release

Back in 2006 at the Web 2.0 Summit, Microsoft showed off it's cool new Photosynth program. They didn't release it to the public, but they let attendees get a lick of what was in store, and left many of those who experienced it with a good taste in their mouths. Yesterday, they released it to the public as a service.

Whether you love the device or hate it, stories about the iPhone are going to be hard to escape for a few weeks.  Google and Facebook appear to fall into that first category, and have added to the hubbub by releasing iPhone-specific applications.

I’m not sure what is more impressive. Ask.com’s official launch of its privacy protection called AskEraser, or all of the press coverage the company is getting from the announcement.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR started the trial over at Search Engine Watch, taking all proponents of the SMR to task and declaring that social media releases are a meatball sundae - a phrase from Seth Godin's new book on marketing. 

I spend a fair amount of time talking with small and medium sized business owners about their web marketing. Often times these individuals aren’t ready to shoulder the costs associated with true goal-oriented web design, SEO, or PPC, so the conversation turns to, “what can I be doing in the meantime?” Aside from blogging, posting on forums, and keeping their site content fresh, I always talk about online PR. Most of the time the people I’m conversing with have no idea that you can freely or cheaply distribute press releases online.

The press release is on life support and I’m rallying a team of supporters to euthanize it – not to put it out of its misery, but to keep it from contributing to the misery of reporters, analysts, bloggers and the people who read them.

The FCC’s recent fake news fine has YoungPRPro list members wondering* if the end of the video news release is near.

First HP did it, now Cisco Systems has issued a Social Media Press Release. Not only is the release on the News@Cisco site, but it’s been distributed as a MarketWire press release (shown here picked up by CNN/Money—interestingly without the videos, but links to them instead).