« December 13, 2007 | Main | December 17, 2007 »
Online Advertising Growth at 25%
December 14, 2007
Online advertising grew at 25% this year and the advertising industry thinks it would have grown at a much greater rate if there were more accurate ways to measure web traffic. Having been in a number of advertiser meetings myself I can tell you there is much truth to the idea that advertisers are still scratching their heads at the various ways to measure traffic and moreover the variations that exist between these methods.
Here is a detailed Associated Press article on the state of web advertising that is worth a read if you have interest in the topic.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: Online Advertising Growth at 25%
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
Google Knol: Squeezing out the Little Guy
December 14, 2007
Google will soon be launching Knol – a knowledge archive similar to Wikipedia with the exception being t hat authors of content will be tracked more closely and ads will optionally be allowed to run on listings with authors getting a share of the profits.
It seems without a doubt that this will be a successful venture because authors will get paid to post content.
While it is logical for Google to have such a service it is obvious that as services like Wikipedia and others grow in size, they dominate search results. Already Wikipedia dominates top spots for so many search keywords… It is only a matter of time before the top six results on a page are from Knol, Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers.
While it is difficult to fault Google for wanting to get into the search repository business I find it tough to believe that such a service is needed. Wikipedia does a fine job as is.
But if people are incentivized to provide content it may make the results of Knol more accurate than Wikipedia. From this prospective, Knol could be beneficial to the greater internet community.
Still, this move just means it will be that much more difficult for smaller players to show up on search results. Keep in mind these companies will be forced to buy more and more Google ads as this happens. So for Google this is truly a win/win scenario.
See Also:
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: Google Knol: Squeezing out the Little Guy
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
Custom Readers: The Future of Newspapers?
December 14, 2007
While the internet news revolution continues to move along, I have recently become fascinated with proprietary readers. For example The New York Times offers a reader which requires a paid download for nonsubscribers and runs on Microsoft based operating systems.
Then there is Amazon’s Kindle, a wireless book/RSS reader about the size of a small paperback. I wondered what sorts of content people read on the Kindle and a quick check of the Amazon Kindle site shows some of their most popular downloads are the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Le Monde.
Perhaps spurred on by the notion of providing news on the go, the Wall Street Journal has been pushing the fact that their news is mobile friendly. In addition, the company is dipping its toes in the mobile reader market with the beta offering of a mobile reader for Windows Mobile devices.I downloaded the software by entering my carrier and phone number on this web page and a few moments later I received an SMS message with a web link which I clicked on.
Within about 90 seconds the program was downloaded and running.
The software interface was quite attractive and you are able to see news of various types from a variety of countries. In addition, you are able to see videos which are streamed to the device’s media player.
The downside to these custom applications is that they are specific to individual news sources and devices -- but for ultra-loyal customers this isn’t a huge deterrent.
I suppose the biggest reason for the dissemination of custom readers by newspapers is to ensure people get more of their news from them. Indeed, software like the Google reader is extremely easy to use and mobile-friendly making customer readers less necessary.
It is tough to see where custom readers will be more than a niche but still they are a great way to keep diehard loyalists faithful to your news site. What’s your opinion? Do you use custom readers?
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: Custom Readers: The Future of Newspapers?
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
