New Tools

For those looking to get a glimpse into where technology is headed, this article from the New York Times highlights an exciting new venture Yahoo is heading up (and one that combines areas we're more than familiar with). The company, which has lagged behind Google in internet search and search advertising, is taking the lead on bringing advertising and web search to mobile phones. To learn more, check out its new software entitled oneSEARCH.

Check out our New Politics Institute for more information on both mobile media and search (here and here). Also check out Media 50 Group, a company that helps folks master this new medium and whose co-founder is NPI fellow Tim Chambers.

UPDATE - the CTIA Wireless Conference is kicking off today, where there is a lot of talk about how to best integrate media with cell phone technology.

MoveOn's "Stop the Falsiness" campaign is a light-hearted mockery of Steven Colbert's send-up of conservative cable news (that's a spoof on a spoof for those of you keeping score at home) and of their own political earnestness.  It's pretty funny stuff, or at least it was until Viacom demanded it be taken off YouTube for alleged copyright violations.  You can watch the video on the satirical campaign's homepage here: http://falsiness.org/ and click here learn more about how MoveOn and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's efforts to get Viacom to stop muzzling online free speech.  You can also read our recent NPI paper on making video for the internet.

It's a sign of how fast the technology and politics are moving that what was meant to be a relatively silly diversion has turned into a flashpoint in the debate over who owns video in the age of the global network. 

Update:  Viacom backed down in a kind of sleazy way.  Whatever, now we can watch the funny: