Links for 2006-12-06
- Pixelotto is a well-publicised (in the UK) attempt to replicate the success of the Million Dollar Homepage, but this time with a new gimmick It's actually trying to collect $2 million dollars, and the differentiator is that one person who clicks on the ads will be awarded $1 million dollars or 50% of the prize fund, with the rest going to the organisers. Smart, if slightly creepy, model...
- Alexa stats match Sitemeter stats for relatively well-trafficed sites I'm pretty sure—well I know, actually—that Alexa rankings don't coincide so effectively the further you go down the rankings. When you get to me the two are almost entirely unrelated...
- Some straight couples are deciding not to get married until it's a universal right that gay people can exercise too It's a lovely sentiment, and the people concerned really have all my respect for making this choice. I think it's more of an indication of personal morality than a political campaigning move though. None the worse for that of course...
- Octogenarians sing 'Fix You' by Coldplay A weirdly moving bit of television and music that has a certain cheese factor that's cut quite nicely by the sense that the people who sing know exactly what they're singing about - more than anyone a third of their age possibly could...
- Beautiful graphic design in the Gloucester Road Underground station by Chiho Aoshima I've seen the adverts for this all around the tube, but I didn't realise it would be displayed like this. I totally want to go and see this now. It looks sort of beautiful...
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
I saw the fix you piece - really moving - nice bit of telly
→ Posted by: jim jay at December 6, 2006 2:54 AM
re: pixelotto. It is really creepy and it'll definitely work.
We through around a similar idea in the very early days on BBC Online. our only target was 'reach' at that point (reach, reach, reach, nothing else) so one notion was to abandon creating any content at all, and just getting UK internet users to visit a simple page where they would have to enter their email address and answer a simple (or not so simple question). At the end of the year we'd give away the £20m budget as a prize.
No-one bought the idea but it did serve to illustrate the we weren't just about 'reach' but also in some sense about some kind of audience/customer engagement.
→ Posted by: azeem at December 6, 2006 9:16 AM
I saw the Chiho Aoshima mural last week. Splendid stuff.
→ Posted by: hugh macleod at December 6, 2006 10:28 AM
on the subject of straight couples deciding not to get married until us gays can... what a genius excuse for not proposing to your partner!
→ Posted by: stuart at December 6, 2006 11:04 AM
RE: Octogenarians sing 'Fix You' by Coldplay
Did you see the documentary about these guys on channel 4 last week? It was slightly too long but generally excellent, the performance you link to had added poignancy when you know the back story.
→ Posted by: tomp at December 6, 2006 11:31 AM
Re: Chiho Aoshima - go. It's wonderful in person - love going through Gloucester Road on the District line, although you have to get out onto the platform to really look at it all. Wonderful to have it online too - thanks for the link!
→ Posted by: Louise at December 6, 2006 1:50 PM
Aren't Alexa stats kinda obsolete in the "sensible websphere", anyway? I mean, I'm quite sure most Firefox users don't send user data to Alexa (is there even an extension that sends back user data from Firefox?), and I'm also quite sure that most sensible people who for some reason use Internet Explorer don't use the rather intrusive and ugly Alexa Toolbar application.
At least that's what I like to think when I look at the rankings and the bullshit sites that rank high especially here in Sweden. Yes, most Swede's are idiots, but it can't be that bad.. please?
→ Posted by: Daniel Granström at December 7, 2006 9:14 AM
Chiho Aoshima. Definitely worth seeing in person.
No longer commuting through Gloucester Road twice a day is one of the few things I miss about having changed jobs earlier this year. I just managed to catch the beginning of that exhibition before the change and I've been failing to get round to getting my girlfriend (and, more importantly, her substantially superior prowess with a digicam) to Gloucester Road ever since.
We've only got til late January… :o)
→ Posted by: Owen Blacker at December 7, 2006 2:11 PM