oxymorons and Apple results

This headline isn't unique to Apple but it is especially conspicuous given Apple's prominence: "Apple second-quarter earnings expected to top expectations".  I'm not quite sure how something can be expected to top its expectations...

just for fun

Why is this photo (of the removal of a block of ice from a Lake in Wisconsin) the illustration for an article about the jobs report?  Some kind of strange metaphor for defrosting a frozen job market?

pet peeve on GDP reporting

Why do writers regularly compare market caps and other wealth measures with GDP of countries?

It is really quite meaningless and shameless.  Now, for a market cap to equal the estimated value of a country - that would be awesome.

For the most egregious example of this, see this gem.  For a move in the right direction, see this that compared Glencore's revenues with Ukraine's GDP.

Targeted broadcast television advertising

Given the high value of digital advertising, much of which is based upon the better targeting, why haven't cable providers and broadcasters joined forces to deliver targeted ads?  I think this should be relatively straightforward (massive because of the numbers but straightforward nevertheless): with broadcasters' permission, cable providers would replace the ads with those better targeted to the specific household.  Delivery should be relatively simple.  Ads could be pre-loaded during low demand periods to avoid the need to stream ads in realtime (DVR equipped cable boxes may be able to do this without hardware modifications).

I believe advertisers would object if they perceive their ratecards as losing value (we paid for x households, instead we got y).  So we would have a combination of broadcast program and narrowcast ads. Which, in fact, is how adserving works generally anyway.  And could very well be why Google is getting in the broadband business.

iAd

Wow.  Although this was largely expected, it still feels weird to realize that Apple is going to be deeply involved in advertising.  And, it's actually hard to describe their position - I think it is selling advertising space (but, because it is Apple and the tight control that comes along with it), advertising services, and the medium itself.  It is like Panasonic manufacturing the television, owning some (but not all) of the channels, having control over a certain type of channel (those that opt into iAd), helping create/approve the advertising, etc.  It's a very global system and very much shuts google out of advertising on apps that go the iAd route.  And, if built very neatly into the SDK, will be hard to resist simply opting into iAd as a default for occasional developers.  Google will really need to create a drop-in ad system for apps that goes beyond display ads.

Separately, it never occurred to me until two seconds ago with Google's auto-complete, that the "App Store" is two letters away from the "Apple Store".

Internet in Italy

I'm shocked that significant bureaucratic hurdles that de facto make internet video services (such as YouTube) uneconomic would be imposed in Italy, a country whose Prime Minister owns its largest television group.  Shocked.

Web ≠ Technology

I wonder when the web will no longer be treated as technology. For example, when printing was introduced, it was likely considered "technology" but, at some point, the medium was no longer interesting in and of itself. Right now, changes to facebook's home page are treated as a tech news item. At some point, I assume they will be covered the same way that a change in a newspaper's format is covered. Or, will it be the case that, because the internet permits interaction, the web will never be fixed and so will be fairly treated as technology for years to come?

freecreditreport.com

I don't really understand those ubiquitous ads - why would not knowing my credit score result in working as a minstrel (or singing waiter, etc.)? Not being able to buy a home, get a credit card, or finance a car, sure. But have employment trouble?

TiVo this

Why don’t broadcasters include a link on their program websites to “TiVo this”? I understand that they would prefer not to have viewers skip through commercials. But, at the same time, I think they would prefer that: (i) it be their shows that are skipped and (ii) make the televisions automatically tune into the show on the chance that the viewer is watching live. And, perhaps, they could embed in the privacy policy something that allows them to get more finegrained insights into the viewer’s habits (but still not disclosing identity, etc.).