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Content production or aggregation ?

The winner takes it all

" The Great Media Industry Schism The once monolithic media industry is undergoing a radical schism, dividing itself into content creation, on the one hand, and content aggregation and distribution on the other.

The nature of this transformation suddenly crystallized for me when I read Tom Foremski's piece on the new West Coast/East Coast media industry divide. Tom seems to be focused more on media as defined by publishing, since New York has traditionally been the center of the publishing world, while Hollywood has been the center of the video-based media industry. Regardless, I think Tom gets it half right, because the schism in media has nothing to do with geography.

The real divide now emerging is between companies that create original content and companies that create platforms for aggregating and distributing that content. Newspapers embody the old media world where content creation, aggregation, and distribution were inextricably linked. But the digital media revolution has made it possible to separate these functions.

For traditional media companies, original content creation still straddles both coasts, but geography is quickly becoming irrelevant as an army of newly empowered individual and small enterprise content creators are storming the web from every corner of the globe.

The radical shift in the newly disaggregated business of original content creation is that, with so much competition (one might even call it a content creation bubble) and no control over distribution, content creation is no longer an easily scalable business — in fact, many players in the new content creation game are not in it to build scale business, or even to make money at all. " R

Real it all : http://publishing2.com/2007/02/25/the-great-media-industry-schism/

Quigo - 2nd best Online CPC Platform

" Google and Yahoo have been fighting it out over which company will dominate the online advertising business, with Google maintaining the upper hand so far.

But in the competition for contextual text ads — those small sponsored links that run adjacent to related articles online — both companies are facing a challenge from a tiny but growing adversary named Quigo Technologies, a New York-based ad service that bills itself as an alternative to the giants.

In the last year and a half, a trickle of large media sites like ESPN.com, FoxNews.com and Cox Newspapers' 17 sites have stopped using Google and Yahoo and instead signed up with Quigo.

What Quigo offers is transparency and control in what can often be an opaque business: advertisers pay Yahoo and Google for contextual ad placement on a wide variety of Web pages, but get little say over where those ads run or even a list of sites where they do appear.

Quigo, by contrast, gives advertisers not only the list of specific sites where their ads have appeared but also the opportunity to buy only on specific Web sites or particular pages on those sites. It also allows media company sites like ESPN.com and FoxNews.com a chance to manage their own relationships with advertisers.

Although Quigo remains a small competitor, with less than 10 percent of the contextual ad business, its growing success has apparently persuaded Google, which is accustomed to calling the shots in all aspects of its business, that it has to change the way it sells the sponsored link ads in the future "

Read it all : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/business/media/26adco.html?em&ex=1172725200&en=00b88f831bec1fa1&ei=5087%0A

The site : http://www.quigo.com/

Selection-Dependent Inputs

" In a previous Communication Design column, "Refining Data Tables," I alluded to the importance of Web forms in online commerce, communities, and creation. As arbitrators of checkout, registration, and data entry, forms are often the linchpins of successful Web applications.

But successful Web applications tend to grow—both in terms of capability and complexity. And this increasing complexity is often passed on to and absorbed by a Web application's forms. In addition to needing more input fields, labels, and Help text, forms with a growing number of options may also require selection-dependent inputs.

Selection-dependent inputs are, in essence, a pretty simple concept: Once a user initially makes a selection from one or more options in a form, the user must provide additional input related to the selected option before submitting the form. Figure 1 illustrates this behavior by showing two steps from the eBay Create a Download Request form. After an eBay seller selects the Sold option in the Listings and records drop-down list, the form presents additional input fields for selecting a date range. Were the user to select a different option in the Listings and records list, completing the form would require a different set of additional options. "

The full article : http://uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000172.php

Competing with FREE via techdirt

Saying You Can't Compete With Free Is Saying You Can't Compete Period from the a-little-explanation dept Getting back to my series of posts on understanding economics when scarcity is removed from some goods, I wanted to address the ridiculousness of the "can't compete with free" statements that people love to throw out. If we break down the statement carefully, anyone who says that is really saying that they can't compete at all. The free part is actually meaningless -- but the zero is blinding everyone.

To explain this, it helps to go back to your basic economics class and recognize that, in a competitive market, the price of a good is always going to get pushed towards its marginal cost. That actually makes a lot of sense. As competition continues, it puts pressure on profits, but producers aren't willing (or can't for very long) keep selling goods at a direct loss. Sunk (or fixed) costs don't matter, because they've already been paid -- so everything gets pushed to marginal cost. That's pretty well accepted by most folks -- but it's still misinterpreted by many. They tend to look at it and say that if price equals marginal cost, then no one would ever produce anything. That's a misconception that is at the heart of this whole debate. The problem is that they don't add in the element of time, and the idea that what drives innovation is the constant efforts by the producers in the space to add fleeting competitive advantages (what some economists have annoyingly called "monopolistic competition," a name that I think is misleading). In other words, companies look to add some value to the goods that makes their goods better than the competition in some way -- and that unique value helps them command a profit. But, the nature of the competitive market is that it's always shifting, so that everyone needs to keep on innovating, or any innovation will be matched (and usually surpassed) by competitors. That's good for everyone. It keeps a market dynamic and growing and helps out everyone.

So, let's go back to the "can't compete with free" statement. Anyone who says that is effectively saying that they can't figure out a way to add value that will make someone buy something above marginal cost -- but it's no different if the good is free or at a cost. Let's take a simple example. Say I own a factory that cost me $100 million to build (fixed cost) and it produces cars that each cost $20,000 to build (marginal cost). If the market is perfectly competitive, then eventually I'm going to be forced to sell those cars at $20,000 -- leaving no profit. Now, let's look at a different situation. Let's say that I want to make a movie. It costs me $100 million to make the movie (fixed cost) and copies of that movie each cost me $0 (marginal cost -- assuming digital distribution and that bandwidth and computing power are also fixed costs). Now, again, if the market is competitive and I'm forced to price at marginal cost, then the scenario is identical to the automobile factory. My net outlay is $100 million. My profit is zero. Every new item I make brings back in cash exactly what it costs to make the copy -- so the net result is the same. It's no different that the good is priced at $0 or $20,000 -- so long as the market is competitive.

Read it all : http://techdirt.com/articles/20070215/002923.shtml

Social Shopping

Retailers Overstock.com and Ritz Camera, along with many others, are making online shopping a user-generated experience.

One expectation for 2007 was the growth of social online shopping, and vendors are coming up with ways to engage customers.

"The main problem in shopping online is that there is too much choice," said Sam Decker, vice president of marketing at Bazaarvoice, Austin, TX. "We think that the social aspect will filter out those choices and make the shopping experience more like shopping in the store with friends."

Bazaarvoice hosts Overstock.com's user review platform, which according to Jacob Hawkins, senior vice president of online marketing at Overstock.com, adds value for the customer and gives the retailer information about which products customers prefer.

Bazaarvoice recently debuted an online video review platform where consumers can upload videos as part of their review. Users can embed video content from YouTube or Google Video by including the URL in a text review submission on any Bazaarvoice client Web site. The video plays below the text review.

"The trend we're seeing is a drive to use this content in different ways and make marketing around what customers are saying instead of what marketers are saying," Mr. Decker said.

PowerReviews CEO Andy Chen agrees that the future of shopping is based on word-of-mouth reviews.

PowerReviews, Milbrae, CA, aggregates product reviews and then segments them by trait and matches them with reviewer demographics. This lets prospects socialize with past purchasers to get more authentic and relevant product information. Mr. Chen said that it is difficult to measure the sales that reviews generate. However, they are important to creating an improved shopping experience.

The firm powers the e-commerce property of Ritz Interactive, owner of seven online stores including RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com and Boaters-World.com. Users can upload images and videos taken by the cameras they purchased.

Reviews are on the Ritz Interactive site. Power Reviews' clients can partner to share data with similar product retailers to increase the traffic to a particular category.

Not only are retailers using customer reviews, but they are also aggregating customer behavior to improve online shopping. Overstock.com uses Aggregate Knowledge's platform, which leverages collective behavior of its customers to anticipate and surface relevant suggestions for future customers.

Similar to Amazon.com's suggestion box, Aggregate Knowledge recommends popular products to make merchandizing more like an in-store shopping experience and pare down the plethora of choices online. "Search is great when you know what you're looking for, but how do you know what's out there when you don't know what you're looking for," said Paul Martino, CEO of Aggregate Knowledge, San Mateo, CA.

Tks to : http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/e-commerce/40153.html

MIVA fiighting for survival

To strengthen its online advertising network, Miva Media has signed new partner agreements with TransWorldNews Inc., Argusauto.com, Boursier.com, Sport1, MyVideo.de and Grupo Zeta.

Under the agreements, Miva's pay-per-click ads will be displayed on the partners' Web sites.

"As with all our distribution partnerships, our objectives are to increase advertisers' reach to targeted audiences, deliver a PPC revenue stream for distribution partners and provide relevant ads to Internet users," said Chrysi Philalithes, vice president of global marketing and communications at Miva Media, New York.

News and press release distributor TransWorldNews will be displaying Miva InLine Ads across www.transworldnews.com.

Miva signed a search and content agreement with French automotive site Argusauto.com. Argusauto.com will be displaying Miva's pay-per-click ads through both content implementations and prompt links. Another French firm, finance site Boursier.com, also signed a content agreement Miva.

Germany's largest sports portal, Sport1, sealed an agreement with Miva that reunites the two companies that had a previous pay-per-click agreement in place a year ago. Under the terms of the new agreement, Miva will be displaying content-driven pay-per-click ads across both the home page and channel pages of the site.

Miva signed a content deal with MyVideo.de, a German company. The agreement calls for content-driven Miva pay-per-click ads to be displayed across selected channels of the site.

The re-signing of a content agreement with Grupo Zeta , one of the top five publishers in Spain, will see Miva continue to display content-driven pay-per-click ads across a portfolio of 13 different Grupo Zeta sites including www.sport.es and www.elperiodico.com.

"This announcement highlights Miva's strategy of using PPC ads to help monetize Web properties through a number of different ways, namely, search, content and InLine advertising," Ms. Philalithes said. "In providing a plethora of options for Web publishers, Miva helps them address their Web monetization needs

Makers of the Future Web

The Essentials of Web 2.0 Your Event Doesn't CoverFebruary 23, 2007 Do you want to learn about the future of web applications? If so, when choosing an event, you might want to make sure it's one that cares about including speakers based on merit, instead of based on arbitrary gender qualifications. I judge merit to be those who meet these criteria:

1. They've already been successful 2. They have done something innovative and unique 3. They are well-known names who will draw an audience and make the event compelling 4. Their work impacts a large audience, or has great influence on the space

Caveats: This list took about 15 minutes for me to make, and I had a little bit of help from Caterina. It's also skewed towards women whom I know well or whom I have already seen speak. But in 15 minutes, I was able to construct a set of theoretical sessions that you won't see at events that specifically exclude women, or that make sure not to reach out to them.

danah boyd: The younger generation of web users have different definitions of "public" and "private" than you do. Mitchell Baker: How to take something from being an interesting technology to being a mainstream tool Caterina Fake: How to get things done even within the constraints of a big company Mena Trott: How to design an application that delights its users, instead of confounding them Liza Sabater: Your project won't succeed unless you reach people who are different from you Amy Jo Kim: How best practices from game design can make your web applications like crack Linda Stone:What we will be paying attention to in the future Kathy Sierra: How to design products that make your users smarter, sexier and hungry for more Heather Armstrong, Meg Frost, and Gina Trapani: One person can be a successful media outlet Lynne Johnson: How to credibly bring new media to an old-media company Jane Pinckard: Anybody with half a brain could have seen that the Wii was going to win, but you were busy bickering about the Cell processor Meg Hourihan: A real mashup: How to combine technology with something you love Heather Champ: How to manage a web community shitstorm with grace and tact Susannah Fox: You talk about "accessibility", but what do you know about people who are sick, old, or disabled? LeeAnn Prescott: Everybody talks about traffic and stats -- what about someone with actual data? Charlene Li: What are the criteria by which real-world analysts create their make-or-break analyses? I could go on and on, but I know the obvious question: Where are the men? Well, don't worry -- the door is open to them. As soon as one of you has done something with the impact of Flickr, something that has the number of users of Firefox, made something that's used by the elderly or the young or by someone different than you, you can participate. Hell, if you make something that makes half as many people smile as Heather, Meg, and Gina's work does, you can send along a proposal to our imaginary event. To conference organizers: If you haven't heard of these people or their work, or you think that Yet Another Bookmarking To-Do List Guy is more important, perhaps you owe some refunds. At this event, nobody would even notice if the wifi went out.

Tks to http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/02/23/the_essentials_

George Lucas against Digg

Digg Trademark - Lucasfilm has opposed the Digg trademark, suggesting the name could be confused with "The Dig", a 1995 video game. The opposition was filed on February 5th, and it's probably just a case of a company moving to protect its trademark so it doesn't lose it in the future (you lose your trademarks if you don't make efforts to protect them).

Quality Score is out (and so?)

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The Inside Adwords Crew have announced that the proposed quality score update has been rolled out today, expecting to last up to 3 or 4 days until complete. The article confirms -

Today, we began rolling out improvements to the Quality Score algorithm, which will update the Quality Score for keywords in your account over the next 3 to 4 days.

As I mentioned last week, the goal of this change is to improve the quality of ads that we serve to our users by making it easier for high quality ads to enter the auction while also discouraging low quality ads. In addition, this change improves our ability to set minimum bids for keywords where we have limited data. As a result, you may see the minimum bid for your keywords increase or decrease based on the updated algorithm.

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