Silicon Alley Insider - Henry Blodget | November 10, 2008 3:19 PM

solar leap, when Ad Share Shift: GOOGLE SWALLOWS WORLD courtesy of utoronto.ca

We’ve updated our quarterly US ad share shift analysis for Q3. The story remains the same:

• Google wins
• Television, radio, outdoor, and print lose

As ever, the details are startling.  Here are some highlights looking back over 9 quarters for 16 major US media companies:
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Silicon Alley Insider - Nicholas Carlson | November 10, 2008 7:49 AM

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt courtesy of smh.com.au | Reuters

Going forward in these uncertain economic times, Google will “be more careful with potential large expense streams, which are of uncertain return,” CEO Eric Schmidt told the New York Times in a weekend interview.

You’ve just witnessed business innovation at work, people.

Eric didn’t say so, but we think he and Google learned this lesson from YouTube, which the company acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006 but still earns less than 1% of Google’s overall revenues.

The CEO began to publicly call for the division to turn a profit late last spring and echoed the sentiment through several interviews over the summer. But as recently as mid-October, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley confessed that when it comes to revenues: “I don’t think there’s going to be a silver bullet that answers all those questions.”

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InformationWeek - November 5, 2008 06:34 PM

Pioneering use of Web 2.0 and social networking technologies by the president-elect’s campaign has seemingly transformed politics, and could influence government as well.

President-elect Senator Barack Obama stands on stage with his family as he is greeted by supporters during his election night rally after being declared the winner of the 2008 Presidential Campaign in Chicago, November 4, 2008. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

By Mitch Wagner

The 2008 presidential election marked two great changes of the guard. The biggest immediate change, of course, was the election of an African-American Democrat as the next president of the United States.

But perhaps a bigger change over the long term was the crowning of the Internet as the king of all political media. It was the end of the era of television presidency that started with JFK, and the beginning of the Internet presidency.

“Barack Obama built the biggest network of supporters we’ve seen, using the Internet to do it,” Joe Trippi, an Internet political and business consultant who pioneered the use of the Internet in politics managing Howard Dean campaign in 2004, and who managed John Edwards’ campaign in this election, told InformationWeek. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that communication through YouTube and other social networks put him over the top.”

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Businessweek - Telecom October 30, 2008, 12:01AM EST

The other big battle on Nov. 4 is over wireless airwaves, and it pits tech stalwarts against TV stations, evangelical preachers—even Dolly Parton

courtesy of ci.kirkland.wa.us

By Olga Kharif

Besides the Presidential election, there’s another big political battle brewing in Washington on Nov. 4. This one is over the airwaves that are used to deliver communications signals to consumers across the country, and like the race for the White House, this contest has created a big divide.

The same day that the country is picking its next President, the Federal Communication Commission will decide whether to make available a large swath of airwaves for wireless high-speed Internet access. It would be the largest-ever contiguous chunk of frequencies, also known as spectrum, doled out by the U.S. government for free public use. Combatants on both sides are out swinging.

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BUSINESSWEEK -Brand New Day

Posted by: David Kiley on August 21

When Jerry Seinfeld starts appearing in Microsoft Windows ads, will the fact that he always had a Mac on his desk during the iconic TV series figure into the work created by Miami ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky?

As reported by The Wall Street Journal today, Microsoft, frustrated that its Vista operating system becomes less and less attractive with each passing week, is turning to an ad strategy that will feature the uber-successful comedian Seinfeld, and even company founder Bill Gates.

It’s difficult, and unfair, to pass an opinion on ads I haven’t seen yet. But, going in, I’m suspicious of the strategy of using Seinfeld, 54, to attract new users and would-be Mac users to Vista and thus PCs.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Peter Kafka | August 21, 2008 10:20 AM

Here’s a nice bit of common sense, courtesy of the U.S. legal system: A ruling (embedded below) that tells big media companies that they can’t just send out blanket takedown notices when they see stuff they don’t like on YouTube or other Websites. Instead, they’re going to have to actually think about whether or not whoever submitted the clip (or whatever) has a right to do so. Wired:
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