"Pandora and Facebook: So Happy Together" By: Eliot Van Buskirk

It wouldn't be my last blog of the semester if I didn't end it on a Facebook note. Our favorite online radio service and social network are teaming up together! Pandora and Facebook are collaborating to make music fans really, really happy.

"This joint announcement is twofold. One part involves “Like” buttons that Facebook and others will embed on its own site and partner sites around the web using the Open Graph API Facebook announced yesterday. Whenever you click one of these buttons, that information gets added to your Facebook Graph, which Pandora can then tap in order to present you with stations based on what you’ve liked on Facebook and around the web."

What makes this new service on Pandora so great is that those who use both Facebook and Pandora will be able to stream their music from their usernames from both sites and share music with their friends and others. This allows users to branch out on the current tunes they're listening to now and explore the wide variety of music out there. Their friends can link songs to each other via the email they use for both P and FB. This new exploration will let people socialize through these two media's to talk about their favorite songs or share music, or even recommend music they think fellow friends would like. Connecting these two sites will be a revolution for these extremely popular Internet services!

Here's How to Do It:

To activate Pandora’s optional Facebook integration, go to Pandora then click the Friends’ Music link at the lower right:

If you’ve already used Pandora’s own social networking features to add friends, they will show up here. Click Add Friends to proceed to the part where you integrate Pandora with Facebook (names truncated below to protect the innocent):

Then, click the Connect With Facebook button. Nothing appeared to happen, but when we reloaded Pandora, our Facebook friends appeared alongside their Facebook profile pictures, their most recently played station, and the songs they’ve liked most recently. I can now make my own stations from any of that music:

To activate Pandora’s optional Facebook integration, go to Pandora then click the Friends’ Music link at the lower right:

If you’ve already used Pandora’s own social networking features to add friends, they will show up here. Click Add Friends to proceed to the part where you integrate Pandora with Facebook (names truncated below to protect the innocent):

Then, click the Connect With Facebook button. Nothing appeared to happen, but when we reloaded Pandora, our Facebook friends appeared alongside their Facebook profile pictures, their most recently played station, and the songs they’ve liked most recently. I can now make my own stations from any of that music:

Enjoy my Friends and Have a wonderful summer!

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/pandora-and-facebook-so-happy-together/

"Billy Joel's First-Ever Commercial Music License Spawns YouTube Hit" By: Kiran Aditham

Way to go Billy! Billy Joel is getting in touch with advertising by licensing his song in a commercial for a retailed in the UK. This Youtube video got 130,000 hits in 6 days! Imagine the sales that location got after this aired! What I think is so great about Billy Joel letting his music out for advertising purposes is that not only will people go to this retailer, but they will also go out and buy Billy Joel tickets, albums, apparel, anything. I'm sure he doesn't need the money, but the fact that he, of all people- a huge star- is licensing his music for ads. is a big step and change in times. You don't hear a lot of the great artists of all time's music in commercials or any other type of advertising, so I think it's really great that he lent his song out. Not to mention, this is such a sweet video!

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/celebrity/billy_joels_firstever_commercial_music_license_spawns_youtube_hit_161155.asp

"Swipley Enters the Social Shopping Field" By: Brad Stone

This is fun. A site that allows you to link your recent, fabulous purchases to share with your friends and shoppers alike, designed much like that darn Facebook. Swipley, this social shopping network "lets user link their credit and debit cards to their sites and share information about everything they buy with their friends or with the wider Web." UT-OH. That does NOT seem safe. But the network wants its users to go on and chat about their latest finds with everyone else who is on it, and basically the Universe. (I mean, putting your card information on the Internet just to talk about your purchases!- If I'm reading this article correctly, please don't sign me up.)

In the article, Stone explains that a site much like Swipley, Blippy, had a similar site in which users can talk about things they have bought. Blippy shows how much people spent and where, whereas Swipley is more concerned about what people bought in order for them to talk to others about great buy's or saves, and ultimately create a place for advertising products and brand names. Okay, well it's all in good fun, but not for long. Blippy caused a scandal by "inadvertently exposing" peoples card numbers via Google Index. No thanks, really. This is where the Internet becomes our enemies. I might just break my computer and end it all. HAHA. NEVER!

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/swipely-enters-the-social-shopping-field/?ref=technology

"The Facebook Privacy Wars: What is Personal Data?" By: Curtis Silver

Obviously this topic is pretty hot, since its probably my third blog about it. But really, when is it gonna stop? When is the day gonna come when we don't have to worry about our "personal data"? I'm starting to wonder if we have any privacy at all.In this article, we learn that this ongoing fight to keep our information on the Internet private is stirring up a lot of chatter; but are we at fault? Is it our laziness that keeps us from reading the fine print which tells us that our personal info. is spread around the Internet?

"The thing is, as Loren mentioned in the video, no one reads the terms of service contracts. When you click the little check box and hit continue, you are agreeing to pages and pages of legalese that pretty much state you don’t have any personal data and you have absolutely no privacy on that site. They own it all. This isn’t true for every site of course, but a good majority of them."

Okay, side story: When I was in High School, my friends (the great people that they are), went on a random website that talks about..... (i'm sorry if you're offended)..bowel movements. They made up funny poems about our other friends and myself, but never told us. A few years after, I was playing around on the Internet and I googled my name. Random things popped up, nothing about myself, but then I came across this one site, so I clicked on it, and died laughing. Not only was my name on it, but so were my other friends, so it wasn't too embarrassing. And still today, IT IS ON THE INTERNET! But anyways, moral of the story is no matter what we put on the Internet, once is it up there, saved, okay'd, it is up there forever. For anyone to see. It's a scary thought; we really have NO idea what is up there.

Now that Facebook has given us the options to keep information private, we really need to go through the setting and figure out what you don't want for everyone to see and what you don't mind people seeing. Once information is out there it can be taken by anyone at any time. Social networks are for sharing our information with each other, obviously, but do you really want every single person across the globe locating your information?

Change your settings people.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/05/the-facebook-privacy-war-what-is-personal-data/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

"Privacy advocates target online advertisers" By: Jessica Guynn

This was an interesting article I found in the LA Times. The gist of it is this:

"A coalition of consumer and privacy groups is taking its fight for online consumer privacy to Capitol Hill. In their sights: online advertising practices and behavioral targeting. In a joint letter to Congress, the groups warn that tracking and targeting of consumers have reached 'alarming levels.' "

I really don't like how our information is pretty much very accessible to anyone in the world via the Internet. It's pretty scary if you think about it. Anyone, people you have no idea that exist can locate your most personal information with a bit of research, and can basically screw you over, if you're lucky enough for them to pick you. We never really think anything of it, that our records are on here, our birth dates, relationships, basically anything and everything you put on the Internet, advertisers can find, as well as creepy strangers.

I agree with this article, and the fight that the coalition is putting up for us. As consumers, I feel we have the right to manage how our information is being used, where it's being used, when it's being used, and by WHO. I don't want people taking my information without me knowing, and I'm sure no one else care for that either. The article also states that Facebook (oh, Facebook, you never cease to amaze me) has gone out and done something about privacy recently, and has given its users the options to keep their information secure from outsiders.

Technology is starting to get quite scary as it progresses.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/05/privacy-advocates-target-online-advertisers.html

Old Spice "I'm On A Horse" Commercial Raging Internet By: Meena Kar

Bet you're all glad I didn't find a Facebook article!!

Since the Superbowl, commercials that aired during the game have continued to make appearances on TV as well as the Internet. The highly popular Old Spice "I'm On A Horse" commercial has been viewed by nearly 6.5 million people since its first airing. I know that in a few of my classes I have watched it on more than one occasion via YouTube, but I can honestly say I have never seen it on TV, not to say that others have not.

Anyways, what this article states is that since this commercial has been viewed by so many people who first saw it during the Superbowl, it has continued to make a big impact on viewers as they talk about it through social networks and such. Kar says that this commercial actually provoked people to go out and buy the product (which is good being that its an advertisement trying to sell something! ) And, the commercial not only targets males, but it is also geared towards its female viewers and consumers since they do have a high percentage of buying the male products [for their loved ones].

I think it's great that Old Spice really got the attention of their audience and actually got many of them to go out and try their product because it shows that ADVERTISEMENTS REALLY DO WORK. This advertisement spread like wild fire all over the Internet and had so many people commenting about it that it brought sales up so much for the product and the brand itself. I guess being outrageous is a good way of gaining a following, and I think Old Spice shows that with their commercial advertisement. Good for them.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/old-spice-im-on-a-horse-commercial-raging-internet_100343745.html

"Twitter Ads Test Billion-Dollar Valuation" By Ryan Singel

Twitter Update: Advertising Services Coming to the Tweet Spot.

Another new edition to the social networking world. Advertising is growing on the Internet and placing themselves in the right spot, where the people are. People are checking their Twitter pages at every minute of every day. Who's saying what, who's doing what, etc. With 22 million users, why not promote some advertisements on this huge success? These advertisements are more like promotions for products, such as Starbucks who have jump started this new phenomenon. I went on Twitter to see how it shows up, and when you type Starbucks in the search engine, you see this (below) as the first search result.

They use this to promote a product or a service, then provides a link that brings you to their page. This is a great way of advertising because it engages the audience of certain types of products or services and helps attract more and more people to their sites. I know a lot of us get bugged by advertisements on the Internet (I do, SORRY) but, this is a way of luring these audiences into interests of what these promoted ads. are doing.

“The one thing we are most excited about is these are simply tweets, not ads,” Buzzo said. “There is one big difference between a promoted tweet and a regular tweet. promoted tweets must meet a higher bar — they must resonate with users. This means that if users don’t do the things with promoted tweets that would normally do with a regular tweet such as reply to it, favorite it, or retweet it and so on, the promoted tweet will disappear.”

So, that's a plus. If we aren't interested in these certain tweets, they will be non-existent. But don't refer to them as "Ads" to Twitter; they're 'promoted tweets', so get it right. I guess this is worth a try for Twitter. As this article ends, Singel adds that this will be the testing point to see if Twitter is worth all of its dough and can produce more than what they have now or if its just a place for people to vent their every single thought.

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/twitter-tests-worth/comment-page-1/

" Privacy 2.0: Give a little, Take a Little" from The Economist print edition

In recent time, social networking sites have given the option to let users keep their profiles and information private. As we see on Facebook, these days, we can block basically anything we want from anyone we want to. Some may find this annoying at times when they are trying to FB 'stalk' (you all do it, don't deny it!) and see that someone has made their profile completely private and you have no way to access their page. But, as we approach graduation, we are looking for jobs, and since Facebook has become so widely popular, almost anyone can set up an account and search your name, in which it's better that we keep our Thursday-Saturday night pics unavailable. So, I guess these privacy settings can be a big help for people our age while we are in search of jobs and career opportunities.

But, in this article, we find that many people are using the privacy settings more and more these days, because they don't want everyone in the world to get a peak at their personal information. Most people use this site to connect with their past (i.e. adult users). With this new rage of privacy settings comes a slight downfall for advertisers. Advertisers use peoples information to collect data for their "behavioral advertising", which lets them track peoples activities on the Internet without them knowing. As we all know and can see when we log on to our Facebook accounts, advertisers are sponsored on the right side of the page. They use key words from our profile pages in order to find advertisements that best suit our likings. If we have our pages set on private, the advertisers have no way of collecting the data needed in order to put these advertisements up.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook creator, advertises a free service with a small price. The cost for this service is "the idea of targeted advertising"; the more information you put out, the better they can get advertisements out. The more profit they make, the happier the advertisers are. But, how happy are you with your information being put out there, when you aren't too keene on the idea in the first place, for the benefits of pesky advertisers? Eh.

http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15350984

"Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location" By Nick Bilton

I know, I know. Another blog about Facebook. It has literally taken over my life. Another improvement (or is it?) to Facebook will begin starting in April. A new status updater is coming to the Facebook world, and this status seems a bit more intrusive. In the next month, Facebook will be adding a new application of sorts, we will be able to post our current location, or get to see the current location of our FB friends. Eh. No thanks. 

With this new addition to the highly popular social network, you can post to your friends or whoever else you want to see, where you are. I think I have seen something like this recently on there, but maybe this is something different. Anyways, the same rules apply. The privacy policy will allow you to chose who you want to see this status and who you don't. This article states that with the 400 million FB users, 50% log in once a day, while 100 million use their mobiles. The FB team takes into consideration the feedback that its users have, their 'likes' and 'dislikes', which is why they are taking their time with this new design. Google and Twitter both have added this type of application to their sites as well. 

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like this is getting one step closer to stalker-nation. I mean, really, do we need this? I think people complain about how Twitter seems to invasive with the constant updates of what people are doing or thinking, and now on Facebook we get to actually see where you are in the world!? I just don't understand. I don't know how this is all going to fold or what it will look like, but I definitely feel that it is unnecessary. 

What are your thoughts? Should we start a group to stop it? 

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/facebook-will-allow-users-to-share-location/?ref=technology

Is the IPhone the New Ad Frontier? By Om Malik

As the IPhone becomes more and more popular, and more inventive, the application world is growing. Since the IPhone came out, the Apps store has become the new thing. People downloading apps for things that you would never think a phone would have. In this blog Malik writes, he explains that many people are selling their Apps to the Apple store which has become widely popular, and even those who are giving their apps. for free are making a very good name for themselves. Now in this world of the mobile Internet, a mobile advertising company, AdMob has produced a free ad-supported application. 

AdMob has teamed up with many well-known names such as Herbal Essences, DirecTCV, and CBS News, just to name a few. With this new App. these brands will be promoted through the IPhone. This new idea of the advertising through mobiles is becoming a hot ticket for these agencies, and will help boost sales and recognition for these already popular names. (In this Blog, Malik states that he has only did research on this through 1 company working with some brand advertisers, but there is time to tell whether this is a hit or not) 

I think that the IPhone has become such a craze ever since it came out, why not have an App that supports click-through advertisements. It gets brand-names out, and helps remind people of their products and such.  With the craziness technology has produced in the last 5 years or so, you might as well get on the band-wagon and start using these mobile's as a gateway for advertising strategies. People are always using their phones, they check their email on their phones, Facebook on their phones, play games on their phones (thanks to all of those great apps!), go on AIM on their phones, the list goes on. Networking these brand-names through this new App is a smart way to attract consumers. SO many different people use the IPhone, so their interests may latch on to this advertisement application. I think that this could make way into a new world of advertising.

http://gigaom.com/2008/09/08/is-iphone-the-next-ad-frontier/ 

Water-Cooler Effect: Internet Can Be TV'S Friend- By Brian Stelter

"You've Got A Friend In Me" ....How many of us in our day-to-day ritual of Web surfing and TV surfing do this surfing simultaneously? I know I do! I sit on my computer as I watch E! News or re-runs of The Office. I am actually doing exactly that, right now. When Internet came along, people thought it was going to be the end of Television. We can watch movies, listen to music, chat with friends, do our homework, all at the same time when we use our computers and browse the endless amounts of Internet site. It is the greatest creation ever made. I seriously, honestly, truthfully, do not remember life without the Internet. How sad.

In this article, we find that, alas! The Internet and TV go hand-in-hand. With the Internet at the tip of our fingers we can find out the latest information about show/series and games (such as the 2010 Olympics) and award shows (Grammy's, Oscars, Emmy's, Golden Globes). What is great is that we can chat with our friends and fellow Internet junkies about what is going and surprising events that have happened. Stelter writes in the article that NBC aired the Golden Globes on the East Coast and West Coast at the same time, which allowed everyone on the Internet to gab about it at their leisure. This is a first for something like this to happen, and I have always wondered why they would not air things at the same time. Since the Internet is all of the rage these days, and sites like Facebook and Twitter are always in use, East Coasters could spoil endings of a show, like LOST, or the ending of a football game for the West Coasters.

In the article it goes on to say that although spoilers can happen due to the Internet chat rooms, FB and Twit, people still want to view something for themselves. If you see a status on Facebook or a Tweet on Twitter that says, "OMG! I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED ON THE BACHELOR!!" That will set off people to say, "What HAPPENED??!" And they will want to see it themselves.

I do not think that it is shocking that ratings have shot up for TV because the Internet has advertisements about anything and everything. You see an advertisement for the new season of Gossip Girl and you cannot wait for it to start; The advertisements keep popping up and they remind you of your favorite shows, games, etc. which makes you tune into the boob tube. I think that it is great that Television and the Internet can bring people together and they can bring on more viewers and new viewers, because once something is out in the open and is being talked about, it attracts people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/business/media/24cooler.html?hp

Von Furstenberg: 'Beauty is health', By: Tom Evans

Magazines and advertising have a big influence on the way people, especially females, view themselves. Every magazine on the newsstands usually shows a beautiful woman posing with her hair and makeup done to the 9 and she is usually pin-thin; but is what we see what we are 'supposed' to be? No, because in the article, Valerie Boyer, a French Lawmaker states, "Today we are forced to imitate bodies that do not exist, and this affects people, especially women." I completely agree with this statement because every magazine cover you see has been touched up. They want us to believe that this what this model or actress or singer looks like, but they have been retouched, their eyes, their lips, their necks, their arms, their legs, their stomachs have all been altered to make them look 'perfect'.

I find that the media, whether it be high-fashion advertisements, magazine articles, television programs, commercials etc. no matter what, always promote that thin, thin, thin is in, in, in. No matter how many times people say: "Love yourself, love who you are, every one is beautiful", the truth of the matter is that what we see in the world is that thin is always beautiful and we should all be just that. (Not my feeling) We are forced to believe that we need to be a stick to get somewhere in life.

In this article, fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg believes that there should be no censorship when it comes to magazine and advertising photos. I however, disagree. I am on Boyer's side, the French legislator, who believes that all photos that have been altered in any way should have some type of disclaimer telling the consumer that these have been touched up and this is not the actual photo or body of the person. Advertisements affect people in every aspect of life, from what we listen to, eat, wear, drive, anything and everything. With this law, we know that these photos have been tweaked and that it is not the real thing so we don't have to feel that bad about ourselves.

I think Von Furstenberg contradicts herself as she says, "Beauty is health -- health, beauty," she added, "My whole philosophy in life and in my work and everything is to enjoy the woman that you are and to believe in it." If she believes in that, then she would not have her photographs tweaked to falsely advertise her designs or models. She does not believe in the law of censorship. She also states, "The pictures, the snapshots that you take of your family -- you crop them, you take something away. That's just part of what we do automatically" But the pictures we crop and adjust of our families are not being plastered all over the world, they are for our personal use and I do not agree with how she makes the comparison to the high-fashion advertisements. The advertisements which are tweaked that are covering our newsstands are sending bad messages about self-image, not our family photos.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/02/10/fashion.photos/index.html?iref=allsearch

"Is Twitter the Next Second Life?"- Todd Wasserman

Tweet. Tweet. Twitter was all the hype in the beginning of 2009. Everyone was jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, celebrities, small companies, big companies, news stations and the regular ol' human race. Twitter gets mixed reviews. Some people love it, live for it, like the Kardashian sisters and Perez Hilton, and others think it is biggest waste of time and don't care for it.  Most people are a fan of following celebs; getting to read what they are doing at every hour, of every day makes us feel as if we're their best friend. (Okay, I  will admit, I am a victim of following the celebs, but I SWEAR I am not an avid twitterer or tweeter(?)) 

But anyways, in the article "Is Twitter the Next Second Life?", Todd Wasserman explains that the big companies such as GEICO and Verizon are not amung the top people to follow. Even the smaller,lesser known companies have gathered more followers than these larger companies. That makes me think back to "The Long Tail" article by Chris Anderson. The lesser-known create a larger following than these world-wide corporations. Also, these huge companies are at the bottom of the tree, while celebrities such as funny man Ashton Kutcher and the infamous Oprah Winfrey have over 3 and 4 million followers. So what is it this all about? Wasserman explains that the best way to get your name out their is to latch on to one of these ever-so popular personalities such as Kutcher or Winfrey. 

What I think is smart about that idea Wasserman shouts out is that I have seen it done through Kim Kardashian's twitter page. I actually heard through the grapevine that Kardashian was being paid an absurd amount of money to advertise through her tweets promoting new products to try or something of that sort. But, Twitter is not as popular as it was a year ago. The tweets have dwindle which could be a reason for the lack of followers for these companies. But who knows how long Twitter will be around for. Maybe these companies don't have to worry about the downfall of their twitter followings. 

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i2a2383a07ad64ff8a8e8473f0cd169a1?pn=1

Long Tail Article

We always think the most popular hits, flicks and read's are the bestsellers, but what happens to the one-hit wonders? Well, they make their fairy-tale comeback and sell bigger than those so-called “bestseller’s”.  In the Long Tail article, Chris Anderson explains a concept in the entertainment industry that the less popular media, whether it be movies, music, video games, etc. rakes in more dough than the raving box office hits or #1's do.  Just because a song, movie, book or even television show is not being talked about in the national media, does not mean that it is not being bought and played over and over again. It just so happens that these items are bringing in more sales than the leading film or #1 bestseller’s do. 

 If we think about it and take a look at our ITunes catalogs we can find that we have over 1,000 different songs from every different artist out there. I know that for me, since ITunes came out I have not bought a CD since I was in middle school and Sam Goody was open on Greenwich Avenue. It was the "thing" to do to go to your local record store to buy that new CD from Britney Spears or Nsync (favorites of mine) and play your favorite songs over and over and skip over the ones that didn't strike your fancy. With ITunes, I can conveniently go on and download a song or two from one artist without having to spend $15.00 on the whole CD. 

With all of the access we have today at the tip of our fingers, it is hard not to find what we are looking for. "You can find everything out there on the Long Tail. There's the back catalog, older albums still fondly remembered by longtime fans or rediscovered by new ones." (Chris Anderson) I think that is such an important statement that Anderson makes because every day people are rediscovering music or movies that they remember from their past, like their childhood, and are even discovering things from decades ago. I can definitely agree with Anderson that the Long Tail is a true existing concept because if you think about it, our generation has discovered music and movies that date back to our parent's and grandparent's generations. We hear a song on the radio or watch a movie on-demand and it triggers a memory of another song or movie which makes us go out and find that these items that we have not heard in years. We may even go on the Internet to research and find things that are similar to what we know but never got the chance to hear or see.

Something else that I thought about while reading Anderson's article is that every single person in this world has different taste in anything and everything there is. We may have similar taste in music with some people, and we may find joy in something that is totally out of the ordinary. We are all our own person, which means that not everyone is going to go out and see that #1 hit film of the year just because it is up for an Oscar. Some of us may find that a small Indie film that most have never heard of is what makes us weak at the knees compared to another overrated Brad Pit-Hollywood-Hit. What I really love is when I can hang out with friends who have a different taste in music or movies than I do, and they can introduce me to a new song or film that I have never heard of or would have known about without their knowledge, which will make me want to check out more of what I heard or saw. This is the type of thing that helps the “lesser-known” rise in sales. 

We hear, see, or read things that have not been plastered all over our TV sets or billboards off the highway and it is like a breath of fresh air. I think that the radio stations, television stations, and tedious commercials play a large part in why these popular items are not the actual "best-sellers". When we hear and see things over and over every 5 seconds it gets played out, we get bored, and we move on. But when we can discover and rediscover new or old things, it opens up a new world to things that we may have never known and it is so much more interesting and exciting than the things that we feel we have to drown out.

While reading this article I did not think I was going to be able to comprehend what this man was talking about, but I think now it makes sense to me and I think what he is saying is definitely something to give attention to. I understand this concept he talks about and I can say that I fully agree with him.