Google Earth

What is Google Earth?

Google Earth is a main form of viewing anything in the world, anywhere in the world for business purposes or just for fun. Like Google maps you can view birds eye views of the world, these are taken with a satellite camera and are updated every 2 years. Unlike Google maps however you can also view the world in 3d as well.

There are three versions of google earth: Google Plus, Google Earth 4.3 and Google Earth Pro.

Google Plus

Google Plus costs $20 dollars a year. Recently Google has removed the plus version as they feel that users can already get all of the features on Plus, on Google Earth. Besides we don't want to waste our money on something that we already had in the first place that was free.

Google Earth 4.3

I wont say much about this as its only in the beta stage, but the quality of the 3d maps is spot on. (use this for flight simulator!)



Google Earth Pro

The pro version is much more expensive but much more detailed and in depth. It costs around $400 dollars a year and is the only edition which allows you to make areas 3d from scratch rather than viewing what the computer shows 3d. Basically you can edit the buildings as you see fit and post them to friends or print the images off. This is mainly used by architects and corporate businessmen. It also allows you to view the images at full quality and speed.

Platforms

• Mac's
• PC
• Linux
• iPhone, iPodtouch
• Ubiq Window
  

On Demand TV and Video

Online Viewing

Online viewing movies have been steadaly increasing over the last year with more and more people watching or downloading movies or music over the internet from websites like YouTube. It is slowley reducing the amount of television viewers. 2070 people were asked if they watch videos online, 43% said they watched online at least once a week.

Marketing and advertising companies are greatly affected. Some of these companies include: Virgin Media, YouTube and BBC iPlayer. Companies today are spending more money today on online viewing advertising and viral marketing than they have in prievious years.

Approximately £2.8 billion was spent on online viewing alone by the BBC. Seven times more people use YouTube as their key viewing website than BBC iPlayer. The vast people that use it is astonishing. Flight companies sometimes incorporate on demand viewing as an in flight alternative. You can pause, fast forward and rewind whatever your watching. It has since spread to all forms of digital television. Some digital television companies sometimes use the push on demand video. It allows users to watch shows or videos which they have missed and watch them. These videos are prerecorded and posted on the main on demand menu or website. This is also known by customers as catchup on demand or TV choice on demand.

Blogs

What is a blog?

If youre reading this chances are you already know what a blog is. If youve stumbled upon this by accident (which is highly unlikely), then I'll tell you. Blogs are information areas which allow the administrator (you) to post information or general knowlage that will create a response from the rest of the world who may find and view it (like you are now). Others who view it can also add comments if the administrator (admin) allows them. The admin can also edit his/her posts for any reason and only the admin can do this. Like a forum they are split up into various catagories depending on how the admin wishes to display his/her information/knowlage. (for information on forums please see next post). The fist blog was created in 1991, but was not used until 1994 by Dave Winer, Jorn Barger and Justin Hall.

One good example of a blog is http://chris.pirillo.com.

Blogs are used for a variety of things. They can be used for a journal or diary. They can be split off into mini articles and also which i have already mentioned to introduce, relay and present information on an in-formal state.


What makes a good blog?

1. Brand name
2. Being different
3. Useful and reliable
4. Controversy (one example being the Perez Hilton blog)
5. Simplicity makes them appealing

Things to avoid

1. A fad/phaze
2. is it worth having one?
3. Attracts Trolls*
4. Spammers
   

*trolls are viewers who deliberatly post verbal abuse and nasty comments to other viewers in order to get a response and have them sumerally banned. Its usually best to not allow viewers to comment unless you read each comment and only allow some to be viewed by others and the rest deleted.

Creating your own blog

Before you can begin on your own blog you need the following

• visit either wordpress.com or blogger.com
  
• webspace
• zip file
• bandwidth

Useful features

1. autosave
2. adding video/flash animations
3. drafting
4. akismet (anti-spam)
5. comment moderation

Which is better: Blogger or wordpress?

I found blogger to be very straight forward easy to set up a quick blog and its also highly customizable. I mean as you can see i'm still using it, your'e on blogger now reading this post. Its well presented and simple. The customisation options include choosing a template, changing the colours of your template, having full freedom when writing and editing posts.

Wordpress was much more frustrating. The customisation options if any were relativly crap and rubbish. There's so much other info on the page its annoying. It all seems far too complex and confusing. I'd stick with blogger because its quicker better well presented and damn right a hell of a lot more easier to set up your blog and start posting.

Virtual reality Gaming and Marketing

What is a VRG/VRM

• Interactive visual narrative



• examples include- emails, voicemails etc



• A type of viral marketing campain



• a series of websites that promote or advertise a new product, usually a game or movie



• usually creates false information that is usually linked to the final outcome, though not all VRG's use them.

ilovebees.com

It began as a small amount of text at the bottom of the screen at the end of a game trailer. As people began to look at this new website they saw just a boring website about bee farming. Others who looked further found a countdown to somthing with various instructions such as locations and times to arrive which caused much curiosity. For those who turned up they were given another clue which eventually led to a select few to play the new Halo game (this happened 2 years ago). On the whole it was a way of introducing and promoting the new game.

Other examples of this type of marketing include Nine inch Nails, promoting their new album Year Zero. Their idea was based upon a conspiracy which caused many rumours and an uproar. Another example is the whysoserious.com which shows many newspaper images with smiley faces skrawlled all over them . It spread over america using an election campain as a front called "elect Harvey Dent" This was all a campain to promote and introduce the new Batman movie: The Dark Knight.





How will ARG's change the world

Alternate reality games will continue to spread i think. I think many upcoming movies or games or music will use this to promote their new products. They are highly immersive and addictive, I spent the better part of 2 hours on the Batman ARG as it is so in depth. You will never understand how largely formed these websites are and how many are involved until you've been on one yourself. The audience and fans who flock to this chain of webpages is extremly large. The public love the hype and buzz they get from traveling to various locations to find out more about the chain of webpages. Although on a personal note I'm too lazy to bother going to these locations. But I suppose its an exciting adventure for others, so I guess until a new form of viral marketing turns up or is invented, ARG's will continue to be used as a new form of advertising.

WeLcOmE !!!

Hi there, here you'll find all of my research on the systems i have looked at over the first term. I hope you like it!