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Posted 5:12 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Return of the 'Space Cowboys' at AOL
Steve Klein on online services
Through all the changes at America Online, the vibrant voice of Ted Leonsis has been surprisingly silent. But as that voice picks up, so too may fortunes of the nation's No. 1 online service, which is owned by Time Warner, the world's largest media company. In a story by Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post, AOL is said to be counting on its latest upgrade, version 8.0 due out in October, to return the company to its roots: a greater reliance on original content, flashy features, a focus on customers, and a familiar voice."I believe we are back to the fundamentals," Leonsis, the company's vice chairman, said. "The last two (versions) of our product have been incremental improvements. But they were more about commerce and content partners. You start to feel like you've lost your North Star a little bit. They were more for advertisers than for subscribers." Leonsis, who owns the NHL Washington Capitals but has been with AOL since 1994, told chairman Steve Case that the company was off track. According to Ahern, Leonsis told Case: "We need some space cowboys back here," referring to a Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. "We not only flew the rocket, we built it. And when you build the rocket, you have an intrinsic understanding of what makes it work."
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Posted 4:36 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Sane Court Decision on Linking
Steve Outing on the BT-Prodigy case
You never know what courts are going to do with some of the burning Internet legal issues of the day. Sometimes you get crazy decisions, like the recent ruling against "deep linking" by a Danish court in a case brought by newspaper publishers. But here's one that went the right way (at least, in my view): A U.S. District court rejected a claim by BT that it held a valid patent for hyperlinks — the essential building blocks of the Web. The court awarded Prodigy its motion for summary judgment to have the case against it by BT dismissed. A decision the other way would have created chaos on the Web. CNET's News.com reports.
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Posted 12:39 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Another Glimpse of the Future
Steve Outing on wi-fi moving forward
Yesterday I noted the Starbucks wireless network service. Today on the Gizmodo weblog I learned about the Xircom SpringPort Wireless Ethernet Springboard Module for the Handspring Visor, an add-in card for the Visor (a competitor to Palm Pilots) that allows the PDA to access wireless or "wi-fi" networks. (The price of the Xircom module just dropped from $300 to $100.) As you can see, the pieces of the wireless puzzle are coming together. Wi-fi public networks are proliferating, and wi-fi cards that support wireless Internet access are being made available for devices beyond the laptop PC. We're not far from being able to take our portable devices (PDAs, e-readers, digital tablets) out in public and have wireless broadband Internet access in many public places. I think this means a bright future for magazine-size portable tablets — and thus interesting times ahead for Web and periodical publishers who will access subscribers through public wi-fi networks.It should be noted, however, that the road to wi-fi nirvana could be rocky. As a reader of my Starbucks item of yesterday pointed out, interference problems are popping up — as this story about a wi-fi dispute in Portland, Oregon, underscores.
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Posted 5:44 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Wireless Starbucks: Too Much Money!
Steve Outing on wireless networks
Yesterday's announcement by Starbucks that its cafes in the U.S. and Europe will feature wireless broadband Internet service is a much needed baby step for the wireless access business (and a good thing for online media). But I see a big problem when I look at pricing for the plan: an hourly rate of $12, or $29.99 a month for access restricted to your local area, or $49.99 a month for a national plan that grants wireless access at any Starbucks or other location serviced by T-Mobile (the wireless division of Germany's Deutsche Telekom). T-Mobile also has wireless "HotSpots" set up at some airports and convention centers.It seems to me that this early pricing will doom the service before it gets started. Consumers already pay $40-$50 a month for broadband access at home (less for dial-up) — so I don't think very many will be willing to double their Internet bills for the dubious convenience of surfing and checking e-mail while sipping a latte. Only when the network of wireless HotSpots is MUCH bigger will this work. T-Mobile needs a discount intro price reflecting the limited coverage of the network. And what's to justify such a high price? You can buy a wireless hub for under $200 (as I recently did), so it's not an expensive proposition to add wireless to any one location.
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Posted 2:10 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Changing the Look of Off-site Links
Steve Outing on Web usability
Adrian Holovaty mentions an interesting idea in his weblog today: altering the look of in-site vs. off-site links. He thinks the idea is "technological overkill," but for certain types of sites this might make sense. Where it might work well is for a site that mixes paid and free content — with free content links being blue, say, and links to paid content being red.
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Posted 11:58 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Another Macromedia Marvel?
David Carlson on multimedia authoring tools
The September 3 issue of PC Magazine (yes, the dead-tree version) veritably fawns over Macromedia Flash Communications Server MX. It will "transform the Internet experience fundamentally" and "wow both developers and end users alike," writes Luisa Simone in a "First Looks" piece. "To say that Communications Server advances the state of the art for Web-based communication and collaboration doesn't convey the excitement we think this product will generate." I think that means she likes it.The article goes on to report that the software ($499 for personal edition, $4,500 for professional edition) handles two-way, multi-user transmission of audio, video, text, and graphics, meaning real-time video broadcasting, rich-media messaging, and online audio and video recording are possible. "When deployed with Multimedia Server, every Flash 6 player becomes a potential multi-media publishing point," Simone writes. "That's because the Flash player has the ability to discover and use video and audio devices installed on the end user's system and transmit that data to the server for real-time broadcast." I've got to admit, it sounds pretty compelling to me, too. Read about it here.
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Posted 11:37 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Research by E-mail
Jade Walker on useful search tools
You're sitting on the train when you realize you've forgotten to verify a key fact in your latest story. All you have at hand is an Internet-ready mobile phone. No need to worry. Now you can do a quick Google search — by e-mail (third item). Created by Cape Clear Software, GoogleMail links your query to the popular search engine. Simply e-mail google@capeclear.com and type your keywords in the subject line. Within moments, you'll receive the top 10 results at no charge.
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Posted 11:20 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Is SmartPaper the Future of Newspapers?
Martha Stone on new-media research
Here's an interesting article about the "SmartPaper" newspaper of the future, being developed by a 75-person think tank staffed by Xerox employees in Michigan. Apparently, the Wall Street Journal and retailer Macy's are taking part in the skunkworks.
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Posted 5:59 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Blogger Becomes Brazilian
Juan C. Camus on weblog tools
"If God is Brazilian, why the hell must Blogger be American?" (Translated to English,) those were the first words published at the Brazilian version of Blogger, the popular weblog-hosting service. The new tool, which began offering its services on Tuesday, is the same as the original, but in Portuguese, as a part of Globo.com.
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Posted 5:43 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Cyberjournalist.net, API Hook Up
Steve Outing on an online journalism resource
Jonathan Dube's Cyberjournalist.net website, a resource for the online journalism world that covers the Internet, media convergence, and new technologies, has entered into an agreement with the American Press Institute to become a service of API's The Media Center. Cyberjournalist.net also will be incorporated into other information and training services produced by the Center, according to its director, Andrew Nachison. Dube will continue as editor and publisher of Cyberjournalist.net and becomes a senior editor for The Media Center (AND keeps his "day job" as technology editor for MSNBC.com), and Nachison becomes editor-at-large. (Dube also co-writes a regular column, Web Tips, for Poynter.org, publisher of this weblog. Where does he find the time for all this?)
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Posted 4:47 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
On 'Soapboxes'
Norbert Specker on the weblog trend
Soapboxes. That is what Andre Meyer calls weblogs in today's Globe and Mail. The story features prominent webloggers including E-Media Tidbits editor Steve Outing, Jim Romenesko, and Andrew Sullivan. Making it to print through the weblogs confirms one quoted claim by John Hiler, editor of Microcontentnews.com, a weblog about weblogs: "What I do see in increasing amounts is people building their reputations using weblogs and then cashing out in various ways." We will see about that latter part; the first certainly is a valid assessment.
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Posted 3:49 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Weblogs Popular in Brazil
Juan C. Camus on a blog book
Weblogs are going beyond the Web in Brazil. At Comdex Brazil, held this week in Sao Paulo, the book "Blogs! Seja um editor na era digital" ("Blogs! Become an editor in the digital age") was introduced. This is the first book in Portuguese about weblogs and how to build them. The author is Marcos José Pinto.
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Posted 3:03 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Banner + TV Spot: A New Type of Ad
Norbert Specker on online advertising
Advertising formats are coming along. See this online ad for the Nokia picture mobile phone, which combines the "skyscraper" format with an integrated TV spot.
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Posted 12:28 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Don't-Link Policies Earn Site's Scorn
Steve Outing on Internet law
The new site (well, actually, it's a weblog) Don't Link to Us! Stupid Linking Policies seeks to shame those institutions that prohibit "deep linking" of their websites into "moving forward into the 20th century." (Deep linking: Prohibiting links by other websites to pages other than your home page.) Most of the mentions so far are corporations, but a few media companies have earned the site's scorn — including Bloomberg and News International. The site's creator, David Sorkin, is collecting candidates for the "Hall of Cluelessness."
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Posted 11:36 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Man Behind IHT.com's Design
Martha Stone on readability on the Web
To follow up on Steve Outing's item below this one, IHT.com's site is designed by John Weir, designer of SmokingGun of Berkeley, California. The source code is available on the site, if anyone is interested in licensing it. I have invited Weir to speak about the IHT.com design at the Society for News Design's annual conference in Savannah, Georgia, November 7-9, and he has accepted. I visited the compact, six-person IHT.com in Paris, and they report that their users are thrilled with the design.
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Posted 6:23 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Why Aren't More Sites Like IHT's?
Steve Outing on readability on the Web
I just finished reading an article on IHT.com, the website of the International Herald Tribune, and I don't know why more news sites don't imitate the way it presents long text stories. (Here's an example.) The site's design (which is not new) creates an article interface that eliminates scrolling for long stories in favor of a 3-column format with a "Next" button to continue after the first screen of text is read. Getting the next helping of text is instant. And there's a feature to quickly change the font size to the most comfortable level. I'd much rather read a long story on IHT.com than a long story on most every other news site that requires scrolling. IHT.com's approach is simply superior, in my view. More sites should consider it.
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Posted 5:31 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Do Online Sales Indicate Increased Consumer Confidence?
Steve Klein on economic indicators
As a leading economic indicator, online sales of consumer goods aren't usually pointed to as a trend setter. But take note: Online sales of consumer goods totaled $6 billion in July, up 26% from the same month last year, according to Reston-based ComScore Networks Inc., an Internet research firm. In an article in the Washington Post, Nicholas Johnston reports that online sales are, indeed, a significant economic indicator."What we may be seeing are very early signs of a shift toward stability and perhaps even an increase in consumer confidence and willingness to spend money," said Dan Hess, a vice president at ComScore. "Online activity continues to serve as a very sensitive barometer of various socioeconomic trends."
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Posted 2:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Poetic Justice for Spam
Amy Gahran on creative spam filtering
OK, I love this idea, regardless of whether it really works well. Habeas is a new service that guarantees that e-mail is spam-free by embedding some copyrighted poetry in the text of the message. Spam filters can be configured to recognize the verse and accept any message containing it as spam-free. Spammers who dare to use the verse will be aggressively sued for copyright infringement. Way cool! The service is free to individuals. Commercial e-mailers who meet Habeas' strict definition of non-spam are charged one cent per message sent through the service, capped at $3,000 per month.The trick, of course, is tracking down and dunning spammers that steal the verse. According to this article from Wired News, Dun and Bradstreet have agreed to serve as Habeas' collection agency. Also, several major commercial spam-filtering services, such as SpamAssassin and Mail-Filters.com, intend to add Habeas to their spam-filtering arsenal. However, the concept does have some big holes. In a MarketingSherpa blog item, Anne Holland points out some key shortcomings of the Habeas approach.
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Posted 1:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
What They're Doing on Sept. 11, 2002
Steve Outing on new media anniversary coverage
In case you didn't spot it yet, Poynter.org (host of this weblog) has a nice package of articles and advice about how news organizations can cover the one-year anniversary of the September 11 U.S. terrorist attacks. While many of the tips apply to print and broadcast, there are a few new media suggestions: One online newsroom is planning a virtual tour of Ground Zero in Manhattan. MSNBC.com is producing "the most complex timeline ever put on the Internet." A North Carolina newspaper is producing CDs of anniversary stories and audio clips from interviews for local schools. MaineToday.com is doing a slide show of local photos and "a multimedia timeline highlighting local events in the context of national/world events." (Here's the intro to the package, by Poynter's Robin Sloan and Howard Finberg.)
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Posted 11:54 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Weblogs for Public Officials
Steve Outing on the blogging trend
Dave Winer said in his weblog yesterday, "In five years every member of the U.S. House will have a weblog and will be communicating directly with the electorate." I hope he's right, for this would be a big improvement over the old-fashioned communication we in the U.S. get with our elected representatives — outdated (by the time we receive them) printed newsletters produced by staff. Weblogs would improve our lives if other significant people published personal blogs. I'm trying to convince the principal and teachers at my daughters' elementary school to maintain weblogs, to better communicate with parents. It's still a new concept to many people outside of the Internet industry. Will blogs catch on with the "mainstream"? I hope so.
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Posted 3:39 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Advocating User-centered Spam Filters
Norbert Specker on the junk e-mail dilemma
Wherever a spam filter is located, be it on the server or on the client level, the key issue is that the user is in control and has the chance to transfer sender addresses to a "white list" if they land in the spam gutter by accident. Recommended by longtime residents of the online space: Spamfire (Mac, client side) and Postini (server side). The Age of Australia reports on Bluebottle (server level), operating with user-controlled confirmation strategies for unwanted e-mail. No reports from the trenches on that one. However, online news sites could help their readers by helping them to fight spam. So I am looking forward to more extensive anti-spam user guides.
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Posted 12:58 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Print, Ah, Journalists on, Ah, Video
Steve Outing on multi-media talent
Much has been written (by me and others) about the need for journalists to be multi-media savvy — to be proficient not only at writing text, but also at appearing on video and audio. Increasingly, print journalists are finding themselves appearing on Web video. For example, Steven Levy of Newsweek has a worth-reading article about blogging in the August 26 edition, which is also on MSNBC.com. One of the sidebar boxes in the online version of the article includes links to four 30-second video clips of Levy answering questions about the weblog trend. Levy, who has been primarily a print person, is articulate on camera, but a lot of "ahh's" and "umm's" creep into his speech. As more print people are making Web video and audio appearances, I'm noticing more and more of this.This points to the need for news organizations to train people with print backgrounds on the basics of appearing on camera. Even a simple lunch-time workshop on public speaking skills might be in order. (I don't mean to pick on Levy; he does fine except for this small glitch. I'm not one to gripe about this, as I too have trouble with ahh's and umm's when appearing on video or audio. It's probably why I was attracted to the print medium earlier in my career!)
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Posted 12:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Students Stick With Print
Steve Klein on campus journalism
Newspapers may be having difficulty in attracting young readers, but on America's college campuses, online editions of the school newspaper remain far less popular than the printed version, according to an article in the New York Times by Marcin Skomial. "Even though college campuses are some of the most wired places on Earth," Skomial says, "printed versions of college newspapers remain far more popular than their online editions." Although most college newspapers have websites that at least repurpose the print edition, a national study conducted last spring by market research firm Student Monitor found that only 30% of college students were even aware that their campus paper was available online. And of that number, only 29% had read at least one issue online in the previous month, compared with 44% who had read at least three of the previous five printed issues.As a member of College Media Advisers, a professional association that advises student media publications, and a journalism instructor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, I find that the problem is time: Student journalists tend to focus on the print product and lack the time, skillset, and manpower (although there are remarkable exceptions) to do much more than repurpose content, and students find the print product is more accessible than the online product — if they know about it at all.
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Posted 11:17 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Dawn of a New Era?
Carla Passino on online advertising
Steve Outing's item on SizeHimUp has reminded me of just how many interesting online ads I have come across over the last few weeks. All the ads that captured my attention — such as Tia Lusso's fashion test and competition — used immersive features or some form of interactivity to engage users. One — a campaign by British Gas that targets British homeowners by helping them find the perfect name for their house — was so well crafted that a colleague of mine even wrote a story on it for Countrylife.co.uk.One of the biggest drawbacks of online advertising has always been, in my view, that advertisers and ad agencies never made any effort to come up with creative formats that would work on the Web. For reasons unknown, they thought that slapping a newspaper-type ad on a screen would do the trick. And when it didn't work, they made the ads more intrusive, rather than more engaging. This approach finally seems to have changed. Perhaps it is the dawn of an online advertising boom?
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Posted 11:14 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Ad Revenue: Can Online Get Its Fair Share?
Norbert Specker on online advertising
Martha Stone, who also contributes to this weblog, has a well researched article on Online Journalism Review regarding a key to online publishing success: advertising revenue. The online publishing industry would be profitable if the advertising industry would spend 3% or 4% of its total online, rather than the 1% to 2% today. Seeing that online has taken up to 15% of media consumption time among consumers, that seems a reasonable goal. The article gives a good overview of the many initiatives that try to get online advertising into media buyers' budgets. The single missing item on the list: where are the advertiser success stories with an online budget of 4%+ that are more successful than their brethren?
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