Microsoft’s Live Maps have 3D, but Google Maps now have the ability to drill down to the street level, at least in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Denver and Miami to start (photos). So how’d they do it? Google workers drove vans around the Bay Area for about a year and took pictures for the service. For the other cities, Google contracted with Immersive Media to do the same. Screen grab…
And that’s not all. Google also unveiled something called “Maplets” which allows developers to mash real estate listings and crime data with Google Maps. Click here and select “real estate search” for a demonstration.
Every so often a new technology product comes along (like the iPhone) that’s just downright cool. Microsoft Surface (video) fits that category. It’s a tabletop computer that responds to touch, and it identifies and downloads (or uploads) content from handheld devices placed on top of it. You can manipulate photos, watch video, play games and surf the web on a 30-inch screen. Only catch? It’ll cost between $5,000 and $10,000, so Microsoft will debut Surface in hotels and casinos to start. But the applications are endless. “The practical uses for Surface at the point of sale are broad,” writes TechCrunch. “This is touch screen point-of-sale technology at a new level.”
ABC has given the green light to “i-Caught,” a show that’s based on video submitted by the public and produced by ABC News. Correspondents will build stories around video captured by users that’s getting widespread play on sites like YouTube as well as video uploaded to the show’s companion site, i-Caught.com. The site will launch on June 12th, and the show will debut on August 6th.
A recent rule for embedded journalists in Iraq bans any video or photographs that show dead soldiers, and wounded troops must sign a consent form before their images can be broadcast or published. “They are not letting us cover the reality of war,” said Ashley Gilbertson, a freelance photographer for NY Times and Newsweek, among others. “I think this has got little to do with the families or the soldiers and everything to do with politics.” Meanwhile, Iraqi police are beginning to confiscate cameras on sight.
It’s now official. Just days after the end of a terrible May book, NBC Universal has named independent producer Ben Silverman (”The Office” and “The Biggest Loser”) and veteran NBC exec Marc Graboff as co-chairmen of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio. “I always thought this was the right job for Ben. This new role will give him the opportunity to redefine our programming, our relationship with advertisers, and our ongoing commitment to the new digital frontier,” said NBCU President Jeff Zucker. Kevin Reilly, who has served as President of NBC Entertainment for the past three years, and NBCU have mutually agreed to end their relationship. Press release…
A terrific cover story in Broadcasting & Cable examines how the advent of long-range forecasts at local TV stations could be damaging their credibility. For example, the 10-day forecast, with specific predictions down to exact temperatures, is becoming standard issue at most stations. Dr. Anthony Socci, a senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society (AMS), says it’s like throwing darts. “(Meteorologists) are selling a skill that isn’t there, and they’re not being candid with viewers.” With internet weather growing in popularity (after all, why would you wait for a specific time to get your weather?) TV stations are pulling out all the stops with “endless rounds of one-upmanship” in technology, marketing and forecast tools.
We’ve written about this before, but I believe it’s critical that TV stations shift their thinking and spending from TV to the web when it comes to weather. Standard weather coverage on TV will no longer be a reason to watch (breaking weather coverage is a big exception), and people are shifting online in droves. So create powerful weather technology online that allows users to personalize their experience, and then extend that technology to TV. In other words, meteorogists on TV should be using your web-based technology to deliver the forecast, reinforcing the need in viewers’ minds to use your website the rest of the time. Under this approach, the web is the primary forecast destination, and TV is a complement. If we don’t make this switch soon, we’ll give away our franchise to Weather.com, the portals and national news sites, which already have much better weather technology than most local TV sites. It’s already happening.
Terry Heaton points out a great quote from a senior Google exec:
“(Google) accepts that some projects will never have an associated revenue stream.”
A Microsoft biz dev manager told me something similar a few months ago, much to my surprise. What a concept! Media companies these days are up against the gun to create new digital products that drive revenue, but as Heaton explains, “Revenue isn’t the problem; audience is the problem. And we need to fix the problem.” So how do you do that? Empower a few smart web people in your company to conceptualize, build and launch cool stuff that users will like. Do this independently of your existing product development team, which is scrambling to keep your core products competitive (and is reacting to short-term revenue opportunities). Give this new team the time, resources and technology they need, without the influence of television thinking. The revenue will follow. And at the heart of all this is finding the smart web people in the first place. If you need a refresher on the urgency for local TV to do this, read this and this.
Ok, both movies are a little moldy, but this mashup is very well done. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a mashup of 300’s audio with Anchorman’s video…
With decent syndicated shows on the decline and the networks increasingly offering their shows around the affiliates, local TV stations are ramping up their own local programming. Hearst Argyle, Fox, Meredith and NBCU are developing new shows for their stations and experimenting with web and mobile components. For example, we’ve told you about Meredith’s Better TV — a dual broadcast-broadband play that features talent and content from its lifestyle magazines. In just a few months, Better TV is pulling stronger ratings than most daytime syndicated shows that air in the Meredith markets.
GasBuddy.com expects to hit a record 4 million unique visitors in a single day. Beyond a list of the cheapest gas prices (updated every 48 hours or less by a user network), the site features map mashups of gas prices (below), as well as a popular feature that allows to you text a zip code from your mobile phone and it will respond with the cheapest nearby gas stations. GasPriceWatch.com has also seen a surge in traffic.
A screen grab from SeattleGasPrices, a GasBuddy site.
The New York Times embeds videos of some user-generated ads for a Heinz Ketchup contest in this piece, along with quotes from ad executives who, unsurprisingly, mock the quality of the content.
“These are just so bad,” said Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, and advertising agency in New York…
As opposed to the ads on television? Ms. Kaplan Thaler goes on to mock the regular people who appear in the ads, pointing out one man’s less-than-perfect teeth. Because everyone should be gorgeous in ads, of course.
Scott Goodson, chief executive of StrawberryFrog, an advertising agency in New York, said the shortcomings of contest entries… refuted predictions that user-generated content might siphon work away from agencies.
Like coming up with a better name for an agency than one that sounds like a psychedelic ’60s band? Ad execs - like news execs before them - miss the point of user-generated content. It’s not supposed to steal from the existing content. It’s supposed to add to it. Any time you can get your most passionate consumers to work for you and help spread the word, that’s good. Write our friends Ben and Jackie at the Church of the Customer: “Don’t be surprised if the pitch for this particular story came from the agency owner who’s quoted in this piece.”
Crack news dev Adrian Holovaty is leaving WashingtonPost.com to work on Everyblock, his new startup that’s described as a “hyperlocal website that aggregates an unprecedented depth and breadth of public records, mainstream news sources, photographs, blogs and user-contributed information.” To help him get started, Holovaty won a $1.1 million grant from the Knight Foundation. Lots of folks will be keeping an eye on this one. (Via Fimoculous).
Just before the 11 p.m. newscast last night, a light exploded in WABC’s news studio, setting a curtain on fire and flooding the building with smoke. “As soon as and we said we got a fire going, all of the sudden, it went boom and the whole thing,” said cameraman Lou Torellas. “I looked at the back of the set, there must have been 10 to 15-foot flames flying up to the ceiling.” The staff quickly evacuated, and WABC went off the air for two hours until it was able to patch into the West Coast feed. The staff was allowed back in the building at 2 a.m. to discover “extensive damage” to its new high-definition set and some equipment, yet they were able to scramble a newscast on the air beginning at 5 a.m. Lots of photos and video on WABC’s site here, and ThousandRobots.com has a screen shot of WABC’s air during the outage. (Thanks, ADM!)
After a horrible perfomance in the May book and a last-place finish, NBC is considering replacing Kevin O’Reilly, the network’s programming chief. One of his possible replacements is independent producer Ben Silverman who delivered The Office and The Biggest Loser to NBC.
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Just before the 11 p.m. newscast last night, a light exploded in WABC’s news studio, setting a curtain on fire and flooding the building with smoke. “As soon as and we said we got a fire going, all of the sudden, it went boom and the whole thing,” said cameraman Lou Torellas. “I looked at the back of the set, there must have been 10 to 15-foot flames flying up to the ceiling.” The staff quickly evacuated, and WABC went off the air for two hours until it was able to patch into the West Coast feed. The staff was allowed back in the building at 2 a.m. to discover “extensive damage” to its new high-definition set and some equipment, yet they were able to scramble a newscast on the air beginning at 5 a.m. Lots of photos and video on 
