My IMS 201 Website URL

http://www.users.muohio.edu/hofmanlc/ims201website/

Game Trading

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/03/mooch-targets-gamestop-with-video-game-swapping-market/

I found this article about a new site, Mooch, that is being launched where video gamers can get on the site and sell their used games. This is going to take out the middleman, such as GameStop and others, and can save the user up to $30. Mooch uses an automated system to calculate the value of each game, taking into account factors including its lowest price on Amazon, how old it is, and how popular it as. Each game is assigned a point value (new games seem to be around 200-300 points each), and to trade for a game you need to offer something of the same value, or buy more points to match it.At this point the market is nearly empty, and won’t become very useful until it can attract a sizable number of users (it’s the classic chicken-and-the-egg problem). To entice users, Mooch is totally free to use during its beta period, with plans to shift to a $20 annual subscription model later on. I think this seems to be a cool idea because you can trade and buy new games right from your home for a cheaper price. I don't really play video games so I'm not sure if this is logical, but to me, it seems to be a good idea!

Google Uses Twitter To Sell Ads

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135758

Google has started offering marketers ad units that stream their five most recent tweets across the Google AdSense network. When a user clicks on an ad, it will take them to the company's twitter account and from there they would be able to access not only the Twitter content, but also the company's website. The ability to put real-time feeds and data into ad units has been around for years, however there were many limitations (mainly not being able to click on links within tweets). Google has been improving upon these limitations and doing limited testing with advertisers regarding new features. The first company to jump at Google's new deal was Intuit with their Turbo Tax brand. Ads featuring the company's five most recent tweets ran on Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, and Alltop. The reason that this type of advertising appeals to Intuit is that it "humanizes the brand." With the tax season in full swing, this advertising allows Intuit to show users that they have people available to answer their questions (rather than just a static ad). This marketing concept is quite interesting and I am excited to see where it goes. Google is making this extremely easy for marketers to participate in, and I could really see this becoming a tool company's can use to generate buzz about a new product.

Artists Visit Virtual Second Life for Real-World Cash

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/07/second.life.singer/index.html

When trying to decide what to blog about this week, I came across an interesting article that I was eager to write about. The highlights of this article include that artists have turned to the virtual world called "Second Life" to make real-life money on their music. The musicians earn tips and are paid to play in certain virtual venues(users are able to sell CDs, earn tips, move paintings and grow international followings). After all, with the recording industry in near shambles and the recession taking a hit on art of all kinds, some musicians, virtual artists and fashion designers have turned to this frontier. The realm of Second Life (available free online) allows users to create avatar versions of themselves. These virtual personas mingle about in a three-dimensional, pixilated world not entirely unlike our own: Second Lifers own digital real estate, go to virtual jobs and attend virtual concerts and art shows. They also spend money. Second Life avatars purchase goods and services with a currency called Linden Dollars (L$). Linden Dollars can be converted into most of the world's currencies in the same way a foreign traveler might change dollars to Euros. This program was created by Linden Labs. They do not track the number of artists or concerts in Second Life, but there are likely thousands of musicians working in the simulated world. I thought it was interesting that the primary user (as mentioned in the article) Grace Buford, believes that by using Second Life she is able to have a more intimate conversation with the listener. Additionally, she says that she finds the virtual world less threatening. Her audience now extends into Australia and Europe, which never would have been possible without Second Life. Thus far, Second Life has provided Buford with a supplement to her main sources of income which include teaching music lessons and playing live shows in the real world. Because of the economy in the real world she is losing a lot of students so performing on Second Life helps her support her family.  All in all, what Grace Buford loves most about Second Life is that she has met so many people and they hang out in both real and virtual worlds. I really enjoyed reading this article because I have never heard of anything like this before. It is bizarre to think that web-based interaction has come to this and it is interesting to see if there will be duplications of Second Life and what more is to come..

Insisting on IPhone App? Not so Fast!

adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135599

This article shows the flip side to the tremendous success of marketers putting out new apps for the iPhone. The author of the article points out some interesting cautionary tales of putting out a new iPhone app. She cites the fact that apps have very limited shelf lives, with usage declining by almost a third in the first month after being downloaded. Long-term prospects are also very dismal with only about 1% of the 30 million app downloads translating into long-term use. In addition to these factors, the rise in popularity of apps has made it harder for marketers to rise above the sea of apps in order to put theirs at the top. The number of downloads required to be in the top 25 has more than doubled in the past six months. Furthermore, a study found that the most successful apps reach only 20% of iPhone users and iPhone users themselves make up less than 5% of the cell phone market. With all of the negatives to introducing an iPhone app, the author says that many companies can save the pain (and money) by simply making their website platform more compatible with Safari on the iPhone. This costs much less and can also translate into more compatibility with other mobile web platforms (Blackberry, Windows Mobile, etc). After having said all of this, I believe that the quote at the end of this article sums up the app idea best. Bryon Morrison, president of Omnicom Group mobile-marketing agency Ipsh says that "Apps should be a front end to a larger strategy." This seems to be a very accurate statement in light of all the possible negatives associated with putting all of your proverbial eggs in one basket when it comes to introducing a new iPhone application.

Microsoft Goes After Apple

This article is about how Microsoft has been really trying to compete with Apple in their advertising campaigns. Microsoft just launched a new online ad where viewers spin a wheel and see what they can get for a certain amount of money (mac or pc). The ad has a very similar look and feel to the Apple ads and website design. Also, Microsoft has been airring new commercials where they follow potential customers looking to spend a certian amount of money through their search for a new computer. The commercial kind of attacks Apple in the sense that the consumer ends up buying a pc because the Apple products are out of their price range. David Webster, a general manager in Microsoft's central marketing unit,has said that they've seen a 10% increase in the number of people who say they will buy a pc as their next computer. Whether or not these people are actually planning on getting a new computer in the near future was not specified. I found this article a little confusing because it never really did say if Microsoft has seen an increase in sales since these ads have been released. It makes me wonder if they really are seeing any difference.

My Favorite Things

I am writing out a few of my favorite things.

Random Adventures

Being Outside

The color blue

Music