UPDATE (January 15, 2008): We now recommend choosing Blu-Ray over HD-DVD.

Please see our updated post here . 

When I began researching this post, I was aiming to write an article laying out the specifics of HD DVD and Blu-Ray, attempting to make sense out of this DVD format war. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each? Which should I buy? I discovered, however, the CNET already has those topics covered, with everything you never wanted to know about HD DVD and Blu-Ray in their Quick Guide. To avoid redundancy, I'm not going to repeat their expertise.  Instead, I'm going to take a different angle–figuring out what movie studios and dvd providers are working in which format, as well as the affordability of HD DVD and Blu-Ray players.  After all, these factors are what will probably influence most consumers' buying choices, rather than the actual technologies themselves.

Studios and Retailers

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Let's stop and think for a moment.  When was the last time you heard a song on the radio and thought to yourself, "I have just got to get to the store and buy this CD!"?  I honestly cannot remember the last time this happened to me.  Now, it's much more likely for me to browse the net, see a song on a friend's Facebook or MySpace profile, and head over to iTunes to download a digital copy of that song.  Times have changed, haven't they?

According to a recent study by Entertainment Media Research, this pattern of browsing and buying digital music is becoming more and more commonplace.  This company argues that social networks are in essence changing the way people browse and purchase music.

In June, Entertainment Media Research (from now on, EMR), conducted an online survey of 1,700 people in the UK to judge how music consumers use social networks to obtain music.  Here are some important points from the research:

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I am a big fan of buying and selling items online.  I think using sites like Craigslist and eBay provide efficient and easy ways to find cheap and useful items and also for getting rid of unwanted stuff (for a profit!).  My most recent purchase was a 3 person tent in great condition for just $10 on Craigslist.  What a deal.

This begs the question though, which service is better? Craigslist or eBay? This question becomes more and more important as we discuss the future of classified ads in relation to newspapers and media.  How will the progression of these websites compete not only with MSM classifieds, but also with each other?

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Update: Netflix is back up after being down for many hours.  According to TechCrunch and CNET , this happened as a result of a power outage in San Francisco yesterday that caused major sites–including Netflix, Craigslist, Typead, Vox, and LiveJournal–to go down.

Last night as I finished watching Season 3 of Felicity, I sealed up my three Netflix movies and got ready to stick them in the mail this morning. Logically, my next step was to wander over to my laptop to prep my queue for the next round of mail-in movie rentals. Upon heading to Netflix.com, I was greeted by the following message:

"The Netflix web site is temporarily unavailable. It is anticipated that the site will be available again at 11 PM Pacific Time."

Needless to say, I was pretty surprised. I was even more surprised when I received a similar message at 8 AM this morning, saying that the site would be back at 11 AM Pacific time. And, you guessed it, I am still surprised that it is now 2 PM Eastern time, and Netflix is still down, and is likely to be down for the rest of the afternoon.

These technical difficulties are occurring simultaneously with some pretty dramatic changes over at Netflix. According to the Washington Post, the company is reducing its prices for some of its most popular plans by $1 in order to earn back market share from Blockbuster, which gained customers after beginning a policy that allows them to exchange mail-order DVDs with those in the store. From the Post:

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes Blockbuster may have exposed Netflix's Achilles' heel by aggressively promoting the convenience of Blockbuster stores to build its online service. "Netflix has a broken model," Pachter said. "They aren't used to competition and now someone is competing against them very effectively."

Netflix ended June with 6.74 million subscribers, a decrease of 55,000 customers from April. It marked the first time Netflix's total subscribers have declined from one quarter to the next since the service began renting DVDs through its Web site in 1999.

It seems like Netflix is having a rough couple of days. If I had to guess, I would venture to say that these events are probably all intertwined. Does anyone have the details on the Netflix website?

[Poll=10]

With all the hype surrounding tomorrow's release of Apple's iPhone, I had to throw my two cents in.  There are reports that both praise and criticize Apple's newest addition to its family of trendy tech products, and both sides have some good points.  The pro-iPhone camp is excited about having a sleek, attractive, all-in-one device that offers a fantastic web browser and a great screen.  Those hesitant about the iPhone argue that the device is overpriced, unproven, lacks sufficient storage, and limits customers to signing a two-year contract with AT&T.  In addition, questions about the device's "keyboard" still remain.

For me, I think it would be fantastic to have one device that combines my phone, iPod, and web browsing in a pocket-sized package.  However, I can't see myself shelling out $600 for the phone and $2,000 over two years for the service. The phone's 14-day return policy also makes me a bit wary.  I, for one, will definitely be waiting for at least version 2.0 before I can even seriously consider buying this smart phone.

Still deciding?  Check out these CNET videos: Top 5 Reasons to Love the iPhone and Top 5 Worst Things About the iPhone .

What about you?  Will you be waiting in line on Friday?

[Poll=9]

The American Society of Magazine Editors has announced the finalists for their annual National Magazine Awards. The finalists for outstanding online program are belief.net, businessweek.com, ESPN.com, People.com and Slate.com.  

Fill out the poll below to let us know which one you think is the best.  If you think the best magazine website is not listed, let us know in the comments.

[Poll=7]

Would you like to ask a politician or a political candidate a question? OK, maybe only if you're a political junkie, but now you don't have to track them down and get their attention in a personal setting. In fact, you can ask a politician a question using the same machine that allows you to read this post.

Back in the day (early last year) this option was not readily used, but now you can ask politicos like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President George Bush, and Senator Hillary Clinton questions via your computer and Internet connection.

Last year, German business student Caveh Valipour Zonooz and some cohorts developed a site where normal folk could post text, audio, and video questions for the chancellor on a website named Direkt zur Kanzlerin (Straight to the Chancellor), and after thousands of submitted questions Merkel noticed and she — her PR advisers, that is — started answering. Perhaps she'll answer some questions on her weekly podcast (not radio message) sometime.

Merkel is not the only lady responding to on-line questions. Shortly after Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for US President in the 2008 election she held a video conference where she used Internet video to field questions from normal folk. Even Senator John McCain who is also running for President is accepting video questions via YouTube.

Now that politicians are cozying up to answering questions posted on-line some Americans want President Bush and political candidates to do the same. In a project related to Direkt zur Kanzlerin, Straight2thePresident.com and Straight2theCandidates.com aim to empower Americans to ask questions like Germans.   These sites will launch in April of this year.

While no one can compel politicians to answer questions on-line, everyone can see the questions. Jeff Jarvis recently told Faith Salie on PRI's Fair Game that it is important to see what questions politicians don't answer.

Thus, the Internet has not only enabled people to more effectively dig up dirt on politicians, it allows them to see questions that they will not answer. Politicians should also worry about what they are not doing on-line — not just macaca moments.

Pew Internet Life released a fascinating study a few days back (PDF) that looked at voter contacts during the 2006 election.  Below is a table summarizing the key findings:

Two things jump out at me here:

(1) 56% of folks surveyed received recorded calls urging them to vote, usually from celebrities and high profile politicians.  That’s a big number.  I hate robocalls and can’t hang up fast enough.  But the calls are dirt cheap to make and clearly effective enough to justify the expense.  These things are definitely a case of campaigns using a shotgun instead of a rifle.

(2) People were more likely to have a campaign representative visit their home (16%) than to receive an email from a campaign (12%).  Basically all that means is that parties still have some work to do in developing email lists of voters.  If parties sent emails to 12% of the population, that pretty much means they have the email address of 12% of the population.

[Via CNet]

We've just published the second in a series of reports on media favorability in the Connecticut Senate race. The race isn't nearly as close as it was a couple of months ago, but come election day surprises are always plentiful! Even so, as a niche case study in media favorability on a major Senate race, we think it's probably one of only a handful out there. We used our ImpactWatch(TM) web platform to generate this report — those interested can obtain access to a demo showing the nuts and bolts of the system here.

Key findings in our second Connecticut Senate race report covering the period from October 1, 2006 to November 5, 2006:

• Campaign Tactics, a category we created for articles about overall strategies employed by the candidates, particularly advertising strategies, was the most written about subject with 18% of all articles.
• The subject most written about in the last reporting period, the war in Iraq, was written about in 16% of the articles in this reporting period.
• Overall, coverage for both Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman was predominantly negative at 47 and 48% respectively.
• Local Connecticut publications favored Ned Lamont in the Campaign Tactics and Iraq War subject categories much moreso than national publications which tended to slightly favor Joe Lieberman.
• Poll results seem to directly affect the overall positive or negative media coverage of a particular candidate in a very significant manner.

To view the full report click here. We blogged about our previous report here.

The following graphs illustrate some of the trends in coverage available within the full report.

Lieberman Favorability Breakdown: 

Lamont Favorability Breakdown:

Lamont vs. Liberman Average Favorability: 

If you post an online poll on a political topic there is a 99% chance that someone will try manipulate the results.  In 2004, literally minutes after each Presidential debate ended, liberal and conservative bloggers posted links to the inevitable "Who Won the Debate" polls that ran on sites like CNN, MSNBC, etc.  Both parties/campaigns posted links to these polls on their websites and sent out emails encouraging people to weigh in for their candidate.  Inevitably, online political polls end up being less a real barometer of opinion than a test of which side can get the most people to vote.  (Sort of like a real election, actually).

So I knew all that when I posted a poll yesterday on which Senate campaign had the best blog.  But given how modest our blog is I didn't think people would bother to manipulate the results.  However, within a few hours, a Santorum supporter figured out a way to vote 30 times (we have since made this impossible).  And now Sheldon Whitehouse supporters are spamming the comments area of the entry. 

So, like all online polls, our poll here is for recreational purposes only and has no redeeming value.  At this point, I would encourage all the campaigns involved to try to manipulate the results.  Ultimately, the campaign with the best blog is probably the one who can get the most people to vote for them in an online poll. 

In my last post I took a look at which Senate campaign blogs were linked to the most often by bloggers.  Following are the top 5 in terms of links:

Pete Ashdown (D-UT)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Jack Carter (D-NV)
Rick Santorum (R-PA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

After you've given them a look, vote in the poll below. Leave any thoughts you may have on the blogs in the comments area.

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