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All those who have been saying the R word for the past few months finally got their Told-You-So moment Monday when it was announced the U.S. economy has been in a recession since December of 2007. The National Bureau of Economic Research (the non-profit research group known for determining the start and end dates of recessions), made its assessment based on evidence that the Gross Domestic Product has declined for two consecutive quarters, and may be set to last well through the end of 2009.

Not to scare anyone, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride. According to AP, the consensus among economists is that it will be the “most severe slump since the 1981-82 recession.”

Continue reading “Recession is official…since last year”

On November 19th, Microsoft released an update to the Xbox360 platform dubbed NXE. The moniker is short for New Xbox Experience. The smooth, new interface deepens the integration with the Xbox Live Marketplace and brings to the platform similar graphical navigation found on Windows Vista. The remodeled environment presents a much more media-centric twist to the experience. Doubtless, this was the goal.

In the game consoles arena, the Xbox 360 has always stood out in terms of it’s use as a media content platform. Within the interface, as much real-estate is given over to media as gaming. This is especially true of the new NXE interface which does a superb job of blurring the lines between on-line media and locally available content.

By comparison, the Playstation3’s Avatar-based Sony Home, while certainly fun to use, is very game-like. And although that will probably appeal to their gamer constituency, it a little top-heavy for the average media consumer.

This divergence in experiences will likely further polarize the audience for the two consoles.

Continue reading “Xbox360 – ready to replace cable?”

The top U.S. websites in October show the election, the economy and the holiday season impacting web traffic, according to comScore’s latest numbers. There are several points worth noting, but the most interesting comScore data reveals the top 10 sites by increased traffic.

Street.com sites (stock and finance news) rose 155% since September, certainly receiving a boost from the volatile financial market. Strange-stuff purveyor Spencer Gifts LLC (where you can buy everything from a two liter “beer boot” or a “Carmen Electra professional pole” dancing kit) is the one I have the most trouble conceiving of growing traffic by 144%. The upcoming holidays are sure to thank for the boost, but still, Spencer, por favor, tell us how you did it.

Hulu.com also shows an 87% increase in traffic, followed by two health sites, Healthgrades (a hospital, doctor and nursing home ratings site that is great except for the fact they make users pay $12 per report, boo) and Everyday Health which logged over 70% growth.

See the complete top 10 chart after the jump.
Continue reading “comScore’s top 50 websites, with some surprises”

This week has been full of sexy and controversial items for our weekly Tech Trifecta.

1. Yang ousted by Yahoo board: The big news from the Silicon Valley (other than the fact that Google’s shares dipped below $300, cry me a river) is that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang finally got his walking papers. In Sam Cooke’s words, it was a long time coming, and hopefully, the internet giant will be better for the wear. A no-nonsense CEO who is more removed from the company’s dysfunctional recent past would be a good start to replacing Yang. Yahoo still has a lot to offer their users and publishers, it just has to get rid of some ineffective managers, focus on making money, and streamlining the massive bureaucracy. In the meantime, keep your eyes on Microsoft’s next move, now that Yang is gone.

Continue reading “Sexy Tech Trifecta: Yang’s out, mobile is in”

I was a little concerned when I read some of the articles about Nielsen suspending their Out of Home research division this week. So I was relieved to see this letter in my inbox from Suzanne Alecia OVAB President, clarifying the situation:

“There has been a lot of conversation and confusion this week on the recent news that Nielsen was discontinuing their out-of-home service because of the lack of interest in the OOH marketplace from their clients.

I have had extensive conversations with Paul Lindstrom at Nielsen and we’re working on making some clarifications with the press. In the meantime, I wanted to make sure that you had the background so that as you get questions (and I know many of you have), you can set the record straight.

Continue reading “OOH marketers, don’t panic!”

Along with the continued bad news from Wall Street, there are three sexy tech stories that caught our attention this week for the Tuesday Sexy Tech Trifecta series.

LinkedIn users revealed: The first study of professional networking site LinkedIn shows “its members span a wide range of ages, industries, job titles, and education and income levels” (AdAge). Such studies are likely to make LinkedIn even more valuable to advertisers. And, it legitimizes LinkedIn. To those who thought LinkedIn was just a bunch of low-level networkers looking for work opportunities, it turns out senior executives make up 28% of the LinkedIn population.

Researchers sampled 70,000 members to create four categories of LinkedIn users and a number of characteristics that defined these users. Read AdAge’s review to find out if you’re a Senior Exec, a Savvy Networker, Exploring Your Options or Late Adopter (and where your income level likely falls as a result).

Minority Report predicts the present! Continue reading “Minority Report, LinkedIn get legit”

Thanks to the Department of Justice, the proposed Google advertising partnership with Yahoo is officially kaput.

Over the past four months, the two companies had been working on a deal that would allow Yahoo to show ads over Google’s network, consequently generating more revenue for Yahoo and providing more relevant ads for Google. However, “Yahoo! Inc. and Google Inc. abandoned their advertising agreement after the Department of Justice informed the companies that it would file an antitrust lawsuit to block the implementation of the agreement” according to a DOJ press release.

The move grew out of the DOJ’s increasing concern of Google’s dominating existence in the Internet search advertising market. “The Department said that, if [the deal were] implemented, the agreement between these two companies accounting for 90 percent or more of each relevant market would likely harm competition in the markets for Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication.”

Continue reading “DOJ deters Yahoo-Google deal”

Barack Obama has won the fight for presidency. Whether he was your candidate or not, the big winner of this election is not only Barack Obama but the tools and technologies he used to propel him to the presidency. Social networking, online display ads, television, a half hour infomercial, radio, mobile, gaming (18! COUNT 18! games including Guitar Hero and Madden 09 featured in-game ads from the Obama campaign in the last weeks leading up to the election), the list goes on and on. All of these platforms he utilized to encourage support and interactive participation from voters. His campaign used these channels not just to raise money and sway voters–but to mobilize supporters in a way that would translate a win.

Obama conducted a truly modern campaign, one that met voters where they were living and playing in the new age of digital technology.

Wired sums up the story nicely:

Continue reading “Obama’s win a boon for emerging media”