CEO Carol Bartz explains what Yahoo is getting for its $100 million ad campaign, its first global marketing effort, which was launched today in New York during Advertising Week.
Here’s the rundown of Bartz’s press conference on the branding blowout.
It has been easy enough to be skeptical about Twitter’s influence and staying power–I do it all the time. But there’s no denying that Twitter has become a powerful driver of Web traffic.
Just ask the New York Times, which says Twitter is about to become one of the top 10 referral sources to the paper’s site.
Impressive. But what exactly does this mean?
Is Twitter a billion-dollar company? It is now, according to its investors. People familiar with the company tell me it has raised around $50 million in a funding round that values the start-up, which has no real revenue to speak of, at about $1 billion.
It’s a not-quite-annual tradition: Something unexpected (but perhaps not unplanned) happens at MTV’s Video Music Awards and the Internet can’t stop talking about it. But Viacom’s copyright lawsuit means that you’ll have work a bit if you want to see for yourself on YouTube.
It’s one of those mysteries that are so deep, so mysterious, they may never be solved: When Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says the company would “like to leave the door open for advertising,” what exactly does he mean? My guess: Twitter would like to leave the door open for advertising. Meanwhile, the company cracks down, a bit, on spammy apps.
One of the hottest start-ups of 2009 had to fend off investors this summer–even if many people don’t understand exactly what the service does or who is supposed to use it. Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley explains.
Sorry Googlers, I have no choice but to deliver this important and sad news: The woman who runs your cafeteria will not be crowned “Top Chef.”
Earlier this summer, Twitter was blamed for torpedoing movies like “Bruno” and “Funny Business.” Now the micromessaging service is being heralded for giving Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” a big boost. Actual evidence that Twitter has any effect at all on box office revenue is scant at best. But this is a story Hollywood is going to love anyway.
Facebook offered to buy TipJoy, then changed its mind. Now the micropayment start-up has closed, and a co-founder is working for…Facebook.
Hey Googlers! Ever wonder what life is like on a big-deal, nationally televised reality show? If you’re working at the main Googleplex in Mountain View, you may be able find out: Just ask Preeti Mistry. You can find Mistry at Charlie’s Cafe, where’s she’s back to work running Google’s much celebrated cafeteria. But earlier this year, she was a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” which kicked off its sixth season this week. And she survived the first episode, clams and all.
There’s a small but raucous celebration breaking out in the geekier corners of the Internet right now because Tr.im, the Web address shortener headed for death row, has had a stay of execution. But don’t get too excited: Tr.im’s owner tells me he’s keeping it alive in order to sell the service–but says he has no interested buyers.
So, “the idea is that in two or three months, if nothing’s changed, we’ll have to revisit the decision,” says Eric Woodward, CEO of Tr.im’s parent company, Nambu Networks.
Can the hype surrounding buzzy tech like Twitter, the Kindle and cloud computing get any louder? No, pronounces tech consultancy Gartner Inc., which has a very official-looking chart to make its case. But are you better off being on top of the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” or working your way up the “Slope of Enlightenment”? Who knows?
Are you up in arms about the impending demise of tr.im, one of the many services that shorten long Web addresses? Here’s a possible solution, offered by bit.ly, the industry’s bigfoot: A nonprofit archive/graveyard for tr.im’s tiny addresses, along with anyone else who wants to participate.
Web video companies that wanted to take on YouTube are having a very hard time. But Web video isn’t going away, either, and there has to be some way to make it work for users, publishers and investors. Right?
Hence, another round of funding for 5min, a video start-up that just raised a $7.5 million B round. New investor Globespan Capital Partners led the round, and Spark Capital, the VC shop that has made several video bets (along with a big one in Twitter) made a second investment.
A federal judge has dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s insider-trading case against Mark Cuban, the AP reports. Astonishingly, Cuban has yet to say anything about this on his blog or his Twitter account. But I assume that will be rectified shortly.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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