From the daily (often hourly) ritual of checking Facebook for updates on the lives of my friends I began to wonder, could Facebook be the next evolution of personal e-mail?  What is E-Mail?  Well, Wikipedia defines it as ”a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.”  On the personal side, many people send emails to share news, forward interesting articles, discuss topics, and/or communicate to multiple people at once.

On Facebook, one can definitely compose, send, store, and receive messages (via private message or on someone’s wall).  One can share news (through status updates) and forward interesting articles (group postings).  Topics can be debated via wall posts and status updates can be equivalent to a message to multiple friends. 

The difference for Facebook is interactivity, speed, and personality.  Yes emails are informative, but on Facebook wall posts back and forth are conversations.  Yes I can spend the time to email all my friends to what’s new in my life, but in Facebook I can merely change the status in my profile and instantly let all my friends know what I’m up to or feeling.  While e-mail is merely an address, Facebook provides profiles where I can put a face and personal information (via what they put in their profiles, show in their photos, etc.) to the messages they send.  These aspects seem quite powerful.  Could we be saying in the future, “I’ll Facebook it to you?” instead of “I’ll e-mail it to you?”

Apparently Google is continuing its efforts to push advertising to be more dynamic, engaging, and interactive.  It has apparently been testing its latest ad format – Google Gadget ads – since May 2007 but now is starting to slowly rollout. 

According to Google’s help – “If gadget ads are enabled in your account, you will have received an invitation to create gadget ads from the Google support team. If you haven’t received this notice, don’t despair: We expect to offer Google Gadget Ads to other advertisers in the future as the launch progresses.”

This looks like a better alternative to rollover video ads as it provides the user a greater chance to interact with the ad without committing to going to the actual site.  For an example, click here.

The much hyped album battle between 50 Cent’s Curtis and Kanye West’s Stronger is turning out to be not much of a fight. It is estimated that Kanye will win with approximately 800,000 copies sold versus 50’s estimated 600,000. This should not be of much surprise because 50 Cent’s album Curtis was doomed from the start.

From a marketing perspective, let’s look at the famed “4Ps”. Price and Place are identical for both artists. They both were sold in similar big box retailers for about $9.99. For promotion, each artist benefited by the media attention given to the same release date. Each artist was also heavily promoted on radio stations with similar radio spots and advertisements. 50 has recently been quoted as complaining about Kanye’s exposure on the MTV VMAs but I think that the last “P” is the real cause of his likely loss.

In terms of product, one could argue that one album is superior than the other, but for this debate we’ll assume they were of equal quality. Both albums hit up the hip-hop market with some pop crossover appeal. Packaging will roll up into Product and for this aspect, I give the advantage hands down to Kanye. If you look at the covers, Kanye’s is colorful, playful, and unique whereas 50’s looks serious, muted, and understated. If you saw both albums on the shelf, I feel that you would immediately gravitate towards Kanye’s.

Perceived image of the artists also plays a role in sales. Kanye is known as being more playful, lively, and he has more “pop” appeal. 50 drives home the more hardcore, gangsta, and “real” street edge. Unfortunately for 50, the bad boy image has taken a bit hit in the media this summer with the likes of Michael Vick being the poster boy for illicit behavior. I think youth today is also tired of reality and I think Kanye provides a bit more escapism.

All in all, 50 Cent’s album was disadvantaged from the start. Unfortunately, his “brand” of music does seem to be what people want at the moment whereas Kanye’s blend of humor, pop, and beats seems to fit the bill perfectly.