Copenhagen INK

Some people now live far away from the places where they grew up and in a new interactive music experience you can now feel all nostalgic going back to the streets where you grew up. …

The interactive music experience, called “The Wilderness Downtown,” was created by writer/director Chris Milk, with the band Arcade Fire and Google.

Drawing upon Street View in the Google Maps API as well as features made possible by HTML5, the team created what they hope is a unique and deeply personal experience of traveling down the streets where you grew up. All this is set to Arcade Fire’s new song “We Used to Wait” off their newly released album “The Suburbs.”

“The Wilderness Downtown” was made possible by recent developments in modern web technologies and modern browsers, and was built with Google Chrome in mind. As such, it’s best experienced in Chrome or an up-to-date HTML5-compliant browser.

You can launch the project and learn more about it on the Chrome Experiments site at www.chromeexperiments.com/arcadefire.

Enjoy the trip down memory lane!

Source: Google Creative Lab

Google has acquired third-party social media applications developer Slide for a reported US$228 million.

Pay-Pal co-founder Max Levchin started Slide in 2004. The company’s value peaked in 2008 when it was estimated to be worth $500 million.

David Glazer, engineering director at Google, wrote on the company’s official blog, “While we don’t have any detailed product plans to share right now, we’re thrilled to welcome Max and his very talented team to Google.”

According to TechCrunch, a source close to the acquisition said Google agreed to pay US$182 million to acquire Slide plus US$46 million extra in employee retention bonuses, bringing the total investment up to $228 million.

In 2007 Slide was the largest Facebook app supporter with big hits including Top Friends and SuperPoke.

The digital industry assumes Slide will help Google boost its current business direction towards stronger social media capability. Despite pulling the plug on social networking service Google Wave last week, the company is still rumoured to be working on social media platform Google Me.

Source: campaignasia.com

Looking for an expert to give you some great social media pointers?

Look no more - this week WhatTheFuckIsMySocialMediaStrategy.com launched! (PR agencies and social media experts across the web, watch out!).  WhatTheFuckIsMySocialMediaStrategy.com can a tell startups to “identify relevant and compelling hooks”, “humanise the brand by driving the audience conversations”, and combine a bevy of many other pleonastic words to forge taglines that are utterly and completely devoid of meaning. Free of charge!!!

The site works by jumbling a few verbs (facilitate, foster, leverage) and nouns (‘word of mouth’, buzz, ‘branded utilities’) into a sentence that sounds impressive but means absolutely nothing.

The site is inspired by the similarly titled WhatTheFuckShouldIMakeForDinner.

Source:  Techcrunch

Hmm is it only me who haven’t heard about Google’s coming music service?! Just found this interesting article on Mediapost - looks like we finally can get rid of iTunes

It’s already been widely reported that Google is prepping a music download service tied to its search engine for a late-year debut (to be followed by an online subscription service next year).

Now, music industry sources tell the NY Post that the search giant’s iTunes killer is on — and perhaps even ahead of — schedule.

“Google’s plan to challenge Apple’s dominance in the music marketplace is advancing more rapidly than expected,” reports The Post. “The search giant’s Android whiz, VP Andy Rubin, is said to be having ‘accelerated’ talks with a music-industry group publishing firm in hopes of gaining digital publishing rights to as many songs as possible to enable the launch of a Google Music store.”

According to 9to5Mac.com, “Google’s attempt to build an iTunes-killer is gaining momentum with the search giant now speaking to publishing companies after successful discussions with record labels.”

“Google is said to be in ‘accelerated’ talks with the Harry Fox Agency, which is the largest owner of mechanical music licenses in the Unites States, to build out its Music store,” notes Fortune. “Google would need to have Harry Fox signed up before it could start selling major label music on its own … Google currently sells lots of music, though it fulfills orders through Amazon and iTunes.”

“Successful discussions with record labels, followed by the promise of an excellent cloud based service that can be accessed via Android, makes Google’s impending music service incredibly appealing,” writes MacStories.com. “With the opportunity to instantly open-up a new market to millions of new users and the desire to expand past Apple’s iron fist, there’s an interest here that can’t be avoided.”

Last month, unnamed sources told The Wall Street Journal of Google’s music store. At the time, however, it reported: “Google’s proposals [to music industry execs] are still vague … and it’s unclear whether it has struck any deals with record labels so far.”

Presently, the digital music download business is dominated by Apple’s iTunes, with about a 28% market share, followed by Amazon and Wal-Mart, with 12% shares, respectively.

Citing multiple unnamed music industry sources in mid-June, CNet reported that Google could debut its own music service as early as the fall. In May, the search giant gave attendees to its I/O conference a demonstration of a Web-based iTunes competitor.

Read the whole story at New York Post et al..

Hmm I actually didn’t know that Facebook was initially bank-rolled by one of the co-founders of Pay Pal or that the second most popular Facebook Page is that of Homer Simpson, right behind Michael Jackson? Or that the overall amount of time spent on Facebook each month is 8.3 billion hours?

Here is your chance to get all the Facebook facts you didn’t know that you wanted to know - Enjoy!

Source: Online PhD Programs for Mashable

The world’s largest search engine is branching out. Google has spent the last year building up its display advertising products. Considering how thoroughly Google dominates search advertising, its recent obsession with digital advertising’s less profitable arm has perplexed many. But Google thinks the $20 billion that comprises the display ad market is just a penny in the well of what it could be….

Google made its name (and billions) by streamlining the search advertising process and increasing revenues. And that’s exactly what they want to do with display advertising now… How? By making the “overall display buying and selling process that much more effective.”

Display can certainly benefit from increased efficiency. According to Google, 28% of a media dollar gets eaten up by friction (administrative costs) in the display ad market. If that sounds high, consider this. Neal Mohan, vice president of product management points out that the old school method purchasing TV advertising only wastes 2% of a dollar.

In addition to increased efficiency, Google is excited about the swaths of content moving online. As video and mobile products become more advanced and more media creators are working on content for the digital world, the advertising opportunities are expanding.

Not to mention Google’s in-house advancements and key acquisitions + the scale of properties like YouTube. Google’s video site surpassed Yahoo in the summer of 2008 as the world’s second most popular search engine. Over the last year, the number of display advertisers running ads on YouTube has increased 10 times. In North America alone, 50 million impressions are served on YouTube’s homepage each day. Which means inventory on the homepage is often sold out.

Today at Google’s New York headquarters, the company wanted to reiterate that selling display advertising is not an experiment for the company. According to Barry Salzman, managing director of media and platforms in the Americas, display advertising is “a major part of Google’s business.”

“We’re bringing search together with display,” he says. The company is able to combine their media power with an impressive technology offering. “That’s the power of Google display.”

Flash and rich media a substantial portion of US ad impressions

To underline why Google is making this move a recent study from comScore shows that US ad impressions are up 15 percent over the same period last year

Key findings are that overall ads are getting bigger. Leaderboard banners (728 x 90) were the most commonly viewed display ad by size. While the study takes pains to point out subtle differences in whether the square is more popular than the rectangle as a creative format, it’s more notable that pop-ups continue to be near-extinct,

Jeff Hackett, comScore SVP pointed out that ”One of the several drivers of strength in this market has been the innovation occurring with respect to ad units, as larger and more engaging creative ad formats are employed.”

Source: eConsultancy