I have had my share of blogs over the past couple of years and have also created several content and resource sites. In that time I have experiemented with literally dozens of advertising techniques but found that nearly all (unless I manually set up the ad myself) have a major flaw in their system.

This flaw is the same one that search engine’s face. Unfortunately, widely available technology has not reached the point where it can identify context. Only content. This draws some major problems in the advertising world, especially on blogs which are generally very opinionated.

In a recent post I said who I was endorsing for President in 2008. Though my article was an endorsement of Barack Obama, there were two ads that would show up prevalently in my sidebar. The first, a text ad, held the caption “The Real Barack Obama” with a link to a conservative news blog (and not even an article about Barack Obama). The second was a John McCain Campaign image ad. Obviously both of these ads were not just out of context but more over, they were contradictory to my piece.

Taking my criticism a step further, I want to point out another problem. Again this is something I see in all the major search engine’s too. I think this one speaks for itself…

Need I say more?

Until online advertising platforms learn to identify context and sentence structure above keywords, there will be publishers with less revenue, users who get sent the wrong message, and advertisers who are paying out money to advertise to the wrong demographic.

It’s something to really think about, especially you web developers. The saying goes, “Content is King” but I think whomever can extract Context will reign supreme.

Update: I guess Viacom’s way to thank consumers for vial marketing is to stop it from happening and removing video clips. Maybe Sumner Redstone should listen to Seth Godin about a thing or two. If you want to see Lewis Black Comedy go to lewisblack.com. Viacom doesn’t control that site.

With the long anticipated release of the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida, I got to thinking about the sanctity of music. Unlike George Bush’s reference to the “sanctity of marriage” I believe my thoughts actually hold some logical water.

With the new age of music coming fast, there are many positives and negatives in the change. Mostly there are positives for consumers but here is something I consider to be a major loss. The power of the Album is dwindling. This saddens me because as I have developed my love for music and grown my collection, I have learned that a song alone rarely matches the power of the whole album.

I remember a couple summer back, after hearing the single Somebody Told Me, a friend and I picked up the album Hot Fuss by The Killers. When we popped it into his car stereo it changed our summer. The album made our experiences more thrilling. It became like a soundtrack for our lives at the time.

This has been my experience with many great albums since then. When a musical artist makes songs and they blend them together so perfectly in a twelve track LP it creates such a serene feeling for the listener; something that few songs on their own can do, especially for an entire hour straight.

Now it seems artists and fans have forgotten this magic. Since many fans want to just buy the song that they heard on the radio and can do so with a simple download, all the focus comes off the album and onto the single. But singles don’t make super-fans. They make one hit wonders. In my observations I think this is why Hip Hop Stars especially have very short lived careers in most cases. They make that one great song but then their album does not live up to fan’s expectations. What ever happened to Chingy? Or Chamillionaire? They may still be in the business but they are not the successes they could have been.

So here is a message to the industry, the labels, the artists, and the fans. Don’t forget about the album. Putting a focus on creating a great album ensures the longevity of the artist and ensures that fans won’t just listen to the music, they will have an experience that they will look back on for years to come like past and present generations have with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, The Cure, and so on…

Viva la Album!

I have a weird interest in apocalyptic scenarios so when Phil from The Philip DeFranco Show mentioned this video series on YouTube I had to check it out. It is a fascinating look into the future if all hell really broke loose in our country.

Though it is not a huge budget series, the production quality and editing are excellent. They are currently on episode 4 and each episode is between four and five minutes long. Even if you do not daydream about the end of the world, you should check out this series.

Check out 2009 A True Story

Because he can come up with stuff like this.