Open The Dialogue

• Multi-tasking when it comes to media usage is reaching epic proportions. If you strung it all out end to end you'd have 43 hour days of media consumption. Yikes. (CT)
• Floppy disks are about out of time as information storage devices. More and more PCs are being manufactured without them as USB drives, with their smaller size and higher capacity, become the device of choice. (CT)
• Older Flickr users are pretty upset over the announcement that, come March 15th, you will need a Yahoo account to log into the photo-sharing site. Shakespeare warned us. (CT)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been busy exploring ways to auction ad-space on my back side in order to raise money to go see the Bears play in the Super Bowl. Any takers? Hello? Is this thing on? --Chris

• Wikipedia is adding "no follow" tags to the links on its pages, meaning those links aren't getting the Google Juice they otherwise would.
• I'm inclined to think that companies have the right to edit factually incorrect Wikipedia entries but the fact that Microsoft went and paid outside bloggers to do so makes me think they felt they were doing something wrong. Microsoft has said it tried going through usual channels but kept being shut out, leading to it employing this tactic. Unfortunately, as Arrington says, there is a fundamental flaw with Wikipedia's system that is starting to become more and more obvious.
  
• The National Institute of Health has also been found to have edited its own Wikipedia entry, bringing it head to head with those who question its science.
  
• I honestly can't believe we're still talking about LonelyGirl15.
• As PR people I think we should be ashamed of ourselves everytime we read something like this saying that journalists aren't hooked into RSS.
  
• MySpace makes itself useful by announcing it will begin distributing Amber Alerts.
  
• David just about nails the stages of Second Life adoption.
• Marketing in Second Life could lead to big bucks according to at least one person.
• The LA Times is enacting a bunch of ideas aimed at making integrating more deeply the online and offline worlds that exist at the paper.
  
• When you think, logically, that politics is largely just marketing, it makes sense that it too is becoming a conversation.
• Mack weighs in on on the reemergence of the "social media is dead" meme.
• The Washington Post has added a number of outside blogs to its web offerings in an attempt to give it some cred.
  
• It's the people who are already in Second Life who are the most enthusiastic about the world's future.
  
• The new media savviness of the Super Bowl-bound Chicago Bears gets examined by Steve Johnson.
• Google might be planning a virtual world of its very own.
  
• Yahoo has shut down discussion on its news stories because of concerns that too few people were dominating the discussion.
  

Posted by Chris Thilk at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's been a bunch of news about the future of the retail music industry that all sort of goes together so I wanted to put it into one place:

• Record companies are eyeing moving toward open-format MP3s for digital downloads within the next year or so as opposed to all the DRMed files in incompatible formats that are polluting the system now.
• According to eMarketer, the number of digital music sales nearly doubled in 2006 over 2005 numbers. Those numbers still don't make up for the drop in physical CD sales, but imagine if the tracks were in the above-mentioned MP3 format.
• Mark Glaser makes a lot of good points, chief among them that the $15 price-point for a physical CD has been around for a while now and is largely artificial at this point.
• Mack is talking about SnoCap's MyStore, a new venture from Napster founder Shawn Fanning. The service would enable artists to sell their music directly to the audience as MP3s.
• Music videos from Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group artists will have Google AdSense's video ads attached to them.
• A new service called Ruckus will be offering free music to college students. The bummer is that it's going to be distributed in Microsoft's PlaysForSure format, meaning it won't even play on Microsoft's own Zune player not to mention iPods.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I thought about leaving this as an additional comment but decided to post it here instead.

Steve,
If you're going to go around saying that social media is no mo' or that the phrase should be dropped from the lexicon, then first talk about what you're doing within Edelman as a thought leader. That would start with maybe addressing the irony of you saying that at the same time that your agency positions itself as being so savvy because it distributes press releases in both old media and "social media" formats.

--Chris

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So far at least three Democratic candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, have all announced they are beginning the process of running for President in 2008 via streaming video. That's obviously becoming as powerful a medium for politics as it is for the people being governed. That's what makes this initiative by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo so interesting. He wants to hear from people who want to produce their own response to President Bush's State of the Union address tomorrow night. He notes that Jim Webb will be delivering the official Democratic response after the speech but is interested in helping to give a larger audience to the reaction that everyday citizens might have to it.

It's not that an outlet like TPM is needed in order for people to have their say - YouTube and other video sharing sites are often all the platform that's needed - but this puts all those in one convenient spot. That's pretty cool.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While paying my American Express Card bill a few moments ago, I noticed that they are now offering Cardmember offers and other information via RSS on their Website.

While I might have a bit of past history with the company (I worked at American Express from 1999 until 2002), it doesn't mean I can't say that I think this is a pretty slick use of RSS, if not very simple and basic. If anything, it proves the point that you don't have to do something super powerful and "out there" with a technology such as RSS, you just have to use it as an option, another way to reach out to your existing customers. It's not just about the offers on your statement that are tailored to you, but creating the opportunity to get offers on their terms, when (and most importantly, if) they want them. Plus, in that American Express has a pretty good handle on "exclusive" offers such as show tickets, etc., this could be a really good thing for them. I'd be curious to see what kind of use rate their was.

Posted by Tom Biro at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I can't tell you how many times I remarked to Tom along the lines of "I just have to finish some reading..." when he asks me to do something. That's why I, for the first time since its launch, laughed at this Blaugh comic.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

...We are the Bears' Shuffling Crew...shuffin' on down, doin' it for you...

Sorry, I was listening to some music. Let's move on. --Chris

• With cheap software and a lot of enthusiasm, a group of folks have created their own daily video show on stock picks and financial markets, moving in on territory previously held only by experts and the like. (CT)
• Shocking! RSS still hasn't moved into mainstream adoption. (CT)
• IBM is creating its own social networking for business solution that it's positioning as a direct challenge to Microsoft. (CT)
• Rick Klau has a pretty intriguing idea on how Microsoft could capture some market share from Apple that makes a lot of sense. (CT)
• The news of the day is being decided by the readers and not necessarily the editors. (CT)
• Real estate agents are blogging, and those blogs are getting noticed by people running searches and looking for real estate information in their area. (CT)
• Finally, some quality breakout and definition when it comes to social networking, with a pretty big appeal. Check out OurChart, social networking for "lesbians and their friends," as the company's December 18 press release announces. It was founded by Ilene Chaiken, who many of you might recognize from her work with Showtime's "The L Word," along with Hilary Rosen and Beth Callaghan, formerly of PlanetOut.(TB)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• This behind the scenes peek at Joost has me positively salivating at getting in and playing around with it myself. (CT)
• It's an honest-to-goodness mystery JD Lasica has on his hands. His video interview with the founder of Tower Records, which was under the time limit and which featured Creative Commons music, has been yanked by YouTube. (CT)
• Blogs are good for marketing. (CT)
• This is kind of funny. You know how sometimes your boss comes in with some sort of "we need to do this" idea related to shiny new technology? That might be because they saw it in a movie and figured the technology must be incredibly easy to use. [Via] (CT)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yeah, let's all be surprised that a bunch of Chicago suburbs are reconsidering their smoking bans now that the Bears are in the playoffs. I don't smoke but even I needed a cigarette about five minutes into the fourth quarter of last week's game. Anyway...

• Josh brings up an interesting point about the whole "newspaper blogs gaining readers" issue. The tools that drive these blogs, WordPress, Blogger or even TypePad, are low cost with, now, high return. (CT)
• Linden Labs is making some adjustments to Second Life that they hope will make it more friendly for retailers, provide a more natural search experience and more. (CT)
• MovableTweak has a great item up about how a new MT version coming out and how Six Apart needs to get it in high gear if MT is going to be able to keep the hold it has on the blogging space. I have more comments for a later time. (TB)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• How much does it say about Apple's current state of affairs that an article wondering whether the iPhone is a desperation play by the company even gets written? Apple is usually immune from such non-cheerleader coverae but I think this will become more common.
• Check out some handy tips on how to improve your sites placements within Google results.
• Blogs are becoming pretty popular with mainstream publications, with page views rising sharply in recent months.
• News Corp. has found another way to try and kill MySpace, this time by offering parents software to monitor their child's account.
• I have to agree with Shel that the Technorati/PRNewswire "deal" appears to be a non-story. Shel's digging into what exactly gets returned via those T'rati links leads me to believe that the deal involves negative stories being omitted from the search for a release, something that's just going to limit usage.
• Marketing emails often don't contain links, which kind of defeats the purpose. Even more troubling in my opinion is the number of pitch emails I get that don't contain links. I like to link out to stuff since, more than anything, it bestows a kind of legitimacy to what I write. If I get a press release that's just been pasted into an email I more or less ignore it since it gives my readers nowhere to turn for more info.
• YouTube's marketing head talks about the transition into an ad-serving site that the site has been going through as it looks to monetize all the user content and pay for server space. (Thanks to Paul for the link)
• Ze Frank has signed a talent deal with Hollywood. A million bloggers cry out at once and are suddenly silenced.
• The OJR provides a nice and easy to email to your less tech-savvy colleagues list of some of the more common online terminology.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Clay just posted a reminder that this Friday is another Chicago Coffee Morning. We meet and discuss, well, anything and everything. While the group tends to consist mostly of bloggers and marketers everyone is welcome to come for some good morning and some good conversation.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I want expand here on something that I started over on AdJab. I end this post by reminding advertisers that small sites should not be overlooked when they're drawing up ad plans. But there's more than that which needs to go on. Don't just leave it at advertising. Find new and interesting ways to engage the people pounding away on those blogs, many of whom do it for no other reason than that they've found a topic they're passionate about. These people might not always pass on the exact messaging that's been approved by half the company - that's just a reality. But what they will do, if you've established a relationship with them, is listen to your side of a story and pay more attention to the stuff you might send them.

Building relationships in the community that's already talking about your industry/company/product is the best way to harness the power of that community. Walk with them. Talk with them. Reach out and see what kind of feedback you can give to them and what they can give to you. I sometimes think there's a treasure trove of consumer pattern behavior just sitting there, barely tapped (if at all) in the blog and forum chatter online. Learn how to jump into that and I think marketers will have a great amount of success with future endeavors.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I wanted to break these stories out from the regular LOTD round-up because they all center around a specific topic, that of the role of blogging in media.

First is this post from Stephen Baker at Newsweek that emphasizes how telling media bloggers that they can't write about internal goings-on robs those writers of some good material. That's true in any corporate environment, where there has to be a certain amount of transparency in the blogging in order for the blog to be engaging and interesting.

Next up is this column from David Carr. Carr writes the Carpetbagger blog about the entertainment industry and awards season and talks about how blogging builds an instantaneous feedback loop between him and his readers. I especially appreciate Carr's honesty about sometimes deliberately stirring up a hornets nest in order to get people to react and how doing that is based at least partially on wanting to remind himself how many readers he has.

A lot of those same points are discussed by the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn as he recounts a presentation he was part of on how blogging and column writing are two different approaches toward what is ultimately the same goal. Both formats, of course, have advantages and it's nice to see someone list them.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Quick quote from this past Sunday: "Get there...get there...YES!!!! It made it!!!! It made it!!!!" The only bad thing about the Bears winning is that someone's going to haul out the Super Fans and make us suffer through that again. If it's not Chris Farley dismissing a heart attack as a "Baker's Dozen" it's not all that funny. On with the LOTD.

• Some very wrong-headed people want to enact legislation that would require all users of music libraries to pay "fair market value" for the use of that music. This is being pushed because new satellite radio devices allow you to store music, something the music industry doesn't care for. (CT)
• I think it's important to remember - and Greg Verdino reminds us - that entry by marketers into Second Life isn't enough. You have to do something with it. (CT)
• James Wales has launched WikiSeek, his people-powered search engine that Wales is positioning as a more precise tool since it doesn't suffer from the vagaries of algorithms. (CT)
• Josh Hallett echoes something I've been saying for a while, which is that while the revenue from paid archives might be great, newspapers are shooting themselves in the foot by not opening up these archives to search engines. (CT)
• Joost appears to be the actual launch name for The Venice Project, the long in-development online video project from the founders of Kazaa and Skype. (CT)
• Microsoft is launching its own analytics tool. Yay? (CT)
• BusinessWeek has a pretty good beginners guide to the usage of online video for everything from advertising to internal corporate usage. (CT)
• Confabb now lets you build your own "badge" that you can display on your blog to show the world what conferences you're speaking at or attending. It's kind of awesome.(CT)
• The Washington Post wants to harness the power of the local bloggers in its neck of the woods and is encouraging them to participate by offering not only increased exposure but also a cut of online ads sales revenue. (CT)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Slightly expanded edition.

Gather.com is getting into the literary world in a couple different ways. They've created a group for Borders customers to discuss movies, music and such. The partnership will get considerable in-store promotion that encourages people to connect with others and discuss what they're reading, watching and listening to. The social network is also letting unpublished authors put the first chapter of their books online for people to check out. A round of voting determines which ones get to publish the second chapter and then more voting and so on until a couple of Simon & Schuster execs decide which final five to check out in full.

The authors of Eater.com are honking off the public officials and restaurant owners of New York City. Their blog deconstructs the hype that the restaurant industry feeds on and into by passing on the news tips and opinions of ordinary diners in the city. The site isn't about the food - it's about the industry and has become a popular web destination for not only every day readers but mainstream media types who report on what's being said there.

Josh Hallett does his best to remind all of us that it's not enough to just tally up the number of blog mentions in spreadsheet. It's the people and what they're saying that really makes social media important and if you take that out of the equation you lose pretty much all the perspective and potential insight that might be gained by monitoring it.

So much time is wasted and frustration is gained because it's not easy for people to find information within a corporation. One of the things that I try to do is put just about everything that crosses my desk into our internal wiki in an attempt to solve this problem. It's not perfect but it's a lot easier than trying to figure out whether a particular document is on my hard drive or maybe it's still just in email or maybe I saved it somewhere else.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Mack Collier talks about how a bad experience at a department store has led to it being used as a case study at a trade group presentation. He then asks how much the impact of this might have been lessened if someone from the company were reaching out to the community.
• The next election will fought on TV, in print and on candidate blogs.
• Who the heck is standing in line to get tasered at CES? I mean, not counting Peter Shankman and Amanda Congdon.
• We here in Chicago as well as folks in Washington are about to get WiMax thanks to Sprint.
• The limited amount of users and the recent showy announcements from Apple have turned Microsoft's Zune player into, as MSNBC says, a really expensive paperweight.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey I need some help. Steve Jobs made some sort of announcement yesterday but I can't find a link. Could someone send me a wrap-up or something? Thanks in advance.

• Sorry, celebrities, once you get shot on cellphone cam having a beach romp you can't put the genie back in the bottle. (CT)
• The social media usage by Fortune 500 companies has been gotten a good analysis. (CT)
• Newsgator has rolled out a couple of new features and a new look that you can try out. (CT)
• No, you're not imagining things. Spam emails are worse than ever. (CT)
• It's important to listen to your gut instincts. But not at the expense of solid research. (CT)
• Ezra Klein wonders why Apple's new iPhone is Cingular-exclusive. (CT)
• An important point for all of us to remember - Just because you can self-publish doesn't necessarily mean what you have to say is worth other people's time and money. (CT)
• Investors are getting anxious to see what great ideas eBay has in mind for its Skype acquisition. Can't say I disagree. (CT)
• Say blogosphere again - I dare you! (CT)
• How many hours of SiteMeter outage does there have to be before people start flipping out? Tuesday afternoon/evening wasn't pretty for a lot of people. (TB)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A plea for sanity: Can we please discontinue the use of "frienemy"? Sweet crikey - if I hear this one more time I assure you it will end badly.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today's random thought: I don't know the difference between a "hoedown" and a "hootnanny." Li'l help?

• Edward Wasserman does a pretty good job of pointing out just how inherently ethically conflicted the idea of 'beat reporting" is. He points out that in order to be a good reporter you have to cultivate sources but sometimes reporting will embarrass those sources. So it's a problem. (CT)
• The FeedBurner team gets very open and honest about the strengths and weaknesses of the numbers they provide to publishers. This is a great example of using a corporate blog to connect with an audience. (CT)
• Yahoo has acquired MyBlogLog, which has been gaining in popularity ever since its debut. (CT)
• Shel Holtz reminds us of something we already know, which is that Jeremy Pepper is smart. (CT)
• Three media types log their media consumption over the course of a week. It's interesting, but I think the fact that there's no RSS reading in there should tell all of us that we're not doing a good enough job on new media education. (CT)
• Eric Tatro has made the move to his own domain. (CT)
• Oh come on, admit it. You know you're going to be one of those repetitively hitting refresh over at Engadget, Gizmodo, and a whole bunch of other places. (TB)

Posted by Chris Thilk at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Random thoughts, in roughly the right order, while wandering around Second Life on my way to the he newly opened Sears store.

Where am I - Oh, that's right, Crayon.

Search for "sears" - wow, 2,400+ dwells so far

Yikes, rough teleport. Need to catch my virtual breath.

I'm not wearing a shirt.

I'm still not wearing a shirt.

Does anyone else notice how completely not wearing a shirt I am?

OK, let's head in - cool sliding doors.

I think i'll check out Electronics first.

So you're delivered to the floor and then have to transition to some sort of trans-dimensional showroom in order to actually look at anything? Isn't that a bit too much?

Ooo...someone put a .gif of a couple Japanese swords on that wall.

Have I been here long enough to count as a dwell stat yet?

Nice product descriptions on the TVs and other items.

OK, I'm going to head back out. Too lazy to wait for the elevator so I'll just jump down.

Anything else I can do while I'm in-world? Nope, didn't think so.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 02:59 PM | Permalink

Not to be outdone in the arena of pandering to the public by Time's Person of the Year, Advertising Age has named "The Consumer" its Agency of the Year. Seems they were on the cusp of naming DraftFCB but then decided that didn't have quite the headline value.

What's the point of this? Are we as either media producers or consumers so needy and insecure that we need this sort of validation? I don't think so. Which means these publications are doing this, embracing the general public so that they might be embraced in return.

As Joe Jaffe and others say, there's still a lack of marketers who, as Mack Collier puts it, are willing and able to walk with their communities. To often CGC is co-opted by big companies or people are asked to create ads or something like that. There's not enough genuine interaction between marketers and the people who are talking about them. Regardless of how many times we're given the tacit endorsement of big publications like this it's not enough - there needs to be action there for it to really mean something.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• San Francisco is on the cusp of getting some free Google-provided Wi-Fi. (CT)
• Second Life is going open-source. (CT)
• Unsurprisingly, MySpace is the most popular of the social networking sites out there amongst teenaged users. (CT)
• Oh how I'd love to see DRM go the way of the dodo, something that Wired predicts might at least begin to happen in 2007. [via](CT)
• Steve Safran has accepted the position of Sr. Vice President of Media 2.0 at AR&D. Congrats to Steve.(CT)
• Ben McConnell says one big indicator of the impending demise of Disney's new social-networking effort is the sheer size and volume of the marketing for it. No other network that's gone on to become popular has made this much noise upon launch. (CT)
• We're not in a bubble because the money isn't quite as out of control according to Michael Arrington. What he's saying makes a lot of sense if you ask me. (CT)
• You can watch the entire "History of the iPod" show from the Discovery Channel online. (CT)
• Meetup.com enables like-minded people to come together regardless of interest area. We all know this but it's nice to see the mainstream media pick up on it too. (CT)
• If you're tempted to make predictions for what's going to happen in 2007 you might want to take a look at the predictions that were made about the 'net back in 1994. (CT)
• I think the adoption of new styles and online tools by Time and the WSJ might just signal the death of the "social media" designation. Then again I might just be saying that to start a conversation I don't intend on participating in further.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So I'm in a meeting today and we're talking about different approaches for garnering mentions in trade versus consumer media. As I'm listening to the others having this discussion it occurs to me that such designations mean almost nothing to me. There are certain sites that certainly have a focus on one or the other but they're open for everyone to read. There's no barrier for consumers to read a B2B-oriented site just like there's no barrier for B2B firms to read a consumer-focused site.

Many of the previous lines between such publications have been broken by the all-powerful link. It doesn't matter what the source is - if it's of interest to the blogger it gets linked. So I think in terms of how to get coverage that will get linked to by the influential bloggers in this space. Where it originates is immaterial to me. There are strategic decisions that impact who gets pitched and such, I know, but overall it's just not something that I think about too much. I think about getting coverage - period.

What do you all think about this?

Posted by Chris Thilk at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning I heard this story on NPR about how the ease of self-publishing has impacted the role of the traditional media critic. It contained this quote from former Village Voice critic Robert Christgau:

"Has the Internet made the rationalization of critical opinion easier? Not in my opinion. I don't think so. Because there's simply too much for anybody to digest. You need gatekeepers," Christgau says.

I completely agree. But instead of defining this in terms of media I've put my RSS reader in the place of gatekeeper. I define what gets in, using Newsgator as a proxy. It allows me to give all voices an equal starting point and then I can assign weight and influence as I see fit.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Lifehacker's Gina Trapani gets the WSJ photo treatment today in an item that talks about what Lifehacker has to offer and provides some nifty tidbits and quotes about Trapani (TB)
• This isn't a link of the day, really, but just a note that I've gotten one spam on my personal blog and Baristanet, which receives hundreds of comments per day, has received just about the same, since I implemented the MTCloseComments plugin about a week or so ago (TB)
• Someone has put up the results of their experiment into how easy it is to cancel various memberships. It's interesting, but would be more so if there were some notes as to the methodology used. [via] (CT)
• I know some people lurve Quantcast and, in theory, it seems very cool. But every attempt I've made to find stats for a site that isn't an example they themselves provide I get told they've not collected enough data for that site. Until everyone puts down the weaponry and agrees on a common standard for online traffic, divining such numbers will remain largely a guessing game. (CT)
• What's with the sudden surge in paying people for recommendations? DayTipper is paying $3 to people who select a "news tip" that the sites editors decide is useful enough to make it to a collaborative blog. And USuggest is paying people for recommending products and services that they like. Both of these seem like extraordinarily effective ways to kill any Long Tail content since only top-selling products will get recommended. (CT)
• Yes, local news is still important. (CT)
• CBS is finding that embracing online users leads to those users establishing deeper connections with the TV programs. (CT)
• Life Tom's item above, this isn't exactly an LOTD, but I, along with some other online entertainment writers weigh in on 2007 predictions that are sometimes funny and sometimes serious. (CT)

Posted by Tom Biro at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well FeedBurner is pretty much a one-stop shop now, aren't they? Not only can you manage you RSS feeds through them and track the stats for that feed but the team has just unveiled the official release of site statistics as well. If you're already using FeedFlare for your site or feed (the little things that say "digg this!" or other such phrases with exclamation points) you just need to check a box in your feed management dashboard and you're all setup.

I think this is a great tool. It consolidates for a number of publishers all of their site stats into one place instead of having to manage multiple services. You can now get one comprehensive picture of how many people are viewing your content no matter how they consume it, something that personally I've been wanting for quite a while.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• BusinessWeek's Matt Vella gives the Nike+iPod five stars as a product, and says it "could be as vital to a runner as a pair of sneakers." That's pretty hefty talk for a product. And as accessories go for iPods and such, maybe they're not a dime a dozen after all?
• Chris just informed me that as Cameron Marlow (and others) discussed last month, LinkedIn has launched its own Answers product.
• I missed this in the last few days of catching up (still doing it!), but here's Read/Write Web's latest results as to what folks think will be the matchup in 2007 to what social networking was in 2006. Online Video / Internet TV taking the cake would make Jeff Jarvis proud, methinks.
• Robert Scoble lists the 40 things he links to the most as sources. Chris and I stare, blankly, with no surprise. Interesting meme to start, though. (No offense, Robert - I think it's just that by reading you regularly, it's not as surprising)
• It's all been about predictions for the new year, blah blah blah, the last week or so. Steve Rubel is calling for a moratorium on cattiness in the blogosphere. Want my prediction? Not gonna happen. Not that I disagree, but I'm not optimistic about this particular area of the blogosphere, especially seeing recent dust-ups.
• It's not exactly crisis communications, but I thoroughly enjoyed C.K. Sample's head-on commentary on criticism of Netscape, which he's running since Jason Calacanis' departure from AOL. Just a thought on how people in the new media world are using traditional tactics to publish a permanent response to issues coming up on a regular basis. (disclosure: I'm involved as a Navigator for the Netscape property)

Posted by Tom Biro at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Disney has gotten lots of press in recent days for the news that they're finally redesigning their website, a site that's looked the same for many, many years now. One of the key components to the site will be more social networking functionality that tries to emulate MySpace and position Disney as the place for kids and teens to hang out. I have to believe this was at least in part spurred by the success Disney had with its TV-movie-turned-brandname "High School Musical," the campaign for which connected well with teens and kids by including a number of online components.

The problem, though, is that the social aspects of the new site are restricted to an extent that users might not find acceptable. Basically Disney wants parents to feel good about their kids spending time there and so have limited what users can put on their profiles and what kinds of appropriate subjects can be discussed in the chat areas.

It seems that, for all the marketing power they possess, Disney execs have not studied recent history. If they had, they would have realized that Wal-Mart's attempt to create a content-restricted social network flopped because of those restrictions. They also would have read this story on how kids were abandoning rules-laden sites for ones that don't suffer from the pressures of parental approval and corporate ownership, something that's recapped well here (via Brian).

I know that social networking is a great idea, as is the desire to protect kids from less savory parts of the online world. But imagine creating a coffee house where a chaperone stands at every table making sure no one introduces any new ideas and no one uses any course language. Does that sound like the kind of place where a kid - or an adult for that matter - would want to spend large amounts of time? Neither do I.

If you want a 2007 prediction from me, it's that we'll be writing about Disney shutting down the social networking parts of this site by, say, June due to lack of use or complaints.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just like everyone else I'm struggling to catch up from a long weekend.

• The New York Times has hired Rebecca Dana away from the New York Observer to report on the new media industry for their business section. Dana just graduated in 2004.


• ValleyWag takes a look at what they feel are some inflated numbers and other useless hype from Linden Labs about Second Life. [Via]


• Mack Collier asks how, if you were working for Kohl's, you would handle a number of pictures across the internet showing trashed stores.


• Steve Johnson goes in depth on how Time's naming of "You" as the 2006 Person of the Year means nothing at all for you.


• Reuters introduces RSS to the masses.
  
• Wall Street Journal 3.0 (a designation that makes me want to slap the nearest available person) launched on Tuesday, when all the markets were closed.
  


• Newstrust has launched as a not-for-profit version of Digg, which might mean all the difference to some people in terms of judging credibility.
  


• Yeah, I agree that the "Is Second Life good or bad for marketers" debate is pretty much pointless.
  


• The inability of YouTube to finish work on some key anti-piracy software means headaches for Google as they try to iron out relations with copyright holders.
  


• Yep, the future of media will be increasingly driven by how much control the people who actually use and consume that media can do with it themselves.
  


• Once again, the media is soiling its armor with anticipation over what Steve Jobs will announce at MacWorld. This sort of glowing coverage (I can think of an analogy but it's not appropriate for a family-friendly blog like this) does not seem to wane no matter what kind of problems, either at a corporate or product performance level, the company experiences. For instance, I doubt that anyone will hold up signs saying "Backdate THESE options!" in the auditorium and no one will challenge what will likely be a disappointing announcement (they always are) by mentioning rebooting problems.
  


• Linda Zimmer has launched a wiki spin-off of her Business Communicators in Second Life blog.
  


• Oh my goodness, you mean putting music in front of people by, say, licensing it for podcast usage, is a good thing? I thought the whole point was to hide the music from the public until they bought the CD at which point they could immediately regret paying $16 for two good songs and start to despise the label, artist and retailer. Silly rabbit.


• It's good to see that the Washington Post is making adjustments to their newsroom so that news is, for lack of a better phrase, platform agnostic. [Via]


• Steve Safran recommends some more than decent new year's resolutions for newsroom directors to make.
  


• Kids are abandoning the now corporately-controlled social sites for ones that aren't filled with so many rules. Those sites will then become the new hot thing for advertisers, which will attract corporate ownership which will impose rules which will push kids to new sites which will then become...you get the picture. Rinse and repeat until about 2015.


• Blah blah blah...YouTube...blah blah blah...consumer-generated-content...blah blah blah...media companies trying to make money...blah blah blah.


• Yeah, there have been some unexplained problems with Gmail and some questionable moves in their seeming manipulation of search results, but Google is still going to be the game to beat in 2007 and the rest of the foreseeable future.
  


• It's so incredibly easy to fall down the media rabbit hole, something that I'm guilty of on a regular basis. But it's becoming more of a problem now that there are so many darn options when it comes to media to consume.
  


• I'm usually the first to call someone, either company or agency, out when they cross the line in trying to buy favorable publicity, but it seems to me like everyone's being a tad too harsh on Edelman and Microsoft, especially when sending out free stuff is not exactly a new idea. I think Edelman, through its mistakes in the past, has moved the goal posts on what everyone considers acceptable to an extent where simply sending out review copies crosses some magical ethical line, something that's not really the case.
  

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)