See Verb’s clients in the news.
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Cold people in a hot world
What will people think about the Paris pact on climate change, say a millennium later? Its preamble is loaded with references to mankind. We, the talking species that is harming the planet, should remember those without a voice: animals own Earth, too, even if they don’t talk.
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The blurry limits of reality
Nokia is reinventing itself with Ozo, a virtual reality camera that teleports the user, capturing the remote environment just as if you’re right there. It is and it isn’t reality. Like social networks, which are and aren’t society: Adele ignores them and sold 3.3 million copies, an absolute record.
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Yahoo! and the limits of a free Web
Yahoo! blocked email access to people who had installed ad-blockers. The experiment caused anger, but it’s one more sign that the current model of a free Web for services we used to pay – from mail to news – is becoming unsustainable.
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How Fiat Hopped on Google to Drive Traffic
Oil prices and the Detroit meltdown brought Fiat back to the U.S. To raise brand awareness following an absence of decades, it worked with Google on a strategy of online ads and search optimization. In 12 months, name recognition rose 127% and year-on-year sales 120%.
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The Inner Struggles of Ketchup
Ketchup has a single duty but it misbehaves. It is notoriously difficult, and often messy, to get out of the bottle. But Cambridge Professor Michael Cates understands it. Soft matter—from shampoo to chocolate—is composed of tiny particles, some of which may act like solids when the rest is running like liquids. In disagreement, they create… Read…
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I’m an Ad Man, and I Use Ad Blockers
Last week I installed my first ad blocking software. I had not cared to do it earlier because, well, I am an ad man, and I have a professional interest in advertising. But last week I changed my mind. I was trying to learn the results of presidential elections in Argentina by checking the local media… Read…
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On Death, the Mask and the Person
Cultures assimilate what’s alien. Halloween, a Celtic feast, and the Day of the Dead, an indigenous rite that the Church made its own, celebrate the dead for their new life wearing masks, which Etruscans called “person.” Since Roman times, we use the word to designate whoever is behind the costume.
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The Reports of my Death are Greatly Exaggerated
Digital books were going to kill print this year. But in 2015, e-book sales dropped whereas paper’s rose. And TV was going to kill the radio, and video the movies (remember Blockbuster?). Not for nothing working at Amazon can be demanding. Will we ever learn?
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The Mission and the Vision, from Seville to Seattle
Microsoft launches hardware and the Steve Jobs movie is released. The fabulous Xerox PARC in the 70’s inspired Jobs and Bill Gates. Xerox bet on the photocopies. And the venerable Venetian seamen turned down a Genoese peer, who went on to cross the Atlantic, 523 years ago yesterday.
