All posts by jetrotz

the author of this blog.

Google Searches for Oddball Ad Agency

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When a company declares that one of it’s guiding pricinples is to ‘not do evil’ in their S1 filing, you would expect that their approach to promoting themselves is going to take a slightly different tact than the usual Fortune 500. To that end, Google has already used the resources of innovative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the folks behind Burger King’s Subservient Chicken and Method Soap’s ‘Come Clean‘ campaign.

The first work by Crispin was a series of billboards in hi-tech areas of the country seeking job applicants for Google featuring the following statement: “{first prime digit found in consecutive digits of e}.com.”

Anyway, the New York Post is reporting that Google is looking to expand their conventional advertising in light of greater competition from Yahoo and Microsoft. Google nor Crispin would comment.

HP Goes Linux for Home Entertainment

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Despite already offering one of the slicker Windows Media Center solutions, Hewlett-Packard is announcing a Linux-based home entertainment hub at CES this week. Link to C|net report.

HP’s new media hub will run the Linux operating system, include HD TV recording and an ethernet connection to your home network for access to media files stored on other PCs. It will have a remote control, much like the MCE, but likely have an option for a full keyboard.

It’s fascinating that HP is choosing to go the Linux route when they have so fully embraced Windows Media Center. Variety is good, and a statement on Tuesday from Vyomesch Joshi, executive vice president of HP’s imaging and printing group that “customers want simplicity, innovation and mainstream price points,” seems to explain some of the reasons why they have gone the Linux route.

HP has done this before, way back in 2001, also on a Linux platform. And we all know and love another fabulous Linux-based home entertainment box – the TiVo!

I’m looking forward to seeing HP’s new offering.

Not That Tsunami

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Photo editors have a job to do. Part of that job is to make sure of the sources of the images they publish, especially gigantical, four-column monstrosities like the one in the Calgary Herald. Great image, illustrates the story well. Trouble is, this photo is from a tsunami that hit China a few years back. It’s easily found on the web via a google search. Turns out this is a two-year-old Reuters photo of a group of people who gathered to watch some large waves, and one turned out to be larger than expected. The mayor of Calgary had the image and showed it during a presentation for tsunami aid, and the Herald asked for the image, assuming that it was a current image. Ooops. Link to apology here.