Chinese Minister Hints At Consequences For Google
Despite weeks of talks that have supposedly taken place behind closed doors, the Chinese government still seems unwilling to compromise with respect to Google and censorship. Indeed, it may be growing hostile, as a minister talked about "consequences" today. The BBC reported that Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong adopted a tough stance during a legislation session. "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations," he said. "But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations . . . it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences." As for what those consequences might be, it almost sounds as if China's ready to force Google out of the country whether it wants to leave or not. The Chinese official stated at one point, "[W]hat needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked." This is less than good news for anyone who was hoping Google would be able to keep operating in China. Considering that Eric Schmidt recently said "something will happen soon," it may even represent the end of the road, rather than just another outburst of rhetoric. Or not. Investors on both sides have failed to flinch, with Google's and Baidu's stocks up about equal amounts so far today.
Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:08:16 -0500
Nielsen: Online Video Usage Significantly Up YOY
Glass-half-full and glass-half-empty types, prepare to be split. New stats from Nielsen indicate that February of 2010 was a great month for the online video industry compared to February of 2009. Last month was a little bit rotten compared to January of 2010, however. The chart below shows how the big-picture data categories played out. "Unique Viewers" and "Total Streams" made the most progress year-over-year, even as "Total Streams" and "Streams per Viewer" slipped the most month-over-month. You'll see the YOY gains are generally bigger than the MOM losses, at least.
Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:06:40 -0500
Google China Shows "Tank Man," Tibet Search Results
The clash between Google and the Chinese government appears to be coming to a head. Various sources have reported that Google ignored a cut-off date to reregister as an Internet content provider in China, and more importantly, that the company has stopped censoring search results. Let's get the paperwork-related story out of the way first. Charles Arthur wrote this morning, "Google missed a deadline to re-register as an 'internet content provider' (ICP) in China last night, which observers say is a sign that it is preparing to shut down its search engine there." As for the news related to Google.cn and a lack of censorship, something has definitely occurred. Following some tests, Adrienne Mong wrote, "Web sites dealing with subjects such as the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, Tibet and regional independence movements could all be accessed through Google's Chinese search engine Tuesday . . ." Other people have seen uncensored results, too, although filters apparently kick in on occasion. Google's stayed pretty tight-lipped during all of this. One spokesperson told Arthur that the company actually has until the end of March to reregister. Another told Mong that nothing's changed. So it's possible that we're just seeing a case of deadline confusion strike at the same time as some technical problems. Google may have finally taken a stand with regards to censorship in China, though, and is just daring the Chinese government to challenge its position. We'll be sure to stay on top of this situation as it develops.
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:45:00 -0400
YouTube Solicits Ideas For Partner Program
YouTube Partners are, pretty much by definition, some of YouTube's most important users. They create original content, don't violate copyright laws, and have huge audiences. It makes sense, then, that YouTube is now looking hard for ways to improve its Partner Program. The hunt has taken the form of a crowdsourced project. Just as the Ideas Page for YouTube was created not too long ago for the sake of the whole site, the new Product Ideas Page for the YouTube Partner Program covers this single subject. People can submit ideas and vote on which ones they think are best.
Publ.Date : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:11:17 -0500
Google Gives Advertisers Another "In" On YouTube
In a move that investors and marketers alike should applaud, Google's figured out another way to make money off the site it bought for $1.65 billion three and a half years ago. Today, Google explained that it's come up with a tool to help small organizations advertise on YouTube. Emily Williams, a member of the Inside AdWords team, explained on the corporate blog, "[W]e're announcing another new feature in Display Ad Builder that lets advertisers use simple templates to create InVideo overlays and companion ads on YouTube." (FYI: "An InVideo ad is an animated flash overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching.")
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:10:12 -0400
Gowalla 2.0 Launches for iPhone
Gowalla is a service that has been getting a lot of buzz lately. If you're not familiar with it, it's a location-based social networksing service that comes in the form of mobile apps. Gowalla announced today, the availability of Gowalla 2.0 for the iPhone 3G and 3GS platforms. Gowalla highlights the following new features with this version: - Design – Gowalla developers have created a fresh new experience that is more flexible, readable and usable. - Photos – Gowalla 2.0 gives users the ability to not only check in and create new spots; they can also upload a photo after checking in, browse photos from friends and see photos taken at that spot. - Checkin Commenting – Now when a friend checks in someplace, other users in the community are able to tell that friend what they think. - Multiple checkin messages – Users now have more opportunities to add messages even after they’ve left a checkin spot. Skipped typing a message? Come back and add one. - Hot spots – The most popular spots nearby will be highlighted for users in a particular area to discover. - Browse friends – and friends of friends. Browsing friends’ bookmarked spots and creating trips are two new features put in place by Gowalla’s developers by popular demand. - Facebook, Twitter and web links – Building your Gowalla network is easier than ever with more ways to stay connected with friends through Facebook, Twitter and web links. - Spot details – Address, phone numbers, Twitter names, Facebook pages and website will now be available in several checkin spots. Gowalla will be heavily involved in SXSW (of which WebProNews will be covering the Interactive portion). Gowalla has updated its SXSW mini-site that details all of the SXSW initiatives the company will be rolling out, including: real world rewards, competitions, challenges and events.
Publ.Date : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:43:11 -0500
How the Crowd is Changing the News (SXSW)
Here at SXSW, we attended the session "CrowdControl: Changing the Face of Media or Hype?" At the end, one of the speakers asked the crowd, which they thought it was. Almost everybody responded with the former, while maybe one or two raised their hand for hype. I think it's pretty clear that citizen journalism, the real topic of this discussion, is changing and has already changed the face of media. There are varying opinions on if that is for better or for worse, but the very fact that these opinions are able to be voiced is a testament to the stength of the crowd. On the panel were Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Randi Zuckerberg from Facebook, Lila King from CNN.com, Jason Rzepka from MTV, and Joseph Kingsbury of Text100 Public relations. Much of the conversation was centered around trust. Who can you trust? How do you know you can trust them? How do you know these citizen reporters don't have an agenda? Things of this nature. Cashmore says brand still plays a role in trust, and that you should have some level of skepticism when a story comes from something like Twitter (assuming you are unfamiliar with the source). His point is accentuated by the fact that here at at SXSW, a massive Twitter hoax regarding Conan O'Brien was perpetrated from Digg's SXSW party the other night. "People need to become more educated consumers of news" and "learn what you can trust and what you can't," says Cashmore. That is probably easier said than done, and possibly asking a lot of the average person that doesn't reside inside the news industry, but he's right. If people don't want to be misled or misinformed, they need to not only consider the source, but acknowledge multiple sources before totally abandoning the grain of salt. This actually reminds me of something Andrew Lih said in another session I attended this past weekend about Wikipedia. His advice to journalists (as well as students) was that there is "no better starting point" than Wikipedia, and "no worse ending point." Cashmore made a point about Wikipedia in that it is controlled by a few people, so it's not exactly the crowd like Twitter is the crowd, or like the Blogosphere is the crowd, but I think the point runs parallel. A tweet may be a great starting point for a piece of news, but it should not be the ending point in acceptance of fact. The crowd is there for balance. The more viewpoints that are available, the more a reader is able to take away from a story. When points are debated, more info is revealed, and even if some of that doesn't sit well with you, you can use your own judgment to assess where you come down on the subject at hand. This comes back to Cashmore's statement about becoming a more educated consumer of news. Perhaps we only need to strive for a better educated public in general, and the quality of so-called citizen journalism will grow. That should be easy. For more from SXSW, check out our exclusive interviews at live.webpronews.com.
Publ.Date : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:22:18 -0400
Facebook Unseats Google As Most-Visited Site
Although the "thud" wasn't verified until this afternoon, it seems that an online giant fell a couple of days ago. According to new data from Hitwise, Facebook managed to beat Google in terms of visits between March 7th and March 13th, becoming the most visited website in the U.S. for the week. The graph visible below makes the changeup pretty clear (blame the sloppy enlarged bit on us, not Hitwise). What's more, it doesn't look like Facebook's going to relinquish its lead anytime soon.
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:06:27 -0400
Liveblogging: Danah Boyd (Micosoft Research) SXSW Keynote
I'm sitting here in the exhibit hall at SXSW getting ready for the opening remarks keynote, which is getting ready to get underway. It will be delivered by Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research Her SXSW Bio: One of the world's foremost authorities on social networks, boyd works at Microsoft Research New England and also serves as a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Note: Please forgive he typos that are sure to occur in this liveblog. Also keep in mind that this is paraphrased. Liveblogging starts: 02: 08 She takes the stage. 2:09 Humbled to be here. SXSW first and foremost about the people...passionate about what they're doing. there's a lot of trouble that goes on but that's part of the joy. 2:10: Have a good time, but avoid the tequila.... I'm a social media researcher....spend most of my time trying to understand how people use social media in their daily lives. reflecting how to make that material public. blogging for 13 years. believe in being an activist. What keeps me up at night is how social media transforms society. Goal: sit back and think about a specfic set of puzzles. All of you are seeing how these tools are shaping society.... Intersection of privacy and publicity. 2:12: privacy isn't dead. people very much care about it online and off. what privacy means may not be what you think. it's about control...understanding a social setting. and context. how to behave. understanding what the architecture will let you do.... people feel they don'thave control and they feel violated. Recent privacy fail: Google Buzz A lot of people will lvoe buzz and use it, but it doesn't mean that google didn't mess up in terms of privacy. They're aking a hit. 2:14: Gives background of how buzz works.... 2:15: NOthing the buzz team was technologically wrong. there were all sorts of opt outs....shows a slide referencing "F--- you Google" ... Deconstruct what acutally happened: 2:19: Talking about engineers looking at "ASL" in chat rooms...there's something radically different than responding than going into their profile and looking. Ask users to share with their friends....It's not the idea of getting that info. it's the ritual of letting them know how the info will be acquired. Google managed to find the social equivalent of the uncanny valley... Personal networks are when you talk to people about what they spend time with Personal - listing contacts, etc. Behavioral - networks with people in the same room. What Google did was collapsed these... Just because people put material in public doesnt mean it was all meant to come together and be aggregated. What they did wrong: 1. Google got in trouble by integrating a public facing system inside of one of the most intimate (gmail)....juxtaposing private with public...a lot of users believed google was exposing their private email..this was never technically the case, but it created confusion. people flipped out. google had to spend a lot of time and pr... 2. GOogle assumed that people would opt out if they didnt' want to participate. gives google benefit of the doubt, but cant help but notice that more companies think its ok to expose tremendously and then back pedal... Easier for users to flip out rather than to actually go and undo things... I kept meeting users who thtought if they opted out, it would cancel their gmail account. You need to ease them in. give them a way to understand... THey "foolishly" told users what they wanted to hear rather than asking them what they wanted to hear. Just because people want something publicly accessible doesn't mean they want it publicized. Shows slide of Onion article mocking Google 2:23: We see gossip being spread in all sorts of ways. We don't always navigate privacy with people so well...we hold the architcture around us accountable. The Walls have ears. there is always the possiblity of eavesdroppers. Talks about being in a cafe...public place, but you expect certain types of people to show up. you expect people from the community but not your high school cheerleading team. When people asses a situation, they develop menal models...they need to know so they know how to "best behave". online environments are not nearly as stablized...we're still trying to work through what we can trust in terms of architecture and people. 02:27: Digital architecture doesn't just have ears. also has a mouth. people aren't good at managing when the system changes the rules on them. Recent privacy fail number 2: facebook's privacy changes in december Gives a rundown of all of that. 02:28: Asking non techy users: tell me what you privacy settings are? I have yet to find a single person who actually knows. That's not Good knows. Facebook is known for privacy. Tells story of teen with abusive father...set up facebook account...found out that her content was made public. is her fear of what might have gone wrong acceptable? Big difference between publicly available data and publicized data. I worry about this and who will get caught in the crossfire. PII vs. PEI PII - personally identifiable information vs. personally embarassing information 02:32: When tech comes along and changes rules, it's a huge fail Conversations that happen in social media are public by default, private by effort. What we see with teens is that they're thiking through this. THey make conscious decisions. Critical to realize effected by age, life role, etc. People make material publicly accesssible, but they dont' want the world to see it. there are poeple that they specifically don't want to see it. 02:36 "Making something that is public more public is a violation of privacy." People can adjust to change, but you have to think about those who get in trouble during the process. Compares to paparazzi. Shows slides of britney, lindsay lohan and Princess Diana. Publicity: Twitter has become a space for celebs, micro-celebs, fans of all sorts. FB is about communicating with the people you already know, Twitter started out this way, but it's evolved to follow people who have audiences... 02:39: Issues of intimacy good and bad...cause of trouble for some celebs. Talks about Miley Cyrus quitting Twitter. Quotes from her rap about it. Twitter isn't just for celebs and followers. People all over the globe engage with it as specific kind of public space. two kinds of trending topics: those that start because of external factors, and those that are generated on the site. 02:41: Trending topics also highlight that not all users are who you think they are. Shows Justin Bieber...in trending topics for 18 solid days. For all the conversations of teens not tweeting....all of his followers not all that old. Lot of racism and classism on Twitter. Shows slides of white people using the N word... Many have benefited from speaking in public on social media. It's easy to take things for granted: the right to challenge authority, the right to be heard, seen, the right to go into public without losing my rights, etc. seek pub of own accord...not what everybody gets. Imagine you just left an abusive relationship, but you're biggest fear is that you ex will find you....how public are you willing to be? People kicked out of jobs, military... Your kid's teacher: how public is she allowed to be online? Religious? Drinking? ALlowed to be a lover and a friend in a public setting? What we see over and over agin is that we expect the teacher to always be the teacher, but that's a lot to ask from people. 02:46: Public by default: not the great democratizer. Seeking attention, part of what makes engaging online fun. Quotes Jon Stewart The internet's like Meixcan food. every sites' got the same ingredients, just different combinations...talks about chat roulette. 02:49: Why do people engage on this site? What you'll find is heartwarming and heartbreaking. Many there for entertainment, boredom, find pesonal connections, etc. THere are others hoping they might find a celeb. It's an odd combo of privacy and publicity...situated in private spaces (bedrooms, offices), but becomes publc. People are having fun geo-locating people who are participating. CR may be a fad, but the idea of pub andprivacy getting mixed up is not. New rules will complicate the boundaries... Tech will continue to make a mess of both. You need to know that there is now magical formula for understanding privacy and publicity. If you expose people, you may lose you reputation... For marketers, its an exciting time of publicility, but just because you can see somebody, doesn't mean they want to be seen by you. And just because you think you've interpreted something, doesn't mean you've done it right. Wants to see more policy grounded in what's going on. A lot of numbers can be misinterpreted. What we're measuring isn't peoples' sense of privacy. Wanting privacy isn't about having something to hide. It's about wanting control... There are good reasons to engage in privacy and good ones to engage in publicity. A lot of people are sharing more publicly to maintain other stuff privately. Think about people's intentions and what it means to invade their privacy. Make sure you're creating the future that you want to live in.
Publ.Date : Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:51:43 -0500
SXSW: Some Options for Making Money From Your Online Videos
At SXSW, Rob Millis and Will Coghlan of the newly launched Dynamo Player talked about different routes online video producers can take to try and make a buck. While the discussion ultimately led up to the duo's demo of its new product, it was not above representing some different options fairly. The two talked about some of the pros and cons of advertising, such as: Pros - Fosters dramatic growth (financed first forty years of TV and last 15 years of Internet content) - Blip.tv and YouTube define a stable market - Reliable high quality programs... Cons - High value advertising demands high value programming (production). Costs a lot up front - higher costs to return - Content can be unreliable, too hot to handle, or simply unappealing to advertisers. Short films, docs, r-rated or controversial content can't get high value CPM. - Advertisers can't depend on a certain number of viewers - Random advertising can damage brand while paying little to nothing - Must have very, very large audience - Can put a plane crash next to an ad for Delta or something to this effect So the question is, will people pay for video online? They talked about how a lot of people are already doing just that through services like iTunes, which the pair say "changed the marketplace." When deciding whether you want to ask people to pay for your content, you should ask yourself the following questions, according to Millis and Cohlan: - What content do you pay for now? - Have you ever quit halfway through a payment or subscription process arrangement? - How often do you click away because of pre-roll ads? - Are you willing to download software? "Asking your audience to pay for your content is about eliminating these 'why bother' factors," they say. Then ask yourself: - How do you want to sell your content? - Does it need to happen now or are you willing to wait for approval? - How much do you need to charge, and how soon do you need to get paid? - How much info do you want to ask your viewers for? - How technically savvy are you? - How important is image quality? - Do you want your viewers to go to your site to watch or somewhere else? - Do you want to be able to embed your video? - Do you want to allow your viewers to share? - What kind of content do you have - serial, one off, short format, feature length? - How much publicity do you want/need? "Ask these questions before you commit to a solution," they say. One option is what they refer to as the Ze Frank model. This is a show that used drop.io to package shows that are otherwise free, and sell them together, so viewers can take them and easily watch them on their iPods. Another option is to work with a partner like re:frame or NewVideo, which will work with you on getting stuff into iTunes or Hulu. Then there are sites like MyContent.com and IndieFlix. With MyContent.com, you get choices like free streaming, rental streaming, and selling through the site as a paid download. They are your partner, and they only pay you after costs are covered. They have a revenue share deal. MyContent.com will take 35% after costs, and they charge a small monthly processing fee, according to the Dynamo guys. With Indieflix, you can upload content through them, and sell it as a DVD or make it available as a paid stream, but they're fairly selective about their content. Another option they discussed was Amazon's Create Space. Advantages of this, they say, are that Amazon's a leader in cloud computing - they can store and serve content more efficiently, and at a lower cost, they are a well-recognized brand, and they're connected to a lot of TVs and living rooms. They'll list films on IMDB for you, and stream stuff to the XBox. However, they take 50% of royalties, and you can only suggest a price for your video. Then there are YouTube rentals, a system Google introduced not too long ago, at Sundance. They let content creators set the price and viewing window, and they have the obvious huge advantage of social media for promotion. It doesn't hurt that YouTube is also the second largest search engine, behind Google itself. YouTube lets you use Google Checkout, which is easy enough, and content streams quickly. You need to use an AdSense account, and as you may know, Google is not up front about how much revenue sharing they do, although it's supposed to be "the majority". You can read about Dynamo's own option here.
Publ.Date : Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:42:03 -0400
Yahoo Makes Strides In Entertainment Search
If Yahoo has its way, it'll soon be the place to go for information about movies, TV shows, and the celebrities who star in them. Yahoo announced several upgrades to its search engine this morning, and they're all meant to make entertainment-related queries turn up much better results. A Yahoo representative told WebProNews, "Today Yahoo! Search is unveiling new ways for people to explore information on their favorite celebs and TV shows by providing the most comprehensive and up to the moment entertainment news and content. With Yahoo! Search's celebrity shortcuts, people can see news, photos, movies and even the celebrity's official tweets right on the search results page." What's more, "Yahoo! is also introducing a TV shortcut so people can search for their favorite TV shows and see videos, episode lists, schedules and ratings from Yahoo! TV." And "we are launching new celebrity-related suggestions on the left-side of the Yahoo! Search results page for entertainment queries, with links to results for related people, movies, etc." You can see an example of how this all comes together below. The results page packs in a whole lot of information, but still manages to not look overly cluttered or messy.
Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:50:45 -0500
Is Wikipedia on the Road to Becoming the Next DMOZ? (SXSW)
There is no shortage of interesting sessions going on at SXSW Interactive in Austin, but one that was especially interesting was "Can Wikipedia Survive Popular Success and Community Decline?" - a presentation from USC Professor of Journalism Andrew Lih. The session explored factors that contribute to the declining rate of Wikipedia entry editing, although Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation told WebProNews a few months ago, that growth in editing had slowed, and the number of editors was just flat, and not declining. Either way it's ceratinly not a money issue. The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't appear to have too many problems raising money. "Every year, the number of people donating to the Wikimedia Foundation has increased, and the total dollar amount has increased too," Gardner told us. Google alone recently donated $2 million. Not that the money goes to editors (this is where it goes). It's quite interesting that Wikipedia's success has come at the price of a community decline (even if in just growth). One of the biggest reasons there has been such a drop off in new editors is that it has simply gotten harder to edit entries. That's not just because of exclusivity reasons. It has actually become more technically difficult to edit entries over the years. There is a huge usability issue, and this is much of what Lih discussed. Lih talked about how the editorial language has gotten more vague over the years. Wikipedia used to flat out ask people to edit articles. Then it eventually got to where "anyone CAN edit." Another factor he mentioned is that of eventualism - the belief in the Wikipedia community that people will eventually fix articles. Someone else will get to it. Yet another factor is that there are way more rules than there used to be. It's not that this is necessarily a bad thing. As Lih says, there is kind of more resonsiblitlity for Wikipedia to be up to quality standards now, as it has become one of the most popular sites on the web, and is often at the top of Google search results. But with more rules, comes less ease and in some cases, less enthusiasm. If a potential editor does want to go through with playing by the rules, they have to go through an extensive interrogation process in which Lih says they are asked twenty to thirty questions. Perhaps the biggest reason people don't want to edit Wikipedia articles is that the markup on the actual edit pages has become much more complicated over the years. It used to be simple, and most people could easily figure it out, and now, as Lih explained, it looks like a SQL database. He referred to a usability study from the Wikimedia Foundation, in which every user struggled to get a basic grasp of the editing interface. Users largely failed to make edits correctly without repeated attempts and efforts. Not even the most tech-savvy participants were able to do it right. Lih presented the idea of looking at lessons from other communities. He focused specifically on DMOZ. "DMOZ chose to place editorial control in the hands of a small cabal of editors, and in doing so made the directory opaque, unresponsive and outdated - the editorial policy of DMOZ killed DMOZ," he said. Possible scenarios that could play out, as Lih suggested, include a slow, steady quality decline, flagged revisions leading to a quality increase, the inability to update in a timely manner, or the trickling in of spam, PoV/non-neutralcontent. There is much research being put into Wikipedia and it's continued success. Google's relationship with Wikipedia (whatever the extent of that may be, Lih simply calls it an interesting one and pretty much leaves it at that), appears to be helping keep Wikipedia in the forefront of search results for many, many queries. That's now though. Things change. There are other Wiki-style information sites out there, some of which have much more user-friendly editorial processes. Is it possible that Wikipedia will go the way of DMOZ? It has become easier for researchers to obtain more data about Wikipedia in the last few years, and researchers are exploring a variety of ways to improve the process. Perhaps Wikipedia will be able to correct some of its issues before they snowball too much. Read our interview with Gardner here.
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:17:01 -0400
Google Hires XML Co-Inventor
Today, Tim Bray started working for Google, and had the search giant just put out a one-sentence press release stating this fact, the development would be worth reporting. But what makes this move especially noteworthy is that Bray announced it in a 1,260-word blog post mentioning an absolute hatred of the iPhone. Bray is a rather important person in a lot of tech circles. Two interesting details regarding his accomplishments: he's the co-inventor of XML, and spent several years serving on the W3C Technical Architecture Group. Here's what the respected developer had to say about the iPhone, though: "The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger. . . . I hate it." In turn, Bray's a huge fan of Google's mobile operating system. He wrote, "The reason I'm here is mostly Android. Which seems to me about as unambiguously a good thing as the tangled wrinkly human texture of the Net can sustain just now." So it looks like the Android-iPhone war is about to get a lot more fierce. Although for what it's worth, Bray was careful to say that his opinions don't necessarily reflect his new employer's stance on anything.
Publ.Date : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:58:17 -0400
CNN President "Really Afraid Of" Social Networks
Over the years, there have been more than a few arguments about whether online news sites are killing newspapers. Now, due to some almost startling comments made by the president of CNN, it looks like the next round of old media-new media disputes might concern social networks and cable news organizations. According to the AFP, Jonathan Klein's remarks on this subject were in no way ambiguous. He said at Bloomberg BusinessWeek's 2010 Media Summit New York, "The competition I'm really afraid of are social networking sites. That's an alternative that threatens to pull people away from us." Klein then explained, "The people you're friends with on Facebook or the people you follow on Twitter are trusted sources of information. . . . Well, we want to be the most trusted name in news. We don't want the 1,000 people you follow in Twitter to be the most trusted sources for you. . . . So I'm far more worried about the 500 million people on Facebook than I am about two million people watching Fox." That's an interesting take on the power of social networks. It implies - at the very least - that CNN anchors are going to spend a whole lot more time referencing Facebook and Twitter from now on. An ad campaign and new apps could follow, too. On a broader scale, Klein seems to be saying that social networks' users can easily - even unwittingly - make or break major corporations.
Publ.Date : Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:19:10 -0400
Confirmed: Yahoo's SVP Of Revenue To Quit
Joanne Bradford started at Yahoo about a year and a half ago, assuming the title "Senior Vice President, U.S. Revenue and Market Development." Now, a fresh report's indicated that the high-ranking exec is on her way out again, ready to take a position at Demand Media. Kara Swisher wrote earlier, "According to several sources . . . Bradford is planning on leaving the Internet giant to take a new position as Chief Revenue Officer of online content upstart Demand Media." And Swisher (and her sources) are usually spot-on about these things. Yahoo's likely being dealt a major blow, then, considering what an important role Bradford plays at the company. While almost all departures have theoretical financial repercussions - you have to figure everyone contributes to the bottom line in some way - Bradford's position over ad sales means she has a direct influence. Also, Bradford's resume suggests that she's good at her job, having spent time at Microsoft, Spot Runner, and BusinessWeek before heading to Yahoo. Still, this development doesn't have to represent a complete disaster for Yahoo. As you might have guessed after reading the last paragraph, Bradford doesn't always stay in one place for too long - she only spent about seven months at SpotRunner, for example - so her move may not say much about Yahoo's situation. UPDATE: Yahoo responded to a question sent via email by stating, "Joanne Bradford has decided to leave Yahoo! to pursue a new opportunity. Joanne will be working with the team over the coming weeks to enable a smooth transition."
Publ.Date : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:00:45 -0400
Clickbank Datafeed
Turnkey Internet Business
Despite weeks of talks that have supposedly taken place behind closed doors, the Chinese government still seems unwilling to compromise with respect to Google and censorship. Indeed, it may be growing hostile, as a minister talked about "consequences" today. The BBC reported that Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong adopted a tough stance during a legislation session. "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations," he said. "But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations . . . it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences." As for what those consequences might be, it almost sounds as if China's ready to force Google out of the country whether it wants to leave or not. The Chinese official stated at one point, "[W]hat needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked." This is less than good news for anyone who was hoping Google would be able to keep operating in China. Considering that Eric Schmidt recently said "something will happen soon," it may even represent the end of the road, rather than just another outburst of rhetoric. Or not. Investors on both sides have failed to flinch, with Google's and Baidu's stocks up about equal amounts so far today.
Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:08:16 -0500
Nielsen: Online Video Usage Significantly Up YOY
Glass-half-full and glass-half-empty types, prepare to be split. New stats from Nielsen indicate that February of 2010 was a great month for the online video industry compared to February of 2009. Last month was a little bit rotten compared to January of 2010, however. The chart below shows how the big-picture data categories played out. "Unique Viewers" and "Total Streams" made the most progress year-over-year, even as "Total Streams" and "Streams per Viewer" slipped the most month-over-month. You'll see the YOY gains are generally bigger than the MOM losses, at least.
Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:06:40 -0500
Google China Shows "Tank Man," Tibet Search Results
The clash between Google and the Chinese government appears to be coming to a head. Various sources have reported that Google ignored a cut-off date to reregister as an Internet content provider in China, and more importantly, that the company has stopped censoring search results. Let's get the paperwork-related story out of the way first. Charles Arthur wrote this morning, "Google missed a deadline to re-register as an 'internet content provider' (ICP) in China last night, which observers say is a sign that it is preparing to shut down its search engine there." As for the news related to Google.cn and a lack of censorship, something has definitely occurred. Following some tests, Adrienne Mong wrote, "Web sites dealing with subjects such as the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, Tibet and regional independence movements could all be accessed through Google's Chinese search engine Tuesday . . ." Other people have seen uncensored results, too, although filters apparently kick in on occasion. Google's stayed pretty tight-lipped during all of this. One spokesperson told Arthur that the company actually has until the end of March to reregister. Another told Mong that nothing's changed. So it's possible that we're just seeing a case of deadline confusion strike at the same time as some technical problems. Google may have finally taken a stand with regards to censorship in China, though, and is just daring the Chinese government to challenge its position. We'll be sure to stay on top of this situation as it develops.
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:45:00 -0400
YouTube Solicits Ideas For Partner Program
YouTube Partners are, pretty much by definition, some of YouTube's most important users. They create original content, don't violate copyright laws, and have huge audiences. It makes sense, then, that YouTube is now looking hard for ways to improve its Partner Program. The hunt has taken the form of a crowdsourced project. Just as the Ideas Page for YouTube was created not too long ago for the sake of the whole site, the new Product Ideas Page for the YouTube Partner Program covers this single subject. People can submit ideas and vote on which ones they think are best.
Publ.Date : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:11:17 -0500
Google Gives Advertisers Another "In" On YouTube
In a move that investors and marketers alike should applaud, Google's figured out another way to make money off the site it bought for $1.65 billion three and a half years ago. Today, Google explained that it's come up with a tool to help small organizations advertise on YouTube. Emily Williams, a member of the Inside AdWords team, explained on the corporate blog, "[W]e're announcing another new feature in Display Ad Builder that lets advertisers use simple templates to create InVideo overlays and companion ads on YouTube." (FYI: "An InVideo ad is an animated flash overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching.")
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:10:12 -0400
Gowalla 2.0 Launches for iPhone
Gowalla is a service that has been getting a lot of buzz lately. If you're not familiar with it, it's a location-based social networksing service that comes in the form of mobile apps. Gowalla announced today, the availability of Gowalla 2.0 for the iPhone 3G and 3GS platforms. Gowalla highlights the following new features with this version: - Design – Gowalla developers have created a fresh new experience that is more flexible, readable and usable. - Photos – Gowalla 2.0 gives users the ability to not only check in and create new spots; they can also upload a photo after checking in, browse photos from friends and see photos taken at that spot. - Checkin Commenting – Now when a friend checks in someplace, other users in the community are able to tell that friend what they think. - Multiple checkin messages – Users now have more opportunities to add messages even after they’ve left a checkin spot. Skipped typing a message? Come back and add one. - Hot spots – The most popular spots nearby will be highlighted for users in a particular area to discover. - Browse friends – and friends of friends. Browsing friends’ bookmarked spots and creating trips are two new features put in place by Gowalla’s developers by popular demand. - Facebook, Twitter and web links – Building your Gowalla network is easier than ever with more ways to stay connected with friends through Facebook, Twitter and web links. - Spot details – Address, phone numbers, Twitter names, Facebook pages and website will now be available in several checkin spots. Gowalla will be heavily involved in SXSW (of which WebProNews will be covering the Interactive portion). Gowalla has updated its SXSW mini-site that details all of the SXSW initiatives the company will be rolling out, including: real world rewards, competitions, challenges and events.
Publ.Date : Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:43:11 -0500
How the Crowd is Changing the News (SXSW)
Here at SXSW, we attended the session "CrowdControl: Changing the Face of Media or Hype?" At the end, one of the speakers asked the crowd, which they thought it was. Almost everybody responded with the former, while maybe one or two raised their hand for hype. I think it's pretty clear that citizen journalism, the real topic of this discussion, is changing and has already changed the face of media. There are varying opinions on if that is for better or for worse, but the very fact that these opinions are able to be voiced is a testament to the stength of the crowd. On the panel were Pete Cashmore of Mashable, Randi Zuckerberg from Facebook, Lila King from CNN.com, Jason Rzepka from MTV, and Joseph Kingsbury of Text100 Public relations. Much of the conversation was centered around trust. Who can you trust? How do you know you can trust them? How do you know these citizen reporters don't have an agenda? Things of this nature. Cashmore says brand still plays a role in trust, and that you should have some level of skepticism when a story comes from something like Twitter (assuming you are unfamiliar with the source). His point is accentuated by the fact that here at at SXSW, a massive Twitter hoax regarding Conan O'Brien was perpetrated from Digg's SXSW party the other night. "People need to become more educated consumers of news" and "learn what you can trust and what you can't," says Cashmore. That is probably easier said than done, and possibly asking a lot of the average person that doesn't reside inside the news industry, but he's right. If people don't want to be misled or misinformed, they need to not only consider the source, but acknowledge multiple sources before totally abandoning the grain of salt. This actually reminds me of something Andrew Lih said in another session I attended this past weekend about Wikipedia. His advice to journalists (as well as students) was that there is "no better starting point" than Wikipedia, and "no worse ending point." Cashmore made a point about Wikipedia in that it is controlled by a few people, so it's not exactly the crowd like Twitter is the crowd, or like the Blogosphere is the crowd, but I think the point runs parallel. A tweet may be a great starting point for a piece of news, but it should not be the ending point in acceptance of fact. The crowd is there for balance. The more viewpoints that are available, the more a reader is able to take away from a story. When points are debated, more info is revealed, and even if some of that doesn't sit well with you, you can use your own judgment to assess where you come down on the subject at hand. This comes back to Cashmore's statement about becoming a more educated consumer of news. Perhaps we only need to strive for a better educated public in general, and the quality of so-called citizen journalism will grow. That should be easy. For more from SXSW, check out our exclusive interviews at live.webpronews.com.
Publ.Date : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:22:18 -0400
Facebook Unseats Google As Most-Visited Site
Although the "thud" wasn't verified until this afternoon, it seems that an online giant fell a couple of days ago. According to new data from Hitwise, Facebook managed to beat Google in terms of visits between March 7th and March 13th, becoming the most visited website in the U.S. for the week. The graph visible below makes the changeup pretty clear (blame the sloppy enlarged bit on us, not Hitwise). What's more, it doesn't look like Facebook's going to relinquish its lead anytime soon.
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:06:27 -0400
Liveblogging: Danah Boyd (Micosoft Research) SXSW Keynote
I'm sitting here in the exhibit hall at SXSW getting ready for the opening remarks keynote, which is getting ready to get underway. It will be delivered by Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research Her SXSW Bio: One of the world's foremost authorities on social networks, boyd works at Microsoft Research New England and also serves as a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Note: Please forgive he typos that are sure to occur in this liveblog. Also keep in mind that this is paraphrased. Liveblogging starts: 02: 08 She takes the stage. 2:09 Humbled to be here. SXSW first and foremost about the people...passionate about what they're doing. there's a lot of trouble that goes on but that's part of the joy. 2:10: Have a good time, but avoid the tequila.... I'm a social media researcher....spend most of my time trying to understand how people use social media in their daily lives. reflecting how to make that material public. blogging for 13 years. believe in being an activist. What keeps me up at night is how social media transforms society. Goal: sit back and think about a specfic set of puzzles. All of you are seeing how these tools are shaping society.... Intersection of privacy and publicity. 2:12: privacy isn't dead. people very much care about it online and off. what privacy means may not be what you think. it's about control...understanding a social setting. and context. how to behave. understanding what the architecture will let you do.... people feel they don'thave control and they feel violated. Recent privacy fail: Google Buzz A lot of people will lvoe buzz and use it, but it doesn't mean that google didn't mess up in terms of privacy. They're aking a hit. 2:14: Gives background of how buzz works.... 2:15: NOthing the buzz team was technologically wrong. there were all sorts of opt outs....shows a slide referencing "F--- you Google" ... Deconstruct what acutally happened: 2:19: Talking about engineers looking at "ASL" in chat rooms...there's something radically different than responding than going into their profile and looking. Ask users to share with their friends....It's not the idea of getting that info. it's the ritual of letting them know how the info will be acquired. Google managed to find the social equivalent of the uncanny valley... Personal networks are when you talk to people about what they spend time with Personal - listing contacts, etc. Behavioral - networks with people in the same room. What Google did was collapsed these... Just because people put material in public doesnt mean it was all meant to come together and be aggregated. What they did wrong: 1. Google got in trouble by integrating a public facing system inside of one of the most intimate (gmail)....juxtaposing private with public...a lot of users believed google was exposing their private email..this was never technically the case, but it created confusion. people flipped out. google had to spend a lot of time and pr... 2. GOogle assumed that people would opt out if they didnt' want to participate. gives google benefit of the doubt, but cant help but notice that more companies think its ok to expose tremendously and then back pedal... Easier for users to flip out rather than to actually go and undo things... I kept meeting users who thtought if they opted out, it would cancel their gmail account. You need to ease them in. give them a way to understand... THey "foolishly" told users what they wanted to hear rather than asking them what they wanted to hear. Just because people want something publicly accessible doesn't mean they want it publicized. Shows slide of Onion article mocking Google 2:23: We see gossip being spread in all sorts of ways. We don't always navigate privacy with people so well...we hold the architcture around us accountable. The Walls have ears. there is always the possiblity of eavesdroppers. Talks about being in a cafe...public place, but you expect certain types of people to show up. you expect people from the community but not your high school cheerleading team. When people asses a situation, they develop menal models...they need to know so they know how to "best behave". online environments are not nearly as stablized...we're still trying to work through what we can trust in terms of architecture and people. 02:27: Digital architecture doesn't just have ears. also has a mouth. people aren't good at managing when the system changes the rules on them. Recent privacy fail number 2: facebook's privacy changes in december Gives a rundown of all of that. 02:28: Asking non techy users: tell me what you privacy settings are? I have yet to find a single person who actually knows. That's not Good knows. Facebook is known for privacy. Tells story of teen with abusive father...set up facebook account...found out that her content was made public. is her fear of what might have gone wrong acceptable? Big difference between publicly available data and publicized data. I worry about this and who will get caught in the crossfire. PII vs. PEI PII - personally identifiable information vs. personally embarassing information 02:32: When tech comes along and changes rules, it's a huge fail Conversations that happen in social media are public by default, private by effort. What we see with teens is that they're thiking through this. THey make conscious decisions. Critical to realize effected by age, life role, etc. People make material publicly accesssible, but they dont' want the world to see it. there are poeple that they specifically don't want to see it. 02:36 "Making something that is public more public is a violation of privacy." People can adjust to change, but you have to think about those who get in trouble during the process. Compares to paparazzi. Shows slides of britney, lindsay lohan and Princess Diana. Publicity: Twitter has become a space for celebs, micro-celebs, fans of all sorts. FB is about communicating with the people you already know, Twitter started out this way, but it's evolved to follow people who have audiences... 02:39: Issues of intimacy good and bad...cause of trouble for some celebs. Talks about Miley Cyrus quitting Twitter. Quotes from her rap about it. Twitter isn't just for celebs and followers. People all over the globe engage with it as specific kind of public space. two kinds of trending topics: those that start because of external factors, and those that are generated on the site. 02:41: Trending topics also highlight that not all users are who you think they are. Shows Justin Bieber...in trending topics for 18 solid days. For all the conversations of teens not tweeting....all of his followers not all that old. Lot of racism and classism on Twitter. Shows slides of white people using the N word... Many have benefited from speaking in public on social media. It's easy to take things for granted: the right to challenge authority, the right to be heard, seen, the right to go into public without losing my rights, etc. seek pub of own accord...not what everybody gets. Imagine you just left an abusive relationship, but you're biggest fear is that you ex will find you....how public are you willing to be? People kicked out of jobs, military... Your kid's teacher: how public is she allowed to be online? Religious? Drinking? ALlowed to be a lover and a friend in a public setting? What we see over and over agin is that we expect the teacher to always be the teacher, but that's a lot to ask from people. 02:46: Public by default: not the great democratizer. Seeking attention, part of what makes engaging online fun. Quotes Jon Stewart The internet's like Meixcan food. every sites' got the same ingredients, just different combinations...talks about chat roulette. 02:49: Why do people engage on this site? What you'll find is heartwarming and heartbreaking. Many there for entertainment, boredom, find pesonal connections, etc. THere are others hoping they might find a celeb. It's an odd combo of privacy and publicity...situated in private spaces (bedrooms, offices), but becomes publc. People are having fun geo-locating people who are participating. CR may be a fad, but the idea of pub andprivacy getting mixed up is not. New rules will complicate the boundaries... Tech will continue to make a mess of both. You need to know that there is now magical formula for understanding privacy and publicity. If you expose people, you may lose you reputation... For marketers, its an exciting time of publicility, but just because you can see somebody, doesn't mean they want to be seen by you. And just because you think you've interpreted something, doesn't mean you've done it right. Wants to see more policy grounded in what's going on. A lot of numbers can be misinterpreted. What we're measuring isn't peoples' sense of privacy. Wanting privacy isn't about having something to hide. It's about wanting control... There are good reasons to engage in privacy and good ones to engage in publicity. A lot of people are sharing more publicly to maintain other stuff privately. Think about people's intentions and what it means to invade their privacy. Make sure you're creating the future that you want to live in.
Publ.Date : Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:51:43 -0500
SXSW: Some Options for Making Money From Your Online Videos
At SXSW, Rob Millis and Will Coghlan of the newly launched Dynamo Player talked about different routes online video producers can take to try and make a buck. While the discussion ultimately led up to the duo's demo of its new product, it was not above representing some different options fairly. The two talked about some of the pros and cons of advertising, such as: Pros - Fosters dramatic growth (financed first forty years of TV and last 15 years of Internet content) - Blip.tv and YouTube define a stable market - Reliable high quality programs... Cons - High value advertising demands high value programming (production). Costs a lot up front - higher costs to return - Content can be unreliable, too hot to handle, or simply unappealing to advertisers. Short films, docs, r-rated or controversial content can't get high value CPM. - Advertisers can't depend on a certain number of viewers - Random advertising can damage brand while paying little to nothing - Must have very, very large audience - Can put a plane crash next to an ad for Delta or something to this effect So the question is, will people pay for video online? They talked about how a lot of people are already doing just that through services like iTunes, which the pair say "changed the marketplace." When deciding whether you want to ask people to pay for your content, you should ask yourself the following questions, according to Millis and Cohlan: - What content do you pay for now? - Have you ever quit halfway through a payment or subscription process arrangement? - How often do you click away because of pre-roll ads? - Are you willing to download software? "Asking your audience to pay for your content is about eliminating these 'why bother' factors," they say. Then ask yourself: - How do you want to sell your content? - Does it need to happen now or are you willing to wait for approval? - How much do you need to charge, and how soon do you need to get paid? - How much info do you want to ask your viewers for? - How technically savvy are you? - How important is image quality? - Do you want your viewers to go to your site to watch or somewhere else? - Do you want to be able to embed your video? - Do you want to allow your viewers to share? - What kind of content do you have - serial, one off, short format, feature length? - How much publicity do you want/need? "Ask these questions before you commit to a solution," they say. One option is what they refer to as the Ze Frank model. This is a show that used drop.io to package shows that are otherwise free, and sell them together, so viewers can take them and easily watch them on their iPods. Another option is to work with a partner like re:frame or NewVideo, which will work with you on getting stuff into iTunes or Hulu. Then there are sites like MyContent.com and IndieFlix. With MyContent.com, you get choices like free streaming, rental streaming, and selling through the site as a paid download. They are your partner, and they only pay you after costs are covered. They have a revenue share deal. MyContent.com will take 35% after costs, and they charge a small monthly processing fee, according to the Dynamo guys. With Indieflix, you can upload content through them, and sell it as a DVD or make it available as a paid stream, but they're fairly selective about their content. Another option they discussed was Amazon's Create Space. Advantages of this, they say, are that Amazon's a leader in cloud computing - they can store and serve content more efficiently, and at a lower cost, they are a well-recognized brand, and they're connected to a lot of TVs and living rooms. They'll list films on IMDB for you, and stream stuff to the XBox. However, they take 50% of royalties, and you can only suggest a price for your video. Then there are YouTube rentals, a system Google introduced not too long ago, at Sundance. They let content creators set the price and viewing window, and they have the obvious huge advantage of social media for promotion. It doesn't hurt that YouTube is also the second largest search engine, behind Google itself. YouTube lets you use Google Checkout, which is easy enough, and content streams quickly. You need to use an AdSense account, and as you may know, Google is not up front about how much revenue sharing they do, although it's supposed to be "the majority". You can read about Dynamo's own option here.
Publ.Date : Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:42:03 -0400
Yahoo Makes Strides In Entertainment Search
If Yahoo has its way, it'll soon be the place to go for information about movies, TV shows, and the celebrities who star in them. Yahoo announced several upgrades to its search engine this morning, and they're all meant to make entertainment-related queries turn up much better results. A Yahoo representative told WebProNews, "Today Yahoo! Search is unveiling new ways for people to explore information on their favorite celebs and TV shows by providing the most comprehensive and up to the moment entertainment news and content. With Yahoo! Search's celebrity shortcuts, people can see news, photos, movies and even the celebrity's official tweets right on the search results page." What's more, "Yahoo! is also introducing a TV shortcut so people can search for their favorite TV shows and see videos, episode lists, schedules and ratings from Yahoo! TV." And "we are launching new celebrity-related suggestions on the left-side of the Yahoo! Search results page for entertainment queries, with links to results for related people, movies, etc." You can see an example of how this all comes together below. The results page packs in a whole lot of information, but still manages to not look overly cluttered or messy.
Publ.Date : Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:50:45 -0500
Is Wikipedia on the Road to Becoming the Next DMOZ? (SXSW)
There is no shortage of interesting sessions going on at SXSW Interactive in Austin, but one that was especially interesting was "Can Wikipedia Survive Popular Success and Community Decline?" - a presentation from USC Professor of Journalism Andrew Lih. The session explored factors that contribute to the declining rate of Wikipedia entry editing, although Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation told WebProNews a few months ago, that growth in editing had slowed, and the number of editors was just flat, and not declining. Either way it's ceratinly not a money issue. The Wikimedia Foundation doesn't appear to have too many problems raising money. "Every year, the number of people donating to the Wikimedia Foundation has increased, and the total dollar amount has increased too," Gardner told us. Google alone recently donated $2 million. Not that the money goes to editors (this is where it goes). It's quite interesting that Wikipedia's success has come at the price of a community decline (even if in just growth). One of the biggest reasons there has been such a drop off in new editors is that it has simply gotten harder to edit entries. That's not just because of exclusivity reasons. It has actually become more technically difficult to edit entries over the years. There is a huge usability issue, and this is much of what Lih discussed. Lih talked about how the editorial language has gotten more vague over the years. Wikipedia used to flat out ask people to edit articles. Then it eventually got to where "anyone CAN edit." Another factor he mentioned is that of eventualism - the belief in the Wikipedia community that people will eventually fix articles. Someone else will get to it. Yet another factor is that there are way more rules than there used to be. It's not that this is necessarily a bad thing. As Lih says, there is kind of more resonsiblitlity for Wikipedia to be up to quality standards now, as it has become one of the most popular sites on the web, and is often at the top of Google search results. But with more rules, comes less ease and in some cases, less enthusiasm. If a potential editor does want to go through with playing by the rules, they have to go through an extensive interrogation process in which Lih says they are asked twenty to thirty questions. Perhaps the biggest reason people don't want to edit Wikipedia articles is that the markup on the actual edit pages has become much more complicated over the years. It used to be simple, and most people could easily figure it out, and now, as Lih explained, it looks like a SQL database. He referred to a usability study from the Wikimedia Foundation, in which every user struggled to get a basic grasp of the editing interface. Users largely failed to make edits correctly without repeated attempts and efforts. Not even the most tech-savvy participants were able to do it right. Lih presented the idea of looking at lessons from other communities. He focused specifically on DMOZ. "DMOZ chose to place editorial control in the hands of a small cabal of editors, and in doing so made the directory opaque, unresponsive and outdated - the editorial policy of DMOZ killed DMOZ," he said. Possible scenarios that could play out, as Lih suggested, include a slow, steady quality decline, flagged revisions leading to a quality increase, the inability to update in a timely manner, or the trickling in of spam, PoV/non-neutralcontent. There is much research being put into Wikipedia and it's continued success. Google's relationship with Wikipedia (whatever the extent of that may be, Lih simply calls it an interesting one and pretty much leaves it at that), appears to be helping keep Wikipedia in the forefront of search results for many, many queries. That's now though. Things change. There are other Wiki-style information sites out there, some of which have much more user-friendly editorial processes. Is it possible that Wikipedia will go the way of DMOZ? It has become easier for researchers to obtain more data about Wikipedia in the last few years, and researchers are exploring a variety of ways to improve the process. Perhaps Wikipedia will be able to correct some of its issues before they snowball too much. Read our interview with Gardner here.
Publ.Date : Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:17:01 -0400
Google Hires XML Co-Inventor
Today, Tim Bray started working for Google, and had the search giant just put out a one-sentence press release stating this fact, the development would be worth reporting. But what makes this move especially noteworthy is that Bray announced it in a 1,260-word blog post mentioning an absolute hatred of the iPhone. Bray is a rather important person in a lot of tech circles. Two interesting details regarding his accomplishments: he's the co-inventor of XML, and spent several years serving on the W3C Technical Architecture Group. Here's what the respected developer had to say about the iPhone, though: "The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger. . . . I hate it." In turn, Bray's a huge fan of Google's mobile operating system. He wrote, "The reason I'm here is mostly Android. Which seems to me about as unambiguously a good thing as the tangled wrinkly human texture of the Net can sustain just now." So it looks like the Android-iPhone war is about to get a lot more fierce. Although for what it's worth, Bray was careful to say that his opinions don't necessarily reflect his new employer's stance on anything.
Publ.Date : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:58:17 -0400
CNN President "Really Afraid Of" Social Networks
Over the years, there have been more than a few arguments about whether online news sites are killing newspapers. Now, due to some almost startling comments made by the president of CNN, it looks like the next round of old media-new media disputes might concern social networks and cable news organizations. According to the AFP, Jonathan Klein's remarks on this subject were in no way ambiguous. He said at Bloomberg BusinessWeek's 2010 Media Summit New York, "The competition I'm really afraid of are social networking sites. That's an alternative that threatens to pull people away from us." Klein then explained, "The people you're friends with on Facebook or the people you follow on Twitter are trusted sources of information. . . . Well, we want to be the most trusted name in news. We don't want the 1,000 people you follow in Twitter to be the most trusted sources for you. . . . So I'm far more worried about the 500 million people on Facebook than I am about two million people watching Fox." That's an interesting take on the power of social networks. It implies - at the very least - that CNN anchors are going to spend a whole lot more time referencing Facebook and Twitter from now on. An ad campaign and new apps could follow, too. On a broader scale, Klein seems to be saying that social networks' users can easily - even unwittingly - make or break major corporations.
Publ.Date : Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:19:10 -0400
Confirmed: Yahoo's SVP Of Revenue To Quit
Joanne Bradford started at Yahoo about a year and a half ago, assuming the title "Senior Vice President, U.S. Revenue and Market Development." Now, a fresh report's indicated that the high-ranking exec is on her way out again, ready to take a position at Demand Media. Kara Swisher wrote earlier, "According to several sources . . . Bradford is planning on leaving the Internet giant to take a new position as Chief Revenue Officer of online content upstart Demand Media." And Swisher (and her sources) are usually spot-on about these things. Yahoo's likely being dealt a major blow, then, considering what an important role Bradford plays at the company. While almost all departures have theoretical financial repercussions - you have to figure everyone contributes to the bottom line in some way - Bradford's position over ad sales means she has a direct influence. Also, Bradford's resume suggests that she's good at her job, having spent time at Microsoft, Spot Runner, and BusinessWeek before heading to Yahoo. Still, this development doesn't have to represent a complete disaster for Yahoo. As you might have guessed after reading the last paragraph, Bradford doesn't always stay in one place for too long - she only spent about seven months at SpotRunner, for example - so her move may not say much about Yahoo's situation. UPDATE: Yahoo responded to a question sent via email by stating, "Joanne Bradford has decided to leave Yahoo! to pursue a new opportunity. Joanne will be working with the team over the coming weeks to enable a smooth transition."
Publ.Date : Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:00:45 -0400
Turnkey Internet Business
George Gormsen
Objective:
As a website designer, my main goals are to provide excellent design, clean code, and small file size to the internet, as well as to make websites optimized for SEO capabilities.
Employment History:
Consignment Billiards 08/08 – 11/09
3103 E Cactus Rd Sales Manager / Web Designer
Phoenix AZ 85032
Dependable Staffing 04/08 – 08/08
3507 N Central Ave #101 Website Design
Phoenix AZ, 85012
IToolhost 01/08 – 03/08
6522 E Thunderbird Rd Website Design
Scottsdale AZ, 85254
Employees Wanted Magazine 10/07 – 12/08
2710 W Bell Rd #1221 Confirmations/Graphic Design
Phoenix AZ, 85053
Wal-Mart 01/00 – 08/07
18551 N 83rd Ave Stocker
Glendale AZ, 85301
Education:
The Art Institute of Phoenix 09/07
W Dunlap Ave Bachelor of Arts
Phoenix AZ, Game Art & Design
Software known:
Adobe Photoshop; Illustrator; Flash; Dreamweaver; After Effects; Premier; InDesign, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Fruity Loops, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.
Skills:
Face to Face Sales, HTML, CSS, Flash, Wacom, Photo Manipulation, Graphic Creation, Character Design, 3D Design, Animation, Editing, Word Processing. Typing speed of 40wpm. 10-key speed of 65kpm.
