After Blogs Got Hits, CBS Got a Black Eye
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Scott Johnson, a lawyer in Mendota Heights, Minn., put up his first post at 7:51 a.m. on Sept. 9. By the time he got to his Minneapolis office, he had dozens of e-mail responses.
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A new service wants to match up popular bloggers with marketers to create the online equivalent of magazine 'advertorials.' Some worry it would bring blogs' integrity into question. By Daniel Terdiman.
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There are dozens of Weblogs that seemingly anyone who is anybody in the technology industry reads regularly. Lisa Hsu's blog isn't one of them.
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There's a mini-debate going on about whether podcasting is a success or worth it, or whatever, I'm not sure exactly what the issue is, but it's framed this way --> if you can't get advertisers to hitch a ride on your podcast then podcasting is not worth much if anything.  I'm having a slow Friday so far, it's cloudy and chilly here in the Bay Area, we're in the January doldrums, so I thought maybe I could liven things up a bit by saying both sides of this argument are full of shit wrong. Let me explain. My phone doesn't have a business model. Neither does my porch. I still like having a phone and a porch because they help me meet new people and communicate with people I know. Same with my blog and podcast. Meanwhile... There's another mini-debate about bloggers playing pranks at CES. The Gizmodo guys ran around with some gadgets that turn TV sets off. At CES is this a big deal because much of what goes on there is TV. They were being assholes, interfering with people's ability to do their jobs and make a living. As a result bloggers get a bad rep.  The problem is that they're not bloggers, they're reporters and they work for a company that's not a blog, it's a publication. Publishing stuff on the web with blogging software says nothing about the people and what they write.  A blogger is person who has an idea, expertise or opinion who wants to convey that to other people. The unedited voice of a person. What makes a blogger interesting is that they do something other than writing a blog. If all you do is write a blog, and if you want or need to make money from your blogging, it's really hard to distinguish what you're doing from what professionals who don't use the web (are there any left?) do. Same with podcasting. I do a podcast from time to time because I want to say something. Whether I can run an ad on my podcast means nothing to me because I would never do it. And if I went crazy and let someone put an ad on there, it would only be to reciprocate for them having hosted the podcast, as a way of paying for the podcast itself (I'm contemplating doing exactly that right now so I had to include the disclaimer). I would never burden my podcasting with the task of supporting me. It's not why I podcast. We keep having this argument. Amateurism is good and there's lots of it. Professional writers and broadcasters probably have a place, I don't know, it's not my problem. But let's be clear blogging and podcasting exist independent of a professional's ability to eek out a living using the tools of blogging and podcasting.  Now I'm going to try to get some work done.  See also: Podcasting News, Mashable.
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By Dave Gallagher, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.  Sep. 24--Bob Pritchett discovered the power of the corporate blog when he read one from Microsoft that completely changed his perception of the company.
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Standing on the edge of the blogosphere, you can see some pretty strange sights (and sites). Pillows that look like they are stained with blood, a debate about national borders and journalism ethics, and even one site commenting on the staff salary levels of another (now that is odd).For blogs like Valleywag and Gawker, risk-taking is routine -- even part of their reason to exist. It's obvious when they post about George Clooney's medical record that they are stirring up controversy. Other sites -- such as the less commonly known Daily Awesome or the video blog Rocketboom -- take risks by posting pictures and video clips that traditional media would never touch. A few tech blogs are risky in that they are not afraid to call something ugly, confusing, or useless (see Daring Fireball).Here are some of the riskier blogs on the Web, along with a few examples of what makes them that way.Dooce  A classic blog in the sense that it really is a daily journal of the owner's life (including kids, illness, finances and husband), Dooce.com is controversial only because it's honest about the mundane. Posts about mental illness, skin cancer, sex, Mormonism and other subjects are sometimes over-the-top -- in some cases, causing virulent reactions from readers. Interestingly, in the comments for the more unconventional posts, such as this one, where the blogger is wearing a shirt about meat, the comments are generally supportive and sympathetic.Gawker  This Manhattan gossip blog (and publishing home of blogs such as Gizmodo and Kotaku) doesn't necessarily view itself as controversial or vengeful, but posts tend to be filled with gossip. "We're not trying to be inflammatory," says managing editor Choire Sicha. "We definitely get a lot of mail, some of it a little frightening, when we discuss race, ethnicity and religion."Boing Boing  One of the most unusual sites on the Web, Boing Boing just recently updated its design (it's now much easier to read) and has recently started posting video blogs. They cover a wild variety of topics, from giant squids to privacy rights to Christian comic books, usually with a keen eye for exposing anything misleading or naive.Posters such as Cory Doctorow (a science fiction writer and former Electronic Frontier Foundation director) and founder Mark Frauenfelder cover the dark side of the media, covering unusual gadgets and toys such as a Tonka truck cutlery set."Once I blogged photos of pillows that looked like pools of blood,"says Frauenfelder. "My timing was bad, because it was the day after the Virginia Tech shootings, and some readers thought the photos were of dead students. I posted it before I realized people might connect the two. I got a bunch of angry e-mails. I took the images down right away, but a few people remained apoplectic."Valleywag  Valleywag is essentially an investigative reporting blog that "outs" companies that do dumb things, or at least the shenanigans of people at really popular corporations (such as Google Inc.). One recent post about a Google employee who claimed to invent AdWords led to a series of scathing comments from readers and a rebuttal from Google employees. ("The reviewer on Valleywag needs to go back to school to learn to read," said one commenter.)Part of the risk-taking nature of Valleywag is that the site reports on well-known company officials and other bloggers, not just untouchable Hollywood celebrities. A post about Robert Scoble, in which he was Photoshopped to look like a troll, makes a jab at his claims about not seeking high traffic.Your Daily Awesome  Another unusual site, Your Daily Awesome is risk-taking in that the images are sometimes mesmerizing and jarring. On more conventional sites you probably won't see photos of Buster Keaton riding a donkey, big whites sheets used as a backdrop for real trees or "brain maps". Scans of old books like the environmental classic What On Earth Are We Doing? and dreamy landscape photographs (shot in a large aquarium tank) are also common. In fact, the images are often inspiring because they are so rarely featured on any other sites.G4 TheFeed  Focused mostly on gaming, G4 -- TheFeed is prone to post techie gossip and game rumors, gadget news and unusual tech toys. It's usually a good source for information about game cancellations and news. The site posted about the Bungie North America split from Microsoft, for example, before some of the other game news outlets."Because G4TV.com's TheFeed blog has a heavy gaming focus, anything we post about the 'console wars' between the Xbox 360, the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii elicits an immediate, contentious and emotional response from our readers," says Robert Juster, G4TV vice president of new media and interactive. "We've been angrily accused of being on the payroll of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, often by different readers reacting to the exact same post."Other risk-taking blogs:Gary Weiss  Gary Weiss isn't really a blogger -- he's a print journalist and book author -- but his blog is incisive and often cutting-edge when it comes to Wall Street and tech companies. Posts about Overstock.com caused a stir not only with company officials, but also with readers and other reporters.Rocketboom The only video blog in our list, Rocketboom tends to report on the "other side" of the news, the unconventional stories that mainstream newspaper and television avoid, such as a report in July on the fence/wall constructed around Israel.Share Sleuth  Another investigative blog, Share Sleuth focuses on stock fraud and the illegal practices of companies, partly as a way to guide investors. Recent reports on Xenthanol even led to a Wired Magazine feature story.Daring Fireball  For an Apple-centric site that reports on new products and software to the Macintosh faithful, Daring Fireball is also not afraid to take the company to task on software foibles.
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Advertising agencies and communications professionals are using blogs to create discussion about ideas within their industries.
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News organizations promised Wednesday to look into why their Election Day exit polls showed an initial surge for John Kerry, but also blamed bloggers for spreading news that gave a misleading view of the presidential race.
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Before heading over to the Web 2.0 conference at the Palace Hotel in SF this morning, I couldn't resist doing some more digging into alternate user interfaces for news reading based on the NY Times keywords.  One thing I learned the hard way is that when you access the Times site from a script (not through a browser) if you try to read an article that's too old (not sure what the time limit is) it tries to redirect you to a login page (which is pretty pointless considering that there's no human being around to log in). I hit this problem yesterday, and then hit it again this morning, but couldn't remember what the problem was. So by writing it up this time I hope to remember.  No doubt some debunked hack journalist posing as a tech industry mogul will slander me for this, but the asshat asshole has no idea how blogging works, and who the fuck cares what he thinks anyway. "cheesecake"
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Blogs have shifted the balance of information online, argue experts, and they are here to stay.
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MarketWatch is sold for $500 million and Slate is next. Will there be a spate of other sites on the block? Probably, but the most fevered M & #038;A activity will be among blogs. Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg.
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Also: Distortion-free lens tech puts things in a negative light. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
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Consumer advocacy takes on renewed power as it moves into a new form, the blog.
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Three writers who obsessively cover the CBS reality show get more than pure entertainment value for their unending attention to the TV series.
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Dark clouds are gathering over the local blogosphere. First there were "splog" attacks, pieces of spam left in the comments area of local blogs. That was kids' stuff. Now it appears that at least two blogs in the western suburbs have become victims of a new, scarier menace: blogjacking.
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Representatives of older and new media companies detailed their embraces of the Internet Friday at the Web 2.0 Summit conference in San Francisco, with supposed old-line companies emphasizing opportunities and dismissing any threats to longstanding business models.Executives from CBS, Comcast, Joost, and Current participated in panel sessions on media operations and the Internet. While the Internet might be seen as potentially taking viewers away from traditional broadcast and cable television, panelists noted that TV viewership still accounts for several hours per person daily and continues on its 30-year trend upward.Comcast and CBS officials both noted that the Internet can extend their businesses."We love the Internet for a variety of reasons," said Amy Banse, president of Comcast Interactive Media, which is responsible for the cable TV provider's Internet businesses. People use Comcast's pipe to access the Internet and Comcast is the largest residential ISP, she said.But Comcast also believes in cable TV and that it will be around for a while, she said. "People thought that with television, radio would disappear and with cable television, broadcast television would disappear, and we all know that that hasn?t happened," Banse said.The Internet has enabled CBS to extend beyond its largely U.S.-based audience and to gain "new eyeballs," said Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, which covers Internet operations. "We, CBS, have not found the Internet to be cannibalistic to television," Smith said.Persons who see a two-minute clip of a CBS show, such as "How I Met Your Mother," might be encouraged to watch the program, he said. He recalled how a recent clip of David Letterman interviewing Paris Hilton showed up on YouTube and drew a lot of traffic; this was embraced by CBS, which carries Letterman's show.Asked by panel moderator Josh Quittner, of Fortune magazine, if she was worried about Google, Banse dismissed this."You want me to be a dinosaur running scared. I'm really not," she said. Google has been a "wonderful partner" for Comcast, with people accessing the search site via the Comcast pipe, said Banse.?In a subsequent panel session, officials from Joost, which provides broadcast-quality Internet television service, and Current, which blends broadcast TV with interactive Internet communications, shared their companies' visions."We wanted to bring the magic of the Internet to television, not the dumbness of television to the Internet," said Joel Hyatt, co-founder and CEO of Current. A community has been fostered to submit video that can be viewed on Current TV.Joost, meanwhile, is making peer-to-peer-based video distribution software that can run on PCs and the Macintosh, said Mike Volpi, Joost CEO. High-quality is streamed, with some of it professionally created by companies such as CBS and Viacom. Other content is developed by persons who are not so familiar. Joost is trying to develop an advertising-supported model.Both Joost and Current embrace advertising as a business model."I believe advertising is definitely the way to go," Volpi said. Advertising thus far has not blended well on the Internet because it has been offered in the form of banner ads or keywords, he said. But there are plenty of ad dollars to be gained by going after targeted users, he said.
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They watch TV so you don't have to. An army of bloggers have been parsing every second of tonight's Emmy broadcast in a form that's come to be called "live-blogging." Quips, riffs and rundowns are the tools of this trade. The best of these blogs unfold like watching the show with an outrageously funny friend.