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Posted 6:31 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
eBay Users, Cockroaches of the Internet!
Amy Gahran on survival in the next Net economy
In his April 24 column, provocatively titled "What makes you think you deserve free Internet anything?" ZDNet Anchordesk editor David Coursey compares the recent dot-com downturn to a nuclear holocaust, and posits that eBay will survive because the dual motivations of "getting rid of my junk" and "getting a good buy on someone else's junk" are simple and powerful, fulfilling a basic role in the ecology of the Internet. While I'm not nearly as pessimistic as Coursey, I can't argue with that observation — and I get a kick out of picturing eBay as a big cockroach nest!
Posted 6:29 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Web Freelancing, Then and Now
Amy Gahran on evolution of the content industry
Today in Online Journalism Review, J.D. Lasica revisits sites he lauded as wonders of the Web content world back in 1999. Some of these previous goldmines for freelancers are gone, some are struggling, some are doing just fine. The news is not great, but not all bad, either. See: "Party's Over for Web Freelancers."
Posted 4:59 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Real Location Based Services
Katja Riefler on the battlefield of the future
Aren't the "location based services" of the mobile Internet a thrill for the future? Won't they change the way we communicate? Don't we admire the possibility to get all the information at our fingertips wherever we are? Well, the military thinks like us. Future wars might be fought with the help of hand-held computers linked to satellites. Last week, in the first major demonstration of the revolutionary concept, about 950 U.S. Army tanks and armored personnel carriers fought a mock battle 31 miles north of Barstow, California, outfitted with 10-inch computer monitors that told them instantly where they were, where they should go, and where the enemy might be. First test of the new technology had started four years ago. Well, it was the military that invented the Internet, right?
Posted 2:51 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Olympic Ticketing Going Downhill
Steve Klein on online sports
First it was the Salt Lake Olympic Committee's Web site produced by the late Quokka Sports. Now, another California-based partner, Tickets.com, the official supplier of the 2002 Winter Olympic ticket services, could go out of business before it fulfills its contract, according to a story by Mike Gorrell and Steve Overbeck in the Salt Lake Tribune. The company indicated that it was having financial difficulties (outside auditor Arthur Andersen said there is "substantial doubt" the company can continue operations unless it finds additional cash) in an annual report filed April 2 with the SEC. Anyone who has already bought tickets would not be adversely affected, but the SLOC would either have to replace Tickets.com or supply the service itself. The SLOC had better hope it has better weather than Internet climate.Meanwhile, Terry Lefton reports in The Standard that Yahoo, MSN, AOL and its CNN/SI sports site, and Ignite Sports Media are among the front-runners to do the official Olympic site. SportsLine also has been in talks with NBC, which has television rights to the Games, but "conspicuously absent" is ESPN.
Posted 2:32 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
These Ads Are Intrusive, But Short-lived
Steve Outing on online advertising
Everyone in online media is praying for new forms of online advertising that will perform better than what we've got. While the trend lately has been toward bigger animated ads, Boston.com is starting to run ads (see ad No. 1 and ad No. 2) that are decidedly different. Note how the animation crosses the editorial content of the page for a few seconds, then disappears. I kind of like the idea, because they catch your attention (you can't ignore them the way you can typical Web banners), and they disappear quickly. The down side is that they might seem inappropriate depending on the editorial content that the ad is overlaying. A whimsical overlay animation on top of a story about a school shooting, for instance, might not sit well with a news site's readers. The Boston.com ads use a technology called a Shoshkele, a new advertising medium developed by United Virtualities.
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Posted 1:20 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Authenticity and Explanations
Norbert Specker on HowStuffWorks
Not being able to get my lawnmower going, I searched the Web and was directed to Marshall Brain's HowStuffWorks. A top 500 site in the U.S. explaining everything from how a newsgroup works, to how the rain forest works or a motor. Main point, good explanations have a market. (This is a concept that CNN Europe under Dave Brewer has been following for a while. There was for example the case of the sunken Russian submarine with a detailed technical explanation including diagrams and pictures.) The site is worth a study tour for quite a few little twists and turns (i.e., treatment of sponsored content, the care that is taken to win "subscribers"). In addition, it is notable on what level of authenticity Brain is able to get across. The history of the company is built like the other "HowStuffWorks" articles, explaining everything from the setup of the server farm to the hunt for funding in simple, engaging terms. Athenticity and explanations — a couple of ingredients most traditional news providers should be able to display, eh?
Posted 7:11 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Some Say They'll Pay; Some Say 'Never!'
Steve Outing on paying for online content
Writing in the Boston Globe, Michelle Johnson has a nice piece today about whether online users will pay for content. Unless the online ad situation turns around quickly, lots of Web content is getting price tags added. Johnson surveys a bunch of Internet users about what they'd pay for. It's all anecdotal (and thus not truly meaningful), but nevertheless fascinating.After my experience this week trying to get contributions out of users of my Content-Exchange.com service, I'm leaning toward a "shareware" model for content. Offer your content services with an up-front request for a contribution or fee — the same way that shareware software developers hawk their wares. Users can ignore the request, or make a payment to you at the beginning of your relationship with them. That's easier than trying to get people to pay for something that has been free in the past. (Thanks to Penny Cherubino who offered me this tip.)
Posted 3:39 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Honorable Intentions
Jade Walker on paying for online content
In 1998, I created Inscriptions Magazine to help writers and editors hone their craft and find work in print and online venues. Since that time, the e-zine has grown to 70-plus pages a week. It has received dozens of awards and accolades in the press. And, it's published interviews and advice from some of the biggest stars in industry.In the current economy, only the strong content sites will survive and I feel that Inscriptions has one of the strongest products on the market. Unfortunately, Inscriptions doesn't have an investor. The money I make from my day job at the New York Times, plus the kind contributions of our advertisers, goes right back into the magazine. Simply put, I reached the point where I could continue to lose money, close down, or switch to a paid subscription format.
I chose option three. On Monday, I announced to my 5,500 subscribers that Inscriptions will cost $5 a year to access. Based on Stephen King's honor system, readers were asked to purchase subscriptions by check, money order, credit card, or online wire transfers. Clearly 10 cents an issue is a pittance, and yet, if 75% of my readers pay, I'll be able to stay in business for another year, and increase the rates I pay my freelance writers. The goal now is survival, and I can only hope my readers are an honorable lot who find Inscriptions to be a useful investment in their careers.
Posted 3:05 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Talk About 'Intrusive Advertising'
Rich Gordon on IBM's guerrilla marketing
As further evidence that marketers will do just about anything to get our attention, consider this development: IBM admitting that it hired graffiti artists to decorate sidwalks as part of a "Peace, Love and Linux" campaign. On one level, it's an amusing story and illustrates a trend toward "guerrilla marketing" techniques. But it's also part of a bigger picture: increasingly, traditional advertising doesn't work as well as it once did. Online/interactive advertising can be part of the solution. Though online advertising has lost some of its luster in recent months, it still offers great promise to marketers because it can be more engaging, more interactive, more targeted, and more useful. Most online banner ad campaigns don't begin to take advantage of new media's possibilities, though. With the financial pressures now facing online publishers, I hope we'll see some more creative approaches to interactive ads.
Posted 2:58 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Visual Search
Norbert Specker on search engines
Check this demo at Virnata to see another example of how search results could be visually displayed. This technology clearly waits for higher bandwidth but the benefits of a visual guidance are evident. By the way, the numbers on GoTo.com, the search engine that operates on paid links, are revenue of $52 million in 1Q over $39.2 million in 4Q of 2000. Net losses at the same time were reduced to $6.4 million from $16.2 million. A 31% increase when everybody else is wringing their hands points ever more clearly to advertising models that are accountable. (Press release.)
Posted 6:17 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
On Begging for Money
Steve Outing on unorthodox fund-raising
I shut down the Online-Writing list (OWL) last night, in an attempt to pry donations out of the discussion list's participants. Like many content site operators, I as the proprietor of Content-Exchange.com (which hosts OWL as one of its free services, as well as E-Media Tidbits) have been hit hard by the dot-com downturn and the dearth of advertising for Web sites. Rather than let the site die, I've been asking the site's users to donate money to keep it going. Last night, I opted to copy the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, which interrupt programming for lengthy "pledge drives." My online pledge drive interrupted the operation of the discussion list, halting the online conversation for a full day.Was this the right decision? I can't tell yet, but I am encouraged that I have not received a single complaint about shutting down the list. Everyone has been supportive so far.
Posted 6:09 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Web Newspapers Don't Sell Much
Steve Outing on paying for content
Everyone's talking about charging for online content, of course. But newspapers aren't doing much except for selling archived articles for a fee (which is nothing new). A new study conducted by Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIM) has some interesting findings: While 80%-plus of newspaper sites sell archived stories, only 4% offer any other content for sale. And of the archive sales, for 60% of the surveyed sites, revenues are below $500 a month — a pittance. (This covers direct online sales, not the sale of content to content aggregators like Lexis-Nexis and Bell & Howell/UMI, which is an established big line of business.) Nevertheless, the AIM study sets an optimistic tone about selling Web content. (The study was sponsored, after all, by Clickshare, which provides technology for selling low-price content across a network of Web sites. Respondents to the survey were not told who was sponsoring the research.)
Posted 4:02 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Audience Fragments
Paul Grabowicz on Internet demographics
American Demographics has a nice story summarizing the various surveys and marketing studies that have been done recently on Internet users. The main theme is the increasing diversity of online users and their habits and interests — which may support the argument that niche sites, rather than portals, are best suited to serve this audience in the future.
Posted 3:54 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
No More Ads: Heaven or Hell?
Andrew Nachison on ad stripping software
Most of us are still ignoring Web ads the old-fashioned way, but software that completely strips out advertising from Web pages may be on the verge of critical mass, according to the Industry Standard. I think it's safe to guess that if "ad strippers" like WebWasher really do catch on in a big way, the advertising industry will come up with a work-around, and then the ad strippers will strike back, much like the continual sparring between Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL over instant messaging standards. And surely some media lawyer somewhere must already be working on a case to prevent the "defacement" of a client's copyrighted Web pages.For now, the technology speeds downloads and removes data that users don't want to see. So now we're going to have to figure out who has the legal right to control what you see on your computer monitor. Once again, the geeks are the innovators, while old media and lawyers play catch-up.
Posted 2:52 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Net Firms Tread Lightly
Norbert Specker on the sudden shyness of dot-coms
The Industry Standard has closed down its European print edition and conference, joining the ranks of Net exports form the U.S. that met their match in a rather heterogenous European marketplace. It is no wonder that as an industry service it takes a slightly more dot-com oriented approach on the numbers cited by the Internet Advertising Bureau. Online advertising spending by Net firms in the last quarter of 2000 over the third quarter was down 27%. If you crave more numbers go here.
Posted 12:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Riled Readers Prefer E-mail
Andrew Stroehlein on reader responses
After writing an editorial criticizing Yahoo! for caving in to protests over the compay's flirtation with adult content, I received quite a number of heated responses from readers. That was perhaps to be expected given the nature of the issue; however, what did surprise me was the split between readers' response methods. Those who responded using the "click to have your say" button on the internetcontent.net Web site generally presented cool-headed criticism of my editorial — some were positive, some negative, but all were calm and rational. By contrast, those people who responded by writing me a private e-mail used decidedly harsher language, some expressing glee at the eternal damnation that would befall me for writing such a piece of blasphemy. There weren't any death threats as such, but there were bitter prayers for my early and/or painful demise. I can't really explain why those with softer tongues used the "click to have your say" feature of the site, while those who chose to attack me all chose e-mail.
Posted 11:41 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
News Radio Without the Radio
Jade Walker on taking content to new levels
General Motors has spent the past few years touting its OnStar Virtual Advisor service. Owners of GM cars use this service to get directions when lost, or to unlock their doors when they accidentally leave their keys inside. Beginning in May, OnStar users will be able to receive the latest financial news without ever turning on their radio, the Associated Press reports. Drivers will simply have to call out to the voice-activated service in order to receive stock quotes and financial information from the Wall Street Journal.
In time, the service plans to expand to wireless trading. I can already see it. A part-time day trader bets his life savings on a stock. As he drives down the highway at 75 mph, the stock plummets, and suddenly his foot hits the gas pedal...
Posted 11:38 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Celebrity Columnist Leaves Government Site
Steve Outing on another dot-casualty
PlanetGov.com is ending its news coverage (yet another dot-com casualty), and with it goes the writing of Mike Causey, who joined the government-news Web site from the Washington Post, where he was a star government-beat columnist. Causey wrote his "Federal Diaries" column for three decades, so his move to the Internet news world was significant. PlanetGov.com had ambitious news goals, but now scales back to focus on providing information technology products and services to the U.S. federal government and its employees.
Posted 10:19 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
No More Internet Streaming Broadcasts?
Katja Riefler on a legal quarrel on Web radio
Hundreds of commercial radio stations have stopped streaming the broadcasts over the Internet. The background is a dispute with advertisement actors who want to be paid extra to have their voices played online.
Posted 10:14 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Boom and Bust Billboards
Andrew Stroehlein on online advertising
While online advertising is up against the ropes, the real success of Internet-powered advertising, traditional TV, and billboard ads plugging online companies, seems to have a few punches left to throw. At least this is the impression you get when traveling on the London Underground or watching British TV, where dot-com start-ups still feature prominently. Of course, when you scratch the surface, you realize that these start-ups with marketing money to burn represent the last wave of the dot-com boom, the few firms that were lucky enough to have their passports stamped before the borders to VC land were closed. Unfortunately, empty billboards have also started to appear, now, and nothing advertises a recession more than that.
Posted 12:24 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Joining the Bandwagon
Rich Gordon on Media General's subscription plans
Stewart Bryan, CEO of Media General, says the company's newspaper Web sites will start charging for content. (The company owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Tampa Tribune, and Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, among others.) Free access is "dumb," Bryan told Editor & Publisher. "We've got to stop giving things away on the Web." Bryan's most interesting comment is that his company's research has found a "direct relationship between hits on the Web increasing and decline in paid circulation." I, for one, am skeptical. I have no doubt that there are some people who have given up print subscriptions because their needs are met by online news. But I'll be very surprised if many of these folks are so interested in local newspaper content that they'll become print — or online — newspaper subscribers. Much as I wish this weren't true, most people just won't pay for the newspaper online — not without the display and classified ads, the print-only features (comics), and the convenience, portability, and skimmability of paper.
Posted 7:56 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Advertising Structures
Norbert Specker on IAB report on advertising expenditure
The just released numbers by the IAB hold no surprises. Slowdown in advertising growth is in step with the overall market. The decline of the banner is most notable to 40% of overall online advertising spending in Q4 (down from 46% in Q3 and 47% over the year). Sponsoring is up to 31% (28% for the year) and so is classifieds to 10% (7% for the year). However, the numbers on the other categories (interstitials, e-mail, rich media, and keyword searches) are in the single digits and it looks too early to identify a trend. The one trend toward keyword searches — and advertising spending that is directly linked to results — could be taken from the boost goto.com had in the last months to its revenue.
Posted 11:33 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Portals Are Not Newspapers
Kerry Northrup on the portal trend
This might be flogging a dead horse, because anyone paying attention already sees the portal trend on a thankful decline. The lack of revenue return afflicts it, like so much else on the Web. But before the bottom lines were totaled, real newspaper people realized that a "newspaper portal" was a nonsequitor. Wayne Robins expresses it finely this week in Editor & Publisher. (Do Newspaper Sites Have Souls?) Robins' answer to his question: If the newspaper site is a portal, no. Because portals are about marketing, not about that which makes a newspaper. And, thankfully, the newspaper's community knows this.
Posted 11:28 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
No .COM, Please
Andrew Stroehlein on new media names
A former colleague of mine has got himself involved in developing a new online resource — yes, it's hard to believe anyone is even considering a new media start-up in this climate, but there you go. Anyway, they are working through possible URLs right now, and although they're not sure of the final name, they are sure they don't want a .COM address. Oh, sure, they'll buy the .COM address, too, but they'll reroute it to their main, widely marketed address, and that won't be a .COM. Their reasoning was simple. ".COM today is only a negative," my friend told me. "It reminds people of 'dot-com doom' and the disastrous state of new media companies today. We want something new and untainted." The end of an era...
Posted 11:25 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Techno-Sports Updates
Steve Klein on online sports content
Two followups: 1) The Sacramento Kings-Dallas Mavericks game last Friday carried on NBA.com's and Real.com's video webcast was accessed nearly 120,000 times by fans from 87 countries, according to the National Basketball Association. More than one-third of NBA.com's traffic came from outside the U.S., and the game's Mandarin-language webcast was accessed more than 28,000 times.2) The new tool on the official Boston Marathon site that tracked the progress of individual runners at mile markers along the race route last Monday "worked without a glitch," according to Colleen Brush of the Boston Herald. Massachusetts-based USDataCenters hosted the site, transmitting continuous data on each of the 15,606 official runners utilizing a computer chip tied to runners' shoes. The information was available by e-mail, Palm Pilots, and Web-ready mobile phones.
Posted 9:54 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
While Dot-Coms Shrink, the Internet Grows
Paul Grabowicz on online usage
While online publications are cutting back operations and struggling to find revenue sources, the Internet itself continues to grow. The latest Jupiter Media Metrix survey of online users reports the average amount of time spent on the Internet increased 27% in the past year to more than 20 hours a month.
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