If there is one thing that everyone knows about, it’s advertising. No matter where we look, there always seems to be a thirty-second television spot, billboard, or conveniently placed Coke can within eye shot. While that sort of bombardment does have the tendancy to be annoying at points, it could always be worse. We could be living in the media obsessed dystopia of Max Headroom. In the series, advertising is present in three unique, highly diverse ways. On today’s installment of Twenty Minutes into the Future, we will take a look at three techniques and discuss how each are being used in today’s culture.

Technique #1: The Cheviot Method

Championed By: Ben Cheviot (George Coe), founder and president of Network 23.
Thesis: People first, ads second.
Explanation: According to the “Cheviot Method” of advertising, it is imperative to remember that it isn’t robots and/or lemmings watching these ads. It’s people. If “advertiser A” uses their predetermined ad time to insult the viewer, or if they try to do to much, the viewer is less likely to return. If such behavior keeps up over time, the viewer will simply “give up” and simply stop caring about your product or service. By treating people like people, not only do you get the viewer to care about the product, you make hem more willing to investigate other products or services that have your name on it.
In-Show Result: Network 23 is consistently number one in the ratings.
Real-World Example: Anyone who tows the Free Line concept practices this advertising method.

Technique #2: The Grossberg Method

Championed By: Ned Grossberg (the late Charles Rocket), the president of Network 66 and Cheviot’s mortal enemy.
Thesis: People exists to buy things, so they might as well be buying those things from us.
Explanation: When this particular advertising method is employed, the consumer essentially becomes secondary to the items that are being shown on the screen. Although the company involved might see a initial spike in “audience participation,” the numbers will actually be lower overall. To compensate for this, the advertiser/network is forced to employ a variety of gimmicks in order to coerce people into coming back for more. In the show, these gimmicks ranged from ridiculous (”Watch 66 in your sleep! You can do that now!”) to horrifying (one second long “blipverts” that had a nasty habit of making fat people explode) to the downright bizarre (a reality show about the life and times of super genius infants).
In-Show Result: Grossberg is made to look like a fool on a fairly regular basis; network ratings go down sharply.
Real-World Example: Any company labeled as an “evil corporation” has been accused of using this advertising method at least once in their existence.

Technique #3: The Zik Zak Method

Championed By: A fairly mysterious, multi-national corporation called “Zik Zak.” While it is implied that Zik Zak makes everything from furniture to prescription drugs, the company’s main products are soft drinks and fast food.
Thesis: People?! Who cares about people! Buy our stuff and quit complaining!
Explanation: People who employ this kind of advertising structure simply do not care about anyone or anything other than their product. It really doesn’t matter if people get “inconvenienced” or even find themselves in a sticky situation. They still bought the product. The “in-world” example of this tactic is the NeuralStim, a “free bracelet” that caused people to crave cheeseburgers. In the case of our hero, Edison Carter, the bracelet made him nearly die from overspending.
In-Show Result: The “faulty” bracelets cause Zik Zak to nearly go bankrupt.
Real-World Example: In a fictional TV show, it’s called a “NeuralStim.” In the real word, it’s called “malware.”
Special Note: During my research, I ran across three very different organizations that call themselves “Zik Zak.” Please keep in mind that the comments above only apply to the fictional corporation, not to the these real-life entities.

Our Advice: The “Cheviot Method” is the only way to go. As I said a few days ago. These are your people. Never forget that. Your customers (and everyone else, for that matter) will thank you in the long run.

Anyone who lived through the late 1980’s ought to remember Max Headroom, the hyperactive, pseudo-CGI “head in the box” portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. The Max Headroom character was everywhere in those days, from music videos to ads for Coca-Cola and seemingly everything in between. What many people don’t remember, however, is the science fiction program that bared the character’s name. This was not the lovable, wacky Max that called Cinemax and England’s Channel 4 home. This Max exists in a world where the major television networks are in charge. Because of this, such every day items as the off switch and the mute button are deemed to be illegal. Televisions are everywhere, including bathrooms and junk yards. Simply put, no one could ever escape the grip of the mass media, and the people like it that way.

Working within the confines of this odd, “Network-meets-The Matrix” world is Edison Carter (also portrayed by Matt Frewer), ace reporter for the highly-rated Network 23 and the “basis” for Max Headroom. It is his mission to bring his viewers the truth, no matter the situation. In the show’s fourteen episodes, Emerson and company does everything from thwart a sentient supercomputer to blowing the lid off of a dangerous subliminal advertising scheme run by Bill Maher, using nothing more than quick thinking and a heaping helping of brutal honesty. The viewer, both physically in the show and otherwise, are constantly reminded that the world is a better place thanks to people like Emerson Carter and his “computerized” alter ego. As long as there are people fighting for the truth, there really is nothing to worry about.

In many ways, we are approaching this basic existence, only with a different concept serving as our vice. Instead of thriving on a flashing picture, we are addicted to information. I don’t just mean the “TMZ/Perez Hilton” style celebrity gossip columns. I mean anything. Pick your topic — President Obama, professional wrestling, U2 — and I bet there is someone, somewhere talking, tweeting, or blogging about it at this very moment. We need to know about what is going on, and we need to know it now. Take the recent “best of seven” series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic for example. Five years ago, we would have had to wait two to three days to hear former Laker Shaquille O’Neal talk about his former team. Thanks to Twitter, we heard it minutes after the Lakers cliched the NBA title. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this kind of “instant feedback” can become addictive.

Now despite what some might be thinking, things really aren’t all that dire. Our world isn’t based upon the idea of two-way television sets or networks that can make commercials so compact that they make people’s heads literally explode. We’re simply talking about the delivery of information, not a re-creation of 1984. It’s human nature to want to know what is going on around us. Exploiting that desire, on the other hand, is something else entirely. It all comes down to priorities. Those who put more effort into their advertising than their content are more likely to alienate their audiences than the people who put their “product” front and center. By ignoring the very thing that got you into this very situation to begin with, the writer/blogger/YouTube “star” is actually sending a message that your fan base’s mouse click means more than their physical presence. Who cares if the content is good nor not? You clicked the link. It’s your loss.

While it might seem like a good idea now, turning your audience into a group of mind-numbed automatons randomly clicking things will not help you become a success in the long run. The trick, if you want to call it that, is to adopt what I like to call the “Edison Carter” approach to content creation and maintenance. It all breaks down to three basic principles:

1. Your users are more than just a group of random mice clicking a white box. They’re people. Your people. Always keep that in mind when developing your content.
2. Stay genuine to your cause.
3. Stay open to the needs and concerns of your user base.

Do this, and the world just might become a better place. If you don’t, well … let’s just say living in an “off switch-free world” is not anyone’s idea of a good time. Be sure to come back tomorrow for part two of our three part series. Until then, this is Brad Fallon signing off for Network 23 the Free Line.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, it seems as if 95% of the tech world has two things on their collective minds: smart phones and Twitter. Since I think we have covered Twitter, Twitter clones, Twitter apps, and that goofy “Twitter apocalypse” thing that didn’t really happen to death, we are going focus on the wonderful world of mobile phones. But as you might have already guessed, I am going to do more than just merely “talk” about these phones. I will actually give one of these lucky mobile devices a thorough going over, making sure to tell you everything that you would ever need to know. Let’s face it: “smart phones” such as these could very possibly be the future of mobile computing. If your business isn’t ready for it, you could find yourself in very, very hot water. It is our duty, nay, our mission to make sure that this does not happen to you. Before we begin however, I do have a few notes:

Note #1: While the iPhone is definitely on my “smart phone” shortlist, we will not be doing a write up about it in this post. The reasoning for this is simple: anyone who is anyone already knows about it. We don’t know about any of you, but none of us here are necessarily fans of regurgitating common knowledge.

Note #2: The touchscreen Blackberry that Verizon peddles is all but out of the equation. First of all, it’s a Blackberry. Aside from the touchscreen, there really isn’t much different between the new phones and old “trackball” versions from last year. Secondly, I am not a big fan of Verizon Wireless. While their overall network is a bit better than the competition, it doesn’t justify the bloated, overinflated price that they charge. In short, I can get better equipment at a cheaper price. ‘Nuff said.

…With all of that laid out, here we go…

G1 (Dream)/G2 (Magic)/MyTouch 3G

Manufacturer: Google (OS); HTC (Phone; more phones from other companies will be arriving at some point in the near future)
Cell Network (US): T-Mobile
Open Source?: Yes.
Positives: Having been able to actually use this phone, I have to say that this phone’s biggest asset is the Android operating system. It has more of a feel of a scaled down desktop OS instead one designed for a mobile device. The ability to run a few third-party applications in the background doesn’t hurt things either.
Negatives: there’s something about the physical phone hardware than I just don’t like. It feels “cheap” and really isn’t all that much to look at. If I do decide to go with this phone, I will wait until the myTouch 3G is released in August.

Palm Pre

Manufacturer: Palm
Cell Network: Sprint
Open Source?: Yes
Positives: Palm is finally back. This is the phone that loyal users have been waiting for for quite some time now. While some might be upset at the loss of “classic” Palm OS software library, most will find the available apps to be suitable replacements. (A “classic OS” emulator is available for those who do not.)
Negatives: Not everyone likes the Sprint network.

It doesn’t have to be Friday the 13th to enjoy a little of the magic we like to call “News of the Weird:”

- After a fairly long period of research and reflection, the folks at McAffee have finally compiled a list of the top ten “riskiest” search terms on the Internet today. Screensavers take the top spot with a mind blowing 59.1% minimum risk. Out of every ten links that promise such classics as flying toasters and crudely drawn cats, six aim to fill your machine with malware. Coming in second is “free games,” which clocks in at 24.7% minimum risk. ” Hackers will create related Web sites laden with adware and malware whenever a particular topic increases in popularity,” McAffee Senior Vice President Jeff Green told WebProNews. “Unsuspecting consumers are then tricked into… blindly handing over their personal assets to cybercriminals.” Other notables include “work from home” (15.6%), Powerball (9.3%), and President Barack Obama.

- As many of you already know, running a business, especially one that is based on the Internet, is far from easy. Every now and again, something very, very bad is bound to happen. Hardware networks break down. Malware gets accidentally loaded on a random office computer. It’s regrettable, but it’s a fact of life. Still, all of the server crashes or low-level hacking attempts in the world pale to the catastrophe facing the folks at social brainstorming service Imindi. See, the up and coming service was featured on TechCrunch yesterday afternoon. Naturally, a plug coming from a site of this magnitude is all but guaranteed to make people stand up and take notice. Unfortunately, the service wasn’t entirely ready for the influx of people a TechCrunch article would garner, so the servers started to show signs of strain. During the digital “red alert” caused by the new users, an as-of-yet unnamed employee accidentally deleted all of the user accounts. “We are extremely embarrassed by this mistake and we have purchased more capacity and instituted safer backup processes to handle the increased demand to prevent a recurrence of this incident,” writes CEO Adam Lindemann. “It’s a private beta, and it will be a while before this service is ready to be launched in public but we hope that you will be kind to Imindi as she grows.” Anyone who wishes to experience Imindi’s “second chance at a good first impression” can do so by clicking here.

- Sometimes, talking to a random person is fun. After all, nothing says “get to know your fellow man” quite like striking up a conversation in a checkout line or at a bank. Still, there are times that random small talk crosses the proverbial line from “pleasant fun” to “extremely creepy.” Leading the charge over said line is Omengle, a chat service that promises a “100% anonymous chat atmosphere.” To partake in the service, users simply have to press the big blue button that rests comfortably in the center of the page. Once you physically enter the site, you are greeted by some random person. From there, the sky is the limit. Bizarre and rather unsettling, Omengle appears to be one of those ideas that might have looked a bit better on paper than it does in real life. Omengle is available now for anyone brave enough to try it.

Charging corporate users to use Twitter might not be as ridiculous as once thought. According to Abrams Research, 39.6% of business owners interviewed would willingly pay a monthly fee in order to use the microblogging service. Many within the industry see the poll as proof of Twitter’s emerging presence in the corporate world and a testament to its staying power. On the other end of the spectrum, 41.1% say that gaming/social networking hybrid site ImInLikeWithYou.com is the most likely to shut down in the next year. Bebo, the United Kingdom’s favorite networking site, comes in at a very distant second with 12.4% of the vote.

Sticking with Twitter for a moment, ESPN personality Dan Le Batard has a few interesting thoughts concerning the service’s popularity with athletes. Appearing as a guest host on Pardon the Interruption, the newspaper columnist/talk show host sees “technological advances” such as microblogging and text messaging as a way of eliminating the need for sports writers. “We’re fast approaching the day where [professional athletes] don’t need the media at all… They’re not going to need the Sports Illustrated cover. They can create their own connections with the fans without our help.” Le Batard’s comments echo the sediments of NBA all-star Chris Bosh, who says he uses Twitter to get everything from driving directions to restaurant suggestions. Fellow all-star and all-around media maven Shaquille O’Neal is also a fan of the service, saying he currently has “about” 93,000 followers.

In other news, MySpace Mobile is getting a much needed overhaul. The new site is created to replicate its full-featured brother as closely as possible, allowing the user to “drift” between interfaces with ease. In addition to the site, the company also announced support for both Nokia handsets and Palm webOS, making MySpace the only social network with a free standing app on every major mobile platform. Those close to the company say the moves could not have come at a better time. Mobile use of networks, especially MySpace, is projected to top 50% within a year or two.

Elsewhere, it seems as if the new, improved TV.com is getting noticed. Hulu, a one-time partner, has pulled all of its content from the site. A few months ago, owner CBS has turned the once innocuous site into a high-tech, online video powerhouse. As such, it was only a matter of time that the proverbial battle lines were drawn. Despite the pull out, TV.com users still have access to content from a variety of networks, including Showtime, Sony, and, of course, CBS. Hulu fans who don’t feel like visiting the main site can still catch its content on the Comcast-sponsored Fancast and Sling.com.

And finally: As you might have noticed, the top three or four links on the average Google search result page are now YouTube videos. The underlying reason for this is due to the company’s “Universal Search” initiative, which allows all Google-owned properties to be searched at any given moment. This tells us three things:

1. When choosing between a finely tuned website and a YouTube video, Google search is much more likely to choose the video — fifty times more likely, says Forrester Research.
2. The old days of the “viral video” are gone. Search engines, particularly Google, are the future.
3. At this stage of the game, videos need YouTube. Without it, your video is much less likely to be picked up by the main search engine.

So what can you do? That’s where the YouTube Secret Weapon comes in. The YouTube Secret Weapon is a brand new project that will not only show you how to optimize your videos, but why optimization works the way it does. The end result is a list of highly ranked, notable videos sitting on top of good ol’ Mount Google. It’s an easy system to follow, completely cost effective, and most importantly, it works. Simply put, the YouTube Secret Weapon will help your video-powered masterpiece top the charts, without making your wallet sob uncontrollably.

The fallout from the Google Japan blogger scandal continues. Matt Cutts, Google’s anti-spam king, has spoken out on the situation, saying that he was “mortified” by the company’s actions. “There were a lot of disappointed, upset, angry people within Google,” Cutts told tech blog WebProNews in a video interview. “Every so often, you have a day where you just feel like ‘I wish that his hadn’t happened.’ That’s what it was like this week.” Despite the momentary let-down, Cutts makes clear that Google still stands for everything that is right and good with the web. “Our position is unchanged. We still think [paying bloggers] is bad for the web… If somebody’s writing, you want them to be writing because they really believe in it, not because they’re paid to do it.”

Elsewhere: It seems as if a few changes will be coming to Yahoo’s front page. Unlike the current incarnation, which is full of bounding boxes and links, the new page will be centered around the availability and usability of online applications. Like most “social” sites, these apps are designed to bring the user closer to the things he or she can’t live without. The site is also designed to further integrate various Yahoo services into the page. Despite the improvements, the site isn’t exactly ready for mass consumption. “We’ve done a number of things to collect input,” writes Tapan Bhat on the official blog. “Bottom line is we’re getting closer to the final design, but we’re not quite there yet.” Expect to see the new updates in the near future.

Not everything is sunshine and roses in the land of Yahoo, however. Yahoo MyWeb, a bookmarking service with designs to be the next big social media site, is being shut down next month. The staff cites the need to “streamline services” as the primary reason for the move. To help with the closure, Yahoo is giving users the option to move their bookmark collection to either Yahoo Bookmarks (for “private” use) or Delicious. The last day of MyWeb will be March 16th.

In other news, multimedia gurus Adobe Systems have announced that a full-featured version of Flash is finally coming to a non-iPhone mobile device near you. Users who currently want to have a Flash fix on the go are stuck using Flash Lite, a serviceable, if not underpowered “stopgap measure.” Those close to Adobe hope that the announcement will force mobile developers to give the platform a second look. Others, however, site the program’s ridiculous two-year development time as proof of vaporware. If all goes according to plan, expect to see mobile Flash arrive sometime in 2010. No iPhone release is planned at this time.

And to finish things out, we here at the Free Line present you with something “lovely.” Lovely Charts is a new, web-based service designed to make the creation of flow charts a beautiful thing. Aside from the standard array of point-and-click features, users can expect to find a variety of interesting tools at their disposal, including the ability to save their flow charts in both JPEG and PNG image formats. Limited file sharing is also included in the basic package, adding a bit of “social flair” to the proceedings. Easy to set up and use, Lovely Charts can make thought organization a sweet thing indeed.

Okay gang. After two weeks of hype, we here at the Free Line proudly present our interview with Jonathan Sasse, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Slacker. Special thanks go out to Seana Sullivan, who helped make this interview possible. With that said, here we go…

Andy Mancini: What exactly is Slacker?

Jonathan Sasse: Slacker is a radio music service. We deliver music to our listeners for free at our website at Slacker.com. We have licenses with the major labels and publishers along with thousands of independent labels and publishers as well. We have about a million songs in our library.

Now there are a couple of different ways people can listen to music on Slacker. You can come to the website and choose one of our genre stations that are hand programmed by music professionals from across the country. You can then tweak the station so it would be more like what you prefer. You can either rate songs by marking them as favorites or banning songs or artists that you don’t like, or you can go and edit a station. You can even go and make a very custom station with hundreds or dozen of artists. There are a number of choices that you can make to make the station more like what you like. We also have a free service that you can listen to for as long as you like.

AM: Aside from the website, where else could users access the service?

JS: We have players on the Blackberry and iPhone. We also sell hardware devices that let you take the same, free music experience with you on the go.

AM: Aside from the radios, what sets your company apart from the other radio services?

JS: Everybody has a different philosophy about how to deliver content to people. We tend to be more like traditional radio in the sense of how we program things. Your radio experience will be driven more in the sense of a “breadth of programming” that stays somewhat relevant to what you are looking to listen to. Our selections, especially in our genre stations, are hand picked from someone who knows the genre very well. They might be a former or current terrestrial radio programmer, or they could have come from satellite radio. Either way, these are people who know their genres very, very well and they are selecting songs that are appropriate for that genre.

The difference between that and a terrestrial and satellite station, though … When you talk about “broadcast radio,” their playlists and set lists are going to be set up for when you’re more likely to be listening to the station. [Because of this], their stations tend to be a bit narrower. They’re on a heavy rotation to make sure that you are hearing certain popular songs that you expect to hear. They don’t know exactly when you’re listening, so they have to keep the rotation pretty small. You end up not getting a good music experience with broadcast radio. With our site, since it’s programmed essentially for each individual person, it doesn’t matter when you may or may not be listening. You are always going to get a unique experience for you.

Against online radio … There are a number of different things. There are some sites that just play music. There are others that do “sounds like…” selections — if you like a certain song, you might like this song because they sound similar. What we do is more based upon popularity and artist relationships, along with our DJ’s influence. So you’re going to get a very personal touch from a very deep library.

AM: Do you see Slacker as being a viable competitor to more traditional, “over-the-air”-based products like terrestrial radio and satellite?

JS: We are certainly a strong alternative to those [technologies]. If you’re listening to broadcast radio today, and you’re listening to music, we’re a good alternative. You’re going to get a better music experience for sure. The question then becomes “can we provide it in the same way, or in the same places that you listen to that content today?” That’s probably our biggest gap.

AM: Has Slacker benefited from disaffected satellite radio fans angry over the merger of Sirius and XM?

JS: We’ve seen a tremendous amount of traffic come to us from the merger, [due to the] fallout from stations that might have been cut of formats that might have been changed. [Many are] looking for that kind of experience that they used to have with XM and Sirius. That [experience] may not exist today in the way that they may have liked previously. We’ve seen them come to us, as we don’t have limitations on our number of stations.

AM: What sets you apart from the more traditional radio providers?

JS: Whether it’s FM radio, HD radio, or satellite radio … The one thing that they share is that they’re broadcasting one content to everybody. There’s no personalization that happens there. Obviously, one of the biggest downfalls in FM radio is the lack of selection and the quality of the content. HD radio improves the sound quality and the number of channels, but there’s no “personal touch” to it. It’s still very limited. They can’t have hundreds or thousands of stations that they can play for different people. And XM/Sirius … Both previously and with the merger now, there are bandwidth limitations. You’re going to have some suffering of audio quality, but you’re also going to have a limited number of stations to choose from. That’s always going to be a problem with that kind of delivery mechanism.

AM: The “Internet radio” stereotype is that of a geeky person in his or her basement, playing nothing but Japanese pop songs or obscure Frank Zappa records on their own private SHOUTcast station. How does your company combat that image?

JS (chuckles): A lot of things have changed. As Internet radio emerged, what you described was quite common. You’d get these kind of obscure streams of music or other content. Some of that of evolved into podcasts, and other parts of that content evolved into “personalized radio.” One of the big changing factors there was the evolution of digital music players. Whether it was mp3 players or digital music services … it definitely [removed the image of needing] to be a technophile in order to enjoy music like that. It started bringing more of a mainstream audience into that type of a platform.

Now the problem is, with the “mp3 player” architecture … It’s certainly something that’s very personalized, which is something that radio had never had before, but it is a lot of work. One of the things that made Internet radio so great was that it was pretty easy [to use]. That’s what makes radio great in general. All you have to do is push a button and the music just plays. You don’t have to go get music. You don’t have to manage music. You don’t have to rip CDs or plug in USB cables and all these other things. It just happens. Now behind the scenes, there’s work being done for you, but you don’t have to do it. [Slacker] has kind of merged these worlds together a bit. We’ve taken the very highly personalized mp3 player experience and the playlist experience that you get with that, and merged it with a radio experience that is very easy and powerful. Our name kind of implies that as well. We take the “work” part out of having a great music experience.

AM: Online player aside, which is a “bigger priority” of the company: the radio or the mobile programs?

JS: First and foremost, our priority is around “service.” At the end of the day, we’re still a music radio service. That’s what we do. It’s personal radio. The fact that we have our own hardware that we’re available in other types of hardware is really just a way to make sure that people have greater access to Slacker content. So as we move to the iPhone, the Blackberry platform, our own Slacker hardware and to other hardware that supports the Slacker service, even to Sony television and Logitech streaming devices … It’s to further enable our listeners to have a chance to get Slacker where ever they go. In the long term, that’s what we are. We are a radio music service company, and we will enable as many platforms, partners, and devices as we can.

AM: Was it difficult negotiating with the major record labels?

JS: Certainly. There’s a challenge to creating new types of licenses and new types of content delivery. To their credit, I think the music industry has been embroiled in this challenge of delivering music to people over the Internet longer than most. The video and motion picture companies are just getting to it themselves. But the music guys have been around long enough to see where the pitfalls and challenges are and when they need to step up. The type of solution that we were proposing seemed to [point at] the direction that the industry was [moving towards]. We have experience working with the labels. We have worked with them as parts of previous companies, so knowing [them] is a key component. As you’re going into the business of delivering music, having the content owners and publishers in support of what you are trying to do is certainly better than creating enemies.

AM: Are there any currently any record label “hold outs?”

JS: No, not really. We’re constantly working with smaller labels and emerging labels to make sure that they know how to put agreements into place with us. That is going to be an ongoing process. We’re constantly securing new content for the service. But at the end of the day, every major label, even the “second tier” of the larger labels, distributors, and independents are all on board. At this point, all of the major content is already in the system.

AM: How does the free service contribute to the overall “bottom line” of the company?

JS: There’s a number of things. One thing about [offering a] free service is that it gives our customers and listeners a very easy way to come and experience something, whether its a music service or otherwise. The opportunity to have people come in and start listening to music, creating stations, and experiencing what we have to offer without having to pay anything or get into any long-term agreements certainly helps “expand [our] universe.” We intentionally set up our business model and our revenue streams to make sure that there’s revenue opportunities for us [in the free service, while setting] up a great experience for our listeners. I think that that is really the key. Certainly you can go in a say “this is a subscription only service,” [but then] the cost to acquire customers goes way up, your total audience goes way down, and you have to be extremely successful in bringing new traffic in and monetizing them right away. In this case, we have millions of people who enjoy listening to the service. They become advocates of the service. It changes the way they listen to music, which is an important step for us. The more people we have [listening and talking about the service], the better it is for both the company and the industry as a whole. The free service is a great way to get that audience expanded. As long as we have revenue opportunities, whether its through advertisers or from free listeners who are looking to purchase hardware or what have you, [we're fine.] It’s an ecosystem that works.

AM: While doing my research for this interview, I ran across plans for adding a “satellite” service. According to the write ups, the system would allow radios that are not near WiFi access points to refresh their playlist. Is this something that your company is still interested in doing?

JS: It’s technology that we have. The one thing that we found is that if you look at the world as a whole, there’s a number of regions that are not as connected. Certainly there are some “very” connected places from a wireless perspective — most of Asia, Europe, the United States — where the major markets have great WiFi access in some form. There are other parts of the world that just don’t. In some of those areas, there’s a growing need for something like a satellite distribution model. You can turn on entire regions of the world just by broadcasting satellite content and smartly caching it. What we’re focused on right now is on the US market. We’ve seen the [the expansion of] WiFi networks. We’ve seen the popularity and ubiquity of 3G networks on the mobile side increase. What we can do now is deliver a great Slacker experience in both the United States and North America [in which] the satellites are not as critical to the system. As we “step out” to different parts of the world, it could be something that becomes a bit more important to us. But certainly today, in our market, we can rely heavily on wireless and 3G for content acquisition. Because of that, the satellites become a little less relevant.

From our perspective, it doesn’t really matter what the network type is, be it satellite, a WiMax network, 3G, EDGE, CDMA, WiFi or what have you. [Right now], we sort of cache content ahead of time — sometimes thousands of songs in some of our hardware models — so you can listen without any sort of connectivity for weeks or months at a time. In the other case, if we have potentially a 3G or a WiMax network, we can have live access to content, or even caching it in a hybrid model. As the networks evolve and the connected markets grow, those type of connections are something that we would probably use. Again, from our perspective, it doesn’t really matter right now. We have Blackberries that have 3G and WiFi connections and the ability to cache content to SD cards. We take advantage of all of those opportunities to make the experience better. And as better networks emerge, we’ll use those as well.

AM: I noticed that your company recently released a home dock. Are there any other peripherals in the pipeline, such as a car dock?

JS: We’re always looking at different opportunities there. The car is an appealing place to be. Slacker is great in the car. Getting the music into the car is the next tricky step. There are plenty of aftermarket opportunities out there. We’ve looked at everything, whether it’s Bluetooth receivers or FM transmitters or line-in methods to your auxiliary port. The home dock that we released is certainly a step forward in that. The home dock is flexible — I got one in my car and it’s actually fairly convenient. There’s no “magic bullet” for the car when it comes to getting a device to [work properly]. Again, we are evaluating ways that would make the car experience even better. I think that you’ll be hearing something from us in the future on that front.

AM: Once again, thank you for the interview.

JS: Thanks for your time.

Like many things in the world nowadays, the price of online advertising appears to be dropping. According to SEO firm and research organization PubMatic, the ad rates per thousand of impressions (CPM) were $0.26 in the fourth quarter of 2008, a nearly fifty percent drop from 2007. The financial and music industries have taken the biggest hit, with rates falling roughly 61% in one year. The only established niche to have what could be considered a “good year” was the gaming instudry, which saw rates climb 31% to $0.51. PubMatic’s projections for the 2009 fiscal year have yet to be released.

In other news, YouTube is about to get a bit more “quiet” than it used to be. In an effort to deal with copyright infringement using the phrase “massive lawsuit,” the big brass at Google has decided to mute videos featuring so-called “illegal” audio tracks. Each affected file features the following message underneath: “This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled.” Many of the affected files seem to be of the “still-image” variety — videos that are created solely for the purpose of sharing music. As to be expected, many YouTube fans are less than pleased with the change, with many saying that they would rather steal their music than deal with possibly muted files from “Big Brother.” Neither Google nor the YouTube team have commented at this time.

The wrath of the social search engine has struck yet again. Like the myriad of social search “pioneers” that have come before, OneRiot uses comments, votes, and other forms of user data in order to figure out what the hot topics are. Unlike the other engines, however, the data is then prioritized, with only the most popular and talked about stories and sites making the cut. The highest ranking searches then appear on the site’s front page, making it easy for anyone to join in and follow along. While it isn’t exactly Google, OneRiot is perfect for those moments when news breaks.

In other news, language translation has officially come to Twitter … in a way. As the name implies, Twitrans translates your messages into a variety of different languages. The thing that sets the service apart from the likes of Google Translate and Babelfish is the simple fact that the word “software” is not involved. Instead of using a fancy program, the service uses actual humans to get the best, most accurate translation possible. Although it does take a few minutes, the end result is unmatched. Twitrans proves that even in today’s fast paced society, good things come to those who wait.

And finally: It seems that these days, nearly everyone has an opinion on global climate change. Some say the shift is due to the overuse of fossil fuels. Others claim that it’s due to the methane found in cow flatulence. Still others say that the supposed weather shift is due more to a planetary cycle than anything man (or cow) made. There is, however, yet another possible cause that most us haven’t considered — Google Search. Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says that worldwide Googling produces 1.4 kilotons of carbon dioxide a day. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact,” Dr. Wissner-Gross said in an interview with the London Times. “Google are [sic] very efficient but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy.” Naturally, Google refutes the findings, saying that they are “among the most efficient of all Internet search providers.”

Yahoo is entering the world of television, in a way. The embattled Internet giant has unveiled “Connected TV,” a new service that will add Yahoo-powered widgets to a traditional television set. Said widgets will then be connected to a variety of external apps and tools, including Twitter, Flickr, and Yahoo News. Like the previously mentioned ports of Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR, these widgets will take advantage of Intel’s upcoming Media Processor CE line. Several heavy hitters have already pledged their support to the new tech, including LG, Sony, Samsung, and Vizio. Connected TV is expected to hit the public by late summer.

In other news, Google is toying around with an idea that would add geotagging capabilities to Blogger. While the new feature is extremely promising, it is certainly not ready for “prime time,” as they say. Several major bugs have already been discovered, many of which involve the editing and reediting of HTML code. Because of this, Google has decided to add the new tool to Blogger in Draft, a special “preview edition” that features several new tools and abilities. If all goes well, expect to see geotagging integrated into the main site within a few months. For those itching to play around with the tool now, Blogger in Draft is available now for all users.

Elsewhere in Google, search engine bigwig Matt Cutts wants 2009 to be as spam-free as possible … and he needs your help to make sure that it happens. “I’m not going to mention any specific area that would bias you,” he writes. “I want people to independently consider what they think Google should work on to decrease webspam in the next six months to a year.” The response has been massive, to say the least. Since Wednesday, 150 SEO experts and Internet marketers (at press time) have posted their thoughts on the subject, which range from focusing on so-called “duplicate sites” to the removal of those who participate in malicious backtracking. While unique, this isn’t the first time Cutts has went to the SEO community for advice. Similar “call for actions” were posted January 2006 and July 2008, netting the Google webspam team a grand total of 300 suggestions.

Turning to the world of Internet marketing for the moment, noted blogger Bob Bly has written an interesting piece on what makes a marketer truly successful. In 27 Secrets of Internet Marketing Success, Bly discusses the common problems most first timers run into, and what can be done to avoid them altogether. He also takes some time to discuss a few “public domain workarounds” that could become invaluable when selling your product or service. Easy to read and understand, Bly’s piece is perfect for anyone who needs a little help getting the proverbial ball rolling, no matter if you’re brand new to the marketing game or a seasoned pro.

And finally, the gigantic computer malfunction/non-event known as Y2K will be making a comeback, at least according to writer Richard Wilcox. On January 19th at 3:14:07 AM Greenwich Mean Time, an error found in the C++ programming language will cause all 32-bit programs to “roll back” to 8:45:52 PM on December 13th, 1901. While the problem is apparently easy enough to take care of, the true cause for extreme panic slight concern comes from the use of “legacy software” — older software that is still used with some regularity. “Even if every PC in the year 2038 has a 64-bit CPU, there will be a lot of older 32-bit programs running on them,” writes Wilcox. “The larger, more complex, and more important any program is, the better are its chances that that it’ll be one of these old 32-bit programs.” At press time, no insane, irrational panic is planned for January 19th, 2038, but plans can always change.

The people of Japan are not exactly fond of Google Maps Street View. There is currently a petition making its way through twelve major cities asking Google to remove their roads from the database. According to the petition, which is backed by several high-ranking politicians and professors, the Street View photography team continually disregard their citizens’ right to privacy. The service then distributes the images “more easily, widely, massively and permanently than ordinary cameras and surveillance cameras do.” To many within the industry, the situation in Japan is eerily similar to what happened in Paris last May. In that case, many French citizens felt that the Google team broke actual privacy laws while preparing the service. Google has yet to respond to the outcry.

In other Google-related news, it seems as if a “unique view counter” has been added to YouTube. Previously, users and video “owners” had to rely solely on the page views to build their analytical data. While that information is indeed useful, it completely ignores the concept of “view padding” — multiple viewings performed by friends and family with the express purpose of driving up the view counter. Thanks to the new tool, amateur videographers can now see if they are true YouTube legends, or just legends in their own mind. To access the new feature, simply go the video’s Insights page, click on the ‘Views‘ menu tab, and select ‘Show Unique Users.’

In other news, the world of micropayments have officially come to Twitter, thanks to Twitpay. For those unaware, a micropayment is the act of giving an infinitesimal amount of money online to another user or site. The only real problem many within the industry have with the Twitpay is the service’s gaping lack of purpose. Traditionally, micropayments are used in massive online games such as Worlds of Warcraft and Second Life or as a blogger’s “virtual tip jar.” Twitter is not a game, nor is it something most logical people would find necessarily tip worthy. In time, the company hopes for its service to be used as an easy way to donate to charity, similar to the Salvation Army kettles during the holiday season. Whether or not this actually happens, however, remains to be seen. Twitpay is available now for all Twitter users.

Elsewhere, blogger Caroline Rodgers has written a highly informative piece detailing the ins and outs of video search engine optimization, or VSEO for short. “With the growth of video portals such as YouTube and multi-submission sites such as Tube Mogul, it has never been easier to get your videos on the web,” she writes. “So why should you try and go down the root [sic] of selling VSEO to your customers?” According to Ms. Rodgers, proper video optimization comes down to eight simple concepts:

1. Create an interesting file name
2. Use meta data to your advantage.
3. If possible, add a transcript to your video.
4. Make sure that your videos inevitably link back to your site.
5. Brevity is key.
6. “Brand” the video with your logo/site name.
7. Male sure that a few “important words” on your site links back to the video in question.
8. Enable ratings.

Easy to understand and even easier to implement, these tips are bound to help both VSEO and traditional SEO mavens of all levels and skill sets. She writes: “The first step is getting your client to see the value in undertaking VSEO. Using the information supplied in this [article], you should be able to present a fairly strong case to your client.”

Finally, we here at the Free Line would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. As overwhelming as both the Internet marketing scene and the world economy has been in 2008, there is one constant that we all can rely on — friends and family. Keep those important to you close this holiday season. We guarantee that you won’t regret it.