Pixelcarve Blog

Every emerging technology generation seems to result in a battle of platforms and ideologies – a war between companies for the hearts, minds, dollars and loyalty of consumers for their system of choice. Memories of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer finally landing the fatal blow to Netscape, or Google’s meteoric rise to power over Yahoo (and the world), are now but footnotes in the history of humanities technological revolution. But no sooner are they forgotten are we plunked into the middle of another war – perhaps the most vicious yet, and the one that may just have the most impact on our daily lives. It’s the battle of Apple vs. Adobe and the future of mobile interactivity. (more…)

When was the last time you clicked on a Coca-Cola TV commercial? Yes, that’s a trick question, because you can’t click on a TV commercial. So why is it that CPC (Cost-Per-Click) advertising is getting all the respect online?

For years we at Pixelcarve have been fighting the perception that click-based advertising online is the only worthwhile investment, as that whole concept flies in the face of years and years of proven marketing methodologies. The argument goes that CPC gives you solid metrics and therefore you can track every dollar spent for every dollar made. Well, putting aside the fact that metrics are by their very nature flawed, and often provide grotesquely inaccurate information, this argument ignores the fact that TV, radio and print advertisement has been very successful without any form of direct audience interaction. Consumers are affected by the messages that they see and read, not just by the ones they seek out.

Finally the obsession with clicks is starting to evaporate, as heavyweights in the ad industry like Gian Fulgoni of comScore Inc. begin to address the major flaws in this system, and are able to demonstrate how important display-based ads actually are.

Check out this article to read more:

Adobe Flash is a very powerful technology. It allows us to take our clients to a level that often redefines their industry and/or sets a standard for their peers. It unleashes creativity by removing limitations. But it has not always been without its problems. When many people think of Flash, they think of loud, obnoxious, self-contained, non-indexable sites that search spiders ignore and you can’t track. It was a technology abused, immature and misunderstood.

Enter Adobe, and their release of Flash 9 with its shiny new ActionScript 3 (AS3) language. As the true power of this new platform is being discovered, companies like us are using it to wipe out all of the things that we ourselves, as web users, disliked about Flash sites. Personally, I absolutely hated not being able to use the back/forward button in my browser, or send a specific page to a friend without a convoluted explanation as to how to get there. If I want to bookmark, or send to a friend the stunning Graves 601 Hotel project that Yabu Pushelberg designed, it shouldn’t be any harder than this: http://www.yabupushelberg.com/#graves_601_hotel

Now enter Google, a company that once shunned Flash, has now seen the light! Adam Ostrow looks into Google’s new love for this powerful interactive platform, and its support for analytics within Flash. Welcome to the world of Flash without compromise!

http://mashable.com/2008/11/17/google-analytics-for-flash/

Being a PC based agency, firmly rooted in the Windows methodology, we were very excited with the release of Windows Vista in 2007. We adopted it the day it was released, and contrary to the Apple ad machine, have had tremendous success. There were initial growing pains, but most were quickly resolved with Google searches, and the vast majority were caused by unprepared 3rd party applications (which were fully expected and understandable). Vista is genuinely a superior OS to both the clunky Windows XP and the narrow-minded OSX.

Now comes word of Windows 7, which by all accounts is what Vista was actually supposed to be. For studios such as ours, with Vista operating as solidly as it does, Windows 7 presents and even more exciting leap forward.

Giz explains.
http://gizmodo.com/5070219/giz-explains-why-windows-7-will-smash-vista