iTunes, Comics, Porn, Brands, and Jobs

There will always be something about technology that is new to us. Blogs like these could go on forever, writing about new discoveries or explaining new ideas in the tech field. I've been given the opportunity to do this for a couple weeks, and I hope you all have enjoyed what I've had to say. Although Thanksgiving was almost a week ago, today's post is a veritable cornucopia of topics. Let's get to it.

C-town kid wonders about the pricing of iTunes songs, and if they should be lower to attract more sales. The timing of this question couldn't be better, because I just turned in a term paper exploring the effect of iTunes and similar stores on CD sales. Here's the abridged version: CD sales have been decreasing since 1999, the year Napster was released. Coincidence? Probably not. However, legal downloads, such as purchases from iTunes, are also taking away from CD sales. 99¢ is actually a sweet spot price for a song. Wal-Mart has its own store that (of course) undercuts the competition, but 99¢ gives the music consumer the opportunity to own music for less than a dollar. This is a powerful option when compared to a $15 CD with only one or two good songs.

iTunes provides a nice alternative to illegal downloads in that it guarantees a certain quality, album artwork, ease of use, and correct labeling. (Have you ever downloaded a song, only to find it was mislabeled and definitely not what you wanted?) The convenience of these services may be worth a dollar to some consumers. Also, it's important to note that at this price level, artists make only 8 to 14 cents per song (source) and lowering the price would probably hurt them. Still, iTunes remains a powerful alternative to both stealing music and buying a CD only to rip to your computer.

Anonymous readers asked for my opinion on web comics and pornography. The good point was made that anyone could create and post a web comic, which could devalue them all as a group. I think there are a couple which are updated almost everyday, and that shows a degree of dedication. I don't read them myself, but I've heard that Sluggy Freelance and Penny Arcade are good. I used to read Friend Bear back in middle school, but be warned, it stoops to certain levels of weird to get a laugh.

As far as the economic implications of Internet pornography, it was recently published that 1 out of every 100 web pages contains porn (source). I have to think that not all of those are just free sites, so given the huge size of the Internet, it's safe to say that porn is a significant business. If porn was suddenly blocked by the government, I don't think our economy would necessarily crash, however.

PJ asked about the implications of branding on new technology. The question is, does a good name make the product? In an earlier post, I mentioned the current Web 2.0 trend and some of the major players (Digg, Flickr, Facebook, and YouTube). For companies looking to ride this trend, a good name is as important as the product. What makes a name good? As far as Web 2.0 is concerned, it must have an obvious pronunciation, a relatively short length, and unique enough that its .com domain is still available (more here, scroll down the page to "Enough doom and gloom..."). Bonus points if your brand can be turned into a verb, as with Google and Digg.

This allows for a segue to Nintendo's recently released Wii video game console. For some time, it was referred to as the "Nintendo Revolution," which isn't as immature-sounding and is actually descriptive. However, the Wii name is certainly a popular topic, and it acts as word-of-mouth advertising (for better or for worse). I own a Wii, but I can't say anything new about it, because people are going wild over this thing. The controller, which eschews rows of buttons for intuitive gesture-based input, is easy to pick up and hard to put down. The Wii's ability to play (and store) games from every one of Nintendo's previous consoles increases its value tremendously. But most of all, the Wii captures fun like no other video game I've experienced. If you buy one, make sure to buy at least one extra controller. The best part about it is playing with friends and family.

My helpful friends at Pomona College CDO asked if I could write a little bit about online job-hunting tools. There are dozens of sites that offer this service, and I'm sure it has become the favored tool of choice for this generation (I wonder how often a twenty-year-old with an Internet connection glances at the want ads of their local paper). More specifically, does the process work in the opposite direction -- do employers search for information on their potential hirees? Another student blogger involved in this contest, Nicole, has actually written a post on this topic and I don't want to tread on her toes. (Yes, I read the other blogs. If you can spare a hit for my competition, check out Nicole's post for a complete discussion). The short story is, yes, companies can and do run background checks. As Carl from the CDO mentioned just last night at a Financial Planning seminar, the Internet is being constantly archived. Just removing information from a Facebook or Myspace profile isn't enough; it's wise to never post anything incriminating in the first place.

Will asked about Amazon's new Mechanical Turk program, which allows users to complete tasks for pay, over the Internet. As Will put it, this basically allows anyone to outsource their work. It works in a similar manner to Google Answers or Ask Metafilter, where a question or task is posed that a computer cannot answer. Mechanical Turk often pays users only a few cents per task, which raises concerns of creating a "virtual sweatshop" (source). It is interesting to see the significant demand for tasks, however. It shows that there still are things that a computer cannot do, things which are easy for humans. Mechanical Turk represents, in a way, the limits of technology, and it will be intriguing to see how it fares as we continue to develop artificial intelligence.

whew!