By (author unknown), Media Blog – July 19, 2010 at 10:35AM
Via Stephanopoulos’s Twitter account:
@OldSpice Hey Old Spice Man — Political question: President’s lost some female support. How does WH get those women voters back?
By Leena Rao, TechCrunch – July 18, 2010 at 11:55PM
Pixazza, a Google Ventures-backed photo tagging service that has been compared to an “AdSense for Images,” has raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Shasta Ventures, with Series A investors August Capital, CMEA Capital and Google Ventures also participating in the round. This brings the startup’s total funding to nearly $20 million.
Pixazza allows publishers to identify, tag and match products found within online images on their sites and then link them back to the inventories of Pixazza’s network of advertisers. The service, which can be integrated in a site by adding a single line of code, allows consumers to browse the photos featured on a site and mouse over it to reveal information and pricing about similar products, and if desired, click to purchase.
The startup has a vast database of products to include images and tags related to the entertainment, fashion, travel, home and sports industries. Pixazza’s tagging technology is also compelling; the startup crowdsources workers to list products and tag them with the appropriate link to a retailer. Additionally, Pixazza shares advertising and affiliate revenues with publishers.
The company’s co-founder and CTO James Everingham thought of the idea for Pixazza after his wife was trying to find a pair of designer shoes that were worn in the movie “Sex In The City.” Upon realizing the astounding price of the shoes, Everingham’s wife ended up buying a similar-looking shoe in a store for half the cost. Everingham says that he felt that the experience of finding similar items you see in photos could be a valuable business.
Turns out he’s right.
The company has also announced that it reaches more than 25 million unique visitors per month through its 75-plus publishers, which include US Weekly and Access Hollywood. Of these visitors, more than 70% are based in the U.S. Additionally, Pixazza says that the startup delivers commerce-enabled photos at a rate of 8 billion image views per year, a 60% increase in the last three months.
Pixazza plans to use its new fund fuel product growth and expand to international markets. Already Pixazza has been launching new products in the past year to help make its technology more interactive. For example, Pixazza just launched Shopdot, a service for creating branded, hosted storefronts for publisher websites. And today, the company has announced the availability of a new self-serve publishing tool that allows anyone to turn static images into more interactive ones.
Previously, Pixazza was working on a client basis with its service. But today, the self-service platform, which is still in private beta, helps make Pixazza even more like an ‘AdSense for Images.’ Publishers can identify, tag and match products within the body of online images and immediately link them to Pixazza advertisers’ product inventories. Pixazza’s platform will aggregate datafeeds from merchants into a catalog of more than ten million apparel, home, electronic, sports, travel and automotive products. Pixazza also provides full text search to find similar products to those in the images on publishers’ sites.
There’s no doubt that interactive advertising technologies like Pixazza are catching on and even attracting the attention of search and advertising giant Google. Everingham declined to name exact numbers but says that click through rates are significantly higher than regular banner ads.
Everingham says that Pixazza is only at the beginning of what could be a very successful and profitable experience. “There’s currently three trillion images on the internet,” he sad. “We want to turn every one into an interactive experience.”
Pixazza faces competition from Like.com, Image Space Media, GumGum and others.
By Rosa Golijan, Gizmodo – July 16, 2010 at 05:02PM
We’ve seen teasing photos of the Boxee Box and we touched it at CES 2010, but now there’s a video of the final product as it will sold by D-Link in November. Yes, it’s gorgeous. [BI] More »
By Sean Michael Ragan, MAKE – July 16, 2010 at 01:00PM
This is the PT54 PhlatLight from Luminus Devices, Inc. It’s intended for use in portable video projectors. More photos of the setup here. [via Hacked Gadgets]
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By Whitson Gordon, Lifehacker – July 15, 2010 at 06:15PM
We’ve done a lot of work helping you perfect your media center, but your friends may not think it’s as cool as you do once they actually try to use it. For their sake, consider a temporary remote control sleeve.
Lifestyle blog Divine Caroline’s simple trick for babysitters unfamiliar with the house’s remote control: Cut out the important sections of the remote with construction paper and label what each part does in plain English.
It’s super useful when you have multiple remotes that control different things, like in the above picture. We imagine it would also be useful if you’ve got something like the tornado of buttons known as the Logitech Harmony One, too. Slide it off to use the more advanced functions of the remote, and put it back on when your tech-challenged family member takes over the living room—everybody wins. It’s a bit silly, sure, but you can’t argue its effectiveness. Got any other technology simplifying hacks? Let us know in the comments.
By Matt Mets, MAKE – July 15, 2010 at 02:00PM
Looking to improve your documentation photography on the cheap? Rather than buying a glitzy new camera, you might want to focus your effort on improving your lighting. And you don’t have to spent much money, either. Over at CRAFT, Brookelynn Morris has a nice write-up of the photography tools that she uses for her tutorial photos, which consists mostly of inexpensive lights and light modifiers.
Lighting doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy (just turn a couple of them on!), however if you are interested in learning about it, I would suggest checking out a copy of Light, Science and Magic.
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By Jason Fitzpatrick, Lifehacker – July 15, 2010 at 09:30AM
If you have some bulky items that need a thorough cleaning—lawn chairs, outdoor gear, Craigslist finds not treated with care—but lack a power washer to scrub them with, your local car wash can help.
Over at the home and design blog Apartment Therapy they purchased a set of sinks off Craigslist that were significantly dirtier than they expected. The sinks were so dirty they were afraid they’d have to spend a whole day getting them degreased and cleaned up. Their creative solution cut the cleanup time down from hours to minutes.
We ran across this pair of restaurant sinks on Craigslist and we were warned that they were dirty. We assumed your normal light coating of grease like many of the other restaurant finds we’ve come across lately, but when we arrived, we were in for quite a surprise.
This pair of sinks has to have sat no more than 2 inches from a fryer in its previous life as it was coated with a ridiculous amount of grease, food chunks and other things we cared not to identify. Knowing it would take us hours of work to clean this at home, we stopped off at our local car wash to hose them down.
Who knew engine and tire cleaner would get them so shiny? Sure we received odd looks, but it worked like a champ and the light misting from the water was much appreciated when temperatures were over 100 degrees! You can use the same technique on tables and chairs that are covered in mud and debris, outdoor furniture if you don’t want to buy a pressure washer (though you’ll want to take a sand bag to hold them down so they don’t get blown away by the pressure), and other solid surfaces.
It’s a very practical solution, especially for people who don’t own pressure washers with detergent tanks. We’d recommend going at an off time so you don’t frustrate customers trying to actually wash their cars and to pack your stuff up and go as soon as you’re done with the equipment. Nearly all self-serve car washes have rules against lingering in the stall to detail clean after you’ve finished using their equipment—and are no longer paying to use the stall.
Have a tip or trick related to cleaning up really dirty or bulky items? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
By Drea, Business Pundit – July 14, 2010 at 10:59AM
You’ve probably seen the Old Spice guy, former Seahawks wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa, online or on TV. He’s the stud featured above who embodies manly possibilities via the scent of Old Spice. Parent company Proctor & Gamble’s Old Spice ad campaign has produced several viral hits, and a solid fan base.
Today, the Old Spice guy became interactive, and P&G’s ad company must be patting itself on the back. The Old Spice guy went live on the @OldSpice twitter feed by proclaiming “Today could be just like the other 364 days you log into Twitter, Or maybe the Old Spice man shows up.” Then, he started producing custom videos for bloggers, Facebook and Youtube commenters, and people asking him questions on a variety of other online outlets.
He’s answering all questions topless, in a shower stall. Here’s an example, after Facebook user Gail Berg wrote on Facebook: “Any suggestions on finding a guy worthy to purchase Old Spice for?”
This is exciting. No wonder everyone wants to talk to the Old Spice guy (and, ahem, mention Old Spice and implant the brand into our brains). I myself had to log onto Facebook and ask him how he takes care of business. Hey, it’s worth a try, right?
I love what P&G’s agency has done with the interactive component, too. They’ve given Old Spice a face, and an attractive, responsive one at that. Users are building positive memories of interacting with Old Spice man. Those emotions will probably come up again in the supermarket aisle.
The interactive aspect also makes the brand more accessible online. I assume that Old Spice Man is making people more willing to follow the brand, sign up for news, and take part in other Old Spice marketing activities.
Consider it a major marketing win.
