Digital Marketing Blog

Who needs or wants usability?

I have just given my annual lectures to some postgraduate students about what it’s like doing usability in the real world (i.e. the world where you can’t spend three months redesigning the perfect interface to a toaster).

And one of the issues I cover is why it seems to be so difficult to design usable products. It must be difficult - there are lots of clever designers and few really usable products.

by Tom Stewart 28 February 2007 09:14am 1 comment

Apple begins iPhone marketing, delays TV

Apple has been forced to roll back shipment of its Apple TV media bridge device by nearly a month.

Reuters in the US last night quoted a spokeswoman as saying: "Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March."

by Robert Andrews 27 February 2007 11:46am 0 comments

YouTube 'more popular than TV'

In what is being seen as a watershed moment for media, a surge in popularity this month saw the number of visitors to YouTube overtake that to US TV websites.

According to data from Hitwise, YouTube's share of internet visits leapt to 0.6031% during the week of February 3, breezing beyond the 0.4865% share all US TV network websites combined enjoy.

by Robert Andrews 26 February 2007 09:57am 0 comments

Viewers vocal on Virgin-Sky spat

Virgin Media has been deluged with thousands of comments from customers facing the loss of Sky channels in the dispute between the two media giants.

Cable customers are due to lose Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News from Thursday if BSkyB and the former ntl/Telewest cannot agree financial terms of a new carriage deal.

A request for comment posted to Virgin's Have Your Say message boards has attracted around 7,000 responses across over 300 pages of replies.

by Robert Andrews 26 February 2007 09:53am 15 comments

Google's Schmidt in YouTube copyright pledge

With a view to halting the plethora of copyright cases and complaints brought against YouTube, Google will soon offer anti-piracy technology for copyright holders to prevent their content being shown on the site.

Google has been heavily criticised for seeming to be willing to take action over copyright infringement only when they have an existing content agreement with the content owners.

by Graham Charlton 23 February 2007 14:27pm 0 comments

Fox Interactive acquires online ad firm

Rupert Murdoch's Fox Interactive Media has bought interactive advertising technology company, Strategic Data Corporation.

SDC specialises in the delivery of online advertising, and its technology will be used to serve FIM's network of sites, including MySpace.

by Graham Charlton 23 February 2007 11:10am 0 comments

Google and CC partner for video remixes

Creative Commons and Google in the UK have joined to invite Britons to produce videos depicting life in the country.

Mix & Mash, a new competition, asks people to delve into the vaults of freely-available, CC-licensed video clips and remix footage to make a film on the theme "Britain Rules, Britannia Sucks".

by Robert Andrews 23 February 2007 10:37am 0 comments

Podvertising to grow despite few listeners

In-podcast advertising is set to grow to over five times its current value by 2011, according to a new report.

An eMarketer study forecast US advertising spend targeted toward podcasts will reach $240m by 2008 and $400m by 2011. That is despite pessimism over the popularity of podcasts amongst audiences.

by Robert Andrews 23 February 2007 08:25am 3 comments

Ad-supported video losing ground to downloads

A new study carried out by Adams Media Research predicts that fees generated by downloads of TV and movies will exceed that from adverts on free programming.

The US study predicts that advertisers will spend $1.7bn (£871m) on internet video streams to PCs and TVs, while movie and TV downloads will generate consumer spending of $4.1 bn (£2.1bn) by 2011.

by Graham Charlton 22 February 2007 16:03pm 0 comments

UK sports social network launched

A UK-based sports social network, iSporty, has been launched, offering members a combination of interactive content and sports news, as well as forums and photos.

The site, which was previously called tiredandtested.com, says it is aimed at people who play sports at every level.

by Graham Charlton 22 February 2007 16:01pm 0 comments