“Leading news organizations” are looking at updating the robots.txt file format so they can place new limits on what the search engines can index and how long they can keep the information. Good idea: robots.txt is a pretty blunt instrument.
However, there is no question that search engine referrals are more of an opportunity than a threat for “leading news organizations”. I’m working on a report right now that will demonstrate how big that opportunity is and how badly it has been missed so far.
Take a deep breath. Now perform a thorough exploration of that bath water for hidden babies before you toss it out.
Originally published on my blog at JupiterResearch.
Month: November 2007
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Has Facebook creeped you out yet?
I got my first taste of Facebook’s new Beacon advertising system this weekend. I’m still trying to get that taste out of my mouth.
I bought some tickets to a movie on Fandango and got a weird little popup on the bottom of the screen telling me that the details of my transaction were waiting on the lauchpad to be shot over to all my friends and (let’s face it) marginal acquaintances on Facebook. It was up to me to tell them not to share this particular detail of my life. What was the the movie? None of your business.
My next stop was Facebook, where I signed the online petition asking them, essentially, “What could you possibly be thinking, anyway, Facebook?”.
Beacon is a very cool idea in many respects. I know many people who would love for you and I to know all of the cool stuff they’re buying. I can’t wait to find out.
Originally published on my blog at JupiterResearch.
For years, the newspaper industry has excused falling circulation numbers, saying that it is getting rid of junk circulation. That was long overdue. It took a scandal that sent some newspaper executives to jail before the industry got serious about quality circulation, but it looked like they were ready to go cold turkey.
In the words of Homer Simpson, going cold turkey isn’t as delicious as it sounds.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (which is owned by the publishers it audits) has decided to dumb down the definition of paid circulation from 25% of cover price to “a flexible pricing model where newspapers will be considered “paid” by ABC regardless of the price for which a copy is sold.”
Whatever.
It is now officially time for the newspaper industry and its enablers to stop whinging about having to give away their valuable product on the Internet.
Originally published on my blog at JupiterResearch.
It’s not yet clear who will dominate the social media sphere in the local market, but local broadcasters seem like a long shot.
In my home town you can’t get TV without cable. Comcast, meanwhile, provides an unbelievably poor signal for many local TV stations. Finally fed up with the mind-addling humming in the background of The Office every week, I decided that the most expedient solution would be to ring up my friends at the local NBC affiliate and have them bust Comcast’s chops.
I’m not sure what I expected, but I didn’t expect this.
Their “Contact us” page provides a phone number with an answer-bot. The only option for theoretically speaking to a live person is ad sales. Otherwise, you’d better know the name of the person you want to talk to.
Or you can use an email form (ick) to send a message to Newstips, Programming, Weather, or Web staff. I tried it, but apparently they forgot to hire an intern to actually read their mail.
Anyway, I’ve now sent an email to ad sales. They’re the only ones with published names or email addresses, and they might even be opening their mail.
Originally published on my blog at JupiterResearch.