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A Guide to:

The Internet Highway








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1GB 20 years ago and 1GB Today


The importance of Net Netruality

Who Control the NEWS on the web? ... You can!

Sites where readers vote on what's news are a challenge that traditional news organizations ignore at their peril.

October 3rd, 2007

If you could create a newspaper based on what you and your friends like to read, would it look different from the front page of The Christian Science Monitor? Or The New York Times? Or even your local paper? Now, thanks to the Internet, you can. Social network news websites make it possible by allowing users essentially to vote on what they consider news.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) decided to explore the differences between what the editors of The New York Times considered a top story as opposed to the readers of three user-driven sites: Del.icio.us, Digg, and Reddit. The PEJ people also included Yahoo News's Most Recommended, Most Viewed, and Most E-mailed in their study. What they found was interesting, but not unexpected for anyone who frequently reads both sources of content.

The PEJ report, "The Latest Headline, Your Vote Counts" (available at www.journalism.org/node/7493) mentions that: "In a week when the mainstream press was focused on Iraq and the debate over immigration, the three leading user-news sites – Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us – were more focused on stories like the release of Apple's new iPhone and that Nintendo had surpassed Sony in net worth."

As someone who has worked in online media for a long time, I have experienced the way people in traditional media react when they see something like this – it's generally seen as more proof that the Internet is corrupting the news and that people aren't paying attention to the stories that really count. There is a certain amount of fear in such reactions, because while traditional journalists are aware that there is a sea change in news, they aren't completely sure what that will mean for their future.

But journalists should not go out on the ledge over the PEJ report. As good as it is, it has one glaring flaw: It doesn't account for the age of the visitors to each site. Since Digg, Reddit, and Del.icio.us fit into the social-networking world, their users are much younger than online readers of traditional media. And when you're 25 and single, what you consider important is very different from what you would choose if you were 45 with three kids and a mortgage. Younger people probably will be more interested in an iPhone than news of the mortgage industry meltdown.

Still, the PEJ study shows that when Web users are given the opportunity, they do make different news choices than professional journalists do. And they get their news from different sources. The top stories in the three social-networking news sites predominately came from nontraditional news sites and blogs. The reality in today's world of online journalism is that both old and new views count, and traditional journalists ignore this at their own peril.

But that doesn't mean these two approaches can't live together in our new media universe. For instance, in 2004 the Monitor had a story about a Chilean newspaper that builds the front page of its print edition based on what people read on its website. As a result, the paper has a wider and more diverse selection of news than a traditional paper.

Another example of the changing face of journalism is DailySource.org, where Web users suggest what stories should appear on it. The website has a small group of paid editors, but it mostly relies on volunteers scattered across the United States to select the news it features on its site each day. (Volunteers don't have to be professional journalists. They just have to be interested in the news.)

Along with traditional news sources, it also features video from sites like YouTube and material from blogs. On the left-hand navigation bar, users will find a link that says "submit an article" where they can do just that. Those suggestions are considered by editors who select the top stories. (Full disclosure: I've acted occasionally as an adviser to the site because I think their project is such an intriguing one.)

The site is the brainchild of Peter Dunn, a journalist and a former media coach and consultant. Mr. Dunn's long-term goal is to have a DailySource module for cities across the US, where people could help contribute to their local news coverage.

"Instead of relying on the stretched resources of one paper," Dunn says, "People could get high-quality articles and information from over a thousand publications including daily papers, television network sites, newsmagazines, journals, blogs, and others.

"But it's more than just news. I would love to see these local daily sources become a place where people could find resources and share stories about their communities and share ideas about how to solve problems – and even share solutions with other communities facing similar issues."

Hybrid news sites like DailySource.org as well as social networking sites like Digg, Reddit, and Del.icio.us illustrate the decentralizing power of the Internet. People are no longer content to be told by traditional news gatekeepers that "this is news." More and more Web users are replying, "Well, so is this." And smart journalists and editors are listening to what they have to say.

 


Could Twitter become the ultimate BUZZ Tracker?
 

For those of you that aren’t already convinced that Twitter, Silicon Valley’s favorite micro-blogging  platform, might actually be useful — word comes via TechCrunch about a soon-to-be released new feature: real-time search!

Type in a keyword or keywords and any time a Twitter is created that includes those keywords, you’ll be notified via IM or SMS.

Notifications are likely to also include being delivered by email and RSS. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told TechCrunch that the company eventually plans to add historical search, and a public API for keyword searching (both real-time and historical), as well as the ability to “define searches by friends, geography, time and/or language.”

This opens up Twitter to become the ultimate buzz tracker, for those who are interested in what’s being talked about at any given moment in time.

I’ve already witnessed industry gossip being exchanged via Twitter, including public bouts, as well as more serious “breaking news” related to the tech industry. However, as Twitter widens its userbase, through collaborations, such as the recent MTV partnership, marketers and journalists will be able to mine the realtime micro-blogging conversations of the service’s many users. Additionally, Twitter could make some of this “buzz” more public and better organized on the site’s front-page. A tag cloud of recent and popular keywords would give a very raw but interesting snapshopt of what’s “hot”, and if an algorithm was developed to categorize certain buzz words into categories, Twitter could offer a buzz tracker for different broader topics e.g. Tech or Entertainment etc.

Think Techmeme meets Twitter.

Mashup Twitter’s search API with other third party services, such as a music store or movie theater guide / review site — as suggested by Dave Winer — and buzz could translate into further actions / social activity. Now that would be cool.

Google goes Underground

10-03-2007

Google is planning to move beyond search into the broadband infrastructure business with a bold plan emerging that it wants to lay its own broadband cable under the Pacific ocean.

The discussions with unnamed partners highlight the growth of Google's infrastructure requirements as it continues an ambitious international expansion and increasingly offers data-intensive services, such as online video and e-mail, and online word-processing for businesses.

"Additional infrastructure for the Internet is good for users and there are a number of proposals to add a Pacific submarine cable," a Google spokesman said, declining to comment further.

The talks were reported in The Wall Street Journal at the weekend, which picked up the news from Australia's Communications Day. The reports said "a multi-terabit capacity" was under consideration.

"The Unity cable has been under development for several months, with a group of carriers and Google meeting for high-level talks on the plan in Sydney last week," CommsDay reported.

"Google would get access to a fiber pair at build cost, handing it a tremendous cost advantage over rivals such as MSN and Yahoo, and considerably improving the affordability of Internet services across Asia-Pacific.

CommsDay says the route is not yet determined although there could be two separate paths to provide network security. It could potentially service Australia via interconnect to cables in Guam and Hawaii.

"The Unity name was first revealed in early September in a Singapore conference presentation when Level 3 executive Mike Saunders listed it as one of several new cables planned across the Pacific," CommsDay says. "He listed Unity for a service launch in 2009.

"Google also hinted at its ambitions in job advertisements earlier this year. One was for a submarine cable negotiator.

"Google's infrastructure ambitions are no secret. The company has committed substantial expenditure on dark fibre and a network of data centres across the United States, and also recently indicated its interest in bidding for new 700MHz spectrum allocations there."

The Wall Street Journal quotes analyst Colby Synesael, who says a cable could give Google greater control over its operating costs and infrastructure needs. Synesael isn't concerned that one more cable under the Pacific would create a capacity glut. "Even if it does create a bubble today," Synesael says, "capacity demand will catch up in two to three years."

An indication that at least part of Google's "Unity" cable is likely to come ashore in Sydney came at the weekend. The feds proclaimed two shore zones to protect submarine cables off the city.

In making the announcement of a "northern" and "southern" cable-protection zone, the Australian Communications and Media Authority says it recently granted a permit for a new submarine cable in the northern zone.

The northern zone is off Narrabeen beach and the southern is off Tamarama/Clovelly. The zones come into effect from October 1. Trawling and dredging will be prohibited or restricted, while other activities may be restricted -  for example, anchoring -  if they could damage a cable. The northern protection zone extends 40 nautical miles out to sea and the southern goes out for 30nm.

ACMA's Web site carries data to upgrade GPS navigators. The authority says it will proclaim soon a third cable protection zone, off Perth.

 

Yahoo Tops Google in Quality of Searches, Study Says

While Google dominates the search query business, results generated by Yahoo result in more user clicks, according to a study released this week.

10-03-07

While Google Inc. dominates the search query business, results generated by Yahoo Inc.'s search engine result in more user clicks than the market leader, according to a study released this week by Compete Inc.

The survey found that 67 percent of the 7.5 billion monthly searches done by the U.S. online population in August were done using Google, only 65 percent of those prompted a user to click on a result, according to Compete, which monitors and measures Internet traffic.

Yahoo logged 20 percent of all searches in August, 75 percent of which led to referrals. Yahoo posted the best referral result among search engine vendors, the survey found. The survey ranked Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Live engine third, with 9 percent of the search market. About 59 percent of MSN Live queries generate referrals, the study found.

"Lower search fulfillment numbers mean that on a percentage basis, fewer search queries in that engine resulted in the searcher clicking on a result link," said Jeremy Crane, Compete's director of search and online media in a blog post. "So from this perspective, one might consider Yahoo more effective at getting consumers the results they want."

However, he noted that the "devil is in the details" when using referrals to measure search quality.

For example, Matt Cutts, head of Google's Webspam team, said on Compete's blog that sometimes searchers get answers from the snippets that appear on the results page. Cutts noted that for a query about the number of ounces in a shot glass, Google's results don't require users to click on a link.

"On Yahoo, you don't get any OneBox answer, and the snippets are unclear," Cutts wrote. "You need to click on a result or two to find the answer."

Crane agreed, blogging that "the devil is in the details, and the story is much more complicated than that, but it's always interesting to look at something from a new angle. People using search engines to find the information they are looking for as opposed to using the engine as a navigation tools definitely complicate this rather simple cut of the data I did here."

However, he added, from an online marketing standpoint, "getting people to your site is a critical measure of search engine effectiveness. In this world, the most important thing to look at is actual conversion on the site."
 

 


Interview of Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.org

How to remove CD Scratches

Fire being microwaved!?!?

 
 

 
 






WEB TOOLS
make your business building more effective: 



If you are trying to track down why your computer is running so slooowwwly, try using this simple DOS command from Digital Inspiration to uncover a possible problem:

If you are worried that some programs on your PC are secretly making connections to websites in the background, here's a quick tip that uses a simple DOS command to detect and prevent such suspicious activity:

1. Type cmd in your Windows Run box.

2. Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter. After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.

3. Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

computer internet connections

The file activity.txt will have a log of all process that made a connection to the Internet in the last two minutes. It will also show which process connected to which website in this time. And not just the web browsers (like iexplore.exe or opera.exe), the log will also show your IM clients, download managers, email programs or any software that requires a net connection.

Scroll though the activity.txt file and look for any process names or website addresses that you are not aware of. If you track one , go to the task manager (or Process Explorer) to find the location of the executable on your computer and eliminate it.

100 Legal Stock Photo Resources - more than you'll EVER need.
October 3rd, 2007


Dropshipping customized unique products on
eBay is easy with the following:
Ebay Money Making Package - I approve of this one :)


Checking in again this week:

Google's HOT Trends.

 

FOOD for thought...

"Anyone who has never made a mistake 
has never tried anything new."

- Quoted from Albert Einstein.

 




 

 

 

 

 
 
Copyright 2007 Joel Mackey. All Rights Reserved
  
 

 

  
 


This is a picture of my friend, the INTERNET Backbone in the US.
The most usage of the INTERNET  is shown in yellow and white.


 

  

© 2001-2007 Joel Mackey. All rights reserved.