|
Posted 7:01 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Many Contextual Ad Apps' Users Unaware
Steve Outing on fighting controversial all-Web ads
The Web site WhirlyWiryWeb and proprietor Gary Rosenzweig are on a mission to eliminate "contextual advertising" schemes, such as TopText from eZula and Surf+. TopText and Surf+ turn words in articles on any Web page into advertiser links — but only for those computer users who have the TopText or Surf+ browser add-ons installed on their PCs. What's interesting is that many computer users don't even know they have TopText or Surf+; many of them had the software installed without realizing it when they downloaded a popular new file-sharing application.Rosenzweig conducted a survey of users of his sites and came up with some telling results. He developed scripts that detect if a user has TopText or Surf+. If yes, the users were asked if they knew that the software was installed on their PCs. For TopText, 200 of 241 users didn't know they had it. For Surf+, 245 of 260 users didn't know they had it. This informal survey undermines the arguments of eZula and Surf+ executives who claim that they are serving up the ad links only to people who knowingly request them. It's why contextual ad schemes have been labeled with a new term: "scumware." (Rosenzweig also has published some code for Web sites to use to battle the contextual advertising apps.)
Posted 5:30 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Law and Disorder
Andrew Nachison on media law
A case unfolding in Australia hints at the muddled state of Internet publishing law, and a genuine threat to the future of Web publishing. Here's the issue: What happens when international laws are more restrictive than those of a Web publisher's home country? You could think about Afghanistan. Try Australia. An Australian judge has ordered U.S. publishing giant Dow Jones to submit to defamation laws in the Australian state of Victoria. The case involves a story published in Barrons magazine which was also available on the magazine's Web site and downloaded by readers in Australia.
Posted 4:54 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Mobile Text Messaging: Wow!
Steve Outing on the SMS boom
According to this brief report in The Guardian, the number of text SMS (short messaging service) messages sent by UK mobile phone users in September should break the 1 billion barrier — almost double the SMS traffic of one year ago. The rapid growth of SMS is something to behold. Publishers better be paying attention, because there's money to be made here (and not just in the UK). While much of the SMS traffic is from people (especially young ones) trading short notes with friends, there are plenty of business publishing applications for SMS. True, you can't fit much content into SMS messages (the limit is 160 characters), but short, personalized, timely information (stocks, weather, sports scores, etc.) represents opportunity.
Posted 4:36 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Career Move
Steve Outing on a new gig, and E-Media Tidbits
Pardon this self-serving item, but I want to let everyone know that I've joined the staff of the Poynter Institute as senior editor for Poynter.org. As part of this career move, I'll be moving E-Media Tidbits over to Poynter.org shortly, which will support it. (I'll be continuing some of my other activities, including writing my long-running Stop The Presses! column for Editor & Publisher Online.)
Posted 3:56 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Passing of an Icon
Steve Klein on a pioneer worth remembering
Like many of you, I read Michael Dertouzos' "What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives" with eager anticipation in 1997, hoping to get a handle on the rapid changes in the global information marketplace. Dertouzos, who directed MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science for almost 30 years, died of heart failure earlier this week at the age of 64. Under Dertouzos' leadership, the LCS served as host to the North American division of the World Wide Web Consortium. "If it hadn't been for Michael, there would not probably have been a World Wide Web Consortium," said Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and the director of W3C. "He was a spring of enthusiasm, capability, insight, and experience, which drove a half-formed idea of W3C into an international reality." Julia Scheres of Wired has more on the futurist and researcher.
Posted 10:54 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Smaller iUniverse
Jade Walker on dot-com closures
iUniverse, one of the most popular print-on-demand publishers on the Web, has been going through a quiet round of lay-offs. According to Think*Aloud, Inc., the publisher's public relations firm, iUniverse "consolidated its staff" in August. But one of the company's former employees said that 44% of the staff was laid off from its main office in Lincoln, Nebraska, including most of the human resources department.
Posted 10:52 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Money From Abroad
Carla Passino on the BBC's latest plans
The BBC has scrapped plans to serve ads to overseas users who visit its BBC.co.uk Web site, reports New Media Zero. However, the corporation remains committed to making money from foreign traffic. BBC.co.uk is funded through a licence fee that is paid by British residents. The BBC believes that users who live abroad — and hence do not pay any licence fee — should somehow contribute to the portal's running costs."The BBC has not abandoned its plans to generate revenue from overseas traffic to its public service Web site," it was announced in an official statement. "We recognize that carrying advertising is an impractical method of achieving this, but we are looking at a variety of other methods."
Posted 8:58 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Go for the Big Fish
Peter Zollman on ad sales philosophies
Should your online site chase lots of little players — say, for "premium placement" directory advertising, or real estate agents who want to pay $50 a month (or actually, don't want to pay $50, but would rather pay $25) to be the "local agent" in one small community or another? Or are you better off going after big sales — $2,000 or $20,000 or $200,000 a month/quarter/year, depending on your market and the size of your site?Digby Solomon of the Chicago Tribune, in a post that was worth its weight in gold, answered that question succinctly on the New Media Federation list of the Newspaper Association of America: "We've found there's more money to be made going after some big players and selling them significant branding exposure than trying to extract pennies from lots of small players."
Posted 2:04 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Changing Face of Copyright Law
Steve Outing on new copyright study
A U.S. Copyright Office study released today addressing how copyright laws are holding up in the digital age recommends some significant changes. (Here's a Reuters report.) In a nutshell, the federal agency wants to see Congress make changes in the parts of copyright law that allow the owner of a legal copy of a work to sell it or give it away. In the old world, we consumers could sell a book or CD that we bought; in the digital world, the study suggests, this can't be allowed because there's no way to ensure that the seller of a work (say, a digital music file) has discarded the original work. The study did at least support the right for consumers to keep backup copies as insurance against hard disk crashes. This could spell troubles for libraries, of course. And for consumers in this digital age, they will have fewer rights to do as they please with content that they've paid for.
Posted 9:00 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Latest Online Census
Steve Klein on Internet usage
Let's start the day with a quiz: How many Internet users are there worldwide?A) A quarter billion.
B) A half billion.
C) One billion.
D) Two billion.If you chose "B," a half billion, you are NOT the weakest link, according to figures released by Nielsen/Netratings. The survey notes an increase of 30 million people online since the first quarter of 2001. Nielsen/Netratings says it now measures 93% of the online universe, having added Argentina, India, South Africa, and Israel to its latest quarterly survey. It already was measuring 30 nations in North America, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America.
A little breakdown: The U.S. and Canada together account for 40% of the world's online population; that's actually down 1% from June 2001. Europe and the Middle East-Africa region account for 27%; the Asia-Pacific totals 22%; and Latin America remains at at 4%.
Posted 2:13 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Remember Tehelka? Politician Calls It Criminal
Katja Riefler on an Indian Web site in trouble
It was in March this year that the reporting of the Indian Internet maverick news service Tehelka.com, which means "sensation" in Hindi, forced the president of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to retreat because of a corrupt defense deal. Now Tehelka is in trouble. George Fernandes, an Indian defense minister who left office because of this affair, said the government should prosecute the Web news site under the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act. "The army has been demoralized, and to an extent, even the country. There cannot be any doubt that a crime against the country has been committed," he said, according to Reuters (August 22). Maybe politicians are just trying to shift the focus away from the investigation by discrediting the messenger. But for a small independent news site, this could mean real danger.
Posted 9:39 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Collector's Item?
Steve Klein on newspapers on CD
Remember that compact disc edition of the Akron Beacon Journal that the Knight-Ridder newspaper had been selling since June at about 30 stores in Northeast Ohio? Well, the newspaper told readers on Tuesday that sales had been "suspended while we re-examine various aspects of the product." The newspaper told readers that it hoped to resume sales "in the near future." The CDs could be yet one more collector's item tossed into the dustbin of early 21st Century failed media business models.
Posted 7:06 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Gator Strikes Back
Steve Outing on the online ad wars
The makers of the controversial Web browser add-on Gator — under fire from many quarters for a program that pops up their own ads on top of other Web sites' paid-for ads — are embarking on an offensive strategy against their critics. As CNET reports, Gator is suing the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which has complained loudly about Gator's scummy (that's my opinion) software and has been contemplating legal action against Gator. Gator appears to be trying to silence the IAB with an offensive strike. Let's hope this issue does land in court; there needs to be a resolution to this unseemly trend of software applications being created to modify others' Web sites. It's not right (in my opinion), but no one's sure if it's really illegal. (Also see my related posting from earlier today — three items below this — about similar programs that create links on Web pages that weren't put there by the site owners.)
Posted 6:47 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Internet Ban in Afghanistan
Steve Klein on international online news
Here's a surprise (not!). Afghanistan's Taliban have banned any use of the Internet on Saturday and ordered the religious police to punish users according to Islamic law, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. "Within the territory of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, no governmental or non-governmental, domestic or international NGO (non-governmental organization) or individuals can exploit the Internet," Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said. "The ministry of communication is duty-bound to make the use of the Internet impossible." The radio report gave no reason for the ban nor did it say what the punishment might be. But I don't think I want to find out. Last month, the Taliban barred government officials and ordinary citizens from using the Internet to prevent non-Islamic influences. So, if you're planning a visit ...
Posted 2:15 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
'Roll Your Own' Broadband
Vin Crosbie on obtaining broadband
Are you an American on a telephone company waiting list for installation of 128Kbps or 256Kbps DSL service? Why wait? If you're technically semi-competent, Robert X. Cringley, Internet commentator for the U.S. Public Broadcasting System TV network, explains how you can obtain a 2.048 megabyte T-1 connection for only US $30 per month from that same telephone company without that company knowing it.
Posted 1:50 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Fight Against 'Scumware'
Steve Outing on the online ad wars
Web publishers are getting increasingly agitated about the new breed of parasite Web browser add-ons that insert unauthorized links into selected words in articles on all Web sites. (The links are usually to advertisers.) The poster bad-boys right now are eZula's TopText and Surf+. (These applications do the same thing as Microsoft's Smart Tags would have done, if MS hadn't killed them due to intense criticism by Web site publishers and owners.) A new Web site has debuted that opens the "war" against these parasite ad-link companies. Scumware.com has a neat script that tells you if you have one of the applications installed on your computer, and tells you how to get rid of it. It also lobbies advertisers on the evils of buying ads on the "scumware" networks, and teaches Web sites how to make it so that their sites block the unauthorized linking.
Posted 1:25 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Do You Have Content Management Problems?
Amy Gahran on content management
"Content management" has become the latest (and one of the biggest) buzzwords in online media — but what is it, and how do you know when you need to work on it? Lately I've been checking out this site quite a bit: CMSWatch. It's a pretty good resource for the technology and business aspects of content management (although it often glosses over the importance of good editors and managing editors). Today, CMSWatch published a content management self-evaluation — it's a short checklist of typical content management problems. Based on your responses, you can find out how badly CMSWatch thinks you need content management help.
Posted 11:52 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
E-book Sales Disappoint Book Publishers
Vin Crosbie on why book-only e-devices aren't selling
Atop the front page of Tuesday's New York Times is a story headlined "Forecast of an E-book Era Were, It Seems, Premature." Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture), and other major companies that last year trumpeted how e-book devices would revolutionize the book publishing industry are now admitting that sales of the devices have been few. Doesn't surprise me! Few consumers are going to buy a device that can be used for nothing but reading books. Instead, sell them a device on which they can read books, and magazines, newspapers, business documents, and shopping lists, play MP3 audio, index their personal phone book and calendar, and use as a mobile phone, and they'll buy it. Hail the new handhelds! (Disclosure: I am chairman of the E-Book Newsstand Association, an organization of companies and universities working to use handheld devices as newspaper and magazine publishing platforms.)
Posted 11:49 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Reading the E-news Tea Leaves
Steve Outing on online news trends
The New York Times' Felicity Barringer checks in today with an overview of the current state of online news. (See "Growing Audience Is Turning to Established News Media Online.") Among her conclusions, the most important are that Web users are gravitating more and more to established traditional (old) brand names on the Web, and national news sites are the clear gainers while many local-news sites experience anemic growth. The message is that there are likely to be only very few leaders in any segment, and the lesser-rans will slowly whither away.The other big trend in online news, of course, is free content vs. subscription fees. Where that's going still isn't clear, as evidenced by today's news that the BBC is dropping its plans to charge users outside of its license area (the UK) to access BBC Web content. The Guardian reports on that development.
|