CBS-related: YouTube Adds a Layer of Filtering to Be a Little Nicer

from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/technology/11youtube.html?ei=5065&en=5e0a2cd2f836a07f&ex=1166504400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

 

YouTube Adds a Layer of Filtering to Be a Little Nicer

By MARIA ASPAN

When the video-sharing site YouTube.com was sold to Google, many of its users worried that corporate ownership would restrict the content of its videos. But now one of YouTube's corporate partners is changing the ways that users comment on those videos instead.

YouTube, which is host to many official CBS video clips under an October licensing agreement with the network, has changed its layout for some of the Web pages with CBS videos. Most YouTube videos are embedded on Web pages that allow viewers to read user comments, with some of them listed directly below the video. These comments can range from the coherent ("That was hilarious.") to the, er, less-so ("omg lol!") to the profane.

The comments on many of the videos posted by CBS have now been moved to a separate page; instead of sample comments underneath the videos, a link to "view all comments" takes users to a separate Web page where they can read comments without watching the video at the same time.

CBS began moving and filtering comments on some videos in mid-October, shortly after announcing its licensing agreement with YouTube, in order to remove "profane, unconstructive criticism," and off-topic political vitriol, said Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive.

To many users of sites like YouTube, of course, being profane, unconstructive, off-topic and vitriolic is the point.

"We just want to make sure the front page is a little bit cleaner," Mr. Smith said, adding that comments containing certain profanities are caught by an automatic filter, while the remaining comments are then vetted by someone who works at CBS or YouTube and moved to the separate page. "We thought it was a better user experience, and it gives us a second to weed out the completely unuseful comments."

CBS is not the only content provider on YouTube to filter out "spam" messages from the user comments; representatives from YouTube confirmed that the Web site will often use such filters if complaints are raised.

"CBS continues to be one of YouTube's most important partners, but our community remains what's most important above all," said Suzie Reider, the chief marketing officer of YouTube, in an e-mail statement. "We work with all our partners, CBS included, to provide insight in what content will foster an environment that our community will be most responsive to."

The CBS deal with YouTube, part of many media companies' attempts to exploit the video site that distributed their copyrighted content, has so far yielded positive results for the network. According to an announcement the companies made on Nov. 21, CBS videos were among some of the most-viewed content on the site during the first month of partnership.

Mr. Smith said that CBS was trying to provide the best possible interactive experience for the viewers, noting that many YouTube users' critical comments are passed around the network. "We've got to encourage more feedback," he said. "I don't want to mess with the YouTube experience." MARIA ASPAN

Yahoo's Millard Cautious About User-Generated Content

From: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=113628

 

At UBS: Few Good at Monetizing Those Pages

By Andrew Hampp

Published: December 05, 2006

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Not everyone is excited about the marketing possibilities of user-generated content -- least of all Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo, who defined the success of YouTube as "a lot of page views. What was their revenue this year?"

 

Yahoo's chief sales officer, Wenda Harris Millard, says sites like YouTube generate a lot of page views but not a lot of revenue.

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Online inventory has skyrocketed since the explosion of user-generated content, but, Ms. Millard said, "the reality is that there are very few companies -- if any -- that are doing what you would call a good job of monetizing it."

UBS conference
Marketers have been genuinely interested in harnessing this phenomenon for the past two years; it's Yahoo's job to show them how, she told analysts at the UBS media conference.

"All of a sudden, technology has facilitated the rise of the consumer voice in a way that is startling to many of us. But the reality is nobody's doing a great job helping a marketer understand how to leverage this stuff."

Ms. Millard was also none too impressed by the move to viral campaigns, having seen results on her own "test lab" at home.

"I have a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, and they don't want to be [MySpace] friends with the Burger King king," she said.

Leading the social-media charge
Yahoo has long led the social-media charge with its e-mail, instant messaging and gaming services, tripling MySpace and quintupling YouTube in size.

"Social media is hard to monetize because that age group is so fickle," she said. "Think of all the failed magazines in this world. Nobody's ever been able to put their arms around it at the time. To hold them, you have to be very, very careful not only about the content but about the advertising."

"The question from a business standpoint is: How do you make money at this? It's fun, it's a blast, trying to figure this out, but I don't think anyone is doing it particularly well," she said.

'Peanut butter' memo
The panel's candid vibe continued when an audience member broached the topic of Yahoo Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse's now-infamous "peanut butter" memo from two weeks ago (the internal memo criticized the lack of focus at the company, comparing Yahoo's efforts across all its properties to peanut butter spread too thin).

"I had a really hard time deciding whether I wanted fluff or jelly with that," Ms. Millard quipped. "The reality is, if you really look at that, you could take Yahoo's name off of that and put on almost any company you've ever worked for. This company has grown from $720 million five years to nearly $6 billion today. Is it challenging to grow with that accelerated pace? Is everything perfect? Can we make decisions as fast as a company with 100 people? No. So I looked at it as pretty silly in terms of the noise that was made of it.

"But the reality is," she continued, "we are a company that has grown at an extraordinary rate, and that doesn't come without questions about your ability to move with competitive speed."

Follow-Up: Cookie-scented bus shelters killed in San Francisco

From Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/05/city-officials-remove-new-cookie-scented-ads-from-san-francisco/

 

We love the smell of freshly baked cookies as much as the next guy, but smelling cookies at a bus stop is probably unlikely to get us to buy more milk (especially those of us who dig the soy variety). Still, that didn't stop Arcade Marketing, (employed by the California Milk Processor Board), to take the "Got Milk?" ads to a new level with an automated whiff of cookies inside bus shelters in San Francisco. However, the ads, which debuted Monday in SF's Union Square, Financial District, and Nob Hill neighborhoods, were ordered to be taken down by city officials on Tuesday. The city's Municipal Transportation Agency, which presides over the bus shelters, cited public complaints with regard to asthma and respiratory diseases by local activists (namely, the Environmental Health Network of California). That's it EHNC, we're not sending you any holiday cookies this year.

 

Yahoo! to reorganize...

From: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117955163.html?categoryid=18&cs=1

 

Braun leaves post at Yahoo

Company to be split into three new operating units

By BEN FRITZ

After two embattled years on the job, Lloyd Braun has ankled his post as head of Yahoo's Media Group amid a massive reorg at the world's biggest Internet company.

CEO Terry Semel announced the changes Tuesday, near the end of a tough year that has seen Yahoo face intense public criticism and a 31% drop in its stock price.

Starting in the first quarter of 2007, company will divide into three groups focused on audience segments in an attempt to streamline and better compete with fast-growing rivals like Google and News Corp.'s MySpace.

Chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig is also leaving, effective in March.

New operating structure would have diminished Braun's standing in the company, apparently prompting him to resign.

Previously, Braun reported directly to Rosensweig.

But Santa Monica-based YMG, which encompasses all of the Netco's content sites, such as Movies, TV, Music and News, is now part of the Yahoo Network division of the Yahoo Audience Group. Yahoo Network, which also encompasses search, user-generated media, and the Yahoo front page, will be led by Jeff Weiner, previously the head of search.

Netco is looking for an exec to lead the Audience Group, overseeing Weiner and several other execs and reporting directly to Semel.

Braun likely wanted the job atop the Audience Group and didn't like the idea of having additional layers added between him and Semel. His departure wasn't included in Yahoo's reorg announcement, indicating that he resigned in response to the changes, rather than as part of them.

Remaining senior management at YMG, such as head of entertainment and games Vince Broady, music topper Dave Goldberg and head of news and information Scott Moore, will now report directly to Weiner.

David Katz, who previously headed sports and the Yahoo Studios original content group, ankled late last week in a move that now looks like it was connected to the internal shake-up (Daily Variety, Dec. 4).

Rumors of Braun's imminent departure started circling the former ABC prexy within months of joining Yahoo two years ago. His appointment was surprising, as he had no experience in online media.

His initial efforts to bring TV-style event programming to the Netco, such as a failed attempt to develop ABC project "The Runner" for the Web, were ultimately stymied.

After what seemed like more than a year of inaction, Braun recently settled on a more conservative strategy, bringing on a senior management team recruited from other Netcos and focusing on redesigns for existing sites, launching sites focused on food and technology, and low-cost, low-risk original programming such as viral video roundup "The 9."

Tuesday's changes strengthen the position of chief financial officer Susan Decker, who many believe is being positioned to take over for Semel. She is leaving her job as CFO to head the new Advertiser & Publisher group, which will oversee all advertising and business partnerships. Netco has had particular troubles this year with delays in a new advertising technology that caused it to lower its financial guidance.

Yahoo plans to create a new advertising network that joins all its sites with its thousands of distribution partners in an effort to better appeal to marketers, who have been increasingly turning to sites like Google, YouTube, and MySpace.

Third division in the new structure will be the Technology Group, headed by chief technology officer Farazad Nazem, which will oversee engineering and tech development.

Yahoo was previously divided by product group, rather than by audience segment. That led to some some frustrating internal divisions for execs. Many at YMG, for instance, wanted to work more closely with Yahoo Video (user-generated videos) and Flickr (for photos), but those sites were previously in a different product group. They are now joined together in the Network division of the Audience Group.

Semel seemed to acknowledge that Yahoo has in recent years fallen from its leadership position and described the changes as a way to seize that mantle from younger competitors.

"The Internet is continuing to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, and we're reshaping Yahoo to be a leader in this transformation, just as we did successfully five years ago," he said, referring to the time when he first joined the company after having co-led Warner Bros. for many years. "Our strategy capitalizes on big emerging trends and leverages our core strengths in search, media, communities and communications. We believe having a more customer-focused organization, supported by robust technology, will speed the development of leading-edge experiences for our most valuable audience segments."

Company emphasized that its new primary goals will be to create social media environments that encourage users to participate, rather than just consume; to take the lead in next-generation advertising platforms; and to better compete for top talent.

In a statement, Braun said YMG "has developed and launched a groundbreaking template for the next generation of media experiences on the Internet" and noted that "I am proud to have led this team of extraordinary professionals." He told the Los Angeles Times that he is "really ready for another challenge, perhaps one that combines old media and new media."

Bus Shelters get cookie scent

From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061205/us_nm/cookies_ads_dc_1

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hoping to stir up thirst for milk, officials installed advertisements in several San Francisco bus shelters on Monday that give off the scent of freshly baked cookies.

The technology that creates the scent is very similar to that used in magazine ads. Scented adhesives are placed throughout the interior of the bus shelters, including under the benches.

"As long as they are not harmful chemicals, it's OK," one somewhat confused elderly woman said as she pondered the cookie smell in one of the shelters. "They are trying to sell milk? Is that it?"

The effort at five bus shelters is part of a campaign cooked up by the California Milk Processor Board, whose iconic "Got Milk?" campaign has adorned famous figures from around the world with milk mustaches for 13 years.

While olfactory marketing has long been a staple of perfume companies in magazines, Jeff Goodby, chairman of the San Francisco-based ad firm Goodby, Silverstein & Partners that created the campaign, said he knew of no other completely outdoor campaign.