Monday, March 17, 2008

If You Haven't Already Heard....Cool Links 3/17/08

So, I've been pretty sick with an un-removed kidney stone* for the past 10 days or so , which has seriously limited my ability to sit at my desk for periods of time that would allow me to write some cool blog posts. Instead, I'll pass the links along so you can write your own cool posts:

Web creator rejects net tracking (BBC)--Tim Berners-Lee doesn't like Phorm. Neither do I. And stop trying to tell me that behaviorally-targeted ads are good for me. Not if I don't know you're following me....

Boston.com teams with Google for local search(Kelsey Group Blog)-- Boston.com’s mission is to move away from “newspaper.com” toward becoming the aggregator of local community content, notes VP of Product Bob Kempf. The site has taken several concrete steps to get there, including local news outreach, crawls for local events, multimedia search, and perhaps most importantly, business listing search (i.e., Yellow Pages). Well, now *this* is interesting stuff! It goes on: Boston.com also appreciated the ability to use Google to build out a tiered list of searches that any newspaper would want to have; a “white list” for pure listing lookups; a “gray list” for in between searches, such as place names; and a “black list” for inappropriate searches, such as tying merchandise ads to a news story on a murder in Worchester.

On a business basis, the deal with Google gives Boston.com a chance to make money on reselling the CPM at higher rates and also from local AdSense ads that appear alongside the searches, says Kempf. It also provides new inventory to sell around the search box — not dissimilar to what newspapers have always done, selling mortgage ads around real estate listings and other content.
So, there's a new-ish, or updated, business model. But should all papers partner with Google? Will Google soon be saying "all your news belong to us!"

Eliot Spitzer's bank turned him in to the IRS (NYNewsday)--Question: what do former NYGov. Eliot Spitzer and deceased ganster Al Capone have in common? Both were gotcha'd! by the IRS! Ain't life funny? But I coulda told Spitzer to watch those transactions--this is a long story that will precipitate a blog post soon...

The Washington Post's Plan to drag the editing process into the 21st century(Slate)--when it takes 12 freakin' editors to put one one story, you've got a problem in your newsroom. I thought the reason one went into journalism or got a job writing for a paper was because one could actually write. I wonder if there's some internal distrust in newsrooms--of management for reporters' abilities to write a story--that's one of the many roots of the current problems with journalism. Twelve editors! With twelve editors on my butt, not only would my spelling be better, but my prose would be completely lifeless!

Think about it ;-)




*it will be removed in the near future, if my ureter will cooperate and expand enough so they can get in with the laser and blast the little bugger. All I can say is that the near future isn't near enough!

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