Since the controversy blew up around a video of GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons killing an elephant, the video has been edited heavily.
Should the video have been edited, removed, or left alone? Tell us what you think.
Parsons is still in the video, but gone are the series of stills of Parsons posing proudly with the elephant’s carcass (as pictured above). Also gone are various pieces of text and captions that appeared over the actual footage of the elephant being shot.
For example, the captions used to read, “Bob Parsons fires first,” then “Bob Parsons fires again. Both shots hit home. One bull is killed. The rest stampede out of the field unhurt.”
A caption that appears now, is, “The plan works. Only one bull is killed. The rest stampede out of the field unhurt.”
The video used to begin with the text, “Of everything I do this is the most rewarding. This video shows one typical night and day.”
That’s now gone.
Also gone is the incredibly bizarre use of the AC/DC song Hell’s Bells, which used to play over top of footage of the villagers slaughtering the elephant’s corpse.
Also gone are the close-ups of many of the villagers wearing GoDaddy hats.
This was all detailed when we initially covered the incident.
Parsons says he expected the backlash. He is quoted by a Fox channel in Phoenix as saying, “I kind of figured that this might happen. So be it, I’m not ashamed of what I did. All these people that are complaining that this shouldn’t happen, that these people who are starving to death otherwise shouldn’t eat these elephants, you probably see them driving through at McDonald’s or cutting a steak. These people [Zimbabwe villagers] don’t have that option.”
If he’s not ashamed, it seems odd that the video has been mysteriously edited to this extent. If it is just a matter of PR, it also seems very odd that GoDaddy hasn’t issued a press release on the matter. As of the time of this writing, Parsons has not tweeted since April 1, at the height of the media and customer backlash.
Since the video hit the web and the backlash began, GoDaddy’s competitors have been capitalizing on it, offering deals to customers who switch to their services. NameCheap also used the opportunity to raise over $ 20,000 for Save the Elephants. Venovix launched a “NoDaddy” campaign with a similar goal, looking to raise money for the International Wildlife Foundation.
Another interesting nugget that surfaced over the past week: The Baltimore Sun referenced an interview they did with Parsons last year, in which he said he had majored in accounting by chance, simply picking the first thing in the booklet. He is quoted as saying, “Had I opened [the booklet] backwards and become a zoologist, I have no idea what I’d be doing.”
Has GoDaddy handled this scandal well? Share your thoughts.
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Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 10th, 2011. 
Although the issue of net neutrality has never been small, it has grown into a very large, complicated matter with more concerns rising frequently. It has actually developed into a political issue with outspoken parties on both sides.
Do you think that net neutrality has gotten too political? Let us know why or why not.
According to John Bergmayer, a staff attorney with Public Knowledge, net neutrality is “not supposed to be something for the Washington chattering classes to gossip about.” Instead, he stated, “It’s supposed to be a simple set of rules that allows innovators to innovate and creators to create.”
To complicate matters even further, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to retract the net neutrality rules that the FCC adopted in December. However, in order for the rules to be completely reversed, the Senate and the President would have to be in favor of repealing the rules as well.
There is also a lot of conflict around ISPs and the lack of options for consumers. Bergmayer explained that 80 percent of Americans that have access to broadband services only have, at most, 2 broadband options to choose from. Millions of other Americans only have 1 choice in a broadband provider.
As a result, ISPs are not forced to compete in prices and services, which means that prices are often high and services are less than satisfactory. But, ISPs have their own concern since many of them also provide content services. They, in turn, fear the rise of services such as Netflix.
In the end, the fight is about the future of the Internet, media, and communications. The big question is where the government fits in with determining these outcomes.
Fortunately, consumers can share their opinion too. Because the FCC often takes comments on important issues, Bergmayer encourages people to participate. In addition, he suggests that individuals call their Congressmen and women to express their beliefs.
“It’s not just about big companies like Google fighting big companies like Comcast. It’s really about the individual… out there throughout America,” he said.
He further pointed out that Washington, DC listens to those who speak the loudest, especially on “political football” issues such as with net neutrality.
Are you letting your voice be heard on these issues?
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Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 12th, 2011.
Today, CNN reports that plans may be in the works for popular app makers UberMedia to form their own social network rival to Twitter that “could compete with that popular microblogging platform.”
CNN cites three people who have been briefed on the plans as its source. From CNN:
The service would seek to attract users by addressing common complaints about Twitter, such as its restriction on the length of a message and how it can be confusing to newcomers, according to these sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.
If you aren’t familiar with UberMedia, they are a California based company that develops third-party applications for Twitter and other social media. Their apps, which include UberSocial, Echofon and Twidroyd, allow users to interact with Twitter without using the official Twitter applications or the Twitter website. Many people prefer UberMedia’s interface and features to the official Twitter products.
UberMedia has a healthy share in the Twitterverse, according to a report issued by Sysomos last month. They analyzed over 25 million tweets in one day and reported that non-official Twitter clients were responsible for 42% off all tweets. Of that chunk, UberMedia’s UberSocial, Echofon and Twidroyd were responsible for 27.4% of the tweet volume.
There have been issues between Twitter and UberMedia in the past, as Twitter suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd in February. The apps were later reinstated, and UberTwitter became UberSocial. In March, Twitter’s Ryan Sarver posted a message to third-party developers that warned them to steer clear of developing apps that “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” This message was issued in conjunction with an update to Twitter’s terms of service regarding their API access.
It’s not likely that a new social network similar to Twitter could realistically compete with its dominance anytime soon. Twitter just reported that they were up to 155 million tweets a day.
UberMedia does however have plenty of users who enjoy their apps, and loyal clients could move over to a new network, especially if they have problems with basic Twitter constructs like the 140 character limit.
“Our foremost desire is to continue to innovate on the Twitter platform and bring more users and usage to Twitter,” UberMedia CMO Steve Chadima said in a statement to CNN
Is it possible that UberMedia could build a successful social network to rival Twitter? Would you use it? Let us know what you think.
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Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 13th, 2011.
The entertainment check-in app GetGlue just hit a major milestone. Since its release on the iPhone in June 2010, the app has seen solid growth, now totaling over 1 million users. GetGlue allows users to check-in to activities, the way that many apps let you check-in to locations.
@getglue
GetGlueBam! @GetGlue is now 1 million users strong! http://blog.getglue.com/?p=6842 ( Pls RT )
1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto
The app allows users to share what they are currently watching, reading or playing with their friends over Facebook and Twitter. The service recently added full foursquare integration to go along with new check-ins for sports, so that users can also broadcast the location of their activities.
GetGlue also announced they have reached another milestone, 100 million data points. These data points refer to the system of rating and recommendations that is built into GetGlue.
“These data points represent connections between people and the entertainment they’ve consumed, revealing insights about tastes and dynamics of entertainment consumption. With this milestone GetGlue now joins established internet properties like IMDB, Fandango, TV Guide, Yahoo!, and Amazon as a significant source of entertainment tastes.”
To the people at GetGlue, these milestones must signal their arrival as a legitimate entity within the social entertainment sphere. The big question, obviously, to a service that is growing, is where is the money going to come from? In an interview with Forbes, CEO Alex Iskold had this to say:
We are currently experimenting with a number of different ways to monetize the service. We’ve done a few implementations with sponsored rewards, and increasingly see this as an interesting option.
However, longer term, we see the aggregate data set as the valuable asset. Already, from the 100M data points, we’re able to get rich insights into consumption patterns and behavior around entertainment.
Consider the current state of entertainment analytics: a tiny amount of sampled data impacts how 100’s of millions of dollars are spent by entertainment companies and brands. There’s a very real, very large opportunity here if you can provide meaningful insights at scale.
Some statistics about GetGlue :
- Averaging over 1 check-in per second with 10 check-ins per second during primetime
- Averaging 1 share per second to Facebook and Twitter
- In primetime, up to 20% of tweets about shows are coming from GetGlue
- For instance, 10% of tweets about the season finale of Californication came via GetGlue
Do you use GetGlue? How often do you check-in to it or any other service that involves check-ins? Yesterday, Goby CEO Mark Watkins wrote an article titled “2011: The Year the Check-in Died.” In it, he predicted the decline of check-in services that don’t offer much more than check-ins. Is a service like GetGlue immune to that decline because of its recommendations, rankings, and the ability unlock stickers and such? How about Foursquare or Google, who are both attempting to bring deals and rewards programs to people who check-in?
Let us know how you feel about check-ins, and check-out GetGlue’s infographic from their blog:
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Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 14th, 2011.
Google’s antitrust lawyers – who were probably already working overtime to deal with threats in the U.S. and Europe – may soon need to brush up on South Korean law, as well. Two large Korean Internet companies have filed a complaint with the country’s Fair Trade Commission.
Miyoung Kim reported earlier today, “In their joint complaint . . . NHN Corp and Daum Communications Corp , South Korea’s top internet portals, said Google was unfairly impeding competition by using its status as a dominant smartphone operating system provider.”
More specifically, the complaint centered on the way in which Android users might find it difficult to pick something other than Google as a search provider.
Kim wrote, “Daum said the practice has helped Google enjoy a near 20 percent share of Korea’s mobile internet search market despite its market share remaining at around 2 percent in the country’s fixed-line internet segment, the smallest of major portals including NHN, Daum and Yahoo Inc.”
That’s a little different from many of the other criticisms we’ve seen surface elsewhere. They’ve tended to focus on issues related to search rankings, advertising, Google Books, and/or restricted access to YouTube.
That doesn’t mean Google can in any way brush off the complaint, though. Remember that South Korean police actually raided Google’s offices over its Street View data collection gaffe, and months later, determined the search giant had violated privacy laws.
Google hasn’t yet commented on the matter, and it’s hard to say when South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission might reach a decisions.
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Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 15th, 2011.
