Addicted to Cheney? Try his new Internet game, Cheney’s Fury, at AddictingGames.

I have a feeling that members of the “I don’t know where New York is” club play this game (see prior post.)

Let’s start out with the really good news. According to Yahoo!, the top Ten searches on Yahoo! in 2005 were:

Britney Spears

50 Cent

Cartoon network

Mariah Carey

Green Day

Jessica Simpson

Paris Hilton

Eminem

Ciara

Lindsey Lohan

Now for the REALLY good news. According to CNN, only 13% of Adults 18-24, the prime ages for our military, can find Iraq on a map. But, wait Ginsu fans, there’s more….

Only 51% can find New York on a map!

Who should get shot first? The teachers or the parents?

Another thought, how do you “write” ads for these 18-34 year olds?

I’ve now seen a couple of technologies that allow us to place Podcasts on our cell phones.

First there is Mobilcast from Melodio. Here is a bit from their press release:

February 8th, 2006 - Mobilcast brings podcasts directly to a mobile phone. Listeners can stream their favorite shows to their phones and enjoy them now, or download them and listen later. By using the mobile phone, Mobilcast eliminates the PC barrier - podcast fans no longer have to be online to download and listen to their favorite shows.

And, this from Yahoo! And Motorola:

February 13th, 2006 “Together with Motorola we are thrilled to be able to demonstrate the future of podcasting, letting consumers take their media experiences on their mobile phones to be enjoyed anytime and anywhere,” said Joe Hayashi, director, product management, Yahoo!

It’s exciting to see the birth and growth of new technologies. Podcasting, somewhat tethered to the PC, whether later listened to on a MP3 player or directly on the PC, can now be downloaded and played on your very own mobile phone. Cool!

Oh, on a related front, we have been thinking about doing very short Pocasts that we call Podlets™ - my bet is that Podlets will be going mobile.

I was on my exercise bike this morning reading Business Week when I came across an article on health care insurers that are using the Internet to help their patients stay healthy. With growing double-digit health care costs and little apparent brand differentiation beyond cost, some health care providers have moved into the right direction.

The article cites the offerings of Aetna, United health Group and WellPoint. Unlike BW, which was given passwords to enter the customer portals, I could not sample the wares. However, BW got full� access from Aetna and the article reports that after filling out a five-minute heath assessment questionnaire, Aetna then sent four pages of additional health questions. The result was that the Aetna customer received a health evaluation, their own customized health portal and links to sub-sites related to their profile and potential problems.

We have four clients in the health care industry including two health care insurers. Neither currently provides this level of service although I suspect that this personalized service will become an industry-wide tactic. It works on so many levels. It delivers useful personalized information, it creates a tighter bond between the patient and the insurer, it creates Delighted Customers and it is competitive.

While this article is about health care, it does point out something we have known for a long time. The internet can create a very strong bond between brands and their customers. Virtually every business can do this. I just bought a BMW and I have a special BMW owners section just for me and my car. Ditto for my casino client where I am a member of their players club. Any reason that other companies outside of health, gaming and automotive couldn’t do this? Of course not. It all comes down to asking if you really want to create a differentiated brand and, as important, a strong relationship with your customers. The Internet is the tool to use – not a “brochure” Web site but a site that actually builds a connection. The tools and programmers exist to help you

Barron’s Online launched today and is delivering its content for free for one week. Barron’s, a division of Dow Jones & Company, is moving its publishing model from just having the Saturday edition to include a daily on the Web.

The Barron’s article on Expedia caught my eye. “Expedia Online Model No Longer Clicks” points out that Expedia’s future is getting a bit cloudy.

The article confirmed what I have been thinking for a few months. Travel search sites like Kayak, which I use all of the time, and Mobissimo are easier and less expensive to use than Expedia and Travelocity. As Mobissimo says on their site, “Mobissimo is the ultimate travel search engine with a simple mission: improve the way people seek and discover travel information.”

The Internet is in a state of constant movement. Expedia killed many travel agent businesses. Kayak might just kill Expedia. I’m not so sure that any business model is completely safe any more.