Social Searching

This is lovely.

I went to a presentation at MSN the other day and learnt about all the cool social search things they are rolling out in the States at the moment. One of these things is in conjunction with Facebook and even here in NZ we will soon have Facebook referrals from our friends when we search for things on Bing.

When I heard this, my concern was the amount of education required for the general public to understand that they could benefit from social searching and (basically) friend referrals IF they are logged into Facebook. Trying to explain to your average Joe Blow why their friends profiles turn up on Facebook plug-ins as per below:

For some reason they think it's magic that their faces are staring back at them. Seriously. I have had more than one conversation about this.

Either way, I think it is great and smart and a fantastic thing for Bing to implement. Being the underdog to Google, Bing has to do something to differentiate themselves and this seems like a clever way to do it.

Having so recently seen the Bing example, imagine my surprise when I was on a friends computer the other night, searching for The Chosen One and this pops up:

Social searching on Google! Due to the Microsoft/Facebook exclusive relationship (they're totally going steady), Bing has the advantage because Facebook is a BEAST, but at least Google is trying to make some headway in this area. Obviously Twitter isn't quite as big in New Zealand, but luckily for me, I embrace the Tweets, so I am hoping that this will bode well in my searching going forward.

Really interested in what other people might think about this? If you were searching for 'new cars' and the search returns a result which details that one of your friends like a certain brand, would you be more inclined to investigate further? I think it will be really handy for restaurant recommendations, but further than that, I'm not so sure.

Bad Taste Thursday - Vampire Diaries

So, much to my (male) flatmate's dispair, Go Girls finished last week, which means this week, we have Vampire Diaries. From what I can tell, it's kinda Twilight for TV.

Now, if I were in charge of programming at TVNZ, I would have thought this programme would have sit very nicely on a Friday, but what do I know?

That's not the point of this however. I was doing my daily trawl of the main publishers to see who is doing what, and I gotta admit, I got to Yahoo and was a bit taken aback.

So I totally understand trying to promote a new programme, however I feel as though there was not a huge amount of thought put into situational placement and creative.

Why? Well, you see, the first thing I saw when the page opened was the image of the woman with the headline "Police Fear The Worst" and then all of a sudden these freaking crows come across the page.

Same thing when I hit MSN. None of the stories are quite as obvious behind the expandable banner, but its still crows flying across my screen.

All banners leading to this:

Something just doesn't sit well with me that on 2 publishers homepages, publishers which report news stories, someone would think that crows (which in this show I believe represents death or at least the vampires) wouldn't be the most appropriate choice of visual representation when you consider the possible stories and headlines.

Just feels inappropriate. Now, if this was over the Entertainment sections on either of the sites rather than the homepage, that I could understand; In fact I think it would be very appropriately targeted at the demographic whom they are trying to reach. Totally on board with that idea (and surely it would be cheaper too - don't TVNZ have to save like $20mill or something? Isn't that why they're taking away 10% of agency commission?).

Then I got a heads up from my TVNZ rep this afternoon pointing me to their TV schedule page to check out this banner:

Also promoting The Vampire Diaries. Why is this banner roses while the other is crows? The roses could have worked just as well on YX or MSN. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Now - as an interesting aside (I am writing this while checking out the first ep) - Impulsive you clever kids, perfect synergy for sponsorship and great ad (to be fair - not my cup of tea, but I think I'm quite a way outside their target audience) all while driving to a nice little facebook community. Bonus points to you.

Just lost bonus points. It's been 20 mins and I've seen the ad 3 times. Already bored of it. What's up with that? Trying to boost your frequency?

MSN Hacked??

Is no one paying any attention to their website this morning MSN??
This is what you get when you go directly to www.msn.co.nz this morning. Something tells me it is not on purpose, because if it is, then MSN needs to re-think what they'll allow when it comes to advertising takeovers!

Rest of the screen reads:
Aaaare youuuu Hackeeeed !!

by Agd_Scorp - rx5 - Cr@zy_King

JeXToXiC, , 4R!F, KacaK, BLAsteR, Cebrail, AmeN
Zec, TheHacker, ZeberuS, s3f4, Frabiyy, NetRoot, Suskun

PAKbugs Crew Friends :Zombie_KSA, spo0fer, xOOmxOOm
unuttuklarimiz affede..u
STOP THE WAR ISRAEL
www.turkguvenligi.info
www.heyktooLz.com

Suck huh?

Updated:
Courtesy of NBR online link gist of the hack is that the 'peace crew' (formally 'terrorist crew') have done similar attacked on NATO and US Military sites. I kinda don't get why you would aim for Microsoft NZ of all sites to hack. In saying that, kinda sounds like MSN NZ doesn't really know what's going on, so that probably gives some indication to security/attention levels perhaps??