More Google Product Ideas

I am fascinated with Nielsen ratings data, but there are lists Google could produce that would fascinate me more.

The first idea is that within Google they should have a "Billion Dollar Idea" program where if you come up with a billion dollar idea they just pay you a $25 million commission for your good work. I don't actually work for Google, but I think they should extend this program to me anyway. I do think this is a billion dollar idea even though it's a very simple one. I 'm not sure the one below is worth anything, but oh man, I want it anyway.

It needs a different name but to keep in the theme of what I've been writing about the placeholder is the top 10: Capitalism isn't Self Destructive but People Are list. Paris, Britney, Lindsay, John Travolta, Tom Cruise – it's just another way to capitalize on people acting like dopes, but with this sort of dopiness the intersection between capitalism and dopiness seems to be high. We eat this up like candy and Google could figure out some exact ranking based on the # of news stories about dopey behavior.

They could further segment the lists. I'd want the sports list. In fact this is the reason I am so consumed with ESPN's 5pm-6pm EDT hour and love ATH and PTI. Effectively these shows create the list for me. I don't know the actual ranking but this week the top 2 for sure would be:

1. Kobe Bryant
   
2. Pacman Jones
   
3. The Cincinnati Bengals*
   

*I had to add this because ANOTHER Bengal got arrested for something. I actually DO believe in coincidence, but when what seems like about a 4^th of the 45 man roster has been fingerprinted in the last year I don't know if that's coincidence, Cincinnati, or something specific to the Bengals.

I know this though: Roger Goodell had some sort of "OMG, you have to be kidding me!" moment when he found that out.

The Pressure is on Lebron James (More TV Ratings)

And not the pressure to win the championship -- although I am sure he puts a lot of personal pressure on himself to win.

For all my talk about the NHL ratings (and again, I've completely swung to thinking current value/health of the league does NOT correlate to the National ratings of the Stanley Cup games), I think the ratings for the upcoming NBA finals will be very interesting. Because of Lebron my guess is the finals will crack averaging over 10 Million homes for the first time since 2004 when Detroit vs. the Lakers pulled an 11.5 average Nielsen Rating and was on in ~12.5 million homes.

What I'm most interested in is to see whether Lebron can outdo that performance by Kobe/Shaq of a few years back.

The relative comparison are of course completely meaningless (comparing NHL to NBA, for example). While my linear brain does want to make such comparisons -- crap like if the value of an NHL franchise is X, the value of the Boston Red Sox must be 25X!

But that really is just a bunch of stupid crap. In the real world it doesn't work that way. In the real world, quite often, as my brother likes to say, the tiniest studio apartment in the most luxurious building will have a higher price per sq. foot than the bigger, "nicer" units. You can't look at the unit that is 4x as big and say it should be worth 4x...because that's not actually how it really works. Not for condos, not for the NBA, not for the NHL.

My mind tried to process it that way anyway, but I'm over it.