Monthly Archives: May 2011

Search street cred

By Michael Dowling | Published May 24, 2011

I recently read a post by Albert Wenger, partner at Union Square Ventures, on his Continuations blog that sparked a bit of an internal dialogue. The post, “The Unbundling of Product Discovery from Commerce” talked about how Search is not a tool of “discovery.” In other words, if you know exactly what you are looking [...]

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Xbox 360′s Kinect Appeals to a New Kind of Gamer

By Yuni Hong | Published May 17, 2011

On November 4th 2010, Microsoft launched Kinect, a “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” for the Xbox 360, aiming to broaden the 360′s audience beyond its typical core gamer base. Upon its fall release, Kinect quickly became a “must have holiday gift in 2010,” helping the console to leap from a gamers’ only device to the [...]

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Is the future of advertising integrated?

By Michael Dowling | Published May 16, 2011

Before I answer, let me point to two worthwhile reads for some perspective on why some believe  the future of advertising is integrated. The Future of Advertising will be Integrated, written by Mark Suster (@msuster) of GRP Partners here in Los Angeles, argues that ads that are integrated with content in authentic ways are significantly [...]

Posted in Advertising, Business, Digital Media | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Microsoft Buys Skype: What does it mean for Xbox 360 and Kinect?

By Matthew Mates | Published May 13, 2011

On Monday night, reports confirmed that Microsoft has agreed to an $8.5 billion purchase of Skype, an application that allows users to make voice calls and video chats over the internet.  Since the announcement, some have questioned the price tag.   The generous purchase price by Microsoft suggests that the firm has big plans to integrate [...]

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New Media Measure US intrend Report Q4 2010 now for sale

By Stephanie Sutton | Published May 10, 2011

Our New Media Measure™ intrend reports provide an in-depth look at consumers’ new media behaviors and consumption, and how those are changing with time. Below are some key findings from our 4th Quarter 2010 intrend report. Disc rentals from kiosks and online stores have both increased by 24% year over year. Conversely, brick and mortar [...]

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Netflix & HBO – on a collision course?

By Michael Dowling | Published May 6, 2011

Two stories caught my attention this morning, “Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Swears He’s Not Going to Kill HBO” and “Time Warner CEO Discusses Threat from Netflix.” In the first, Hastings from Netflix believes his company and HBO are competitive like football and baseball are competitive (i.e. not really competitive at all) and the latter, Jeff [...]

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Hybrid Television Viewers

By Michael Dowling | Published May 4, 2011

News yesterday, that for the first time in 20 years, television households in the US declined. This comes at an interesting time for the television industry as it grapples with the forces of new media technologies. The news is being touted as the death knell for television, and while a decline for the first time [...]

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Trends in MMO and Social Games

By Michael Cai | Published May 2, 2011

Last week I presented “Trends in MMO and Social Games” at the LA Games Conference, and we’ve had quite a few requests for that presentation. You can download the entire document here, and I’ll be posting some follow-up thoughts later this week.

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