Digg rolls out new look

Social news site Digg got a fresh coat of paint, and some new features under the hood. Here’s Wired’s write up. Top new features include a revamped top navigation, and the inclusion of still frames when a video item shows up in the rundown. Users can also now bury a story with a single click. The much-promised images section isn’t ready quite yet, according to Digg the blog, but will be soon.

Add comment August 28th, 2007

How did Craig’s guilty plea almost go undetected?

Editor and Publisher asks the question of the day: how on Earth did yesterday’s revelation about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig go undetected for so long? The Craig story is one that has been very much on the radar of every newsroom in the state of Idaho for years - and that focus got even more intense late last year. Today Craig lashed out at the Idaho Statesman newspaper, and put the blame for his actions in the wake of his arrest on pressure stemming from the paper’s eight month investigation. Even the reporter who broke the story was surprised “It is amazing to me that it was able to sit on the shelf so long,” he told Editor & Publisher. “Through the arrest and the guilty plea, and even a couple of weeks after.”

The list of organizations that “missed” the story is long: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, rash of politics-only newspapers (Politico, National Review, etc.), the Washington Post, NY Times, hungry news organizations in Idaho (including the one that employs me, KTVB) and even Minnesota news outlets. Roll Call finally broke the story - but only after a tip last week - months after the incident, and weeks after the plea was signed.

4 comments August 28th, 2007

Video search: still crappy, here’s why

You know that 1994 video that turned up recently of Vice President Cheney saying that invading Iraq would turn into a quagmire? Jon Garfunkel at PBS MediaShift wanted to know how it got onto YouTube. (It turns out it was posted by a New York City artist.) In his hunt, Jon looked into the larger question: why is video search so damn lousy? Here’s one answer:

Of the relevant top 60 search results for “Cheney 1994″ on Google video search, all but one of the clips are hosted on YouTube/Google (the other was from Crooks & Liars). None of the derivative clips that aired on network TV were sourced to its respective website; they were only linked to YouTube.

Video is, of course, tough to index. Text is simple. But much of the problem can be blamed on video providers who don’t properly take advantage of software that could pump out tons of metadata, making video search much easier.

3 comments August 28th, 2007

Today’s Tidbits

Noted on the web:
- CNN.com and Google Adsense do “exclusive” ad deal
- Heaton: “Viewing Down, Ad Rates Up. Go Figure.”
- NBCU buys international Hallmark channels
- The kid who hacked his iPhone to work on T-Mobile? Trading it for a new car.
- FNC uses picture of NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller in story about televangelist Bill Keller. As Fark would say: hilarity ensues.

Add comment August 28th, 2007

‘Vs. Thinking’ Watch: OPA in London

Jeff Jarvis points us to video from a panel he was on at the Online Publishers Association conference in London last week that presents yet another case of “vs. thinking.” I’m as tired as Jeff of the “newspapers vs. bloggers” debate, yet the hand-wringing keeps coming up in conference after conference. The newspapers (”We brought down Nixon!”) and the bloggers (”We brought down Dan Rather!”) need to stop seeing this as a vs. argument. Jarvis put it well in response to an audience member’s point that newspapers do the legwork and bloggers only comment: “All I can say is that I look forward to a conference where we don’t have this argument and we talk about the possibilities of what we can do together.”

Talkback: Amy Gahran at Poynter highlights this article and is joining the “Vs. Thinking Watch.” Let’s make this open source. Amy and I invite everyone to send us examples of Vs. Thinking or highlight them on your own blog. Vs. Thinking is lazy and counterproductive. It’s too easy for conference planners. Let’s come up with “Together Thinking” instead.

9 comments August 28th, 2007