BoomTown » mother

Viral Video: Twitteleh, Yet Another Twitter Parody Has Wings

Kara Swisher — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:40:06 +0000

Since it debuted last week, a spoof video for Twitteleh is rising fast, with close to 200,000 views on YouTube.

It’s one of the many parodies of the popular microblogging service, Twitter, which attracts them the way it attracts valuation-mad VCs.

This one urges good sons to tweet answers to classic Jewish mother questions such as: “What have you eaten?” and “Are you wearing a sweater?”

Here it is:

And, here are BoomTown’s two favorite Twitter-mocking videos so far, one from Slate for Flutter and one from “The Daily Show,” with the incomparable Samantha Bee:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

If Some Dad's Rants on Twitter Can Go Viral, My Mom Needs to Turbo-Tweet

Kara Swisher — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Oh, dear; now my mom is going to be really pissed at me for not making her a Twitter sensation.

Unlike, according to a very amusing article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Justin Halpern–who has been tweeting wacky quips uttered by his dad without him knowing much about it, under the handle: @s—mydadsays.

And, lo and behold, with only 28 tweets, the cranky 73-year-old has attracted almost 250,000 followers, after a spate of media attention and retweeting.

Some tweets included:

“Don’t touch the bacon, it’s not done yet. You let me handle the bacon, and i’ll let you handle…what ever it is you do. I guess nothing.”

“You know, sometimes it’s nice having you around. But now ain’t one of those times. Now gimmie the remote we’re not watching this bullshit.”

“What are you listening to?…I know who Hall & Oates are god dammit. It’s the mustache guy and the gay man.”

The tweets have caused such a hubbub that Halpern has been approached by book agents, publishers and producers.

Rut-roh, since my brother and I did the same thing at Walt Mossberg’s and my D: All Things Digital conference, typing up my mother’s observations of some of Silicon Valley’s poobahs and more in 140 characters.

We did so after she expressed her distaste of Twitter in a video I showed before interviewing its founders, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, onstage (see below).

Here is the account name: @luckyd7.

Some of her 40 tweets (which, I hate to admit, I have not updated since mid-June):

“I’m going to bed. Why would anybody care about that!”

“Kara says ashton kutcher twitters. So what! His claim to fame is he married someone eighteen years older.”

“Just met the twitter guys. They are so cute. I’m embarrassed.”

“Oh my god! Kara put my wedding portrait as my twitter picture. Then again, I did look fabulous.”

“Steve Ballmer just announced the name of his new search program. Bing! I don’t like it. It’s stupid. Reminds me of the Sopranos.”

Obviously, to catch Mr. Halpern, I am going to have to up my game and start stalking my mother for spicier fare–because from the mouths of parents, ofttimes come gems.

Until then, here she is in that Twitter-bashing video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Happy Virtual Mother's Day: Modern Mom Site Gets a Celebrity Relaunch

Kara Swisher — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:44:42 +0000

What’s one of the ways you might attract a lot of attention online?

Here’s one possible equation: Celebrity + Mom + Tips Galore.

That’s the formula behind a new site relaunching today called Modern Mom, which is backed by “Dancing With the Stars” winner Brooke Burke and partner Lisa Rosenblatt, wading into what the pair hopes will be a lucrative market.

In an unusual twist, they have bought an existing site, redesigned it and then turbocharged it using both original content and stuff pulled from Demand Media (which was founded by Rosenblatt’s husband, Richard Rosenblatt).

It’s an interesting effort to watch in online publishing, to see if the pair can attract both an audience and advertisers without a big brand name in the mother space and by leveraging Burke’s online and offline popularity.

She now has, for example, 562,522 followers on Twitter alone, a huge fan group on Facebook and is an active social networker.

Whether that can be turned into a real business is a good question.

“I think I am passionate about this and want it to be organic,” said Burke, who noted that she and Rosenblatt have seven kids between them. “There are a lot of places for moms to go online, but they tend to cut up the experience, while we’re focusing on information and tools from pregnancy to the teen space, since being a mother does not stop at any one point.”

Rosenblatt, who said that the effort has been backed by several million dollars in angel investment, added that the key was trying not to overwhelm readers with content that was not relevant.

“We wanted to be a place for people to feel involved easily, so they could feel comfortable,” she said. “We’re the audience for what we are offering, so we think we know what people want.”

That means, no surprise, nothing too heavy–with lots of tips, buying suggestions, health and beauty, food and home, videos, blogs, as well as an area focused on celeb parents, called Mommywood.

Of all the evergreens online, celebs are almost always a hit (witness the big wet kiss the New York Times recently bestowed on Wonderwall, which BoomTown wrote about a while back), and so are sites aimed at mothers.

Some of the many include BabyCenter, iVillage, Momlogic and Mommy Track’d, among others. Still, the packed category has a lot of potential, given it’s often an advertising-friendly environment.

Burke and Rosenblatt said Modern Mom already had such relationships and that they would be combined with Burke’s endorsements and her existing e-commerce business, called Baboosh Baby.

Here’s a screenshot of Modern Mom’s new homepage (click on it to make it larger), as well as a welcome video from Burke:

BoomTown Asks "Ask Amy" for Some Web Advice

Kara Swisher — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:53:38 +0000

Several years ago, my longtime friend and colleague Amy Dickinson suddenly became, well, Ann Landers.

Well, not exactly Ann herself, as that would be weird–but she took over the famous syndicated advice column in the Chicago Tribune, which changed the name to “Ask Amy.”

So, BoomTown did just that on my recent visit to Chicago, interviewing Dickinson about what questions she gets about the Internet from readers.

While they now mostly send her emails instead of letters seeking help for their troubles and tribulations, the problems still are mostly about relationships, jobs and similar issues.

But, as the Web insinuates itself into people’s lives, there are also sticky situations galore, digitally speaking. To friend or not to friend, for example, that is the question.

Dickinson gets a lot of questions about Facebook and social networking, in fact, and uses a lot of such tools herself, including Twitter.

In other words, this is not your grandmother’s advice columnist!

Here’s the video interview I did (and you should also click this link to learn more about a marvelous new book by Dickinson called “The Mighty Queens of Freeville,” a memoir about raising her daughter as a single mother with a little analog help from her family and friends):

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara (and Her Mother) Visit the Flagship Apple Store in Manhattan

Kara Swisher — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:38:19 +0000

BoomTown landed at New York’s JFK Airport this morning and, of course, could not resist visiting the flagship Apple (AAPL) store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on iPhone 3G Day.

That’s right! JesusPhone 2.0 is nigh!

(Well, was nigh, I guess, and apparently unable to be activated due to system overload.)

In any case, I did a particularly jumpy video of the doings at one of Apple’s most famous stores, as legions of New Yorkers waited in line for their cheaper, faster, prettier iPhone.

Added bonus: it includes an appearance at the end by my unimpressed-with-Steve-Jobs-worshipping-geeks mother, who goes by the name of–I am not kidding–Lucky.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]