Wrap up to Week 6 and Course

Resources consumed:

-Why Advertising is Failing on the Internet article
-Off Target mp3

     I enjoyed the concept of the advertising article as it relates to the internet since it continued the discussion that we have been having from earlier in the course. The idea of monetizing internet business models is something that we hear about all of the time, and it seems that companies like Google have gained enough scaled economy to corral the profits from their business model, leaving little room for a competitor like Bing. How many people do you know that use Bing? I know I used it a couple of times to see what the ads were talking about, and didn't recognize enough difference in the results and/or usability to ever return to it. The phrase, "oh just Bing that" instead of Google it sounds ridiculous because there is nobody that says it. A very difficult position exists to assail the Goliath of internet search and ad revenues that is Google. He mentioned Google several times in the article and their entrenched position being safe, which is something that I agree with now that I know a bit more about how their Adwords program works.
      His rebuttal in the end of the article to the inevitably emotionally charged reactions was quick witted and right on point. The internet changed finance and travel booking industries overnight when they were replaced with something that had much lower overhead, removed a middleman, and gave a great reward to anybody who put the slightest effort forward to learn how to conduct their own trades in an OTC market or book their own cruise directly from the website. For the people in that industry not to see that trend coming meant they were wearing self-applied blinders and we will continue to see other industries change dramatically as the internet and technology improves. Just as we discussed the improvements in targeted advertisements in my last post, it is a stupid position to take that advertising will remain on course in the mass media paradigm for the long term. It just is not an educated position to take, given the underlying psychology that the author purports that people don't like ads and could do without them. The simple example of the DVR in my own limited TV viewing means that I never see any commercials, which directly affects my knowledge of new movies coming out. I am perpetually out of the loop on both, and I am better off for it. When we do see the rare movie we look up reviews online in our own educational efforts and then decide. We don't need to waste 30 seconds to a minute every of our lives every time an ad comes on for a movie that we don't want to see. He is correct in his argument on almost every level; the execution will just be a matter of time.

     Speaking on the issue of advertising and its improvement in the last decade, I like how the discussion of this mp3 dovetailed into my recent posts in the class. Again I wanted to throw in a quick compliment for the design of the course and how the course materials complement each other well. The behavioral marketing puts a fancy label to the concept that I have been elaborating on, and I can see it being a benefit now where more ads are directed and useful to the customer but I understand the somewhat irrational fear of invasion of privacy from the same ads. I think people value their privacy a bit much at times given most peoples' lives are actually pretty boring and would not make a good diary for some unethical business executive to read. The reason things like People magazine exist is to highlight the not-so-boring antics of celebrities which have no legal expectation to privacy at all. They gave that up when they entered the public eye, but laws like libel and slander, while not applying to celebrities unless egregious, do protect the common citizen and for good reason. I don't see any reputable corporations actually using any single packet of data on any random individual and using it to invade privacy but more as many computers crunching streams of data that are sold for legitimate business purposes to target ads, for instance. Now how a computer can creep somebody out without actually being the Dave computer for 2001 is beyond me, but I get the Orwellian paranoia that exists when Google seems to be reading your private email and recommending a good or service. As I mentioned last week, I actually am one of those people who might provide more click-through for targeted ads since they actually appeal to me, and I don't think that my law-abiding privacy is so valuable that a company like Google would even care to invade it. But the future is another thing; technology can easily reach a scary intrusiveness drawn long enough out.

I enjoyed the class!

Signing off,
Glen