Slashdot Mirror
TiVo Lets You Respond to Ads
WalletBoy writes "TiVo is implementing a new feature in their Series 2 recorders where viewers can choose to have their personal-contact information sent to advertisers when certain commercials air using just their remote control." This is actually exactly how I think advertising should work. If I want more information, I can press thumbs up and have my email address sent to the advertiser. It's opt-in. I'm sure it will work because they use the same concept for letting you record a show by pressing thumbs up when a commercial for it is airing. If only every commercial supported these functions. Now if only MTV would use the same thing to email me song info for videos I like instead of covering the screen in tacky text.
Second post!!!
And for the vast majority of iniane advertisering wouldn't it be nice to have another button that lets me tell them to "fuck off" :)
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
I assume, of course, there will be a thumbs-down button so I can indicate I have no intention of ever purchasing the product featured in a particular ad, and will be never shown it again.
I should buy some cement.
...and when I click the "unsubcribe" button they'll stop sending me spam.
What I'd rather have is the "Thumbs Up/Down" buttons act as direct feedback to the advertizers:
:)
I like/Don't like this ad. You missed/hit your target audience. This ad was funny/offensive. That's cool/inane. More/no more Purple Pill commercials. That movie looks interesting/boring. Etc...
But of course, I miss most of the ads anyway with TiVo.
Get off my lawn.
Don't like it. Too much potential for abuse.
Just imagine someone getting ahold of your remote and the 'fun' they could have with this feature at your expense.
"This is not unsolicited e-mail, you clicked thumbs up on Tivo to learn more about V1aGrA"
Does it mean that my kid can order toys from the Shop-TV ?
No thanks.
I would be afraid of the "spam" I had "voluntarily" opted-in to due to a fitful session of rolling over the remote in my sleep, except I already get it all now.
surely the point of PVRs / Tivo etc is to miss the adds. Or am I new here ?
Two wrongs may not make a right, but three
I, along with the article submitter, am all in favor of opt-in. I opt to provide the following feedback:
1) Unscrew back of remote.
2) Use X-Acto knife to cut the metal traces on the circuit board (or shave off the conductive traces on the plastic membrane) corresponding to the thumbs-up key.
3) Replace the "thumbs up" key with a picture of my middle finger.
> Now if only MTV would use the same thing to email me song info for videos I like instead of covering the screen in tacky text.
That'd be a cool idea, and might actually return something of useful information to the viewer in exchange for his/her expression of interest in the content. Unfortunately for the poster, MTV last showed a "video" in 1997.
That's news to me.
...
When I was resting up before flying back home from LSM I was at a hotel [Kyriad rocks btw] with MTV.de and I'd say most of the daytime shows were "pimp my ride" and "newly weds" [genre].
They played some music here and there and showed constantly repetitive SMS ads [e.g. order this ring tone, get this logo, etc].
It's like they forgot that the M stands for Music
Also if I was a parent I'd buy my kids music on the condition they didn't watch that brainwashing bullshit that is "kids oriented television".
Frankly I'd rather a kid watched a porno then the "chocobot powerhour" that is kids programming...
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Now if only MTV would use the same thing to email me song info for videos I like instead of covering the screen in tacky text.
If only MTV showed music videos anymore...
You opt-in like this and you're basically giving them carte blanche to spam the crap out of you. No sir, I won't like it.
When did MTV start airing music videos?
Popups let you respond to ads voluntarily. Is this new? Not really. But I think it's a step down for TIVO as a major feature was the ability to pause TV and skip through the commercials. Yes it's been argued over and over again. I'm just reitterating, 'tis a sad day in PVR history when they make it sound like a good thing you now have a "choice" in sending your personal info when TIVO ads on top of commericals are bad enough.
If/when Janet Jackson has another wardrobe malfunction - I'm sure TiVOs servers will go down - as there will be a HUGE number of people hitting the Thumbs-Up button.... Yea Baby...
Now I can get more information about Viagra.... oh wait....
M$ it's whats for diner!!!!!
Unless these adds would feature some sort of privacy policy. I definitely don't need my information being sold any more than it already is.
Ban Engadget - moderators censor comments!
It would allow people to search on google, and click on contexual VIDEO ads that download to the PVR.
BBC has an open source video codec availible.
Google could decide the design(much like microsoft makes hardware people adhere) and just let hardware makers use the design for free. Google would just cash in on the ad flow(ad peoples bandwidth), and it would launch podcasting/videocasting to a new level.
Stop invalid scientific research. Ask your local scientists to feed their lab rats with a phytoestrogen-free chow.
I don't use TiVo, but I wonder how many ad companies would really want something like this. Right now, it usually takes the effort of a phone call or going to an internet site or something to learn more about the featured product, which means those who take the effort, generally have a bit of interest. With it being made so easy now, I bet a lot of people would think 'Hey, thats might be interesting', hit the button, and then not think about it until the ad mail comes unexpectedly. This would probably be not as good for advertisers...fewer quality results, even if they reach a much broader audience. I certainly wouldn't want to use this method if I was marketing something.
We have a cable service called foxtel digital and they started showing interactive advertisements, a little box pops up on the screen and when you press the interactive button on your remote it brings up a menu that has contact details and you can type in your email address to get more information, i think with one of the bank ads you can book an advisor to come to your house.
Accept any challenge, No matter the odds.
I've never heard anyone say, "Oh wait! Don't turn the channel. This is my favorite commercial."
Time is comparison of movement to other movement.
If the content cartels would invest in a real micropayment system, Tivo would be awesome for them. In fact, I bet it'd be more profitable than anything they've had before. Instead of watching ads, I'd pay $2/episode for something like Battlestar Galactica or Stargate SG1. After the series is over, people who have paid for half ofthe series should get a 25-30% discount on the boxed set for the season and people who paid for the entire thing should get about 60-70% off. If I've paid $40-$60 for the entire season already, that's real, guaranteed money in their hands. Then, if they play their cards right, as a loyal fan I can buy the entire series on DVD for $25 including S&H since I already paid $40-$60 for the series.
The cost of making DVDs is really low now. If they pay only $1/DVD to make and it costs them $2 to make the box and shrink wrap it, a 5 DVD set like Stargate SG1 would cost $7 to make. They could realistically go to $15 before S&H if they were really gung ho about getting a paying fanbase going. Just think, right after you watch the last episode in the series, the TV channel popups up a message saying "Thanks for supporting this series with your micropayments, if you would like to own this series, because of your generous support we'll give you a 70% discount on the boxed set." They'd make a killing doing that for many series.
The problem though, is that regular TV sitcom bullshit would probably be hit hard initially by that. Imagine people having to pay for an episode of Friends or Seinfeld? At any rate, if the Cartoon Network, Comedy Central and Sci Fi Channel offered this, knowing their audiences, it'd work like a charm.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
There is no way I'm logging into my DVR when I watch TV, but not sure how they would work the demographics without 'switching' roles. What my bride, child, and I watch are quite different. That said, can't think why I would ever actually watch a commercial just to rate it. Bad enough I can only 'fast forward' rather than jump ahead on my DirectTV DVR.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
you give the thumbs up to one marketer, and they just sell your information to tons of other ones?
what guarantee do they provide that this is safe?
has something like this. Some ads on the satelite system have the option of pressing the red button on the remote control and getting more info on the product or service, and sometimes get competitions, etc.
We all want to see ads for products which appeal to us and the advertising industry spends billions each year trying to create ads for products which appeal to us. Yet, for some reason, the majority of ads just annoy us. Even ignoring those aimed at a different target, that's still a pretty hit-and-miss affair for something which should be an exact science by now.
I'm all for anything which would improve the system and more direct feedback seems like a good idea.
Advertising: The necessary, but evil grease which keep capitalism moving.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
I thought it stood for "Moronic"
I like this idea, and I think it could be used in other areas. What if users could use their remotes to review shows, much like how slashdot users moderate posts. For example, if you were watching an Episode of The Simpsons, and it wasn't as funny as usual, you could press a button to e-mail the creators "BELOW STANDARDS"...or if it was good "VERY FUNNY".
Voice your opinion!
Targeted commercials. Why not? Tivo already knows that you're interested in new cars and golf clubs and beer. It makes sense (and makes them more money) to show you more of those kind of ads then ads for stuff you're totally disinterested in.
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
I'm going to set it up to send info to "Joe Dumbass," with my neighbor's street address.
I am going to assume you can choose to disable this feature entirely?
My only question is... can you turn the Telescreen^WTiVo Screen volume all the way off? Or can you just turn it down?
This is the stupidest idea in the world. That would mean that if you have a Tivo, don't invite or have the following people to come to your house.... 1. Baby. "Oooooo, Green thumb up button. Must press during commercial.... HEE HEE." 2. Kids. "Oh yeah, you don't raise my allowance, Take JUNK MAIL...." 3. Disgrunted neighbors and friends. "Oh yeah, you think you can get away with this, have some freebies in term of junk mail, unwanted phones and E-MAIL!!!!" 4. Pratical Jokers. "HA HA, JUNK MAIL!!!!" 5. Inquisitive minds. "Hmm, I wonder what this green thumb button do during the commercial?"
Why not have the "thumbs up" button forward to my email a link to product information so I can find out more about it, instead.
Include in that contact information for the advertiser, including a webpage to register complaints about the ad.
When I got DirecTV some 4 or 5 years ago, it had this same function. When watching a commercial an graphic "I" would appear to mean that it's interactive. If you pressed the "I" button on the remote it would ask if you wanted more information mailed to you.
Not every commercial had this mind you. In fact only one I know of, some SUV commercial did this.
DirecTV has since got rid of it. They had a number of interactive features they since gotten rid of. I used to be able to enter a zip code and get weather. It would also store my favorite cities. One channel, Bloomberg maybe, let me store stock tickers, and it would display the current stock price. So much for interactive TV.
What I really want is a way to vote on commercials. If I give it a thumbs down I don't want to see it again. Or better yet, let me subscribe to a show, for a small fee, and let me watch it commercial free. Stop rehashing the same bad ideas please.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Lois, this isn't my Batman glass. - Peter
I am continually surprised to have never seen this implemented in online video.
Videos such as the ones in the flashy new h.264 codec or others.
Command N, Systm, Diggnation, Defcon, and Others.
Titles, credits, links, etc. are all shown encoded into the video. There must be a better way. Flash encoded video may have an answer already but I have never seen it implemented. QuickTime may also have a solution but again I have never seen it.
Has anyone done this? Is anyone pushing a standard? Fancy having a computer being interactive..
SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKIP, SKIP and sometimes SKIP SKIP.
30 second skip easter egg:
http://www.bigmarv.net/how/tivo30secondskip.html
Please explain why you won't buy the season on DVD at full price. You're a loyal fan, are you not?
You don't think the "loyal fan[boys]" aren't already ready to give up their 85 bones for the season set? Sadly, they are, so your scheme to get your copy at a cheaper price won't hold water from a balance sheet standpoint.Let me ask you something: why not go in with two friends and swap the disks around your group? That way, you get 69% "off" and you get the use of the whole set.
Yeah, right.
It's been years since Music Television played a decent amount of Music Videos. All they seem to do anymore are TV shows, no videos.
Kosh: "Understanding is a 3 edged sword, your side, their side, the Truth."
I keep reading this and other comments like it and the sillyness of it keeps annoying me. When you grow up, you are no longer part of their target audience. Of course you'll think it "sucks ass" then, but it's not really the fault of anyone. Just stop watching it and quit whining.
Surely it would be good if you could opt out of adverts entirely by paying more. Since the only reason TV companies use advertising is to boost revenue.
I thought it was just one of those 24/7 advertising channels for idiotic youth.
Not unlike voluntary taxing when you buy a lottery ticket.
But still, set up a dummy gmail/yahoo/hotmail account to send all this stuff, it may be worthwhile if you're really interested. That way you can sift through the stuff that you're interested in and won't get put on some spam list that is sure to follow.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
The best thing that could happen to Tivo is for it to be bought by a larger company looking to get into the media business. Current giants won't touch it for fear of their advertising base running to the hills, however, Google has made many advances in online media delivery and why not take the next step. Tivo+Google could be the content on deman dream that the business press has been waxing about for years. Google's most recent push to break into the media market is their big broadband initiative which they see as the only way to deliver content to users. Hooking up with Tivo could mean many things to the end user the least of which is the ability to search for content on Google and watch in on your Tivo after it's downloaded though Google's pipes. I'd love to see that! I'd personally love to see Tivo open it's self up to programmers so we can put content into Tivo instead of just taking it out.
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
The kids will click on the button whenever they see a new toy advertised and the smartass babysitter will send your personal information to all the adult diaper commercials on late night television.
I'll stick with MythTV, thanks, and have all my commercials clipped out.
-All that is gold does not glitter - Tolkien
www.ra
Not for the past 10 years.
Hell even mtv2 the station that they dedicated to playing only music barely plays videos anymore.
Just like with regular spam, I wouldn't reply to them.
I understand the TV part...
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
Seriously, folks. Those of you who think this is a good idea aren't thinking about how badly this whole system can be abused.
Just further proof in TiVo's recent moves to subsidise your subscription with payola from advertisers. This along with the 'yellow-star' ads, the in-the-middle- of-your-menu promotions, and the pop-ups during fast-forward, not to mention the DRM encryption and extremely lackluster TiVo-to-Go "feature" which is a joke. Really, they ought to start making the machines free, since they're running full-steam ahead into the arms of marketing. It's too pricey for as far down the slippery slope they've fallen.
As a long-time TiVo subscriber, this trend has me disturbed. To the point I learned to hack my box, blocked the ads, and lock it at v.4.02 software.
{ - Generic Guy - }
by programmer I mean media programmer not coder. Let the people be the broadcasters.
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
Despite what TFA says, Tivo has had this for ages, it's not new. What the article is talking about is "enhanced showcases", and it's where you can see a "Press Thumbs Up For More" icon during an advertisement.
Pressing thumbs up pauses the material and takes you to a special showcase where they can have an extended video segment or pages of text or, yes, a "Please send me more info" screen where you can have them send more info.
Chevy did a big promotion a while back using this, and most of the Chevy commercials you saw on the screen took you to this showcase. There was a video of various cars doing speedway tests or something, and selecting the more info thing got them to mail you a packet of material. You could even request to have a dealer call you, which I did not try.
Some of the showcase material is quite cool, other times it's not as cool. Regardless, you don't have to see the ad to see the material, these extended showcases are shown on the normal "Showcases" screen as well. There's usually one or two available at any given time.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I like this idea, it's slightly more direct than what's being done now, although I'd like to see it taken a step further. I'd like to see a list of sponsers/ads during a show that I can not only request more info on, but order. This is particularly useful for DIY/Home improvement shows. Also for shows like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition where the show you're watching is actually a factor in your motivation for endorsing the show's sponsors.
Please keep in my that my ADHD keeps me a little scatter brained and I sometimes can't focus long enough to
who Tivo's customers really are, because it doesnt seem to be the people that buy their machines
seems the way to do buisness thesedays is to treat your customers with contempt, merely a resource to be exploited and the public just lap it up
you must still be single
Or imagine the racial profiling incidents. Even if a minority group just loves to drink grape soda would it make it ok to profile all races and target them?
Could lead to some interesting results:
http://andrewteman.org/blog/index.php?p=39
>Now if only MTV would use the same thing to email >me song info for videos I like instead of covering >the screen in tacky text.
;-)
But they do that! Just send an SMS to the number shown on the screen during the music, with the text they tell you, and you'll receive all you never really wanted
That they actually saw a music video on MTV.
Why would I *EVER* want to respond to an ad? Further, why would I ever actually *WATCH* the ad? Isn't that what people buy TIVOs for?! I have never in my life been tempted to *BUY* something because of a TV, Radio, Banner, or popup ad. Why the hell would I be tempted to *VOLUNTEER* to be bugged by parasites trying to get me to spend money? Jesus people! Turn that god damned TV into something useful like a flower pot or an aquarium. GET A DAMN LIFE!!!!
Here's an idea, instead of spending money trying to break through to all different kind of markets or advertising in stupid ways, put it towards making a good, funny commercial. There are a few commercials recently that are actually enjoyable to watch, and I will actually REWIND to see them! Yes, a commercial! (The DirecTV Sunday Ticket commercial comes to mind, a good one).
MTV has videos? what world are you living in?
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Sorry, but after reading the phrase "choose to have their personal-contact information sent to advertisers" I was giggling too hard to read the rest.
Surely you must be mistaken. There hasn't been a video seen on MTV for years. They need the air-time for "Real World vs Road Rules XXVII" and "Look, Ashton Kutcher is an A**"
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
"Now if only MTV would use the same thing to email me song info for videos I like instead of covering the screen in tacky text. "
MTV? Play videos? Surely you jest?
Will it deliver an electric shock to the commercial director who somehow managed to distill the essence of the concept of "annoying" and reform it into the shape of a television advert?
Anyone else immediately think of those Starship Trooper commercials? "Would you like to know more?"
>>Now if only MTV would use the same thing to email me song info for videos I like instead of covering the screen in tacky text.
MTV plays videos?!
Surely you jest. I remember videos on MTV from my youth, but now I'm pretty sure it's all reality shows.
~EEE~
Actually, I will occasionally analog-capture a commercial from the TiVo to my computer if it is particularly good. Or laughably bad. The last one I did was the GE "green/seafoam shirt".
But from my past experience, these interactive features throw a graphic up on the screen. You can clear it (at times only temporarily) from the screen with the Clear button, but the capture is already marred by then. But so far ads that have done this haven't been worth keeping.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I thought the point was to get rid of advertisements in our email? no?
Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select
Could be worse, too. I was given some money and a boxtop, and told to bike down to the store to get it. Oh, and you can rent a movie too.
Look at it this way. It tends to indicate that you're at least getting some.
I don't read AC A human right
Now if only MTV played videos...
Help us build a better map!
Wink! (now "OpenTV") has been doing this for years on cable and satellite. I worked as a customer service loon for Wink! from 2000-2002. You would click on Wink!-enabled ads and get free stuff or coupons in the mail, etc. They even had contests for who could click on the most Wink!-enabled ads in a month.
t ainment/television/digital_tv/interactive/wink_com munications/profile/
http://www.business.com/directory/media_and_enter
http://www.wink.com/
As an aside, we had one old lady constantly calling us who religiously watched for Wink! ad content (which was only on specific channels) so she could get free stuff. She would call us when her cable went out (which was often), because when we sent a ticket to her provider to check for Wink! service outage, she would get her cable service back on faster than if she called her provider herself. Fun times.
My comments here are my own; I do not speak for my employer.
Entertaining for a moment the fiction that, in some parallel universe, I might actually want TV advertisers to have my contact details, I can still see some major problems with this.
The Yahoo! article speaks about sending your 'contact details' to an advertiser: the Slashdot poster interprets this as meaning 'email address'. The question is, "which email address?". I currently only use tagged disposable addresses (of the kind supported by SneakEmail, for instance) for communication with companies. This allows me to dump them if the company sells them on or won't take 'unsubscribe' for an answer. It also fingers the culprit if the address does get abused. So I'd like my hypothetical TiVo to let me specify the address that I want to send to each advertiser.
But if I can do that, then that opens the door to all kinds of abuse. Think of the fun I could have by entering the address of the person who last flamed me on Usenet and then spending the evening clicking through ads on the crappiest channel I can find. So my guess is that if TiVo supports sending email addresses, it will only send the user's address as registered with TiVo, making it impossible to figure out exactly which piece of sneaking mainsleaze scum sold that address to every mailing list company on the planet (and meaning that when I'm eventually forced to abandon that address, I lose contact with all the advertisers I did want to hear from).
This is part of a larger question: which information will it send to advertisers. My guess is that it would send a complete 'packet', including phone, physical address and email. What if I want an advertiser to email me, but not to phone me? Or if I want them to send their brochures to my house (at some measurable cost to them) but not spam my inbox (at negligible cost) four times a week? I'd hope there'd be some way of releasing information selectively, but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't.
If I owned a TiVo the first thing I'd do would be to disable this feature, and the second thing I'd do would be to enter garbage data in all the fields I could, just in case.
"No, Thank You"
"No"
"No!"
"No, dammit!"
"Airstrike"
"Nuke it from orbit"
Ever since I bought the Direct TV Hughes Tivo back in 2003 (series 2) I was able to respond to commercials. A message appeared on the screen where I could request more info on a product. I have not seen this message for a while now.
Some of the extra interactive features on ads are actually very good. One example was the BMW 1 Series ad with the horses and turtles. The extra features allowed you to watch a couple of videos of how it was made.
I was looking everywhere for info on the song used in that ad and found it in the interactive extras. Prodigy - "You'll Be Under My Wheels" for the record! :-)
If done right, this kind of interactive ad can be very cool and very effective.
But my observation is actually not about MTV, because they actually do show videos on MTV2.
On top of these videos, though, they plaster the following:
- A gigantic number in the upper left corner indicating what rank the video is in whatever countdown they're currently doing.
- A gigantic scrolling logo in the upper right indicating what countdown it is.
- A gigantic two-headed dog logo in the lower right corner to remind you that you're watching MTV2.
And then you'd think that, with the lower left corner free, they could put any remaining helpful information there, right? Bahahaha. You wish. Instead, about halfway through each video, they plaster a huge yellow bar with text indicating the show you're watching: "You're watching Tuesday Huge Fucking Video Overlays 3.0 on MTV2."And then at the end of the video, they plaster the song title/group/video director/etc. in similar bars in the middle of the screen. This happens roughly a minute before the actual end of the video, because 30 seconds before the end of the video, they cut away to ten minutes of commercials.
If you're associated an ad with a feeling of annoyance or disgust, how effective is it?
I've found plenty of ads that annoy me, and whenever I pas by the store I think "annoying f***ers, ain't gonna see me in your store" and hit the competitors if they are any better.
Darn it, your ruining some perfectly good fun. Poor sucker could start getting mail for Enzyte, Ladies home journal, Rosey O'Donnel show and so on. He would wonder how the heck he got on all of these opt-in lists! Maybe throw in some mail for Barney, would have to time it right though. Imagine subscribing a guy to the wrong political party's e-mail!
Maybe because, "make-a-profit" goes right with "have a gimmick that attracts more sales" or "keep people happy/interested and continue to sell more to them in the future"
The mentioned method isn't all that bad, as the company then has a projected amount of sales before releasing a box-set. From that they could calculate how many units the need to produce and probably save money there...
Yes, however, i'm no longer in Nick's "target audience" but I wouldn't say anything negative about it. Simply that the shows aren't meant for me, whereas, the shows on MTV... well, they SUCK!
Don't Blame me if I seem bitter, I'm at work, and the TV only plays soap operas.
Lets be honest, how do we find 99.9% of our products?
We search for what we want or we stumble upon it in a store.
Rarely does a TV commercial catch me or a google adwords ad.
Oh and google adwords is evil! We signed up to advertise our site
http://www.pass--drug--test.com/
And it didn't meet content guidelines for adwords, so not just saying no to adwords, they ripped us out of google completely including the google directory when all we wanted to do was advertise and we'd gotten half our hits from google for last several years.
Some pay back for trying to give them money on to advertise on how to pass a drug test.
To an advertiser, a consumer is not a person: a consumer is a pair of eyeballs and ears to hear ads, a gullet to consume product, and an anus that craps cash.
You may notice the absence of a brain, taste, or discernment in that description.
You are not the customer for the media companies. You never were. You don't pay them squat. You may think you are paying a lot for that latest DVD or CD, but that is just gravy to the media companies - their real customers are the advertisers - advertisers pay the bulk of the money to the media companies.
So guess how the media companies view you - just like the advertisers.
And Tivo, DirecTV, and other distribution channels are the media companies bitches - if the media companies choose to do so, they can pull their content off those distributors and kill them.
So guess how Tivo et. al. view you.
www.eFax.com are spammers
How come we can talk about this feature in TiVo, but we don't even have it in Firefox? Why do I have to type my personal/financial/postal info into every vendor/subscription/membership form? Why can't I store a few standard "profile" sets once in my desktop, which can be autopopulated into a form requesting that info by name, if I press the button that says so? It could be a security risk, but not so much if the population is executed as IPC with a separate program that requires its button actually pushed. While the browser (or other network app) makes the request according to a small, targeted API, which logs all accesses, crypto signed with their identity via their SSL server certificate. If the "identity app" issued a one-time password for every membership or payment, abuse by recirculating the access info could be tracked to whoever originally got the info.
Practically all of this can be automated, leaving just the creation of the client-side profiles, and the "OK/Cancel/Report" button press when asked for the info. The amount of time saved by automation will dwarf the development time within days or months of deployment. Where is the easy way?
--
make install -not war
"Thumbs up" and "Thumbs down" info can also be aggregated, to provide ratings others can use. This drives a blog system, so you can go on and discuss what's good and what sucked. That's also useful as a way to make consensus corrections to the TV schedule, since the free sources of that info can be a little off.
The fastest and most accurate commercial-button pushers get listed on a web site as high scorers.
Christ, Taco... you're, what? 30? And you still watch MTV?
I don't really look at it as a bad thing. It's really part of the next step/evolution for TiVo to be an interactive platform. Think amazon.com meets sitcom.
I have a series 2 tivo currently in the rotation and will see if I was one of the "lucky" ones.
There's previously had this functionality where you'd give the thumbs up during certain commercials and then it would take you to another screen where you could request additional information. Unfortunately the turn around time was pretty pathetic... 6 months later I received my glossy print mailer about the new line of Chevrolet Corvettes. That didn't feel quite as interactive or immediate to me.
I see potential and value possible with something like this, but probably not in the form it'll take initially. All I have to say is if I get another Tivo software update and if it makes my interface any more sluggish than it already is i'm canceling my service and promoting the BeyondTV box to the digital cable (currently recording two analog cable sources).
So in short, I'll wait and see and not give the knee jerk "OMG Tivo fux0ring with ads again" response and hope for the best.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
I don't mind commercials - some of them are fun. There are definitely some really stupid ones and they all tend to get pretty repetitive. But, with a show of the user selected best and most recent commercials, it would constantly be changing.
I'm not exactly sure how this is news. They implemented this in limited fashion last year. I made the horrible mistake of hitting 'thumbs up' on some American car commercial. Six weeks later, I got a huge package at my mailbox with a ton of spam, brochures, and a dvd of the vehicle that had been on TV and the information for my local dealership.
The hardest part was getting OFF Of that spam list from that dealer. I called the car company, and they had no idea how I got onto any of their lists and didn't show me in their spam list. It was apparently only sent to the local dealership.
Either way, once you opt-in, there is no easy way to opt-out. Asking for 'more information' will get you a continued amount of information.
Remember Biff in "Back to the Future"? And Marty was on the skateboard, and Biffy hit the big truck of HORSESHIT?
That's what I want to be able to do when I see a commerical that I "like". I want to be able to send a truckload of horse shit to the headquarters of that company.
Give me that option.
Let me know when TiVo will let me stab the advertiser in the face using the remote, then I'll be interested.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Actually, maybe calling it a stupid idea is quite harsh, but part of the problem with something like this is that people never really read what they're about the buy in to.
Take the "Crazy Frog" ringtone craze that swept the UK recently... To get the mobile phone ring tone, it was simply a matter of a sending a text message to the number advertised on screen. Since the viewer's eyes were drawn to the frog, all the fancy writing and other things, they failed to read the small print at the bottom of the screen.
The text stated that as well as getting the ring tone the buyer would also subscribe to a news letter once per week that would be charged as £3 per go. Not many people were too happy with this arrangement. So if Tivo sends all your personal details, how can you be so sure what you'll really be getting..?
I think I used a cuecat to scan a barcode on a TV once... (I'm kidding... but they did have this thing where via an rca audio cable "blip" during commercials you could tie it to their software to automagically pull up a web page! wowzers!)
*sigh*
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Would you like to know more?
:)
... response is of the slightest interest to advertisers. as was pointed out previously, they just want you to think of a label when you're shopping for that item. if you liked the commercial, that's cool - but not relevant.
i see this mostly being used to prove to advertisers that you actually watched their ad rather then taking a "water break" during the ads. or skipping through them like i do.
I will not willingly buy a product that is doing everything they can to make you watch commercials. Fortunately my DVR provided by Dish Network has the 30-second skip standard. No special enabling key sequences required.
I hope TiVo dies from their catering to the content providers, and is replaced by something more consumer friendly!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
MTV doesn't play videos!
I give that "Can you hear me now?" guy's career about 5 more minutes after they roll out this feature.
Not that he cares. He's probably loaded by now. Doesn't he remind you of a marketing department guy from the dotcon days? They really should put him on a Razor scooter. He could cover more ground that way.
Whoever modded this "interesting" and whoever takes this seriously isn't reading the post.
QOTD could no be more of a 'coincidence':
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. -- Norman Douglas
Here we go again!
That's not true. Just because I grew out of the target audience age range doesn't mean the quality of MTV hasn't been decreasing all that time.
They used to show music videos and have shows about music on MTV. Now they have Carson Daily showing 30-second blips of rap videos in between all the commercials, and lame reality TV shows that are really just an excuse to show as much scandalous skin as possible. That's why they invented MTV2: to move all the music parts of MTV over to make room for the current wave of crap they're showing the kids.
"Event" in this context refers to any on-air event, more specifically the actual act of switching to a different video source, such as when a program goes to a commercial break.
The switch could be to a program, a commercial (including those run over the end credits of a show), or even those 2 second "You're watching KSUX" blurbs they play. It gets logged, and then compared to the list of timeslots advertisers have paid for, and that lets the station prove the service was rendered and thus they are owed money. (That part is called "reconciliation")
I'm not making up definitions to support my arguements, these are the industry terms as I've learned them.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Funny you should mention this. My Tivo occasionally goes insane. Generally it happens after my girlfriend watches lots of the stuff she likes to see.
The last time it happened, Tivo declared that I had to watch The Gnome Mobile.
Tivo would capture it.
I would delete it, and mark it with three thumbs down.
Tivo would capture it.
I would delete it.
Tivo would capture it it five time slots, overwritting my scheduled shows.
I would delete all of them.
This continued until I finally gave in and watched The Gnome Mobile. Tivo was happy, and it stopped recording that movie for me.
Now if that was something that happened once, or even twice, it wouldn't be a big deal; however, this happens about once every 6 months or so. I've learned just to give in and watch whatever master Tivo has chosen for me.
Oh, yeah, it is an old Series I Tivo that has been upgraded from 15 GB of storage. That should tell you about how long this has been going on!
AT
It's true we're no longer their demographic but what does that say about their targets? I don't like the state our culture and society is in when they are the ones DEFINING what that preteen crowd wears, watches,acts, and even thinks.
Once this "feature" is in place, you guessed it, everyone will want the "thumbs down" button to tell the advertisers that you don't ever want to see that commercial ever again. It might just happen, when they figure out how to build a profile of what you like and don't like and fill that little gap with somthing else, like a neat gadget or technology gismo that even a slash dotter could enjoy.
Ok, I'm still going to 'thumbs down' *any* commercial, but they can try to figure me out all they want, the answer is just plain 'NO' nomatter what the commercial is about.
I just want a button that makes MTV play music videos again.
'Ipod killed the video star'
These are not the
I don't want to have to say "Oh, I want to see commercials about new coffee makers from Sweden!" because I don't know that I do or don't.
What I want is more of a heirarchical list of categories to which I can say *NO*.
Ads for medicines, generally, I could do without, especially ones which relieve symptoms I am anatomically incapable of experiencing (several obvious choices), or about which I don't care enough to pay for medicine (toenail fungus is tragic?). Ads for cars (until / unless I'm shopping for a new one), I don't need. Etc.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Suppose that 'contact information' included whatever some NN (naive newbie) decided to put into his 'digital wallet' on his machine. Additionaly suppose that this info included his credit card numbers; and that microsoft has sold tha backdoors to this information just like they 'hotfixed' my machine even though I have disallowed 'automatic updates' on this XP laptop. Now picture the man's two years old son buying 50,000.00 or more of merchandise with now more effort than a few clicks and a few 'goooo...gooos'.
MTV plays music videos? Which 3 1/2 minutes of the day do they do that? Please let me know so I can TiVo it.
Let's play Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I'll be Pestilence.
tivo is a few decades away from coming to argentina, but i wonder if it comes with a "thumbs down" button aswell... Cheers
^_RaMoN_^