I’ll stop by any startup showcase I can, but it’s always a bonus when it happens to be local. Last week’s TechTomorrow showcase, sponsored by TechColumbus saw nearly 50 regional startups show off the results of their hard work – here are just a few ideas and demos present at the event worth mentioning.

• BevCart911 is a mobile app/refreshment delivery system for golf courses, which lets you order the drinks or snacks you require with an app. The app geo-locates you and the refreshements are delivered to you wherever you are on the course.
• MorphCard is a gift card service that lets you purchase and exchange gift cards with no markup or charge. While the purchases or exchanges inside their ecosystem are not marked up, they monetize by purchasing any gift cards sold outside their ecosystem for slightly less than retail value, reselling them at retail value, and pocketing the difference.
• Lithophantastic is a service that transforms your digital photos into three dimensional Lithophanes. For the unfamiliar, Lithophanes are solid, back-lit surfaces that give images a three dimensional effect.
• Kiwi is a video app that lets you select single frames of a video captured with the app to create unique,  stylized, filter-affected thumbnail images to serve as link to the video.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

One could be forgiven for writing off Google TV. After all, there are precedents for web TV failures (Apple TV) and precedents for ostentatious Google windmill-tilting (Wave, Buzz, a dozen others), so I don’t blame the doubters. I’d be one but for the fact that this is too big to be an experiment; it’s a declaration of war. The question is: against whom?

Against Apple? Yes, to some extent. Against set-top boxes? In a way. But primarily, I think it’s against the TV providers. Not in a direct way: as many have noted, Google TV, being a delivery system, relies entirely on others for its content. No, Google is leaning on Comcast and DirecTV and all them indirectly. Like the music industry and Napster, or the mobile phone industry and the iPhone, it’s less a direct assault and more an ultimatum: “Change or die.”

Continue reading…

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Cost-per-impression (CPM) advertisers on Facebook have recently been told by the company that they may see fewer click-throughs on their ads due to pending changes in its performance advertising system.

In a letter sent out to advertisers on the system earlier today, Facebook also said that advertisers bidding for ad inventory on the site may soon see more clicks. We asked for more details. The company isn’t saying what the specific changes are, only that factors like ad placement on the site will remain unaffected.

CPM advertisers on Facebook bid for campaigns using a specific dollar amount; they set a budget for an ad, and money is taken out of it every time the ad is shown. The other option on Facebook is Cost Per Click (CPC). Advertisers are only charged when users click on their ads.

In general, CPM performance advertising can be less expensive because it is not as directly tied to monetizable user behavior. So, CPM advertisers on Facebook who have quietly and inexpensively optimized their ad creative for clicks appear to be the ones affected by this change.

The letter, via All Facebook.

Upcoming system change:

As you know, we continuously work to make our ads system more accurate in order to further improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Among other ongoing improvements, we are refining our ads delivery system to better reflect the goals of our advertisers. This change will take place over the next few weeks and, assuming current bids remain unchanged, will mean that:

• CPC advertisers (advertisers who have chosen to bid “cost-per-click”) may receive more clicks.
• CPM advertisers (advertisers who have chosen to bid “cost per thousand impressions”) will continue to receive impressions but may receive less clicks.

Do I need to do anything?

As a CPM advertiser, you are indicating to our system that it’s more important that your ad is seen by your audience rather than clicked i.e. you have chosen to pay for impressions, not clicks. If your main objective is to increase awareness of your business with an ad impression, there is no need for action. However, if your most important objective is to drive clicks on your ads, you should change your bids from CPM to CPC.

For companies interested in learning how to take advantage of Facebook’s performance advertising system, be sure to check out our Facebook Marketing Bible.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook