Filed under: Internet, Photo, Utilities, Productivity, Web services, Search, web 2.0

Though it is currently accessible only to a shut set of beta testers, it seems the 22 minds behind Polar Rose are trying to create a sort of “Google” for people pictures — a system that’s always indexing visual information. But that’s only the beginning of the service.

Beta testers have recently been given access to an World wide web Explorer and Firefox plug-in that’ll scan faces on a loaded web-page, placing an orange or red rose icon in the lower right-hand corner of each face on the page. The color of the icon depends on whether or not the system can stick a name to the face, and this is determined by whether or not the face has been registered with the system. Any unnamed faces can be registered with the system from there, though, don’t expect miracles. The plug-in struggles with low-quality or poorly lit photos.

This is “cool,” of course, and we tend to care about advanced stuff like this even if it’s not personally useful to us. But what happens if a web-user doesn’t want his/her face indexed? As is often with new technology/services (stop-light cameras, Google, Facebook, RFID cards, etc.) this might one day begin to spark the paranoia of privacy rights activists — assuming it gets large enough to get noticed by less nerdy common folk.

[via BLORGE]

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Filed under: Television, General Electric (GE), Marketing and advertising, Walt Disney (DIS), CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS), News Corp’B’ (NWS)

World Wrestling Entertainment’s (NYSE: WWE) Vincent Kennedy McMahon wants more viewers for his Monday Night Raw wrestling extravaganza. In fact, he’s so keen on growing ratings that he’s willing to spend his own money to keep viewers tuned. How much? Try $1 million.

In a terse press release concerning a promotional sweepstakes, WWE says that Raw viewers can register at the company’s Web site and then watch for codes during the program beginning next Monday. People will be competing to win a portion of a $1 million giveaway each week for some unspecified time period. Now, before you think me naive, I made sure to see if this was legitimate, and from the looks of things it is. According to this AP article, McMahon will really be doing this. According to other reports, the June 9 Raw will reveal the details of the promotion. The $1 million will come from McMahon’s own fortune (again, from what I understand, this is real).

There’s no question as to why this is being done. WWE wants eyeballs. Ratings have been challenged as of late, according to that AP piece. I think giving away $1 million is exciting, and as far as a marketing campaign goes, it should boost ratings. Only problem is, I’d have to imagine that long-term shareholders aren’t happy that this kind of gimmick has to be employed. Is wrestling becoming boring to people? Are they in need of other reasons to watch? Well, the answer would seem to be a resounding “yes.”

There’s nothing wrong with a contest. Heck, with the popularity of Deal or No Deal, everyone is looking for a chance at some amount approaching a million bucks. Nevertheless, McMahon and his creative cohorts need to become more creative in the storylines and in the usage of talent. He won’t always be giving away money, so the product must stand on its own merit. Besides, even though I can’t argue that giving money is anything less than an attention-getter, I’ll state that McMahon should have a contest where a winner gets to book an entire week’s worth of programming. That would really talk to the core fan and bring back viewers who may no longer be watching. There’s a lot of competition out there from CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and GE’s (NYSE: GE) NBC, so McMahon needs to be even more innovative when it comes to the contests themselves!

I hope to be watching this Monday to see how the Mr. McMahon character promotes the details. Whatever you want to say about the rest of the product, whenever Vince is on the screen, he’s always entertaining.

Disclosure: I own shares of Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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