Tuesday, December 27, 2005

First 2006 prediction of the day

Google Crash Coming

By the end of 2005, Google's stock was closing at over $400, a flurry of new services had been released, and newly energized competitors AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! were playing catch-up. But 2005 also saw the beginning of the Google backlash. In 2006, Google will bypass Microsoft as the most hated (and feared) company in tech. The eerily accurate Mark Anderson, founder and publisher of the influential Strategic News Service newsletter, thinks Google is headed for a big fall. "If one Chinese (or MIT) guy comes up with a better search engine, they are out of business in 20 minutes… literally, the whole thing could just go poof."



From PC Mag Editor-in-Chief Jim Louderback

That's a great name too. More here

Corporation "street"



PlayStation Portable graffiti photographed in San Francisco's Warehouse District

The launch of the Sony Playstation portable was backed by a "controversial" graffiti based advertising campaign.

"We're really looking at our target as urban nomads," Sony spokeswoman Molly Smith said


in an interview with Reuters.

The Seattle Times considers the implications further. Of course Sony is not the first company to use such techniques.

Nike, Time magazine and even stodgy IBM are among the growing list of companies that have dabbled in street art to get their marketing messages out.


And it can have some impact, it is claimed

Time magazine marketing director Taylor Gray said the stunt was a success because it "cut through the clutter" of marketing messages to which New Yorkers are exposed every day.