Posted on April 29, 2005 @ 11:07 am
When I wrote my post about Carat Interactive’s new blogging practice I had in mind the traditional sense of the blog and therefore mocked it as an unnecessary service for most companies.
After further thought, the timing of Carat’s press release was synched with the hype over Audi’s new Stolen A3 blog and accompanying ad campaign
Audi’s campaign introduces the new A3 wagon to American consumers through a mystery that entices consumers to get involved and solve it via clues on Audi’s blog. The first ad I came across for the A3 mystery was on Cool Hunting The premise is pretty exciting and blends Alternate Reality Gaming open source marketing OpenSourceMktg and blogging.
The trend of using blogs to advertise is really on the rise — and it makes perfect sense as both bloggers and blog readers are generally tech-savvy, affluent, influential, early adopters.
According to Pew Internet and American Life Project an organization that studies the social effect of the Internet, 7% of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet say they have created a blog and 27% of that 120 million say they read blogs — and those numbers are rising rapidly.
Another sign that blogvertising is heading into the main stream marketing mix is an article in AdAge yesterday, which says that P&G is launching a new campaign for a body spray product that incorporates blogs and iPod giveaways. So I apologize for second-guessing Carat Interactive’s intentions. The blogvertising bandwagon is leaving the station, so get ready to fork over some cash for a ticket.
Posted on April 25, 2005 @ 8:10 pm
Today I bought a new car — a Prius.
!/timages/i/4-25-05-prius.jpg!
With oil prices surpassing $55/barrel my Ford Explorer that gets 16 MPG just isn’t cutting it.
I felt there are a number of great reasons to buy a Prius — particularly the potential HOV lane exemption tax deduction and a 150k mile warranty on the battery.
What is also really cool is the future of the hybrid system and what some car hackers are accomplishing. There was a great article in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago – and hackers that are able to gain an extra 100+ MPG by plugging in the car or adding extra battery packs.
If I can drive my Prius for a few years and then buy a third-party battery package to increase the MPG — I’d do it if they can make it safe and economical.
Posted on April 22, 2005 @ 10:48 am
The successs of the iPod has largely been responsible for the rebirth of Apple. When Apple launched the Shuffle they took control of the entire portable music player market, as they now have iPods available at all price points — from $99 for the basic Shuffle to $449 if you want the photo iPod with maximum storage.
One topic that hasn’t received much attention is Apple’s iPod accessory line which I’m convinced delivers vastly higher profit margins than the iPods themselves.
When the Shuffle was launched earlier this year, the acccessories weren’t available — and just went on sale a few weeks ago. I can’t say for sure whether this delay in releasing the accessories was intended to create demand, but it did so very effectively.
My girlfriend bought a Shuffle back in February and was annoyed that there wasn’t an armband so she could take it running. Apple had a nice looking one listed on their site, but said it wouldn’t be released for 8-12 weeks.
!/timages/i/4-22-05-ipodarmband.jpg!
Last week we went to the Apple store to buy the shuffle armband and couldn’t believe that this simple piece of neoprene was priced at $29 — 1/3rd the price of the actual shuffle. After I got over the sticker shock, I was even more surprised that the store had sold out, and the Palo Alto store only had 2 left in stock.
If Apple can continue to create killer products like the iPod and build strong demand for their own branded, cheaply made accessories — they will continue to build loyal, paying customers – no matter what the price point.
Posted on April 21, 2005 @ 11:07 pm
A number of corporations have blogs that allow their company to communicate with consumers in a more approachable and personal voice. Companies that have corporate blogs include Yahoo Ask Jeeves and Plaxo Some even less likely candidates have embraced blogging, such as GM and Ford
While blogs are nothing new and have been around for a few years now, they really spread like wildfire in the last 18 months.
Just last week, Carat interactive announced that they are starting a Blog practice to help clients setup their blogs, monetize blogs with ads, and monitor content on blogs. I suspect that Carat has identified a number of their clients that don’t have corporate blogs, and are going to charge them a nice fee to design their blog and provide some editorial guidelines.
Posted on April 20, 2005 @ 9:59 am
In the same place where illegal file sharing started, the major music labels, including Sony BMG, Universal, Warner Music, and EMI, are promoting a new P2P service on college campuses across the US called Peer Impact The service is launching with an invitation-only model (a la Gmail or Yahoo 360 
and is different from typical P2P programs, as it actually rewards users for sharing music that they’ve purchased on the Peer Impact system.
The success of Peer Impact depends largely on whether the existing P2P services that allow users to exchange copyrighted material get shut down or not — and on whether they can establish a credible brand on campuses.
At this point they seem to be facing an uphill battle. The same labels that are promoting Peer Impact are the same labels that are supporting the RIAA lawsuits against college students for sharing music. And from my quick scan on Google and eBay, I don’t see anyone offering peer impact invitations (search yahoo 360 on eBay to compare) — so most kids must still be using Kazaa
Posted on April 18, 2005 @ 9:23 pm
I’ve been listening to the radio a lot recently and have started to really enjoy the programming on KQED which is the local NPR station.
After listening the other day, I went to their website to read the transcript of a story I heard. After navigating around NPR.org, I found a great section called All Songs Considered
All Songs Considered has live recordings of Bright Eyes Interpol Wilco Blonde Redhead and others.
!/timages/i/4-18-05-interpol.jpg(All Songs Considered)!:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4540031
The audio quality is excellent and the shows are superb. I highly recommend visiting NPR.org to listen. If you like it, I suggest donating to your local NPR station to ensure they continue to record All Songs Considered.
Posted on @ 9:03 am
As I mentioned in my first post, I originally acquired this domain in 2001 to work with a few friends and launch philtered.com, a weekly publication. Unfortunately the publication never materialized, so now I use philtered.com to blog.
About me
My name is Christian DiCarlo and I live in San Francisco New York City with my dog Charley. If I’m not working, you can often find me biking, swimming, sailing or running. I recently left my job at Google and picked up and moved to New York City. Currently I’m a student at Columbia Business School (Class of 2010).
Disclaimer
Please note that the views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.
Posted on April 17, 2005 @ 7:33 pm
Earlier this year, Google launched Google Maps — and in the last month or so there have been some really interesting things that people have done with Google Maps.
One of the coolest is the Craigslist-GoogleMaps combo site which takes the housing info from Craigslist and displays it on Google Maps. My girlfriend and I are currently looking for a new place in San Francisco, and this site is awesome for browsing the Craiglist listings.
Something else that I’ve seen are customized maps created on Google Maps. Because Google maps uses XML, they are pretty easy to create. Here is a great article on Engadget about how to create your own customized map.
!/timages/i/4-17-05-googlemaps.jpg(Google Maps Example)!
A few weeks ago, Google integrated Keyhole with Google Maps, and someone created a collection of some of the odd and amusing sights. Check out Google Sightseeing to browse their collection of images.
Posted on @ 5:40 pm
h3. Below is a history of my life as found online:
* 2009 – I joined InSITE a student-run consultancy in NYC with a focus on venture financing for technology start-ups.
* 2009 – I left Google after 5+ years and moved back to New York City to get my MBA at Columbia Business School.
* 2008 – Presentations in Crimea and Czech Republic
* 2007 – Eastern European Tour: Ukraine Latvia Lithuania and Estonia
* 2007 – Photo from my presentation at the University of Latvia:
* 2007 – Presentation from Presidente Felipe Calderon in Mexico City
* 2006 – Interview for the Librarian Center Newsletter
* 2006 – Google Scholar Library Search Announcement
* 2005 – San Francisco Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon
* 2005 – San Diego Spring Sprint Triathlon
* 2004 – Napa Valley Triathlon
* 2003 – Treasure Island Triathlon
* 2003 – I move to SF
* 2002 – BWM Greenwich Cup Biathlon
* 2001 – New York City Marathon
* 2000 – First job out of college
* 1999 – My first book review on Amazon
* 1998 – Dell Computer Essay Contest Winner
Posted on April 16, 2005 @ 12:23 pm
_Hello again and welcome back to philtered._
After a number of years of not updating my site, I was bored last night, installed Textpattern and here I am with my first post.
I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to use this for, so I’ll figure that out as we go.
If you’re wondering why I have this site if I don’t know what I’m going to use it for, here’s the story. I originally acquired the domain in 2001 to work with a few friends and launch philtered magazine I took a week off work to build the publishing system, my friend Seth helped to design it and we found an editor and a couple of writers to contribute. We moved forward and put together the first issue, and then the editor got another job — so we ended up scrapping the project.
Anyhow, I still think the philtered newsletter looks pretty cool, so I used the header for this site. I recoded it in CSS instead of HTML (which was not that easy) — and hope it will continue to evolve.