinged him for the fourth week in a row, they also tried to compliment Wozniak at the same time, telling him they loved his spirit.
Oh, these judges know that a Silicon Valley mob riding Segways could run them down at any minute if they got too mean.
“The judges have forsaken me,” said Woz, sounding more and more like a very appealing nerd cult leader. “But the geeks shall inherit the earth.”
Getting a foot fracture, pulling a hamstring, claiming there was a voting conspiracy, getting an abysmal score of 10 out of 30 from the judges (the lowest score ever) and, of course, dancing with as much grace as a block of cement were not enough to sink the Good Ship Wozniak last night on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Instead, the people spoke loud and proud for continued goofiness by voting for the clod-hopping Apple co-founder in droves and tossing off actress and Charlie Sheen nemesis, Denise Richards.
Next up: Tango Argentina!
Or, most likely in Woz’s version: Mangled Argentina.
At least Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak can pun through the pain of his foot fracture and pulled hamstring.
“Hey, well, one thing I learned is that if you mix a little dancing with a little Smirnoff, you might end up in an ambulance,” he joked, riffing on the name of his partner, Karina Smirnoff.
What he can’t do, of course, is dance very well, which was why he got the low, low score of 10 out of 30 last night from the judges on his third week of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Oh, it was a bad samba. A very bad samba.
But who cares? Vote for your right to Sam-bad!
Self-described Teletubby, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak sure knows how to make things dramatic.
For the second time, after a foot fracture, his continued appearance on the ABC celebrity show “Dancing With the Stars” appears in jeopardy, due to an apparent hamstring injury he suffered at practice on Friday.
Curiously, a picture of Woz on a stretcher and an update of his injured status were taken off his Woz.org blog sometime over the weekend (I saw the picture on Saturday night on my iPhone, but it is impossible to find now).
Also previously 86ed was a letter he had posted and then unposted about his contention that some vote-rigging was taking place on the show.
Doing the quickstep and wearing taped nerd glasses to the tune of Buddy Holly’s “Oh, Boy,” Steve Wozniak’s dance stylings on “Dancing With the Stars” this week was more like “Oh, Brother!”
Nonetheless, support of geeks world-wide and an infectious spirit kept the Apple co-founder in the running on the ABC television competition, besting former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle in dance-off elimination.
Woz is dancing as badly as he can with a pink boa, Silicon Valley, so get out there and make your 13 votes count!
Despite the little-movie-that-could, “Slumdog Millionaire,” sweeping the Oscars on Sunday night, it was well-nigh impossible to find a really good online video of the amazing Bollywood-style dance routine done during the closing credits to the also award-winning song, “Jai Ho!”
Unfortunately, the A.R. Rahman tune (two well-deserved Oscars for him!) in the catchy song-and-dance number seemed to be subject to takedowns all over the Web just when it probably was a good time to put it out and generate even more box office buzz for “Slumdog.”
So–at this point–BoomTown feels it is not untoward in asking: What the heck is taking so long for Yahoo and AOL to decide whether or not to merge their struggling operations?
And, after talking to a dozen sources, inside and outside both companies, this week, I can tell you there is definitely one nagging problem: They’re just not that into each other.
Make no mistake, though, these arranged marriage negotiations are grudgingly advanced. Oh, they are talking, and how, now engaged in what another source describes as “very serious due diligence.”
We had this video hidden away in Voices today, but BoomTown had to let it run free some more!
Why?
Can you say Wookie dancing to “Footloose” and Darth Vader to “Thriller”?
Frankly, that’s all I need to achieve nirvana.
And we are not even going to explain why Princess Leia dancing to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” is simply divine.
In my Internet holiday party video posted yesterday, I talked to entertainer and entrepreneur MC Hammer about his new online dance start-up called DanceJam.
At one point, I kid him, noting, “You can’t dance on the Internet.”
So, of course, it took about two seconds to get an email on the subject decrying my ignorance, including a [...]
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 »
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.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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