July 14, 2009
Could Twitter Impact On "Bruno" Box Office Numbers Create More Work For Social Media Companies?
Seems the movie industry has seen the impact of the trust Twitter users have in others comments. As Time magazine suggests "Brüno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect. "
Bruno opened Friday with good numbers - $14.4 million - and was predicted to break $50 million, but then came Twitter. Seems the 140 character reviews took a bigger toll on attendance numbers than anyone could have thought. The weekend number was just over $30 million - a $20 million dollar swing is huge. And now shows the type of money that can be lost and what can be saved by a good social media effort.
Will this have the movie studios running to social media agencies to help with other film launches? Hey we already have reputation management, why not audience attendance management.
If I was a studio head I would be looking for a good social media company to help spin the buzz about a movie during opening weekend to the positive. If that happens will be worth watching for.
Posted by Frank Watson on July 14, 2009, 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Study Shows Old Media Beat Bloggers To News
While Twitter may break the occasional sensational news story, traditional news sources do not need to feel too threatened by bloggers just yet, according to a Cornell University study, that shows "old media" beat blogs to news by an average of 2.5 hours.
The death knoll of professional journalism and mainstream news providers may not be as close as people seem to think.
"The classic function of journalism to sort out a true and reliable account of the day's events is being undermined. It is being displaced by the continuous news cycle, the growing power of sources over reporters, varying standards of journalism, and a fascination with inexpensive, polarizing argument. The press is also increasingly fixated on finding the 'big story' that will temporarily reassemble the now fragmented
mass audience," according to Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media.
Interestingly the study found "information mostly propagates from news to blogs, we also found that in only 3.5% of the cases stories first appear dominantly in the blogosphere and subsequently percolate into the mainstream media."
The web may be able to disseminate news quickly, but it seems it is not really out there finding it, except in isolated or extraordinary cases.
Posted by Frank Watson on July 14, 2009, 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
BingTweets Mashes Up Trending Tweets with Search Results (UPDATE)
UPDATE: BingTweets was showing old trending topics earlier, but as has been noted in the comments, that has been fixed and now is current.
Ever noticed a trending topic on Twitter and then headed to a search engine to learn more? A new site from the Bing team makes that process even easier.
BingTweets is a new site that pulls in trending topics on Twitter and offers Bing search results right on the same page. BingTweets is not found at Bing.com but rather has its own standalone site at BingTweets.com.
When you click on one of the topics, search results are automatically and immediately triggered with no extra clicks.
However, there's one issue and it's a biggie: The topics seem to be delayed. Under the popular right now tab, Wimbledon was trending despite the finals being almost 10 days ago. Wimbledon is no longer trending on Twitter.
BingTweets trending topics July 14, 2009
Twitter trending topics July 14, 2009
Overall, though the UI is nice.
Another thing I would adjust is the Twitter stream down the left side. When I selected "Andy Murray," the Tweet stream brought up Tweets that had the word murray but not andy. If I'm interested in Tweets about Andy Murray, then Tweets about Bill Murray are largely irrelevant.
What do you think about BingTweets? Give us your first impressions in the comments below.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 14, 2009, 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Google Friend Connect Adds Support for 47 More Languages
Google Friend Connect has announced support for 47 new languages. (It's already supported in English.) The new languages are......(drum roll please).....
- Arabic
- Bengali
- Bulgarian
- Catalan
- Chinese
- Croatian
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Filipino
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Greek
- Gujarati
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Kannada
- Korean
- Latvian
- Lingala
- Lithuanian
- Malay
- Malayalam
- Marathi
- Norwegian
- Oriya
- Persian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Serbian
- Slovak
- Slovenian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Thai
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
Google Friend Connect launched last year and is a tool for web developers to add social networking to websites. It simply allows people to log into the network via their Google account. Then they can connect with others using the site.
If you come across comments in another language, no problem. This past May, Google Friend Connect added a Translation Widget to help you connect with users speaking a language foreign to your own.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 14, 2009, 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Branding, Online Reviews, and Word-of-Mouth Most Trusted Forms of Advertising, According to Nielsen
Nielsen is releasing data showing that recommendations from friends and family top the list of most trusted forms of advertising, with online reviews and branding topping the list as well.
Here's how ad trust has changed over the past two years:
But what is the reason for the change?
"The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years - we are now tracking over 100 million CGM sources - means consumers' reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don't, has increased significantly," says Jonathan Carson, President of Online, International, for the Nielsen Company."
You can read the entire report here (PDF).
What do you think is the cause for the shifts in ad trust? Share your opinion in the comments below?
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 14, 2009, 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Site Publishers Can Now Display AdSense
Google Sites is a free product that makes it easy to create websites. It's pretty basic, and it's designed primarily to be a group site or intranet, where you can share documents, calendars, etc.
Now, Google is allowing AdSense to be displayed on these Sites. Publishers have the option to place AdSense in the sidebar as well as the main content of each page.
Check out this video for more details:
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 14, 2009, 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Dictionary.com Reaches 2.3 Million iPhone App Downloads
Dictionary.com is experiencing great success with their iPhone app. It has been downloaded 2.3 million times and has now been listed as one of Apple's 30 favorite apps. Plus, they're the #2 app in the reference category.
With over 60,000 apps in the iTunes App Store, it's certainly difficult to stand out. That makes Dictionary.com's accomplishments with their app all the more meaningful.
The App Store turns one year old this month. Over 1.5 billion downloads of apps have been recorded and reported by Apple.
Dictionary.com is owned by search engine Ask.com, which acquired the site in May of 2008.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 14, 2009, 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Google Adds Creative Commons Filter to Image Search
Google has added a Creative Commons filter to Image Search. In order to use the filter, you'll need to use the Advanced Search option in Google Image Search.
Once on the Advanced Search page, look for the "Usage Rights" option, which is the second from the bottom. You won't see "Creative Commons" listed as an option. Instead, you'll see options for:
- labeled for reuse
- labeled for commercial reuse
- labeled for reuse with modification
- labeled for commercial reuse with modification
Google's not the first to do this. Of course, Flickr has had Creative Commons search for a long time. Yahoo! added a Creative Commons filter to its Image Search last May.
For its part, Google added Creative Commons filtering options to Custom Search plus YouTube began offering Creative Commons licensing this past February. However, YouTube doesn't yet offer Creative Commons search in its Advanced Search yet.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on July 14, 2009, 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
