DigitalSpritz

Google, Family Guys and Chinese Walls

So, in light of the news about Google's deal with The Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane, a question that we geeks in the consumer technology business have been pondering for a while has reared its head again:  When does a technology company actually become a media company?  And in this day and age, should we even be differentiating between the two? 

For those who may have missed the headlines, Google has cut a deal with MacFarlane to create 50 2-minute "webisodes" titled Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Comedy.   The shorts will be distributed to websites via Google's AdSense for Content distribution network.  Google's AdSense technology "scrapes" sites for demographic and content information, then serves up the appropriate advertising from its network.  Now, Google will be serving content as well, ostensibly well-targeted to websites where Mr. MacFarlane's fans congregate.

In part two of the deal, advertising will be paired with the webisodes, and Mr. MacFarlane will receive a cut of the ad revenue.  He's also been retained by some advertisers to actually create the ads that will travel with shows.  This is a nice deal for him, any way you slice it. 

For Google, the benefits of leveraging its technology to distribute content are obvious: it means more money in the already well-stuffed Google coffers.  However, it also puts Google squarely in the media business.  Eric Schmidt's statements that "Google is a technology company" are looking a little more disingenuous every day. 

Does it matter whether Google considers itself technology or media?  It definitely matters to the traditional media companies who have been partnering with Google.   As media becomes more and more portable, as audience moves slowly, but surely, to broadband pipes, and as guys in warehouses start bending long established artistic formats (we're talking about you, EQAL), these companies must ask themselves every day:  how do we innovate?    How do we compete with an entity like Google, with deep pockets and a head start on vertical integration?  Do we set about turning ourselves into technology companies?  (Mr. Murdoch, to his credit, started working on this several years ago, when he created Fox Interactive Media.)   And how does Google answer the obvious conflict of interest questions regarding distribution?  Whose media gets priority?  Google's media, or partner media?  Will Google be able to convince its partners that there's a Chinese wall between their technology and media businesses?  The Google algorithm is a carefully guarded secret, and history tells us that lack of transparency fosters suspicion, which augurs a bumpy road ahead. 

As someone who's been slaving in these trenches for a while, I have a few ideas about what some of these companies can do to smooth the path... but that's another blog post.  Or maybe a consulting assignment.  In the meantime, I'll look for Seth on the Internets and cross my fingers that in the midst of all the brouhaha, he's actually created something that makes me laugh.  After all, that's the point, isn't it?

Seven Dirty Words

I can't get over the irony.  If you do a search on "seven dirty words" on Google and choose video results, you'll find a 10-minute clip of George Carlin's famous routine.  And if you have a device like an AppleTV, you can stick those seven dirty words right on your television set.  Yes, I know you could have probably watched the same routine on premium cable, but this way is more true to Mr. Carlin's rebel ethic:  you don't have to sit around waiting for some programmer in a suit to schedule it.  Load it up, watch it ten or fifteen times, and say an appropriately raunchy blessing for Mr. Carlin ... who maintained a blog and a kick-ass website, BTW.

I'm sure he would have had a few choice words to say about this, if we'd had a chance to ask him. 

Twittering, Part II: Obama/McCain

For those of you who think Twitter is too "girly," (you know who you are!), you might change your minds on this one:  Obama and McCain have scheduled a weekend-long policy debate on Twitter.   You can find the details here, on Silicon Alley Insider.  Go sign up, follow and tweet, and enjoy how democracy works on the web.  Don't forget to poke a few friends on Facebook while you're at it. 

Can You Hulu?

I don’t “twitter” yet (twitter-tech is still a bit too girly for me, all that constant checking in on each other and stuff) and Angela’s Twittering Teddy (see below) is certainly not my digital tea cup. 

 

But I do confess to dancing a mean digital Hulu.  Now that’s a good deal different from the Hawaiian hula.  Hulu is the high resolution website posted by NBC and we’ve posted on it before. 

 

I was an occasional congregant at the Hulu site to catch up on all the small bits posted there from past Saturday Night Live skits that I’d missed on NBC.  But in May the Church of Hulu got a whole lot livelier – you can now watch an entire episode of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report instead of just a few brief gag segments.  Sheer bliss, and no TIVO required.

 

Other shows like 24 and The Office have been on Hulu for some time – as well as a hip collection of movies like The Big Lebowski, Sideways, and The Usual Suspects.

 

Granted it’s still the day old bread of life they’re serving to communicants – Comedy Central, owned by Viacom, doesn’t have the guts yet to let another medium compete head on with its own ad-packed cable broadcast and I’m not sure why they permit Hulu to compete at all with Viacom’s own Daily Show web stream.  But sometime overnight the latest edition pops up on delicious Hulu.

 

Hulu remains some strange complex consortium of Jeff Zucker’s NBC Universal, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and other broadcast and cablecast players.  The fact that Sumner Redstone of Viacom is suddenly so generous to this new “premium content” channel suggests that money and partnership may soon follow. 

 

This much is clear: Hulu’s still hot and perhaps near a proverbial tipping point – 63 million “streams” in April alone.  (I’m responsible for about 30 of those taps.)  The L.A. Times points out that YouTube had 4 billion streams in April, but, hey, Baby Hulu’s got to walk before it can run.  And with Jeff, Rupert and Sumner all playing godfather and playing nice, how can it fail?

 

Dream of stream and check it out again if your last visit to Hulu land was awhile ago … you can always twitter Angela when you get there and let her know how you “feel” about the experience.

 

■ Tom Goff

Twittering Teddies and Other Modern Time-Wasters

I'm a big fan of an old piece of technology:  the carousel at the Santa Monica Pier.  I love the beautiful carved horses, the ocean air, and the rickety thrill of going high in the air (well, if you're a three-year-old), and swooping back down again.  But what I really love about that carousel is the old-fashioned fortune telling machine in the corner.  Put in a quarter -- or two, because inflation is rampant -- and the animated fortune teller gives you the once over, then flicks you a card with your future written all over it.  It might be nice if she could speak to you, but she would lose her air of mystery if she did.

But then again, maybe not.  Over at Verizon, the folks who are responsible for the FiOS initiative have built a web 2.0-ish version of that fortune teller: the Twittering Teddy.    This animatronic creature doesn't charge you a quarter, but she does talk to you, by reading Twitter tweets.  She's not reading our future, but our present, which in some ways seems to be evolving --or perhaps devolving-- to snatches of shortened conversations, transmitted in digital bits. 

For those not in the know, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform where you create an account, and subscribe to ("follow" in Twitter parlance) anyone who interests you.  They, in turn, can follow you.  Twitter was created to answer the eternal question "What are you doing?" in a maximum of 140 characters.  These statements are called "tweets."  Twitter hit the tipping point at SXSW in 2007, and how boasts nearly 2 million users tweeting multiple times daily.  (If you'd like to follow me, click on the button on the right.)  Twitter also allows developers to build on top of their platform, creating an ecosystem of useful gadgets such as Twittervision and Tweetmeme.  It also apparently can be engineered to turn the lights on and off in your house when you're not home.   

I'm not quite sure why the FiOS folks created the Twittering Teddy -- something about showing off the phenomenal networking ability Verizon is demonstrating by laying fiber to every house in the country -- but the Teddy sure is fascinating.    She blinks her eyes thoughtfully as she reads the tweets you send her in a computerized voice, little snatches of words ranging from the sublime to the mundane.  But be careful:  she also asks why you are laughing at her, and notes that she's wearing pink ribbons in her hair.  It's almost as if she was summoned up out of Steven Spielberg's imagination -- go watch AI:  Artificial Intelligence if you don't know what I mean-- because we simply don't have enough ways to waste time on the web, or heaven forbid, enough people to talk to.  She's an awesome marketing stunt, BTW:  one that pretty much guarantees at least a visit from everyone on Twitter.  She will also be auctioned off on eBay at the beginning of July, with the proceeds going to the Homeless Children's Education Fund. 

In the meantime, feel free to follow me.  If you tweet, and don't get a response, don't fret:  I'm talking to the Teddy, and will be back soon.  I'm still trying to figure out if she can turn on the lights in my house.