Monthly Archives: August 2006

Google & News Corporation Strike USD$900 Million Deal

Internet, News

On the 7th of August 2006, Google announced one of the biggest online deals in the history of the internet with News Corporation. The multi-year agreement between News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media and Google will see Google part with approximately USD$900 Million dollars and for that pleasure, it will deliver exclusive search and keyword targeted advertising to the growing Fox Interactive Media network of sites.

The agreement states that Google will provide advertising to the Fox Interactive Media group sites, which include a swag of technology, computer gaming sites, sport related and also the behemoth that is MySpace. The benefit to News Corporation is also clear; with strategic alignment with a leading technology company like Google – it will allow News Corporation to transform its company into the dominant force in the digital media realm.

This deal, in my opinion, is going to position Google to be the premium provider of online advertising in the future. Google obviously already delivers an excellent product for the text based advertising, however affiliation with Fox Interactive Media should see them deliver more image based advertising. If they do start delivering more image/flash based advertising, this should translate into Google enhancing its current AdSense and other advertising programs which should put it clearly out in front.

The amazing thing about the agreement is that it is going to cost Google approximately USD$900 million dollars between 2007 and 2010. News Corporation have to be particularly chuffed about the whole situation since they only began investing heavily in the internet space in July 2005 with their high profile purchase of MySpace for approximately USD$580 Million dollars.

It sure is a changing landscape in recent times.

Uplate Game Show Returns Worse Than Ever

General

In September last year, I posted about The Uplate Game Show and noted that it was possibly one of the worst shows that has ever hit the TV.

I had secretly hoped that with Big Brother 2006 ending, that The Uplate Game Show would have died a swift and quiet death; unfortunately I was wrong. As of last night, Simon Deering aka Hotdogs, has returned for another season hammering. The last ‘season’ of The Uplate Game Show was painful and forced, where Hotdogs babbled on and on. In an attempt to ease that pain somewhat, it appears that Channel 10 have slotted in a co-host. If you’re up to the challenge, try and imagine a female version of Hotdogs that has even more of the superficial fake enthusiasm; I know, it hurt.

I was shocked last time around but I cannot believe that Channel 10 are that desperate for a showing that they’d put it back on. Then again, with the advent of everyone’s favourite ‘please little teenager, SMS and make us millionaires’ tactic, it isn’t really that surprising.

Ragdoll Relaxation

Animals, Photos

Ragdoll Kitten: Napping On An Ironing BoardIt has been nearly three months since I last posted anything about Princess; so it is time for a little update.

As I mentioned in the last update, Princess isn’t very lady like. For whatever reason, she has taken to sleeping in her perfectly lady-like position in the doorway of our bedroom. At night, if she isn’t sleeping on her back in the doorway; you can be sure she is sprawled over one of our bedside tables.

To unwind from a stressful day, Princess likes to play with her toys. One of her favourite toys is a simple household clothes peg; she thinks they are just great. She has been known to play with them on her own steam for hours at a time and also retrieve them too! A little while ago, we kept on losing her favourite pegs and we couldn’t work out where they were vanishing to. On the weekend, Claire and I decided we’d hunt the house high and low to find out where Princess has been stashing them. After checking all the expected places, we ended up being very surprised!