Not only this, but users can then create their own microsite and sell their album for a £1 personal profit. This seems awfully generous of the band considering all the hard work they probably put into it!

I think that this is an ingenious way of keeping up with the way their fans are now buying music as well as offering a unique way of engaging them. I’m not sure every band will go down this route of offering their entrepreneurial fans financial remuneration for bothering to choose 10 of their favourite tracks however I think that innovative ways of releasing albums such as this will keep the money going back to the artists and not lost somewhere in cyberspace.

There have been a few examples over the years of brands pushing YouTube to its limits (URL’s of which I’ve included below), but I really like the way this incorporates a response mechanism in this example by means of Twitter, Facebook, and email, but also allows you to buy tickets for the movie by entering a Zip Code (US only).  You can view the full The Expendables Youtube video here:  http://www.youtube.com/expendables

Other Examples:
Cadbury  – http://www.youtube.com/user/cadburyaurollpack
Nintendo ‘Wario Land’ – http://www.youtube.com/wariolandshakeit2008

The stats however extend to more than just the respective search engines, they include the whole network of properties owned by Microsoft and Google. Are Microsoft about to challenge Google for internet supremacy or have Google just had a blip at reaching 15 – 34 women (Google held their position as No.1 in other demographics)? Watch this space…

*Source: Comscore.

For sport, football and general blokey nonsense and banter it doesn’t come any better than Danny Baker’s Radio Five show from Saturday mornings and the legendary Football Ramble which has to be one of the best and most consistently entertaining pieces of entertainment ever. Coffee Break Spanish has been great at providing bite size commuter chunks of Spanish to help me try and get some basic Spanish under my belt, which the Veteran Gamers podcast provides an insight and mature observation on gaming that doesn’t concern itself with any of the fan boy idocy.

Despite having these though I want more and besides trial and error it is hit and miss at finding the gems amongst the rough so I put it to you, people of the internet, to recommend some further podcast joy to get me through the weekly commutes.

Yep Twitter the latest shining light in the digital sphere is may be not going to save the world as users are abandoning the site after a month. Seems users get enticed after hearing about it but the novelty soon wears off and they don’t return.

It raises the question about how many social networks can one person feasibly be involved with, plus does anyone really want to know what I am up to on a micro by micro moment? Bloody doubt it, I don’t even want to know what I’m doing having the time.

Are we starting to reach digital saturation where the landscapes starts to settle slightly?

However, despite all this negative press a client has just proved that Street View can actually be a very useful media tool as he used it to brief me on a couple of specific outdoor sites that he was interested in! What clearer way then navigating that little orange man to the exact location and showing me pictures of the sites in question?!

Could this be a media first? Or indeed the beginning of the end of all of this Street View negativity?! Watch this space in Media Week!!?

For those of you who have, somewhat miraculously and / or fortunately, not come across Twitter thus far, here’s a quick debrief;

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows users to send small (140 characters) text based updates (otherwise known as “tweets”- aaah how cute!) to their own profile page where they can then be viewed or delivered to any user who has opted-in to receive your various pearls of wisdom, location updates, or even more intriguingly, what you might have had for breakfast.

Probably, the most accurate way of viewing Twitter is a condensed Facebook “status updates” service, which is my point entirely. What does Twitter offer users on and above Facebook from a functionality standpoint. The short answer is…………nothing!! Conversely, (my attempt to offer a balanced argument) Twitter does give users access to “Tweets” from the various celebs and zed listers eager to jump on its short lived (fingers crossed) band wagon. Whilst donning my media hat, Twitter does offer scope for celeb / influencer brand or product advocacy and should be used by all brands as a source of chatter review – there I’ve said something positive!!
Honestly guys, have I missed something here?! Is there something genius to Twitter that I’ve somehow overlooked which is going to secure it’s place in Comscore rankings for more than 2 years tops? I know they reached the golden 1 mill user mark but surely this is a short term reaction of the public based on pure curiosity alone?!

The advertiser is Nokia 7610, and the aim is to get people from watching the TV Ad to, switch to watching the complete drama online, Web 2.0. The Ad is set to run in 10 different languages, with a constant feed of content.  

The TV spot introduces three characters Anna, Jade and Luca, starting with intrigue about one of them having listened to another’s voicemail and sets the scene for how their lives might unfold.  Fans will be able to learn everything about the characters through their text messages, photos, videos and calls on somebodyelsesphone.com, as well as signing up to their Facebook pages to have a more personal conversation.
The micro-site is supported by mobile content, interactive partnerships, widgets, Facebook pages, banner ads and a number of events in association with partners including Parisian boutique Colette.

This to me has always been what TV adverts should have been doing, using all platforms available to them, engaging their viewers with an initial taster of what is yet to come and grabbing viewers initial interest. Running a story across platforms, all areas of the mediums, and making sure that the rest of the story is available in full form online, building the buzz and most powerful ‘word of mouth’ on the street or maybe in the office. That then spurs unified action. To watch, engage and then hopefully react. With the end result, creating a loyal fan base, mini episodes of watchable content, that everyone is talking about?

Take the old Nescafe, BT couple, Daz  (that really is giving true meaning to the word Soap Opera) … building up traffic across all platforms, and showing TV is still a very powerful medium, in getting user numbers online, and then once there using a consortium of viral tools to engage the user more.

Anyways let’s see how successful this advert format is with the public… To be continued….

Launched on the 2nd September 2008, Google claims that Chrome “Gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go” with improved speed, security and responsiveness.
Personally, I’m also quite a Google fan (They keep Ben and Jerries in almost every room, a policy I thoroughly endorse) but there are a lot more people who are equally as interested.
According to Information Week, Chrome reached nearly 2 million downloads in the US in its first week alone.

However, are people likely to stick with Chrome or revert back to one of the other popular browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which dominates with more than two-thirds market share?
The 50MB size of Chrome means on my laptop over 100MB is now taken up with browsers (And my prefered use of memory is for the ridiculous amount of music I have stored on my ITunes)

I’m sticking with Firefox for the moment, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be a convert soon…

click on the link to take a look

http://www.koba-yashi.co.uk/