Frozen in time: Fox tries to get DVD users’ attention
Fox is running a 30-second television spot with just one static image in an effort to reach viewers who fast-forward through ads using digital video recorders like TiVos.
U.K. advertisements for Fox’s new drama, “Brotherhood,” which premieres in Britain in October, simply shows an image of Providence, R.I., where the show is set, and the program’s logo. Viewers fast-forwarding through the ad would see the image for a few seconds; those watching it normally would hear dialogue from the show in the background.
Jon Hollett, a Fox International spokesman, said the company was experimenting with ways to get its messages to DVR users who routinely breeze through ads without antagonizing real-time viewers by broadcasting a flat, silent image for thirty seconds.
“This is something that is going to have to be addressed one way or the other,” he said. “Making sure that you can get to your viewers when they’re fast-forwarding … is of crucial importance.”
Television executives fear the new technology could make ad-supported free programming obsolete. In the United States, DVR users could dodge as much as $8 billion of the $74 billion in television ads shown this year, according to Jupiter Research, a technology consulting company.
‘Virtual keypads’ also vulnerable
In hopes of fighting Internet fraud, some online banking sites make customers use “virtual keypads” — a method of entering passwords on the screen, generally with a mouse. The system is designed to thwart keystroke-logging programs that capture everything a user types.
Now those virtual keypads appear just as vulnerable to snoops.
A Spanish security company, Hispasec Systems, has revealed details of “Trojan horse” programs that can capture video imagery of an unsuspecting person’s computer use. If the user enters a PIN on a bank’s virtual keypad, the dastardly program is a witness.
Site lets homeowners add newer info
Zillow.com, a real estate site that publishes estimated values for some 68 million U.S. homes, is now giving homeowners the chance to add newer information about their properties to its vast database.
Since the Seattle-based startup launched in February, many homeowners have contacted the company challenging the accuracy of certain home values and suggesting that Zillow allow them to enter updates on things like remodeling projects that don’t appear in public records.
In the past, Zillow users could recalculate a home’s value using a private worksheet but the company didn’t have access to those updates.