See What’s Out There

Sometimes when we meet with organizations they wonder how important this whole Internet thing really is to their organizations. The folks at South Park continue to have their pulse on the national mood. What happens when the Internet goes down?

Hat Tip [Fred Wilson]
Link [South Park Studios]

I feel that we are on the verge of a lot of changes on the web. The Web 2.0 phenomena of portable content and user generated content is just the transition to something deeper. I don’t have a complete articulation of what that is yet, but two things got my attention recently that feel different. One is an ad format where characters in a video — in this case a Mac ad - seem to control a banner in another part of the page. That’s clever (though not terrible complex technically) and I feel it is a harbinger of more serious playing with web space to come.

The other item is about Facebook’s new ads. The interesting and even alarming thing is how Facebook is set to use your personal data (if you are on it) to deliver to you contextual ads that are generated from your activity off site. So, for example, I go to Blockbuster’s site and Facebook knows this and next time I am on Facebook I am getting Blockbuster promotions. You can read more about Facebook’s system here.

Here’s the new Mac ad format:

David Pogue does it again in this musical version of the iPhone story.

If you read this blog you know I am a big fan of David Pogue - the New York Time’s technology writer — generally and of his video work in particular. His videos used to be only on the New York Time’s site, which meant I couldn’t embed them here. But now they are loading them onto YouTube. Here’s his excellent video review of the iPhone:

If you haven’t seen Apple’s new iPhone it is very cool and you can watch the video below. It is scheduled for release at the end of this month. There is a lot of debate about how significant this will be in the handset market. Will Apple become the big dog in cell phones, or just a bit player? Will the phone be like the iPod, an unstoppable juggernaut, or like the Mac, a niche product for a group of loyal fans?

My initial concern is that the network is too slow to really have it work as shown. I can imagine loading and waiting. I also wonder if the touch-screen keyboard is really good for those Blackberry addicts who are more into email than media. My guess is that the real keyboard is better for that.

Regardless of how it goes the networks are getting better and handsets will become another common place for viewing media — including the videos and podcasts from nonprofit organizations. If you haven’t begun building your library of content get started now. You will need it.