An ingenious approach to online advertising over at Solve Media. Instead of having to type out those Captchas, you reproduce a strapline from an ad instead. Ad copywriters rejoice! Ye shall be read, and recalled. Obligatory illustration-based video follows.

Online advertising really is a platform game. By that I mean, the people owning the platforms, like the Solve Media guys, are the ones holding the real value.

The above might prove to be a gimmick. But right now this is looking a lot better than an interruption-model leaderboard ad splattered across article template pages. Oh, and there's the 40% recall rate for people who typed in the ad phrase.

Found via the WSJ.

Google TV was an obvious play really, hinted at during Conan O'Brien's recent visit to Google. It looks like Google are going for Apple everywhere now (even the WebFont API stuff seems directed at Jobs), but really it's nothing personal; these are the hills with gold in.

Of course, we had this Web TV yoke in Ireland 10 years ago, with the trailblazing Unison set-top box.

In 2007, the Washington Post hired web builder Rob Curley to develop a hyperlocal news website, loudounextra.com. The Post had the idea that local news is a context that works well for people online. A year on and the site itself (despite a terrible URL) is good. But it hasn't gained the traction it had hoped, and the WSJ proudly declared it a flop. Rob posted a frank mea culpa and response as the project lead.

Hyperlocal services and information are definitely taking off. But I'm more of a believer in providing localised services and utilities than localised news online.

Paidcontent.org is a good source for information on similar media projects.