Links 2/2/07

NYTimes takes from the citizens and gives bupkis in return....eWeek ad deal crosses ethical line(again)....Viacom's hissy fit over GooTube..."These were clearly not guerilla attacks. This was guerilla marketing."

From Red Herring: New York Times to post user-generated content why? because they're bloody cheap!
"Speaking in a panel discussion at the SIIA Information Industry Summit in New York City, Times executive Nicholas Ascheim said that developing video content is costly." Is it the role of the citizens to be stoking the New York Times with our content and probably getting nothing in return? Oh, if that isn't a giant middle finger to the American public...

Perhaps they want to take our content because nobody cares about their content: The Times launched a video player in November 2005, he said, and now has eight video journalists. Still, he [Ascheim] acknowledged that amassing an audience for video has been daunting.

Paul Conley writes on eWeek's use of Intellitxt ads yeah, you know what those are--those weird little things that kinda look like links, only they're maybe double underlined or a weird color (like green or orange) that lead you to an ad somewhere. Paul sez: "So let’s be reasonable – selling IntelliTXT ads isn’t going to do anything to help turn the company [struggling Ziff Davis] around. There just isn’t that much cash involved in these things. Selling IntelliTXT ads won’t even provide enough of a short-term lift to help boost the price of the company. This is an absurd and offensive practice that won’t help a troubled company."

from Terry Heaton: pissy Viacom demands GooTube take down video There are a couple of things to note here. One, Viacom and Google have been in negotiations over this, and talks — according to Ad Age — have “broken off.” This likely a tactic in negotiations.

Two, one of Viacom’s properties is iFilm, a youTube competitor and a place that got at least some of its fame for running the famous clip in which Jon Stewart made a fool of Crossfire’s Tucker Carlson. Crossfire, of course, used to run on CNN, which is owned by Turner. Now perhaps Viacom had a deal with CNN, because Stewart is one of “theirs,” but…

and Steve Safran on the Boston's lite-brite night-mare: By early afternoon, as the surrealism started to hit its peak, my pal Scott Baker IMmed me: “It’s a Mooninite bomb!” Now, I can honestly say, I didn’t know what he was talking about. I don’t watch “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” Baker cracked the case. I got the glory. (As a journalist, I am used to this.)

Bake sent me a couple of Flickr links showing the devices in other cities. At this point, neither of us had seen a picture of the Boston devices – because the media kept pixelating the damn things. But we had a pretty good idea, based on the descriptions, that the “bombs” were a marketing ploy. These were clearly not guerrilla attacks. This was guerrilla marketing."