Google's Blogger has addd a feature to the new post editor in Blogger in Draft. Blogger in Draft is a special version of Blogger where they try out new features before they release them to everyone. Kind of like Google Labs. With geotagging, you can add a location to your each of your blog posts, like with time stamps. "When you use Blogger in draft, you'll see an option below the post editor to 'add location'," explains Elaine Filadelfo of Google's Lat Long Blog Team. "If you know the exact location, you can simply enter the address, city, or zip code; if you're blogging about the view from the top of a mountain you just hiked or don't have a precise location, you can browse the map or turn on satellite mode and put a marker at the right spot (and the reverse geocoder will label the location for you). The geotag will appear below your published post as a link, which will open up Google Maps. The location will also be included in your blog's RSS and Atom feeds using GeoRSS." There are some known issues with geotagging that Brian at the Blogger in Draft blog was kind enough to address: - The location editor is hidden behind the text field in the Edit HTML tab. Please switch to the Compose tab to view and edit locations. - A geotag cannot be removed from a post once it has been saved. If you need to remove a geotag, please copy your post content into a new post and delete the geotagged post. - If you have a customized template and you don't see the "Location:" byline, you may need to reset your blog's widget template. Do this by going to the Layout > Edit HTML tab in your dashboard, and then clicking Revert widget templates to default below the main text field. - Some users are having issues with the blog post map gadget. Brian is investigating. To learn more about the geotagging feature, I suggest reading Brian's full post. If you are interested in finding out more about Blogger in Draft itself, this page should sum it up for you.

post location blogger quot blog draft geotag geotagging google editor edit below brian address please html text kind field template

Many business owners know they should be blogging. There are plenty of reasons to do so (particularly in a recession) as discussed by Jennifer Laycock here: More WebProNews Videos Google is obviously a very well known brand, and it is safe to say it didn't get that way from blogging. It is probably also safe to say that most of the people who read Google's blogs are already somewhat familiar with the company. They didn't provide the model for making money online with blogs. But... Looking at how Google uses blogs does make for some excellent examples of how a business can use blogs to bolster their online presence and engage their customers. The Branches Google has individual blogs for many of the company's properties. For example, there is one for AdWords, one for AdSense, one for Google Mobile, one for Google Chrome, one for Google Analytics, one for Gmail, one for YouTube, and so on and so forth. Of course, not all businesses have the number of properties that Google does, but for businesses offering a number of products or services, this is a strategy worth considering. Updating and Informing Now, having all of these blogs is pointless if they are not updated, and Google for the most part keeps these updated fairly regularly. You're not going to see a new post every single day on every single blog of Google's, but they are generally kept up with. Because of this (at least partially), people know they can go to Google's blogs to find the latest news on product updates. They are reliable sources for company info. Interesting Google products are interesting to people right from the get go, just because they come from Google, and this is a company that has a large impact on the daily lives of many, many, people. So it is true they have that going for them. Still, Google blogs generally find ways make posts interesting beyond just that. One way that I often see them do this on a variety of blogs is to highlight the usefulness of the product being talked about. They offer tips. They provide examples of scenarios where certain aspects of their products would be of general use to the user. They often provide videos and images showing just what they're talking about. The Go-To Place While Google has so many blogs for their different products, they also have one central blog, the Official Google Blog, which ordinarily provides the biggest announcements the company has to make. Posts here are often cross posted with Google's other niche blogs, but if you want to know generally the biggest things that Google is up to, you can go there. Google also has a directory of all its blogs, so users can easily find any of them from one location. Ways to Keep Users Updated Google offers more than one way for readers to stay updated with new blog posts across its entire network of blogs. There are RSS feeds, a standard feature for blogs, but on Google blogs, there is normally a prominent link to subscribe to the feed. Google also has a Blogs Gadget that you can add to your iGoogle homepage. This is another way to bring new posts right to you. What I'm Getting At The point of this article is not to talk to go on about how great Google is. It's to point out some of the things they're doing that make their blogs worth reading. This is a problem many businesses continue to face. People just don't care about reading their blogs. So perhaps it would pay to step back and look at a business whose blogs people really do want to read.

google blogs people business blog company update products posts provide often interesting generally examples post single reading product safe does

Collecta, a new search engine, launched today with a unique twist... they're one of the first real-time search engines. Searching with Collecta, you get real-time results from blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, social sites and various news outlets. Collecta's homepage gives the following description of the new search engine... "Collecta is not like other search engines. The web is alive with real-time information. So why search a stale archive? Collecta monitors the update streams of popular realtime blogs and sites like Twitter, Wordpress, and Flickr, so we can show you results as they happen. Give it a try." What do you think of Collecta's real-time search? Tell us. Collecta's UI is very simplistic and easy on the eye. No frills, just search. Upon doing a search, your term shows on the left (with options), results appear in the middle and selected/highlighted content appears on the right. (click the image below for full size view) With each search users have to option to include/exclude certain search parameters such as Stories (blog posts, articles), Comments (on blog posts), Updates (Twitter, Jaiku, Identica), and Photos (Flickr). Collecta even has an option to pause a search stream (not really sure why). Under the hood Collecta uses the XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) technology, which allows Collecta to keep tabs on information as it happens. Collecta, so far, has had a very so-so launch day. The search engine was down for quite some time, leaving the company having to explain themselves via Twitter to potential searchers. I guess they could argue that the demand for real-time search was so great their servers couldn't handle the traffic. It's no secret that search is evolving, and real-time search is the future. Google's own Larry Page has even said, "I have always thought we needed to index the web every second to allow real-time search". Twitter, for example, already employs real-time search... and it works wonderfully. I often find myself using Twitter's search over Google, just for the real-time aspect. So, with the launch of Collecta... when do some of the major players jump on the real-time bandwagon? Let us know what you think.

search real collecta twitter engine launch flickr ncollecta engines information quot blog posts sites blogs option google allow outlets guess

Ryan Spaulding is a music blogger from Boston who runs the blog Ryan's Smashing Life, which is hosted by Google's Blogger. For some reason Blogger has been deleting some of his posts. This story was unearthed earlier this month in an LA Weekly article that found the same thing happening to a number of Blogger users. I got in touch with Ryan to find out what he had to say about the situation, and the following interview is the product of that (Not all of Ryan's opinions necessarily reflect those of WebProNews). Chris Crum:  First off, can I get a little background on the story in your words? Ryan Spaulding: Beginning last summer, I slowly began to notice that several older posts were beginning to disappear. This didn’t come to my attention for some time since I wasn’t in the habit of reading old posts except when I pulled down the material. Sometimes I received emails from frustrated readers who were looking for a topic I had written on – only to find the post deleted. I had no reason to think this was anything other than a software glitch at first. There were no takedown notices or emails in my inbox. Then the instances began stacking up – and I began comparing notices with other bloggers. What was initially a series of seemingly unconnected blog post disappearances – by fall, became the topic of discussion in blogger emails and chat rooms. The change of tactic of the industry and the poor handling of  it by blog-host Blogger (Google) was being seen as a conspiracy. I have come to love blogging and the integration of a myriad of software add-ons to the blog. Like the vast majority of bloggers, I am not paid for my time, creativity or passion. It is because of my passion for this thing that many of us have come to feel betrayed when we learn that the host of our websites is now in the business of deleting our posts without warning! (It’s an issue of respect. Blogger has proven that they do not respect their own users. Despite the merits of our prior good conduct and years of loyal use of their blogging platform and software – we are considered guilty before having a chance to demonstrate our innocence or at the very least have a chance to pull down the offending material.) Yes, it’s an issue of respect. CC:  How many other bloggers have you spoken with that have had similar experiences? RS: About a dozen or more to start, but since the piece ran in LA Weekly, I have received email from dozens more vocalizing their support. CC: Can you tell me exactly what the deleted posts consisted of? RS: The types of posts removed break down into two basic groups: The Deletion of Unsolicited Promotional Posts: A few of these missing posts were "unapproved" posts on signed bands. This means I promote a band’s project and use an mp3 I had seen given away in other locations on the web, and then wrote lengthy pieces, breaking down the songs into their themes and reviewed them based on merit. All pieces were positive and promotional in nature. I tend to not write negative reviews on music;  it runs contrary to the underlying theme of the blog – to support musicians whose work I enjoy. While it hurt to see these posts disappear (why wasn’t I simply contacted to remove the material? ), ultimately I understood the rules about such things. The Deletion of Solicited Promotional Posts (They Ask Me to Support the Band): What was truly upsetting was the loss of material that was approved by the labels and the bands themselves. Since I do very few Unsolicited Promo pieces, this is the lion’s share of posts that are deleted. This is at the core of the problem: More than a dozen of these at last count – each requiring four hours or more apiece – were deleted out of my account and without warning. Google chooses it’s bed and makes bloggers lay in It. Blogger/Google had the opportunity to choose its tactic when receiving notices. First of all, they could have delineated between longstanding reputable bloggers and those suspected to be leakers. They chose not to do this. Blogger/Google treats everybody the same (the good and the bad!) –They also could have chose the tactic to notify the bloggers of the demand and let us comply. They chose to not take this tactic either and simply delete the posts. Later, they altered this tactic slightly by going ahead and deleting the post and then, later, sent an email explaining their position. The end result is the same. To illustrate how utterly frustrating this is, I will outline what takes place start-to-finish:  I’m a choosy blogger. Each month, I receive many, many albums – both in the mail and through digital. These are always accompanied by a press release asking to promote the band, their album project and tour. In the case when the bands/music labels/PR houses/publicists ask me to use a specific post when I publish the material then I comply. I use the material they request.  All of these steps serve to make me an authorized agent for the label. [I fully understand that I do not own the material and need to pull it down immediately if ever asked. This is implicitly understood.] CC:  Have you contacted Google about the issue, and if so, what kind of response did you receive? RS: They never responded. An "opportunity" (in legalese, of course) offered a means to have the post restored – but like most bloggers, I didn’t have the knowledge or time to fight "city hall" on every post. Especially, since Blogger/Google didn’t even take five minutes to send a simple email response. Nothing professional, nothing courteous. Again, the tactic they choose belies their basic lack of respect for their users – which is why I took up the cause. They have a relative monopoly on blog hosting services and rule with an iron fist. CC:  Are you concerned that your blog's reputation might be hurt when people click through to it from other sites, only to find that the content they're looking for has been removed? How has the removal of these posts impacted your blog's traffic? RS: This is very hard to detect and prove. New people are coming in every day. But if you take a page out of economic studies, the value of "Opportunity Costs" are difficult to measure. If you are a first-time reader and you receive a dead link – you may never return. CC:  Have you detected any loss in readership? RS: Loyal readers were the ones to actually bring the deletions to my attention. I don’t think I could shake some of these people – they have truly become friends. But as with the prior example, some readers who have not been with the page long – predictably grow irritated at the absence of written material on the page when they repeatedly get dead links. And, they delete their bookmarks and go away. CC:  Did you contact the RIAA? If so, what kind of response did you get from them? RS: Actually, I firmly believe the majority of the posts weren’t pulled down on RIAA requests – the majority of these came through miscommunication at the label-level. The EU branch of the label doesn’t talk to the US labels. Sometime after the post goes live (with complete approval of the US label) the European branch contacts their legal department when they find the post promoting the band on my site. They choose to not recognize (or simply do not have visibility to the arrangement) and send an email to the IFPI (the British version of the RIAA). This group demands takedown from Blogger/Google. I'd like to thank Ryan for taking the time to talk about this. Those interested in this story might also find Last.fm's story interesting. Update: Blogger Product Manger has weighed in on the situation in the comments section.

ndash posts blogger t post material blog google bloggers tactic s respect story pull label ryan delet email simply began

Facebook has launched a page where posts from its employees' blogs are aggregated. This will include not only blogs themselves, but posts from Facebook Notes made by employees as well. "We're always getting asked what people who work at Facebook are up to and how they can find out about it," explains Alex Moskalyuk on the Facebook Blog. "Facebook is focused on helping people share and connect, and in our work, we encounter some pretty big questions and unsolved problems. Often our work follows us home. With so many interesting challenges and perspectives, we want to surface all the thoughts, energy and passion of the people at Facebook." The page can be found at people.facebook.com, and consists of three channels: 1. Engineering 2.Platform 3.Life More channels will make their way to the page in the future. "You'll discover a bit of everything from an engineer's diatribe on what makes good code to an open letter to the White House on best practices for the President's website and even an explanation as to how the OpenID experience can work within pop-up windows," says Moskalyuk. People looking to stay current on Facebook happenings (including those of us who report on them) should fin the page incredibly useful. Of course it includes RSS feeds for the main page as well as each channel.

facebook page quot people makes channels employees posts blogs moskalyuk happenings follows house questions engineering challenges nquot unsolv including president

Is Twitter Killing Blogs and Blogging? was the question posed by Mark Evans. My sense is Twitter is emerging as a vibrant alternative to bloggers and blog readers. Some bloggers who may find the grind of writing daily are now able to share their thoughts in quick bursts on Twitter, and still feel like they are contributing and cultivating their digital brands. Twitter has become a quasi-RSS reader where people gain access to the information (news, blog posts, services) they see as valuable without having to visit blogs directly or use an RSS reader. Many of these people are still using blogs but perhaps not as actively. Evans also points out that the blogosphere is becoming increasingly competitive as reader-generated content keeps on getting pumped out, especially from the leading bloggers who now employ teams of writers. It is still the case that, if you blog well and think about search-engine visibility, you can ensure your blog posts will get traffic particularly via the search engines.  They are still much beloved by the current Google algorithms. A much more important factor that Evans does not mention is that the online world is going increasingly mobile.  Twitter status reports are ideal for a mobile device.  This rapidly changing scene in terms of the typical screen size that audiences are using is critical.  With most people thinking from a desktop PC mindset, they don’t get the message.  It is not that Twitter is killing the blog.  It is that small screens are taking over from big screens.  Make your blog post more Twitter-ish and you’ll do well whatever the screen size.Comments

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Among all the social media tools that are available to companies, blogs top the list when it comes to lead generation according to a new survey from HubSpot.The survey "The State of Inbound Marketing" asked 167 executives and business owners about their marketing strategies.Respondents said that blogging is currently viewed as the most important lead generation channel as compared to other social media, with 75 percent of those that have tried blogging saying it is "useful" or better.Other social media that is considered useful or better includes StumbleUpon (55%), YouTube (52%), Facebook (48%), Delicious (47%) and Digg (47%). MySpace was thought as being the least useful (22%).With millions of blogs on the Internet, businesses are using them to offer compelling content to their customers. Nearly half (48%) of survey respondents say they publish a company blog. More than  of these company blogs publish content at least weekly. This reveals that many corporate bloggers are committing to publishing content at a reasonable consistent rate.Corporate blogging does face challenges. Respondents said their biggest frustration with blogging was "time.""We believe as companies understand the effect blogs are having on sales leads, they will dedicate greater amounts of staff resources to blogging, helping to alleviate such problems," the report concluded. 

blogs blogging company quot social media respondents content survey business least publish lead corporate useful generation said bloggers weekly half

Chrysler didn’t want to appear ungrateful to the American taxpayers, so CEO Bob Nardelli took out full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today to thank them for putting up their money instead of well-heeled Cerberus putting up its own. Reposting the expensive thank-you note on the company blog showed, however, America hates huge wastes of money more than it hates ingratitude. Some reports say a full-page WSJ print ad runs about $200,000, a veritable pittance compared to the billions chucked Chrysler’s way. The blog post attracted a swarm of angry responses to the thank-you ad, which is presumably why one can no longer access it. The Consumerist credits the Digg crowd for the backlash, and guesses this is what prompted deletion. If Google doesn’t think you’re a bot, you can access the cached version of the post. Here are a few of choice comments: Way to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on a useless ad campaign that will surely only worsen your public image. We weren't buying your cars before because they are all gas guzzling, unreliable, uninteresting cars that look like they were styled by the coleman plastic cooler division, inside and out. So then you steal our money through the government so you can waste more of it on useless ads, and you have the audacity to remind us all about it. Go to hell Chrysler. Clearly the move this advertising campaign was dreamed up and approved by individuals who has no contact with the average American. The problem with your company and that of many American companies is the ridiculous financial separation of upper management from that of the average middle income American. Your outrageous income and ability to choose to isolate yourselves mentally, financially, and emotionally from the consumer you serve has lead to the financial ruin of your company. I'm boycotting you. My whole family is boycotting you. My mother and my father, my brothers and sisters, my sons and daughters. Just thought I'd let you know. If it comes down to Chrysler or walking.......we'll walk. I'll put my kids on a mule before I'll put them in a Chysler. Suck it, you parasites. This will probably earn a page or two in forthcoming editions of PR textbooks. If the public is angry with you, it’s best not to remind them of why they are angry. It was probably a bad idea to enable comments on that blog post in the first place, but it just piles on the bad PR when you try to remove negativity from the record after the fact.   

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First Ann Coulter, now Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, otherwise known as Fake Steve Jobs. The former cried banishment from NBC before clawing her way back onto the Today show. The latter confirmed to WebProNews he was banned from CNBC after a fiery tirade against Silicon Valley Bureau Chief Jim Goldman for getting “bullied,” “played and punked” by Apple about CEO Steve Jobs’ health. “It’s true I’m banned,” Lyons said via email. CNBC denied banning Lyons, and laid blame on an assistant producer, who, reflecting the anger of other CNBC producers, said Lyons would never be on CNBC again. When told about CNBC’s denial, Lyons responded, “If they say I'm not banned, great.” The rest is a lot more he-said, she-said, but the bigger issue is similar to the one that plagued the Bush Administration as Congress grandstanded about faulty intelligence: Who knew what and when? Dan Lyons realdanlyons.com Other questions: If it weren’t for bloggers and the Apple faithful continually expressing their skepticism about Jobs’ health, would the news have ever come out? Could this have happened in the blogless world of 20 years ago?  Lyons, earliest and chief among the skeptics, credits the blogosphere. “Blogs kept this story alive and wouldn't let it die. Mainstream media for the most part were acting as Apple's lapdogs (eg, Goldman at CNBC) and not only refusing to report the story but actually covering up when bloggers did report the story and get nuggets of truth. “In other words, CNBC and its ilk were acting as extension of Apple's PR operation, helping Apple kill a story that Apple didn't want out. I'd lump in that category the guys at New York Times who got played by Apple PR too—[John] Markoff who wrote about Jobs having surgery earlier this year, based on 'sources' (read: [Apple Communications VP] Katie Cotton) and positioned the story that Jobs was fine, he'd just had some surgery, but he wasn't seriously ill. Ditto for Joe Nocera of the Times who did his ‘off record’ convo with Jobs and then reported that Jobs was fine. They got played. They helped Apple kill a story instead of actually reporting the story.” That’s a bit more specific than Lyons got back in July on his blog, but he made it clear then he felt Apple was bluffing. That gives him at least six months worth of I-told-you-so’s to dole out to his counterparts in the media, which he has been unleashing with significant (public) fervor. Steve Jobs Apple CEO Goldman denied covering up anything on Apple’s behalf and said he reported only what he had solid evidence for. The root of the scuffle between Lyons and Goldman is Goldman’s proclamation that Jobs was in good health and his subsequent mocking of Gizmodo, a popular gadget blog, just two weeks ago. While live-blogging at Macworld week later, Goldman again went after speculation and cautioned investors to “tread lightly when considering speculation from a doctor not directly connected Jobs’ treatment.” Said doctor was quoted in the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday, Goldman blogged that he stood by his reporting because he relied on a source he’d “known for years” who assured him Jobs was fine. “All this company had to do was be upfront with everyone from the beginning,” he wrote. “Not telling us what we all wanted to know. But what we needed to know. Apple could have broken new ground on this front, ignited a new realm of transparency. Instead, it chose a different path. And shareholders, fans, and the Apple community are paying the price." On the air, Lyons told Goldman he should apologize to his viewers “for having gotten it so wrong.” Apple, Cotton, and Markoff did not return requests for comment. Nocera and Goldman could not be reached.    

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Whether a given blogger takes pride in being a weirdo or feels safer as part of a crowd, a new report will help him (or her) sort out exactly where he (or she) stands.  Pingdom staffers took a close look at which platforms are most common among the most popular blogs.WordPress grabbed first place with no problem, with 27 out of the top 100 blogs (as ranked by Technorati) using it.  The platform's fans range from big corporations like the New York Times to individuals such as Chris Brogan.Then came TypePad, with 16 followers, Blogsmith with 14, and Movable Type with 12.  There are some pretty impressive names to be found on their sections of a user list, as well.  (Think Wired properties, Autoblog, and Boing Boing, respectively.)We'll skip down to Blogger next.  It seems like a bit of a defeat for Google to find it in ninth place, being used by only three out of the top 100 blogs.  Worse still: one of those three blogs is the Official Google Blog, landing the platform in "my mom thinks I'm handsome" territory.Ah, well.  Hats off to the Royal Pingdom crew for the research they did, and good luck with the transfer if you decide to choose a new blog platform for yourself or your company.

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Six Apart has made it simple for nearly anyone to sign in to TypePad Connect with other existing accounts via OpenID. If you have an account with Google, Yahoo, Blogger, Vox, LiveJournal, Wordpress.com, or AOL, you can easily sign in."If you've already tried out our recently launched commenting service via TypePad Connect, you know that we built in very basic support for OpenID sign in from the start," explains Six Apart's David Recordon. "We did this because we know that just as the future of traditional media wasn't a small group of large publishers controlling all of the news, the future of the social web isn't a small group of large social networks controlling everyone's identity. Today we've made it even easier for anyone to sign in, leave a comment, and have a TypePad Profile (see mine) without having to know their OpenID URL or even what OpenID is."Basically what this means, is that anytime you read a blog post on any blog (that supports Typepad Connect-powered comments), you can leave a comment using your identity from an account you already have. This is just one way the web is becoming more unified among varying services, and you can expect to see a lot more of this kind of thing in the future. Recordon says that now any bloggers that are using Typepad Connect powered comments have over half a billion people who can sign in and comment instead of being anonymous. This could significantly reduce the amount of anonymity in the Blogosphere. Not entirely of course, but for all of the people who don't want to take the time to sign up for an account just to leave a comment will be able to easily make themselves known in another way. This should be good news for people who like to utilize blog comments to increase brand exposure.

typepad sign connect quot openid comment blog people future account leave comments identity large wordpress group google recordon anyone yahoo

Yesterday, Facebook held a press conference call, put out a press release, and published a blog post as it gave users a voice in the recasting of the site's terms of use.  Today, although there hasn't been quite as much noise, the social network found another way to demonstrate that it's interested in people's opinions.  Posts on the official Facebook Blog are now open to users' comments.  The new "I like this" feature has been enabled, too.  Think the changes sounds minor?  The post announcing everything has already attracted around 75 comments and 50 thumbs up. That's not to say a true line of communication is necessarily open - Kathy H. Chan, Facebook's resident blogger, writes, "We won't be responding to comments directly," - but it's a step in what many people will regard as the right direction. Chan explains, "You may be wondering why we're choosing to open commenting and enable the Like feature on the Facebook blog now.  It's because we believe that when people choose to share more openly, the transparency will help us better understand one another.  That's the promise of Facebook.  Besides, receiving more of your feedback will enable us to do more good - on the blog and across the site in the way we build products." So go have your say if you want.  Facebook seems ready to listen.

facebook quot blog comments enable open people users press post feature hasn call believe transparency opens feedback minor you interest

Last week was a rough one for the newspaper industry. The 150 year old Rocky Mountain News of Denver closed shop and New York’s Newsday announced it was starting an online paid model despite the fact that the average person spend just 4 minutes and 25 seconds per month on the their website. Not the best news for the hard print news industry for sure. Never fear though. Whenever there is bad news there’s always some research done that can put the paddles on a dying industry and this is no different. MediaPost tells of a survey by the Rosen Group that shows that the vast majority of US consumers ….still deem print editions of newspapers and magazines to be “indispensable” sources of news and entertainment. According to the study People are looking online for news and lifestyle information, but they are not abandoning their print editions,” stated Rosen Group Founder and President Lori Rosen. “There is still a certain satisfaction and ease to holding printed text in your hands, and PDAs or PCs will not replace this just yet.” As an example, Rosen cited the fact that nearly 60% of respondents do not consider information found on blogs to be “credible.” Whoa! Wait a minute there big fella! Blogs not credible? Was that necessary? As with most research these days though you just need to take a look at the source then you need to be use your own smarts to see just how ‘credible’ the information is. In this case, the Rosen Group is a PR Group specializing in print media. I am not saying anything other than I see this kind of research that supports and protects an industry in trouble (i.e. Yellow Pages etc) more and more often. We live in a media drenched world that is changing so rapidly that the finger pointing about relevance and credibility is fast and furious. How do you measure the validity of information on the web or anywhere else for that matter? If it comes from a newspaper is that more legitimate than a blog? What makes either good or bad? You can’t hurt our feelings here at Marketing Pilgrim but since you are reading us at this moment it would be kind of cool if you skewed your responses to favoring blogs. Oooops, did I say that out loud? Comments

news print rosen group industry information rdquo research blogs credible ldquo kind media s online newspaper editions fact vast newspapers

A newly elected US Representative out of Colorado has given himself and hometown bloggers credit for killing local newspaper Rocky Mountain News, which stopped its presses last Friday. Rep. Jared Polis (CO-D) likely stunned the Netroots Nation in Your Neighborhood event with this quip: I have to say, that when we say, 'Who killed the Rocky Mountain News,' we're all part of it, for better or worse, and I argue it's mostly for the better… The media is dead, and long live the new media, which is all of us.” Rocky Mountain News, owned by E.W. Scripps, didn’t take kindly to those remarks and said Polis’ words reflected his poor judgment. Likely they viewed it as salt in the wounds as well. The paper asserted itself as a pioneer in citizen journalism and noted it was an award winning Internet newspaper as well. The congressman issued an apology. Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic doubts many agree the death of a newspaper is a good thing, and offers this succinct response: "All of us" are the new media? I'd like to read the investigations of government corruption produced by "all of us."    

mountain news media newspaper rocky quot likely all dead rdquo usquot words betterhellip kill event award salt government given kindly

Social networking and blogging have become more popular than sending email, according to a new report from Nielsen. More than two-thirds (67%) of the global online population now goes online to visit social networks and blogs. "Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience," says John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. "While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing. Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large. This study explains why." Facebook is the most popular social network and is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online in the nine markets that Nielsen tracks social networking use. Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70%) of any social network in these markets. One in every 11 minutes online worldwide is accounted for by social networking and blogging sites. The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age. The biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to "Member Community" Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million). Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking.  UK mobile users have the greatest tendency to visit a social network through their handset, with 23 percent doing so, compared to 19 percent in the U.S. These numbers are a significant increase over last year- up 249 percent in the UK and 156 percent in the U.S.  

social online networking percent global sites network nielsen visit blogging quot population markets become year experience increase nquot popular thirds

Update: In an interesting turn to this story, the New York Times has eliminated 993,000 article pages as it rolls International Herald Tribune (IHT) into the NYT site. Instead of redirecting the articles to the same article on NYT, they all simply go now to one landing page. Ryan Tate at Valleywag writes, "The Times' longtime online chief, Martin Niesenholtz, recently whined that a Google search on the word 'Gaza' didn't include any of his content on the first results page. And yet he just nuked 121,000 of his own articles containing that keyword." Original article: Big-brand publishers don't like being overshadowed by bloggers. What else is new? A new AdAge article discusses a group of such publishers (including brands like the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, and the New York Times) which make up Google's Publishing Advisory Board, which is calling for Google to rank their content higher because they're "the original sources" of news stories. Of course we all know that while that may often be the case, it is also very often not. Somtimes even "original sources" even come from Microblogging. Remember when the news of the emergency landing on the  Hudson River broke on Twitter? This is not a new discussion. As Steve Rubel says, when he read the article he felt like he had stepped back into 2004. The truth of the matter is, many big brand publishers have become more blog-like and many bloggers and blog-style news sites have become big brands themselves. Rubel phrases it well, "To me, we don't have zebras and elephants anymore. They have mated and we're all one species." But that's not how some of these publishers see it. They'd rather get special treatment based on their own brand rather than putting forth the effort in search engine optimization that others would when they weren't ranking to their satisfaction. Matt McGee (who has also joined this particular discussion) recently looked at a study showing that the Fortune 500 is still "largely invisible" in natural search results. So where does Google stand? A recent update did supposedly cater to bigger brands anyway. "There's absolutely value to original content," AdAge quotes a Google Spokesperson. "There's value to derivative content, too. We look at this in many ways from the point of view of the user. But the truth is there are so many shades of gray even within, quote, original content." The big-brand publishers are awaiting a more concrete answer from Google. The council meets again on April 30. With so much gray, that answer is probably going to be hard to reach. Where do you stand on this subject? Talk about it with WPN readers.

quot publishers google brand content brands news rubel become nthe truth bloggers answer sourcesquot rather adage treatment blog there value

Running a blog can be a big nuisance; you've got keep up with current events, write posts, and monitor comments on at least a daily basis.  But new Pingdom statistics should lighten the load by helping people make sure their blogs remain accessible. Pingdom observed nine different blogging services for a period of four months in order to find out which ones suffered the least amount of downtime.  The uptime-monitoring company's test ran through March 10th, so its findings should be quite current.  TypePad came out on top, spending just 14 minutes in non-working order.  Blogger and WordPress.com were next, with both services losing 20 minutes.  Then there was a significant drop-off, as Windows Live Spaces, Blogster, and Squarespace experienced 250, 279, and 313 minutes' worth of downtime, respectively. Vox, LiveJournal, and Blog.com wrap up the list with performances too bad to bother reporting. So there's some significant (and even potentially valuable) data for all the bloggers out there.  If you're using one of the less reliable services, consider making a switch and testing what sort of effect the move has on your readership and ad revenue.

minutes services least order reliable downtime blog pingdom significant current blogging comments daily wordpress wrap march blogs suffer monitoring squarespace

Google has updated its Blog Search algorithm after postponing the update earlier in the month. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable quotes Googler Jeremy Hylton who explains: We have launched a ranking change that reduces the number of results that are returned because of blogroll matches.  There are still problems to work out, but this change appears to be a big improvement over our earlier fix.  We had originally planned to launch an experiment for link: queries, but decide more recently to release this change first.  We are still working on the link: change and expect to have that ready in a few more weeks. The change can improve the convenience of using Google Blog Search as part of your online reputation management strategy. Anyone with such a strategy in place is probably used to wading through all kinds of mentions of their company that are simply just mentions from blogrolls. "Well, lets say you are like me and you track who links or mentions you via Google Blog Search," says Schwartz. "If someone has the Search Engine Roundtable in the blogroll, and the do a daily blog post, even if that blog post doesn't mention the Search Engine Roundtable, blog search would show that new blog post as a match. Why? Because it is in the blogroll and Google thinks it is part of the content of the blog post." The update should eliminate this problem and make tracking your brand through Google Blog Search a little easier. On the other hand, if you really like finding who has you in their blog roll, you might consider the update a loss.

blog search google update post mentions roundtable engine blogroll quot link nthe launch earlier schwartz strategy kinds quotes easier googler

Of people who both blog and tweet, the majority would overwhelmingly prefer to have more blog readers than followers on Twitter. This is according to surveys conducted by Darren Rowse who runs ProBlogger and TwiTip. Would you prefer more blog readers or Twitter followers? Tell us. This is not entirely surprising, since generally, much more effort is put into a blog post than a 140-character or less tweet, but there is certainly a gold-rush for Twitter followers. Jason Calacanis for one is willing to pay a pretty penny for them. Rowse polled both his ProBlogger audience (which is presumably comprised mainly of bloggers) and his Twitip audience (which is made up of Twitterers). As expected, the Twitip crowd favored Twitter followers slightly more, but there was still a very clear majority wanting more blog readers. Rowse provides the following graphs: There are certainly arguments for the value of both categories, and Rowse covers them pretty well here. There are some pretty obvious ones for blogs: - they require more time/effort - they provide more info - they are most likely not going anywhere, while Twitter may be hot right now, but who knows where it will be in the future? - the more blog readers you have, the more times your posts are likely to be linked to on Twitter anyway There are obvious benefits to having Twitter followers too though, particularly for marketers. - More followers is a good indication that there is demand for what you offer as a business, and that people are interested in your product(s) - relationships easier to form (yes blogs have comments, but typically not the real-time conversation factor, and people are at Twitter to talk...they're not necessarily at your blog to do so) Of course people who both blog and tweet know they don't have to choose between one medium or the other. They compliment each other, and ideally can work to each other's benefits. Twitter can gain you more blog readers, and a blog can gain you more Twitter followers. It's all in the execution. Write good content that Twitterers want to link to. This has plenty of potential for getting you more readers. Include chiclets on your posts, making it easy to share your content (this shouldn't be limited to Twitter). Include a prominent link for people to follow you on Twitter (a Twitter logo here will help draw attention). Link to good content from others when you Tweet. If people like what you're pointing them to, you'll likely gain more followers. Who would've guessed it all comes back to content? You could also mention your blog casually from time to time. This may increase awareness of it. Just because someone follows you on Twitter,  does not mean they know about your blog. That said, you probably don't want to ram it down their throats either. So, blogging Twitter users, would you rather have more blog readers or Twitter followers? Tell us. Tips for using blogs & Twitter together? Share with WPN readers.

twitter blog followers readers people content tweet blogs rowse likely link gain twitip getting twitterers nthere include benefits obvious audience

The New York Times is running an article looking at "hyperlocal" web sites as replacements to traditional newspapers. The catalyst for the concept is obviously the fact that some newspapers have been dying off, at least in print form. The piece looks at web startups EveryBlock, Outside.in, Placebologger, and Patch, which "collect links to articles and blogs and often supplement them with data from local governments and other sources." It is an interesting look into some possibilities for local news options beyond the local paper. Some bloggers take exception to a couple of things implied in the article however. Matt McGee, who has a blog dedicated strictly to local blogging, pulls the following excerpt from the NYT piece: One hurdle is the need for reliable, quality content. The information on many of these sites can still appear woefully incomplete. Crime reports on EveryBlock, for example, are short on details of what happened. Links to professionally written news articles on Outside.in are mixed with trivial and sometimes irrelevant blog posts. That raises the question of what these hyperlocal sites will do if newspapers, a main source of credible information, go out of business. “They rely on pulling data from other sources, so they really can’t function if news organizations disappear,” said Steve Outing, who writes about online media for Editor & Publisher Online. "Inherent in those two paragraphs is this idea that there’s some kind of separation between so-called 'professionally written news' and what local news blogs are doing," says McGee. "This Just In: Professionally written news articles are also sometimes trivial and irrelevant. This isn’t just a blogging thing. But that’s an attitude that continues to thrive in some traditional media circles." Matt makes a great point. It's not a new point. It's often made in the whole blogger/journalist debate, but he phrases it well. So I ask you, what separates a blogger from a journalist? I've seen plenty of credible and non-credible bloggers, as well as credible and non-credible "journalists." Where is the line? Your thoughts? Comment.  Update: Steve Outing, who the NYT quoted in this story has commented on this article below saying that his opinions were misrepresented by the Times. Kind of ironic, given the subject of discussion.Join the discussion.

quot news local credible newspapers blogger sites written article journalist articles professionally mcgee links steve separates t often piece data

The Federal Trade Commission plans to begin regulating blogs and social media. While they're getting tougher on results-based advertising, they are also looking at going after blogs and social media users who portray products they're promoting in a less than accurate light. AdAge explains: As part of its review of its advertising guidelines, the FTC is proposing that word-of-mouth marketers and bloggers, as well as people on social-media sites such as Facebook, be held liable for any false statements they make about a product they're promoting, along with the product's marketer. This could present a significant issue for marketers, including the likes of Microsoft, Ford and Pepsi, who spend billions on word-of-mouth and social media. PQ Media projects that marketers will spend $3.7 billion on word-of-mouth marketing in 2011. And the blogosphere reacts... Frank Reed at Marketing Pilgrim: "Regardless of what side of the political fence you are on it’s starting to get a bit scary as to just how much the government wants to be the overseer of everything." Les at My Radical Blogs: The next question is what will the FTC do to those bloggers that do write paid reviews? Will they prosecute and turn them into criminals? That is fine if you are based in the US. What if your based in Britain, Europe or Australia - will the law cross borders? Peter Da Vanzo at SEOBook lays out what social media marketers need to beware of if the FTC's plan goes into effect. For one, check claims that appear "outrageous" and make sure there are studies to back them up. Here's a glimpse at what Twitterers are saying: "The commission is attempting to update guidelines that are 30 years old so that they address current marketing techniques, and in particular to address the issue of whether or not the safe harbor that's currently allowed for 'result not typical'-type disclaimers is still warranted," says Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division (via AdAge). There seems to be a mixture of paranoia and praise throughout the web. On the one hand, people feel that the Internet should not be regulated in this regard, but others view the whole thing as a positive way to weed out "sleazy" practices. What are your thoughts? Tell us.

media social blogs marketers marketing base word mouth advertising spend adage practices address guidelines issue people regulate promoting product commission

It’s a lot easier to embarrass one’s boss than it used to be. You can thank the now dreaded internal leak for that. What was once reserved for water cooler gripe sessions, collective bargaining and, if things went really sour, lawsuits and national media coverage is now instantly public and brutally humiliating. In Silicon Valley all corporate leaks are referred to Valleywag, where they live in infamy. It was there Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk’s “digital witch hunt” was chronicled and the practice of employee entrapment was given light. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg subsequently emulated Musk, also sending out specially encrypted emails—messages with slight alterations in the text: “I am” versus “I’m,” etc.—to identify employees leaking news indicating Zuckerberg’s totalitarian management style as the chief catalyst for mass executive exoduses. Newly appointed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz pleaded with her staff to tighten their lips about what was going on inside the company before reportedly going all Chuck Norris and threatening “to drop-kick to f**ing Mars” press-friendly employees. Unfortunately for all the executives mentioned, employees just widened the information funnel. The most recent and humorous target of employee retaliation is John Soden III, a managing director at San Francisco based investment bank Thomas Weisel Partners. An email from Soden to “everyone below the MD level” saying that unless they were “an orthodox something” they should get their butts back to the office on Good Friday and that they should get jobs as tellers if they want bank holidays. Soden probably didn’t anticipate his whip-cracking would end up on Valleywag, nor, probably, did he think his detractors would set up a spoof Twitter account, where the Fake John Soden bemoans how only one person worked all night, thinks sushi is Chinese food, and yanks employees out of mosques during working hours. Some managers probably yearn for the pre-digital culture days when crudely drawn cartoons popped up in break rooms and employee bathrooms.     

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Yes, the AP (Associated Press) is desperate. Yes, the AP has lost control of the news. And yes, bloggers are more and more going local with their focus. That leads to an obvious question, will bloggers eventually replace the AP and other news organizations? Wall Street Journal columnist Mark Penn points to statistics which claim that in the U.S. alone there are over 20 million bloggers, of which 1.7 million get paid for it. Mr. Penn also references a Technorati report which says that there are close to a half million bloggers receiving there primary income from this activity. I don't necessarily buy into these exact numbers but clearly there is an important game changing trend at work here. With likely millions of bloggers worldwide and many making their living blogging it's only a matter of time that all news is covered in blogs. The current problem with blogs is not unprofessionalism as many in journalism will tell you, its a lack of central distribution channels. The local court house in your community may have blogger coverage but do you know about it? New restaurants open in your area all the time and bloggers are reviewing them, but are you reading? Your high school won their basketball game last night and it was covered by 2 blogs, 4 twitterers and one Facebook post, but did you notice? The challenge for us Internet entrepreneurs is how to bring this coverage to peoples attention. News aggregation sites and search engines are working at it but they have not yet succeeded at replacing the local newspaper. However, once real-time local news which is covered by hundreds of local bloggers, Twitterers, Facebookers, YouTubers, etc... can be integrated into high-traffic websites then who needs the AP!  

bloggers local news million cover blogs game coverage high twitterers replacing nthe penn statistics youtubers websites claim bring important channels

Google has released the Public Location Badge, which allows users to publish geographic information to their blog automatically whenever they go somewhere. The badge is powered by Google Latitude. If you're unfamiliar with Google Latitude, it is a feature of Google Maps that when enabled, shows your friends your current location wherever you are if you have given it permission to do so. The Public Location Badge will allow you to share your Google Latitude location in two ways: 1. Use the badge's standard embed code 2. Use a KML or JSON feed to create a custom experience in your own application To add the code snippet, you can click the "add to Blogger" button or copy and paste the code into an HTML/Javascript gadgetthat you can add from your layout tab on Blogger. Users can choose to share only their city-level location or the best available one. If enabled, the location is publicly available to everyone. Users can't limit where and with whom info is shared through the badge. You have to be a Latitude user to enable the badge. "We made it easy to customize the type of badge that you want on your blog and let you choose between showing either your best available location or just the city that you're currently in," says Rick Klau on Google's Blogger Buzz Blog. If you want to see how the badge looks in action, Klau refers readers to Danny Sullivan's Daggle blog. You can see Danny's location in the right-hand column of that blog. Google also introuced the Google Talk Location Status app (in beta), which shows  your contacts in Google Talk or Gmail Chat where you are.

badge location google blog latitude quot code enable share city blogger choose shows danny klau talk users public releas ngoogle

We've seen newspaper publishers forbid employees from accessing social networks before. The Wall Street Journal is not restricting access, but they are restricting how social networks are used by their employees. Dow Jones Deputy Managing Editor Alix Freedman sent an email to staff outlining some rules for the use of social media with regards to WSJ and other Dow Jones properties. "The use of social and business networking sites by reporters and editors of the Journal, Newswires and MarketWatch is becoming more commonplace," the email reads. "These ground rules should guide all news employees' actions online, whether on Dow Jones sites or in social-networking, e-mail, personal blogs, or other sites outside Dow Jones." Some of the ground rules mentioned include: -  Consult your editor before "connecting" to or "friending" any reporting contacts who may need to be treated as confidential sources. Openly "friending" sources is akin to publicly publishing your Rolodex. - Let our coverage speak for itself, and don't detail how an article was reported, written or edited. - Don't discuss articles that haven't been published, meetings you've attended or plan to attend with staff or sources, or interviews that you've conducted. - Don't disparage the work of colleagues or competitors or aggressively promote your coverage. And likely the favorite of most critics of these guidelines... - Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter. Common sense should prevail, but if you are in doubt about the appropriateness of a Tweet or posting, discuss it with your editor before sending. Don't mix business and pleasure. Many proponents of social media that use the medium for work will tell you that's exactly what you are supposed to do. "The Wall Street Journal's rules for Twitter and the internet rob the paper and its reporters of a few key benefits," says Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMac. "This misses the chance to make their reporting collaborative." Collaboration, particularly in news, is where social media and blogs thrive. More of the story tends to come out when there is an open conversation. Editor & Publisher has the entire list of guidelines posted here. Many of them are common sense, and some pertain to things outside of social networking.

social quot media journal employees rules jones sites editor wall sources before business street networking guidelines staff twitter networks the

I’ve been trying to coin phrases since I started this gig in 2005—fraugs (fraud blogs), googlings (Google nuts), spitter (Twitter spammer) etc.—and not a one has stuck except “hamsterbating,” which I didn’t actually create but was credited for in an online dictionary. I only bring it up now because if Danny Sullivan gets credit for “Associated Blogs” then I’m gonna blow my top, kick some dirt, and whine a whole lot about it. In 2006, I wrote “Seeds of an Associated Blogosphere” and have mentioned it every chance I got since then, including last month in “The AP’s Battle for Relevance in a Decentralized Universe.” Associated Blogosphere is mine. I want it. Replace hamsterbating with it, please, whoever actually runs the Internet neologisms department. Since Danny brought up my concept, and in the spirit of great minds thinking alike (because I assume he missed those articles), let’s take a look at Danny’s post, entitled “Dammit, I’m a Journalist, Not a Blogger: Time for Online Journalists to Unite?” In a nutshell, Danny bemoans all the special treatment the traditional mainstream press gets while bloggers get “bupkes.” “I wanted to float the idea that perhaps it’s time for an Associated Blogs to take on the Associated Press,” he writes. That should read: I wanted to float the idea that it’s time, like WebProNews’ Jason Lee Miller has repeatedly suggested, for an Associated Blog[osphere] to take on the Associated Press. After that, we’re cool, and ready to cheer on some classic Sullivan-esque ranting: “we’ve got a newspaper industry increasingly portraying us as part of an evil axis that’s killing them. Blogs steal their attention, and Google steals their visitors.” Yeah! That sucks! “I don’t recall Google calling me in, or TechCrunch, or ReadWriteWeb, or VentureBeat [or WebProNews] or any number of other online media outlets and asking about our financial health and ways they could help us. I don’t recall any groups proposing special laws to help our financial health. But I do get sick and tired of seeing the journalism we do not getting near enough credit from mainstream media sources that depend on us, plus us being dismissed as mere bloggers." Preach it! “I’m a journalist, not a blogger. I use a blog platform to publish, but that doesn’t make me a second class citizen in the journalism world.” Rock on, Danny, you tell’em. and I’m all about promoting “your” idea of an Associated Blogosphere, or Online Journalism Association or United Bloggers, I guess, whichever you prefer, so long as, if everybody goes the Associated Blog[osphere] route, I get mentioned in the Wikipedia article about it. ;-D Cheers.        

associate rdquo s t danny online ldquo idea blogs journalism irsquo credit blog press bloggers m google blogosphere osphere donrsquo

There is no question that Twitter and RSS have some things in common. However, they are not the same, and Twitter will not kill the feed reader. This is a concept I have seen come up a number of times, and frankly, I just don't see it happening, at least not without some dramatic changes in how Twitter is presented to its users. Note: There are many different feed readers that offer different options. I am not familiar with all of them. There are also many Twitter applications out there that allow for different kinds of integrations, and again I am not familiar with all of them. There are similarities and differences between the concepts that are RSS and Twitter. Let's look at a few of them. How They Are the Same - One thing they have in common is that there are a lot of people that don't understand the purpose of either one. - Both can bring you a wealth of information that you are interested in receiving into one convenient place. - Both can keep you up to date with news. - Both can provide a means of discovering new and interesting content. - From the content provider's perspective, both can provide a convenient delivery method. Did I leave some out? Share some similarities in the comments. How they Are Different - Of course, Twitter is a two-way communication tool whereas a feed reader only brings information in. Although some have social features that allow for interaction...Google for example has gotten more social with sharing and commenting features. - With RSS there is a better chance that content won't go overlooked. Feed readers put a number on the unread posts. Twitter is a never-ending stream. Granted, you can go to each person's stream separately, but you won't see any specific number of unread posts. - RSS Readers can be organized, broken down into categories...how do you organize Twitter messages (without RSS feeds)? - With Twitter, you can only subscribe to or "follow" those you find on Twitter. With RSS, you pretty much have the entire web as long as the site offers feeds, which most providing regular content do by now. Most blogging platforms create feeds automatically. - With feeds, you get a lot more visible content. With Twitter, you get 140 characters. Some feeds allow for full text. With tweets you will always have to follow links to get full content. - Tweets are real-time. RSS tends to drag behind a bit (at least in my experience). Did I leave some out? Share some differences in the comments. Jeff Chandler puts it well (if not bluntly): "To limit yourself to Twitter instead of RSS is a dumb move because your feedreader provides you the opportunity to see the bigger picture. You get to see many viewpoints instead of just one. You get to see trends outside of what people are talking about. Instead of updates or cool posts from here or their on the web, your feedreader serves the purpose of bringing all sorts of great information from across the web to you in one location." You can subscribe to Twitter streams as RSS feeds, for better organization, which is another endorsement for RSS. Use a feed reader to organize your Twitter friends' posts. You can also set up your blog to post to Twitter via RSS. Will Twitter replace feed readers? I don't think so. But it certainly could become more mainstream (if it hasn't already). You could probably find more people on the street that have heard of Twitter than have RSS at this point. But for those who have already been enjoying RSS, you're going to have a hard time convincing them that Twitter will replace it in their lives. While similar in some aspects, they are clearly two very different animals. Like blogs and Twitter, there is no reason why they can't co-exist, and even feed off of each other. The best links on Twitter often come from people who acquire those links themselves via feed readers. Likewise, a lot of bloggers are gathering information from Twitter to compose their content. I do think that RSS and Twitter can be used to explain each other to those who don't grasp the concept of one or the other. If you describe Twitter as "sort of a feed reader" type service, you may drive (at least part of) the point home. If someone doesn't understand RSS, you might be able to explain it using Twitter as an example. Just a thought.

twitter fee content feeds readers information people posts instead links allow organize reader least replace provide nhow concept explain subscribe

Comments are the backbone of the social web. Everything is going social if it has not already been that way for some time. Why is that? People are social by nature. It's how we communicate. It's how we learn. It's how we teach. Do you find comments to be valuable resources? Share your thoughts. Conversations are built upon comments going back and forth and branching out in new directions, taken from one channel to the next. As the web as a whole has become more social, the conversation has gotten larger and it has become easier for anyone to get involved at a growing number of destinations, whether you join in the comments on a blog post, a Twitter stream, a Facebook News Feed,  an email , a Google result (courtesy of SearchWiki), IMDB, a forum, a YouTube video, etc. The web has never been as connected as it is now, and it is only becoming more so each time any service rolls out a new sharing feature. Facebook launched Facebook Connect, Digg launched the Diggbar, somebody launched the Shareaholic Firefox add-on, etc. These are just a few examples of thousands of content sharing tools. There is value in conversation. I'm sure you've heard of the wisdom of crowds. Is every blogger an authority on something? No. Are all bloggers the authority on the subject of each of their posts? Of course not. That's why commenting is an option. Comments add value for the reader. If a blogger is wrong about something (or even if he is not, but there is some debate), there are comments there to at least provide different views. Readers can then take these in with the original post and use their own judgment to reach their own conclusion, or use it as reason to further research the topic. Either way, they are getting value out of it because they are not taking one person's word for it. When you're talking about a blog, or a news site, or really any kind of content site, comments add value. They don't just add vale for the reader, but for the publisher as well. WebProNews recently conducted an interview with James Smith, Chief Revenue Officer for the Huffington Post, a very popular social news site. In fact, James attributes the site's success to being social. He says the site currently logs over a million comments a month. More WebProNews Videos "The reason I like to read HuffingtonPost is because of the comments - it makes it feel so much more community based AND the comments are refreshed quite quickly," writes Susan, commenting on a WebProNews post looking at the interview (and adding value to that post of course). In the above clip, Smith talks about some types of things that attract people to want to "dive into" content. He mentions polls, images, and most popular stats, like showing the most popular news stories, and how many comments they have. Readers see hot topics of conversation, and often feel more compelled to look at that content because they have an indication that it has generated some interest. Of course this helps page views, which can help advertising, and so on and so forth. This benefits everyone involved. Advertisers get more clicks. Publishers get more money from advertisers. Readers get more valuable content - not only from the comments, but because if the publisher is doing well financially, they'll be able to keep providing the content. Everybody wins. Furthermore, the publisher will be more inclined to post on subjects of interest, because they will attract comments, and the cycle continues. Sometimes readers need a little push for commenting (which is why you'll often see comment links scattered throughout WebProNews content). It's simply a call to action for added value for all parties. Blogger Neville Hobson has a nice list of tips you can use to encourage comments. As a blogger/publisher, once you get comments, keep up with them, and stay involved in the conversation when applicable (certainly time can be a factor here). For one, it will give the commenters a reason to come back, and conversations that come from comments can often inspire future posts. There also may be some things that fit right into your post that you hadn't thought of, and they will be there as additional resources for your readers. Do you enjoy reading comments on articles and blog posts? Do you find yourself commenting frequently? Tell us.

comments content post value social readers commenting news conversation blogger publisher webpronews often popular facebook reason blog involv posts launch

There has been talk about Yahoo 360 closing down as far back as 2007, but only now is it truly official. They've set a date - July 13 is the day that Yahoo 360 will be no more. Yahoo has been easing the transition for users to switch to their "new profiles," and is now requesting users move into their new profile by no later than July 12. Yahoo Community Manager Melissa Daniels at the 360 Blog writes: While we know that many of you have faithfully used this service over the past few years, our goal has been to find a way to unify your social experience and connections across all of Yahoo! and anywhere you travel across the Web. So, while we’re sad to say that we will no longer be supporting Yahoo! 360°, we’re excited about this larger plan and hope you’ll transition over and be a part of it, too. We also want to reiterate our commitment to preserving your blog content. We have been working to make sure we put the right mechanisms in place so that you can move your content and minimize disruption. It is with this thought in mind that we’re happy to introduce a new blogging feature that has already been integrated into your profile. Melissa goes on to answer questions like: - Why is Yahoo 360 closing? - It’s been almost two years since you first announced 360 was closing—why shut it down now? - What is going to happen to my blog? - First you shut down Mash, now you shut down 360—why should I give profiles a shot? - What about customization and photos? On 360 I can change the look and feel and upload multiple photos—can I do this with profiles? ...so if you want the answers to any of these, check this post. In addition, there is a FAQ page here. Yahoo says the new profiles do not have all the features and functionality that 360 profiles do, but they're looking forward to incorporating new ways of expression in to them.

yahoo profiles re shut wersquo blog closing profile quot years nyahoo transition users content july across move awaythere switch faithfully

Blog posts that aren't less than two days old no longer have to be considered lost for all time.  Google's made the Custom Search AJAX gadget available to all Blogger users, and as a result, it's become much easier to call up entries from the past along with other info. A post on the Official Google Blog explains, "You can configure this gadget to help your readers search all the information that's relevant to your blog - your posts, webpages that you link to, and sites that you link to from the sidebar - all in one shot.  When your readers search using this gadget, the results are displayed with the look and feel of your blog.  And they show up inline, so readers don't have to leave your blog."   Not bad, all in all.  Making it even better is the fact that adding the Custom Search AJAX gadget just involves opting to edit your blog's layout, clicking "Add a Gadget," and next selecting the new offering.  Plus, since the feature's undergone a period of testing thanks to Blogger in draft, there shouldn't be many bugs. Rajat Mukherjee, a Group Product Manager, requested feedback, so feel free to let Google know what you think of all this. In the meantime, test how it feels to have blog posts from beyond the last 36 hours remain findable.

blog gadget search google quot readers posts next custom blogger ajax link feel layout entry feels request plus longer edit