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Friday, June 29, 2007
InfoUSA picks up high-margin research services from Guideline, Kevin Rose does Pownce file sharing on the sidelines using Adobe's AIR cross-platform runtime environment, and Endeca is touted at a conference as the next billion-dollar Boston tech company.

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By John Blossom - posted at 4:03 PM
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Trends
Tentative Dow Jones Sale Pact Said to Give Murdoch Power to Hire and Fire at The Journal
The New York Times
Wall Street Journal reporters protest Murdoch bid for Dow Jones
AP via Topix
Murdoch on 'WSJ' Deal: 'Vitriol' and 'Page 3 Girls'
Editor & Publisher
MySpace to follow rival FaceBook’s lead
FT.com
Google sued over defamatory postings found on web search
The Independent
Kevin Rose’s New Startup: Pownce
TechCrunch
Blow dealt to network neutrality; FTC says rules sought for broadband providers could hurt innovation
LA Times via Content Agenda
iPhone's disappearing spacebar
37 Signals
Live questions and answers with Fluther
Download Squad
Is Endeca really the next Google?
CNET News
Same name and same office, but new ProQuest isn't like old
Crain's Detroit Business
Sources: Divestment of Remaining Two Ziff Units 'Going Nowhere'
FOLIO: Magazine
Not much going on at San Fran's Apple Store
Engadget

Best Practices
What Social Networking Sites Do You Use? How Do they Benefit Your Blog?
ProBlogger
Ask.com Takes Lead In Designing Display Of Search Results
WSJ Online*
Walled Gardens and the Lesson for Social Networks
Micro Persuasion

Cool Tools
TwitterMail Lets You Tweet from your Email Account
Mashable

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
Ingram Micro will distribute several Google enterprise search tools and services
PC World
AP Signs Group For Hosted Online Content
Radio Ink
ConnectivHealth buys information provider Relegent
Nashville Business Journal
infoUSA(R) to Acquire Guideline, Inc.
BusinessWire

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By John Blossom - posted at 1:22 AM
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Thursday, June 28, 2007
In today's installment I summarize some of our recent key postings as well as provide a quick take on Newsvine's new ElectionVine portlet. Instead of just providing the traditional "talking head" I have provided most of this with (**echo chamber, please**) picture-in-picture narrative. If you shoot up your player's resolution to max the screen grabs are pretty readable, so it should be kind of a fun experience. Windows-based video technologies leave something to be desired, but we're wrestling it to the ground step by step. Enjoy!

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By John Blossom - posted at 10:47 AM
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Google has been playing at the edges of the healthcare industry from a number of angles, with scholarly content, Google Co-op-indexed reference content and a nascent Google Health initiative under the tutelage of Architect Adam Bosworth. The Google Blog announced a new advisory group of healthcare industry heavies that seems to indicate that whatever is on the drawing board at Google is likely to have very broad and deep impact. In addition to the COO of the American Medical Association the advisory group includes major players from research, hospitals, government, foundations and general media. Very notably absent from the group, though, are major publishers of medical research.

This would seem to indicate that a fair amount of Google's focus on healthcare is going to be from a consumer standpoint, but there's another way of looking at this as well. Google is assembling the parties who have the most invested in successful outcomes from the most efficient collection and distribution of medical information possible. In other words, Google is looking at healthcare from the broadest systemic perspective possible - and may as a result be focusing in on new ways to assemble, integrate and deliver medical information and collaboration on a global basis that scholarly publishers are nowhere near ready or able to enable. With enormous inefficiencies in both services delivery and information distribution the medical industry is in a position not unlike the financial industry prior to the introduction of efficient electronic trading information services. This would seem to parallel the highly profitable approaches that Google has taken to other information problems such as advertising that were too caught up in older publishing models for traditional media companies to make the strides that Google made with contextual advertising.

While initial offerings may tend towards modest consumer-oriented efforts on a scale of Revolution Health I sense from what I've been taking in lately that this initiative will challenge the medical content industry even more than the news industry has been challenged by Google's moves into indexing their content. Keep a close eye on both the consumer side of this equation as well as moves into making research, medical insurance and other data more accessible than ever before - with our without traditional medical publishers.

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By John Blossom - posted at 1:15 AM
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Kudos to David Pogue at The New York Times for a great review of the new iPhone from Apple. David's general view is that the appliance lives up to its hype, but he points out a number of key shortcomings, such as inferior text input (keys appears on the flat glass display), downright awkward phone call initiation, the need to ship it back to Apple after a year or so to get the battery replaced (a la iPod) and inferior network performance from AT&T. But while the iPhone may turn out to be the worst of both worlds for people already attuned to sophisticated mobile devices such as Blackberries (no coincidence that the splash ad for this article was for their new sleek model) the key to the iPhone's appeal centers around its ability to be a content-serving device like no other. GPS-keyed maps make the device a traveler's godsend for navigating unfamiliar territories and coming up with nearby services. The intuitive interface enables a user to shift to Web content seamlessly in a full-featured browser that comes with a very affordable (USD 20/month) internet access plan that may yet knock the legs out from underneath many an online content deal.

Ah, but with limitations there, as well. Flash and Java are not enabled in the browser, so the tons 0f online video and animated content available online is out of bounds. Of course there's video and audio from the iTunes store, which is most probably the point: after years of platform ju-jitsu from Microsoft to frustrate publishers it's Apple's turn to make it that much harder to come up with a platform-independent distribution strategy. But common file formats such as PDF, Word and Excel are accessible via iPhone so it will at least be useful for serious reading to some degree. And unless you're in an AT&T wireless hotspot broadband performance isn't going to be an option in most instances.

I think of the iPhone as a very portable Microsoft Surface - an appliance that is ahead of many technologies' ability to sustain a very compelling product vision but that nevertheless gets people jazzed about the possibilities of a new way of looking at computing. Unlike Microsoft's table-bound Surface, though, the iPhone is perfect for a younger, mobile generation not interested in plunking down thousands of dollars for a major piece of...furniture? But iPhone's most important impact on the content marketplace is likely to be its ability to create demand for broadband wireless on a mass scale, demand that's likely to fire up competition from other wireless carriers to deliver both more coverage and more effectively enabled interfaces to the Web. AT&T wins this round for Web access, but what will happen when Verizon enables YouTube access? Consider this iPhone debut the launch of the real mobile Web - with some frenetic developments yet to come.

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By John Blossom - posted at 12:30 AM
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
O'Reilly Radar covers the recent shift of Nature magazine's publishing policies to enable access to scientific research and data prior to it being approved for final publication by the prestigious scientific journal. Pre-published content will appear on the ad-supported portal Nature Precedings, along with unpublished manuscripts, presentations, posters, white papers, technical papers, supplementary findings, and other scientific documents. Submissions are screened by Nature's professional curation team for relevance and quality, but are not subjected to peer review. The Precedings portal enables registrants to comment on posted materials and to upload their own materials for screening. While there is no promised path to any posted materials becoming an approved juried publication the implication is that exposure may help that process - as on the competitive PLoS ONE portal.

In truth PLoS ONE is a much more sophisticated offering overall, providing much easier digestion, notation and discussion of posted documents. Where Nature Precedings presents core content mostly in Word and PDF documents, PLoS ONE converts content into native HTML for easier online consumption and with dynamic footnote references, as well as the ability to order content in printed format. PLoS One also provides "chunked" content such as graphs and tables to help people zoom in on results more effectively. But still, in fairness to Nature the Precedings is an enormous step forward for a traditional scholarly publisher, one which, when combined with Nature's exciting main portal, is bound to make it a far more attractive online community.

The advent of the Precedings portal underscores the dwindling importance of final publication for scientific content in particular but also the increasing recognition amongst all publishers that traditional concepts of media need to adjust more rapidly to online publishing. Prior to a publication being finalized it becomes a magnet for social media, gaining audience and unique interactions that are difficult to find elsewhere - perfect for building portal traffic. Once it is declared "a publication," the reverse is true - it becomes far more important for the finalized content to travel into as many other contexts as possible to find new value. Once content is fixed in its attributes it becomes media, a commodity stripped of community and immediately in need of finding new communities and individuals to appreciate it.

This points out both the strength and the weakness of social media: it can build up loyal audiences, but unlike traditional media social media is not easily syndicated - you can't "clone" a community, whereas traditional media is all about effective cloning through syndication and mass distribution. In this sense one can see from this model where the transition from social media to traditional media is more than just waving an "approved" wand: one's whole business model for a publication has the potential of changing rapidly once it passes through that status change.

While it's still very early days for the Nature Precedings portal already it's attracted a good amount of content across a wide range of categories, holding out the promise that it will become a destination of choice for scientific researchers. But as promising and aggressive as this move is the Nature team still has catch-up work to do to get this portal up to PLoS ONE standards of usability and reusability. One hopes that in time the portal can become a more active gateway to peer review and not turn into a dumping ground for various papers and ideas. The promise is there for such development; here's hoping that such developments come sooner rather than later.

UPDATE - To clarify, the Nature Precedings portal allows content to be published by its members without the fees associated with PLoS ONE and in general content on PLoS ONE is meant to be at least on a potential track for juried approval as a publication. But still, PLoS ONE winds up having more features that make it a highly usable destination for collaboration, whilst Nature Precedings is more like a download center with some comments on the side. It would seem that the Precedings offering would benefit from some of the PLoS ONE usability and community features. Bear in mind also that some precedings posts are near-finished papers as well; the difference in business models should not detract from the wide range of content that's coming on so far. In truth it's so early in the life of Precedings it's probably too early to judge it too much one way or another what it's likely to hold based on limited postings to date.

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:47 PM
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Trends
New advisory group on health
Google Blog
Murdoch: No plans to raise Dow Jones bid
Reuters
Konnects Launches Network of Communities for Business Professionals
Mashable
User-generated content, privacy and subterfuge tackled by news chiefs
Hold the Page
Newspapers pin survival hopes on user content
The Enquirer
YouTube copyright fight hinges on whether it controls its content, says US court
Out-Law
Social Networks as A Place Where Content Finds You
MicroPersuasion
Internet Radio Protests a Rise in Royalties
WSJ Online*

Best Practices
Reader Voices: Who Pays for Content?
InfoWorld
What To Do When Your Company Wikipedia Page Goes Bad
Search Engine Land
How To Format Online Content For Maximum Legibility: Chunking Information
Robin Good
Reconceiving storytelling at the Associated Press
USC Annenberg OJR

Cool Tools
NewsVine Launches ElectionVine: Widget Based Election Polling
TechCrunch
Digital newsstand saves paper, quarters
Engadget

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
Kosmix Partners with Revolution Health to Deliver the Most Relevant Health Content on the Web
BusinessWire
CondéNet Selects Kiptronic to Power Downloadable Media Ad Campaign Management
BusinessWire

Products, Markets & People
Groupe La Provence makes content management efficient with Nstein to launch new regional portal
CNW Group
McGraw-Hill Professional Launches Customizable Curricular Tool for Surgical Residency Programs
BusinessWire
LexisNexis Enhances atVantage Law Firm Business Development Solution
BusinessWire

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By John Blossom - posted at 3:40 PM
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Trends

Yahoo searches for its future in a world that has thinning alliances to mainstream content...

Yang replaces Semel as Yahoo CEO
CNET News
Yahoo's Yang Digs in for 'Long Haul' Against Google
Bloomberg
It’s Official: Yahoo Acquires Rivals.com; Not Official But True: It Cost About $100 Million
paidContent.org

As the reality of a deal with NewsCorp begins to sink in at Dow Jones...
Murdoch Said to Be Close to Terms on Journal
The New York Times*
Dow Jones Board Takes Over Talks On Firm's Future
WSJ Online*
Few Choices for Workers at Dow Jones
The New York TImes*

Long discounted by business information providers Web 2.0 platforms may be the ticket for enterprises...
The Enterprise 2.0 Conference: Web 2.0 Continues Its Move To The Workplace
Dion Hinchcliffe
ReutersInteractive debuts
Supernova
A Story on User Generated Content within the Firewall
FAST Blog
TechDirt Builds Community of Bloggers to Offer Corporate Analysis
MediaShift

Publishing as the seminal event to monetize research gives way to more evolutionary models...
Nature Precedings: Early Access to Scientific Results
O'Reilly Radar
New site pits 'published' vs. 'posted'
The Scientist

The battle for online video heats up as visual content begins to play to broadband-equipped users...
Truveo Growing 50% Per Month, Says Video Search Becoming More Important
TechCrunch
Fox locks deal with Web TV service Brightcove
Variety via Content Agenda
IPTV chugs along
CNET News

Social media portals are becoming key bargaining chips for those seeking content's future...
Facebook is the Winner of MySpace-Yahoo! Talks
Read/Write Web
News Corp explores swap of MySpace site for Yahoo! stake
ContentAgenda
Upstart Websites Aim to Consolidate Social Networking
Advertising Age*
Jaiku/Twitter/Facebook/Kyte/Plaxo = something happening you should pay attention to
Scobelizer

Google fights for less censorship in the long run but has its bets hedged for the short run...
Google fights global internet censorship
AP via Yahoo! News
Google cleared to provide Internet content in China - report
AFX via Forbes
Blocked China Web users rage against Great Firewall
Reuters via Yahoo! News

About the only thing that broadcasters seem to agree on these days is that their business model is tanking...
Talks on global broadcast treaty fail
AP via Yahoo! News

Before it's even launched the iPhone is becoming a new magnet for digital media...
Hollywood Seeks Ways to Fit Its Content Into the Realm of the iPhone
The New York Times*

eBook enthusiasm still abounds but is web-first book publishing taking the momentum away from them...?
eBooks: The Next Page for iPod?
Tech News World

As print revenues and audiences recede news organizations are focusing on relevant online content...
At NAA, Newspaper Execs Tout New Media, As Print Struggles
paidContent.org
'Cup Is Overflowing' for Future of Journalism
Media Shift
McClatchy Web Site Revamped -- From Iraq Blogs to Dave Barry
Editor & Publisher
CMP Aftermath: Are Techies the Canary in the Coal Mine?
FOLIO: Magazine
The Times Is Raising Newspaper Prices
The New York Times*

Hope springs eternal for business information aggregators...
ProQuest plans to grow
Ann Arbor News

In other major trends in content this week...
Adsense Publishers Report Massive Dip in Earnings and CTR
Digital Inspiration
The Revolution Will Not Be Socialized -- The Homogenization of Social Media
Newsvine
Google the Vote: How Google is Changing the American Political Landscape
Read/Write Web
DRM drags down economy, Linden CTO says
Computerworld/ Content Agenda
Silcon Valley's Valley
Micro Persuasion
Glossy Insert at Gannett, and Maybe Dow Jones
The New York Times*

Best Practices
The Opaque Value Problem (or, Why do people use Twitter?)
Borkado
Consumers More Likely to Act on Video Ads Viewed on Media Sites, According to OPA Study
PR Newswire
Use LinkedIn more productively
Lifehacker
Web 3.0 - The Rise Of The Information Product
BlogTrepreneur
Business : Content ownership versus Information ownership
eacademy
The 10 Second Rule: How to Write for Diagonal Readers
Copyblogger
Study Finds Web Users Also Like Dead-Tree Editions
Editor and Publisher

Cool Tools
New "Wetpaint Please Touch" Virtual Painting Website Fosters Online Expression
Marketwire
Adobe Delivers New Document Generation Solutions
BusinessWire
Building Public Library Websites with Drupal
LITA Blog
New Yahoo! Go 2.0 available on 22nd June
OneCompare
Crave about iPhone
Really Simple Sidi
Jaiku Launches Channels Feature for Topical Messaging
Mashable
Iriver's mystery device
Engadget
Another Attempt to Match Readers and Relevant News
The New York Times*
Apple prepping a cheaper iPhone? Probably.
Engadget
IBM bringing Web 2.0 to corporate workers
Computerworld
Mindtouch: The Wall Strett Journal Discovers Enterprise Wikis
ebizQ

Deals, Partnerships & Sales

TechTarget Acquires TechnologyGuide.com and Ajaxian.com
BusinessWire
Blinkx signs up RealPlayer as battle for online video heats up
The Independent
infoUSA(R) Acquires expresscopy.com: Sales Leads, Printing and Mailing – All Under One Roof
BusinessWire
LinkedIn to Open Up - How It Can Take On Facebook
Read/Write Web
Google To Acquire GrandCentral
TechCrunch
Access Intelligence acquires TradeFair Group
BtoB Online
OverDrive Signs Pop Music Label for Downloads
Library Journal
BookSurge, an Amazon Group, and Kirtas Collaborate to Preserve and Distribute Historic Archival Books
PR Newswire
LexisNexis Taps Ernst & Young to Exclusively Feature International GAAP(R) 2007 Online on Tax Platform
Presszoom
LexisNexis(R) Offers Exclusive on Potomac Publishing Company(R) Tool via lexis.com(R)
BusinessWire
NewsGator Extends Social Capabilities to Microsoft SharePoint(R) 2007
Marketwire
ILS and AVIATION WEEK Partner to Offer the World’s Premier Aviation Search Engine
BusinessWire
OneSource Chosen by National Library Board in Singapore for Public and Private Company Profiles
BusinessWire
The New York Times, NYTimes.com and Monster Launch Co-Branded Recruitment Web Site
BusinessWire
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Acquires MediRegs
PR Newswire
EBSCO Acquires Top ABC-CLIO Databases, To Distribute Others
Library Journal
LexisNexis To Distribute Fairfax Media Content to Subscribers
IT Wire
Reuters signs with Wireless Ronin for digital signage
Digital Signage Today
Nstein Technologies signs a deal with La Dépêche du Midi, a leading regional newspaper in France
CNW Group
infoUSA to Combine Millard Group with Mokrynskidirect
BusinessWire
Fast Search & Transfer wins deal with US computer group Lenovo
Thomson Financial via AFX

Products, Markets & People
Newstex Adds Blogs Covering Global Financial Markets to Blogs on Demand(TM)
PR Newswire via EarthTimes
Search Engine Module for Energy Related Intelligence, Developed by MetaCarta
Web Site Host Directory
Interactive Data’s Financial Market Information and Tools Now Available on SF.com’s AppExchange
CRM DIrectory
Netvibes Universe Spans the Globe: Over 500 Official Content Partnerships With Leading Institutions
BusinessWire
RR Donnelley Unifies Printing And Related Services Offerings Under RR Donnelley Brand
PR Newswire
Wolters Kluwer Financial Introduces Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering Regulatory Consulting
PRN/ Insurance Newsnet
YouTube begins rolling out international sites, new mobile support
Ars Technica
Yahoo! to Combine Search and Display Advertising Sales Teams to Better Serve its Advertising Partners
PR Newswire
CMP Technology Announces Editorial Management Changes to Accelerate its Electronics Group
PR Newswire
Widevine Sees DRM For All
Red Herring
Adobe announces important ereading software - Digital Editions 1.0
GizMag
Comtex Launches SmarTrend(R) 2.0 at NY Securities Industry Technology Management Conference
BusinessWire
Interactive Data Now Offers Robust Risk Analytics Content Powered by BondEdge(R) in North America
BusinessWire
Mark Logic Granted Patent on Key Technology in MarkLogic Server
Marketwire
infoUSA(R)’s New Movers Database Touted as "Substantial and Accurate"
BusinessWire

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:59 PM
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All the above and more in three itty-bitty minutes!

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By John Blossom - posted at 10:14 PM
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Trends
Dow Jones, News Corp. Agree On Set of Editorial Protections
WSJ Online*
Google’s next stop: $600 a share?
CNN Money
AOL Relaunches News Site In Blog Format
paidContent.org
Global Digital Copyright Project on Schedule
World Assn of Newspapers
Xerox Reignites Interest in Semantic Networking as a Search Tool
BetaNews
New dictionary translations
Google Blog
The Yahoo! Exodus: Who's Next?
Forbes
iPhone rate plans revealed, at-home activation announced
Engadget

Best Practices
Social sites reveal class divide
BBC News
Face-to-Face Networking Trumps Supernova Panels at Conference
MediaShift
Enterprise 2.0: Thirty Corporate Uses of Wikis and Blogs
Social Computing

Cool Tools
Shifd: A Clever Mobile App From The NY Times
TechCrunch
Frengo Launches Buzz Platform: Create Your Own Twitter Network
Mashable
Spock - Vertical Search Done Right
Read/Write Web

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
Reuters Signs Content Agreement With Chinese Video Site
Pacific Epoch
Acquire Media Corporation Buys NewEdge Division from Thomson Corporation
EContent Magazine
Microsoft and Houghton Mifflin Form Strategic Alliance to Simplify Delivery of Educational Resources
PressZoom
Ziff Davis Sells Enterprise Group
FOLIO: Magazine

Products, Markets & People
blinkx Launches AdHoc, the First Contextual Online Video Advertising Platform
Streaming Media
Onstream Media Announces Being Added to Russell Microcap(R) Index
Insurance Newsnet
Xrefer Changes Name To Credo Reference
Managing Information
Answers Corp's WikiAnswers Ranked Second Largest Q+A Site
PR Newswire via EarthTimes

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By John Blossom - posted at 3:26 PM
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Monday, June 25, 2007
Interesting headlines today, some quick takes for your consideration.

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By John Blossom - posted at 12:17 PM
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:56 AM
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
It was a great SIFMA show in many ways, but also one which took me back to its roots. I remember when it was in much smaller quarters at New York's Sheraton Hotel, instead of its current footprint across three floors of the New York Hilton. Back in those days content technology advances offered relatively few trading advantages to individual organizations on the desktop - it was more a matter of making sure that you had the right specialized equipment in the back rooms feeding the trading floor. Years later we seem to be back where we started. The drive to reduce the cost of trading transactions in the face of disappearing trading profits in public markets has made the SIFMA show a gathering with relatively few high-profile desktop trading solutions being touted to an ever-decreasing population of decision-makers purchasing them. Traffic was reasonable but clearly down from earlier years. It's a flat world out there in finance - except in niches such as hedge funds where information innovation still drives profitable trading strategies.

There were a few key themes that I saw taking shape at this year's show:

Everything old is new again. I enjoyed a few minutes chatting with Jeffery Wells, now VP of Product Management at Exegy, a provider of infrastructure for ultra-low latency market data feed processing. For several years the solution touted by Wall Street firms was to shove huge banks of standardized blade servers at trade tickers to be able to keep up with information surges. But with the cost of energy increasing rapidly greater single-platform efficiencies are beginning to look more attractive. Shades of the "minicomputer" revolution of the 1970s and 1980s - custom computing platforms are coming back, thanks to new economics in trading.

ASP financial content services are becoming a reality. While financial trading partners have long used private networks to communicate with one another the push for cost controls is leading to some interesting developments in networked services. Collabnet is a service that enables customers that include investment banks to collaborate on software development with outsourcing partners in Asia and elsewhere. What's interesting is that Collabnet provides this as an ASP-based service instead of installing it in-house on private servers and networks. Nothing new in the greater world of business but remarkable when you consider how reluctant investment banks have been to open their operations up to ASP services before. Also demoing at the show was Salesforce.com, an ASP-based sales force automation tool with financial modules integrated via its AppExchange service. Is Wall Street ready for a wider range of ASP-based content services? The push for economic operations seems to be pushing secure ASP content solutions to the forefront. Don't rule them out from your own product plans, but be ready to have your answers in hand for how you manage security.

Rapid development of executable trading strategies is powering low-latency data feeds. Automated trading based on high-speed data feeds has been around for years, but these days "real time" feeds need to have sub-millisecond delays for trading strategies to be effective. But equally important is the ability to tune trading strategies as rapidly as possible to take advantage of the speed of these feeds. Vendors such as Progress Software were demonstrating capabilities that allow new trading strategies for low-latency feeds to be turned around in a few hours. As important as the speed of feeds can be the ability to translate your knowledge of market conditions into automated decision-making seems to be fueling many boutique solutions.

Mining the Web and other sources is helping banks to build their own custom content. One of the more exciting types of tools highlighted at the show were packages that made it easier to mine and aggregate content from both traditional and non-traditional sources in interesting ways. FirstRain was demonstrating highly personalized research services that enable its clients to get information from many major published sources and internal sources tailored to their exact needs. Connotate was demonstrating Web mining capabilities that enable investment banks and other institutions to quickly develop custom research and data from any number of online and proprietary sources. While getting high-quality subscription databases is still an important part of the research equation for finance tools such as Connotate and FirstRain are allowing institutions to define custom sources of content that are feeding decision-making processes with unique insights that may give financial institutions an advantage in the marketplace. With the ability to define structured content dynamically these types of services are accelerating the ability of institutions to gain insights from any potentially valuable content source.

What happened to the graphs? For years you could walk down the aisles of this exhibit hall and be overwhelmed by the number of charting packages made available by content and software vendors. While charts were certainly a part of the mix, the emphasis on automated execution via low-latency feeds has placed more of the analysis investment for real-time content into algorithmic trading packages. However, a retail-oriented analytics package from Blocks combined a drag-and-drop financial modeling package with a charting package to enable retail investors to develop sophisticated trading strategies and to trigger them off of charted real-time data events. A nifty combination that would have been the envy of many a trader not so many years ago and now available for you and me. Graphing is still an important analysis tool for financial content but it's far from the cutting edge for most financial services these days.

Lots and lots of small companies. While SIFMA has always had its fair share of up-and-coming companies in its mix the show was notably heavy with startups and small innovators this year. Certainly Reuters, Thomson, Sungard, IBM and others had significant footprints this year but there were many more small companies working their way into main-floor and mid-floor footprints that would have been relegated to upper-floor boonies in past years. While not necessarily a good sign for the short run I take this as a good sign for the years ahead. Hopefully we're witnessing a new wave of innovation for the financial content industry that will begin to drive new products and services away from traditional data delivery platforms and towards more innovative forms of collaboration and execution. This is an industry starved for really fresh ideas right now, but with so many fundamental infrastructure issues sussed out in recent years expect financial institutions to begin to invest anew in fresh looks at the world of financial content.

So yet another SIFMA show sails into history. Let's hope that next year's addition features a little more buzz and excitement in the hall generated by something other than Sopranos stars, slot cars and scantily clad young ladies.

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:45 PM
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This year's Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Technology Management Conference & Exhibit featured a wide array of innovators trying to find niches against a healthy handful of survivors servicing a greatly consolidated industry that seeks to squeeze out productivity as never before. Today's video features lots of fun little takes along with demos and pitches from Reuters, FirstRain, Connotate, Collabnet.com, Blocks, Success Metrics and Smart Trade. Our written commentary on the show is here.

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By John Blossom - posted at 8:20 AM
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Trends
Dow Jones Board Takes Over Talks On Firm's Future
WSJ Online*
McClatchy won't rule out CareerBuilder stake sale
Reuters
News Corp explores swap of MySpace site for Yahoo! stake
ContentAgenda
Facebook is the Winner of MySpace-Yahoo! Talks
Read/Write Web
TechDirt Builds Community of Bloggers to Offer Corporate Analysis
MediaShift
It's Official: Yahoo Acquires Rivals.com; Not Official But True: It Cost About $100 Million
paidContent.org
Jaiku/Twitter/Facebook/Kyte/Plaxo = something happening you should pay attention to
Scobelizer
Truveo Growing 50% Per Month, Says Video Search Becoming More Important
TechCrunch
A Story on User Generated Content within the Firewall
FAST Blog
Online Database Provides Nutrition Information On Foods
AMonline
Few Choices for Workers at Dow Jones
The New York TImes*
New site pits 'published' vs. 'posted'
The Scientist
The Times Is Raising Newspaper Prices
The New York Times*

Best Practices
Web 3.0 - The Rise Of The Information Product
BlogTrepreneur
Business : Content ownership versus Information ownership
eacademy

Cool Tools
New Yahoo! Go 2.0 available on 22nd June
OneCompare
Crave about iPhone
Really Simple Sidi
Jaiku Launches Channels Feature for Topical Messaging
Mashable
Iriver's mystery device
Engadget

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
BookSurge, an Amazon Group, and Kirtas Collaborate to Preserve and Distribute Historic Archival Books
PR Newswire
LexisNexis Taps Ernst & Young to Exclusively Feature International GAAP(R) 2007 Online on Tax Platform
Presszoom
LexisNexis(R) Offers Exclusive on Potomac Publishing Company(R) Tool via lexis.com(R)
BusinessWire

Products, Markets & People
Interactive Data’s Financial Market Information and Tools Now Available on SF.com’s AppExchange
CRM DIrectory
Netvibes Universe Spans the Globe: Over 500 Official Content Partnerships With Leading Institutions
BusinessWire
RR Donnelley Unifies Printing And Related Services Offerings Under RR Donnelley Brand
PR Newswire
Wolters Kluwer Financial Introduces Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering Regulatory Consulting
PRN/ Insurance Newsnet
CMP Technology Announces Editorial Management Changes to Accelerate its Electronics Group
PR Newswire
Widevine Sees DRM For All
Red Herring
Adobe announces important ereading software - Digital Editions 1.0
GizMag

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By John Blossom - posted at 8:15 AM
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A preview of the SIFMA show, thoughts on Jerry Yang in it for the long haul against Google, Reuters Interactive and Science Magazine's content previews. Let us know what you'd like to see in our ShoreViews reports!

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By John Blossom - posted at 8:49 AM
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When Techobabble 2.0 ranked information and communications technolgy (ICT) industry analyst weblogs recently I was pleased to discover our own ContentBlogger in the top ten of all ICT weblogs. More specifically, sandwiched in between Forrester and Jupiter's top weblogs and several notches above Charlene Li. The blog acknowledges that heavies such as Charlene came in low in some objective criteria such as Technorati rankings, but still, this is a very cool thing. Especially cool is that ContentBlogger was tying the very top analyst weblogs in TB2.0's own ranking criteria.

Wow.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to Jonny Bentwood over at Edelman for his analysis and for his recognition of our efforts. It's rewarding to see how our efforts rank amongst the leaders in the industry. Our heartfelt thanks go out also to everyone who tunes in to ContentBlogger online or via our ShoreLines newsletter. It's a privilege to be of service to you and an honor to be amongst such talented peers in this recognition. We'll just keep on doing our thing here at Shore, and make it only better as we go along.

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By John Blossom - posted at 12:50 AM
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Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Trends
Yahoo's Yang Digs in for 'Long Haul' Against Google
Bloomberg
ReutersInteractive debuts
Supernova
Nature Precedings: Early Access to Scientific Results
O'Reilly Radar
At NAA, Newspaper Execs Tout New Media, As Print Struggles
paidContent.org
Adsense Publishers Report Massive Dip in Earnings and CTR
Digital Inspiration
Google cleared to provide Internet content in China - report
AFX via Forbes
Blocked China Web users rage against Great Firewall
Reuters via Yahoo! News
'Cup Is Overflowing' for Future of Journalism
Media Shift
Google the Vote: How Google is Changing the American Political Landscape
Read/Write Web
The Enterprise 2.0 Conference: Web 2.0 Continues Its Move To The Workplace
Dion Hinchcliffe
Upstart Websites Aim to Consolidate Social Networking
Advertising Age*
ProQuest plans to grow
Ann Arbor News
McClatchy Web Site Revamped -- From Iraq Blogs to Dave Barry
Editor & Publisher

Best Practices
Consumers More Likely to Act on Video Ads Viewed on Media Sites, According to OPA Study
PR Newswire

Cool Tools
New "Wetpaint Please Touch" Virtual Painting Website Fosters Online Expression
Marketwire
Another Attempt to Match Readers and Relevant News
The New York Times*
Apple prepping a cheaper iPhone? Probably.
Engadget
IBM bringing Web 2.0 to corporate workers
Computerworld

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
NewsGator Extends Social Capabilities to Microsoft SharePoint(R) 2007
Marketwire
ILS and AVIATION WEEK Partner to Offer the World’s Premier Aviation Search Engine
BusinessWire
OneSource Chosen by National Library Board in Singapore for Public and Private Company Profiles
BusinessWire
The New York Times, NYTimes.com and Monster Launch Co-Branded Recruitment Web Site
BusinessWire
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Acquires MediRegs
PR Newswire
EBSCO Acquires Top ABC-CLIO Databases, To Distribute Others
Library Journal

Products, Markets & People
YouTube begins rolling out international sites, new mobile support
Ars Technica
Newstex Adds Blogs Covering Global Financial Markets to Blogs on Demand(TM)
PR Newswire via EarthTimes
Search Engine Module for Energy Related Intelligence, Developed by MetaCarta
Web Site Host Directory
Comtex Launches SmarTrend(R) 2.0 at NY Securities Industry Technology Management Conference
BusinessWire

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:52 PM
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Brightcove is one of many video distribution platforms that wrestles for attention in the media world, an effort made easier by the announcement of a deal with Fox Entertainment Group to provide them with a platform for their IPTV plans. Brightcove's portal has featured primarily user-generated content and community, but its technology can accomodate long-format entertainment programming as well. Will Fox use Brightcove technology exclusively for its mainstream programming or will it use Brightcove's platform to build up user-generated content communities around its own assets? Time will tell, but my guess is that Fox Interactive Media's experience with MySpace argues for Fox having a good dose of its own user-gen content in the mix alongside mainstream Fox programming feeding synergies into the MySpace platform.

The key point in this deal is that an OEM strategy seems to have paid off for Brightcove based on the strengths of its own portal strategy that allowed them to refine its functionality with live audiences and to continue to act as a test bed for ideas that can feed into their partner networks. OEMing can be tricky if clients can't visualize the potential outcomes of using a product tailored to their needs, especially when you're a young company trying to get attention in a crowded marketplace. Having in effect bootstrapped their OEM strategy with their own Web site Brightcove made it that much easier for a prospect like Fox to say yes.

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By John Blossom - posted at 5:52 PM
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Monday, June 18, 2007
Trends
Yang replaces Semel as Yahoo CEO
CNET News
Dark horse in the Dow Jones fight: Supermarket mogul Ron Burkle could make an offer this week
Fortune via CNN Money
The Revolution Will Not Be Socialized -- The Homogenization of Social Media
Newsvine
Fox locks deal with Web TV service Brightcove
Variety via Content Agenda
Silcon Valley's Valley
Micro Persuasion
CMP Aftermath: Are Techies the Canary in the Coal Mine?
FOLIO: Magazine
Glossy Insert at Gannett, and Maybe Dow Jones
The New York Times*
IPTV chugs along
CNET Newseekl

Best Practices
Use LinkedIn more productively
Lifehacker
The 10 Second Rule: How to Write for Diagonal Readers
Copyblogger
Study Finds Web Users Also Like Dead-Tree Editions
Editor and Publisher

Cool Tools
Mindtouch: The Wall Strett Journal Discovers Enterprise Wikis
ebizQ

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
TechTarget Acquires TechnologyGuide.com and Ajaxian.com
BusinessWire
LexisNexis To Distribute Fairfax Media Content to Subscribers
IT Wire
Reuters signs with Wireless Ronin for digital signage
Digital Signage Today
Nstein Technologies signs a deal with La Dépêche du Midi, a leading regional newspaper in France
CNW Group
infoUSA to Combine Millard Group with Mokrynskidirect
BusinessWire
Fast Search & Transfer wins deal with US computer group Lenovo
Thomson Financial via AFX

Products, Markets & People
Interactive Data Now Offers Robust Risk Analytics Content Powered by BondEdge(R) in North America
BusinessWire
Mark Logic Granted Patent on Key Technology in MarkLogic Server
Marketwire
infoUSA(R)’s New Movers Database Touted as "Substantial and Accurate"
BusinessWire

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:54 PM
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Trends

Where is the growth in publishing? Along the long, long tail of online content...
The Long Tail Is Getting Fatter
TechCrunch
Future of Media Video: Google Takes Over the World by 2050
Read/Write Web
Can Blogs Become a Big Source of Jobs?
The New York Times*
Google wins 'race to bottom' on privacy
Reuters via CNET

Which has become far more adept at monetizing context...
'Widgets' May Snag More Ads
WSJ Online*
Brainstorming an Out-of-the-Box Approach to Blog Monetization
ProBlogger
Google Launches Content Placement Reports
SearchViews
Emory Announces Plan To Scan, Sell Books from Its Library
Library Journal

Paying attention to Long Tail content takes time and effort - and better monitoring tools...
Zen and the Art of Attention
Web Worker Daily

Round two of the Dow Jones selloff features provisos, positionings and a long shot offer from Pearson...
Bancrofts Set Revised Safeguard Proposals
WSJ Online*
Fox drops TV stations for Dow bid
Variety
Pearson Weighs Dow Jones Bid
WSJ Online*
Crovitz, 'WSJ' Publisher, Addresses Editorial Changes -- Urges Staffers to Stay 'Focused' During Sale Talk
Editor and Publisher
WSJ completes merger of print and online editorial efforts
Lost Remote
More On MarketWatch Status
paidContent.org

Print-oriented publishers are beginning to cede lost ground and to focus on which titles are worth saving...
CMP Slashes Jobs, Shutters Some Pubs, Merges Others
Media Buyer Planner
Traditional Media Expected To See Decline in Ad Revenue
WSJ Online*

Google Video focuses on becoming a universal video search while YouTube builds a content collection...
Google to use YouTube to amass video database
Silicon Valley
Google Video Search in Frames
Mashable
YouTube Sets Tests of Video Blocking
The New York Times*
YouTube Co-Founder Explains New Video ID System
Wired

As the battle for protecting IP on the Web pushes Hollywood and broadband carriers together...
Will H'wood take a stand on Net neutrality?
Variety
Hollywood's YouTube frustration grows
CNET News
AT&T to target pirated content
LA Times
MPAA, others call for new anti-piracy laws
Content Agenda

Though the potential for high-quality video downloads being a real financial threat may be limited...
Panelists: Downloads 10 to 20 years from mainstream
Video Business /Content Agenda

As subscription database brands fade into merger-land is the Google brand going to gain leverage...?
ProQuest CSA Now just ProQuest Again
Library Journal
Does Google’s Universal Search Foreshadow Enterprise Search?
IT Business Edge

The most hyped content appliance in recent memory has cachet, scarcity - and not a single sale yet...
iPhone APB: Walt already has one
Engadget

What to know what the inside of many news media minds looks like...?
'Copy!' - A tour of The New York Times as it was
The New York Times*

In other major trends in content this week...
YHOO Annual Meeting: Attempt To Reform Exec Pay Loses; Directors Elected With Low Majority
paidContent.org
New York Times May Ad Revenue Drops; Advertising Revenue Down 8.5 Percent, Internet Ad Sales Up
AP via Yahoo! News
Howard Stringer on new media: Peace in the Valley?
FT.com
Updating Maps on the Spot and Sharing the Fixes
The New York Times*
Shield's Down: Administration Still Fights Law Protecting Media
Editor and Publisher
Agents debate posting listings info they don't represent
Inman News

Best Practices
The Implicit Web: Last.fm, Amazon, Google, Attention Trust
Read/Write Web
The Antiquity of our Healthcare System: Rafael Sidi Reports
Really Simple Sidi
Google takes baby step to protect your privacy
Download Squad
Social Media Most Trusted Source for IT Purchasing Decisions
Environmental Leader
Study shows effectiveness of rich media
BtoB Online
Ensure that Google Knows It's Your Content
WebProNews
The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority
Chronicle of Higher Ed.*
The Attention Crash
Micro Persuasion

Cool Tools
The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources
Mashable
Apple invites Windows users to Safari
CNET News
Share Notes, Media And RSS With Zoho Notebook
Robin Good
Try out new Blogger features like video upload
Download Squad
Google Co-op: Power-up your custom search engines
Lifehacker
Joost Major Contender Puts Independent Producers Content First - Meet Babelgum
Robin Good
Safari Coming to Windows; iPhone Runs AJAX Apps
Read/Write Web
New YouTube API = YouTube Mashups
Mashable

Deals, Partnerships & Sales

blinkx Partners with Turning Point TV
Huliq
LexisNexis Expands Online Collection with New Digital U.S. Serial Set Maps Collection
BusinessWire
CQ and NY Times To Publish Library Reference Books
Library Journal
IHS Acquires Jane's Information Group
Epicos
MarkLogic Chosen for Satyam's Integrated Digital Publishing Platform
MarketWire
Summit Business Media To Buy WBI
FOLIO: Magazine
ISYS(R) Search Software Signs Leading Channel Islands Law Firm Carey Olsen
BusinessWire
Burst Media and Reed Business Launch New Online B-2-B Advertising Network
BusinessWire
MetaCarta Signs Agreement with IHS to Provide the Oil Gas Industry with Geographically Relevant data
GIS User
ABC News and USA TODAY Announce Content Partnership for 2008 Election
PR Newswire via DMN Newswire
Demand Media Acquires Expertvillage.com
TMCNet
ProQuest and Scopus Announce Partnership
Information Today, Inc.

Products, Markets & People
Clarabridge Launches Content Mining Service
B-Eye Network
AviationWeek.com Launches New Online Networking Tools
PR Newswire via Digital 50
Industry Moves: Peggy White Out At Yahoo; Circumstances Unclear
paidContent.org
Penton’s American Trucker’s Redesigned Web Site Delivers Faster, Detailed Search Results for Users
The Auto Channel
Macrovision Corporation Announces New Organizational Structure
WebWire
Hoover's Launches ConnectMail - a New One-to-One E-Mail Address Discovery Tool
dBusinessNews
New LexisNexis(R) Academic Brings Easy-to-Use, Professional-Strength Features to Academic Market
BusinessWire
GlobalSpec debuts industrial ad network
BtoB Online
News Filter for Institutional Investors Debuts
Wall Street and Technology

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By John Blossom - posted at 6:12 PM
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AP reports on Terry Semel's stepping down from the CEO role at Yahoo after challenges to his leadership at a recent stockholders meeting made a swift move to restore investor confidence an imperative. The move is notable as much for what didn't happen as what did: Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang will be taking on the CEO role to re-establish both investor sentiment and Valley creds for the short term while Susan Decker, thought to have been Semel's hand-picked probable successor, notches up to President from overseeing ad operations. This may mean a wait-and-see period for Decker while the company as a whole adjusts to Semel's departure before moving up to the top role but more likely it's a move for Semel to have a proxy for his vision at Yang's disposal to ensure that his initiatives have some leadership to prove out his legacy.

Semel's media background was seen as a plus when he took over at Yahoo, promising "adult" leadership and the ability to lead Yahoo towards deals with mainstream content providers that would help to build up its portal in the eyes of online audiences. But a funny thing happened on the way to the earnings reports: search engine Google proved that being able to contextualize the world's content was more important than trying to build a bigger and better AOL. Yahoo has made some strong moves in recent months towards building up the power of user-generated content to drive Yahoo traffic, but the key revenue driver - contextual ad performance - continues to lag.

What are the prospects for Yahoo in the wake of Semel's reign? All in all, pretty good. While Yahoo has suffered from focusing too intently on traditional media products in the past, its push towards stronger social media offerings and innovative reuse of these assets for new portlets for consumer goods and hot topics offers Yahoo a role as a lead innovator amongst traditional media companies. With Semel out of the picture it's likely that staff trimmings will cut through some loyalty factors and allow Yahoo to gain some momentum in deal-making to shore up its innovation position and market share. Yahoo is building high-quality content that appeals to mainstream Web users, effectively bridging the gap between AOL-like neophytes and seasoned users with highly focused interests with an array of well-designed content products.

But the key problem remains that Yahoo has mapped out a strategy that weds it largely to the goal of most traditional media companies: build market share and viewership for a destination portal. While its ad network will help Yahoo to expand past that footprint effectively, their dedication to making it work for brand advertisers is likely to make it too focused on the declining footprints of traditional media companies to build market share quickly enough to be fully competitive with Google's ad campaigns. As pointed out by TechCrunch recently the "long tail" of content is getting only thicker, placing a premium on products that can absorb and interpret its content for highly focused audiences. This will continue to play to Google's advantage as it builds both revenues and margin from an abundance of less-expensive content sources that can be monetized through its contextual ad technologies and dominant search engine.

Yahoo has also neglected its enterprise strategy for many years, effectively ceding this arena to Google and a host of other services that are effective in contextualizing both enterprise and Web-sourced content. With "prosumers" dominating online markets increasingly Yahoo has little to offer professionals online beyond its dominant financial portal. Google's enterprise efforts may be also-ran in comparison to efforts by IBM, FAST and Autonomy, but increasingly it's an also-ran that just happens to have at least some footprint everywhere. On the publisher's side of the equation are subscription database services struggling to hold on to revenue and margins through more sophisticated content integration services - not likely candidates for partnership via Yahoo's highly consumer-oriented efforts.

New management can help Yahoo to take advantage of its considerable media assets but it's going to have to be a team that's willing to make some tough decisions regarding its traditional media partners fairly quickly. As more of these partners take a multi-channel strategy for content distribution the advantages of paying hefty percentages for the use of their content only props up the potential revenue streams of Yahoo competitors who go to play with mainstream media players. Yahoo must dance delicately as it works to continue its strong relationships with existing media companies while managing to be much more stingy in its licensing negotiations, so as to free up more capital for deals and product investment.

What will be Semel's ultimate legacy? I think that it's easy to lose sight of how disjointed Yahoo was when Semel took over. While balkanization still plagues some Yahoo operations overall he helped to forge what it arguably a well-run company that has created a dominant position in many forms of destination media. The ad game was already moving out of Yahoo's grasp when he came on, so while he can't be credited for a triumphant reversal he laid the groundwork for a good product strategy. The largest spot on Semel's record will be the loss of major deals for online video. With Google Video emerging as a leading search engine for video content across the Web and YouTube firming up as the leading source of user-generated online video it can be argued that Semel's media roots failed to prepare him for the most rapid shifts in online entertainment in the past ten years. But this blind spot was hardly unique amongst major media companies.

We'll see how rapidly Yahoo repositions its considerable assets in the months ahead, but my guess today is that Yahoo will emerge a year from a now a far leaner operation more focused on user-generated content and on making content from all sources more usable. Mainstream media and brand advertising will still be a very important part of Yahoo's revenue mix but we're likely to see Yahoo acting more as a better bridge for media companies to Google-like strategies that lead mainstream media content away from the confines of fixed portals. Better widgets, better feeds, better toolkits for developing branded portlets, better user-enabled aggregation tools - there are a lot of ways to make Yahoo content grow beyond its current destination footprint. That is, if Yahoo is willing to challenge traditional media companies more aggressively to move beyond their roots.

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By John Blossom - posted at 5:50 PM
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Friday, June 15, 2007

By John Blossom - posted at 11:59 PM
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Coming next week - our first in a series of online video segments we're calling ShoreViews Video, providing our commentary, events coverage and industry executive interviews. Stay tuned!

video

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By John Blossom - posted at 12:59 AM
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
USA Today reports on a test drive of Joost, the much-ballyhooed portal that promises to be the "future of television." That phrase in and of itself should be a clue as to both the strengths and limitations of a service that maintains much of what traditional video producers and advertisers cherish. Joost is amassing a library of entertainment from major U.S. television networks dating back to the 1950s, along with more recent cable television shows and news from Reuters and other sources. After a software download (natch) you get to use Joost's technology to view full-length TV shows with a minimum of in-line advertising from major corporations. Joost promises full-length movies in its mix, though one assumes that they will be either ad-supported or pay-per-view - and not usable outside of the Joost viewer, of course.

There are some key online add-ons that are supposed to jazz up the Joost offering - searchable archives, integrated chat and online community features - but for the most part Joost sounds like a fairly sealed container that allows the "television" phenomenon to be bled onto the Web in its fairly native form. With only up to three minutes of unskippable ads per offering, it's not clear that first-run, full-length television is likely to make its way into the Joost collection with any speed for producers needing a stronger revenue stream. Instead, Joost appears to be a tool for syndication rights owners to expose their libraries of older content more efficiently than via cable outlets. And with far fewer total channels than today's high-bandwidth cable offerings - which also include premium and cacheable on-demand programming - Joost is not necessarily giving younger online audiences a strong reason to shift from looking over the top of their laptop screens at television to have a closer look at Joost's offerings.

Most importantly, though, Joost is a no-op when it comes to video sharing or user-activated embedding or syndication. User community functions hang off the side of Joost's programming instead of allowing video to take its place in a myriad of user-defined contexts. Most online video viewers are not looking for this thing called "television" on their computers. The TV is the high-res appliance on the other side of the room that serves a parallel purpose to the in-your-hands experience of online content. If Joost is an attempt by TV traditionalists to have online audiences think of video on their laptops or desktop units the way that they want them to, then they are probably going to be very disappointed by the Joost experience.

There is a place for full-length programming that integrates with online audiences, but it's not likely to be in the format that experiments such as Joost have provided to date. Instead it's more likely that programming that has originated for television networks will take a parallel place to most online video for now until television producers are more willing to think more creatively about monetization models. In-line ads need to give way to parallel ads and contextual programming that can hang off the side of a TV program in much the same way that text ads, banners, scrapers, widgets and other contextual content hangs around core content on a Web page. There will still be a place for barrier ads for video, audio and text online but they will be a smaller portion of the revenue mix in most instances.

This concept is likely to feed back into television itself as display units become larger and more sophisticated. Digital TV shows are likely to be "framed" with complementary ads and content that can lure people into investigating viewing alternatives. We may also get to the point of having "this click is sponsored by..." advertising which may invite viewers to look at ads on their way from one channel to another. However it's done I believe that in-line advertising is being held onto as a security blanket right now by TV producers and ad specialists in large part because they have not invested in the skill sets that will take them beyond that model - in spite of online video's rapid growth.

Joost may enjoy some modest success at first but given the myriad of competing channels for video content - and an explosion of more interesting monetization models starting to be wrapped around online video - Joost programming may never rise to the level of pre-eminence that its backers would hope for in time to make a real impact in online video markets. It's far more important for video producers to embrace distribution models that allow content to flow into the contexts that audiences value most - those defined by themselves and their peers in whatever venue they desire.

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By John Blossom - posted at 10:44 PM
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:58 PM
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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

By John Blossom - posted at 11:17 PM
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While Nexis tinkers with the edges of its market footprint Dow Jones's Factiva unit is pushing forward with two key enhancements that are designed to change the scope of what business information users are likely to expect from their suppliers. Dow Jones' upgrades to its Synaptica taxonomy management services enable different taxonomies for different user groups - an essential tool for adapting business information into departmental functions - and enhanced semantic support for RDF, SKOS and OWL semantic standards that will enable Dow Jones clients to process and interpret a wider range of content types more effectively - including multimedia content. No small surprise, then, that the other announcement from Dow Jones is a deal with EveryZing (recently renamed from PodZinger) to integrate audio and video content from major suppliers such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, BBC Radio and other major suppliers. EveryZing's already heavily categorized video content includes news from around the world in several major languages, making it a natural for integration into the Factiva set of general news and research content, enhanced all the more by the increased semantic prowess of their semantic tools.

Video is certainly all the rage on the Web and gaining steam within the enterprise as network backbones and security infrastructures are tuned to deal with more pervasive video consumption. Dow Jones' aggressive positioning of its integration capabilities combined with timely multimedia content will position them well as a supplier of both content and integration tools as enterprises think more seriously about how to integrate business-ready video into their portals and collaborative tools. In a sense this gives Dow Jones additional leverage against the increasing penetration of services such as Google's enterprise search appliances that enable both enterprise content and content from the Web that will be backed by their "Universal Search" capability to make its way into corporate Webs.

But the "catch-up" nature of the EveryZing deal underscores the degree to which Google is developing business-ready content sets far broader than Dow Jones and other business information suppliers. Dow Jones, Nexis and others hope to continue to pull trumps on Google with more select licensed sources at their disposal tuned to very specific enterprise audiences. And with sales and support staffs that have been knee-deep in enterprise needs and solutions for years folks like Dow Jones have some important edges in being able to integrate content effectively into enterprise platforms. Yet one wonders how much longer search-oriented business information suppliers such as Dow Jones are going to be able to leverage their licensed content sets to stave off more direct competition from Web-oriented integration specialists such as Google. Is Dow Jones' Factiva unit a search and taxonomy company with licensed content or a subscription database service with some nifty integration tools? Neither answer may be sufficient as stronger competitors enter the stage with better generic answers to these questions and others with more sector-specific answers. But for now, kudos to Dow Jones for keeping Factiva fresh and relevant.

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By John Blossom - posted at 12:29 AM
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

By John Blossom - posted at 10:28 PM
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Monday, June 11, 2007

By John Blossom - posted at 11:32 PM
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Trends

If you're not wired, you're not in the content economy...
Online ad spending surges: Internet display ad spending jumped 17% Q1 while total ad spending fell
CNN Money
Papers Still Dominate Local Online Ad Spending -- But Are Losing Share
Editor and Publisher

If you're not syndicating everywhere you're not in the content economy...
How Google's Acquisition of FeedBurner Will Change RSS Marketing
Marketing Studies

If you're not connecting people with their peers and their outlooks you're not in the content economy...
In 2010 over $2 Billion Will Be Spent on Social Network Advertising in the US: Report
BusinessWire
LinkedIn: LinkedIn not looking to connect with a buyer
LinkedIn
Aggregating Content by Perspective
MicroPersuasion
Salesforce.com, Google form alliance
BtoB Online
With Covestor, everyone is a money manager
GigaOM
Yahoo to buy Facebook?
Guardian Unlimited

If you're not willing to be agnostic about content sources you're not in the content economy...
CNN and Wall Street Journal Embrace Aggregation Of Third-Party Content
Publishing 2.0
Interview: Ann Moore, CEO, Time Inc.
paidContent.org

If you're not focusing on user-defined aggregation you're not in the content economy...
Ask.com Relaunches As Ask3D With More Widgetized Look & Feel and Personalization
paidContent.org
Making money from the personalised web
Times Online
What Is Web 3.0?
Sys-Con

And if you're not willing to admit that search is the present revenue driver, the future may not be coming..
Yahoo!: The Web's Future Is Not In Search
Read/Write Web
Google Scan Plan Expands, Gaining the 12 CIC Universities
Library Journal
Google launches YouTube’s money machine
ZDNet
Google Sites Ranked by comScore as Top U.S. Video Property in March 2007
PR Newswire
Microsoft's Live Search Books Adds Copyrighted Content
Wired
Yahoo plots AdWords death by a 1000 cuts
GigaOM

Meanwhile, the publishing economy pokes ahead with deals and drama galore but limited innovation...
Dow Jones shares drop as Bancrofts, Murdoch meet
MarketWatch
Other possible Dow Jones bidders surface
Reuters
Dow Jones Union Seeks Billionaire’s Help in Finding Alternative Bidder to Murdoch
The New York Times*
New Life for Brian? Tierney Wants to Join Fight for Dow Jones
Editor & Publisher
Dow Jones Chairman Emerges As Key Player in Bid
WSJ Online*
Dow Jones, Weighing Offer, Extends Severance Plan
Bloomberg
M&A Activity Heating Up
FOLIO: Magazine

Publishers' unwillingness to confront global online censorship only weakens the markets for their wares...
Censorship 'changes face of net'
BBC News

Print publishers begin to recognize that their specialty is making the most of a physical medium...
Publishers Creating Their Own In-House Ad Agencies
The New York Times*
National Geographic’s John Griffin: Magazines Suffer From Troubles of their Own Making
FOLIO: Magazine

You know, this Web thing is beginning to catch on, maybe we should do something...
Waxing Philosophical, Booksellers Face the Digital
The New York Times*

In other major trends in content this week...
How Big Will the iPhone Be?
BusinessWeek
Proxy Advisers Target Yahoo CEO's Pay
SmartMoney
Warner Group in Deal to Offer Free Music via Internet Site
The New York Times*
A penny for your song?; Proposed royalties are far less, but still too much, Webcasters say
Newsday via Content Agenda
'omg my mom joined facebook!!'
The New York Times*
Commons copyright targets scientists
Information World Review
Click.TV Player Joins the Deadpool
TechCrunch
The Twitterization of Blogs
BusinessWeek

Best Practices
Commentary: Why DRM won't ever work
ZDNet via Content Agenda
Impediments to seeing information as a task
CMS Wire
Social Software: Challenges, Risks, Issues And How To Confront Them
Robin Good
Googles Universal Search Confirms Information in Newly Released Book
eMediaWire
Where's Your News? Finding User-Created Content
Poynter Online
Ontology of Folksonomy: A Mash-up of Apples and Oranges
Tom Gruber
Ryan Sholin: The Ten Commandments of Online Journalism
SmartMobs
Part of content is context: lessons from the newsroom
AZCentral
DRM: A Half-Step Forward, More Steps Back
InformationWeek

Cool Tools
New Version of Movable Type Suits Business Bloggers
News Factor Network/Yahoo
Sourceforge adds wiki functionality
Tectonic
WordPress vs. Movable Type: Open Source Blogging Software Showdown
Publishing 2.0
Coming Soon: Microsoft Kitchen
TechCrunch
Flickr Facebook App is Now Available
Mashable
JetBlue to Offer In-flight Tracking on Google Maps
Mashable
'Grand Theft Auto' meets Google Street View
WebWare
SocialPoster Is a One-Stop Bookmarking Tool
Mashable

Deals, Partnerships & Sales

Dow Jones, Nielsen Co. partner on media and money conference
BtoB Online
Fast Search & Transfer wins search platform deal with Vietnam's Tinhvan Group
Thomson Fin. via Hemscott
Image Capture Engineering, Inc. Becomes Part of LexisNexis
BusinessWire
Hearst-Argyle Television Reaches Innovative Content Agreement With Google and YouTube
PR Newswire
Eli Lilly Selects Copyright Clearance Center's Rightsphere for Global Workforce
BusinessWire
Tullett Prebon Teams with CQG Data Factory to Launch Historical Market Data Web Portal
Bob's Guide
Autonomy Enhances Search for Sharepoint Server 2007 as Microsoft Enterprise Search Partner
PR Newswire
UpSNAP Expands Mobile Search with LinkConnector
dBusiness News

Products, Markets & People
Elsevier's Inteleos Poised to Launch Integrating Technology for Drug Tracking and Analysis
PharmaLive
OneSource Announces New Product Search and Content Enhancements to Global Business Browser
BusinessWire via TMCNet
Dow Jones Introduces Synaptica 6.4 for Improved Business Semantic Management
PR Newswire via Sys-Con
Hoover's Announces Latest Integration Milestone Resulting from First Research Acquisition
PR Newswire via Sys-Con
Law.com Introduces Vertical Search Engine For Legal Web - Quest Search
Law Fuel
Dow Jones Adds Multimedia Content to Its Factiva Products
PR Newswire
WallStreet Direct, Inc. Launches Interactive Tools to Enhance User Experience and Expand Distribution
PR Newswire via EarthTimes
ProQuest Partners with Scopus; Finalizes Company Name
EContent
Nielsen to track mobile phone users’ media consumption
FT.com
NBC Universal Launches Widgets to Expand Distribution of Content on Digital Platforms
PR Newswire
Incisive Media Taps Kevin Ryan to Direct Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch
BusinessWire
Macrovision Announces Solutions for Information Publishers to Expand Online Content Revenue
BusinessWire
Intellext Morphs into MediaRiver to Flow Publishers’ Content
Information Today, Inc.
Thomson Scientific Releases EndNote X1 For Windows
PR Newswire

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By John Blossom - posted at 1:02 PM
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Reuters notes the steep discounts being promised by book retailers when the new Harry Potter book from Scholastic hits the shelves of stores in July - no surprise, given that Amazon is already offering pre-ordering of the book at a 49 percent discount. With the younger book fans of the Potter series already very Web literate only the most avid fans are going to bother to line up on the release day to snatch up a copy at a bookstore rather than pre-order online. And if that's the case, isn't that what they call a matter of...supply and demand? The book industry is one of the last bastions of supply-oriented publishing that stands a shot at making its margins off of the "tall tail" of high-volume publishing, but implicit in their need to compete with online outlets is the greater need to build margins from "long tail" content - and yes, from Godiva chocolates and espresso - once customers are in the door. But if the most successful book franchise in modern history has become nothing more than a loss leader for long tail books eating up rent, climate control and staffing then the "big box" book stores may be headed to the remainder shelves in their efforts to compete with online content sellers and distributors.

For the time being the movie industry seems to have staunched some of its woes by leveraging available screens to make the most of the unique context - precisely orchestrated opening weekends - that they can offer for their wares. The movie distributors and theatre operators have the advantage of not having to compete with online outlets for same-day distribution with lower overhead and the added advantage that going to the movies is a social activity by and large. But even here the demand to distribute movie content online will push movie theatre operators to many of the same decisions that bookstore operators are facing today.

How to do better? To some degree the book industry addresses this with kiosks in other big-box stores that highlight popular content selections. But both booksellers and movie producers need to get better at making these kiosks centers for consuming long tail content as well as the hits. I can punch in an order at my local supermarket deli counter's touchpad screen to pick up cold cuts after a few minutes of shopping: why can't I do the same and pick up a print-on-demand book or a freshly burnt video? Or better yet, do it online at Amazon or some other outlet and direct the order to my local store for pickup? Zero inventory and shelf space for the retailer, easy profits and the ability to focus customized offers on the person picking up the merchandise. It's coming, don't worry.

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:14 AM
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Friday, June 08, 2007

By John Blossom - posted at 12:01 PM
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Thursday, June 07, 2007
Trends
Online ad spending surges: Internet display ad spending jumped 17% Q1 while total ad spending fell
CNN Money
In 2010 over $2 Billion Will Be Spent on Social Network Advertising in the US: Report
BusinessWire
Interview: Ann Moore, CEO, Time Inc.
paidContent.org
Censorship 'changes face of net'
BBC News
LinkedIn: LinkedIn not looking to connect with a buyer
LinkedIn
Aggregating Content by Perspective
MicroPersuasion
CNN and Wall Street Journal Embrace Aggregation Of Third-Party Content
Publishing 2.0
National Geographic’s John Griffin: Magazines Suffer From Troubles of their Own Making
FOLIO: Magazine
Yahoo to buy Facebook?
Guardian Unlimited
With Covestor, everyone is a money manager
GigaOM
Dow Jones Union Seeks Billionaire’s Help in Finding Alternative Bidder to Murdoch
The New York Times*
New Life for Brian? Tierney Wants to Join Fight for Dow Jones
Editor & Publisher
What Is Web 3.0?
Sys-Con

Best Practices
Ryan Sholin: The Ten Commandments of Online Journalism
SmartMobs
Part of content is context: lessons from the newsroom
AZCentral
Commentary: Why DRM won't ever work
ZDNet via Content Agenda

Cool Tools
WordPress vs. Movable Type: Open Source Blogging Software Showdown
Publishing 2.0
Coming Soon: Microsoft Kitchen
TechCrunch
Flickr Facebook App is Now Available
Mashable

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
Tullett Prebon Teams with CQG Data Factory to Launch Historical Market Data Web Portal
Bob's Guide
Autonomy Enhances Search for Sharepoint Server 2007 as Microsoft Enterprise Search Partner
PR Newswire
Image Capture Engineering, Inc. Becomes Part of LexisNexis
BusinessWire

Products, Markets & People
WallStreet Direct, Inc. Launches Interactive Tools to Enhance User Experience and Expand Distribution
PR Newswire via EarthTimes
NBC Universal Launches Widgets to Expand Distribution of Content on Digital Platforms
PR Newswire
Incisive Media Taps Kevin Ryan to Direct Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch
BusinessWire
Elsevier's Inteleos Poised to Launch Integrating Technology for Drug Tracking and Analysis
PharmaLive

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By John Blossom - posted at 12:51 PM
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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

By John Blossom - posted at 11:48 PM
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Read/Write Web notes the following comments by Tapan Bhat, Yahoo's vice president of Front Doors, at the recent NextWeb conference in Amsterdam. Tapan told attendees that search would not dominate the web in the future:
"The future of the web is about personalization. Where search was dominant, now the web is about 'me.' It's about weaving the web together in a way that is smart and personalized for the user."
Well, yes and no, Tapan. Yahoo's personalization plays are exploiting the trend towards audiences aggregating their own content from various sources, including feeds, widgets, bookmarking services and other social media tools. User-defined aggregation plays a key role in defining where and how people look for and find content. But where is most of that content coming from? Search engines power many of the mashup and widget-oriented aggregation plays that are touted as the leading edge of social media. Be it through Google or more enterprise- and media-oriented services such as MuseGlobal, Mark Logic, Nstein or Really Strategies search services are evolving into the back ends for value-add content services that place valuable content in customized contexts well beyond traditional search results. So there's no escaping the importance of search and its ability to return the most relevant and useful content.

Where Tapan may have a point is that people aren't really looking towards new search engines to solve their problems. paidContent.org noted the arrival of Ask3D, a refreshed version of the Ask.com interface that, well, looks pretty much like the old interface but a little prettier. Ask.com is a good search engine, but I think that the personalization movement is a little bit off target. It's not so much about "let me personalize my search results" as it is "tell me what I want to know." If user-defined personalization accomplishes this, great, but Google's emphasis on anticipating what users need on a more personalized basis is probably closer to what will succeed for the 80-percent crowd. As noted by Information Today the new "Universal Search" interface does a lot to customize search results to a specific context automatically, a concept that Google will expand upon as it integrates content from its wide array of search-based services even further over the past several months. For the 20 percent or less who will demand more control and features sooner there's now Google Experimental, which includes early-stage features that may make their way into the Universal toolkit soon enough.

So is search really "done" at this point? As the hottest problem to solve perhaps search is indeed past its peak, even though search engines will still continue to be refined. But the new generation of content services have search at their core and will add in feeds, Web mining and other capabilities to aggregate content on the fly far more effectively than information services have done to date. We all applaud Factiva's new integration of audio and video content into its search capability, for example, but the real proof of the pudding will be the applications that Factiva's clients choose to build off of such content. Consider search at this point the ad hoc database building tool of choice for millions of users that is only beginning to be used to its fullest extent to create highly valuable content services.

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By John Blossom - posted at 1:10 PM
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:18 AM
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Monday, June 04, 2007
Trends
Murdoch's deal for Dow Jones gets the Bancrofts and other key holders to admit that it's time to cash it in...
Bancrofts Open Door To a Sale Of Dow Jones
WSJ Online*
Bancroft Family Statement
BusinessWire

Though Murdoch's "hands off" stance is questioned...
Murdoch May Make Concessions, Up to a Limit, in Dow Jones Talks
WSJ Online*
Nocera: Murdoch Will Break Promise and Meddle In 'WSJ'
Editor & Publisher

Jobs keeps the hype cycle in full gear - and pushes mobile phone carriers out of the content game...
Fever Builds for iPhone (Anxiety Too)
The New York Times*
Apple says YouTube coming to Apple TV
AFX via Content Agenda
Apple Will Bring YouTube Videos to Its TV Service
Bloomberg News
iTunes 101: Apple brings college to the iPod
CNET News

What a simple solution to electronic copies - make people responsible for their own actions...
iTunes Plus DRM-free, not free of annoying glitches
Engadget
iTunes supposedly DRM-free music not so DRM-free?
ZDNet
Apple iTunes Plus Borders on Spyware
Yahoo! Tech

With users becoming the most effective aggregators publishing focuses on local content for success...
Growth Slows For National, Traditional Media But Local Online Ad Spend Continues To Rise: Report
paidContent.org

What to make of user-embedded content widgets? How about making money...?
Web, computer "widgets" offer branding opportunities

Reuters via Topix

What happens if you put every idea for social media and search into a blender? You get Mahalo...
Jason Calacanis Launches Mahalo: Human Powered Search
TechCrunch

Social media platforms are becoming all-purpose tools for aggregating many kinds of content...
eBay Acquires StumbleUpon
BusinessWire
Opportunity for STM publishers in Facebook
Really Simple Sidi
Facebook is Microsoft Office of Social Apps
Infectious Greed

On-demand video may be the next new frontier for business news...
BusinessWeek explores 'Business YouTube venture
BtoB Online

Google focuses on tools that can make the most of valuable contexts...
Google Announces Feedburner Deal; Look For AdWords Integration
TechCrunch
Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine
The New York Times*
Google CEO: Mobile Devices Are 'Interesting Ad Platform'
Dow Jones via SmartMoney
Developers Press Google on Future YouTube Features
PC Magazine

eBooks are growing steadily, but can they grow quickly enough to compete with Web content...?
Book Expo America 2007: The State of EBooks
Gearlog

Meanwhile the Redmond gang needs to set aside some time for target practice...
MSN Soapbox goes public again, now with copyright filtering
Download Squad
Zune: not headed for Europe this year?
Engadget

Earth to America: your content technology leadership is choking on your politics...
FCC to examine net neutrality: issue could affect content providers,consumers
Macworld via Content Agenda
FCC, cable set to collide; Industry: Feds are overreaching
Cox Washington/ Content Agenda
How U.S. policy can help reduce the broadband gap
Mercury News

In other major trends in content this week...
Selling Web Advertising Space Like Pork Bellies
WSJ via Content Agenda
Google Universal and Its New Navigation
Information Today
AP CEO says Internet hasn't changed news gathering fundamentals
AP via The Mercury News
Marketers Cozy Up to NBC Program Chief
WSJ Online*
Should Google Subsidize Journalism?
Publishing 2.0
Tribune debt may force asset sales
LA Times
Mass deletion sparks LiveJournal revolt
CNET News

Best Practices
Science nixes submissions in Microsoft's new Word format
Science
Community-Edited News Sites Abound in Other Languages
MediaShift
LexisNexis Releases Survey on InfoPros Reveals Use of Web 2.0 and Knowledge Management
BusinessWire via TMCNet
Donations on Blogs - Do They Work?
ProBlogger
Social Software And Its Possible Future Uses
Robin Good
Open Text Applies Social Networking to Connect Corporate Content with Customers
Social Computing
You Can't Fake Real Content
Search Engine Land
User-Generated Visual Content -- Understanding the Supply-Side Motivations
MarketWire
DIY PR: Bob Villa Doesn't Always Know Best
Micro Persuasion
Can History Survive The Internet?
InformationWeek
FISD Announces Release of MDDL 3.0 Beta
PR Newswire via EarthTimes

Cool Tools
Google Launches Street View Maps
Read/Write Web
Google Mapplets and Google Gears announced
PC Authority
Comparison of Yahoo Pipes to Microsoft’s PopFly
Scobelizer
Google Launches Directions API
Mashable
Give a content key for Xmas
Engadget
Fatdoor introduces you to your neighborhood without stepping outside
Download Squad
Freewebs Launches a Widget Bank
Mashable
Real Networks announces new offline player for YouTube
PodTech
Hewlett-Packard Will Offer Printing Kit for Web Sites
Bloomberg News
The 3D Maps Are Coming: EveryScape and Virtual Earth
Read/Write Web
Garmin Publishes API Library Opens Communication Between Third Party Websites, Garmin GPS Devices
GIS User

Deals, Partnerships & Sales

Ovid Partners with Springer Science+Business Media to Add Ebooks
Information Today
Bridgepoint Capital buy of Wolters Kluwer's education unit cleared by EU
Thomson Financial via Hemscott
LexisNexis(R) Martindale-Hubbell(R) and Spot Runner Team Up to Deliver First Local TV Ad Program
BusinessWire via TMCNet
Attributor Is Tapped by The Associated Press to Track Use of AP Content Across the Internet
BusinessWire
NEWS Corporation/NBC Universal Joint Venture Inks Deals with Troupe of Premier Content Partners
CNW Telbec
AskMeNow to Introduce Natural Language Wikipedia Desktop and Mobile Search
MarketWire
ebrary Signs Five New Publishing Partners Including ABC-CLIO and Temple University Press
BusinessWire
Advanstar Announces Completion of its Acquisition by Veronis Suhler Stevenson for $1.14 Billion
BusinessWire
Over 250 Autonomy Partners Rally Behind Meaning Based Computing
PR Newswire
Dow Jones Wealth Manager Solution Now Available on Salesforce.com's AppExchange
PR Newswire
CBS to buy Last.fm social network
LA Times via Content Agenda
YouTube makes a deal with EMI
Reuters via USA Today
Google To Acquire Panoramio
Mashable

Products, Markets & People
LexisNexis Introduces Concordance(TM) 2007
BusinessWire
New Information Portal Makes Business Intelligence More Accessible
eMediaWire
New Platform, Products from Gale
Library Journal
infoUSA Launches Salesgenie.com/Lite for Sales Executives on a Limited Budget
BusinessWire
New Information Portal Makes Business Intelligence More Accessible
Business Intelligence
Former Cisco Exec Mike Volpi In Line To Be New Joost CEO
paidContent.org
Blinkx indexes 12M hours of Web content
DM News
Exalead Enhances One:Search Platform With Vertical Search Capability
Web IT PR

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By John Blossom - posted at 2:05 PM
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Sunday, June 03, 2007
Trends
Fever Builds for iPhone (Anxiety Too)
The New York Times*
Google Announces Feedburner Deal; Look For AdWords Integration
TechCrunch
Murdoch May Make Concessions, Up to a Limit, in Dow Jones Talks
WSJ Online*
Growth Slows For National, Traditional Media But Local Online Ad Spend Continues To Rise: Report
paidContent.org
Web, computer "widgets" offer branding opportunities
Reuters via Topix
Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine
The New York Times*
FCC to examine net neutrality: issue could affect content providers,consumers
Macworld via Content Agenda
MSN Soapbox goes public again, now with copyright filtering
Download Squad
Google CEO: Mobile Devices Are 'Interesting Ad Platform'
Dow Jones via SmartMoney
Nocera: Murdoch Will Break Promise and Meddle In 'WSJ'
Editor & Publisher
Zune: not headed for Europe this year?
Engadget
iTunes supposedly DRM-free music not so DRM-free?
ZDNet

Best Practices
Science nixes submissions in Microsoft's new Word format
Science
Community-Edited News Sites Abound in Other Languages
MediaShift
LexisNexis Releases Survey on InfoPros Reveals Use of Web 2.0 and Knowledge Management
BusinessWire via TMCNet

Cool Tools
Comparison of Yahoo Pipes to Microsoft’s PopFly
Scobelizer
Google Launches Directions API
Mashable

Deals, Partnerships and Sales
Bridgepoint Capital buy of Wolters Kluwer's education unit cleared by EU
Thomson Fin. via Hemscott

Products, Markets & People
New Information Portal Makes Business Intelligence More Accessible
Business Intelligence

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:55 PM
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Friday, June 01, 2007
Two weeks ago when we covered the offer by Rupert Murdoch to have NewsCorp take over ownership of Dow Jones there was plenty of froth from the Bancrofts and some media pundits that this was a "no way" proposition, making us just a little nervous about our bullishness on the deal. Two weeks later the Bancroft family has issued their own press release independent of Dow Jones to indicate their intent to provide Dow Jones with new ownership and that they are willing to speak with News Corp as a potential suitor. Murdoch's patience and low-key approach seem to have brought him at least to a place at the table, if not one fully welcomed, as the Bancrofts seem to have concurred with our earlier conclusion that this is the right time to make a sale. While there is always the potential for a surprise bid from the wings it's probable that whatever solicitations the Bancrofts initiate for alternative offers will be more to provide emotional and intellectual backing to the very likely consummation of a deal with News Corp. Investor's Business Daily noted earlier regarding this deal the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu's writing that exercising patience often leads to victory in war. Perhaps the patience of both the Bancrofts and Murdoch are about to be rewarded with equal measure.

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By John Blossom - posted at 11:43 AM
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In browsing through YouTube today I was thinking about the importance of the musicologist and folklorist Alan Lomax in bringing obscure American folk music to mainstream media outlets. Through Lomax's recordings in the mid-20th century we gained access to pivotal and influential artists such as Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Woody Guthrie and other performers who have become icons of American culture. Their songs have been "mashed" (covered) countless times by popular artists, creating a legacy of profitable operations for music publishers everywhere. Lomax' subjects were far from slick: some were in or just out of prisons, sitting on tin shack porches in the backwaters of the deep South, up in the mountains of Appalachia - it would be fair to call most of them "nobodies" by the standards of any day.

Today I can turn to YouTube and get a catalog of folk performances with breadth that far outstrips anything that Lomax was able to acquire through his years of sojourns. The average teen humming a song on the edge of her bed in front of a webcam is not likely to become a new Jelly Roll Morton, much less a Sade, but voices such as this have restored the concept of folk art being something that anyone can create for anybody. Which of these performances is worth watching? The new Lomaxes of the world are us, the audience, providing accolades through our use and ranking of their content. Mainstream content being transformed in this environment through mashing is the equivalent of a seamstress cutting up scraps from a designer dress to make a beautiful quilt - it returns the content to its roots as a resource for new folk communication.

When one goes into a major city you're surrounded oftentimes by street performers of various kinds, usually average at best but often enough inspiring in both their content and in the context in which they've chosen to perform. YouTube makes everyone's home a street corner, re-integrating our modern American culture that has been decimated by the automobile cult with its look-alike shopping strips that discourage folk activities in favor of consuming finished goods. Finished and packaged content still matters in a very important way, but I think that we're only at the very leading edge of understanding how profoundly human communications have been affected by services such as YouTube. The emerging dominant culture of the 21st century will be unplugged and unmediated folk culture, free to be free or commercial or whatever it desires to be in the moment. What Lomax exposed through 20th century technology YouTube will unite through the 21st century's direct communications between folk artists and their audiences.

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By John Blossom - posted at 10:35 AM
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