Mashable: Latest 24 News Updates - including “Google May Leave China on April 10”

Google May Leave China on April 10
Trada Crowdsources Search Engine Marketing Campaigns
PETA and Meat Company Battle to Score Sex.com
CDs To Get Cheaper: Will You Buy Them? [POLL]
Android Gets Official Google Buzz Widget
Google Calendar Gets a Smart Meeting Rescheduler
10 Essential Social Media Tips for B2B Marketers
Digg: The Future of Social News?
MashBash SXSWi 2010 Recap [PICS & VIDEOS]
Google Maps Test Ads in Australia
Jane McGonigal at TED: Can Gaming Save the World? [VIDEO]
YouTube Details Hypocrisy of Viacom’s $1 Billion Lawsuit
GM’s Awesome Augmented Reality Windshield [VIDEO]
How SXSW Bands are Using Online Music Videos
Apple Pays Tribute to Board Member Jerome B. York
Fisher Price Launches iPhone Apps For 2-Year-Olds
What Social Media Users Want [STATS]
Facebook Co-Founder Launches Non-Profit Platform Called Jumo
Playstation Move Promo Mocks Wii and Natal [VIDEO]
Apple Patents Reveal Plans for Mobile Social Networking App
Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr Talks the Latest Social Media News on G4 [VIDEO]
The Current State of Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]
Windows Phone 7 Tablet: Giant Zune
Attention, “Star Wars” Fans: The iPhone Lightsaber Duel is Coming
Many URL Shorteners Are Slow and Unreliable

Posted: 19 Mar 2010 03:23 AM PDT

Google’s decision to cease its operation in China is edging closer to reality after months of negotiations. China Business News reports that Google plans to leave China on April 10.

The report cites an unidentified Google China employee, but this information has not been confirmed by Google. Allegedly, Google gave its China employees the option of moving to the company's U.S. headquarters or working for its Asia-Pacific operations.

If this is true, it once again raises the question of what, exactly, is Google pulling out from China: its entire operations, or just the search engine, which they’ve declined to censor? The latter now seems more likely.

In any case, if Google does pull out, it may be a long, long time before they return. According to Peter Lui, who was formerly Google’ss financial controller for the Asia Pacific region, said that Google’s public announcement to leave had "burnt bridges and they've burnt the Google brand in China. There is no way Google can ever come back."

Tags: censorship, china, Google

Trada Crowdsources Search Engine Marketing Campaigns

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 07:09 PM PDT

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Trada

Quick Pitch: Trada's online marketplace boosts Google and Yahoo search ad results by crowdsourcing search expertise for small and medium businesses.

Genius Idea: Trada takes a lot of the complexity of running SEM (search engine marketing) campaigns by letting advertisers or agencies take advantage of lots of different search experts who can execute campaigns for them quickly and efficiently.

Trada is officially launching today, after being in private beta since January, 2009. The idea is pretty simple: Have advertisers or agencies lay out the parameters for a campaign, like the landing page, a budget, maximum cost per click, etc. and then have search experts work in tandem to generate keywords and ad groups that can be submitted to various ad networks like Yahoo and Google AdWords.

Once a campaign has been submitted, advertisers can monitor the keywords to see how different things are performing and to make sure that the keywords are clear and accurate. Search experts get to keep the difference in what the advertiser is willing to pay per click/conversion and what it actually cost to generate. In other words, they have a very real incentive to get as many conversions or clicks for your campaign as possible.

Trada is essentially acting as the liaison between the two groups — which means that they also offer some stability and checks and balances for both parties. Search experts have to pass an entrance exam before being accepted into the program.

Trada is free for advertisers or agencies to use — their budget and total advertising cost will vary depending on the parameters of the campaign. Search experts get to keep 75% of their profits, with 25% going to Trada.

Trada sounds like a low-cost way to try different SEM strategies and to take advantage of people that are actively working to get you conversions because it benefits them. Likewise, it might be a low-noise opportunity for search experts who don’t want to have to be tied to certain campaigns or companies and can choose what projects they work on and so-forth.

Have you ever run any search engine marketing campaigns? How did you figure out your approach? Let us know!

1. Use Twitter Effectively

This may seem like a no-brainer, but plenty of businesses and even B2B marketers aren’t on Twitter. Get an account on Twitter and start engaging. While having profiles on other social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can be equally important, Twitter remains one of the best ways to find and engage with others.

How do you do that? Start by searching for phrases relevant to your business and by monitoring those searches regularly. Look at what people are saying and join in the conversation. If people aren’t necessarily looking for your business offerings right away, start joining other conversations of interest. The more you build bridges, the more likely you are to be noticed.

Second, use hashtags. The #B2B hashtag, for example, will connect you with several other like-minded businesses who are also trying to leverage Twitter to build an online presence. Don’t overdo it, though. There are some people #who #tweet #like #this.

We’ll discuss this in the next point, but consider Twitter to be an informal medium. With social media, businesses can (and should) be human again. That’s why it’s safe to use Twitter not just for pure self promotion but to build a meaningful relationships with those who you are likely to do business with you in the future. If you feel comfortable using your business Twitter feed to talk about what makes you tick (versus purely promoting your business), you might be pleasantly surprised to see that your audience might very well be receptive to that messaging.

What’s great about Twitter, especially from a B2B perspective, is that you can follow just about everyone. Take advantage of the opportunity to follow your industry influencers, connect with potential customers, and keep a heads up on the competition.

A great example of Twitter usage from a B2B perspective is @salesforce. Salesforce has used its Twitter feed to share relevant news, to empower current customers, and to offer customer support.

2. Figure Out Your ‘Social Voice’

Social media works best when it is personal and authentic, and thus, it’s important to make sure that the way you communicate when using social media tools comes from a personal and authentic place.

Kevin Dugan, the Director of Social Marketing for Empower MediaMarketing recently wrote a blog post about finding your social voice. I spoke with Dugan about establishing a social voice, and he had this to say:

“It is critical that brands understand a social voice is different from brand voice. Social voice reinforces the brand voice indirectly. Social voice doesn’t follow communication guidelines or identity standards. That’s because a social voice equates to a person. A brand voice is anonymous while a social voice can be found on Google. They must also have an understanding of the brand and a passion for it.”

Social networks are now helping to put the “human” back in businesses again. The traditional messaging of yore has been replaced by businesses who actually appear to show that they care about their customers. With a social voice, informal is perfectly acceptable. Having a social voice, as opposed to just a generic “brand voice,” is an important step when connecting with potential customers. Prospective customers want to connect with businesses who think just like them.

Just because your clients are other businesses doesn’t mean that the “social” aspect of social media needs to disappear.

3. Take Advantage of Opportunities on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is continuing to get bigger and bigger — and it continues to be a great resource for businesses and employees to connect with one another.

One of the best things about LinkedIn is the Shared Connections feature. This feature makes it possible to find people — like potential clients — and then see what connections you have in common. Shared Connections then makes getting a virtual introduction that much easier.

Building up a strong LinkedIn network and being willing to introduce others (in good faith, of course — always use your best judgment) can also increase what opportunities you can get in the future.

B2B marketing is often built through trust and word of mouth. Having a shared connection is a great way to start establishing some of that trust from the very beginning.

LinkedIn also has a community of active participants. LinkedIn Answers serves as a knowledge base where business representatives can establish authority and expertise by participating in the ongoing discussions. LinkedIn Groups is an opportunity for business professionals to interact with other topics relevant to his/her interests. One business successfully used LinkedIn Groups as a way to build business leads. This business opted to engage in relevant industry discussion and offered business services when requests were made, thereby bringing in a highly targeted business lead. Actively participating in LinkedIn is often one of the best ways to not only help people out, but also to make a connection for your service and even generate leads.

Answering questions across LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups doesn’t mean to simply put out the marketing blurb, but to really engage and offer feedback and solutions. Again, social media is most effective when it is genuine.

4. Start a Blog

Social media provides the opportunity for companies to promote themselves but also to welcome commentary from a community of peers. By starting a blog, you give your readers an opportunity to see you with your social voice outside the typical corporate website’s newsroom. Blogs become platforms where you can announce new product releases, share personal company stories, answer any specific questions from your customers, and empower customers to achieve success with your products and service offerings. Blogging can also establish business professionals as thought leaders in their field, thereby aiding with client acquisition.

Blogs can build up qualified prospects through search engine rankings too. Be sure to update your blog regularly with valuable content and follow up with the comments written on each individual post.

5. Monitor Your Industry

Social media means that content is being posted everywhere, and businesses have a unique opportunity to gather intelligence to make well-educated and informed business decisions. Google Alerts is a great tool to keep up with what’s happening in relation to your company, your industry and your competitors. You can get updates via e-mail or in RSS (and even in real-time) about new search results or news stories for a certain query or topic.

Further, free tools like Social Mention and YackTrack will monitor the social sphere for other mentions of your business on social sites, especially. BackType will take that a step further and monitor phrases in comments on blog posts. All of these aforementioned services can be emailed to you in a daily digest format which your team can evaluate to find opportunities.

If you don’t already have alerts set up on these services for your company name, do it now. Also set up a more generic alert for your industry as a whole to see what people are talking about. If you want to see what your competition or other big industry players are doing, add those to the mix as well.

Monitoring can also be useful because you can then highlight the big stories on your own social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, etc.

6. Be Consistent and Don’t Be Afraid to Follow Up

While you don’t want to be creepy (see below), it’s important to not let potential opportunities slip by when using social media. If you’ve answered someone’s question on LinkedIn or on Twitter, don’t be afraid to reach back out to that person to ask if they have any follow-up questions or if you can send them more information. There’s an abundance of opportunity to strengthen a business relationship but it starts by initiating and then making sure that your business is fresh in your prospects’ minds.

Staying engaged and staying communicative is really important. Social media is not about setting it and forgetting it. It’s about being social, so don’t be afraid to reach out and check back in with potential leads you meet using social media. Similarly, don’t be afraid to direct message your followers on Twitter when an opportunity presents itself. They followed you because they want to hear from you. Use that opportunity to your advantage but don’t overdo it. Auto-DMs are a no-no.

If you’re going to blog, don’t leave that blog stagnant. Provide valuable content on a regular basis. Give employees of your company an opportunity to help build your brand. You can get a lot of great blog content by involving many company employees in the process. Similarly, get many employees of your company to utilize the social networks and to be continually responsive to customer inquiries. Remember, the more visible you are on the social networks, the more likely you are to be remembered when another business actually needs to utilize your services.

7. Leverage Your Analytics for Business Metric Measurement

After you’re involved enough in the social space, you’ll likely see tweets, retweets, traffic, and social network links that point to various parts of your company website. Take a look at your website analytics and start seeing where you’re making a difference, especially as it relates to ROI measurement. Don’t lose sight of your business metrics and start considering practical social media measurement to assess clickthroughs, popularity of links, and other important metrics.

As part of measurement, consider using URL shorteners. Not only do they make links more manageable (and limit the number of characters in a Tweet or Facebook message), they also can be a great way to track data as many URL shorteners provide valuable statistics about the performance of each individual shortened URL. Monitor this data throughout the process with your main website analytics package to see if your message attached to the shortened URL resulted in conversions.

When looking at conversion trends or successful tools in building leads with social media, reviewing analytics data is crucial. It gives you insight into content that performs very well in the social space but also through other marketing techniques, such as search engine optimization. Use the data as an opportunity to improve your content or your social media/search marketing efforts.

8. Find and Follow Industry Influencers

B2B social media marketing is often about connecting with the right people and about building relationships. Social media makes both of these actions simple and painless. Being aware of who the influencers in your industry are and then following them, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or their own blogs, is the first step to building a connection with those influencers. With a genuine relationship, these influencers may be able to help you make your mark in the social media marketplace. This is especially true of influencers who may already have your target audience at their disposal.

This doesn’t mean you need to retweet every tweet or share every blog post on Facebook, but it does mean that you should be aware of who the movers and shakers are. By following them and then reaching out when appropriate or just to get to know them further, you have a much better shot at getting some attention.

Even if you’re not necessarily connecting to influencers, social media affords the opportunity to connect with other people in your industry and your customers. Use the various social media platforms as an opportunity to connect with these industry colleagues and peers and build upon each other. Consider celebrating your colleagues’ or customers’ success. Make it known that you’re here to help them — not just yourself. Repeat this process with anyone of interest and you’re bound to attract eyeballs.

9. Use Social Media for Giveaways and Promotions

Sometimes, the hardest part of social media is sticking out from the sea of other users. Giveaways and promotions are a great way to help differentiate yourself and your business. Using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, you can target your desired customer base and then let them know (if appropriate) about different promotions or giveaways related to your product. If you offer a service, consider giving a free year to a loyal customer. If you manufacture products, give some away.

Offer a coupon on your company’s Facebook Page and pair it with a lead-generation form for future contact. Let people know on Twitter about specials or contests that are going on and follow-up with those that show an interest. Perhaps you can have a retweet contest where you can monitor responses or host some trivia on your Facebook Page. You can also open an online survey to get feedback about your offerings and reward participants. The possibilities are endless. Creativity in this capacity breeds success.

Companies like Wildfire make it really easy to build these sorts of promotions directly inside your own social media channels.

10. Don’t Be Creepy

If you use social media like a keyword searching robot, you are going to come across as creepy and turn off potential clients. Don’t be creepy.

Use best judgment and common sense when approaching people using social networks. If you wouldn’t want to be approached the way you are approaching another user, don’t use that approach. It’s as simple as that. Social media etiquette isn’t much different than real life relationships, so what won’t work in “real life” probably won’t work online.

Respecting boundaries doesn’t mean you can’t still answer questions, engage and follow-up with potential leads, it just means that if it’s clear that the other party isn’t interested, or more importantly, if the context of their communication really doesn’t involve or seek out input from your company, don’t do it.

Context is really important in social media and it is something that is very, very easy to overlook. While we think that using keywords and Google Alerts are good methods for keeping atop of your field, that doesn’t mean you can automate your responses or just go into autopilot based on those alerts.

Your Tips

There are many different social media marketing opportunities for B2B, and there’s great potential for success as more companies jump on the social media bandwagon. How do you use social media in B2B marketing? What tips can you suggest to others? Let us know!

Series supported by MarketingProfs B2B Forum

Drive sales and make social media work for you at MarketingProfs B2B Forum! You'll learn the ins-and-outs of social media as part of your overall B2B marketing mix – from integration and engagement to measurement. Get 1-on-1 access to the best and brightest B2B marketing stars who will share best practices and FREE advice! Plus, our loyal attendees say our events are ridiculously fun, interactive and the kicker is – we have the best Freebies in the biz! (no keychains here…FREE industry research reports & memberships—stuff to help you really drive sales in 2010!) Register today!

(Photo Courtesy of visual.dichotomy on Flickr)

Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Google, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, Twitter

Tags: b2b, b2b marketing, b2b marketing series, facebook, linkedin, MARKETING, twitter, wildfire

Digg: The Future of Social News?

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 01:45 PM PDT

Digg this week unveiled plans to become a hub of web content, adding Twitter and Facebook shares to its Digg counts to present a more complete view of what’s popular on the web.

What’s more, Digg will soon let you log in with any of your social networking accounts — or even Digg stories without logging in at all.

Is Digg defining a new direction for the curation economy? And could the new site help us cope with information overload?

That’s the topic of my CNN column this week.

Check out the column at CNN.com >>

Reviews: Digg

Tags: cashmore, cnn, digg

MashBash SXSWi 2010 Recap [PICS & VIDEOS]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 01:38 PM PDT

A big thanks to everyone who came to MashBash SXSWi 2010. An estimated 4,000 attendees enjoyed five hours of networking, games, dancing to the amazing DJ Chicken George, as well as the Sony bloggie experience.

We had a few official photographers on hand, but there were loads of “guest” photographers as well. Below are some great shots from the evening and links to the full albums.

Please feel free to share links to your photos and videos in the comments below. For our full SXSWi coverage, check out the SXSWi News stream on Mashable.

MashBash SXSWi Photo Set from @TechFrog

(the crowd)

(the Leo Laporte, Robert Scoble and Pete Cashmore “Interview”)

The Step and Repeat by Alison Narro

(The Step-and-Repeat)

MashBash SXSWi 2010 Photo Set from thekenyeung

(cc) Kenneth Yeung – www.thelettertwo.com

LA Weekly MashBash Photo Album

A Big Final Thanks to our Sponsors:

“Sony Electronics has created high-quality, innovative and stylish products for over 40 years. Thanks to Mashable, Sony's new MP4 bloggie™ camera will make its SXSWi debut. Capturing everyday moments in 1080p HD MP4 video and 5-megapixel photos, the compact device has advanced features like Face Detection and SteadyShot™, a large LCD screen, a built-in USB for uploading and charging, integrated software for easy Web sharing, and allows for expandable storage with Memory Stick PRO Duo™ or SD media cards. The bloggie camera is one of many products just launched under Sony's new global brand message – make.believe. Believe that anything you can imagine, you can make real. For more information go to www.sony.com/bloggie.”

“Cliqset makes it easy for people to share, discover, and discuss content from everywhere on the Web. Cliqset helps you filter through the activity, like status updates, reviews, blog posts, videos, articles, music and pretty much everything that's online, and consume the social stream the way you want to. To connect with Cliqset, visit us at www.cliqset.com.”

Many thanks to everyone who made this possible:

- The Mashable SXSWi Team: Pete Cashmore, Adam Ostrow, Barb Dybwad, Josh Catone, Jennifer Van Grove and Brett Petersel
- High Beam Events Team: For production, lights, planning and event coordination
- DJ Chicken George
- The Buffalo Billiards Staff
- Everyone who attended

Reviews: Mashable

Tags: MashBash, mashbash sxswi, sxswi

Google Maps Test Ads in Australia

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 01:33 PM PDT

In a move that might be a preview for the rest of the world, Google has implemented sponsored icons on Google Maps in Australia.

These icons — which represent establishments like Bankwest and JB Hi-Fi — feature company logos rather than generic establishment icons.

This program, which is being launched in Australia for testing, differs from Google’s traditional ad system. As the Sydney Morning Herald points out, these ads (or logos, really) are not purchased AdWords-style, but instead rely on number of impressions.

Additionally, companies must be deemed relevant by Google for their logos to appear. Google will determine the relevancy based on the context of a user’s search, inbound links and event Wikipedia entries. Furthermore, if users don’t interact with the location’s ad — by hovering over it and clicking through for more information — it will disappear.

Google’s goal is the highlight the most relevant businesses based on search. At least in Australia, Google is also charging some types of businesses less than others — pricing is based on what value those establishments provide. So an ATM or gas station would be charged less per impression than a retail store.

This is an interesting approach to location based advertising — something we fully expect to become a bigger and bigger trend as the year goes on. It will be interesting to see what kind of results and feedback Google gets from the trial in Australia and how sponsored locations end up being implemented in other countries and across other platforms.

Reviews: Australia, Google, Wikipedia

Tags: Google Australia, Google Maps, google maps sponsored icons

Jane McGonigal at TED: Can Gaming Save the World? [VIDEO]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 01:07 PM PDT

One of my favorite talks from this year’s TED Conference in Long Beach was recently posted in the uber-popular TED Talks library: Game designer Jane McGonigal spoke about harnessing the power of game mechanics to make a better world.

McGonigal asks what would happen if we were able to tap into the emotional resonance and powerful feedback loops we find within games and apply them to solving real-world problems. Since we routinely save worlds inside of games, might there be a way to “learn the habits of heroes” and do more to incentivize world-changing in our offline real lives?

Dr. McGonigal is behind a number of the most notable alternate reality games and works as director of game research & development for the Institute for the Future. Her current project, EVOKE, embodies the theory behind her talk by engaging participants in a “10-week crash course in changing the world.”

Check out the talk below and let us know what you think: Can games teach us anything about how to make the world a better place?

Tags: activism, games, Jane McGonigal, TED, ted 2010, video games, world of warcraft, WoW

YouTube Details Hypocrisy of Viacom’s $1 Billion Lawsuit

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 12:38 PM PDT

In response to opening briefs filed by Viacom today in its now three-year-old lawsuit against YouTube, the video-sharing site has posted some startling accusations about the hypocrisy of the media giant's claims.

In a blog post, YouTube claims that at the same time Viacom was trying to sue YouTube into oblivion, it was secretly having its own content uploaded to the site. YouTube says that Viacom hired "no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies" who "deliberately 'roughed up' the videos to make them look stolen or leaked."

Then, YouTube claims, Viacom would demand the takedown of content, but because of the mess that it created, "there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site." YouTube also says that Viacom tried to acquire the company on numerous occasions (of course, Google ultimately won that battle).

Beyond those arguments, though, YouTube's main legal defense is simply that it is protected by the DMCA, which puts the onus on copyright holders, not service providers, to keep track of and help enforce copyrights. Because of Viacom's actions, however, YouTube says that thorough enforcement was impossible.

Viacom, however, contests that YouTube didn't do enough to protect copyright content and built its huge following thanks in no small part to unauthorized material. It makes its most convincing case with a series of e-mails between the co-founders of YouTube, who at time seems more concerned with a big pay day than dealing with copyright issues.

YouTube certainly makes a compelling case, and considering the plethora of media companies that have moved on and now do content deals with YouTube, it's hard to imagine Viacom finding much support, at least in the court of public opinion. Nonetheless, the case moves forward, and Viacom will ultimately have the chance to show that YouTube knowingly let copyright content stay on its site.

Reviews: Google, YouTube

Tags: viacom, youtube

GM’s Awesome Augmented Reality Windshield [VIDEO]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 12:18 PM PDT

We love technology that makes us feel like we’re living in the future. Case in point: General Motors has been working with several universities to develop a working next-generation heads-up display that turns an ordinary windshield into an augmented reality information dashboard.

Such a system can improve safety and advance knowledge behind the wheel, visually identifying important objects in physical space like road signs and the edges of the road you’re on in conditions of poor visibility. It can even bring GPS functions right into the dashboard by outlining the exact building you’re going to. Check out a demo of the system in action below.

The HUD windshield uses night vision, navigation and camera-based sensors to gather data relevant to your surroundings as you drive, and ultraviolet lasers project corresponding images onto the windshield surface. GM says to look for this system being incorporated into its vehicles in the near future.

Would you be excited to have an AR windshield in your next car?

Tags: AR, Augmented Reality, cars, GM, gps, technology, transportation

How SXSW Bands are Using Online Music Videos

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 12:15 PM PDT

As we’ve seen in the past, a music video can launch a band into the indie stratosphere when shared in the online space — YouTube even got hip to the trend with its Musician’s Wanted program. This state of affairs got us wondering: How do some of today’s up-and-coming indie acts use online music videos in their quest for stardom?

To answer said query, Mashable reached out to an array of SXSW’s finest — bands both on the the brink and over. Some gave us serious answers about how music videos fit into their artistic scheme, others — not so much (ahem, Das Racist).

Check out their answers below. We hope to add more as the musicians we contacted find their way to computers. Note: Some of these vids are slightly NSFW.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

What’s your favorite music video?: [Kip Berman, lead singer] I like the “Everything With You” video because it feels really natural and good. [Keyboard player and Buzzfeed editor] Peggy and her BFF Carlen are hanging out and doing fun stuff together. It fits nicely with the song, which is about hanging out with your BFF and doing fun stuff together. It doesn’t seem phony, yet it’s not careless or entirely haphazard, either.

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?: It’s easy to say videos don’t matter as much as the song itself or the live performance, and I’ll say that, too. A lot of bands I really like have sort of not-so-awesome music videos or videos that seem at odds with their actual aesthetic. Still, when a band has a really embarrassing video, it’s hard to shake that image from the song itself — so we try not to have overtly terrible videos.

But I don’t like when a really cool video becomes more important than the song — though some over-the-top stuff is great when paired with the right kind of band. I really love the new Yeasayer video for “O.N.E.,” MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and Lady Gaga gets more and more fantastically epic with each release.

I guess from a “press” point of view it’s good to have the most sensational video possible (Buckcherry, “Crazy B*tch” — but again, that makes sense [for] Buckcherry). But we’ve never wanted to just gain views for views’ sake — we’d rather (a lot) less people see it, but actually appreciate it as a visual complement to the song, not in a pure spectacle way. We’re not all that “spectacular.”

We recently shot a video with a lot of “furries” (or more politely, “fur suiters”) in it… it’s pretty funny, I think. Maybe not as exciting as female prisons or post-apocalyptic lord of the green screen fantasies, but for us — it’s a start.

French Horn Rebellion

What’s your favorite music video?: [Robert Perlick-Molinari, lead singer] Definitely the “Broken Heart” video. That was our first collaboration with Dax and Barry from the Sniper Twins. It's so simple — we're dancing and Barry's in the corner being weird. That doesn't sound a lot different than most of the dance parties we throw, actually. But the entire video is one shot. And our dancing is actually choreographed. Felt like we were a boy band a little bit. Thankfully Barry was there with his ketchup and mustard bottles so no one would confuse us with The Backstreet Boys.

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?: Our music videos have been great for us. We have more views on YouTube of our songs than anywhere else our music is posted. They came from a really fun and creative place, so we're really proud about the videos, and feel they are a good representation of how we wanted to start out a group.

The Happy Hollows

What’s your favorite music video?: [Chris Hernandez, drummer] Our newest video is just amazing and our friend Ben Hoste put so much work into it (he had to animate it by hand!); it’s called “Death to Vivek Kemp.”

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?: With YouTube and Vimeo and all these other online video outlets, it’s definitely been amazing to have such access to not only our fans, but to people who’ve never even heard of us before! So it’s been a really amazing experience for us to know and be involved with so many creative and supportive people who have helped us out with videos in the past. It’s really become a great collaborative effort to help each other stand out and make a name for ourselves!

Das Racist

What’s your favorite music video?:

[Victor]: Can’t pick a favorite, but our most recent one is Jordan Fish’s “Rainbow in the Dark” video. [Video above.]

[Himanshu]: Bob Weisz’s “Shorty Said” video.

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?:

[Victor]: The act of making online music videos provides handfuls of people with something to do with their leisure time (afforded to them by a system of global economic domination by the wealthy few) that feels slightly more productive than other more passive forms of entertainment like watching TV, going to the movies, purchasing a roller coaster ride, etc. Somewhat ironically, the end product is a form of passive entertainment.

[Dap]: Music videos allow men and women to feel sexy and fancy-free. Transcend.

[Himanshu]: Tweens love YouTube.

Bear in Heaven

What’s your favorite music video?: [Jon Philpot, frontman] We’ve made a few music videos and we like them, but it’s nice when a fan makes something… especially if it’s strange. Here’s a favorite. [Video above.]

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?: They’re important us. We make them on the road to entertain ourselves and our listeners. I guess we could just make songs… but videos are fun!

The Coathangers

What’s your favorite music video?: Our favorite Coathangers video is “Stop Stomp Stompin.”

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?: They are semi-important with the added publicity, yet also serve the purpose of being able to show the listener kinda who the band is and how they view their own music, etc. We only have one “real” video so hopefully it has helped in adding more fans to the roster but also has made some people laugh and such…

YACHT

What’s your favorite music video?: Our favorite YACHT video so far is “Psychic City (Voodoo City),” which was directed by Judah Switzer and styled by the genius Ryann Bosetti.

The Psychic City video is meant to be an allegorical tale, full of symbols, just as ancient mythology serves as a method for teaching and remembering spiritual doctrines and ideas. Each ritual, every detail, in the video is deliberate, and will prove fruitful for anyone with the patience to research it. We have a great love for the arcane beauty of ritual, and included many of our most beloved ceremonies in the video. Some are quite obvious, such as the Eucharist, and other much more esoteric (although equally as important in human history), such as the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece and some elements of Druidic paganism. A great deal of research went into the making of the video, but we also attempted to stylize and YACHT-ize many of the rituals beyond recognition, so that we could focus on presenting our own message rather than a diluted hodge-podge of spiritual doctrines from throughout history.

The final messages of the Psychic City video, however, are simple: that light and dark are simply two sides of the same coin. That there is, in fact, no “light” and no “dark.” That love, both carnal and spiritual, is the only force which can unite us all.

How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they functioned for you?: We don’t look at videos as publicity objects; rather, they present an opportunity for us to elaborate on the themes and ideas of our songs, to extrapolate them into a visual format, and experiment with the scope of the song. It’s rare in the art world for someone to say, “What a great painting! How about you make a sculpture of it?” And yet, that’s what a music video is — that’s essentially what’s being asked of the musician. Some see this as a limitation, or an afterthought, but we like the challenge.

The Internet, however, is a valuable platform for disseminating ideas.

[img credit: Gorski]

Reviews: Mashable, Vimeo, YouTube, video

Tags: music, sxsw-2010, video, youtube

Apple Pays Tribute to Board Member Jerome B. York

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 12:02 PM PDT

Apple Board member, and president and CEO of Harwinton Capital, Jerome B. York has passed away at the age of 71. In honor of his memory, Apple has changed its heavily-trafficked home page — Apple.com — to a picture of York and a text tribute

In the words of Steve Jobs, "Jerry joined Apple's Board in 1997 when most doubted the company's future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years … It's been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I'm going to miss him a lot."

Tags: apple, Jerome York

Fisher Price Launches iPhone Apps For 2-Year-Olds

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 11:34 AM PDT

How many 2-year-olds do you know with an iPhone? Fisher Price seems to think there’s a fair few out there, as it’s released three new iPhone apps aimed at kids aged between two and five.

Perfect for keeping tots happy for five minutes or so on the go, there’s See’n Say [iTunes link], which lets little ones spin a virtual arrow to identify animals; Little People Farm [iTunes link], based on the original toy with three mini-games and two themed songs; and Chatter Telephone [iTunes link], an iPhone version of the familiar plastic Fisher Price phone.

Fisher Price is also looking to score with social networking moms and dads with a new Facebook application. The ad-supported “Moments to Share” app lets parents record kids’ milestones and special moments in a “dynamic timeline” made up of photos, videos, dates, captions and stories that they can chose to share with their Facebook friends.

Reviews: Facebook, ResuWe Facebook Application

Tags: app store, facebook, fisher-price, iphone apps

What Social Media Users Want [STATS]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 11:19 AM PDT

Twitterers mostly consume news, MySpace users want games and entertainment, Facebookers are into both news and community and Digg’s audience has a mixed bag of interests.

This is all according to online advertising network Chitika, who set out to analyze the interests of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Digg users by comparing the genres of sites that receive traffic from these social networks. 287,090 impressions were used in the report, and based on this research, each social site has a distinct makeup of users with unique tastes.

The graphic below breaks it down. What’s most interesting is that nearly half the traffic (47%) that Twitter generates falls into the news category. In fact, Twitter users’ interest in the news genre surpasses that of Facebook users by nearly 20%, which would appear to make it the number-one social network for newsies.

Another interesting tidbit is that MySpace users have no interest in news whatsoever. Instead that corner of the web splits its interests between video games (28%) and celebrity and entertainment content (23%). This aligns with what we’ve seen in terms of MySpace’s business strategy around securing exclusive entertainment content over the past few months and where it’s likely headed for the future.

If anything this data points to the varied interests behind our current obsession with popular social networks. It’s important information for marketers, advertisers and brands hoping to appropriately leverage each site.

Image courtesy of ChrisAt, iStockphoto

Reviews: Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, iStockphoto

Tags: digg, facebook, myspace, social media, stats, trending, twitter

Facebook Co-Founder Launches Non-Profit Platform Called Jumo

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 10:52 AM PDT

Today, Facebook co-founder and My.BarackObama.com alum Chris Hughes announced the soft launch of Jumo, his new philanthropic start-up that works to match do-gooders with appropriate causes.

Currently, the Jumo site is merely an elegantly designed homepage that announces Hughes’s mission to “bring together everyday individuals and organizations to speed the pace of global change. We connect people to the issues, organizations, and individuals relevant to them to foster lasting relationships and meaningful action.”

Hughes told us, however, that the site will later be organized much like a social network — with profiles for individual users that contain a collection of information that they have shared and used, pages for organizations created both by the orgs in question and others, and issue pages that serve as a kind of discussion of the topics at hand.

Hughes says that the idea is to make sure that Jumo can get the most relevant information possible to its users, so that they can foster on-going relationships with social organizations to do the most good.

As a result, the current homepage features a rather intriguing survey box that asks the site visitor an array of questions from, “If you had a daughter tomorrow, which would you name her?” to “Would you say the world is getting better or worse?” Upon answering these queries, you can also submit your e-mail address to get more information as it comes.

The site itself came about after a period of reflection on Hughes’s part. The Obama campaign came and went, and he started thinking about how he could apply social media principles gleaned from Facebook and My.BarackObama.com to have the maximum impact on the world.

While he was impressed by efforts following catastrophes like the earthquake in Haiti, Hughes thought we could be doing more. “I think watching what happened after Haiti was hard for everyone,” he says. “The fact that so much money was raised is just a testament to the fact that people really do care and help.”

Still, he applies the “don’t just give during the holidays — give all year round” principle to the situation. “I was frustrated to see that moment of engagement not functioning as part of a much larger process of supporting those organizations to help ensure that tragedies like Haiti not happen again,” he said.

Currently, Hughes is hiring a team to run the site from its Soho office. According to the job posting, he’s “looking to hire hard-working individuals who value intellectual challenge, appreciate the importance of online networking technology, and, most importantly, want to change the world.”

Reviews: Facebook

Tags: facebook, jumo, News, social media

Playstation Move Promo Mocks Wii and Natal [VIDEO]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 09:47 AM PDT

PlayStation’s own Kevin Butler, VP of humorous adverts, is coming at you from the future in this latest promo clip for the recently-named Move motion controller.

While demoing the abilities of the Move with a boxing game and an FPS, Butler manages to poke fun at both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s coming-soon Project Natal system for the Xbox 360 that takes motion control a step further by making your body the controller.

“Come on, who wants to pretend their hand is a gun? What is this, third grade?” Butler asks, while stating that the Move offers “what we in the future call ‘buttons’ which turn out to be pretty important to those handful of millions of people who enjoy playing shooters, or platformers, well, anything that doesn’t involve catching a big, red ball” — the latter in reference to a Natal demo.

Hit play now to see the “now-eristic” Move in action, as well as a baseball tip-off for the coming season:

Tags: advertising, kevin butler, microsoft, motion gaming, Natal, Nintendo, playstation, playstation move, project natal, sony, video, video games, Wii, wiimote

Apple Patents Reveal Plans for Mobile Social Networking App

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 09:22 AM PDT

The smart folks at Patently Apple have uncovered some documents published to the USPTO today detailing a social application Apple is building for the iPhone.

The application, known as iGroups, is designed to let people meet up and exchange information in a way that is focused on ensuring privacy.

The USPTO documents are pretty detailed in terms of how the application — and the related patents — work. The big takeaway seems to be that group controls are granular and that location uses something called “virtual GPS” — which appears to be using either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi as proximity tools.

A side note — there is an existing iPhone app called iGroups, which means that if this app does come to the marketplace, Apple might have to work with the developer to resolve the name issue.

What do you think of Apple’s push into social networking? Let us know!

[img credit: Patently Apple]

Reviews: Bluetooth

Tags: apple, geolocation, igroups, patents, social media

Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr Talks the Latest Social Media News on G4 [VIDEO]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 09:07 AM PDT

Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr made an appearance on G4's "Attack of the Show" on Wednesday to discuss some of the latest news in the social media space.

Among the topics: the feds using social media to catch criminals, the battle of competing location networks at SXSW, and Twitter's new @anywhere platform.

Check it out in the video below:

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: attack of the show, g4, video

The Current State of Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 07:55 AM PDT

Muhammad Saleem is a social media consultant and a top-ranked community member on multiple social news sites. Follow him on Twitter for more social media insights.

There is no doubt that Twitter has been a runaway success. Add to their rapid growth the recently announced @anywhere platform, and plans for further international expansion, and it comes as no surprise that the company is not looking to sell — at least within the next 2 years.

While the site’s growth has certainly been impressive and it has reached the point of non-displacement, there are some interesting hidden truths about Twitter and its users. The following graphic takes a look at Twitter’s path to 10 billion tweets, what we have learned about its users and what they’ve been talking about along the way.

Click the Image for Full Size Version

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: data, data visualization, infographic, stats, trending, twitter, visualization

Windows Phone 7 Tablet: Giant Zune

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 07:23 AM PDT

Whoa there, big boy! Windows Phone 7 isn’t even powering a real smartphone yet, and we already have a tablet concept based on the platform, created by designer Umang Dokey.

It’s a sexy-looking beast, with an 8” screen, two joysticks on the back and a built-in stand that turns it into a coffee table-style PC. The designer has also envisioned 3D video calls and a keyboard built into the stand, but let’s not get too excited about it all yet: It’s just a concept, very far from being an actual product.

Check out a video demonstration below.

Tablet Concept – running Windows Phone 7 Series from umang on Vimeo.

Reviews: Vimeo

Tags: microsoft, Mobile 2.0, Tablet, windows phone 7, zune

Attention, “Star Wars” Fans: The iPhone Lightsaber Duel is Coming

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 06:39 AM PDT

I sense a new trend emerging at geek gatherings everywhere: iPhone lightsaber duels. It’ll probably scare all the girls (far, far) away, but you’ll be able to show your iPhone-wielding friends the true power of the dark side.

The upcoming Lightsaber Duel game is due to be released early next month, and it will feature officially-licensed lightsaber sounds and Bluetooth connectivity, meaning you’ll actually be able to duel (instead of just waving the phone around making whizzing sounds).

The game is actually a follow-up to Lightsaber Unleashed, created by the same company, THQ Wireless. The new game will feature 11 new Star Wars characters, and if that’s not enough, players will be able to create multiple custom characters, too.

Reviews: Bluetooth

Tags: application, iphone, lightsaber, mobile app, Star Wars

Many URL Shorteners Are Slow and Unreliable

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 05:18 AM PDT

Dutch web monitoring company WatchMouse has done a thorough analysis of uptime and performance of 14 major URL shortening services, with quite disheartening results.

As it turns out, only two of these (goo.gl and twt.tl) have had a perfect uptime record between 02/14/2010 and 03/16/2010; the rest of the pack mostly had minor uptime issues, while snurl.com and tr.im had uptime below 99%.

When it comes to performance, measured in the same time period, most URL shorteners can only be characterized as slow. Most of them add more than half a second to the time it takes to open a link; Facebook’s fb.me has been by far the slowest, while only Google’s goo.gl and youtu.be can really be called fast, both averaging around 350 miliseconds.

Given the popularity of URL shorteners on social networks such as Twitter, this is a big deal. Simply put, while URL shorteners do provide a useful service, they’re also making the web considerably slower.

WatchMouse has also launched an online URL shortener performance monitor located at the (ironically, not very short) address http://url-shorteners.public-website-status.com/. Over there you can see uptime and performance status and history for 15 popular URL shortening services.

Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter

Tags: trending, url shorteners, web