Both the original and Spot Runner’s responses are true. The original statements regarding the lack of flexibility, buying specific programming, providing pre-logs is true of the vast majority of Spot Runner buys, and all of the self-serve site buys. On the the other hand, Spot Runner can provide all of the above, but currently is doing so only for larger advertisers. While the planning is somewhat automated, the buying is still done just like any other agency might handle it, with emails, phone calls, and hands on negotiation. Only a small number of Spot Runner clients will ever talk to a media person (much less work closely with them)- again, those with large budgets. Spot Runner has fewer than 5 full time media planners and hundreds of clients, personal attention with that ratio is just not feasible. It’s also worth noting that there is only 1 full time planner at a level sufficiently senior to interact with clients. Obviously, to provide this level of service, requesting specific avails, negotiating rates, providing pre-logs, cannot be profitably provided on the vast majority of small cable buys where the spend is under $25,000/market. Additionally, the majority of Spot Runner’s experience with national buys is Direct Response - which by definition tends to be broad rotations. It’s also worth noting that while small client’s get excellent creative at very affordable prices, they more than pay for it with Spot Runner’s full 15% commission structure, with additional mark ups more common than not. At it’s heart, Spot Runner is a technology company, staffed and run by people with strong technology backgrounds. Media, and particularly TV media expertise is not what they are known for. The sheer volume of spots that need to be processed prohibits buyers from exercising the negotiation expertise they may have done before joining Spot Runner.Larger advertisers which could easily go to a traditional agency where they’d get hands on media attention and more reasonable commissions find themselves stuck after paying Spot Runner thousands for custom creative. As far as their ability to do custom creative, check out the StubHub custom ad from a live shoot. 30 seconds and it’s clear what they are and are not capable of. As for running political ads, the lone individual hired to pursue political clients was among those let go as business in that sector has not materialized to a level that would support even that level of staffing support. Political advertisers seem to have found that they are better served going with an agency known for it’s political expertise in media, as direct response tend to go to agencies that specialize in that area and entertainment to agencies with a history of success in that category. Few of Spot Runner’s forays in these areas have resulted in the client coming back for a second try.

 Chrome is better looking than the other browsers because it does not look so cluttered as Firefox with all its extensions and because it is not ugly as IE. I would still like a browser to have weather and time a standard part of the interface and a bookmark system that doesn’t take up too much real estate. I want to be able to click on a word and have it immediately defined without opening another page. When I backspace on a word I don’t want a zillion choices just Back, Copy, Define, Search, and Wikipedia. I also would like to be able to translate a page into English without having to see a bunch of international flag favicons. I find many of the extensions in Firefox and IE to take up too much space. I like StumbleUpon but does it really need its own toolbar. Chrome must find a way to keep its sleek design and still have all the power of the other browsers.

Please note, this is not a wide release. It clearly states when you download Chrome that it is a BETA version of the software. It is not an official release and it is expected to have bugs. All the firefox betas and release candidates had bugs when testing and this is no exception. I personally have enjoyed using Chrome and look forward to the competition that it will foster in the browser community for them to improve their products or lose market share. Firefox is already working on a new java engine (tracemonkey) that is supposed to be even faster than the V8 engine that drives Chrome. Google has also already revised its EULA to remove the offensive language in section 11. Once there is an official release of Chrome then we should begin to see a greater number of extensions available since it is also an open source project.

Just like Firefox, the new chrome is missing things, do not show web pages properly in many cases. the only decent web browser outside Internet explorer is Opera