2001.  The year that TOMA Advertising was created.  In the world of advertising this type of longevity is a rare accomplishment, and one to be extremely proud of.  As I sit here typing away on my Mac (

if someone from the future would’ve time machined their way back to 2001 and told me that I’d become a ‘Mac’ perso

n and would leave my PC ways behind – I would’ve told them they were crazy)  I begin to reflect.  My eleven year anniversary with TOMA is coming up in December, and my how things have changed!

When I was younger, change scared me.  Change meant a major disruption in my comfort zone, having to adapt to s

omething unfamiliar.  It meant no longer being good at what I already knew, and having to start from scratch.  Because so much of my life revolves around the need to write, I ofte

n relate my life in terms of punctuation.  My life in 2001 – a period.  Definition courtesy of thefreedictionary.com:  Period – a punctuation mark indicating a full stop.  The 2001 version of me (Kristy 1.0) would’ve been perfectly happy if everything had stayed the same, if time had stopped and I never had to learn a new skill, a new format, or a new program ever again.  But as the years went by, in a field that revolves around the

latest and greatest in technology, change crept up on me. It became easier.  It became essential (I like to think that I grew up, but in reality, to be the best I could be both professionally and socially, change was something I had to accept).  As part of my reflection on t

he past few years, I decided to create my own version of “Back to the Future,” and fly myself back to 2001 via the internet (and a good imagination).

2001 – The Year That Top of Mind Awareness Was Created

2001 in the Media – (just for fun)

Nokia T681                                                                      Sony Ericcson T68i

                                            

 

Video Games – Microsoft introduces Xbox and Nintendo releases GameCube, to go head to head with Sony’s Playstation 2.

 

Music – Apple releases the first generation iPod!

Social Media – Pretty much non-existent.  2001 saw the launch of Wikipedia.

A Lot of Learning To Do…

Reading over my 2001 flashback makes me realize how great change can actually be.  Technology has made our lives more convenient and enjoyable (although some may disagree).  I’ve also learned that in order to have long term success in business you need to stick with the times.  It’s hard to imagine a world without social media, streaming video, and smartphones.  We can’t live without them now, but somewhere along the way we were forced to learn them and incorporate them into our daily lives.  Trends in social media and technology are extremely important in the world of advertising, and those who don’t adapt or are unwilling to embrace it don’t last.  As I reminisce back to 2001, I still remember having to send mp3 files over dial up internet.  We were shipping all of our TV spots on Beta SP, each tape needing to be sent FedEx or UPS overnight to individual stations.  When we wanted to showcase our latest SPEC ads to clients, we had to ship VHS tapes to each store owner.  Fast forward a few years and shipping tapes became electronic shipping via companies like DG Fastchannel.  Beta SP became mini-DV and DVC Pro.  VHS became DVD.  And where do we find ourselves now?  2011 is all about a tapeless society, where footage is stored on cards and hard drives.  Clients view proofs via the internet or their smart phones.  I can even feel services like DG Fastchannel becoming non-existent, with the posting of TV spots directly to station servers is the norm.

Although 2001 wasn’t that long ago – it’s a millennium away in the world of technology.  Through time, TOMA Advertising has walked toe to toe with the ever changing world.  While I’ve compared my life to a period, I like to look at my time at TOMA  Advertising (Kristy 2.0) as a comma.  Definition – a punctuation mark indicating a slight pause, followed by a move forward.  Translation – sometimes change brings new challenges. These challenges may keep you at a temporary standstill, forcing you to pause momentarily and learn something new.  Once you adapt and gain the knowledge you need to conquer the task at hand, you are free to move forward to the next challenge. One of the best parts about this job is that the field is always evolving.  Clients come to us everyday with new ideas, new projects, new technology, and it never gets boring or monotonous.  It’s like waking up to a new job everyday, and I can’t wait to see where the future goes!   There’s still so much to learn.

Toma is eleven! In life we’d still be a kid, borderline tween. In dog years we’d be close to death. Other than making progressive strides year after year, and being happier than ever within our company, Toma thought about what significance the number eleven has in the universe and how that might relate to us as a company.  Greatdreams.com gave an insight on this question saying this about the number eleven: Number Eleven possesses the qualities of intuition, patience, honesty, sensitivity, and spirituality, and is idealistic. Others turn to people who are ‘Eleven’ for teaching and inspiration, and are usually uplifted by the experience. In systems such as Astrology and basic Numerology, eleven is considered to be a Master Number. Ten being the perfect number, eleven represents the exceeding of both. It is interesting to note that eleven when broken down (1+1=2) comprises the Two of duality.  Number eleven is a master vibration and as such should not be reduced to a single number. People with this number could be both idealistic and visionary, and they are attracted to the unknown.

After reading this it dawned on us that our years of being eleven and some of the aspects in the aforementioned paragraph absolutely go hand in hand in where we are as a company. Mistakes are always made because we are humans, but it is safe to say after eleven years we are past the stages of learning from our mistakes. Being confident in our continual decisions and constant creative strides as a company allows us to be a bit more exploratory, even extreme in our ventures. It states that eleven represents idealism, vision, and can inspire and teach. Taking on new clients in areas we have never touched on before is where our vision lies, we always are looking to expand and grow. Idealism for us is portrayed through the satisfaction our clients project to us on a regular basis. We hope to inspire people/companies in both conventional and non-conventional ways by staying classically professional and creatively diverse. Teaching has always been an unmentioned tool for Toma. Sharing with avenues from the internet to interns, it has been a pleasure and significant patriarchal moments for Toma. Worrying what to write about in an eleventh year in our business seemed bleak in the beginning but like every great business, bleak is for the weak, and by the age of eleven its heaven.

Plus, 11 is Steve’s lucky number.

There is an art in making a great commercial that can be decided by a few things. A good commercial will captivate the viewer for the minute to minute and a half that the ad was seen during the break. You might laugh or be interested for that minute or so then get back to your show or game. Ultimately what separates good commercials from great commercials is the question of will you remember that commercial a few days later. I think the objective when making any commercial is to create something that will stick in someone’s mind long after they finish watching television. Think back to the week after any super bowl, that week will be spent talking about the game, possibly dissecting it and discussing what was great and not so great about it but inevitably you will have a few conversations about the commercials; which ones stuck out and which ones missed the mark. The goal for every company is to have the commercial that sticks out, the one you talk about with your friends after the game, maybe the one you send the YouTube link to your buddy on facebook and laugh at. That I think is the decider of is and isn’t a great advertisement. It is can be difficult to tell sometimes why an ad is great or why you remember it but below are a list of commercials I thought were great and why I think they were so effective.

Axe “Premature Perspiration”

As we all know through advertisers have always played with sexuality in advertisements, a few brands come to mind when thinking about that theme (Axe, Bod spray, GoDaddy). This is theme dates back to the dawn of advertising, and I think it is pretty obvious why it’s effective. This ad is an example of a way that Axe could be risqué while also being funny and clever at the same time.

Nike “Write the Future”

A trend among athletic brands such as Nike, Under Armour, any Jordan brand ad is the idea of making sports or moments during a game in any sport epic. The use of slow-motion is commonly used usually with a narrator talking over the ad about the intensity and focus involved in the game. It is an effective technique but what separates this commercial from the rest is that it also tells a unique story about what the future would hypothetically be for certain athletes as a result of small moments during a big game of soccer and really illustrates the magnitude sports has on our society.

Skittles “Cage Cop”

A running trend it seems in the advertising industry is that absurdity in commercials is memorable. Many companies have used this technique. Old Spice hired the absurdist comic duo Tim and Eric to make commercials for them that were absurd and funny in the hopes that it would be something that would linger in your head a little longer than most funny commercials. Skittles made this ad comically absurd and slightly interactive to make it effectively memorable.

Google “Chubby Bunny”

Another trend I have noticed is the amateur look where it just looks like a regular video filmed on a handi-cam that you would shoot with your friends and post on youtube. It gives it an authentic feel, the lack of slick editing or smooth filmmaking makes it seem like you are watching something a friend of yours would video tape and show you. Google slam did a great job employing this technique with a series of ads that show what seems like someone holding a handi-cam filming an unprofessional demonstration of the product at work. It is effective because the shoddiness of the video gives the feeling that google did not employ these people to make the video and that it was in fact made on their own.

Google “Demo Slam Real-time Karaoke

The series also showed unique ways to use their product and demonstrated them in a funny way. For example the commercial showing the twitter feed that google uses would have been boring had they dryly explained the use of the twitter feature but instead, the ad features a guy with a guitar and his keyboardist behind him sing a song with lyrics strictly coming from the twitter feed as it updates.

Google Chrome “Speed Tests”

The google chrome speed tests I think were highly memorable because they demonstrated the product very effectively but they also made it interesting and exciting to watch. It would have been one thing to show the browser moving quickly, but they added tests that included images that captivate any viewer like lightning and a potato being shot all in slow motion.

NTT Docomo “Xylophone”

MTV “Balloons”

Some ads are just great because of the amount of effort put into them yet still remaining simple ideas.

There are trends that seem to happen a lot in ads but the important thing is to make new trends or tweak them in some way to be inventive and memorable to the viewer. The trick has and always will be for advertisers to stick out from the others ads in whatever way possible. I think that these commercials all did that in some way and that is why they are all great ads.

The famous movie line from “Social Network” many have come to know is, “a million dollars isn’t cool, you know what’s cool…a billion dollars”. While the creator of Facebook knows this all too well, his web-site popularity is heavily based on its instantaneous availabilities.  In todays’ society a million isn’t what it used to be. Our world has evolved; everything is expeditious, imperious, and progressive.  People and companies are always trying to dominate each other, and why wouldn’t they?  It is a ‘click delete click’ world. A topic is no longer news worthy for breaking Olympic records or being a hero, unless it is a Wednesday and you’re on the fifth page of Yahoo News, and even then it is scarce. Front monitor, prime spot, on your internet network news sites are stories like; who has the new break through website, what is going on in the dot com world today, and best of all records set for the fastest texter! News sites like CNN, BBC, and NPR share this kind of news only in a small section of their pages.  The news broadcasted on these types of websites pertains to things affecting the world through politics, environment, and religion.  Websites such as these are focused towards the small population of the world who actually understand what real news still is. It doesn’t matter that those areas of news are more important or impactful, what matters is popularity. More people get their news from gossip sites, Yahoo, Bing, and Google.The demographic spending most their time on the internet is young adults, teenagers, and adolescents. So what happens in a world full of this age group who absolutely can’t live without being connected to the internet at every second of their day? The answer is that the USA joins the billionaire’s club and “Big Five” European countries double their mobile advertising spending.

With the increased demand for applications on phones, and the demand for consistent connection with the internet, it comes to no surprise that advertising through mobile applications would sky rocket. Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, posted on their slide share what the future statistics are for the upcoming year and future ones to come. According to the slide, Morgan Stanley has stated, “Smart phone sales to pass computers in 2012.” The slide also reports from Merrill Lynch, “By 2013, mobile phones will over- take PCs’ as the most common Web access device worldwide.” And for this year’s forecast reported by Focus.com, “In 2011, more than 85% of handsets shipped globally are expected to include a browser.” So what exactly does this mean? The United States is now second in the world’s mobile advertising market, and in 2011 it has a 1.24 billion dollar expectancy in revenues.  You better believe this trend is not going away. A company must now understand the way to advertise is through social networking sites, internet sources, and mobile apps.

There is not much you can’t do on the internet. The top ten mobile trends in consumer engagement recorded bydotopen.com are: apps, mobile social networking, augmented reality, the touch web, enhanced location awareness, internet of things, sensor networks, cellular broadband, recommendation technology, and virtual goods (micropayments). It would seem by reading this list that the citizens of the world are living their lives based on what the internet provides for them. à INSERT EPHIPHONY HERE. This is where marketing and advertising companies have opportunity to act as the brain of anyone who gets on the internet! It is what companies are providing for the world to see, that the world is seeing. It isn’t even about how a company or product  is merchandised anymore, it is about how many different areas you can get your name seen by millions of people. People’s assiduous lives do not allow them to investigate much; they rely mainly on what the internet is telling them. If you buy ad space as a company and you invest the right way so that your ad shows up on the top of Google when someone is searching for something, 9 times out 10, it is going to be looked at first. If your ad is what it claims to be people are satisfied and there you go you gained what you set out to. The USmA, United States of Mobile Advertising, with Smaato Inc., reported that twelve million Americans have clicked on an ad and have purchased an item. Being prominent at advertising and marketing will always put you in the fore front, but only if you’re in the front of every pop-up, website ad, and top of search engines.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, there has been a lot of frantic discussion about the privacy issues of Facebook, so I thought I would weigh in.

Over the past few months, Facebook has seen a flurry of media calling them out for giving away and selling personal information, as well as not granting enough privacy for users viewing other user pages. Facebook has sense responded with new account privacy settings and several apology letters from CEO Mark Zuckerburg, but does sole responsibility for this really fall on Facebook? I believe people’s frustrations really lie on two different paths here because Facebook, and social media in general, can only be held responsible for their own actions, and not the actions of others. In the midst of this Facebook privacy controversy has been several stories about lawyers, private detectives, and court decisions being affected by social media (especially Facebook). This has stemmed confusion between what rights of protection users have on the internet and the dangers associated with being a social media participant. While both of these can have serious consequences, the differences are extremely important to understand before you place blame on the failure of enforcing privacy.

Facebook came under heat specifically for allowing 3rd party corporations access to user’s personal information as a ‘default’ setting added without anyone’s knowledge. Of course, this addition was discovered and leaked over social media, and has spawned a cyclone of messy PR and public flame over everything that can be blamed on Facebook. However, Facebook users have been freely giving their information away to third party applications for years. While this number changes every day, an estimated 73% of users have some third party application tie-in that grants someone access to their information. There is no excuse for Facebook to allow these parties unrestricted access to your pages information, but theirs also no reason to think that information on the internet is ever ‘private’ in the first place.

Just because Facebook has become popular (ok, worldwide phenomenon) doesn’t mean it suddenly isn’t owned by a corporation. Every user is responsible for entering his/her own personal information into their database to use their services. There is nothing forcing you to use your real name, e-mail, phone number, etc. but people choose to in order to connect on a social level with accuracy. To be frank, it’s you who puts your information on Facebook, not the other way around. Facebook has to have some sort of integrity in sharing your information, but does the responsibility really fall on them to go out of their way to protect it?

Take this article on divorce attorneys catching cheaters through their Facebook for example. These lawyers aren’t invading anyone’s privacy because all of their information is coming from user’s public pages. Let’s say a man who’s cheating on his wife is taking pictures with his adulterous girlfriend on vacation, and she posts them on her page, tagging both of them. The man could block this picture from his profile and remove his tag, but that picture is still very accessible on the internet, and quite available to be snooped on by an attorney or private eye, regardless of ‘privacy settings’.

Ultimately, it has to be up to the user to be responsible for their actions on social media and accept the risks of being a participant. There will never be total privacy on the internet, because you simply can’t control what others post. It’s really like a tabloid for your circle of friends customized for your browsing. You can’t expect to post your relationship status, religious status, and pictures of you and your friends possibly doing something you shouldn’t and get mad at people you don’t like finding them.

Facebook has a responsibility to protect its users as far as not freely shelling out personal information, but the ultimate responsibility for keeping personal information personal resides in the user.

First things first, this is not a slam on SEO tactics or the industry itself, but in the way that some operators in the industry go about it. The fuel for this article really just stems from the 200+ spam comments I swept under the rug on our blog this morning. For those of you that don’t know what the purpose of spamming a blog post is, I’ll explain it simply:

Organic SEO is essentially based around getting your Google search rankings as high as possible. One of the ways that Google decides the importance of your website is how many other websites link to it. This acts as a ‘recommendation’ from one website to another on its content and relevancy. When Google is prompted to search a keyword, the highest ranking sites for less-then-corporate keywords (i.e. how to tie your shoes, parachuting tips, bike-riding backwards) often come up because of their title and article that re-uses these keywords in the site. Usually, the ones with the most inbound links (other sites linking to that site) will win Google’s competition for the most relevant site, and pop up in the top 7 search results. Getting in these spots for search results is essentially the goal for SEO.

Because of this universal goal, inbound links are basically treated like a commodity. An SEOer’s goal is to grow as many quality inbound links to their site as possible in order to increase their search ranking. They will then list websites in directories, create partnerships, or post blogs or articles and site their homepage as a resource, really any way to create an external link from someone else’s site. Spamming is basically doing the same thing, except with no regards to content, purpose, or relevance to the content of a blog or directory. This is why if you’re reading a blog and notice comments that are seemingly out of place or in Russian, that’s because they ARE. It’s a technique to gain as many inbound links as possible.

I’ll let the occasional spam comment slip by because some of them are well written, or sometimes I’m not sure if it’s a real person behind a computer who actually runs a jewelry blog. Spammers are counting on no one moderating the smaller, local blogs, so they’ll fill their comments with things like this:

“Both sides other two energizer e2 rechargeable batteries specs jurors for heard thattarka trail the plaque very particular icn isotope products shall all you assumedlidoderm patch and dot ragon was”

Pay attention to the links imbedded in that incoherent product ramble (replaced with dead links). Every time one of those is posted on a website, it’s a recommendation from the site it’s posted on to the site it links to. So whether these links follow to a blog article, porn site, scam, or energizer battery commercial, the result is the same. Your site has given a ‘vote of authenticity’ to these links. Also, when someone posts on a WordPress blog like this, they usually get to link back to their own site, or any site of their choosing, which is why you’ll see spam comments without any links on them, like this:

“My mother recommended your blog. I’ve bookmarked it.”

This particular post linked back to wildcasinos.net and was posted by admin@calcuttatube. Now I’m pretty sure a network’s admin’s mother in Calcutta isn’t out recommending my blog to her family in the casino industry, but this is a good example of a ‘masked’ spam comment.

For those of you that have worked with SEO or have hired someone to do your SEO in the past, this is just me highlighting a tactic used by the less scrupulous operators in the industry. For those of you that may run your own personal or recreational blog, this is something that might help explain all those comments you’ve been getting about a Russian porn stash on your article “10 places to walk your dog”

This is why it’s important to know that when you hire someone for SEO, or any advertising for that matter, you need to know who and what you’re working with. Hopefully if you’re reading this, you can avoid your brand becoming victim to these illicit tactics.

April is always such an exciting time for me.  When I was in high school and college, it was a spring break dance-a-thon on some overcrowded beach.  But once I realized I was too old (and far too impatient) to hang with all the young partiers, I had to find a new spring event to get me excited. Enter NAB.  The National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas.  Yep – you heard right.  Vegas Baby.  Consider it the spring break for post grads.  Okay, well, maybe for the tech geek.  Regardless – it’s a tradition going on eight years now.  Every year I look forward to walking the Convention Center Halls, checking out the new technology – cameras, editing platforms, software, you name it, it’s there. Oh, and did I mention it’s in Vegas?  After being back from NAB for a week and playing catch up, I finally had time to reflect on what I saw.  And hands down there was one topic that dominated all the buzz.  3D.  You couldn’t walk two feet without stumbling upon something 3D.  Lenses, monitors, cameras, classes…they had it all.  A number-letter combo that could instantly cause a roar of applause, or a violent array of boos and groans.  Since it stuck in my mind, I decided to do some research. I’m not gonna lie – I’m a sucker for a 3D movie.  But what makes some better than others?  And why all the controversy?

THE PROS AND CONS OF DIRECTING

People will never agree on the same thing.   3D is a perfect example.  Some of the biggest directors in Hollywood have let their opinions be known.  The directors that are Pro 3D – James Cameron (he took a chance on the format for a little movie called Avatar), Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and surprisingly, Martin Scorsese.   The long and the short of it?  Just because you agree that 3D is the movie format of the future doesn’t mean there won’t be conflict.  Avatar has obviously set the standard for how a 3D movie should be made, having every shot set up with 3D in mind, versus Louis Letterrier’s Clash of the Titans, where 3D treatments were added in the edit suite. James Cameron has openly criticized the film, with the belief that if you are going to complete a film in 3D, do it from day one.  George Lucas is currently looking into having the Stars Wars films converted into 3D.  And on an interesting note, we’ve mostly seen 3D used for animated movies and blockbuster films.  Be on the look out for Martin Scorsese’s latest film, slated for a 2011 release titled The Invention of Hugo Cabret, to be one of the most interesting and intriguing projects we’ve seen to date.  Scorsese believes 3D can and should be used to enhance dramas, as well as blockbuster and animated movies.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret hopes to achieve this.

The Not-So-Pro – Michael Bay (this one was a shocker), Christopher Nolan, Jason Reitman, and Louis Leterrier (explanation below).  Michael Bay, probably known as one of the BIGGEST blockbuster “let’s-see-how-many-things-we-can-make-explode-in-one-movie” directors in Hollywood is not looking to enhance his films using 3D.  He told Deadline Hollywood, “Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you’re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks.”  So don’t expect to see Transformers 3 in 3D anytime soon (sorry to all of you who were hoping to see Megan Fox in 3D).  Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Prestige) just to name a couple, would rather focus his energy and budget on having fun with the possibilities of IMAX, toying with the idea of shooting an entire film using IMAX cameras and lenses.  And why Louis Letterier, who recently released 3D Clash of the Titans? Apparently he was unhappy with his finished product after the edits were all said and done.  Maybe the director doesn’t have the final say afterall.  Or maybe it was just a way to deflect all of the criticism.

DEMAND AND SUPPLY

In case you thought 3D was just a ploy to drive more people into the theaters, it goes both ways.  Sure, the hearts of Twentieth Century Fox Film Studio execs skip a beat when they hear Avatar has grossed over 743 Million Dollars at the box office alone, but since it’s release, 33% of the box office earnings have been from 3D movies, proving there is a demand.  People are willing to spend the extra money on a 3D ticket. And now, huge brands such as Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and Fuji, just to name a few, are scrambling to release High Def 3D TV’s for the home, despite Samsung releasing a warning this week that there are health risks related to 3D TV’s.  Playstation is currently working on perfecting 3D gaming.  Even popular viral video website youtube is testing codes to upload videos in a 3D format.

Who knows if we are merely rehashing a fad that started in the 50’s, came back in the 80’s, and is now back again in 2010, OR, if it truly is a wave of the future.  Regardless of its lasting power, expect the 3D Blockbuster movie wagon to continue.  Shrek Forever After 3D will be released in late May, James Cameron is set to start production on the sequel to Avatar, and just announced, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have signed on to reprise their roles for Men in Black 4 in 3D, which Sony will attempt to fast-track for a Summer 2011 release.  Hmmm…Fast-track?  Maybe Sony should take a page out of James’ Cameron’s book on 3D film making and take the time to shoot it right from the beginning.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in sunny Scottsdale with the temperature in the mid 70’s, so we decided to let a little fresh air into our office. As I pulled our rather heavy front door open, I searched for something I could use to keep it from closing. As a chair is to bulky and the potted plant outside to dirty, my eyes leaped for joy as I sited the two phonebooks sitting in the corner of our office, and quickly went to work. One of the books was too small that the door simply passed over it, and the other book was too large, but not heavy enough to stop the door. After carefully balancing the forces of nature and physics, I managed to prop the door open using both books in a pattern too complicated to explain. I felt bad about ruining these books for 3 or 4 hours of fresh air, but proud of my achievement, I boasted my door rigging skills to our accountant, who simply said, “Well, yah, who uses phone books anymore…”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The phone book, since its initial inception in 1878, has transformed from a 2-sided white sheet of paper mailed by a phone company to a government-mandated service. The fact is we have become so accustomed to the internet now that we’re frustrated when it takes longer then five seconds to find any unit of information we are looking for. There’s a figure out there that says that if a web page won’t load in five seconds, over 90% of users will navigate away from the site and look somewhere else. Imagine cracking open up an encyclopedia, Thomas guide, or phonebook to take 3 minutes to browse hundreds of pages to look for the tidbit of information relevant to your search. By the time you’ve done that, I’ve already found the number and driving directions from my GPS location to the publisher of the encyclopedia you were reading and posted it on Facebook, and two people have already commented on it. I find it astounding that we still get these phonebooks delivered by these companies when they are so clearly outdated, it’s almost nostalgic.

Our internet use as a culture has become so common place that in its relatively short life 74.2% of the population of North America are unique users. This means that almost everyone is using the internet from their own device everyday for various purposes. As far as our phonebook topic is concerned, there are about 6.4 billion searches through search engines a month which means about 213 million searches a day. I believe it’s a safe bet to say that the internet has caught on.

While our current use of this incredible tool is astounding, it’s also growing. With the adaptation of mobile web use, people are accessing information instantly anywhere in the world in ways never before imaginable. It is becoming possible to walk down the isles of your favorite store, scan a bar code with your phone, and get product reviews and price comparisons in as little as five seconds. With this level of complexity and an obviously predictable increase in the adaptation and development of these tools, why are phone companies still shelling out the 17 million dollars a year it takes to print these? Oh well, time to put this on the internet.

Note: None of the research in this post took more then 5 seconds to find. Also note that while researching I felt significantly less prophetic when I stumbled on banthephonebook.org, an on-line petition 31,000 strong that’s sponsored by The White Pages.

After a Facebook campaign emerged asking for Betty White to host an episode of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”, the network is said to be considering the option. The Facebook page called “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!”, now with over 400,000 fans, materialized after the 88-year-old actress appeared in a popular Super Bowl spot. “SNL” is thinking about teaming White with other comediennes (said possibilities include SNL alums Molly Shannon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler). This just shows how influential social media can be! I think it definitely makes sense for NBC to follow through with this – they can broaden their appeal to a new audience and draw some excellent press attention in the process. Really, how can you go wrong with Betty White?? See the Entertainment Weekly article here: SNL Close to Land Betty White