Archive for October, 2007
Google launches anti-piracy tool
October 16th, 2007 • Google, Search
Tags: privacy, publishing, Video
Good news for content producers this week: Google has finally released a beta of its YouTube piracy tool.However, the new tool puts the ball firmly in the court of the makers: they’ll need to upload the videos that they want protected. Google will then run a whizz-bang program that goes hunting for identical material on YouTube or Google Video. Anything found will be removed.As eWeek points out, the tool aims to relieve some of the pressure from publishers angered by a perceived lack of action:
For instance, the tool comes three weeks after National Legal and Policy Center Chairman Ken Boehm blasted Google for allowing some 300 instances of pirated content on Google Video.The NLPC researched Google Video from Sept. 10 to Sept. 18 and found 300 cases of apparently copyrighted films, which logged more than 22 million views in the past year.
Google Watch - YouTube - Google Launches Anti-piracy Tool for YouTube
Google to launch Facebook rival
October 16th, 2007 • Google, Search, Social
Tags: facebook, Google, Social
So the search giant is going to unveil its Facebook rival on November 5 (no source here… just a hail of blogosphere noise).I’m wondering what tricks Google has up its sleeve to bring down the social giant. In case they’re still wondering, and happen to be reading this, here are a few ideas:
- Bring every social profile together in one place: YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Facebook, the lot.
- Include an IM client in the Friends interface.
- Include a way of seeing what other people are reading.
- Ensure that you can export everything if you tire of the service
- And running through that list again, you realise just how close Google is to delivering the killer blow.
Has Facebook peaked?
October 11th, 2007 • Social
Tags: facebook, Social
According to Om Malik, the latest comScore figures from the US seem to suggest that the world’s most hyped network is losing audience. So has FB caught the Icarus virus? Not according to Marketing Pilgrim, who say that the exact same dip happened last year - and Facebook duly recovered.
How to be the best manager in the world
October 10th, 2007 • 1 comment Life
Tags: asides, management
Simply delightful parody at Slacker Manager, listing the Seven Habits Of Highly Ineffective Managers. I checked through the list feeling smug (I am, of course, flawless), until I got to this one…
Give someone on your team a project. Don’t tell them how important it is. Keep throwing more little balls at them until they drop the big one. Complain about how they have no idea what’s really important to you. Continue until they cry or quit, whichever comes first.Do the same thing with projects you get. Focus on the urgent, forget the important, and keep fighting those fires!
Too high a price to pay for free wireless?
October 8th, 2007 • Technology
Tags: Technology, wireless
Yes, yes, yes… er, no. Still, at least it was a brief thrill.I spend a few seconds in a state of euphoria, delighted at the thought of free wi-fi in virtually every High Street in the UK. Imagine: my new iPod touch instantly comes a step closer to emulating the iPhone - on tap connection on every corner.Then I get to the line where it explains that the supplier of this gratis wireless goodness will be McDonald’s. Stares at camera in the sky, yells ‘Noooooooooo……’Mickey-D’s to serve up WiFi in the UK, tips hat to iPhone - Download Squad
Dilbert creator predicts the end of news print
October 8th, 2007 • 1 comment Internet, Media
Tags: magazines, newspapers, publishing
…And it all rests on the evolution of the iPhone, apparently.
I predict that the end of printed newspapers will happen in the time it takes for most people to upgrade their cell phones two more times. The iPhone, and its inevitable copycats, (let’s call them iClones) are newspaper killers.
When you have a web browser in your pocket, a printed newspaper is redundant. Eventually, all cell phones will have Internet browsing built in. You might not have a web browser on your next cell phone, but the one after that will have it as a standard feature.
The definition of Web 3.0
October 4th, 2007 • Media
Tags: web2.0, web3.0
So here it is… the defining statement that says goodbye to Web 2.0, and hello to a new generation. Or not. Either, Jason Calacanis (all-round web entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Weblogs Inc.), has had a stab at giving a dictionary definition of Web 3.0:
Web 3.0 is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform.
Web 3.0, the official definition.I can grasp that. I’ve watched Facebook and the like grab headlines, but wondered what will happen once they become everyday. So you can now share your thoughts and habits with friends, and find new ones. Read more »
A complete history of the first time things happened
October 3rd, 2007 • 1 comment Life, Media
Tags: asides, great sites
Oh, now I’m a happy boy. This is the sort of stuff you could lose years of your life to… The First Time News Was Fit To Print is a compilation of the first mentions in the New York Times of famous people, places, things and terms.Sound dull? You need to get out more…mental_floss magazine - Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
Blogs become ‘media properties’
October 2nd, 2007 • Media
Tags: blogging, publishing, web2.0
A new chart shows the power of blog-powered technology sites against traditional online media, with several home-spun players now giving the BBC and CNet a run for their dollar.If you’re a habitual consumer of technology sites, none of the findings will come as a shock. To my eyes, the real interest comes in the comment over at Read/Write Web…
I’ve been referring to Read/WriteWeb as a “media business” or a “media property”. R/WW used to be a blog, back when I was the only writer and I blogged in the evenings. But sometime last year, it became my full-time job. Then it became a business, and now it’s a media property. Let me clarify one thing though - I’m still a “blogger”, as are Marshall and Josh and the other R/WW writers. But Read/WriteWeb has evolved into something different than a blog, which is traditionally thought of as the voice of a single person.Dave Winer, one of the pioneers of blogging, also says that the voice must be unedited. This is clearly not the case with R/WW, which has multiple bloggers and also a strong editorial stance. The same is true at Techcrunch, Gigaom, PaidContent et al.
Beyond Blogs: Old & New Media Converge
As an employee of an established publisher making its way in a new landscape (quite successfully, I should add), I find the fledging steps being taken by the New Blogs fascinating. The term ‘blog’ must be replaced soon: it is still tainted with the image of a loner in an attic recounting adventures with his Airfix kit to an audience of zero.
The New Wave is far closer in cut to traditional sources: the likes of ValleyWag and Read/Write Web are investigative and authoritative. Their writers live in their markets, and show care in providing a sound service for the reader. They are far closer to being specialist news services than they are blogs.
On a purely physical level, one thing that defines them as such is their page structures: a multi-post landing page, followed by linked single pages (unlike CNet or the Beeb, which are driven by industrial strength databases). I don’t doubt that the New Wave will ditch their restrictive formats, as soon as money allows.
There’s one other factor that distances them from traditional sources, namely the more pervasive inclusion of analysis. Perhaps there’s a lesson here for the mainstream press: the bloggers hitting prime time have kept their conversational approach, preferring to inject some of themselves into their tales.
At their worst, they vanish into internal debates that have no relevance to the audience. But at their best, they offer a narrative that purely objective news delivery cannot equal.
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