The first CD's on Mars?

Virgle is a new joint project between Virgin and Google to make the first human settlement on Mars. This little video of the Google boys will explain:



After exploring the site, which is pretty funny by the way, I believe Brandcenter students are perfect for this task. It isn't because we're smart, athletic, strong, adventurous, or desperately seeking to get off this god forsaken red rock. Its because of this one little line and picture that students here and future Virglenauts will have in common:

6. Friendships - While awake, coed crew members cooped up for months with precious little privacy and essentially zero opportunities for interaction of any kind other than with each other can be expected to form intense interpersonal bonds.

Isn't that in the recruitment material somewhere?

The End of Media Buying

The future of advertising will be centered around one idea: Information.

Where you've been. What you look at. How long you look at things. What you shop for. Blog information. Myspace/Facebook links. Ebay shopping. The list goes on forever.

Advertising is just beginning to come into its own on the web and is about to start getting sophisticated. When you search the web the sites are mining your computer for information gathering the bread crumbs you leave behind and helps to predict where you're going to go next. This process will allow advertisers to select specific ads that will be targeted for you.

So if you're on Facebook talking about your new puppy, then go to Ebay to look for a new food bowl and then on to yahoo to check you mail, you might be presented with a big Purina Dog Chow ad on Yahoo's home page.

This is all fine and dandy for advertisers. Targeted ads can be charged at premium because of placement, and ROI will be higher theoretically. So who stands to lose?

Media buying companies will not have the data access to compete with the giants. AOL, ABC/Disney/ESPN, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have been scrambling to gather as many information and ad media placement shops as they can in the last two years, stockpiling information aligining themselves as the future of online ad placement, pushing the small media buyers out, which includes in house media departments.

“I think a lot of publishers are going to find they don’t have enough data,” said David W. Kenny, chief executive of Digitas, a digital advertising agency in the Publicis Groupe. “There’s only going to be a handful of big players who can manage the data.”

Agencies will now not only have to answer to clients but possibly to Microsoft. Media buyers have gained untold power by courting clients first and then approaching agencies for creative to fit a designed media plan. In the past it was always build creative and fit media around it.

Imagine having to call Microsoft to find out the banner sizes and names you need to program into your banners, or call Yahoo to find out what colors dog lover want to see in their ads. These probably won't happen, but could.

The media world is about to get small, very small, and we're all being watched.

Google will change the phone market now. Prepare.

No google didn't reveal a new phone like the press thought they were going to do. A big sigh of relief came from across the bay at Apple. Instead they did what they do best, create amazing open software people love to use.

Android is Google's open source program designed to work on a wide variety of phones set to be out the first quarter 2008. 34 companies signed up with Google to provide phones and service compatible with Android.

The big news behind this is the 3rd party capabilities. This new software will let everyone design programs for these phones. Imagine being able to completely customize your phone to your every whim. Not just ring tones and colors but games, maps, or if you want, to create something yourself for your phone no one has seen.

Once again Google capitalizes on a their best talent. Taking existing technology, making it easy and fun to use. Even though their name won't be plastered across the phones. Google will be the leader in mobile software for phones for years to come.

This is exactly what customers have wanted from phones. Companies have relied on the fact that they buy phones based on the features they have, this will break that connection, and hopefully get phone manufacturers to step it up as well.