Technology | The M Word

Great article by Gary Kim, technology and media writer par excellance, offering a superb breakdown of Netflix’s numbers, rising subscriber base, lower DVD shipping levels, and higher streaming media viewership, all of which suggests that Netflix is on its way to being one of the nation’s great distribution powers on a par with the cable behemoths.

Here are a few of the numbers I found most fascinating in his article. My comments are in italics.

Netflix shipping costs are going down as more people tune in via digital distribution channels: Netflix spent $24 million in its most-recent quarter shipping DVDs by mail, compared with $43 million during the same period last year, and despite adding millions of new customers.

Netflix is seeing a HUGE increase in streaming viewers: Subscribers who watched at least 15 minutes of streaming content in the second quarter grew 61 percent, up from 37 percent in the year ago period.

Netflix subscribership is growing rapidly: From June 2009 to the same month this year, Netflix added nearly five million subscribers, a 42 percent increase. By the end of this year, the company says it could possess as many as 18.5 million subscribers.

Netflix is starting to rival Comcast in subscriber numbers: Sometime in 2011, Netflix will likely top the 20 million subscriber mark, making it a peer to Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company with 24.6 million cable TV subscribers.

All in all, it seems that Netflix is poised to take a leadership position in in-home digital distribution nationwide, and, per the Netflix Blog, they keep adding more ways of getting product into subscriber hands.

This changes everything. For everyone who understands that broadband internet service in the US is pretty primitive, 15th when compared to other countries, here’s LightsSquared, a new company promising to blanket 92% of the US with 4G wireless coverage (as wholesalers) within 5 years. With executives from XM Satellite Radio, Orange Group (huge outside the US), Time Warner, Sprint/Nextel and more, and hardware from Nokia Siemens, this is a group that can deliver the goods.

From LightSquared: “LightSquared will be a disruptive force in the U.S. wireless landscape by democratizing wireless broadband services, [...] providing everyone [...] with a fast, reliable experience regardless of where they are located in the United States…”

It seems unclear as to who will actually be delivering the service at retail level to consumers, will it be the usual suspects who’ve made such a botch of wireless until now? I’m thinking of Verizon, ATT, Sprint/Nextel, Time Warner, CableVison/Optimum, and so on, or will new companies spring up to market this? I don’t know, but this is great news for everyone, both those in hard to reach areas, and for all those longing for a all-access broadband solution.

I was shocked today to read a post from my friend about a site called Spokeo.com that collects all available public information on you in one place, offering some for free, and some for a fee.

This site is a stalkers best friend and a marketer’s dream. It offers age, location, photos, financial information, credit standing, personal interests, family dynamics, relationships, you name it. From their site:

Spokeo is a search engine specialized in organizing people-related information from phone books, social networks, marketing lists, business sites, and other public sources. Most of this data is publicly available on the Web. [...] only Spokeo’s algorithm can piece together the scattered data into coherent people profiles, giving you the most comprehensive intelligence about anyone you want to find.

I didn’t believe my friend and went to check for myself, and sure enough there I was, as you will likely find you are too.

What can I do about this?

Well, you can start by realizing that for those who want it, the internet has made it all too easy to gather a pretty comprehensive profile on you, and make it available to anyone willing to pay, say, $2.95 a month.

Scary? Yes indeed. Will this make you suicide yourself off of all your social media lists? I’ll bet not. Because even then, good data digging will likely get into records that exist off the social media radar, and you’ll still be exposed, but with no input at all.

As for Spokeo, Here’s how to remove your name from their search database.

Go to their page, Search for yourself,
Copy your location URL,
Click the PRIVACY button on the lower right,
Past your URL in the URL box (skip the advertised “Reputation Defender”)
Enter your email (they already have it, but need to send your confirmation somewhere)
Enter the Captcha
Go to your email, click the confirm link
Reload your previous url and search for yourself to make sure you’re not unavailable.

I fully expect this to be just the newest level of privacy warfare. For anyone unversed in Huxley or Orwell, this is just another step as Science Fiction is rapidly becoming Science Fact. The bleak endings to their Utopia may be instructional as well.

From the clever people at my favorite music listening site, Grooveshark, came this “our site is down” message that I thought was brilliant.

FULL TEXT. “To those of you who were redirected here, we apologize.

In an attempt to befriend Asian investors and increase office morale, we here at Grooveshark established some connections with the Chinese black market and imported our very own black-and-white Giant Panda (hereby known as “Pickles”). Unfortunately, due to circumstances no one could have foreseen, Pickles became agitated at the fluorescent lights and near-constant belly rubs and began clawing at our computers.

Pickles is currently thrashing about in the server room, causing the technical difficulties and temporary outage you just experienced. As soon as our interns return from Pier 1 with synthetic bamboo, a picnic basket and an oversized net, we will be able to return the servers back to normal and, if we can, rescue the coder that Pickles has taken as a prize.

Thank you for your patience.”

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Is Netflix the Next 'Cable' ?

New Wireless Broadband Co. to Blanket 92% of US by 2015

PRIVACY ALERT: Spokeo.com Publicizes your Info

What can I do about this?

Grooveshark; Best 404 Page Ever

Good Twitter Explanation (no sound)

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