I think these are the two most important paragraphs (I’ve added the headings):

Viral is not habitual

Media is all about building habits. Successful producers bind an audience to their creation, building an insatiable hunger for the next installment, next episode, next post. But when you focus on viral success, you throw that focus on repeatability out the window. By its nature, viral videos are designed to surprise, titillate and entertain. They are, by nature, unique; the 27th keyboard cat or the 12th dancing baby is just plain boring. But once video producers taste the heady success of a viral hit, they keep trying to re-create lightning in a bottle. But let’s face it — we all know “David Goes to the Proctologist” isn’t going to be nearly as successful as his trip to the dentist.

Viral doesn’t necessarily drive ad revenue

Sure, everyone loves to trumpet a single video with millions of views. But because viral videos are by their nature unpredictable, they can burn through an allocation of premium inventory rather rapidly. At most sites, there are only so many high-CPM advertisements ready to run at any given time. When they’re done, bottom-dwelling ad networks lurch into the void, spewing their cheapo ads for teeth whitening, belly flattening and nicotine-busting dreck.

Touchscreens are changing the way we think of data and function- you no longer need an interstitial tool to scroll through your email, play a game, rotate a 3D object or zoom in/out of a picture- the previously virtual things create on computers become almost pseudo-physical. On a typical computer, I manually control my mouse which results in a virtual cursor moving in a predictable way, but that relationship becomes closer if I start to use my hands to move and manipulate objects on my screen, just as if I were to move physical objects around a room. When we start to have a physical relationship with objects, we start to care about them much more- if a the department store can get you to try on an outfit, or a watch salesman can get a timepiece on your wrist, you are much more likely to ‘bond’ with it and ultimately, buy it.

Duncan Wilcox has a great way of stating it:

To a novice user, aiming at something on screen with a mouse is like trying to ring a doorbell using a broomstick. The tool that’s between you and the target object is the cause for the lack of directness. You will get used to it out of necessity, but that doesn’t make it better than direct interaction.

It is still too early in this new interface shift to really know how this will affect us long-term, but I dont think it will be very long before we see a real explosion in the application of touchscreen technology. There are already touch screen computers, phones, cameras, watches and tables; how long until auto mechanics use a physical interface to pre-envision parts and fixes or a screen on your refrigerator lets you maneuver through your over-packed shelves to see what you really have in there?

Image Credit: EugeniusD80

Update:

Added Duncan Wilcox quote

“With or without this embedding problem, we’ll never get 50 zillion views on a YouTube video again. That moment – the dawn of internet video – is gone. The internet isn’t as anarchic as it was then. Now there are Madison Avenue firms that specialize in “viral marketing” and the success of our videos is now taught in business school. But here’s a secret: zillions of hits was never the point. We’re a rock band, and it’s a great gig. Not just because we get to snort drugs off the Queen of England (we do), but because the only thing we are expected to do is make cool stuff. We chase our craziest ideas for a living, and if sharing those ideas takes 40 websites instead of one, it doesn’t make too big a difference to us.”

I think this is the most awesome insight into the state of digital media and social engagement in a very long time. The entire letter is really great and is actually a very reasonable commentary on the state of the music industry as a whole, too.

Check out my Dopplr listings for the future (not much planned right now).

Republic/Springfield, MO*
Boston, MA*
Des Moines, IA*
Sacramento, CA
San Francisco, CA
East Hampton, NY
New London, CT
Wilmington, DE
Philadelphia, PA
Easton, PA
Providence, RI
Minneapolis, MN
White Plains, NY
Austin, MN
Osage, IA

Previous Lists:
[2008]

Well occasionally, they do cool things worth sharing and I think this one qualifies.  They periodically survey customers for feedback about various aspects of their services, financial feelings and overall consumer insight.  Well they recently posted some data from these surveys and the results are an interesting peek at how people think about their money and the context of their decision-making.

How are you feeling about…?

I think its interesting to see that while the respondents are slightly more pessimistic about the economy, they are overwhelmingly optimistic about their own jobs and retirement plans.   Feels a bit like a “Bad things will only happen to other people” kind of mentality. Though there is a noticeable shift in confidence from “My Job” to “My retirement plans” indicating that people aren’t too worried about losing their jobs, but aren’t too sure their 401K will be there to meet them at the end.

Would you rather permanently lose 20lbs or get $10,000 in cash?

This one doesn’t strike me as too shocking… I think that I could start going to the gym and eating a bit healthy and drop 20lbs for less effort than I would need to expend to earn $10,000.  I would definitely take the $10k… and then promptly stuff it in a mattress.

Would you rather retire modestly at 55 or retire wealthy at 65?

Given the option of retiring modestly at 55 or wealthy at 65 is a bit more complicated than it seems at first.  If you retire at middle class at 55, thats an extra decade of options as to what you want to do… though those options may not be as extravagant as they would be if you were wealthy.  But it seems that the happiness you would get from 10 years of not working would be a nearly equal substitute of self-perpetuating wealth; I suppose there is something to be said for the peace of mind you would have if you retired wealthy at 65.

I don’t know which I’d chose- I don’t know if I could ever just stop working all together but I think I would love the idea of having 10 years to work on whatever I want to in an attempt to get the happiness of doing what I enjoy along with the potential of achieving wealth sometime in the decade before 65.

I thought it was interesting data from their customers- though it must be said that I know very little about collection methods or anything else that would speak to the data validity- it does seem to me that it would likely be skewed to younger, higher-income consumers in more urban areas with unrestricted access to broadband so its likely not perfectly representative of the nation as a whole.  But good stuff to check out nonetheless.  Be sure to read their entire blog post on the survey.

Zach van Schouwen has created a very cool video showing the entire history of one block in New York City. He started out researching a five-story tenement building at 218 Eldridge Street which his great-great grandfather lived.

“With some help from Christopher Gray’s guide to researching New York City buildings, I discovered that the building had been erected in 1834, on the site of an old house. It was demolished in the 1940s; its lot later held a garage, then a housing project.”

I love these kinds of things… seeing how much the city has changed over the years from a farm to a row of small buildings to an empty lot and back again. The map below shows the block of Eldridge between Stanton and Rivington.

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