Life of an Internet Entrepreneur

While over 71 million Americans tuned in to watch the election night results, CNN viewers were treated to a new technology. Using dozens of cameras and sophisticated hologram technology partly developed in Israel, Jessica Yellin was “beamed” in to Wolf Blitzer’s studio in a very realistic display. Over half a million viewers have seen this Youtube clip showing the hologram effect. Additionally, “cnn hologram” was the 22nd most searched term on Google shortly following the coverage – people wanted to know how it works.

Marketers have always wanted to know what you are thinking, and thanks to several tech companies, they may have just gotten a step closer to having their wishes fulfilled. In December of last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on how Emsense sensors were being used to extract feelings toward candidates in the political race.

That same company, Emsense Corporation, has used their technology to give marketers a step up on the competition (such as other advertisers – and you, the consumer).

A study, titled the Online Journalism Credibility Study, has just come out that shows a gap in how newspaper editors and readers feel about anonymous comments being posted on news articles.

The Results

The editors, overwhelmingly (70%) felt that anonymous comments harmed proper journalism, most likely due to the flood of factual corrections and emotional rants they get in these comments, neither of which seem to make them smile. Only 45% of readers, on the other hand, felt that allowing anonymous comments was bad journalism.

I first discussed the rumored Google interest with TV ads last year, and Google seems to be near ready with their product almost one exact year later.

Google invited some Adwords members to test out Google TV Ads Beta, which lets advertisers upload or mail a 15, 30, 45, or 60 second TV ad to be run on regular TV sets.

This development comes after Google entered the newspaper ad placement and radio ad placement business, and is the natural next step.

Here are some important notes about the TV ad industry before I jump into the features  of Google’s new system.

Pligg, the creators of free web software that works like Digg (where users vote submitted content up to the front page), announced in their second birthday newsletter some exciting news. They plan to launch Fraxi soon, which will operate like the Ning of Pligg.

To those of you who aren’t familiar with Ning, they offer a 5 minute setup for your own branded social network. This way you don’t have to worry about installs, upgrades, maintenance, and all the other obstacles for non-techy users to build their own sites.

TomTom and Google announced a partnership today, and it is a particularly interesting one.  Tom Tom, maker of the popular portable GPS systems many people use in their cars, plans to let users send addresses from Google to their devices.

While Tom Tom already has “Points of Interest” on its devices, Google Maps will soon be able to be transferred right over with one click. This should cause a lot of moving around in the young industry, and here are some thoughts on what might happen.

Analysis

Amazon has just announced that they are offering several widgets (small interactive units that can be placed on any site) to help Amazon Associates sell more products.

These widgets include interesting options like a tag cloud, a slideshow, your favorites, and several other personalized options you can modify from your Amazon Associates account.

Amazon’s widget builder includes support for all major blog systems, such as WordPress, TypePad, etc.

Example of an Amazon Widget

This development by Amazon is likely a move to catch up to Google, which just released its own version of Widget Ads, which will operate like Google Adsense, but with more interactive units.

Mint, the web 2.0 online money management system, went live today.  Mint had been in development for quite some time, and I was excited to see how they planned to simplify personal finance.  I had a chance to take it for a test drive, and I have some good news – it is incredibly useful.  Best of all, it’s free!

What Can Mint Do?

Mint Transactions Screenshot

Apple announced today that it has sold 1 million iPhones in just 74 days, in a move that has the industry buzzing about the effect on software developers, cell phone manufacturers, and wireless service providers.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, stated that it took 2 years to sell the same amount of iPods. 

This development comes just a week after Apple shocked everyone and lowered the price of the iPhone to $399 ($200 off the original price).  That switch, while angering some past purchasers of the iPhone at the original price (who were eventually offered a $100 credit with Apple as appeasement), also allowed Apple to move more aggressively into the cell phone market.

Google released a new feature on Google Maps called My Maps, which allows users to make custom landmarks such as road trip stops, vacation spots, favorite restaurants and more.  Additionally, My Maps allows you to share these maps with friends.  The platform aspect of this allows developers to import data into My Maps, which could help you geographically see where your friends are, see gas prices on the map, and all sorts of other nifty things.  To see this in action, I found a Googleplex My Map, which will show you around the Google Headquarters.  This is a new type of social networking which has many possibilities.  I have come up with just a few myself, but I’d love to hear of anything more you’ve thought of as a potential application of this new feature.