Archive for September, 2008

What Is ___vertising?

September 7, 2008  |  Advertising, Bagvertising, Eggvertising, Invertising, Mapvertising, Mythvertising, Podvertising, Promotion, Smellvertising, Tryvertising, Washvertising  |  View Comments

Have you ever come across an ad washed onto a sidewalk, or saw an ad on a shopping bag, or even on an egg? Did it seem out of place? Did it make you curious? Did it grab your attention? Of course it did (initially, at least). Our environment is over saturated with ads. We are constantly bombarded with ads for new types of gum, toothpaste, new cars, TV shows, and so on. However, as an evolving human species we've learned to tune most of it out of our sensory. Thus it is increasingly difficult for advertisers to stand out using traditional advertising methods. Recently it has become more prevalent for advertisers to explore creative ways, mediums and various methods of placing ads in order to grab your attention and sell you their products and services. "the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., esp. by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc." is what dictionary.com defines as advertising. But there are new terms and buzz-words beginning to pop up that are associated with the new methods of advertising. These are: Washvertising/Cleanvertising Mythvertising Tryvertising Smellvertising Mapvertising Bagvertising Artvertising Invertising Eggvertising Podvertising So what do these terms mean?

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Why Chrome Will Eat The Fox

September 2, 2008  |  Internet, Product  |  View Comments

Google Chrome LogoThe blogosphere is abuzz today with the release of a new browser by your favourite search engine, Google.  Chrome, as Google calls it, although in a very early beta mode, is receiving praise all over the globe.  In Google’s natural fashion it is extremely light weight and very simple to use.  It won’t take hours for you to explore and figure out everything it can do.  It literally takes a couple of minutes and some.  This post is not a review of the application (you can find reviews and first looks at: LifeHacker, Gizmodo, TechCrunch) but rather what this means for FireFox (and Internet Explorer).

  1. Speed. Recent release of Firefox has been plagued by complaints about the browser being slower than its predecessors.  I’ve actually had to switch back to IE7 to get stable performance and speed that Firefox can’t deliver anymore.
  2. Size. Hard to say what an official release of Chrome will look like in the future, but currently it’s extremely light weight and skinny.  Google is keeping Chrome clean and simple.
  3. Reach. Google has an enormous user base that already use one or more of Google’s applications. It took Mozilla over 5 years to achieve 20% market share.  Google can tap into their user base and can easily achieve dominance in Web Browser arena.
  4. Integration. I already use gmail, picasa, reader, trends, analytics, webmaster tools… I can’t wait to see how Google will marry all these applications with Chrome (although I do have some ideas worthy of seperate post).  With Chrome, Google is on its way to become the Internet OS.

The bottom line is, Chrome will eat the FireFox… and possibly spit it out in a different form.  Afterall, Google did invest heavily into Mozilla Foundation.  The two may co-exist in one form or another, but the real threat is felt by Microsoft.  Read about it here: What Chrome Means for Microsoft.