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YouTube Gets It, Will Allow Ad Skipping

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5576453/youtube-gets-it-will-allow-ad-skipping

There’s nothing worse than watching a 30-second ad to watch some 30-second clip of something the world inevitably finds funnier than you do. Google/YouTube are acknowledging this phenomenon of the consumer psyche and will introduce an ad-skip button this year.

The idea is as simple as this: If an advertiser’s commercial isn’t captivating enough to watch in its own right, it’ll be skipped by viewers. If viewers don’t watch the ad, Google doesn’t charge the advertiser.

Now I know what you’re thinking: Why would anyone watch an ad voluntarily? See exhibit A, the lead video in which the god of the infomercial, Ron Popeil, does his thing. The only way that 9-minute clip could be more captivating is to put ANOTHER 9-minute Ron Popeil clip in front of it.

This skippable ad model will inevitably lead to better ads—at least in terms of catering the online attention span—and, for those of us* with the libidinal fortitude to turn a blind eye on GoDaddy-esque BOOBIES BOOBIES BOOBIES teasers, a lot more free time. [WSJ via Fast Company]

* OK, maybe I don’t skip every such commercial. But I only** watch them to be educated enough to write about them on Giz.

** This is a flat-out fabrication***.

*** What sort of monster have I become?

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Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

Try On New Glasses in Warby Parker’s Virtual Booth

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5533311/try-on-new-glasses-in-warby-parkers-virtual-booth

Try On New Glasses in Warby Parker's Virtual BoothBuying glasses online can save you tons of money but the downside is you don’t get to try the glasses on and see how they look on your face. Upload a picture to Warby Parker and see different styles on your face.

Last year we shared out exploits in buying super cheap glasses online—it was awesome and we got great glasses for only $8!—but as we noted then it’s a gamble, albeit a cheap one, to buy glasses without trying them on.

Eyeglass retailer Warby Parker has an excellent virtual try on booth on their site which alleviates the can’t-try-it-on shoppers anxiety. Upload a picture of yourself, try out the different frames, and get a feel for how they look on your face. If you absolutely love a pair you find there you can snag them for $95 or just take the style and go shopping on other sites. Make sure to read our guide to scoring cheap eye glasses before you go shopping for some important pointers.

Warby Parker Virtual Try On [via Unpluggd]

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Friday, May 7th, 2010 news No Comments

1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/09/1024-bit-rsa-encryption-cracked-by-carefully-starving-cpu-of-ele/

3 8 10 rsahardwarefaultattackgraphic 1024 bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity

Since 1977, RSA public-key encryption has protected privacy and verified authenticity when using computers, gadgets and web browsers around the globe, with only the most brutish of brute force efforts (and 1,500 years of processing time) felling its 768-bit variety earlier this year. Now, three eggheads (or Wolverines, as it were) at the University of Michigan claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device’s power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password. With a small cluster of 81 Pentium 4 chips and 104 hours of processing time, they were able to successfully hack 1024-bit encryption in OpenSSL on a SPARC-based system, without damaging the computer, leaving a single trace or ending human life as we know it. That’s why they’re presenting a paper at the Design, Automation and Test conference this week in Europe, and that’s why — until RSA hopefully fixes the flaw — you should keep a close eye on your server room’s power supply.

1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink post label VIA 1024 bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricityp://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/04/severe_openssl_vulnerability/“>The Register, TechWorld  |  post label source 1024 bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricityUniversity of Michigan  | Email this | Comments

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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 Uncategorized, news 1 Comment

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/9Yzb5sCzx-I/netflix-voyeur

500x netflix heatmap The New York Times takes an interactive look at what Netflix users are watching in a dozen U.S. cities, including my backyard, Boston. My neighbors are watching what now?

Oh, just Mad Men, it seems, with a sizable pocket in Cambridge. We’re so liberal.

And why the heck was Eagle Eye so popular on the North Shore last year? Anyone? [New York Times via Slashdot]


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Sunday, January 10th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

How NOT to design a web page

a great technique to use to see if your website design is too cluttered or busy is to shrink it down to a thumbnail (like below).  You will quickly see that your eye is trying to find something to focus on in each case.  If you can’t find the thing to focus on, then you need to go back and simplify the design. Only in rare and specific circumstances should your site deliberately have multiple points of focus.  Even then, there should be a sequential order to what the user is led to see.

website design How NOT to design a web page

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Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 Uncategorized 3 Comments

The generalization that TV ads are more “helpful” than internet ads is simply false and irresponsible

In the following study published by Harris Interactive and Adweek Media, they show a chart which seemingly shows that TV ads are “most helpful” in making a purchase decision. If you were give the following list of choices —  TV ads, newspaper ads, search engine ads, radio ads, banner ads, and none — and asked to select which was most helpful to your purchase decision; which would you choose? And would you choose that because it was more familiar to you (e.g. TV), seen more frequently, etc. Or is it that banner ads are generally known to be ignored (eye tracking studies show that most users know not to look at the top and right sides of a web page, knowing that banner ads typcially go there).

for new products
where the missing link is simply awareness
TV is very effective
in driving an initial burst of sales
starting pt is zero sales
so if you make people aware
some will buy
11:04 PM in the case of new products
online ads are not great
but you have to break online ads into 2 types
banner ads (push) versus search ads (pull)
search ads are not useful here
because it is a new product and people
wont know to search for it
11:05 PM banner ads may work
because they are for awareness
and they are displayed on pages where people are looking at content
but compared to TV advertising
people have accepted ads as part of the “price” of TV
on the contrary
people have always expected itnernet content to be free
and they have devloped habits to
11:06 PM avoid lokoing at top of page and right side
so banner ads are pretty damn bad at
generating awareness
because people simply dont look
so of the 3
tv ads, banner ads and search ads
tv ads are better in the case of new products where the missing link is awareness
11:07 PM when you get to more established products
the balance changes
the missing link is not awareness
the missing links are further down the funnel
e.g. consideration
modern consumers need more info
they dont just trust an advertiser
and TV ads give them too little info to be useful
11:08 PM banner ads are still ignored just as much as before
but search ads become more important
by looking at what people are searching for
yu know what part of the purch funnel they are at
and what missing link they are trying to solve
so in summary
11:09 PM making the generalization that TV ads are more effective than internet ads is simply false and irresponsible; we must take into account dozens more parameters that impact purchase
decisions


Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/tv-ads-most-helpful-web-banners-most-ignored-9645/


harris interactive logo3 The generalization that TV ads are more helpful than internet ads is simply false and irresponsible

More than one-third of Americans (37%) say that TV ads are most helpful to them in making a purchase decision, while nearly half say they ignore internet banner ads, according to (pdf) a poll from AdWeekMedia and Harris Interactive.

In terms of the helpfulness of ads in other media, newspapers rank second behind TV, with 17% reporting that newspaper ads are most helpful, while 14% say the same about internet search-engine ads:

harris-poll-adweek-media-most-helpful-ads-june-2009.jpg

At the other end of the spectrum, Radio ads (3%) and internet banner ads (1%) are not considered helpful by many people. The poll found also that more than one fourth (28%) of Americans say that none of these types of advertisements are helpful to them in the purchase-decision-making process.

Not surprisingly, the types of ads Americans find helpful vary by age and, slightly, by region:

  • 50% of people ages 18-34 find TV ads most helpful.
  • 31% of those ages 55+ say newspaper ads are most helpful.
  • 40% of Southerners find TV ads most helpful, while only one-third (33%) of Midwesterners feel the same.

Banner Ads Most Ignored
Almost half of Americans (46%) say they ignore internet banner ads, according to the study. Much further down the list of ignored items are internet search engine ads (17% of people ignore), television ads (13%), radio ads (9%), and newspaper ads (6%):

harris-poll-adweek-media-most-helpful-ads-june-20091.jpg

One in ten Americans (9%) say they do not ignore any of these types of ads.

Age and regional differences:

  • 50% of those ages 35-44 and 51% of Midwesterners say they ignore Internet banner ads compared with 43% of 18-34 year olds as well as Easterners and Southerners.
  • 20% of Americans 18-34 years old (20%) say they ignore Internet search engine ads while 20% of those ages 55+ ignore TV ads.

Harris Interactive suggestes that these findings are important because, despite online video and the ability to use a DVR to shift live programming, TV ads remain most helpful to consumers. Conversely, while an internet strategy is essential for a comprehensive ad campaign, banner ads are only considered helpful by a few and are ignored the most, the polling fiirm said.

About the survey: The AdweekMedia/The Harris Poll was conducted online in the US from June 4-8, 2009 among 2,521 adults (ages 18+). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.


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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 Uncategorized No Comments