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| Sunday, September 30, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:16 PM |
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| Friday, September 28, 2007 |
  One of the key product introductions that raised some dust at this year's Infocommerce conference was Generate's new gClick service, which was also introduced simultaneously at the DEMO07 conference by Generate CEO Tom Aley. gClick on one level is a prety simple content contextualization tool: click on a gClick link embedded in a page or Browser bar and Generate's gClick service will extract events, people and company names from a displayed page and return in a popup page content from Generate's business information database that relates to those extracted entities. gClick content includes not only straight profiles but also hooks into Generate's opt-in relationship mapping service to accelerate introductions to key figures. Tom indicated that Generate is going to launch an enterprise version of the tool next week, but he already had his media-flavor pitch down pretty pat: generate high-value page inventory on demand, brand the link tool privately or co-brand it - a good amount of curb appeal to those with business-oriented content, including Generate's announced gClick partners Hearst's magazines and newspapers, Bizjournals, Media News Group and Philly.com. The option to do a page-embedded include link to gClick similar to Sphere or Stumbleupon as well as the ability to use a browser toolbar is a smart move, enabling partners to move on a relationship without having to figure out screen real estate issues. This is one of the downside of widgets for many publishers: there's only so much screen real estate, all of it precious, and since most embeddable content can't be analyzed by search engines it's not content that will help crawlers to sense the added depth in a page. So the lighter the footprint, the easier it is to move quickly, as evidenced by Sphere's rapid propagation. None of this is rocket science, but it's science that's finally beginning to move markets for contextual content at an astounding pace. Just as Google has snatched up valuable context for content via its search results, mapping tools and mashing technologies Generate is making a first-mover claim for on-demand contextual business information that may help it to move rapidly past traditional aggregators used to building context around business information using licensed content in their own databases. Instead of relying on taxonomies or other semantic tools the gClick approach enables any page of content to provide the semantics necessary to contextualize business information on demand. It's a clever move, one that can highlight the strengths of Generate's business information wherever audiences are focusing automatically. This "searchless search" capability with near-zero setup allows virtual aggregation of all kinds of content - and therefore opportunities for all kinds of database providers to consider how to partner with media and enterprise companies to gain a foothold for high-value content in places where traditional licensing deals can no longer make swift headway. The proof of this play will be in the quality of the content as much as the context, but for now consider the dealmaking of Generate combined with a clever use of its text mining capabilities a nifty little coup that's well-timed for a publishing market in search of more value in publishing with as little direct investment as possible. Labels: Business Information, Business Intelligence, DEMO07, embedding, Generate, Infocommerce
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By John Blossom - posted at 4:41 PM |
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 The Alacra Store sells a wide variety of high-grade research reports targeted at business information consumers across a wide variety of business sectors, but like many premium content plays it's not always easy to get people enthused about new research offerings. Some services market content proactively via telemarketing forces and push out traditional press releases to beat the drum for new premium reports, but with their awareness and enthusiasm for Web 2.0 technologies it's not surprising that Alacra opted to launch Research Recap, a weblog highlighting recent additions of reports to the Alacra Store. Research Recap is based on standard WordPress weblogging technology and features some of the nicer capabilities of that service, including a handy tag cloud that helps people see what research topics are hot, category-based navigation and RSS feeds. The feed is particularly important for analysts and business intelligence professionals who want to get tuned into the latest research as efficiently as possible: instead of having to slog through press release feeds with lots of unrelated topics or deal with search engine alerts filters that can find documents but not necessarily recommend the most significant content a weblog of editorial recommendations can focus potential buyers on the content that's not only pertinent but also provide insights into the content in an editorial style that is more engaging than your usual report abstract. It turns newsworthy research into news right away, rather than having to wait for a journalist to get a press release packaged into a more readable format with an editorial voice. You may not sell premium research every one who reads a summary (2/3 of Research Recap reports profiled are free) but by packaging the summary as a highly readable blog you establish a conversation with your markets that's more likely to result in research getting the context that will lead to more report sales. We've been doing the same for quite a few years, so it's a positive development to see a company like Alacra putting their beliefs and talents on the line to build both great newsworthy content and better sales channels. Labels: alacra, blogs, First Research, reports, research recap, Web 2.0 Expo, weblogs
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:39 PM |
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| Thursday, September 27, 2007 |
 I have enjoyed using the Compete.com traffic analysis service, which provides some useful data to compare Web site traffic performance more accurately and finely than the oft-bashed Alexa statistics. While Compete offers a more limited range of sites for analysis and only a year's worth of data to mull through it's able to track real visitors, audience engagement and growth with more meaningful data. On the Compete blog recently was a post that looked at how major search engines are performing in comparison to one another for both traffic and performance. While Google leads Yahoo and Microsoft with 67 percent of market share, the Compete stats claim that Yahoo comes out on top in terms of search fulfillment - the percentage of searches that actually result in someone clicking on a link in a search results page. Compete claims that Yahoo's search fulfillment rate is 75 percent, compared with Google's 64 percent and Microsoft's 61 percent. Does this mean that Yahoo's search results are more "clickable" than Yahoo's? Maybe so, but it's a rather ambiguous claim to make. One has to assume that with only 20 percent of people using Yahoo for searching to start with that a minority find its search results to be more useful than Google's. So for that minority they seem to use them more effectively. Overall, Yahoo searches are more optimized for people in a purchasing mode than Google search results, which tend to be optimized more for people seeing general information. With this in mind it could be that Yahoo tends to lead shoppers somewhat more specifically to product information that they're seeking - a factor that's likely to attract the brand advertisers that are at the core of Yahoo's marketing strategy. Yahoo search benefits from doing fewer things better for fewer people, but Compete also shows that Yahoo as a whole performs far better than Google in the total attention that it gets from audiences:  While Yahoo's strong destination content helps to bolster its attention ratings it's losing ground to Microsoft in total page views as Microsoft bolsters its Live.com search engine:  In the middle of this is Google, still the overall search leader but beginning to stagnate as a destination as other search-oriented sites bolster content that transforms search portals more into destination content sites. Google has these abilities also but focuses more on solving a broader array of requirements for a broader search audience. Google also has more partners using its search technology as well as mashups and other API-based services so to some degree the Compete statistics are not revealing the full strength of Google's market presence. Google's growth as a destination search engine may have slowed, but its presence as a technology platform that influences where and how people find content in valuable contexts is growing in highly profitable directions. All of this should serve to remind us that there is no longer one clear answer to how to create marketable value through search. You can focus on becoming more portal-like, you can focus on being more embeddable, you can focus more on a specific function such as ecommerce or you can focus on a range of functions - but regardless of the focus it's no longer a matter of just having great ranking algorithms or great server farms. Search has become just one of many tools for contextualizing Web content effectively on demand, one that will continue to grow in importance but just one tool in an arsenal of methods to be used for more effective audience engagement. Labels: Compete.com, Google, Microsoft, search, Yahoo
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By John Blossom - posted at 5:29 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 3:06 PM |
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| Wednesday, September 26, 2007 |
 It seems kind of silly beyond a certain point to call Amazon's launching of an MP3 store news, but with about 2 million audio tracks available for 99 cents or less and reduced-price album downloads it's at least significant that major content vendors are beginning to offer what consumers have been creating themselves for years. The delay in both music publishers and content distributors accepting that cross-platform, DRM-free music distribution via the common MP3 file format was already the de facto standard of the music industry from a consumer's perspective has to be one of the most monumental strategic blunders in publishing history. After years of struggling against MP3s with lawsuits, DRM schemes and other ineffective techniques to persuade the marketplace otherwise it took Apple's proprietary lock on music distribution via its own DRM scheme to awaken at least some music publishers to the need to let consumers be customers and not just licensees. The real enemy of the music industry is not music copying but consumer attention. With social media, games, mobile devices and online video capturing more of the music industry market's attention span it no longer pays to limit the ability of consumers to move their basic content to where it's valued the most. MP3s enable music and other audio to move quickly and efficiently into to social contexts that are most likely to create consumer enthusiasm for a product quickly when it first gains attention and popularity and enables " long tail" content to get the exposure that it needs to allow consumers to get enthusiasm that will lead to purchases. Amazon's recommendation system is ideal for such purchasers, enabling content that would otherwise be obscure to become immediately relevant to a browser turned on to an artist that they had not known previously. From that point on out it's up to music producers to become more intelligent about how they merchandise the talents and following of an artist to maximize revenues, but singles sales are a great starting point. With Microsoft and others investigating audio watermarking capabilities it won't be too long before the ability to distribute audio content without DRM and with appropriate audit trails for copyright abuse becomes the industry standard across the board - a factor which should enable music companies to begin to take full advantage of the Web's radio-like ability to broadcast enthusiasm for artists effectively. As to whether the leaders in music publishing will remain the ususal suspects remains to be seen, but by adopting MP3s as a default distribution medium for radio-quality audio they stand a chance on reinventing themselves in time for the next generation of music lovers. Labels: amazon, apple, DRM, MP3, music
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By John Blossom - posted at 8:35 AM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 1:09 AM |
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| Tuesday, September 25, 2007 |
Trends It's official - you can't build Web revenues around news content that search and social media can't access... Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site The New York Times (no *!) Murdoch makes case for free WSJ online Reuters via Yahoo! News Online Newspapers Grab Ad Spending eMarketer Making getting content and ads in user defined contexts more important than ever before... Information-Rich, Interactive, Engaging, Portable - These Are The New Google Gadgets Ads Robin Good Content is Dead. Community is King Now Search Engine Guide As the king of context prepares new heights to crown... Google hits all-time high amid flurry of upbeat news MarketWatch Google Extends Search Lead Over Yahoo, Nielsen Says Bloomberg News Google phone rumors heat up Crave Google Launches AdSense for Mobile InformationWeek Google To “Out Open” Facebook On November 5 TechCrunch GoogleNET Going Global GigaOM Google seeks EU approval to buy DoubleClick Reuters via CNET News Google Boasts Display Ads Raise Viewership Online And Off paidContent.org Making it that much harder to figure out what to do with portal aggregation models... Neutron Randy Vaporizes AOL The New York Times Dick Parsons, CEO, Time Warner: No Spinoff Of AOL Yet paidContent.org News Corp. Plans to Save $100 Million From Dow Jones Bloomberg News And that much more important to get content in the contexts that audiences want... NBC to offer a free video download service The New York Times Facebook backs fund to help find new apps Mercury News Digg turns its social networking up a few notches CNET News With SaaS building momentum enterprise content services and technologies face growing competition... Salesforce targets enterprise content management VNUNet Salesforce to Launch Community Platform for Clients Mashable Media companies start to wrestle with how to give audiences more flexible use of premium content... Macrovision: Legal DVD Copying On Deck IBD via CNN Money DVD burning finally approved Content Agenda One Anti-Piracy System to Rule Them All The New York Times If you can't beat them on the facts baffle them with a push to sway opinion makers and lawmakers... Traditional Journal Publishers' Anti-Open-Access PR Plan Revealed Wired Science Print remains a robust medium as a fashion accessory for focused communities...Magazines Eclipse Newspapers in Ad Revenue Share FOLIO: Magazine Big bets are still being placed on social media but in many instances it's the small bets that pay off best... Yahoo adds wiki twist to Mash VNUNet MySpace to Discuss Effort to Customize Ads The New York Times Why Some Web 2.0 Sites Will Never Attract Big Ad Dollars Micro Persuasion With the Web economy a mainstay of the American economy lawmakers consider how to help it grow... U.S. Senate considers extending internet tax ban Download Squad FCC: What to do with unused spectrum? CNET News Trade music for marketing information? Sounds like a great idea - if it actually works...First Look: SpiralFrog Offers Free Music with a Hefty Price PC World Turns out that Web talking heads shouldn't confuse themselves with the production talent... Amanda Congdon and ABC Part Ways The New York Times In other major trends in content this week... Gannett Planning Newspaper Size Reduction At Several Papers Editor & Publisher Zillow Raises $30 Million More, Up To $87 Million in Venture Capital TechCrunch Man files best lawsuit ever against Google Download Squad Alfred A Knopf: How the great literary publisher proved to be the great rejecter The Independent China: Net spy damage has been 'massive' Reuters via CNET Best Practices User Generated Content on Social Networking Sites Set to Go Pro and Boost Broadband Penetration Newswire Business Intelligence: One Version of the Truth Computerworld Semantic Web: Difficulties with the Classic Approach Read/Write Web Study: Internet Access at Libraries Crucial, but Lagging Library Journal Study says DRM counters Canadian privacy laws IT World Canada Comparing Mobile Ads In Google & Yahoo Search Engine Land How to Data Mine Google Reader Feeds for Trends Micro Persuasion Peer Review and a Proposal for Revision E Pluribus Media Economist Confused About the Semantic Web? O'Reilly Radar Bill Gates, the man with the remotest idea to change lives Fairfax Digital Cool Tools Reuters Labs Launches Search People in Video Feature Mashable Yahoo Launches Map Mixer: Make Your Map O'Reilly Radar Hey Nielsen: Influence the Ratings through Social Networking Mashable NoseRub.com - Decentralising Social Networks Killer Startups Patent App would trigger Zune downloads based on user’s musical preferences ZDNet Bob Dylan’s Facebook App Rocks Mashable Google debuts ad creation tool for newspaper print ads BtoB Online Learn to speak a foreign language with Mango Download Squad Google Expands Google Gadget Ads For Advertisers Beta Search Engine Land NASA, Google Bring More of the Moon to Earth PC World iPhone Heads to Germany TheStreet.com / Content Agenda No more wallet needed with MobiBucks Download Squad Google Offers 'Collaboration in the Cloud' eWeek
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Mark Logic and Trinity Technologies Partner to Deliver XML Technology to Financial Services Industry Marketwire Cygnus Business Media Deploys iCopyright on 60 Web Sites Marketwire VMS Selects Autonomy to Support Real-Time Media
Intelligence PR Newswire Hearst Acquires 'Real Age' FOLIO: Magazine Products, Markets & People Alacra Launches Research Recap Ad Hoc News Pearson Helps Break World Record for Largest Shared Reading Experience PR Newswire MSN and Variety Forge Distribution Relationship PR Newswire via CNN Money Multiply Selects Omniture to Enhance the Social Networking Experience Marketwire via CNN Money Borders(R) and Sony(R) Team Up to Promote e-books PR Newswire via CNN Money Tacit Software's illumio Upgrade Makes Sharing Knowledge and Monitor News, Blogs, and Wikis Easy PRWeb Thomas Technology Solutions and ThomComp, Inc. Merge to Form Content Data Solutions, Inc. BusinessWire John Wiley & Sons Ltd: Wiley-Blackwell to Publish Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine Trading Markets Business Objects Launches BI OnDemand Intelligent Enterprise InfoUSA to compile U.K. database BtoB Online Referex eBooks Database Launches 3 New Collections And Over 900 Additional Titles WebWire Google Formally Introduces AdSense For Mobile Search Engine Land Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:21 PM |
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| Saturday, September 22, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 1:04 AM |
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| Thursday, September 20, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:40 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 1:23 AM |
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| Tuesday, September 18, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 9:32 PM |
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| Monday, September 17, 2007 |
Trends Online efforts begin to lead in revenue growth, making for tricky questions in traditional media board rooms... For Time Warner, a time to break up? Fortune via CNN Money Keep an eye on: Time Warner Reuters MediaFile More Restructuring at Time Inc.’s Business and Finance Network FOLIO: Magazine AOL HQ moving to New York, business model moving to advertising Download Squad As NY Times print revenues sink, online revenues soar in August 28.2 percent The New York Times* While online natives aim for higher horizons... Google offers $30 million for robotic rover on the Moon Times Online How law enforcement uses Google Earth CNET News A few Web 2.0 efforts scale well but with most focusing on microcommunities investors are wary... Has smart money abandoned U.S. Web 2.0 companies? Venture Beat Wikipedia: 2-million articles and counting Download Squad New Social Sites Cater to People of a Certain Age The New York Times* You can't just say that you've got Web 2.0 content and expect to make a mint these days... Were Techmeme and Sphere too greedy? Mathew Ingram And you can't just say that you're a mashup and expect to impress people who know better... Google as and Election Portal, With a Twist The New York Times* Yahoo's Presidential 'Mashup Debate' Won't Support Mashups Wired News Now that context is king social media is the place to befor both advertisers and publishers... User-Driven News More Diverse Than Mainstream Coverage Search Engine Land Netscape Social News to be Relaunched as Propeller.com Netscape Interview: Ron Grant, President & COO, AOL: Time For A Network Approach paidContent.org Newspapers Are Going 'Widget'-Happy' The Examiner Youtube in Talks for Video News Service With Ads Korea Times Microsoft Patents Watermark That May Protect DRM-free Music PC World Leaked Google Video Discusses Google Reader, Social Efforts Google Blogoscoped But portals still have staying power - and powerful audiences... Yahoo's audience slightly smaller than Google's, but far stickier Business 2.0 Utility Belt The once-hot iPod begins to confront the demand for more integrated platforms for mobile services... In an iPod world, the future is always now Toronto Star Is the iPod (gasp) Doomed? Reuters MediaFile With an explosion of video destinations some are realizing that OEMing is a pretty good business... Brightcove Ends Development Of Video Portal To Focus On Publishing Services paidContent.org Microsoft settles with the EU to get past policies behind them in a battle for online market share... Microsoft plays nice with the EU VNUNet via Content Agenda Whose content is it, anyway? As governments want to pry into databases the answers aren't always easy... Google promises to lead crusade for international privacy rules Canadian Press Does Facebook's privacy policy stack up? Times Online Subscription databases focused on enterprise integrationare seeing strong results... Reed Elsevier's Feel-Good Friday Forbes Ah, for the days when a newspaper that was as dumb as TV seemed like a great idea... USA Today: At 25, ‘McPaper’ Is All Grown Up The New York Times* In other major trends in content this week... Thomson-Reuters Deal to Spark Race WSJ Online* Publications on Fitness and Health Head to Web The New York Times* Wall Street Journal to Launch Monthly Glossy Magazine Prime Newswire via CNN Money InfoSpace Surges on Switchboard.com Sale WSJ Online* Amazon Launches Web Startup Contest Mashable New Net taxes could arrive in November CNET News University-Press Leader Quit Publishers' Panel Over Anti-Open-Access Campaign Chronicle of Higher Education Google, DoubleClick Deal Challenged Again Web Pro News Office 2.0: Web 2.0's Higher Standard Internet News Best Practices Google, duplicate content caused by URL parameters, and you Google Blog Taming the World of Unstructured Data DM Review Fear of Web 2.0 Read/Write Web Making Real-World Noise about Online SItes: The Yelp Elite Squad Bokardo Organizing The World’s Push Content: The iGoogle Ecosystem Search Engine Land How to Optimize for Yahoo! ISE DB Is Googling for research "good enough" for your bottom line? Productivity of free and paid search tools Really Simple Sidi Don't Fall into the Pixel or Wiki Page Trap Best Syndication Cool Tools WhoDoes: Online Collaboration for Project Managers Mashable Yahoo Invites Us Into Mash, Its New Social Network TechCrunch Not all that Wired about it: Communication technology gets the short end at NextFest USC Annenberg OJR Google Presently Set For Launch Next Week Read/Write Web Amazon Gets Widget With It ResearchBuzz reCAPTCHA: Using Captchas To Digitize Books TechCrunch Redefining the Architecture of Memory The New York Times*
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Yahoo wins exclusive ad deal for Bebo UK, Ireland Reuters via Yahoo! News Mark Logic Partners With Gimmal Group to Deliver XML Content Management to Finance, Manufacturing MarketWire Reuters Choses Attribtor to Protect Content Mashable Al Jazeera and iHorizons team up to win best 'Media & Education Implementation of the year' AME Info Yahoo Acquires Zimbra For $350 million in Cash TechCrunch Endeca Selects Bazaarvoice for Social Navigation Capabilities within New Endeca Discovery Suite PR Database Tubes Adds Diggnation, ScobleShow, Rocketboom and Other Content to Tubes Hub Marketwire Yahoo enters exclusive ad deal with Bebo BtoB Online Yahoo Buys BuzzTracker Houston Chronicle CME Group Renews Exclusive License of Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures Contracts PR Newswire via CNN Money Weatherbonk Mashup Acquired by The Weather Channel Programmable Web Products, Markets & People Nstein Technologies announces clarification of previous press releases CNW Group Google launches array of India-specific Internet services IndUS Business Journal SixApart Has A New CEO, Chairman GigaOM SpiralFrog(TM) Launches Free Ad-Supported Music Service BusinessWire LexisNexis Adds TotalPatent to Its Suite of Solutions Information Today, Inc. Dow Jones Beats Reuters, Bloomberg and Thomson as Top News Provider: Tri-State Traders and IT Pros PR Newswire via CNN Money ALM and Courtroom View Network Join to Bring Online Courtroom Video to Litigators, Law Firms and Schools BusinessWire Juris from LexisNexis Launches New Business Intelligence Reporting Module BusinessWire Intellectual Property Professionals Manage Patents More Effectively using LexisNexis TotalPatent(TM) TradingMarkets Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 10:52 PM |
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Trends USA Today: At 25, 'McPaper' Is All Grown Up The New York Times* For Time Warner, a time to break up? Fortune via CNN Money More Restructuring at Time Inc.’s Business and Finance Network FOLIO: Magazine AOL HQ moving to New York, business model moving to advertising Download Squad Has smart money abandoned U.S. Web 2.0 companies? Venture Beat Interview: Ron Grant, President & COO, AOL: Time For A Network Approach paidContent.org In an iPod world, the future is always now Toronto Star Google, DoubleClick Deal Challenged Again Web Pro News Wall Street Journal to Launch Monthly Glossy Magazine Prime Newswire via CNN Money Keep an eye on: Time Warner Reuters MediaFile Microsoft plays nice with the EU VNUNet via Content Agenda Newspapers Are Going 'Widget'-Happy' The Examiner InfoSpace Surges on Switchboard.com Sale WSJ Online* Publications on Fitness and Health Head to Web The New York Times* Best Practices Fear of Web 2.0 Read/Write Web Making Real-World Noise about Online SItes: The Yelp Elite Squad Bokardo Cool Tools Amazon Gets Widget With It ResearchBuzz reCAPTCHA: Using Captchas To Digitize Books TechCrunch Deals, Partnerships and Sales Reuters Choses Attribtor to Protect Content Mashable Al Jazeera and iHorizons team up to win best 'Media & Education Implementation of the year' AME Info Yahoo Acquires Zimbra For $350 million in Cash TechCrunch Endeca Selects Bazaarvoice for Social Navigation Capabilities within New Endeca Discovery Suite PR Database Products, Markets & People SpiralFrog(TM) Launches Free Ad-Supported Music Service BusinessWire LexisNexis Adds TotalPatent to Its Suite of Solutions Information Today, Inc. Dow Jones Beats Reuters, Bloomberg and Thomson as Top News Provider: Tri-State Traders and IT Pros PR Newswire via CNN Money ALM and Courtroom View Network Join to Bring Online Courtroom Video to Litigators, Law Firms and Schools BusinessWire Juris from LexisNexis Launches New Business Intelligence Reporting Module BusinessWire Labels: headlines
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By John Blossom - posted at 4:54 PM |
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| Friday, September 14, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:58 PM |
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 The Times Online notes along with the rest of the world Google's funding and sponsorship of the Lunar X PRIZE, a new effort by the X PRIZE Foundation to promote the private exploration of the moon. Having already spurred Scaled Composite's first manned private space flight that lead to to Richard Branson's budding Virgin Galactic space tourism enterprise, the Lunar X PRIZE promises to get entrepreneurs to lift their horizons away from the planet altogether for the very first time in human history - with Google's brand in tow. This is the sort of brand and market development that continues to put Google head and shoulders above any other publishing enterprise for vision and return on investment. The total risk is USD 30 million, about a day's worth of Google revenues, with virtually no downside. The X PRIZE brand already has a hugely positive market presence and the actual space missions to the lunar surface are unmanned, so at worst someone else's hardware may go haywire on a dare. No wonder Google's own Boeing 767 gets landing rights at the Ames NASA center down the road from their HQ these days. It's also an indication of the breadth and seemingly perpetual audacity of Google's market vision for publishing. Google may not always be the best developer of publishing products, but their ability to conceive of new markets and new ways of looking at existing markets allows them a great deal of leeway in reaping new rewards where others aren't even thinking of looking for revenues. The metaphor of a mission to the moon captures the Gooogle ethos perfectly: yes, we could stay in low earth orbit forever with online publishing waiting for others to catch up, but it's time to start pushing out the frontiers yet again. Google may get only 80 percent of their investments right, but when you open all-new territories for marketing again and again you can live with 80 percent in the long run. Labels: Google, marketing, Trends, X PRIZE
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By John Blossom - posted at 9:57 PM |
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 ECNext has been developing its Manta business information site for a few years now, a conglomeration of ad-supported and pay-per-view premium content that's designed for both people not normally subscribing to business information databases and people who you'd think by all rights would be. The announcement of a major upgrade to Manta doesn't necessarily change that basic marketing profile, but it sure broadens its appeal to this profile significantly. Manta gives you access not only to a smidgen of free company profile information but as well a well-designed tabbed interface with access to mostly premium content covering detailed corporate profiles and reports from D&B and Hoover's, executive contacts from SGA, by-the-article stories from major trade magazines and journals, credit reports from D&B and Moody's, market sector reports and press releases. Except for the press releases and basic company profiles this is strictly a pay-as-you go menu, with the least expensive items - trade magazine articles - typically going for $19.95. $19.95 for a magazine article? Well, if you're not willing to pop for a Factiva or Nexis subscription and you want to toss it in with reports ranging $150 and up, think of that magazine article as the candy next to the checkout stand. Can't hurt, might help - and certainly helps ECNext's revenues. This is merchandizing for business information, something that a standalone a la carte news service such as LexisNexis' cannot offer by trying to eke out news articles for $3 a shot. Even if LexisNexis offers a far broader range of articles, sometimes convenient shopping and understanding the value of the opportunity to the shopper is everything. To call the new Manta a mashup would be a stretch, but like many of today's mashups Manta builds in some interactivity for its users to add value via contributions to corporate profiles. Usually this will turn out to be the companies themselves trying to keep their online information fresh and accurate but it's more than any other business information provider is doing for corporate profiles. Great for small companies that want to get more visibility, which also happens to be the type of company that many Manta users are seeking out. Manta has been building up traffic steadily over the past couple of years to the point that it's become a solid online presence with impressive audiences compared to other online business information sources. Of course the familiar subscription brands make major revenues off of highly sophisticated enterprise services and deep databases of licensed content, so it's hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. But think of this widened Manta premium supermart as an interesting middle level brand between I'll-take-what-I-get Google search results or the relatively limited number of companies covered by a Yahoo! Finance on the low end and we-do-everything-perfectly-for everyone brands on the higher end of the market. Manta's also a middle ground for premium business information providers not willing or able to concoct an online offering that appeals to situational premium buyers with very specific focuses who want more than just a report shopping cart. With a comprehensive range of information categories and filtering tools for professionals focusing on sales and marketing, strategic planning and business development Manta makes is easy for someone with high-value business goals to find that they're looking for. The depth of information and features in Manta may not be everything that subscription database services offer but it's enough to build a brand that promises to appeal to independent content searchers with an expense account - and that may be enough in time to expand the brand with these high-end buyers. In the meantime Manta gives business information buyers a good starting point for getting that extra little boost in decision-making that the open Web cannot offer. Labels: Business Information, ECNext, Manta
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:41 PM |
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| Wednesday, September 12, 2007 |
 CNET News reports in the past tense on the net neutrality movement, the effort by a coalition of online publishers and technology companies to keep U.S. telecommunications companies from charging different rates for Internet access based on arrangements with content partners. CNET notes that in the wake of last year's successes in stalling changes to current policies and new focus on carving up the 700 MHz radio spectrum for wireless broadband access the movement has become fragmented. The original "It's Our Net" group has reformed as the Open Internet Coalition, trimmed down from 148 to 74 members, with major technology and portal players such as Microsoft and Yahoo out of the picture. Notably Apple was never a part of this coalition, a fact underscored by its interests in acting as a "toll gate" of its own sort as it uses its iPod and iPhone proprietary platforms to pressure media companies into price cuts for premium content. All of this could be relatively moot except that while legislators and companies may be focused on other things the communications companies who have so much at stake have certainly not forgotten their original goals in opposing net neutrality. In a parting gift to communications companies outgoing U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales filed an ex parte filing (PDF) with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission suggesting that net neutrality regulations were not necessary to ensure open competition. The absence of Yahoo and Microsoft from the coalition and their advancing plans to develop premium content services may also imply that they see themselves becoming more like Apple and being able to dictate content pricing and licensing terms to a broader array of content providers through alliances with communications companies. In the bigger picture, then, the fight for neutral access to publications over public infrastructure is far from over and in fact widening with the 700 MHz spectrum also in play. In all of this traditional publishers have been largely in the background, with no apparent major role in the lobbying efforts. This seems to be wishful thinking at best, akin to the efforts of publishers to ignore the Web in its early days, but now only worse since such a large percentage of their growth depends on it. The New York Times reported dwindling revenues from their ever-smaller print editions yet a 28 percent increase in online revenues, to cite one example of robust online revenue growth. If there were a chance that newsprint or mailing costs would go up publishers would be all over it: why do they ignore potential regulations that may have a huge impact on the profit margins of their most promising new source of revenues? In the meantime the opting out of Microsoft and Yahoo from the net neutrality movement and the non-participation of Apple points towards what many publishers hope: that a handful of major portals can help along with communications providers to re-create the cable television model and create a brand advertising Nirvana where consumers behave as they ought to and pay for premium access. Yet with user-generated content and search engines providing more context for content than ever before it's not clear why consumers will be persuaded easily to opt for being charged premium prices for access to specific sources when flat-rate access has been such a successful way for them to determine for themselves what's worthwhile content. In largely ignoring the net neutrality debate publishers' hopes for controlled access are more likely to fall prey to communications companies and portals who will take higher percentages of their revenues from their online content through access channels that are not optimized for audience growth and that will give them less autonomy on pricing. The open Web may be a bit more of a wild and wooly place for some publishers but for those that have embraced it most efficiently it has been the most promising revenue and profit driver in an era where many channels are becoming far leaner and meaner. It's time for publishers to think about what's really in their best long-term interests and to begin to embrace net neutrality as an essential component for both audience and margin growth. Labels: apple, Congress, FCC, Google, Justice Department, Microsoft, net neutrality, publishers, Trends, U.S., Yahoo
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By John Blossom - posted at 3:13 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:29 PM |
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| Tuesday, September 11, 2007 |
Trends
The Web is now the leading ether for profit making..Online Ads Surpass Radio Ads in a Historical First Mashable Complacent publishers are failing to move aggressively to save open Web access... US Justice Department backing for two-tier internet BBC News Broadcasters Launch Ads Against Broadband Wireless Web Device The New York Times* Ten things that finally killed Net neutrality CNET News Even as technology companies seek to become the new media kingmakers... Keep an eye on: Apple, Apple, Apple Reuters MediaFile After ditching Apple, NBC opts for flex pricing and more DRM with Amazon Ars Technica The bottom line in publishing is facing stockholders who know that the future is not rosy for old media... Media Stocks Under Pressure Reuters Street blasts 'lame duck' Parsons, Time Warner The Hollywood Reporter WSJ Merges Print and Digital Sales Teams paidContent.org Business 2.0 Folds FOLIO: Magazine Newspapers, don't leave the Internet holdouts behind Baltimore Sun As old dot-com IPOs begin to face similar expectations for returns that hem in adventuresome investments...Yahoo's Cautious Course WSJ Online* Facebook becomes a powerful networking tool for adults in communities large and small... Facebook Profiles Will Appear in Google Results Next Month Mashable A Facebook for the Few The New York Times* The iPhone sets the stage for mobile Web access' growth but at what price to carriers' plans...? US iPhone sales go ballistic in July IT Wire Four Mistakes Apple Made With The IPhone Price Drop Wired - Epicenter Scholarly publishing's talk about change may seem slow to some but the pace of change is quickening... Scholars Embrace New Publication Modes in Theory More Than in Practice, Study Finds The Chronicle of HIgher Education A Medical Publisher’s Unusual Prescription: Online Ads The New York Times* AAP 'disinformation campaign' attacked by Open Access backer Information World Review Google's forays into social media content are still struggling to understand audiences as publishers... Google News Adds Barely 100 Comments in 30 Days Micro Persuasion Google Wiki Relaunch May Arrive Soon Web Pro News Pretty soon they'll be selling hamburgers...English Wikipedia Gets Two Millionth Article Slashdot In other major trends in content this week... Law users irked by lacklustre service IT Week FEC Gives Pass to Blogs Red Herring China content sites key for Google The Mercury News Google Sued for Sponsored Search Ads Read/Write Web People search engine Rapleaf revises privacy policy CNET News Wikia’s ArmchairGM: Wiki Meets Social Network TechCrunch Best Practices Search Illustrated: The Power Of RSS Feeds Search Engine Land Spam now 83% of all email Real Tech News Creating Google Custom Search Engines ONLamp.com UST libraries ask: Which resources should it cancel? UST Bulletin CIA works to break info-sharing barriers FCW.com Google Custom Search: Setting The Bar For Vertical Search Engines Read/Write Web Perspective: Fair use is not a consumer right CNET News A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web Open Social Web Why You Should Embrace the New Social Media News Release Search Engine Guide Semantec Search Right for the Enterprise? ZDNet Blogs Cool Tools HotSwap Launches - Video Classifieds TechCrunch iPhoneSIMfree goes retail, let the unlocking begin Engadget MindTouch’s Open Source Wiki Releases 100 New Features Mashable Asterpix Says Forget Hypertext, Think Hypervideo NewTeeVee Google Books: Embed Book Clips Into Websites TechCrunch Adobe Media Player Drives Fusion of TV and the Internet Streaming Media Exclusive: Screen Shots And Feature Overview of Delicious 2.0 Preview TechCrunch Find a needle in a feedstack with Google Reader Google Blog Do the Mash (Even if You Don’t Know All the Steps) The New York Times* RapLeaf: This 2.0 site lets you check folks' reputations Download Squad
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Yahoo buys behavioral ad firm for $300 mln Reuters Leading Analyst Firm Deploys Near-Time Premium to Monetize Content and Community BusinessWire Internet Enterprise Search Firm Semantra Finds Funding Red Herring ScanScout Secures Strategic Investment from Time Warner and Announces Board of Directors BusinessWire Healthline, LocateADoc Provide First Aid to Patient Education MarketWire TheStreet and WSJ Diversify Content to Drive Ads and Steer Away from Subscriptions ClickZ Network Near-Time and The History Press Introduce True Richmond Stories, an Online Book Community BusinessWire Author Solutions to Acquire Rival Self-Publisher iUniverse WSJ Online* Mainstream Data to Distribute Lusa Content in Europe and Africa BusinessWire TEMIS and Mark Logic Enter Partner Agreement to Address the Publishing Market PR Newswire Lionbridge Signs Three Year Agreement With Hill-Rom as Premier Global Localization Services Provider PR Newswire via CNN Money Thomson to acquire Deloitte Tax LLP property tax services, terms not disclosed AP via FindLaw Products, Markets & People MediaLink Launches Online Content Management Platform for Communications Professionals PR Newswire via CNN Money Groxis, Inc. Appoints New CEO PR Newswire via EarthLink Pharma Companies Overcome Legal and Regulatory Obstacles via New Social Media Marketing Framework MarketWire Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:58 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:20 AM |
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| Thursday, September 06, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 10:45 PM |
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| Wednesday, September 05, 2007 |
 IT Week offers an article by Tim Buckley Owen of Information World Review that is a bit of a hatchet job on LexisNexis, Thomson and other business information providers. Owen quotes anonymous sources who paint a picture of subscription database services providers defending pricey offerings against users more adept at finding their own sources online. The criticisms are not so different from what we at Shore have heard in our private research but it is interesting to see some of these in print for the world at large to consider. Some of the key quotes include: “Although the sector boasts a lot about listening to customers, this is largely not so,” says one independent business information consultant. “Customer consultation is often just going through the motions because it’s expected or it looks good.” "Even the shortfalls in the content would not be so unpalatable if we were informed about them in advance, understood the rationale or had clearer information on what the content includes," a librarian at a leading law firm adds. LexisNexis adds that it does face competitive pressures: "Content that was previously impossible to access without a premium subscription is now often available for free on the web. New open solutions have been developed and consumer expectations have risen dramatically." While this is hardly stuff that should shock the typical business information company executive it's indicative of the frankness that many of their customers are expressing to them - and of their own recognition that the business information industry is changing rapidly. Where a few years ago some usability enhancements on a search interface and a few new subscription sources could be touted as major enhancements by subscription database providers today these same improvements ring rather hollow in the ears of enterprise customers learning how to leverage Web technologies to get smarter faster than ever before. It's not even a matter of the bloom being off the rose: the rose of business information services is in danger of being uprooted altogether by enterprises in search of competitive advantages. This is not all bad news for business information providers. In many instances companies like LexisNexis and Thomson are already all over this trend and moving aggressively into software services that can help to enable productivity and revenue generation for their clients. But the greater truth revealed by this rantish article and our own research is that the efficiencies of relational databases are being overcome quickly by the dominance of I.T. cultures in business information companies built around inflexible relational database technologies and the equally inflexible product design and support that results from these technologies. The result is cultures ill adapted to shed antiquated product concepts and to work more flexibly in Web-centric environment to deliver the products that users really want to use in ways that they want to use them. You can do all the user interviews, surveys and focus groups that you want but if you're applying those insights to an outdated platform your ability to leverage those insights is not going to pay back the dividends that they should. Business information providers will continue to leverage existing relational databases profitably for some time to come, but at some point in the not too distant future they're likely to face the same crises faced by information giants such as Reuters as they realized that their allegiance to profitable but outdated platforms meant costly catch-ups in both product design and corporate culture in order to survive. It's time for business information companies to embrace user-driven content aggregation and generation technologies and to start enabling productivity benefits that may have little to do with how existing platforms are configured. There are many interesting trends in business information that hold out promise that this is going to happen, but timing will be everything. Labels: Business Information, LexisNexis, Thomson
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By John Blossom - posted at 4:06 PM |
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 Sometimes it seems as if Apple can't win when it comes to playing the media game. After having been roundly criticized by some for having too much control over pricing via its iPod-compatible DRM content packaging and moving towards a more open model for content access Apple let the NBC television network take a walk when it wanted both higher pricing and tighter DRM controls. Ars Technica reports that NBC has opted to go instead with Amazon's Unbox video ecommerce service to package its content for online, home entertainment and mobile distribution. This will allow NBC to sell entire season series of their television shows at hefty prices - about 30 percent off of a per-episode purchase - and in doing to retain some sense of traditional syndication revenues as they move to online distribtion of video content. It's the syndication picture more than anything else that's at issue in this move, with NBC doubtless having concern that an easily pierced DRM scheme would enable audiences to download episodes that would enable them to bypass both cable networks and affiliates to build their own libraries of shows. The fact that Amazon Unbox also enables access to their video content via TiVos also underscores NBC's desire to solve syndication revenues once and for all. But in opting for the Unbox approach NBC has doomed their ability to reach growing mobile audiences with the latest and most appealing devices available. Unbox is locked into Microsoft's largely orphaned "Plays for Sure" DRM technology, which supports a dwindling pool of mostly also-ran mobile devices. Given Unbox's ability to support only two licensable devices per purchaser the chaotic environment for delivery platforms is not likely to enable audiences to ensure a smooth transition for their libraries from one platform to another - or to be able to switch to whatever device the rest of the family is not using at the moment to catch their favorite reruns. As with other types of premium content Amazon is very happy to work with content producers who have long-established business models that they don't want to let go of in the rush for online profits. Video is a good target for these types of services as the delivery mechanism enables on-demand fulfillment with few in-between hassles with one of the most popular and well-managed online ecommerce services. And although Plays for Sure wound up being a good idea that few content and technology producers decided to support at least Amazon has a somewhat open mind to making cross-platform content access a reality. As Microsoft moves to a new generation of its DRM capabilities it could be that this deal is as much about moving to Microsoft as it is about moving to Unbox. But while Amazon benefits by appealing to established content marketers and becoming a potential cross-platform haven for content producers the timidity of publishers and producers to move to new models will likely hamper Amazon's efforts to become a leader in new premium business models in the long run. The status quo on syndication revenues seems to be just fine for most traditional video content producers just now as they try to adjust to a rapidly shifting revenue mix, but hiding out in the Unbox is likely to create about as many problems as if they had tried to move to the platforms that consumers desire most. Other video producers more willing to work with those platforms will be likely to open up broader audiences for content syndication over time and have more access to market demand on the platforms that consumers want most. At the end of the day this deal is a battle of the brands, with traditional content syndicators having a hard time adapting their brands to platform providers eager to create their own locks over premium content distribution. What's missing from this mix is a willingness from content producers to make some compromises that will enable them to adapt truly platform-agnostic content packaging that will allow them to meet today's revenue goals as well as tomorrow's as consumers shift rapidly from one type of technology to another. If content producers don't manage this well the value of their content in syndication is bound to diminish rapidly. For now consider NBC's move a noisy vote for here-and-now revenues - with the future of syndication left to other executives after the current batch has parachuted elsewhere. Labels: apple, DRM, NBC Universal, syndication, video
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:30 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:21 PM |
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Trends Traditional syndication is losing its luster as content brands try to build unique value through search... CNN to stop using Reuters news service Reuters CNN to Reuters: buh-bye Reuters MediaFile Google News licenses wire news agencies Reuters Online News: Big Deals Made, Broken Poynter Online As Google continues to create more new valuable contexts for content than any other online brand... Waiting for Google to Exhale Search Engine Watch Google phone coming in two weeks? WebWare Google is working on a mobile OS, and it's due out shortly Engadget Google explores beyond searches Cox News via Palm Beach Post Google Patent Points to Marriage Between Search and E-mail InformationWeek Stock analysts push for higher performance at media companies wedded to older business models... Yahoo In Need Of Rapid Turnaround Hartford Courant Yahoo’s New President Oversees a Shake-Up The New York Times* Yahoo Reorg: Sue Decker’s Memo paidContent.org Yesterday’s news tomorrow: Wall Street catches up with print realities Reuters MediaFile Media stocks and the credit crunch CNN Money As traditional media outlets and the platforms that rely on them continue to lose market share... Nielsen Finds Drop In TV Usage Is Real, Not Methodological, Heavy Viewers Impacted Most MediaPost Vint Cerf, aka the godfather of the net, predicts the end of TV as we know it The Guardian Business Media Ad Revenue Slips Nearly Two Percent FOLIO: Magazine Grim Outlook: Ziff Davis Quarterly Revenues Down 30 Percent FOLIO: Magazine TiVo, hurt by writedown, swings back to net loss Reuters via CNET They are becoming more aggressive in trying to craft premium profits in online and mobile markets...News Corp and NBC Universal name video site Hulu Reuters Apple Retaliates; Says NBC Wanted Double The Wholesale Price; Will Stop in September paidContent.org Amdocs' Qpass Digital Commerce Solution Reaches $2.5 Billion Milestone PR Newswire Internet Radio Saved - For Now Read/Write Web If the demand is for cross-network mobile devices how can carriers succeed in suppressing this demand...? Teen 'unlocks' iPhone from AT&T network AP via Yahoo! News Scholarly publishers launch PRISM to advocate against free access to government funded research... Astroturf Spreads to Science Journals: Publishing Industry Forms PRISM Wired Science As Web access becomes ubiquitous and publishing a social tool its egalitarianism leaves some flat... The Internet is Dead and Boring Blog Maverick The Internet Is As Dead And Boring As You Want It To Be A VC Yahoo!, Microsoft ink web pact with Chinese government: 'The end of anonymous blogging' The Register Yahoo files to dismiss China human rights suit CNET News But egalitarians are growing in numbers - and in motives... Slide Users Adding One Million New Widgets Daily: That’s a Lot Of Widgets TechCrunch Would You Share Your Search History? Google Lets You Do it On Facebook Read/Write Web Open source court ruling impacts debated Content Agenda Florida Papers Post Searchable Database on FEMA Aid Editor & Publisher IMS, Wolters Kluwer and Verispan Challenge Laws Restricting Access to Critical Healthcare Information PharmaLive Google: censorship is not up to us Times Online Defend Fair Use Initiative Google Blogoscoped Muni WiFi networks struggle to become relevant as broadband mobile networks gain strength... First year of Google WiFi Google Blog S.F. citywide Wi-Fi plan fizzles as provider backs off The SF Chronicle via SFGate Ad networks flourish in an era of context-driven value but in social media advertisers are still wary... Facebook plans to offer targeted ads USA Today Magnify.net Launches Video Focused Ad Network TechCrunch FM Raises Another $4.5M; Are They Having Difficulty Filling Inventory? CenterNetworks In a search for social media legitimacy will Microsoft turn to a Facebook acquisition...? Why Are Microsoft Execs So Active on Facebook? Plus: Is Bill G. Hot, or Not? TechCrunch As the news business becomes an audience engagement business publishers try to reach out... Google Adding YouTube Video to its News Site The Alpha Marketer NYTimes.com makes ‘My Times’ available to all users Editor & Publisher Newspapers - still the fancy of gentlemen with nothing better to do... Afternoon papers, the handyman’s dream Reuters MediaFile In other major trends in content this week... 'Second Life': The promise and paradox CNET News Changes at Google Scholar: A Conversation With Anurag Acharya Information Today WSJ/IAC Personal finance web site FiLife closer to reality TalkingBiz News Lawmaker proposes piracy warning Content Agenda As competition looms, Bloomberg TV cleaning up its on-air act IHT Cameroon: Issowa Iyoni Samuel - "Computer is Still Luxurious" AllAfrica.com Best Practices Online Video Advertising And Monetization Guide Robin Good Copyright Protection To Move From Cable To In-Home Networks GigaOM Using Research And Experience Keywords To Avoid Customers Design Ambitions Robin Good Americans Blogging Habits Web Pro News Does Google Apps own your content? CNET News Web 2.0 content sites are better for marketers BizReport On the Advantages and Disadvantages of BI Search Enterprise Systems Is the Future of Legal Scholarship in the Blogosphere? Law.com Using Atom and XML with Graph Data Structures Jeni's Musings Windows Genuine Advantage Crashes: Everyone's a Pirate Stephen's Web The Tangled State of Archived News Footage Online MediaShift 16 Core Observations of Social Design Borkado A Report on Scholarly Publishing Gets the Web 2.0 Treatment The Chronicle of Higher Education Cool Tools Google’s Blogger Adds Support for Video NewTeeVee ProfileBuilder Launches Profil.es with More Control Options for Your Online Presense Mashable Google Earth’s Easter Egg: A Flight Simulator TechCrunch OneSite.com - Software for Building Social Networks Killer Startups Can data be stored on single atoms? CNET News FeedM8: Access web content through your mobile handset Emily Chang What would the iCar be like? Engadget Your Content Is Calling MediaPost Contest aims to reward mobile 'mash-up' entrepreneurs The Boston Globe Google May Start New York Transit Guide to Boost Ads Bloomberg
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Hearst loses shares to investors Corp.: Had offered $600 million for TV stock Variety IntelliSearch and Groxis Form Strategic Partnership Enabling Discovery-Oriented Enterprise Search PR Newswire 'Wash Post' and CBS News to Share Campaign Content Editor and Publisher Knovel Announces New Content Partnership with Brill Academic Publishers PR Newswire GoFish Partners With adap.tv to Deliver Integrated Online Video Ads BusinessWire SpiralFrog Licenses Universal Music Publishing BusinessWire EBSCO Publishing Acquires Ten Print Indexes from SAGE PR Web Tele Atlas Partners with Zagat Survey to Deliver Ratings and Reviews to Consumers 'On the Go' PR Newswire MSNBC.com, CondeNast in partnership MarketWatch* Phone book maker teams with Yahoo The News Observer FTC Clears News Corp.-Dow Jones Deal AP via Forbes NBC Buys TV Group Overseas The New York Times* Scripps to Sell Albuquerque Paper WSJ Online* CNN.com Inks Multi-Year Advertising Agreement with Google BusinessWire NewspaperARCHIVE.com Partners With World Vital Records, Inc. for Access To A Half-Billion Records SBWire blinkx Announces 28 New Media Partnerships to Serve Niche Audiences PR Newswire R.H. Donnelley and Yahoo! Local Expand Relationship PR Newswire via CNN Money JISC members from Higher and Further Education libraries to access Knovel engineering knowledge Information World Review Wolters Kluwer to Buy Dealer Tech Firm AppOne BankNet360 Products, Markets & People Web Content Resource, Helium Marketplace, Expands Network Web Site Host Directory Yahoo Adds Features to Popular E-Mail AP via Forbes Thomson Scientific Launches the New Face of Research PR Newswire EMC Launches New Information Management Consulting Practice PR Newswire via CNN Money Google CFO George Reyes retires Download Squad Dodge leaves 'BusinessWeek' to join Salesforce.com BtoB Online LexisNexis Launches Lexis(R) Back Office Powered by PCLaw 9 to Help Law Firms Improve Cash Flow BusinessWire Wikipilipinas founder aims for 'long tail' effect Inquirer. net Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 9:13 AM |
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| Sunday, September 02, 2007 |
 Reuters covers the licensing of content by Google from four major wire services, including Britain's Press Association, Canadian Press, Agence France-Presse and the U.S.-based Associated Press. On one level this is a very typical licensing deal equivalent to those inked by other major portals such as Yahoo, MSN and other outlets - and in fact Google had licensed rights to these content sources earlier in some instances but had not hosted their content. But the deal takes on a far different dimension given that it's with the leading Web search engine - one whose ability to deliver advertising revenues to portals using wire services is an important driver for traffic. While Google ranking algorithms will take into account the appearance of wire content in other sites the links from Google searches and portal pages will lead to Google itself - helping its own ratings and, presumably, for its own ad revenues eventually. The AP story claims that this will have a major impact on AP member sites using their content but at least one commenter on Poynter Online claims that " For the vast majority of newspaper.coms I know, wire story traffic is not a big factor, and revenues from AP pages barely, if at all,... For the vast majority of newspaper.coms I know, wire story traffic is not a big factor, and revenues from AP pages barely, if at all, cover the cost AP charges us for its CustomWire service." That may be true, but it's bound to hit those sites' overall traffic counts and referrals to other pages in their sites from wire content. While newspaper sites will certainly feel some pinch from this move, the far larger losers in this deal will be the major portals such as Yahoo that rely on wire content for a significant portion of their news traffic and search engine referrals. With Google now playing by the same rules their relative lack of original news is bound to be yet another chink in their armor in the battle for ratings and advertising supremacy. At the same time wire services are looking at the diminishing fortunes of traditional news outlets such as newspapers and broadcast services and recognizing that they need to move more aggressively to build their brands online. In this sense Reuters has pointed the way for these wire services with its increasingly selective use of online syndication partners. The biggest winner in this mix are the original news producers who are looking for stronger marketing of their content. From this perspective member-driven wire services such as AP are going to find themselves in a more advantageous situation as they continue to make it easier for their members to market unique content filed with AP into major outlets without having to hassle licensing deals. At the same time, though, these traditional news producers must become more adept at marketing their unique content directly via search engines, portals and social media services if they are going to continue to build the audience metrics that advertisers expect. Google's move places even more pressure on local news producers to come up with more viable strategies to engage their audiences in the contexts that they value most - and more opportunities for wire services to act as channels for those strategies. Labels: AP, CP, Deals Partnerships and Sales, Google, News
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:51 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:46 PM |
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