Google to Add Social Feature to Gmail

The Wall Street Journal

Google Inc. is taking a swipe at Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. with a new feature that makes it easier for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared online by their friends.

Google could announce the new Gmail feature as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

The change adds a module to the Gmail screen that will display a stream of updates from individuals a user chooses to connect with, said one of these people. It is a format popularized by Facebook and Twitter.

Yahoo Inc. added a similar feature to Yahoo Mail last year, allowing users to see whether friends have uploaded a photo to a site like Flickr, for example.

Google, too, is trying to get users to turn to Gmail as a place they can go to see what's up with their friends. But whether users will want to blend sending email with browsing friends' content is unclear.

Google has been trying to fashion Gmail into more than an email service for years. It currently lets users set an "away message"—which can be a link to a Web site—that their friends see when they message them.

The new stream will eventually include content that a user's connections share through Google's YouTube video site and Picasa photo service, according to one person familiar with the matter. But whether those features will be announced in the coming days remains unclear.

Google's move comes after Facebook last week rolled out a new design with a newmessage inbox that more closely resembles an email inbox like Gmail's. The social-networking company said it had roughly 400 million users. Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, according to comScore Inc.

He's Sirius: Stern Says there's 'No Better Job' than being 'Idol' Judge

NY Post

Shock jock Howard Stern is singing a new tune -- admitting today that he's considering leaving radio to become a judge on “American Idol” next season.

Stern confirmed a Page Six report that Fox is interested in hiring him to replace Simon Cowell on the top-rated show.

“There’s not a better job on the planet than judging that f----ing karaoke contest,” Stern told listeners during his Sirius satellite radio show, according to excerpts published on MTV.com.

“It might be possible. We’ll see,” said Stern, adding that the network would "have to pay me a ton of dough because I already make a ton of dough.”

The Post reported Friday that Fox was interested in hiring Stern.

Stern, who lives in the city, is believed to be reluctant to commit to a show that would require him to tour the country as a judge and spend much of the year in Los Angeles.

Stern’s five-year, $500 million contract with Sirius expires at the end of this year.

When it comes to money, Stern said Fox would have to pay him big bucks to join the show.

"A $100 million to judge a karaoke contest? Yeah, I would do that show for $100 million,” he joked.

As for replacing the acid-tongued Cowell, Stern said, "If I do say so myself, I can't imagine anyone else but me replacing him ... How else are they going to make that show work? Who knows how to broadcast and who knows how to be interesting? And who's not afraid to speak their mind?"

A Fox spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Fox is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.

CBS' Controversial Calls

San Francisco Chronicle

The Standards and Practices Department at CBS has had a busy few weeks trying to decide what will and what will not offend us during commercial breaks in today's Super Bowl. This is no small responsibility. The Super Bowl not only draws an audience of 100 million, but it's also the one televised event in which the commercials have become a much-anticipated part of the show. So when CBS decides that Americans can handle a poignant personal appeal against abortion but would be put off by humorous treatments of homosexuality, the broadcast network is offering a commentary on what it sees as the sensibilities of the times.

Censorship can be a dangerous game in this age of the Internet. A quick Google search of "banned Super Bowl ads" will produce links to everything CBS refused to let you see.

The network's two most controversial decisions - to accept the anti-abortion spot with the mother of quarterback Tim Tebow and to reject the ad for the gay dating service Man Crunch - show a curious inconsistency.

Anyone who thinks that sex is out of bounds on CBS Sports has not watched much football this season. Each week brings an onslaught of advertising for erectile dysfunction drugs, often preceded by close-up shots of NFL cheerleaders accentuating their cleavage.

If the CBS concern is about awkwardness with young children, I think most parents would find it easier to deflect - or laugh off - the slapstick Man Crunch ad than explain a narrator's somber warning to seek medical attention "for an erection lasting more than four hours."

In the Man Crunch ad, two jersey-clad guys inadvertently touch hands while reaching into a bowl of chips, then plunge into a comically frenzied make-out session. If history is a guide, commercials featuring women - aimed at heterosexual men - will be far racier. Past Super Bowls have featured ads with a woman flashing her breasts at a congressional hearing and two women tearing each other's clothes off in a mud-bath fight over whether Miller Lite was "great tasting" or "less filling."

At least the Man Crunch stars had the decency to keep their jerseys on.

CBS also refused to air a gay-themed ad titled "Lola," about a retired football player who becomes a lingerie entrepreneur. The network reportedly objected to the "stereotypical tone" in the portrayal of an ex-player with a penchant for pink and frilly outfits.

"Lola" was offered up by GoDaddy, a company that has built its brand identity on Super Bowl Sundays with giggles and jiggles that have nothing to do with its business of selling domain names. GoDaddy's replacement ad reportedly spoofs its push against the boundaries of taste: It plays a mock interview with race-car driver Danica Patrick about the controversy, and ends with a woman ripping off her top to reveal the GoDaddy logo.

So the message from CBS is: Objectification and misogyny are OK; stereotypes are not. Fights and flashes of flesh are fine; madcap makeouts are not.

Most of the pregame controversy has centered on CBS' acceptance of an anti-abortion ad by the conservative group Focus on the Family. The spot features the mother of Heisman Trophy winner Tebow recalling how she was advised by doctors to terminate her pregnancy after contracting dysentery while serving as a missionary in the Philippines in 1987. Pam Tebow ignored that advice, and gave birth to a son who became a star quarterback. He appears in the spot.

Various women's groups have objected to the CBS decision to run the Tebow ad. Planned Parenthood even produced a rebuttal for the Web featuring athletes Sean James and Al Joyner talking about choice and respect for women.

All this furor assures that the chatter will stop in living rooms across the country when "the Tim Tebow ad!" comes on.

I think Americans can handle a little controversy with their football. I don't think Focus on the Family will change many minds for the $3 million it will be paying for each 30 seconds of air time.

However, the most super deal of all was had by Man Crunch, which got a bounty of attention without shelling out a dime to CBS.

Oprah Acts as Mediator in Letterman's Super Bowl Ad

Google Runs Television Ad During Super Bowl

Bloomberg

Google Inc., the world’s most popular search engine, ran a minute-long commercial during the Super Bowl, marking a rare use of TV advertising for the company.

The ad demonstrated features of the company’s search engine, including its translation functions. The commercial, called “Parisian Love,” showed an Internet user relying on Google to court someone in France.



Google hasn’t typically relied on television ads to publicize its products, though it did use TV to promote its Chrome Web browser last year. Those commercials, which were developed by Google’s Japanese employees, first aired on the YouTube video site. The Super Bowl commercial had a similar origin: It was part of a series of videos that ran on YouTube for more than three months.

“We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said in a blog posting yesterday. “Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.”

Schmidt signaled that the Super Bowl commercial was coming last week, saying in a Twitter update that he couldn’t wait to watch the game. “Be sure to watch the ads in the third quarter,” he said.

The Super Bowl, held at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami, pitted the Indianapolis Colts against the New Orleans Saints for the National Football League championship. The Saints won 31-17.

CBS Corp., which broadcast the game, said the cost of some of the Super Bowl ads exceeded $3 million for a 30-second spot. The game drew an estimated 106.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched program in U.S. television history, according to Nielsen Co.

Google rose $2.18 to $533.47 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have fallen 14 percent this year.

Pepsi Chooses Social Media Over Super Bowl Ads

San Francisco Chronicle

The rise of social media has helped end one of the longest streaks in Super Bowl history - Pepsi won't have a televised commercial during the big game for the first time in 23 years.

Instead of paying millions of dollars for 30 seconds of airtime, the soft drink giant is pouring resources into an online social-networking campaign designed to engage and interact with customers for months.

It's a move that raised eyebrows among traditional media watchers, but social media experts say Pepsi has called the right play for a rapidly changing advertising game in which consumers are becoming the mass media that carry the message.

And relying on standard TV, print or online banner ads may no longer be enough.

"People are expecting the same interactivity, the same engagement that they're finding when they use Facebook or when they are Twittering," said social-media marketing consultant Carnet Williams, founder of Sprout Inc. of San Francisco.

The Super Bowl telecast is considered the top advertising opportunity of the year on American television. For Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints, CBS-TV was reportedly asking as much as $3 million for a 30-second spot.

Joining conversation

Yet the growing prominence of social networks like Facebook and Twitter is causing advertisers to look beyond broadcasting its brand once or twice to 100 million people to joining the conversation stream emanating from the audience itself.

Several Super Bowl advertisers are incorporating social media into their commercials. Budweiser, for example, asked voters on its Facebook page to vote for which commercials to air during the game, while Monster.com's Facebook page featured video of a fiddling beaver that is scheduled to star in the online job company's Super Bowl ad.

Coke's donation

And Pepsi's archrival, Coca-Cola, is donating $1 to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for every virtual Coke gift that Facebook fans send to their friends.

But PepsiCo Inc., which reportedly spent $254 million on Super Bowl commercials over the past two decades, decided not to run any soft drink spots during the game, although the company will continue to pitch its Doritos snack food brand.

Online campaign

Instead, it launched an online campaign on Monday called the Pepsi Refresh Project, pledging to donate more than $1 million in February alone to social causes and community projects nominated and selected in a vote by fans. Pepsi is committing about $20 million in donations through the end of this year, with a new round of voting each month.

"The project is about creating a movement, not just a moment," said Bonin Bough, PepsiCo's global director of digital and social media.

A key component is a Facebook page that by Friday had more than 342,000 fans. Pepsi is also using Twitter, live Ustream video and an iPhone application.

Pepsi hopes those fans will vote, post comments and passionately promote their favorite causes - and along the way, the Pepsi brand - within their own networks of friends.

"They allow us to build deeper relationships and deeper dialogue with our customers," Bough said. With digital media, he said, "consumers are using it in totally different ways than advertisers ever expected them to."

Among the early top vote-getters was an organization hoping to ship 5,000 Girl Scout Cookies to military troops and another offering to send a care package to needy expectant parents. Movie stars Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon posted videos promoting their own favorite causes, which stand to win a $250,000 Pepsi grant.

Bough said more than 1,000 causes for February were nominated in the campaign's first 72 hours and Pepsi has already reached the maximum number of submissions for March.

Praising decision

Jessica Ong, director of online media and search for the Internet traffic measurement company Compete Inc., said Pepsi made the right decision to shift ad dollars away from the Super Bowl and to social media.

"It's really a good example of content that gives consumers incentives to come back and interact with the site," Ong said. "It is going to open the eyes and ears of those working at other brands to consider online channels."

Ong said she examined the response to Pepsi's sponsorship of NFL.com's Rookie of the Week voting during the regular season. People exposed to the sponsored site were far more likely to visit a Pepsi site, including RefreshEverything.com.

And more than 83 percent visited Pepsi sites instead of those of rival Coke, she said.