Week 5

I’ve been coasting across the net the past week. Doing homework here, research there, goofing off everywhere… and when I do that I love gaming. I’ve been hitting up a site for what feels like years now called addictinggames.com. It’s super fun flash games that take no time to learn and hours to master, great time waisters. I also tend to trail off to youtube, like most of us do, and view old and random videos to get a chuckle. Pretty much what I’m saying is that if there was no broadband there would be no internet like we know today.

Broadband offers a lot of features to the interent:
• Online Radio
• Movie and TV Streaming
• Instant Scores
• Flash Media
• Downloading
• Online Gaming
• Social/Gaming Networking
• Advertising/Promotional tool

Advertising has now found a new sea to wash.

Being the surfer that I am, I came across a interesting website. Wedigtv.com is the portal for old school game shows, the twist is that you are the contestant. The game show has pre-recorded videos of the host and guest audiences that interact to your decisions, so pick wisely. I played ‘blockbusters’ and ‘Deal or No Deal’, but it seemed to both be British or Australia shows.

Just like television there are commercial breaks. Once again what makes this different is that you interect with the commercial for McCain Fries, Airwick air fresheners and cold medicine.
The makers of this site is called ‘jdproject' and they see them selves as “world leaders in the manipulation, distribution and audit of internet based video advertising.” while also being awarded the 2008 International Emmy Award in recognition of their pioneering work within Internet based video.

Broadband has given Internet advertising pioneers the ability to make it not just the newest medium, but the most popular. While we keep evolving technology internet will be the path to knowledge. I mean I did learn how to tie my tie on youtube.

–RS

Week 4

This week I want to talk and discuss some brand Utilities. A perfect definition is that a brand connects with it’s consumers providing some kind of value, instead of the traditional few second of entertainment.

As a Mac user I have a few widgets, turns out some of them seemed to serve a purpose. I have a widget that I got off of The Weather Network website and use it for checking if it’s minus thirty five out still. I use this at work, school and home, perfect for a quick check before you step out with just a shirt on. ESPN tells me how much Ottawa Senator suck this year and my facebook widget informs me when someone has poked me. Wait, I was going somewhere with this that would make these things more useful. Okay, a company has invented a blended use of Google maps with Starbucks coffee, so now you can find all the Starkbucks around the world… this is not helping.

Well it seems there is a lot of useless tools out there we think we need to survive our daily lives. I find I have gotten so accustomed to these tools that I don’t even picture the ones I use to be a product. Google is one for example; searching, email, maps search, blog page, site measurement tools. I use Google’s tools on a daily basis and would never compare it to sneakers or food. It feels to me that there are little that we really need and a shit load of ones we don’t. I decided to find a few that are exactly that, pointless and useless and a couple that are fun as well.

What NOT To Do Widget
Here is a widget of some “what not to do” tips from some guy, who we all don’t know or really care about, who is basing these tips from his own life. Oh and you can also read them on his blog, why did he think anyone would use this as a reliable source of information?

Mobile Me
This clever new little toy from Apple is an online server account that talks to any device that you logged into. The idea is that if you took down a number on your phone or made a date change on your computer the two would communicate to each other and update automatically.

Super Bowl Ad Widget
Did you miss the ads during this years Super Bowl? Well then why not get Hulu’s Super Bowl Ads widget. That’s it, eat up more of your memory and processor.

Brand utility over all is an interesting new medium which can be very useful. There is a lot of daily tasks we humans could use help in, and so instead of spending all this time entertaining ourselves we should take the time and solves these problems. Now if you don’t mind I’m off to check my gmail and facebook for a while.

–RS