Archive for January 1st, 2008
If you’ve noticed timely content like news stories and blog posts appearing higher in Google — even content that’s less than an hour old — you’re seeing Google’s recently-tweaked search algorithm at work. Google is indexing pages faster and giving an edge to freshly-published content. At the same time, established pages (like those from Wikipedia) appear to be suffering. Explains the GoogleSystem blog, “The problem is that you can’t rank a page that has just been created because it has no backlinks, so Google artificially inflates the rankings of the recently-created pages based on historical data and the few backlinks that are detected.” Blogs have been taking advantage of the recent changes by carefully wording and optimizing their posts (something that most news sites have been doing for quite some time) as well as anticipating popular search terms based on current events.
January 1st, 2008
The FCC has approved new rules that will allow some broadcasters to make a “phased transition” to digital TV, which is slated for February 17th next year.
Also: Half of U.S. households now own at least one digital TV, says CEA
January 1st, 2008
The Cincinnati Post and Kentucky Post newspapers have printed their last edition, but the Kentucky paper will continue online.
This image from KYPost.com shows the front page of the last edition of the paper, with a -30- headline.
January 1st, 2008
WTF? As you know, the RIAA is still running around suing average Joe’s and Jane’s for copyright violations. Most people just pay the fine and move on. But a few are challenging it. In one of these lawsuits, the RIAA is trying a new argument: that it’s illegal to transfer music that you’ve legally purchased on CD to your own computer. Yup. I really hope the record industry collapses under the weight of its own lawyers.
January 1st, 2008
ClickZ has a good article about local online advertising growth moving into ‘08. Shawn Riegsecker, president of Centro, says small and mid-sized businesses are probably “four years away” from investing in local display ads. “Out of the gates, the first spending people do on the web is pay-for-performance and search marketing,” said Riegsecker. But he said that ‘08 looks good for supermarkets, banks, hospitals and tire dealer chains. Yet local media companies, as Borrell asserted in its last report, must become more sophisticated with online sales and invest in dedicated online sales teams. Local media consultant Peter Krasilovsky warns that local media companies need to offer comprehensive Google-like reports for their advertisers or “be out of the picture by the end of the year.” All good points, and as LR readers know, I believe there’s a shakeup coming in local advertising, especially for TV stations. I wrote about it and the last Borrell report a few weeks ago here.
January 1st, 2008
