Firstly, bravo to the team at MD for their effort in bringing out this collaborative space. Surely hope to see more chair-falling presentations (@Kika – it shows that you loved SlideShare) and thoughts exchanged between all of us.

When I started blogging, it was a similar need to create a space where I could pin my thoughts down and refer to it often. Taking cue from this need of collaborative realtime idea sharing, I have always thought of brainstorming and how we can do it better. I personally like to ideate within a group and write down all possible ideas that come to the table and then thrash out the do-able ones.

A great place to do this online and realtime is bubbl.us

The name came possibly from the idea bubbles that come out of our minds, and its a neat place to start a conversation and then draw out ideas or maps or flow patterns around it and cross link them and phew!! It really lets you brainstorm online. You can share the mind maps you draw. Even embed them in your site. A big round of applause to its creators – Kirril and Levon.

You should take a look. Not only is it cool, its really easy. Did I mention that it’s “FREE”.

I even drew out a mind map for Masala Digital!! When this opens, just remember to click on the image and move it around to view it completely….

What do you think? Where’s my idea-fee?

[download id="undefined"][download id="undefined"]Life is a search, quite metaphorically so, but it now pays!

It would be quite interesting to know how will Bill Gates still earn pots of money by offering cash- back rebates to its search engine customers. [download id="null"] Microsoft in a tardy aggressive move has launched Live Search in competition to Google.
This launch, said Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, is a way of “simplifying the tasks and rewarding the consumers and advertisers for their engagement in a major way.”

In essence, Microsoft wants to incentivise users of Live Search. As you key in a search, the Live Search tool gives you a list of list of prices with “compare prices” button and cash- back rebates associated with the search. This is applicable on commerce- centric seraches.Marketers determine how much they’re willing to pay to acquire a buyer for a particular product and pay Microsoft that fee only when someone makes a purchase. But instead of pocketing that money, Microsoft offers it back to users in the form of a rebate.
Clever, considering Return of investment as the ultimate marketer’s manna.

Go experience it Live here

Adverblog’s Martina has an update:

Inbev’s global beer brand Beck’s is about to start a blog on their international homepage. They don’t have a blogger yet, so they are now looking for “the ultimate, offbeat columnist with an uncompromising point of view who can connect and interact with consumers in the digital world” . Interesting point is that they are not looking for a corporate blogger, but a person that will give a personal view on news, people and ideas that match the brands philosophy ‘Different by Choice’. The full job offer can be found on becks.com.

“Beck’s is a brand that has always refused to compromise and what we’re doing online is no different,” says Jorge Inda Meza, Global Marketing Manager for Beck’s in a press release on Monday. “Our consumers actively seek out links to new trends and genuine material from around the globe. They have a desire to learn about people who share the same values as they do. The Beck’s new columnist will help uncover and highlight relevant and exciting topics for our consumers, enabling us to better connect with them.”

Seems all brands need a blogger…we at Solutions|Digitas has an upcoming proposition that is quite similar but much more subtle…keep watching this space for more details!

Prison Break is a popular TV show, and the makers recently ran an interesting campaign to promote it in New Zealand.

Colenso BBDO, Auckland advertised prison break by placing special bars of soap in public restrooms all over new Zealand. On one side there was a key-imprint, and on the other the shows details.

Photographer: Stephen Roke
Creative Director: Steve Cochran
Copywriter & Art Director team: Jonathan McMahon and Lisa Fedyszyn
Agency Producer: Jo Kouvaris
Account Director: Katrina Ingham
Account Manager: Lucy Pilkington

It was one of those days when I had an acute fit of “the nothing new syndrome” when I got this mail from my boss, telling me about this site called slideshare.Believe you me when I say that I slipped right off my chair looking at the site. It’s like a Youtube for slides! From marketing to photography it’s all out there. It’s a platform where individuals and organizations upload presentations to share ideas, connect with others and generate leads for their businesses.

You can get some amazing insights on things there. And when I say things I don’t just mean work, you can get a whole lot of insights and ideas on any topic of your interest. Heres a bunch of things you can do on slideshare:-

Ø Embed slideshows into your own blog or website.

Ø Share slideshows publicly or privately. There are several ways to share privately.

Ø Synch audio to your slides.

Ø Market your event on slideshare.

Ø Join groups to connect with Slideshare members who share your interests

Ø Download the original PowerPoint / PDF file (if available)

Apart from the usual stuff you can use slideshare in new and interesting ways, all you need to do is get your innovative gears in order and take off! Heres a bunch of some really interesting slides I came across.

[slideshare id=28886&doc=the-brand-gap-14630&w=425]

[slideshare id=415548&doc=brainrulespzreview-1211213300619507-9&w=425]

[slideshare id=85551&doc=death-by-powerpoint4344&w=425]

[slideshare id=280884&doc=the-unstoppable-power-of-leaderless-organisations-1203948729749866-3&w=425]

[slideshare id=83488&doc=cool-amazing-impressive-advertisements4283&w=425]

[slideshare id=419872&doc=7habitsversie5-1211384232341228-8&w=425]

Geotagging, sometimes referred to as Geocoding, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as websites, RSS feeds, or images and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though it can also include altitude, bearing, and place names.

Geocoding also refers to the process of taking non-coordinate based geographical identifiers, such as a postal address, and assigning geographic coordinates to them (or vice versa).

Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information. For instance, one can find images taken near a given location by entering latitude and longitude coordinates into a Geotagging-enabled image search engine. Geotagging-enabled information services can also potentially be used to find location-based news, websites, or other resources.