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Insights and headlines from Shore analysts on trends in enterprise and media content markets.
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| Wednesday, October 31, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:31 PM |
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| Tuesday, October 30, 2007 |
  UPDATE: Google's launch of the codenamed "Maka-Maka" project will take place Thursday, details at TechCrunch.] With Silicon Valley sprouting more Hawaiian-esque words for social media products than a Trader Vic's menu it's only appropriate that Google should be betting large on a social media with a new project code-named Maka-Maka. As detailed by TechCrunch Maka-Maka is an effort to bring social media capabilities and other Google content applications to any Web platform and application rather than trying to create just another standalone portal. To some degree this may seem like sloppy seconds after having lost a bidding war for Facebook to Microsoft, especially as Google's own Orkut social media portal has barely dented U.S. markets. But there may be some strengths to Google's methods if they can get them rolled out in a timely fashion. The general Maka-Maka concept is to use social media as the principle platform from which one accesses other Google applications and which in turn can be embedded on other media platforms, in essence turning any Google application or other application into a social media-enabled application, complete with Google's own library of widgets already enabled through the iGoogle personalized interface. Add in Google's contextual ad capabilities and there's the potential for a new type of universal distribted platform for consuming content that puts social contexts at its focal point. Instead of locking people into a particular portal Google provides a trusted login, core functionality and the ability to embed a common framework for conversational content anywhere. Then again, it could turn out to be what it seems to be at first glance: an after-the-fact attempt to pull together on a patchwork basis a very disparate group of Google applications that were never constructed with social media in mind. Facebook has its own ideas for a social media operating system as well, mind you, but at least it would start with a viable community built around bona-fide relationships at the center of its capabilities rather than having to wish that network into being. But there's one key aspect to Google's gambit that may help it to propel its plans for Maka-Maka forward more quickly than may be envisioned at first: mobile markets. With a strong mobile platform about to be launched and powerful content and applications built off of Google Maps that are naturals for social networking there's every reason to think that Maka-Maka may be first and foremost the gateway into mobile social media that can bridge together voice conversations, messaging, email ecommerce and user-generated content far more rapidly than any other mobile provider. With Facebook under Microsoft's wing there's going to be an already established mobile platform on which Facebook's network of users could be deployed rapidly, so this is going to be a race with many dimensions - many of which could just as easily favor Microsoft's increasingly savvy online strategy. Much of this will become more clear over the next few weeks as Google reveals more about both its mobile capabilities as well as its social media plans, but expect the initial announcements about Maka-Maka to be underwhelming until Google's mobile plans become more explicit. Once those kick in Maka-Maka may just turn out to be a very interesting way for the world to carry on its conversations in more online and mobile venues than any other provider - if it can finally manage to draw a critical mass of audience share for its social media efforts. Google's efforts to date don't augur well for that likelihood, but as Google seeks to open up mobile markets to more universal and cross-network access it may yet get the upper hand on truly universal social media. Labels: facebook, Google, maka-maka, mobile, Social Media
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By John Blossom - posted at 1:20 AM |
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Trends In a world in which social media's power has become as ubiquitous... Online Citizen Journalism Now Undeniably Mainstream Read/Write Web California Wildfire Coverage by Local Media, Blogs, Twitter, Maps and More MediaShift As its hype... Second Life continues to soak up the media's attention ValeyWag Has Silicon Valley lost interest in anything except the funding race...? The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on Its Own Kool-Aid Micro Persuasion Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook AP via CNN Why Private-Equity Firms Are Suddenly Smitten With Digital AdAge After Succeeding, Young Tycoons Try, Try Again The New York Times While slow-to-move media companies accelerate their efforts to provide more openness... Yahoo opening up home page to outside sources CNET News Mercury News Tries To Catch Up, After Being In the Perpetually Poised Position For Social Media paidContent.org First Look: Hulu Combines Ease of Use, Content, Advertising Wired Google readies a new social media platform to embed its content and applications everywhere.... Google’s Response to Facebook: "Maka-Maka" TechCrunch Media CEOs vie for best underperformance excuses...Time Warner shares rise on CEO exit speculation Reuters CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLVII: NBC Universal chief says Apple "destroyed" music pricing Engadget Or come up with new ones in the making...Hearst pays $317 million for MediaNews stake Reuters In Canada, a New Newspaper Faces Off Against a Well-Established Family The New York Times As Washington rattles sabers more loudly on leveling the online playing field for content delivery... Senators Threatening Telcos With Probe Over Net Neutrality TechCrunch Senate passes Internet tax moratorium extension: 7 more years tax-free Ars Technica Coming next week: A tax on your e-mail? CNET News FCC member requests formal inquiry into News Corp.-Dow Jones deal BtoB Online European regulators manage to open up Microsoft's platforms for more content and application access... Microsoft to EU: You win, we'll change Download Squad Memo to publishers: it's not nice to try to make Google's organic search results sponsored content...Yes, Google Admits Torching Your PageRank Web Pro News Hmm, a slowly dying distribution idea for a slowly dying distribution idea...?Maghound: a Netflix for Magazines? AdAge Kinda makes you realize why all of those TV ads for love life products try so hard to get our attention... Loving the Internet Survey: 24% of Americans say the Internet could replace a partner for a while Computerworld In other major trends in content this week...OCA To Scan Orphan Works; Publishers Float Orphan Works Solution Library Journal TheStreet.com Steers A Long, Bumpy Road IBD via CNN Money ManiaTV Cancels User-Generated Content BusinessWeek Yahoo’s China Syndrome: Alibaba IPO Lifts YHOO GigaOM Why Facebook employees are profiling users ValleyWag Best Practices The Google Page Rank Pendulum Swings…. Again ProBlogger Rich Media, Social Networks, Dynamic Content, and On-Demand CMS Wire Copyright Wars and Higher Education The Cornell Daily Sun Microsoft blocks FairUse4WM v2 after 3 months of DRM free music ZDNet Blogs Social Media Demographics Defined - Marketing to the Users Generating the Content 4Hoteliers Mr. Know-It-All: Medical Blogging, Facebook Hustling, Email Policing Wired Magazine Cool Tools iMooch: Social Networking Meets Content Marketplace iMooch Terabyte nanotech thumb drives around the corner? Engadget Mindtouch rising in the open-source wiki market CNET Blogs WikiPediaVision: Watch Realtime Wikipedia Edits O'Reilly Radar Skype and 3 announce Skype Mobile phone Download Squad News Flows, Consciousness Streams: The Headwaters of a River of Words The New York Times Search Aggregated Social Media Networks And Selected Content Sources With Lijit Robin Good Bridgestone shows off ultrathin, full-color e-paper Engadget
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Agence France-Presse Signs With Teletrax for Global Analysis of Video News Content Usage PR Newswire via CNN Money Gannett to Join Tribune and Partner on National Network of Local Entertainment Sites PR Newswire Wiley-Blackwell Journals Contribute To Council Of Science Editor's Global Theme Issue Medical News Today Tribune to Sell Two Papers In Connecticut to Hearst WSJ Online* National Geographic and MetaCarta Introduce CartaLens Geospatial DAM Solution Marketwire INSAR and Wiley-Blackwell to Publish Autism Research Trading Markets Products, Markets & People Another Yahoo Exec Departs All Things DIgital MySpace exec gets the heave-ho ValleyWag Mansueto Launches Business Social Networking Site IncBizNet FOLIO: Magazine AviationWeek.com Launches Vertical Search Engine for the Aerospace & Defense Industry PR Newswire via CNN Money Acxiom board approves repurchase of up to $75M in stock over the next year Thomson Financial/CNN ScienceDirect Maximizes Research Capabilities, Enhances the Research Process PR Newswire Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:54 AM |
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| Monday, October 29, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:09 PM |
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| Sunday, October 28, 2007 |
Trends Yahoo opening up home page to outside sources CNET News FCC member requests formal inquiry into News Corp.-Dow Jones deal BtoB Online Time Warner shares rise on CEO exit speculation Reuters Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook AP via CNN Mercury News Tries To Catch Up, After Being In the Perpetually Poised Position For Social Media paidContent.org Senators Threatening Telcos With Probe Over Net Neutrality TechCrunch Online Citizen Journalism Now Undeniably Mainstream Read/Write Web Senate passes Internet tax moratorium extension: 7 more years tax-free Ars Technica Coming next week: A tax on your e-mail? CNET News TheStreet.com Steers A Long, Bumpy Road IBD via CNN Money Loving the Internet Survey: 24% of Americans say the Internet could replace a partner for a while Computerworld California Wildfire Coverage by Local Media, Blogs, Twitter, Maps and More MediaShift Maghound: a Netflix for Magazines? AdAge After Succeeding, Young Tycoons Try, Try Again The New York Times Best Practices The Google Page Rank Pendulum Swings…. Again ProBlogger Microsoft blocks FairUse4WM v2 after 3 months of DRM free music ZDNet Blogs Cool Tools iMooch: Social Networking Meets Content Marketplace iMooch Terabyte nanotech thumb drives around the corner? Engadget Mindtouch rising in the open-source wiki market CNET Blogs News Flows, Consciousness Streams: The Headwaters of a River of Words The New York Times Deals, Partnerships and Sales Agence France-Presse Signs With Teletrax for Global Analysis of Video News Content Usage PR Newswire via CNN Money Wiley-Blackwell Journals Contribute To Council Of Science Editor's Global Theme Issue Medical News Today Tribune to Sell Two Papers In Connecticut to Hearst WSJ Online* Products, Markets & People Another Yahoo Exec Departs All Things DIgital MySpace exec gets the heave-ho ValleyWag Mansueto Launches Business Social Networking Site IncBizNet FOLIO: Magazine Labels: headlines
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:42 PM |
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| Thursday, October 25, 2007 |
 Let's face it, for an enormous company Microsoft is not lining up many hits today. Its Vista operating system has had tepid reception at best, the EU has brought it to its knees on monopolistic practices, its Zune portable is praying for a second life this holiday season and the Xbox's shaky quality record makes a win for the new Halo 3 game a must to be kept in contention with competitive platforms. Ouch. But with oodles of cash and a well-focused online advertising strategy Microsoft is gearing up to exploit the gaps in Google's game plan that will give it a leg up in online content markets. One of Google's key gaps to date has been social networking. While its Orkut platform has been successful in Brazil and certain other countries and rumblings of a greater social networking plan for Google grow larger, it's Facebook that's attracting both college-age folks and seasoned professionals who are willing to hang their hats up online on Facebook's increasingly robust social media platform. As noted by The New York Times and others, then, Microsoft's USD 240 million investment for a mere 1.6 percent of Facebook ownership is a significant win for Facebook and an opportunity for Microsoft to regain some sorely needed lost ground. The transaction scales Facebook's ultimate market value to a breathtaking but highly speculative USD 15 billion, making Rupert Murdoch's USD 583 million investment in MySpace seem like a bargain basement transaction in retrospect. The New York Times article notes that the initial investment will secure Microsoft a platform for its ad network's growth, which is certainly a key component of making sure that it can leverage the highly valuable contexts available in social media. With the high level of personal endorsement and interaction available in Facebook Microsoft advertisers will be very pleased to find an alternative to search engine results and typical media outlets through which to build relationships with their markets. But the real underlying move by Microsoft is to have a dibs on Facebook's evolving social media-oriented computer operating system environment, a must-have for Microsoft in light of Google's evolving plans to have a Web-oriented OS of its own that will help drive its social media plans. With more people than ever using the Web as their primary repository for both personal content and their own publishing endeavors Microsoft is at a dangerous juncture in its evolution, perhaps even more dangerous than when Netscape's browser began to threaten the supremacy of Microsoft's PC platform as a staging ground for content applications. Facebook has demonstrated with its rapidly growing array of embeddable applications that whole classes of content infrastructre that are at the heart of Microsoft's long-term cash flow may be rendered moot by social media environments such as Facebook's that enable people to build and share highly personalized portals with no or limited technical expertise. Applications such as its Business 3.0 module enable B2B communication that may provide a new way for businesses to develop 1-to-1 relationships via Facebook in ways that will make today's B2B advertising and supply chain management seem very ill targeted over time. All in all, Microsoft needs to get a revenue stream from social media badly - far moreso than either Google or Yahoo. Will Facebook wind up being the dominant social media platform for both personal and business personal publishing? Once people set up shop in a social media environment there's a certain entropy that sets in which is likely to discourage any radical shifts: you want to keep your "peeps" around you as much as possible, and Facebook offers an increasingly compelling environment to enable open publishing and content integration. Most importantly unlike some other social media environments Facebook is designed for people's true identity as opposed to any number of avatars or pseudonyms that they may use in other social media environments. The emphaisis in Facebook is on knowing who you know, not gaming them for PR or other ulterior motives. This makes environments such as Facebook and LinkedIn that enable people to present their real selves the hottest marketing environments available in social media. By contrast, what's the value of selling to someone wearing green wings and fishnet stockings in Second Life? Good for a quick buck, but not relationship selling by any degree. Realistically Facebook is by far the greater winner in this deal, having established an awesome figure for its market value and strong leverage for any other subsequent deals to help it gain market momentum. It's perhaps not as one-sided as the deal that Bill Gates cut with IBM to get rights to sell Mircosoft's PC operating systems on other platforms, but it's about equally clear who's behind the curve and who is able to help them get back in the game. And like that earlier deal this may be a sign that Microsoft is waning in its ability to influence electronic publishing effectively. But with an advertising strategy that is well-adapted to playing on multiple platforms to service multiple ad networks the Facebook deal is as good a shot a any that Microsoft is likely to have to use social media as a leverage point for future revenues. Don't expect miracles from either partner as a result of this alliance, but to expect their competitors to sweat it a little harder to get a foot in the door of compelling online communities. Labels: Deals Partnerships and Sales, facebook, media, Microsoft, Social Media, Technology
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By John Blossom - posted at 9:22 AM |
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| Tuesday, October 23, 2007 |
 As Google tries to trumpet its new YouTube system for identifying copyrighted video materials you'd think that they would be getting some slaps on the back from commercial video producers. Instead Google's YouTube initiative, which was eagerly awaited only a few months ago, constitutes in the minds of many media companies only a partial and proprietary solution to the question of how to manage copyrighted materials in social media outlets. Google itself recognizes this when it notes in its description of its new service: No matter how accurate the tools get, it is important to remember that no technology can tell legal from infringing material without the cooperation of the content owners themselves. This means that copyright holders who want to use and help us refine our Video ID system will be providing the necessary information to help us recognize their work. We aim to make that process as convenient as possible. So how best to handle managing copyrighted materials across social media environments? Several media and technology companies have joined together to define " User-Generated Content Principles," an online document that provides a general framework of requirements for managing copyrighted materials in social media services. Although not a binding legal document the language of UGCP is clearly legally oriented, with the typical onerous one-sided expectations that any corporate legal team is likely to insert in terms of unconditional legal surrender. Moreover, if one tries to abide by this framework a social media service provider must consider the following claim in the UGCP: Copyright Owners should not assert that adherence to these Principles, including efforts by UGC Services to locate or remove infringing content as provided by these Principles, or to replace content following receipt of an effective counter notification as provided in the Copyright Act, support disqualification from any limitation on direct or indirect liability relating to material online under the Copyright Act or substantively similar statutes of any applicable jurisdiction outside the United States. In other words, even if you do everything that we ask you to, don't expect that copyright holders still won't give you a hard time. There's comfort for you. The main rub in the UGCP document is that while it is broad enough to provide a general requirements framework to develop more universal copyright management services it does nothing to ensure that copyright holders will provide any significant standardization of copyright identification technology, filtering processes and reference materials referenced in the document. In essence it suggests to social media sites that they must be ready to institute whatever technologies that any number of publishers find to be acceptable to their needs. Given that Microsoft is one of the technology companies that has signed on to the UGCP one can imagine that there may be some proprietary interests in play on this front. The UCGP document does cite some good best practices for managing copyrighted content in a social media environment, but it's far from clear that it brings the content industry any closer to a significant agreement on how copyright should be managed in online materials. Even as Google gets slammed by some for rushing to get some sort of filtering and identification system in place on a rapid basis we are no closer to copyright holders agreeing to a common framework for them taking on some reasonable portion of the burden of implementing tools that will make the universal identification, filtering and referencing of copyrighted materials simple and reasonable to manage. To some degree the rise of digital watermarking and identification schemes that eliminate onerous DRM packaging are pointing towards a more workable solution. Being able to allow publishers to identify their content using reports from social media sites and their own scanning tools can help them to determine when the reuse of copyrighted materials is worth pursuing as a legal matter or as a business development opportunity. But until these technologies are implemented more broadly it's unrealistic to expect social media outlets to respond aggressively with their own solutions if the see Google getting slammed by UGCP members for its efforts. We seem to be creeping towards open solutions that will enable publishers to get around the copyright conundrum without huge proprietary investments but don't expect the pace to pick up until some publishers have proven how to do it cheap, simply and in a way that won't be irksome to the creative talents that are driving online content value. Labels: Best Practices, copyright, Google, Social Media, YouTube
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:17 PM |
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Trends Google's earnings soar on new ad channels as traditional channels for ads weigh how to build profits... Google quarterly profit swells 46 percent Reuters via ZDNet Google Adsense Exploring Games GigaOM Magazine ad revenue up 5.6% through third quarter BtoB Online But impatient investors are tiring of traditional media earnings that disappoint as an ad recession looms... Sulzberger 1, Elmasry 0: Morgan Stanley Sells of its New York Times Stake Reuters MediaFile Gannett Reports 11% Drop in 3Q Earnings Editor & Publisher Media General Profit Plunges 88 Percent AP via The New York Times Five Reasons Why a Pay Per Click Recession Looms Micro Persuasion Social media posts gains in authority and use... Blogs as reliable as mainstream media - ACCC AAP via News.com.au Power Of Altruism Confirmed In Wikipedia Contributions Science Daily Current TV expands limits by having users create broadcast content San Francisco Chronicle New and old channels for publishing vie for the attention of friends in high places... Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners The New York Times Democrats take aim at un-'friendly' wireless carriers CNET News Recipe for killing Internet in India The Times of India US Congress: Bloggers Are Journalists Too Read/Write Web Web 2.0 is enjoying the latest Silicon Valley bubble but there is more focus lately on deals than value... Web 2.0 Summit 2007: Mary Meeker and Internet Trends Read/Write Web WordPress and Federated Media Being Hawked Seriously; Velocity Among Others In The Mix; WP Buys paidContent.org John Battelle wants to hike his rates ValleyWag As Web 1.0 companies reposition themselves for more a more open era in online publishing... Yahoo Shedding Entertainment Baggage in Order to Gain Relevancy Beta News Yahoo! Making Strides in Search Marketing? A Result of Panama? Read/Write Web AOL to Trim 2,000 Jobs in a Continuing Overhaul The New York Times EBay's Founder Bets on 'Participatory Media' WSJ Online* The battle to protect copyrighted content moves towards cooperative enforcement using open tools... CBS, Microsoft, and MySpace Unveil Copyright Guidelines PC World YouTube-Viacom lawsuit looms over antipiracy plans CNET News Led Zeppelin to sell music online Reuters Apple drops price of DRM-free iTunes Webware Can Google's Video ID System Secure YouTube? Internet News Facebook continues to gain momentum as a social media content platform that adults can take seriously... FaceForce: Facebook Meets Salesforce.com Programmable Web Facebook to Crash the Online Advertising Party eWeek Has The MySpace To Facebook Switch Begun? TechCrunch Has Microsoft snagged a Facebook stake? ValleyWag Google News Now Available in Facebook Read/Write Web As competitors step up the pace to create competitive platforms for social media content and applications... MySpace Founders Re-Up at News Corp. Portfolio News Corp. May End WSJ.com Fees; Opens MySpace Code Bloomberg News Napster to launch web-only music service Download Squad But the pace of traditional content markets migrating online challenges traditional producers... Online TV Viewing Doubles, Replaces News as Top Web Content Media Buyer Planner NBC pulls YouTube channel ValleyWag While Google gets its mobile platform ready for launch competitors brace for a more open era... iPhone, you'll be a computer, soon: Apple opens it up to developers CNET News If EPIC 2015 was science fiction to some a few years ago we should be disabused of that notion by now... Futurists Envision the Newspaper in 2020 World Ass'n of Newspapers News director wins newspaper of future contest Aiken Standard In other major trends in content this week...
Startup launches intellectual property site for scientific research
EE Times
Books clearing out to make way for Internet, computers on campus
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Candadian Copyright might follow U.S. model
National Post
More of us seek medical information online
Raleigh News & Observer
Guardian and Observer to launch online archive
The Guardian
Best Practices
The Google Way: Give Engineers Room
The New York Times
Information Design Principles For Web 2.0 Design: Simple & Social
Robin Good
Publish or patent -- or both
Business Review of W. Michigan
Sue the libraries - they're letting people get content on the cheap
The Guardian
How Many Site Hits? Depends Who’s Counting
The New York Times
TM Forum Members Unite to Deliver Content Commerce Standards
BusinessWire
RSS Ad Response Tops E-mail
Internet News
Cool Tools
Graphwise: Search the web for data
Emily Chang
Microsoft Launches Drag-And-Drop App Builder Popfly
TechCrunch
New App Merges Facebook and Second Life
Mashable
Radar Networks' Twine: Semantic Web meets information overload
WebWare
Microsoft launches social bookmarking/GTD/wiki service Listas
WebWare
Moo now offers postcards
Download Squad
ProgrammableWeb Embraces OpenSearch
Marketwire via CNN Money
Xerox Demos 'Intelligent Redaction'
eWeek
SpiralFrog DRM Issues
PC World
Deals, Partnerships & Sales
USA TODAY and Tribune Media Services to Launch New Weekly Edition of USA TODAY Abroad
PR Newswire via CNN Money
ALM Deploys Mark Logic for Enterprise Content Repository
Marketwire
AskMeNow Powers Answers for Ask Frank's Mobile Q&A Service
Marketwire via CNN Money
JargonFish(TM) Adds Publisher Partners
BusinessWire
Wolters Kluwer unit to acquire TeamMate from PricewaterhouseCoopers
AFX via Forbes
Yahoo's profit falls, but beats expectations
MarketWatch
The Wicks Group of Companies， L.L.C. Sells Daily Racing Form LLC
PR Newswire via JRJ.com
E.W. Scripps to Split in Two; Scripps Networks Interactive to be Spun Off to Shareholders
paidContent.org
Financial Firms to Benefit from Reuters and TIBCO Spotfire Partnership
PR Newswire via CNN Money
Facebook Users Can Now Create a Wetpaint Wiki to Collaborate
Marketwire
Products, Markets & People
TechTarget Launches ITKnowledgeExchange.com
BusinessWire
MedBioWorld Portal Significantly Expands Resource Content
BusinessWire
Mobile search service by Truvo
Let's Go Mobile
Dow Jones Significantly Increases Operating Income Again in Third Quarter 2007
BusinessWire
IDC Launches Green IT and Digital Marketplace Research Practices
ARN
Blackwell Boss to Quit
Oxford Mail
Yahoo marketing chief to leave
CNET News
McGraw-Hill Profit Up 18 Percent
Reuters via The New York Times
AME Info responds to Middle East business demands with launch of new dedicated Arabic content
AME Info
BBC to Cut 1, 800 Jobs as It Confronts Digital Age
Reuters via The New York Times
InfoWorld Editor Resigns Following CEO, Top Sales Exec
FOLIO: Magazine
Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:40 PM |
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| Monday, October 22, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:58 PM |
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| Sunday, October 21, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:34 PM |
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| Friday, October 19, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:12 AM |
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| Thursday, October 18, 2007 |
 I will be chairing a panel at the next SIIA Brown Bag event in New York City on Wednesday, 5 December, recruiting now for speakers so if you want to get on the short list let me know now. The topic is timely, here's the summary: Social media is one of the most influential types of online publishing today, but many still doubt its ability to generate quality content. Yet publishers from a widening array of market segments can actually be the key drivers for content quality, and can enable social media members to contribute to key editorial functions. How does quality content bubble to the top in social media, and what are the best practices that publishers can follow to generate and manage the quality of social media? This panel will look at content that's being generated for consumers on the open Web, and content for business information consumers that is becoming good enough to license as the "golden source" to enterprise customers. Register now to attend and add your thoughts in the comments to this post as to what questions you'd like to see asked or who you'd like to hear speak!
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By John Blossom - posted at 10:26 AM |
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| Wednesday, October 17, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:58 PM |
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 The New York Times covers some of the recent surges in Silicon Valley startups getting massive amounts of funding and, in some instances, handsome rewards for private investors backing online content plays. RightMedia's acquisition by Yahoo for a cool USD 850 million and microscopic startup Ning's USD 214 million valuation on USD 44 million of private equity investment are just some of the highlights in today's parade of bets by investors who seem to have the pocketbooks of major media companies at their disposal on a regular basis. It's easy to see why many are saying that the bubble fever of the dot-com era is beginning to surge again, and in some ways the bubble doubters have a lot of credible evidence that points to many more losers than winners in the push to come up with valuable contexts for content. First and foremost is the inventory problem: with social media helping to multiply the outlets available for advertising at a nearly Malthusian rate there is way too much available inventory for advertisers trying to tap into online audiences. Just as advertising was supposed to float every business plan in 2000 regardless of the available demand there's sure to be a shakeout as reality begins to catch up with the inventory issue. Also having a familiar feel is the availability of interesting but all-too-similar technology plays that have little chance at building audiences at a rate that could justify reasonable returns. How many it's-like-Facebook-with-Skype-and-who-knows-what-else ideas can the marketplace absorb? The pocketbooks of major media companies, the presumed exit points for most of these plays, are not going to support these types of tools endlessly. But there are some major differences this time around that might help to make more of today's bubbles a little longer lasting: - Contextual advertising. While there's an abundance of inventory generated in part by social media there is not an abundance of specific audiences for specific goods and services. The dot-com bubble burst largely before contextual advertising had begun to take off to enable a different kind of economics for the long tail of content that can benefit from high-margin goods and services that match up with niche interests. While contextual ads still place a lot of pressure on online publishers to come up with the goods that attract the best ads, their ability to service lucrative niche markets very cost-effectively will make the landing for many online publishers a little softer as the economy cools off.
- Finite mainstream media. Even as social media has expanded rapidly the ability of mainstream media companies to create inventory has not changed significantly over the past seven years. While content management, mining and other production tools have enabled publishers to develop more engaging content, with the exception of video there's not a lot more out there. In fact, with cutbacks, consolidations and increased competition from social media outlets one could say that there's less mainstream text inventory online than ever to absorb the advertising budgets of major corporations that crave their content. What has increased, though, are the syndication efforts of publishers to get their content out into new contexts via embedded content services such as Voxant, user feeds and via new mobile platform partners. The need for more usable inventory will keep demand for new content sources high - and multiples relatively lofty - until overall advertising demand softens.
- The creativity factor. While media companies on both the consumer and enterprise side of the content business are great at managing tightly defined content products they have proven time and again that the corporate cultures that thrive off of control-oriented values are very poor at coming up with new ideas for online content products that thrive on today's softer concepts of value created through collaboration and contextualization. Many so-so ideas will still come and go in Silicon Valley but as a whole the price that media companies are paying for failing to re-invent their own cultures to encourage more risk-taking with new ventures will be regular trips down Highway 101 to fill their needs for innovation with maturing venture-backed companies. You'd think that after seven years it would be different, but we're probably at least five years away from media companies having made enough of a transition into more innovative internal cultures to make those trips less frequent for those who survive the shift.
- The impending return of premium content. While advertising gains the spotlight in most business plans the push of services such as Near-Time to build profits from private communities of social media and the repositioning of print magazines as community-building tools are increasing the promise of online publishers to build new streams of revenue from relatively small amounts of content. People are also willing to paystill for events - and more content is likely to be positioned as premium event content online in ways that will complement ad-supported channels rather than conflict with them. Look for a broadening array of business models that include new premium elements that could soften the downturn of ad cycles.
Mind you there are just about as many technologists as there ever were with the ability to code and not a clue as to how to be real publishers who will keep the winds of blarney blowing up from the Bay as fresh as ever. Fools will come and fools will go, but as a whole the frontiers of online publishing are still raw enough to warrant independent investments along the scale of today's efforts for several years to come. Probably the biggest factor for determining how healthy that growth curve stays is the ability to get more people more access to electronic content. We're at the beginning of a growth gap in which mobile access to Web content is hobbled by poor network access and costly access plans while land-based access is stalling in U.S. markets. At the same time high-speed access in overseas markets is exploding, creating more opportunities for new non-U.S. players to carve their own segments out of the global content pie very rapidly. The sooner that publishers can recognize that there's more to be gained globally by pushing more open online publishing models the more opportunities they will have to get their fair share of global online markets. With contextual content and advertising breaking down traditional boundaries for monetization publishers need to think more aggressively as to how to profit from content that knows no borders. With so much of today's content under development being funded privately it's hard for any exit to the doorways to get a stampede effect going in the same way that IPO-oriented investments in the dot-com era got out of hand. But until mainstream investments begin to offer more attractive returns there is likely to be a steady stream of private investors willing to dabble a bit of their fortunes in potentially high-yield content plays that will put them in an even richer gravy train. As many of these people have already made at least one round of successful investments there's always the chance that smart money can follow smart money indefinitely. Then again, most of us are only as smart as our last good decision. Perhaps Mr. Darwin will be taking on Lord Malthus' math sooner than we think. Labels: bubble, media, Social Media, Technology, Trends
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:22 PM |
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 Given that LinkedIn's professional social network content has been available through SalesForce.com's AppExchange service for nearly six months is it really a big deal that there's now a Facebook interface as well? As seen in Programmable Web's flash demo it's a fairly rudimentary integration: if you add a contact you can select their Facebook profile for inclusion in your SFDC desktop and use many of Facebook's functions and applications to communicate with people in their social networks. That's hardly rocket science but it's an excellent indication of the strengths that can be gained from using a social networking content service as a drop-in module in a software-as-a-service desktop environment. Most importantly, though, it's an indication of how quickly two content services can benefit from one another's mutual presence in SaaS very rapidly with virtually no integration requirements. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with social networking SalesForce.com enables its clients to tap into the networks that matter most to their sales efforts. With Facebook's more multi-dimensional view of people's personal and professional lives it's possible that sales professionals will get a different kind of introduction than one might get from a LinkedIn referral. LinkedIn provides excellent professionally-oriented networking tools but there's something about telling someone, "Hey, I saw your profile on Facebook, I see that you're into sailing" that's a little more personal and conversational. Moreover it's a window through Facebook's programming interface into functionality that they have on their own platform that in essence gives one embedded applications within an application that's embedded in a SaaS platform. That's powerful content integration that can work to extend the value of both the hosting platform and the embedded platform as valuable contexts for content very rapidly. While Facebook is having its ups and downs in terms of traffic, personal content exposure issues and integration complaints the growth of its use in professional circles over the past several months has been extraordinary. Although it's mostly a few brave people that venture beyond the basics of Facebooking, professionals are becoming much more used to the idea that their professional lives count increasingly on their ability to project their value and depth as a multi-dimensional person, rather than just a set of skills that can be marketed as useful but disposable labor. The old adage "it's not what you know but who you know" is taking on a new twist as online networking creates a new hook into effective business relationships. At the same time most business information companies are standing still in comparison to companies like Salesforce.com and Facebook when it comes to encouraging on-the-fly content integration with their products. With a strong focus on traditional integration of content into structured databases the opportunity to provide a looser level of integration into a workflow-centric platform. There are strong opportunities for such integration in major market verticals, so expect this to happen over time. But with Salesforce.com pushing its Force.com initiative to provide "platforms as a service" for various corporate functions the time to move on such initiatives is now, not later. We may not be seeing Facebook as a networking tool on Bloombergs any time soon but there are plenty of markets where such rapid content integrations will benefit companies trying to put content in the most valuable context possible. Labels: Business Information, facebook, integration, mashups, SaaS, Salesforce.com, Social Media
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By John Blossom - posted at 10:27 AM |
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| Tuesday, October 16, 2007 |
Trends For content in search of relationships events and online marketing are trumping traditional publishers... And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Madonna Dumps Record Industry Sydney Morning Herald EMI Releases George Harrison’s Solo Albums DRM-Free Mashable Supply Side Economics Fail Music Industry Again TechCrunch Traditional content syndication confronts the efficiency of search, mining technologies and social media... AP Sues VeriSign's Moreover PCWorld via Yahoo! News Future may be murky for Yahoo and newspaper alliance Reuters More publishers turn to their investments in content technology to provide more revenues and margin... Looking To Its Future, NYTCO Sees A Tech Services Company; Patents Pending paidContent.org Is combining social media with mainstream content good or bad for advertising? The jury is still out... New York Times Puts Reader Comments on Main Page - Good Idea? Read/Write Web Interview: Henry Copeland, CEO, Founder of BlogAds: To Make Money At Blogging, Rein In Comments paidContent.org To catch up with born-on-the-web audiences for whom print is largely an accessory or an afterthought...BusinessWeek - Imitating the Web, for the Busy Reader The New York Times Duty to buy a newspaper? Email This Entry Corante Wiley: publishers must push e-books Bookseller.com In a consolidating market for subscription content services it's as important to woo regulators as clients... Thomson's bid for Reuters faces EU antitrust investigation Hartford Business Wolters Kluwer opens lobby shop in Washington Media Marketing & Media In spite of questions about their accuracy social media continues to grow in prestige and power...Can science blogs save science journalism? USC Annenberg OJR New wiki targets federal IT community FCW.com Wikipedia Information on Surgical Procedures Generally Accurate: Presented at ACS Doctor's Guide Facebook tries to leverage proprietary strengths but competitors are beginning to focus on their formula... Why Facebook s**ks Dave Winer Facebook Traffic Tanks - This can’t be real? GigaOM Google Gives Some Hints About Social Network Plan Bits - The New York Times eBay Builds Social Networking into Site Marketing Pilgrim Google's formula for advertising success still leaves significant niches for innovative competitors... Internet Company to Let Consumers Profit From Posted Videos The New York Times Making YouTube Pay Off Forbes Google Shows Vulnerability After Losing Time Deal Bloomberg News In other major trends in content this week...Frankfurt book fair: a meaty occasion Information World Review Open Access, But Who Really Pays? The Harvard Crimson-Opinion Yahoo! Recycles Old Content From SmartMoney, Offends Realtors Realty Times Hundt takes on wireless 'cartels' Mercury News/ Content Agenda Nielsen's new media push CNET News Best Practices Information wants to be free. The database as the media of tomorrow Hypernarrative The viral boomerang of content and information MediaPost How To Design Effective And Usable Navigation Tabs Robin Good 'Dark Web' Project Takes On Cyber-Terrorism Fox News Web 2.0 Economics 101 Micro Persuasion Internet Marketing for Novel Writers Read/Write Web 7 Rules for Social Media HyperGene Clooney Proves Private Health Records Not So Private ABC News Cool Tools First Look: Google Earth with YouTube Video PC World Google Enterprise Search gets social ZDNet What can STM publishers learn from Shelfari's new widget Really Simple Sidi GOOG-411 graduates from Labs Google Blog Onstream Media Set to Introduce Visual Webcaster HD(TM) and iEncode(TM) PR Newswire via CNN Money Top Blogs On Google Reader TechCrunch
Deals, Partnerships & Sales TheMarkets.com and InfoNgen Launch Bullseye PR Newswire Regence Introduces Two New Plans Designed Especially for Small to Mid-Size Companies PR Newswire Wall Street Firms Buy $180 Million Stake in TradeWeb Bloomberg News Reed Construction Data Partners with RCMS Group ThomasNet CBS eyes gossip site for $10 million ValleyWag Products, Markets & People Voxant Distributes More Than 43,000 Health News Videos, Articles and Images PR Newswire WallStreet Direct, Inc. Signs Publishing Agreement with Vibrant Media for Online Video Advertising PR Newswire via CNN Money Dow Jones Introduces Factiva Insight: Agency Analytics for PR and Communications Professionals PR Newswire via CNN Money Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 10:28 PM |
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:10 PM |
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| Sunday, October 14, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 10:24 PM |
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| Friday, October 12, 2007 |
 The Associated Press' position in the news world is in some ways stronger than ever, building on both traditional newspaper portals and the growth of online-only news venues such as Yahoo, Google and social news outlets. But it's also a challenge for AP and other wire services to define a path towards long-term growth as the variety of outlets that can generate and distribute news on the Web outside of their purview accelerates. An earlier lawsuit against Google for their use of news from AP on member sites yielded a settlement in AP's favor, so it's no surprise that AP is trying again with a new lawsuit against Moreover, Verisign's content mining service for media and enterprise clients. In the AP statement on the suit AP notes that AP discovered the extent of Moreover's practices while negotiating with it to provide content management services to the AP's members. Oops. The main bone of content seems to be that, like Google, Moreover is fairly efficient at harvesting news from AP from member sites for its clients, claiming that headlines could be appearing in Moreover within two minutes of their hitting a news Web site. This hits a little too close to AP clients who want to be the source for breaking news headlines. Adding to AP's perceived pain is Moreover's revenues gained from ad-supported and subscription services, including what AP claims is Moreover's use of story texts and photos. Cleverly the suit claims that Moreover's uses of headlines violate fair use laws by merely copying them instead of transforming them into a unique form and format. Given that fair use is used primarily for publications to use limited direct quotation of sources in news articles and other original works this seems like a stretch at best in relation to fair use law. By this definition any page of search results would be suspect, even though one could argue that each page of search results represents an original work of authorship through its organization of content into a unique compilation as proscribed under U.S. Copyright law. Search engine companies have been reluctant to test this concept in courts, however, as globally the interpretation could vary significantly. So this type of threat has been an effective tool for brining technology companies to the bargaining table for AP. Although AP's suit covers no apparent new legal ground it's use as a negotiating tool targeting a content harvesting company is an important new wrinkle. Although Web mining technology is in many ways little different than search engine crawlers its use to build applications beyond mere search results means that more value-add applications based on these technologies are becoming targets for copyright enforcement. It opens up many questions for both Web miners and providers of mashups and embedded content services. Services such as Sphere, which serve up embedded link references through its own crawling services, have become very popular with publishers trying to provide value-add content links to their sites, and these could become potential targets for AP-like lawsuits as well. Notably AP is targeting relatively mature businesses but with its use of the Attributor content tracking technology any service could become a target potentially. While AP may have some legitimate foundations to their concerns at the end of the day this is yet another company with distribution at the heart of their content business model struggling to understand how to position itself in a marketplace where distribution is in essence a free service. Like music publishing companies trying to position the value of their services for potential clients AP's aggressiveness in monitoring and pursuing potential copyright infringement provides them with a legal enforcement angle to their content licensing services that can help to justify premium prices for their services. But also like music publishers may come a point when the talent recognizes that they're pretty good at making money without distribution-oriented middle men. But AP is far smarter than music publishers in pursuing licensing deals through their surveillance efforts with companies that are likely to be able to pay in proportion to the commercial value of their services. Notably Moreover was an early entrant into content harvesting so its relatively mature base of enterprise and media clients gives AP a reasonable target to pursue that's more likely to settle on commercial terms than to go to the mattresses to defend matters on principle alone. In this sense AP is approaching situations like the Moreover suit as a rather aggressive business development effort - one that's not likely to endear AP content to the burgeoning embedding industry but one that may have some commercial effect for now but which may erode interest in AP as a business partner over time. In the meantime the stage is still wide open for virtual aggregation services that manage copyright issues effectively for both enterprise and media services to keep suits like AP's from becoming licensing nightmares. Labels: aggregation, AP, copyright, fair use, harvesting, legal, mining, Moreover, suit
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By John Blossom - posted at 5:38 PM |
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| Thursday, October 11, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 6:32 PM |
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 There are any number of people highlighting pop music superstar Madonna's jilting of her contract with Warner Bros. Records in favor of events producer Live Nation, the loudest of recent label signoffs that include pop bands Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. Music publishers have been squirming desperately to keep consumers from dropping their habit of purchasing copyrighted content from them with lawsuits, DRM and any other types of mechanism they can manage, but sadly they have been unable to overcome the key factor in today's media: distribution is dead and relationships in the right venues rule. To me the key factor leading up to this move was no doubt the bellweather Rolling Stones tour that recently completed with a record USD 500 million-plus in the bank. When creaking, croaking rock stars can pocket half an extra-large by filling arenas with little more than name recognition, why do they need allegiances to plastic disk distributors to reach people who love them? I am reminded of our definition of content posted on Wikipedia in this regard: " Information and experiences created by individuals, institutions and technology to benefit audiences in contexts that they value." Events are content by any measure under this definition. We are seeing artists whose primary value comes to life in venues in which they can develop relationships with audiences discovering that music publishers are failing to help them build those relationships effectively in an era of Web-based content distribution. By focusing on protecting the unit sales of copyrighted materials music publishers lost the opportunity to negotiate a compelling position for themselves in the relationship building business that is at the heart of today's Web-powered content industry. Events producers know how to build a crowd and work it for maximum profit in the venues that matter most to an artist's audience. This contextual approach to profiting from content is as old as artistic performance itself and one that is the dominant factor in the music industry yet again. Online venues such as social media sites that help artists to merchandise themselves to their fan base through videos and downloads and sponsored appearances help them to profit from relationships in valuable contexts as well. While the labels crow aoout six-figure copyright infringement suit awards and try to sue people for listening to someone else's radio at work these punitive actions only seem to decrease the value of their brands as credible venue sponsors that could build the marketable value for their artists. Relationship marketing is all the rage on many levels of the publishing industry, including B2B trade publishing. B2B publishers are discovering that where once their events marketing was the tail on their revenue dogs increasingly events marketing and marketing through Cost-Per-Action pricing is putting more emphasis on conversational content and collaborative marketing efforts. Social media venues that are becoming increasingly popular in publishing add to the mix of content-as-a-marketable-venue plays that have little to do with yesterday's mass production publishing culture. It takes a different kind of producer to succeed in producing this kind of revenue mix - a factor that both music publishers and other publishers need to adapt to as quickly as possible. You can always make money selling copyrighted content, but today's money is in marketing what cannot be copied - the unique venues and the relationships that they foster built around valuable content. Labels: CDs, downloads, events, labels, madonna, music, publishers
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By John Blossom - posted at 3:48 PM |
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 With much ballyhoo Microsoft unveiled its new HealthVault beta portal recently, a big push by the Microsoft to get a leg up on Google's position as a source for health information. The HealthVault portal itself could hardly be called a portal: it's a landing page that invites you to use a special version of Microsoft's Live Search, set up a portfolio of private health information that can be shared with trusted sources and a link to software that can enable one to download information from health monitoring devices into your HealthVault data. Once you've selected any of these options there's no navigating back to the main portal page. So what you get right now is more of a showcase for potential partners than an online presence that's going to attract an audience. The Live Search tuned up for HealthVault has a number of useful features, many of which have been used for a long time already in Google's health-oriented searches and in Amazon's A9 search portal. The latter similarities are no coincidence, given Amazon's decision a while back to dump Google as a search partner in favor of Microsoft and the highlighting of Amazon's content in the HealthVault portal. Search results are pretty good in HealthVault, with some being downright rich in content and others being merely comparable to Google search results. Put in a broad terms such as "Autism" and HealthVault Live Search returns a column labeled "Articles" with Wikipedia content - kind of a mini- Answers.com - a column of Web search results and a column of sponsored content from Amazon with contextual ads beneath it. Atop this is a category-based navigation similar to Google's Co-Op feature. Something a bit more off the beaten track like "pancreatic cancer ductal tumors" ditches the Wikipedia articles and draws in more scholarly content in search results than one would find in Google, which tends to segregate scholarly resources off in its Google Scholar search. That may or may not be a good thing depending on who is using this feature, but if you're trying to dig deeper into a health issue you definitely have some contrasts between Google and Microsoft to consider. There are also some interesting differences when you try a term that may not be thought of immediately as a health resource, such as "cinnamon," which is now being used as a resource for blood sugar and cholesterol management. In Google there is no health-oriented Co-Op category information available for this search whereas HealthVault provides a very useful taxonomy. However, again HealthVault comes out a little heavy on the hardcore health information and a little light on more consumer-accessible informaiton. If you see an article that interests you in search results you can bookmark it into your HealthVault secure account information via the "Add to Scrapbook" feature, but in doing so you'll have to pass through a login screen and some other screens that were just plain frightening - I had no idea what would happen if I said "yes" to the questions asked, but went along anyway - just to get a bookmark into my HealthVault account. I'll allow that this is a Beta product and that such oddities are likely to be worked out in time, but it's one of those typical instances of Microsoft features that sound great on paper and wind up never working the way that you hoped that they would. The HealthVault Account feature allows a member to use their HealthVault information in association with a number of health screening services and online medical records services, presumably to make it easier for people to give you proper medical care and advice. This is obviously the big corporate hook for HealthVault, with doubtless the hope that major HealthCare providers would default to HealthVault as a common provider of this type of service and enable them in time to deliver streamlined services and benefits based on HealthVault as a common interface. That may very well be, but right out of the box don't expect too many consumers to be jumping head over heels for this service. The non-friendly home page for HealthVault says in essence to the consumer "Hi, we're Microsoft, give us all of your health history details and we'll make it easy for corporations to look at them." Thanks, but I think that we've been there already with Microsoft Wallet, an earlier stab by Microsoft to become the universal online payment service for ecommerce. You'd think that they'd learn from that experience that it helps to look at things from the consumer's perspective first. One of the more promising features of the beta HealthVault is the HealthVault Connection Center, which highlights software that makes it easy for people using health monitoring equipment to collect data from these devices in HealthVault and to make it available to physicians who can scan that information as needed. This plays into Microsoft's strengths as a provider of gizmo interfaces and offers some potential long-term benefits for wellness monitoring services. But even here it's early days for the beta product: the HealthVault Connection Center at this point is just a set of links to Microsoft's device driver and software download pages on the main Microsoft Site. There's no integration to speak of. Microsoft has carved out an ambitious vision for HealthVault, tying in personal, Web and device-driven content into a framework that may make it easier for health care professionals to provide services to patients and wellness enthusiasts. In the still-sketchy outlines of this product you can see how Microsoft sees a huge opportunity to become a master repository for health information that could make it a power player in the health care industry as a result. With the far more competitive and commoditized media marketplace looking less and less like a winner for Microsoft this leveraging of its strengths in both the consumer marketplace and the corporate marketplace may be a great way for Microsoft to firm up its established but threatened footholds in both markets. But clearly this ambitious vision has a long way to go. The Live Seach results are very well designed and promising, but they are not so clearly superior to Google's existing health care offerings that it is likely to create an immediate stampede to Live's view of health information. The corporate feel of the site and the utter lack of deftness in making people feel that there's something in it for them to provide highly sensitive personal information puts a damper on the potentially strong value-add features that could be built off of it. The device integration is a nice concept, but there's a long way to go before we see dashboards built off of this information that will be useful to both consumers and health professionals. There was enough goodness in all of this to get at least one news cycle of positive spin, but there's a long road ahead to make this a viable hit for Microsoft. Still, it's more than its major competitors have done lately to offer a vision of how personal, Web, scholarly and device-driven medical content can come together to improve health care for both consumers and professionals. Microsoft would claim that the've stolen the march from Google with this initiative, and from a vision standpoint they may have a reason to crow a bit. But from an execution standpoint it's a clumsy enough start with typical Microsoft over-hyping of fairly modest features and partner relationships that potential heavyweight content partners are not going to get bowled over immediately as they have been in days past. This may buy Google and others time to come up with their own approaches that may have a more consumer-friendly appeal that will be essential for the long-term success of any such initiative. In the meantime HealthVault's visionary offering gives both content producers and medical professionals a lot to think about in how they plan to make better use of the Web to improve their services to consumers. Labels: collaboration, consumers, enterprise, HealthVault, Microsoft, STM
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:59 PM |
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Trends As online contexts drive revenue the winners are the ones who can monetize more of them most efficiently... U.S. Media Revenue Jumped 8% to $287 Billion Advertising Age U.S. Online Ad Spending Topped $5 Billion in Second Quarter
Bloomberg News Google’s Share of U.S. Online Ads Hits 40 Percent TechCrunch Google raises temperature of health information market Information World Review For Google, Advertising and Phones Go Together The New York Times Zipidee Startup Looks to Sell All Things Digital Red Herring While those who build context without effective monetization models continue to struggle... eBay: What to do with Skype? CNET News Blogs have become the universal tool for opinion-makers to get their messages out... A Look at Federal Government Blogs AP via Google Blogs get the old-media habit FT.com Microsoft squirms, wiggles and tosses stones but can't seem to come up with what it really needs - a hit... Microsoft Launches HealthVault For Personal Health Info Management paidContent.org Microsoft HealthVault: Who Are You Going To Trust? Forbes Microsoft Chief Ballmer Plays Down Facebook Reports Bloomberg News Keep an eye on: Microsoft Reuters Media File Yahoo tries to mimic Steve Jobs' product outlook, but are its product plans anywhere near insanely great...? Yahoo's Revival Meeting: In Search of "Insane Greatness" O'Reilly Radar Upgraded Search Experience, 'Search Assist' & Multimedia Content In Results: Yahoo Search Engine Land Yahoo Changes Questionable Sponsored Search Policy. Can Anyone Tell? Mashable Yahoo Considering “Strategic Options” For Comparison Shopping Service Kelkoo in Europe paidContent.org Analyst says Yahoo worth more if broken up Reuters As Apple tries to wrestle with flashy technology that supports tame content options... Is Apple losing some of its shine?; Recent moves to impose control risk alienating longtime loyalists LA Times via Content Agenda Apple DRM Patent Contemplates Media Sharing: Subscription Service Coming? Information Week Music publishers land a big verdict but it does little to change the verdict on how to make money online... RIAA Jury Finds Minnesota Woman Liable for Piracy, Awards $222,000 Wired News Car repair firm accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work BBC News It's a bit like what's happening with Open Access - alienate your clients and they will go elsewhere... Scientists, publishers and authors rage against PRISM Information World Review All for Open Access: Let’s welcome the end of for-profit academic publishing The Harvard Crimson Anti-Open-Access Effort by Publishing Group Loses Another University Press Chronicle of Higher Education Social media thrives in microcontexts - an opportunity for high-value marketing still largely unharnessed... Media Less Trusted Than Other Consumers' Opinions TVWeek Good News, Bad News about Facebook Application Market: Long Tail Rules O'Reilly Radar How the Portals Will Win the Social Networking Wars Micro Persuasion Software metaphors don't define the online revolution that's more about people and content...
Web 3.0, the official definition. Jason Calacanis Sharing documents - the "Pong" of content collaboration - gets a new twist from Adobe... Adobe plans online document sharing CBR In other major trends in content this week...Centaur Media to discontinue Perfect Analysis service Hemscott Senate Bill Aims to Define Who Is a Journalist Washington Post Spiegel Rejects Purchase Of FT Deutschland Stake WSJ Online* BlackBerry Maker’s Profit Doubles The New York Times Facebook's legal issues escalate as N.Y. attorney general strengthens warnings CNET News Google Cuts Ads From Orkut Service WSJ Online* Best Practices Goodbye to Splogs and Feed-Driven Blogs Blog Herald Google and IBM build 'cloud computing' data centers online IHT From The Information Age To The Connected Age GigaOM The Semantic Web Will Redefine Content Management CMS Web YouTube: The Big Copyright Lie Coding Horror Librarians Under New Management AP via Google News Research Trends:Scientific trends using bibliometric analysis Really Simple Sidi Cool Tools Microsoft Looks to Social Networking for Zune 2.0 PC World Social Suggester Launches Search Widget Mashable Service Helps Friends Share Their Online Discoveries The New York Times JargonFish(TM) the New In-Text Content Platform Launches BusinessWire More Features For Creating Your Own Digg: coRank Mashable Chris Harrison: Maps of Internet Connections Chris Harrison Upspring is LinkedIn, Facebook & Google Ads Rolled Up in One Mashable washingtonpost.com Launches "Election Collection '08" Widget, New Mobile Election '08 Channel BusinessWire Grazr is officially an OPML editor Library Clips Sony's PRS-505 eBook reader now on sale Engadget
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Voxant, The New Media Network, Signs on Getty Images, Adds News Feeds for the AP and Reuters PR Newswire via JRJ New York Times and A.D.A.M. Add Unique Site Depth To Online Health Content BusinessWire drugstore.com and Revolution Health Group Announce Breakthrough Deal PR Newswire via CNN Money Veronis Suhler Stevenson to buy Tranzact for $185 million BtoB Online MSNBC Interactive News Acquires Newsvine AP via Google News MuseGlobal-Groxis Partnership Transforms Content Into Information Information Today ROO Group Enhances Content Offerings Aimed at $79 Billion Online Travel Market with GeoBeats, Inc. PR Newswire via CNN Money Mixx Helps USAT, Reuters.com, Weather Channel to Deliver Personalized News, Images and Video PR Newswire Duke University Press Chooses the ebrary Platform to Sell and Distribute New eBook Collection BusinessWire Thomson Financial in data distribution deal with Paladyne Systems Thomson Financial/CNN Connotate Selected to Automate Knowledge Management Process at The Associated Press BusinessWire via LivePR American Anthropological Association Adds More than 20 Publications to Wiley-Blackwells Social Sciences Presswire via Trading Markets Aptara Partners With IOP Publishing in Production of Leading Astronomy Journals Marketwire via Sys-Con Products, Markets & People Near-Time(R) Introduces User-Generated Solutions(SM) BusinessWire Mediasurface Solves Newspaper Publishing Dilemma SourceWire Worlds Largest Articles Announces 600,000 Article Database Software PR Web blinkx Goes Global, Offers Native Language Video Search for France, Germany and Spain PRNewswire via EarthTimes CCH Introduces New CorpSystem(TM) Suite of Solutions for Corporate Tax Professionals PR Newswire via EarthTimes Wolters Kluwer Health Appoints Gordon Macomber As President & CEO Of Professional & Education Unit ABN Newswire Business Objects Reaches into Unstructured Data Enterprise Systems ALM’s Real Estate Media Launches Enhanced Web and Magazine Offerings BusinessWire BusinessWeek Undergoes Redesign for '21st Century Appeal' FOLIO: Magazine Advertising and Media Executives Join Transpera Team PR Newswire BatchBlue - Contact management designed for the small business Emily Chang Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:40 AM |
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| Monday, October 08, 2007 |
Trends Zipidee Startup Looks to Sell All Things Digital Red Herring For Google, Advertising and Phones Go Together The New York Times Google’s Share of U.S. Online Ads Hits 40 Percent TechCrunch Yahoo Changes Questionable Sponsored Search Policy. Can Anyone Tell? Mashable Analyst says Yahoo worth more if broken up Reuters Good News, Bad News about Facebook Application Market: Long Tail Rules O'Reilly Radar Senate Bill Aims to Define Who Is a Journalist Washington Post Microsoft HealthVault: Who Are You Going To Trust? Forbes Spiegel Rejects Purchase Of FT Deutschland Stake WSJ Online* Centaur Media to discontinue Perfect Analysis service Hemscott Scientists, publishers and authors rage against PRISM Information World Review Is Apple losing some of its shine?; Recent moves to impose control risk alienating longtime loyalists LA Times via Content Agenda Car repair firm accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work BBC News U.S. Online Ad Spending Topped $5 Billion in Second Quarter
Bloomberg News A Look at Federal Government Blogs AP via Google Best Practices Goodbye to Splogs and Feed-Driven Blogs Blog Herald Google and IBM build 'cloud computing' data centers online IHT From The Information Age To The Connected Age GigaOM The Semantic Web Will Redefine Content Management CMS Web YouTube: The Big Copyright Lie Coding Horror Cool Tools More Features For Creating Your Own Digg: coRank Mashable Chris Harrison: Maps of Internet Connections Chris Harrison Upspring is LinkedIn, Facebook & Google Ads Rolled Up in One Mashable washingtonpost.com Launches "Election Collection '08" Widget, New Mobile Election '08 Channel BusinessWire Deals, Partnerships and Sales MSNBC Interactive News Acquires Newsvine AP via Google News MuseGlobal-Groxis Partnership Transforms Content Into Information Information Today ROO Group Enhances Content Offerings Aimed at $79 Billion Online Travel Market with GeoBeats, Inc. PR Newswire via CNN Money Mixx Helps USAT, Reuters.com, Weather Channel to Deliver Personalized News, Images and Video PR Newswire Duke University Press Chooses the ebrary Platform to Sell and Distribute New eBook Collection BusinessWire Thomson Financial in data distribution deal with Paladyne Systems Thomson Financial/CNN Products, Markets & People Near-Time(R) Introduces User-Generated Solutions(SM) BusinessWire Mediasurface Solves Newspaper Publishing Dilemma SourceWire Worlds Largest Articles Announces 600,000 Article Database Software PR Web blinkx Goes Global, Offers Native Language Video Search for France, Germany and Spain PRNewswire via EarthTimes Wolters Kluwer Health Appoints Gordon Macomber As President & CEO Of Professional & Education Unit ABN Newswire Labels: headlines
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By John Blossom - posted at 4:54 PM |
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| Sunday, October 07, 2007 |
 When Seattle-based Newsvine launched in Beta form last January we documented its promise enthusiastically and kept a close eye on it. Not surprisingly so did a number of hot prospects for financing a profitable exit, including MSNBC, which Newsvine has announced in its own story as its new owner. No details are available at this time about the size of the deal or how Newsvine will be integrated into MSNBC.com, but MSNBC News' estimate of USD 75 million seems about right given Newsvine's position in the social news marketplace and there are promises by MSNBC to keep Newsvine an independent entity for now. It's a pretty good first acquisition for MSNBC.com, which is a humdrum online news portal that trails major outlets for cable news such as CNN.com and Foxnews.com by significant margins and seems to be caught in a major identity crisis. Unlike the online portals for CNN and Fox News, MSNBC.com is obliged to promote the broadcast NBC news properties more than the MSNBC cable unit, drawing away precious attention span to TV shows that have little to do with core online audience demographics. Add in an alliance with Newsweek magazine for feature content and the marketing muddle for the MSNBC.com brand gets no more clear. Newsvine itself is not a traffic leader in overall visits amongst social news outlets and struggles to build momentum behind an intensely loyal core of news, opinion and bookmark contributors. But unlike other social news outlets Newsvine features a maturing mix of original content along with links to external news stories, a combination that will help MSNBC.com to build inventories of unique destination content and a network of popular online personalities that could be leveraged via MSNBC's cable outlet to build visibility for the community. Newsvine has had a few minor but noteworthy news scoops of its own - a member on the scene of the Virginia Tech shootings broke the initial details of the event - but the strength of the community tends to be a core of contributors who opine on and spin key topics in politics, religion, world events and popular culture. With a reasonable mix of views across the spectrum and the ability for talented writers to expand on their thoughts in their own pieces Newsvine offers a rich mix of content that's sure to complement any mainstream news outlet's offerings if managed effectively. What Newsvine gets most out of this deal is a parent who's willing to put a little more muscle behind an organization that's been challenged to keep up with itself. With only a staff of six and an editorial policy that requires regular and timely monitoring and intervention by senior Newsvine staff to keep controversial content and comments from spinning out of control Newsvine suffers from the typical startup myopia that keeps it from looking at larger prizes at its disposal. Newsvine's features generally do a good job of promoting engaging content to the attention of its members and its social networking features were well ahead of other social news outlets but its up-only voting system tends to promote content that echoes much of the same controversy-for-controversy's-sake content that one finds in major media outlets. Ironically this may turn out to be a plus when you have a cable news outlet that focuses on much the same sort of stories. Most major news outlets have been extremely hesitant to embrace social media too closely, a factor that has benefited portals such as Newsvine along the way: when The New York Times closed down its online comments features a few months back Newsvine picked up a good chunk of NYT commenters. With the acquisition of Newsvine established news media outlets may be beginning to recognize that this uneasy balance between social media and their own news is tipping away from their operations, creating loyalties tied to online communities creating and discussiong news that is likely in time to eclipse loyalties to news brands tied to established media channels. It's hardly a one-for-one swapout at this point in time, so the initial decision of MSNBC to keep the Newsvine brand alive as an independent unit is a wise move for now, especially given the typical sensitivities in online communities to being "sold out." But as audiences empowered as newshounds create and discover a widening range of content their ability to build quality inventory and insights rapidly will eventually find more of today's journalists and commentators becoming professional members of online communities like Newsvine. Social news communities are accelerating in their ability to get their articles good placement in search engine results, a factor that certainly contributed to The New York Times' decision to open up its prime columnists' content to get our from behind their subscription firewall and into the mix of these communities. This transition is still fairly gradual and generational, but essential for ensuring future revenues amongst news audiences becoming used to having their peers help them select what's newsworthy - and worth their attention. Labels: Deals Partnerships and Sales, Digg, MSNBC, New York Times, News, Newsvine, Social Media
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By John Blossom - posted at 7:43 PM |
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| Saturday, October 06, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:58 PM |
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| Wednesday, October 03, 2007 |
 I've been waiting so long for eBooks to take off that it's begining to feel like a scene from a comedy sketch or an existential play, but current sales trends offer some moderate optimism that the medium may be building steam. While USD 8 million for eBooks sales in July is still a rounding error for the book trade as a whole it's double what it was a year ago, and showing strong movement towards cracking USD 100 million in eBook sales next year. Helping along eBooks will be improving players such as Sony's new PRS-505 platform, which Engadget indicates is now available at a USD 299 sticker price. The 505 features improved paper-like image resolution from eInk technology and perhaps most importantly a USB port to allow uploads and downloads between the reader and one's PC - at last simplifying the process to snatching content off the Web and transferrring it to the reader. That content can include MP3 files, but with ultra-low power consumption - you could go weeks between needing extra juice for this unit - the main appeal is to the monochrome text world of readers. Yet for all of the niceties added to this improved model it's still a far cry away from what is likely to be adopted as a mass-market device for book consumption. One significant barrier remains the price point - with communications companies subsidizing the cost of mobile phones heavily to promote usage, why hasn't the book industry considered the same for devices that would promote eBook growth? The answer comes in part from the tradition of booksellers working with balkanized networks of distributors - they're comfortable with retailers who want to lock in their own comfy margins with book products, each with their own quirks and formats. In the process of helping their vendors remain proprietary, though, the industry is slipping away rapidly from any real opportunities for eBooks to take off in a big way any time soon. Amazon's Kindle platform, slated for a launch (of sorts) this month, will do hardly better than Sony in making people love yet another device to clutter their world - and in fact may do worse, given the device's positively retro look: think of a cross between an IBM PCjr and an early Star Trek Tricorder. Then again, for those attached to print perhaps this is flashy enough. The real problem with eBook readers lies with their inability to provide any sort of useful reading experience beyond simple book pages. With Adobe PDFs still the widely used standard for premium eBook materials, too many publishers are trying to format information with print-like rendition in mind and leaving eBook readers to try to figure out how to scroll through or otherwise make sense of materials not well adapted for the relatively low resolution of eBook displays. There's a long ways to go before we can even begin to think of this medium as truly "electronic paper." Mobile devices such as phones are the real portable eBook and eMagazine platform of choice, but even here displays can disappoint. I was watching an iPhone enthusiast demonstrate recently how "easy" it was to read a magazine through the slick new device - a magazine that was formatted for print reading and utterly unnavigable on the tiny iPhone screen. Publishers born of the print world just cannot, cannot give up the notion that print-formatted materials will work great on anything that's smaller than their original format. With all this said, there may be a niche for eBook readers amongst people who want to make sure that they have something to grab when their mobile phone needs a recharge. In the meantime eBooks are thriving on phones and in online venues where printable formatting is considered a plus. eBooks will do particularly well as materials that can encourage previewing a title that someone would like to consider for on-demand printing. But still, even at this highly developed stage in the electronic publishing era, it's hard for most publishers and technologist to think of books as anything other than a relic that will be accomodated reluctantly by new technologies. This leaves plenty of room for people to reinvent what a book really is - but that's for another post, perhaps. Labels: downloads, eBooks, mobile, Sony
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By John Blossom - posted at 2:00 PM |
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 The investment research marketplace is one of the most intensively cultivated business information sectors, with major investment banks, buy-side fund managers, ratings companies, publishers, media companies and independent research firms all putting their finger in the pie to try to pull out the plum of valued insights and recommendations. With such a daunting field of players you have to give credit to Wikinvest for even thinking about trying something new. Wikinvest enables contributors to build up profiles of companies similar to what one gets in a typical stock profile report, with a neutral "just the facts" default tab for each company complemented by tabs that give indications as to what the bullish and bearish sentiments are on the investment. While these reports leverage mostly bog-standard MediaWiki technology they are attractive and readable for most purposes. They also have a nifty graphing package similar to that used in Google Finance that contributors can use to create annotations that correlate market movement to events affecting the company's stock. Wikinvest company reports are complemented by topical concept reports, which lay out the details of major trends and investment methodologies. Like company reports each concept report also includes an area in which "bulls" and "bears" can add their own take on the impact of sub-prime loans on markets. There are also nice features such as the ability to add user-specific bookmarks on each page's sidebar and the ability to type in partial company names or concepts instead of ticker codes into their type-ahead search box to get some meaningful content. Top contributors to Wikinvest get titles akin to Wall Street professional titles - "Senior Director" is the label for the top grade of Wikinvest contributors. For a just-out-of-the-box tool Wikinvest is already populated with a fair amount of content - 100,000 contributions are claimed - but it's content coming mostly from young enthusiasts rather than from seasoned investment analysts. Don't let the "Senior Director" label fool you - look at the bios of these leading contributors and you'll find many folks who have not yet made it out of school. That said, when one thinks of all of the off-shore operations cranking out stock reports these days, this is perhaps not the worst thing in a world of 80/20-rule online content. The concepts reports - basically a topical financial encyclopedia - have potential and are generally pretty well-written but it needs far more reports, as well as support for basic industry terms such as "uptick rule" found in sites such as Investopedia or Wikipedia. This is a very day-one effort at an investment-oriented Wiki, and for day one it seems to have done a lot of the right things. The 100,000 articles is about the scale of the original Wikipedia, so there's reason to think that it will attract quality contributions over time that will flesh out content in this market sector. The use of a neutral/bull/bear model to gather content is also useful, helping to channel opinions to places where they're useful and hopefully helping to avoid opinion turning into facts too often. It's a model for Wiki content collection that others should consider to address topics that draw a lot of segmented opinions. The ability to define new concept articles on the fly also allows Wikinvest to be a fresh and topical source of content that will draw people on a regular basis, giving the potential for building audience loyalty as a must-stop bookmark. Will Wikinvest really fly? I think the real question is rather how does any sector-specific Wiki project manage to build authoritative content that will attract an audience and quality contributions. From this perspective I think that Wikinvest is a pretty good roadmap into how Wiki technology can be used to build communities of interest around professional-grade topics that can become a strong media source over time. I expect that Wikinvest will have relatively slow and steady growth over the next few months and then either be snatched up by a major portal (is the similarity to Google Finance charting a hint as to their exit strategy?) or outclassed by a startup with deeper pockets and more of an ability to attract higher-grade contributors. But then again, with a little more cash to accelerate content growth, Wikinvest could wind up being that better-financed startup themselves - and find themselves in a very interesting spot in the online content world. Labels: Business Information, financial information, wikinvest, Wikipedia, Wikis
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By John Blossom - posted at 12:25 PM |
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| Tuesday, October 02, 2007 |
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By John Blossom - posted at 11:47 PM |
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| Monday, October 01, 2007 |
Trends The robust online economy attracts mounds of private capital and creates optimism for mainline media... Return of 1999? Dot-coms making a comeback USA Today Sling's CEO on being acquired by EchoStar: "We are going to rock" Engadget Is Sling Media acquisition good sign for IPTV? CNET News Time Inc’s Digital Revenues: Estimated Around $175 Million Mark Over Next Year paidContent.org Study Offers Surprising Numbers on Newspaper/Yahoo Deal Editor and Publisher Big media enters the spin zone: Big assets to be unloaded? CNN Money As newspapers adjust to falling print circulation they focus on delivering more value to their audiences... The New York Times: It’s deeper than you think Reuters Mediafile FT.com Frees Up Content in Response to Murdoch's Announcement Mashable Balancing Bottom Lines and Headlines The New York Times Transforming the Newsroom Architecture AJR Journalism vets forecast changes in media conditions XPress Online Gannett and Web 3.0 Seeking Alpha What's monetizable context? The horizons for advertising in valuable contexts continues to expand... YouTube Puts AdSense in Embedded Players Mashable The View From Your Airplane Window Was Brought to You by ... The New York Times Social media's influence continues to surge but its platforms are still probing for the right formulas...YouTube, Flickr Become Forces for Cultural Change MediaShift A Small Group Make Most Web 2.0 Content CNET News Facebook overtakes MySpace in the UK VNUNet Microsoft looks to Facebook if Yahoo Won't Play New York Post Facebook, Flush Under the Spotlight Reuters MediaFile Facebook To Launch Friend Grouping. Competition Can S**k. TechCrunch Wikinvest to Launch Monday, Betting Its Wiki Will Make Financial Sense Wired - Epicenter Is there really a GYM for search? Yahoo and Microsoft mine their niches well but fail to dent Google's brand... Search Fulfillment: Yahoo! is best of breed Compete Blog Yahoo Search Updating Index & Algorithm Search Engine Land Microsoft plays catch-up on search WebWare Microsoft, Google square off in Washington over DoublClick CNET News Google: Search and Data Seizure The Nation Google continues to accelerate new technologies and markets to help it monetize contexts... Google reportedly buying mobile social network Zingku CNET News Todays Takeover Rumor Bought to You By Google And Sirius TechCrunch Opinion-making on books moves away from newspapers into the long tail of online content... AP Ends Book Reviews, LA Times Also Makes Book Changes Publishers Weekly Television producers widen their appeal to online audiences to compete with native digital video... CBS creates 'EyeLab' to woo web surfers WSJ Online* ABC News Reorganizes, Focuses on Digital Broadcasting and Cable "Hey, guess what? Kids like downloading MP3s. I bet we could make some money selling them...or not..." Amazon starts music store Seattle Post Intelligencer Radiohead Fans to Name Their Price for New Album WSJ Online* In other major trends in content this week... Google's Eileen Naughton Says Advertising Types Will 'Converge' Bloomberg News EarmarkWatch.org Enables D.I.Y. Investigative Work MediaShift Web Apps Hit the Mainstream Read/Write Web AOL Quietly Cans Weblogs Inc Life Sciences Blogs TechCrunch Best Practices What's More Important Page Views Or User Experience Satisfaction? Robin Good Develop Your Widget Strategy Killer Startups Turn Gmail (or any E-mail Account) Into a Social Network Hub MicroPersuasion Majority of U.S. Companies Have Not Conducted ROI Studies for Business Intelligence Investments BusinessWire Is Enterprise RSS the Next Killer App? ServerWatch Call It Wiki Law Digital Trends 7 Reasons Why Second Life Should Matter For Biz Executives GigaOM Cool Tools Acrobat Connect Professional Reviewed Robin Good Google Book Search Adds New Organization Features Mashable DemoFall wrap-up: Products most likely to make money, solve a problem, and creep you out WebWare iPhone 1.1.1 to 1.0.2 downgrade instructions released! Engadget Is Apple planning an e-card service? Seems so from this Patent application ZDNet Blogs Real Time Search Soon At Twitter TechCrunch Acrobat Connect Professional Reviewed Robin Good
Deals, Partnerships & Sales Demand Media Adds $100 Million More Funding; Total Comes To $320 Million paidContent.org Belo and Mochila Announce Strategic Partnership PR Newswire via CNN Money Simon & Schuster Adopts MuseStorm for Authoring and Syndicating Highly Interactive Intelligent Widgets PR Newswire RavenPack to Deliver Dow Jones News Analytics with API for Customers' Proprietary Trading Systems PR Newswire Mark Logic and RWD Technologies Join to Deliver Content-Centric Applications to Life Sciences Industry Marketwire LexisNexis provides content for Halsbury’s Law Magazine Money Control Portfolio.com to partner with HarvardBusiness.org BtoB Online Edmunds.com Selects Tubes for Automotive-Related Multimedia Content Distribution Platform Marketwire HealthiNation Teams up with Prevention.com to Expand Health & Lifestyle On-Demand Video PR Newswire YGS Group acquires RMS BtoB Online Financial Media Group, Inc. Partners with Leading List Management Firm PR Newswire Idearc Media and MagicYellow Sign Distribution Agreement BusinessWire ContentGuard Extends License With Zinio Marketwire Open Text Bridges the Gap Between Editorial and User-Generated Content with RedDot Modules PR Newswire via CNN Money Products, Markets & People Blackboard's Social Bookmarking Service, Scholar, Enables Global Information Sharing Across Academia Marketwire via CNN Money LexisNexis Launches Lexis(R) Front Office Powered by Time Matters(R) 9.0 BusinessWire Talking Things - Wiki-Encyclopedia for Products PRWeb Reader's Digest Names Jeff Wellington Publisher FOLIO: Magazine New Exalead Semantic Search Service to Help People Find, Organize, Share and Enhance Content Online JRJ mSpoke's FeedHub Eliminates the Information Overload Problem Plaguing the Attention Economy PR Newswire via EarthTimes Thunderstone Parametric Search Appliance Simplifies Retrieval of Text and Structured Data Marketwire Labels: summaries
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By John Blossom - posted at 4:43 PM |
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