Archive for August 14th, 2007
With a fair amount of reluctance, the Republican candidates have agreed to a date for their own CNN-YouTube debate. The debate will be held on November 28 (it was originally scheduled for September) in St. Petersburg, Florida. While the candidates were on the fence, Republican bloggers pressured them to go ahead with the debate. Save The Debate, which had a petition, writes “We did it! Thanks to you, we saved the debate. Now we’re helping make this a substantive debate by encouraging questions from Republicans across America.” Submit your questions at YouTube.com/debates.
August 14th, 2007
Google Maps is coming out with a feature that will allow people to embed a map onto their blogs with just a snippet of code. You’ll be able to pull up whatever map you want in Google Maps, and then you’ll have the ability to get the “embed code” the same way you can embed a YouTube video. The map won’t be a static picture - it will still have the usual functions of a Google Map. Every site needs to realize this is what they should be doing: distributed information is what it’s all about. Make it easy for blogs and sites to embed your stuff and you will have instant syndication.
August 14th, 2007
Here are the top news sites according to Unique Visitors in the U.S. for July 2007, according to Nielsen/Netratings. (via Cyberjournalist)
Brand or Channel Unique Audience (000) followed by the change from June
- Yahoo! News 32,674 (+381)
- CNN Digital Network 29,757 (+1,436)
- MSNBC 26,015 (-1,419)
- AOL News 23,103 (+1,165)
- NYTimes.com 14,149 (+1,614)
- Gannett Newspapers 13,812 (+1,533)
- Tribune Newspapers 12,218 (+180)
- USAToday.com 10,611 (+2,019)
- ABCNEWS Digital Network 9,876 (-976)
- Fox News Digital Network 9,343 (+1,151)
So Google News and CBS News Digital Network fell out of the top 10 we saw in June 2007, replaced by USAToday.com and Fox News Digital Network.
August 14th, 2007
Google has been the undisputed king of search for an online eternity, having risen from the bloody search engine wars of the early Web with only heavyweights like Yahoo and Microsoft left able to compete (remember HotBot? Dogpile? AltaVista?). Well look out Mountain View, here comes Jimmy Wales and a legion of open sourcers with the Wikia project, which seeks to build an organic search engine that may spawn hundreds of rivals for Google’s core service. Wikia may not be a the giant dinosaur-killing meteor, but rather a shower of meteors that blast the lids off of all the SEO jobs and little businesses who have carved niches for themselves on the single premise of gaming Google’s engine. But wait, there’s more…
Read the full post August 14th, 2007
How’s this for a media swirl? The Dallas Morning News has a long story today on a Dateline NBC “To Catch a Predator” visit to Murphy, TX. The DMN notes competing news magazine 20/20 is now looking into the growing controversy. During the Murphy sting, more than 20 people were arrested, but later had charges dropped due to “evidence problems.” One man, a former district attorney, caught by Dateline, Perverted Justice and police later killed himself. Dateline rejects charges they manipulated or interfered with a police investigation. “The premise, the notion, that’s been floated that Chris Hansen or his producers somehow could have controlled or manipulated a police department, prosecutors or the whole law enforcement organization is ridiculous,” Dateline EP David Corvo said.
(Disclosure: The DMN is published by my employer Belo and I work for an NBC affiliate. Oh, and I enjoy watching 20/20).
August 14th, 2007
Phillips Electronics has a new high-end HDTV flat screen line called Aurea it has launched in Europe. They’re not bothering much with TV ads, however. They’re spending their ad bucks by producing five minute, artsy films and then showing the films on the Aurea at fashion and jewelry stores in Europe. From the NY Times:
The idea is to be more exclusive, to be very different from your traditional kind of advertising,” said Sandrine Huijgen, marketing director for consumer electronics at Philips. “We don’t see Dior advertising a lot on television.” Philips said it might run a few television spots in markets where it cannot be avoided. But most of the $68 million that Philips expects to spend in Europe through the end of the year will be used in other media…
Phillips also has magazine ads shot by a fashion photographer. I’ve always thought it was strange when I saw an ad for a hi-def TV on a regular TV. “See this TV? Trust us - it’s a better picture than the one you’re watching. It’s got more scan lines! It’s plasma! It’s LCD!” What’s missing from the Aurea ad campaign? There is no tech-speak at all.
August 14th, 2007
Awww yeah… OutsideIn did a survey of blog postings and found that Boston bloggers are the ‘bloggiest’ in America. Well, at least we put up the most blog posts for the survey period of March and April. (Duh - it was spring training and we were already worried about the Yankees.) The bloggiest neighborhood, however, isn’t in Boston - it’s in (sigh) Brooklyn. The Clinton Hill neighborhood had the most prodigious blog production in March and April.
August 14th, 2007
We all hate PowerPoint. And, we pretty much all use it. Its limitations are well-known. But it’s damn-near universal, and it’s simple. GB Trudeau’s Doonesbury has a little swipe at it and PowerPoint culture today.
August 14th, 2007
