3 replies to this topic

[meta]

This morning I saw an ad for a little program called Weatherbug. It is a programs that displays the temperature on the Windows toolbar, and when you click on the temperature display, a more detailed weather report with advertising comes up. Their site takes the trouble to point out that it is not spyware - a smart thing because I was hesitant to try it until I saw that. During the installation, you can choose the sponsor (the type of advertising) that you accept, and you can change the sponsor at a later time.

This is a nice example of a giveaway. It is useful and always at hand, but unobtrusive. The idea could be adapted to promote all kinds of things.

[dragonlady7]

I used Weatherbug for about two years until I got rid of my PC.
Their "spam" was very clearly labeled and usually contained some material besides advertisements.
I really enjoyed the product. My only problem with it was it would notify you of every National Weather Service bulletin for your area-- twice. So, if the neighboring county had a flood watch, you heard about it, every time it was announced or updated.

I found it much more useful when I lived in Rochester and it was usually blizzard warnings. In other locations, the weather wasn't so urgent.
But having the temperature in the taskbar was invaluable! And the forecast was one click away! Brilliant.
It would launch popups, though, which was annoying. But, only when you had the program window open. It wouldn't launch popups just sitting there, which was certainly nice.

They added a bunch of webcams recently-- those are tons of fun to play with. I recommend the program to anyone with a PC. But, they don't make a Mac version. I have to surf to the national weather service site all on my own. Bummer...

[Scottie]

The Weather Channel now offers an active desktop download- sounds very similar to WeatherBug.

It's funny becuase when there is a storm approaching, my husband's computer starts to thunder. Always catches me off-guard.

[dragonlady7]

Weatherbug used to chirp. I'd wake up at 4 am, having forgotten again to turn the volume down on the computer on the desk by the head of my bed, wondering what the heck was going on. And then it would chirp again, and I'd go check and see that we were highly likely to have a snow day the next day, because it was Rochester and things were generally pretty dire, weather-wise. Good to have the notice...