This here jam goes out to all the marketers who want to lay some search industry knowledge on their peeps at the water cooler, rolling in their whip in the carpool or even in the boss’s office sippin’ a latte frappe with your kicks all up on the desk. With that in mind each of these stories are follow-ups to posts earlier in the week. We’ve also made it easy by serving up a predigested opinion you can trot out for each one. To the Bat-ticker!
1) The AP and Bloggers Throw Down Over Fair Use; Will the Mysterious and Possibly Nefarious Media Bloggers Association Get Between Them?
We said earlier in the week that we would not be linking to any AP material until this matter is resolved (though some of our blog brethren are linking to as much AP stuff as possible in a nyah-nyah move.) The AP says that they can control how their material is used across the net and that excerpting headlines and words from an AP story may be naughty (if perfectly legal). Also, they will gladly sell you 5 words or more.
Bloggers were all “Oh no you DIDN’T” and it spiraled down from there with the AP announcing the formation of a panel to explore this issue with the heretofore little-known group The Media Bloggers Association in attendance. Who are the MBA? Glad you asked! Depending on who you talk to they are upstanding citizens eager to protect blogger’s rights or grandstanding right-wing blowhards who do more in the way of publicity grabbing than actual blogging. Oh and the New York Times may be soft on the AP. Finally today the AP used the Ike Turner defense, in effect saying that it was a private matter between them and the original site involved and that they had resolved it. Hah! Fat chance!
Predigested Opinion: Shake your head ruefully and say “Don’t pick a fight with the blogosphere. Blogosphere always wins, hands down. And never fight a land war in
2) Hunt Learns When Life Gives You Tainted Tomatoes, Sell Ketchup
We reported a while back on McDonald’s (and others) missing the marketing boat on the Great Tomato Scare of ’08. Turns out the savvy marketers at Hunt’s ketchup were paying attention and responded with some fine opoortunistic search advertising (see below):
Predigested Opinion: Jab your finger at your monitor and say “Heinz doesn’t care if I live or if I die…”
3) You’ve Been Blinged By Our All About The Benjamins Tool
Was it only yesterday that we blogged about social networking sites making money, and then slapped a particularly salacious headline on it for good measure? Today comes word that Facebook is taking a targeting page out of LinkedIn’s playbook, allowing marketers to drill down into user attributes for more targeting advertising.
Predigested Opinion: Nod sagely and say “This is definitely the future of social media, why just today I added a Tyson Frozen Chicken Thighs widget to my Facebook profile…”
4) Ya-Toodle-Hoo, or Jerry Yang feels Deal Pangs
The agreement between Google and Yahoo to serve Google ads across Yahoo’s platform has had the search industry talking since the announcement of the deal last Friday. One of the main consequences of the deal has been an exodus of execs from Yahoo of near-Biblical proportions. Also, happy first anniversary as Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang!
Predigested Opinion: Make a piercing whistling sound with one hand held way up high. Lower that hand and keep whistling until you smack your desk. When your colleague/boss/sycophant says “What was that?” Look ‘em straight in the eyes and say, “The value of my Yahoo shares.”
