Instead of Watching Paint Dry, Search TiVo for Ads!
I think Danny has this daft plan of TiVo's covered well. Apparently they're about to launch a "feature" where you can search your TiVo for ads.
Seriously, if you're interested in buying a BMW, do you really want to watch a 30 second ad on your TiVo? Wouldn't you rather do a web search to get some more substantial information? And if so, hmmm -- we've already got those ads through Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and MSN.
Yep, right up there at the top of the fucking stupid ideas of 2005 list.
- Y! MyWeb
It's not so bad
First of all, if I wanted to buy a BMW I wouldn't do any of the above before visiting the dealership. Assuming I didn't know anything about the car I'd then come home and research it online, and yes I'd probably also watch a TiVo ad. I enjoy visually seeing something in action.
Now if they could put short films on TiVo that would be sick. Something like these:
http://www.bmwusa.com/bmwexperience/films.htm
as TV moves to being more of
as TV moves to being more of on demand type thing, ads will naturally need to become more permission-oriented, and hence more like infomercials and less like 30 second interruption-based ads. in such a world, tivo's ad search thing could be valuable.
IMO, tivo is just ahead of the game with this offering.
I think it is brilliant.
I think it is brilliant. This addresses the non-web savy audience. As I understand, you can input what subjects you like and you will only get ads on those subjects. It makes television weblike for people like my father who get frustrated at using the computer. Now, all they need to do is put a "buy" button on the ad for instant conversion.
Right.
As much as this may look -- or eventually may be -- a non-starter for Web-savvy and computer-savvy folk, it could be fantastic for people who don't spend ages on the Web and who don't really get how to use a search engine.
There are plenty of people who wish they could "learn the computer" -- as well, I've been getting the WordTracker Top 500 Keywords report for years, and have never failed to see searches for "www.yahoo.com" and that sort of thing ... yes, where people who *know* the domain name still go to a search engine to search for it so that they can click on a link to get there.
Whatever makes it easiest might be a big hit. Or a reasonable hit. For the money.