Having spent a considerable amount of time in Tbilisi, Georgia selling the state electricity assets to AES back in the late 1990s while I worked for Merrill Lynch’s EMEA team, I am curious and interested in all things Caucasus.
The recent post on Google’s blog caught my attention.”The recent conflict in Georgia has raised some questions about how Google Maps has handled mapping in that part of the world. The most obvious question is, why doesn’t Google Maps show any cities or roads for Georgia, or its neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan?”
Google’s blog suggested its due to lack of quality data and a useful experience can be found in Google Earth. Having traversed the roads in Georgia between Tbilisi, Gori, Rustavi and Kutaisi, not a surprise. Even if its 2008 and large amounts of money are being poured into Georgia, Green Berets are on the ground as the forward team to help out w/ military consulting and loads of World Bank and USAID folks are running around providing technical assistance, etc., infrastructure is not one of the selling points in this beautiful ancient land.
It does raise an interesting question that Google will surely deal with in the future. As Google Earth and Maps become more robust, up to date and “real time”, national security and military sensitivity may require Google to remove parts of their experience for period of time. How Google deals with these issues will be interesting. Not easy!
Categories: Google
Tagged: Caucasus, Goergia, Google, Google Earth, Google Maps, Gori, Green Berets, Kutaisi, Republic of Georgia, Rustavi, Tbilisi
As reported today by Cynopsis Digital, from The Cynopsis Foundation, Inc., “NBC figured the gods wouldn’t present a better opportunity to unveil the initial results of its new cross platform TAMi (Total Audience Measurement Index) than the first 5 days of the Summer Olympics.
A total of 113 million people viewed Olympic programming on Sunday on television, online, mobile and VOD. Traffic to NBCOlympics.com reached its highest level by far on Monday at 2 million uniques (a workday, of course); The site has delivered 17.7 million video streams so far. Visits to NBC’s mobile WAP site doubled from Friday (210,000) to Monday (476,000).
Best of all for NBC these eyeballs are additive not cannibalistic - some 40% are returning to digital platforms to view events they already saw on TV. The message (to television advertisers) was clear: increased availability of content is unleashing a tide of interest in which all boat are rising. And multiplatform coverage is actually helping to increase TV viewership.”
Interesting to gauge the measurements across platform and watch how NBC translates this into advertising revenue.
Is the message to advertisers such - that a multi-platform sale is more immersive? Or, that the Olympics is a unique selling proposition (like other major sports franchises) in that consumers want to watch it on TV, read about the players in real time and then check on scores on their WAP enabled devices when they have to run out to get groceries?
Categories: media
Tagged: advertising, measurement, NBC, Olympics, TAMI, viewers, WAP
Olympics at its finest. NBC has a very impressive site.
I was using a mac to watch the sports video clips from recent gold medal events… so had to download the Silverlight plug in. Wonder if this is a hurdle for the NBC user base wanting to watch video and not have to deal with additional downloads?
The video coverage on the site is impressive. The underwater footage of the recent Phelps race (the 4×100 freestyle relay) where Phelps and team destroyed the competition was all the more entertaining by watching the race from the seabed floor! What is next….a small eye camera placed strategically in the frame of the goggles?
Truly amazing footage.
Categories: Sports
Tagged: Beijing, Olympics, gold medal, swimming, 4x100 freestyle relay, Michael Phelps, NBC
So…I am on the train out east for the weekend and the train breaks down and hour from the destination in East Hampton! Son of a…..
Brilliant way to spend a Friday afternoon. But lo and behold, it gave me an opportunity to play with the new iphone apps. I downloaded the wordpress app (used herein), the astrology.com’a iastrology, and a “dark knight” app that allows for silly manipulation of photos with the jokers lipstick or the bat symbol while writing “why so serious”!
I wonder if this type of experience (stuck on a train ie a captive audience) was what these app builders had in mind? With nothing else to do, and tiring of my book….these little trinkets were sticky and amusing!
Categories: iphone · mobile
Tagged: apps, iphone, mobile, wordpress
The Lyre bird video from Heavy.com. Amazing mimicry abilities from this little singer.
Categories: video
Tagged: Heavy.com, Lyre bird
Check out the “exclusive beta” on CNET’s News.com site. I stumbled onto the site today and had the following opinions on one of my daily reads:
- Interesting use of color (black) which is in stark contract to the “old” CNET yellow and red makeup.
- Interesting in that there is no real ad footprint in the masthead (other than some text link)?
- Surprising in that they are not teasing out other CNET or CBS properties (a la the hat at AOL or DJ Online which helps with SEO and brand promotion).
- Footer is crisp and highly structured with lack of clutter with tight column format.
- Three column approach is easy to read. Two editorial holes with far right ad column seperates and makes the experience navigable.
- Always a fan of the GreenTech and photo gallery offerings.
- Just In module a bit confusing (by time stamp presumably)?
- Seemingly more prominence for their blog efforts.
- A consumer of their Media channel, this has been dropped to the sub-navigation? Wonder if that was usage based, or other rationale (low CPM, etc) pushing it down in lieu of other opportunities?
Categories: media
Tagged: cbs, CNET, masthead, News.com, UI
Anyone growing concerned (more so than last month) with the Fed keeping the window open till the end of the year for credit facilities with the big investment banks? The SEC is trying to prevent additional runs with the extension of the “naked short sell” rule, but that only has a short lifecycle left?
M. Baritomo interviewed a research analyst on CNBC and discussed the strained credit lines and Lehman’s ability to survive. Story predicts 25 institutions will need to raise additional capital in the coming month(s)?
How is that possible in a totally illiquid market? As an optimisit, maybe this will jump start M&A in the financial sector which will serve as a catalyst for other transactions throughout the ecosystem? Wishful thinking…as firesales usually are not positive catalysts for market integration and rollup throughout the food chain?
Old news but scary nonetheless.
Time to buy MER or LEH? I am still a fan of Citi, but with upcoming write downs for CLOs (and any additional CMOs), hard to understand timing with these institutions?
Categories: markets
Tagged: Merrill Lynch, Fed, Fed Fund Rate, SEC, Naked Short Selling, Citi, Lehman, CLOs, CMOs, M&A, CNBC, Maria Baritomo
If architecture is your thing, an interesting look at the additions to the Bucknell campus in Lewisburg, PA since 1950. (See campus)
By the way, the file format used in this is a .swf (shockwave flash) format…which I am seeing more and more with animation and menu formats (probably in no small part since Google and Yahoo now index and crawl these little swif files).
Categories: media
Tagged: .swf, bucknell university, campus, Lewisburg, PA, shockwave flash
A must read every month, Bill’s signature piece this month takes the form of a letter to President Obama. I thought I would summarize here as I enjoy his conjecture as much as any Wall Street expert. His style and substance speak to the economist/fund manager dwelling somewhere within.
Coming from Republican-ville (Newport Beach) and from a guy who runs billions of dollars for the largest bond investment house on the planet…an interesting slant. His take-aways are always amusing, always “food for thought” and somewhat alarmist.
- Laffer Curve (oh how I remember sophomore year Econ!) I question his premise that a real marginal tax rate of close to 50% wont have a dampening effect on consumption for those earning at the top end of the bracket?
- The rich are eschewing McMansions? The new new thing is “LEED” certified homes?
- The next administration is going to produce the first ONE TRILLION dollar deficit (by 2011)?! Wow, scary on the surface…even more quixotic on the side effects of that potent bill? Hope my kids and their friends understand the power of saving better than my generation?
- True to form, he predicts rising yields and bottom basement bond prices. That tune hasnt changed over the past few years from his “Investment Outlook” thesis that purports that as we continue to lever up, save little and our consumption continues unabated, dark storms await. Interesting to see how this plays out?
Add in a “black swan” of an event (another war, another financial meltdown, etc) and you have the makings of a movie! Oh yeah, and what about that social security liability problem and deflating dollar?
Anyone an optimist out there? I am. Short Treasuries (whole curve - at least the longer durations) and go long Euro? Strap in!
Categories: markets
Tagged: Bill Gross, Black Swan, economics, Investment Outlook, Laffer curve, LEED certified, Pimco, treasuries, yields
Ever a connoisseur of the yearly tour, I was quite pleased to see that the Google blog highlighted a tool called “Street View” to follow along this infamous bike race.
While my enthusiasm has been tempered with the depletion of the peloton due to team changes, doping, doping and well….doping.
Someone asked on the TV channel “Versus“, who by the way, does an amazing job of following the ride - “is this the last year of the Tour in its current incarnation?”
Time will tell.
Categories: Sports
Tagged: bike, doping, Garmin-Chipotle, Google, Official Google Blog, Street View, Tour de France, Versus
