Category: Business

Enterprise and Small Business News

The Latest in Google’s Effort to Make the Web Faster

YouTube has just launched a "Speed Dashboard", which makes speed information about videos available to users. YouTube’s Chris Dale tells us it "offers granular insight into what your YouTube video speed looks like."

"We think it’s pretty cool and all part of our goal to make the web a faster place," he adds.

Factors which affect your YouTube video speed include the speed of your Internet connection, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) you’re using, and the distance to the video servers. Users can compare their video speed to that of others in different regions and using different ISPs.

"We may also list the YouTube speeds for users in your neighborhood but with different ISPs," says YouTube. "The speed numbers are calculated by measuring the speed at which YouTube video is received by the browser. This is then averaged over the previous 30 days provided you’ve used the same browser during this time period."

Speed is something that Google as a whole has placed a great deal on emphasis over the last year or so. For one, they’re talking about making page speed one of the factors they use in ranking search results. The company has also provided webmasters with numerous tools to help them increase their own speeds. More about Google’s initiative for making the web master can be found here.

The YouTube dashboard can be viewed by going to youtube.com/my_speed.

February 11, 2010
Twitter Puts Pixar’s CFO On Payroll

Twitter’s at last found someone to be its chief financial officer, and the man appears to be more than qualified for the position. Ali Rowghani actually comes to Twitter from Pixar, where he also held the title of CFO.

Pixar is, of course, the popular animation studio responsible for movies like Toy Story, The Incredibles, and WALL-E. Disney bought it in 2006 for $7.4 billion, and Rowghani was present at the time, having started at Pixar in 2001.

Now, we’ll get to see what he can do with one of the Web’s more fashionable social sites. But it’s important to note that the company’s COO has said Twitter’s not going public this year, and it’s also been a while since there have been any rumors concerning acquisitions.

Then here’s one other interesting point: Rowghani might not be Twitter’s biggest fan, since as the screenshot below shows, he’s not what anyone would call a heavy user.

Anyway, Rowghani should officially join Twitter in March, according to Reuters, and CEO Evan Williams said that they’re all concentrating on "creating value for our users and capturing the financial opportunities that result from it."

February 11, 2010
MySpace Tests Audio Ads With TargetSpot

For most people, listening to music online is terribly convenient, and the occasional audio ad shouldn’t represent a deal breaker. MySpace may be making a smart move, then, as it’s begun testing 30-second ads with help from an Internet radio advertising company called TargetSpot.

The end result isn’t too different from what fans of Yahoo Music or Pandora – or even regular radio listeners – are already used to. MySpace members just have to tolerate a short ad, and then they’re free to continue on their figurative way, listening to a number of songs before getting stuck with another commercial.

That number of songs is quite large, too, with MySpace allowing people to progress through a playlist of 100 tunes between ads. So even if MySpace becomes less generous in the future (and it probably will), the social network should have plenty of wiggle room before people begin to grow resentful.

A MySpace representative confirmed to David Kaplan, "We’re testing some new ad products and the response from our users has been positive."

The representative then encouraged more folks to weigh in, continuing, "As always, we’re interested in hearing feedback from our community and the advertising community as we roll out new functionality that creates the right balance between user experience and commerce."

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Music Gets Former Universal Exec As New Chief

> 15 Million People Have MySpace Mail Accounts

> MySpace Integrates Facebook Connect Into Website

February 9, 2010
Online Retail Spending Reaches $39 Billion In Q4
Online retail spending in the U.S. in the fourth quarter reached $39 billion, a 3 percent increase compared to a year ago, according to the latest report from comScore.

Total retail ecommerce spending reached $129.8 billion in 2009, slightly lower than the previous year’s total of $130.1 billion.

"The fourth quarter, with a 3 percent year-over-year growth, helped end what has been a disappointing year for online consumer spending on a more positive note," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

"As we head into 2010, there is reason for guarded optimism for online retail spending to continue to gain share of consumers’ wallets. At the same time, I expect absolute growth to be stymied by continued high unemployment and the deleveraging that is occurring in the economy as consumers exercise their new found propensity to save."

The largest online retailers, led by Amazon and Walmart, gained market share of ecommerce sales compared to small and medium-sized retailers.

Spending growth was driven by an increase in online buyers, while average spending per buyer saw modest declines.

Other highlights from the report include:
- Free shipping factored into more than 40 percent of e-commerce transactions during the holiday season.
- Tuesday, December 15 ranked as the heaviest U.S. online spending day in history at $913 million.
Related Articles:

>Cyber Monday Deals Attract Online Shoppers

>Walmart Wins Thanksgiving, Amazon Wins Black Friday

>Online Retailers See Strong Cyber Monday Sales
February 9, 2010
Google Takes Street View to Vancouver and Whistler

With the games in Vancouver and Whistler right around the corner, many wonder about the extraordinary view the world’s best skiers and snowboarders experience during the event.

Well to no one’s surprise, Google Maps can now take you there. That’s right, hold on to your helmets, because during February 12-28 anyone around the world can adventure down the trails of Whistler Mountain with the pros.The Street View team has explored a variety of different methods to capture imagery at 7,000 feet.

Jonathan Lister, Managing Director and Head of Google Canada, posted on The Official Google Blog, "the Street View team’s constant experimenting yielded a snowmobile decked out with cameras to capture slope-level imagery of several runs on Whistler Blackcomb Mountains."

This opportunity affords viewers a first hand look at the sensation of freedom when champions begin their journey for the big win. There are 3D models and Street View available for all 9 competition venues.

Dan Ratner, Senior Mechanical Engineer, posted on Google Lat Long Blog, "In typical scrappy Google fashion, we were able to put this together over the course of a few weekends using extra pieces for our Street View cars, some 2x4s, some duct tape, and a lot of extra hard drives (keeping them running properly in the freezing conditions was one of our major concerns)."

In 40 languages, an up-to-date medal count, news, results, event schedules and imagery of the Vancouver-Whistler area will be accessible on Google’s new site.

February 9, 2010
Yahoo Music Gets Former Universal Exec As New Chief

The music industry is a big business; there must be hundreds of thousands of performers and managers in the world. But there are just four major labels – Warner, EMI, Sony, and Universal – and so Yahoo seems to have made a rather significant hire by securing a former Universal exec as the head of Yahoo Music.

Jeff Bronikowski worked at Universal for almost 12 years, most recently serving as its senior vice president of business development. He apparently did a good job while there, too, earning six recommendations on LinkedIn.

Now, Bronikowski’s told Billboard, "I feel like Yahoo, while certainly it has declined a bit from its prominence as the No. 1 music destination, I think there are tremendous assets there and Yahoo is committed to making it a premier music destination again."

Also, in terms of a (possible) plan for reaching that point, he added, "It never was that big of an on-demand music streaming service. . . . I haven’t even started yet, but thinking about where it’s been, where it is now, and where I’d like to take it . . . I think that’s going to be a big focus. It’s packaging content in a way that’s most appealing to free, ad-supported uses."

For the record: the previous Yahoo Music chief didn’t exactly get the boot. Michael Spiegelman has become responsible for product strategy and development for all of Yahoo’s entertainment products.

Related Articles:

> Misleading Ad: Twitter is Hiring

> Twitter Adds New Exec Talent

> Twitter Obtains Lead Lawyer From Google

February 9, 2010
Online Video Views are Not “Lost” on ABC.com

Last Tuesday, the season premiere of the hit television show "Lost" aired, and not only was it watched by over 12 million people, but it drove record online viewing at ABC.com the next day, with over 580,000 episode starts on the site. That’s over 34% more than last season’s premiere. ABC shared some details with us.

When asked why they think this particular episode of Lost had such an impact on online views compared with other episodes and other shows, a representative for ABC told WebProNews, "Lost has been a top performer in terms of online viewing since we began making episodes available online several years ago. Fans of the show tend to be very tech-savvy and also tend to watch episodes more than once. They also frequently go online to review specific scenes."

On Tuesday, leading up to the airing of the show, ABC.com saw over 1.8 million unique visitors and delivered over 7.4 million page views, a 5% and 43% increase, respectively over the previous year’s premiere date, based on data from Omniture. Visitors to ABC.com logged more than 2.2 million video views of "Lost"-related short-form content on Tuesday, an increase of over 32% compared to last season.

ABC gives viewers more than just the videos though. This season, ABC.com offers interactive, community-driven features including user-created Top 5 lists which allow fans to arrange, rank and share their personalized lists of show-related favorites; and Episode Commentary where fans can access commentaries created by series’ insiders, and create and share their own for each episode.

The site will also soon unveil a Fan Art Wall, an interactive area for fans to upload, view and rate "Lost"-themed art created by fellow fans, and also give fans the opportunity to participate in a promo contest, providing users a "mash-up" tool to create and share their own "Lost" promos with a winning promo to be featured on-air.

There has been some talk about just how well TV shows will perform online in the future as Nielsen makes data available about the viewing of commercials that run in particular shows, whether they are viewed on TV or online. This could lead to online TV shows getting more ad-heavy.

"ABC.com’s full episode player features interactive video advertising," ABC tell us. "Lost episodes currently feature a single national sponsor. They have 4 30-second spots which can’t be skipped; additionally the local ABC affiliates sell one local spot per episode."

We won’t be able to compare Lost episodes from this season with episodes after the Nielsen stuff goes down, because this is the final season of the show, but it is going to be quite interesting to see how advertising on popular shows changes, if it does in fact do so.

February 8, 2010
TuneWiki Lands Investment From Motorola

Social media music player TuneWiki has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Motorola Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Motorola.

Other new investors of TuneWiki include Intellect Capital Ventures, a venture fund initiative of TeliaSonera, HillsVen Capital, and Novel TMT. TuneWiki’s previous venture capital investor, Benchmark Israel, also participated in the round.

"Teaming up with a global company like Motorola is very exciting for us," said Rani Cohen, CEO of TuneWiki.

"We are passionate about connecting people through music, and having our applications running in many countries with different languages will allow our users to explore the world of music and better understand its meaning as part of a vibrant and engaged community."

TuneWiki said it will use the investment to expand and improve its product offerings fro mobile platforms and the Internet. The company says it plans to focus on new features found in recently released smartphones, including stronger CPUs, larger displays and high-resolution screens. TuneWiki said it will also continue to focus on the use of song lyrics in new ways that connect music fans with new products, including an upcoming mobile game.

"Music is rapidly emerging as a key feature for smartphones, and TuneWiki is changing the experience of listening to music from a solitary experience to a social one," said Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures.

Related Articles:

> Motorola Offers Baidu Search To China Mobile Users

> Motorola Slates 20-30 Android Phones For 2010 Release

> More Than Half Of Holiday Shoppers Relied On Cell Phones

February 8, 2010
eBay Launches Series of Seller Events

eBay is starting a new series of events to help small businesses and part-time eBay sellers "accelerate their businesses" on eBay, which has 90 million active users. The series is called eBay: On Location, and has dates set for Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and San Jose.

"eBay sellers are creative entrepreneurs who understand that eBay’s global reach and dynamic marketplace offer the ideal setting to start and build a business online," says eBay Marketplaces President Lorrie Norrington. "We invite our sellers to eBay: On Location to connect with each other and to take the next step in making their eBay businesses even more successful."

The goal of the series of events appears to be to let sellers network with one another and share ideas for maintaining a successful eBay business. There are also courses on "top seller secrets", productivity to boost sales and reduce costs, and utilizing social media to drive sales.

"eBay sellers have become savvier about how to use eBay in ingenious ways," says Jim Griffith, eBay senior manager, Seller Strategy and Dean of Education. "eBay: On Location is a great way for the seller community to come together and share those strategies—and learn something new from experts."

They are only letting in 500 people per event, and registration is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. It costs $45 to get in.

Related Articles:

> eBay to Make Changes to Seller Fees

> eBay Fined $2.6 Million Over LVMH Sales

> eBay Previews Possible Geotargeting Feature For Sellers

February 8, 2010
Online TV Shows May Get More Ad-Heavy

For the most part, online video has been much less ad-heavy than television programming. It is this very fact that has likely been a large part of the medium’s popularity. Things may be changing, however.

According to Advertising Age, Nielsen is planning on making data available about the viewing of commercials that run in particular shows , whether they are viewed on TV or online. The data would start being available in September, and the publication says it will become the basis for ad negotiations next February.

"But here’s the catch: For Nielsen to be able to provide the commercial rating, shows seen online will have to have the same group of commercials that run on TV," says AdAge’s Brian Steinberg. "If this system were adopted en masse — and it’s not clear that it would be — online viewing might be crammed just as full of commercials as the more traditional TV-watching experience."

"Indeed, viewing programs on Hulu, the online video site owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney, means encountering significantly fewer ads than one would see watching TV. And Disney’s ABC.com has met with some success by running ABC shows with just a few ads, often from a single advertiser," he adds. "But many TV executives say these methods don’t bring much, if any, profit — and therefore cannot continue."

Online video has enjoyed tremendous growth over the last several years. In December, 178 million Americans watched 33 billion videos online, according to data from comScore. About 40% of that was at Google sites (like YouTube). The second largest amount of market share went to Hulu, at just 3%.

YouTube isn’t necessarily the place people go to watch full episodes of television shows. Hulu is. If videos at sites like Hulu become more ad-heavy, the market share gap could just increase even greater. It could also have an impact on both paid TV show downloads and piracy.

Related Articles:

> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads

> IAB Releases Ad Unit Guidelines Updates

> YouTube Videos In Adsense Could Drive Clicks

February 8, 2010
Google Suggests Competitors for Local Business Searches

Google is offering suggestions for "nearby places you might like" on Google Maps when you look up a place that you do like. So if you like a particular bakery, you might be presented with other places within the same vicinity that Google thinks you might also be interested in trying.

"When you live in New York City, everyone has an opinion on where to eat," says Tammy Stern of the Google Maps team. "And usually, telling someone a place you love will lead to a long conversation of a string of other places you should try. For example, one of the more interesting restaurants I’ve eaten at in NYC was recommended to me by someone who knew I loved a different restaurant by the same owner. And, when I told a friend I was heading to the Lower East Side to get some yummy knishes for lunch, he told me to make sure I checked out the famous Guss’ Pickles right around the corner and that I might consider picking up some smoked fish at Russ & Daughters down the street."

"You’ll notice that we do not limit these suggestions to places sharing any specific characteristic; instead, we use a broad set of signals to come up with what are hopefully the most interesting suggestions," says Stern. "We’re still working on refining these signals, so bear with us if your serendipitous discovery of a new place is even more unexpected than you’d anticipated."

This feature could have both positive and negative effects on local businesses. On the one hand, it could give established customers ideas to go to your competitors. On the other hand, you could be the competitor and benefit from that.

The suggestions are just the latest feature in a recent slew of local business-related features from Google. The company is clearly focusing a great deal on this aspect of search.

Related Articles:

> Businesses Benefit as Customers Share Current Locations

> Google Makes it Harder to Hide from a Bad Reputation

> Google Tailors Mobile Search Suggestions to Location

February 7, 2010
Super Bowl Viewers Spend Game Time on the Web

Last year, 12% of Super Bowl viewers used the Internet while watching the game according to data from Nielsen. Those that used the web spent an average of 24 minutes online during the game. It would not be at all surprising if those numbers increased significnatly this year.

"Nielsen found that simultaneous users were most engaged in general interest, e-mail, and online social networks," the firm says. "Sports sites, which might be more directly associated with the game itself, were visited by 18% of simultaneous users."

According to Nielsen, about a quarter of simultaneous users spent time during the game using Facebook at an average of 15 minutes. Google and Yahoo Mail also received significant use during game time.

The game takes place this evening of course. Will you be watching? Will you be watching and using the web? How do yo plan on using the web during the Super Bowl?

Related Articles:

> GoDaddy Back in the News for Super Bowl Ads

> Vote For Your Favorite Super Bowl Ads Online

> Pepsi To Skip Super Bowl For Social Media

February 7, 2010
178 Million Americans Watched 33 Billion Online Videos in a Month

Research firm comScore has just released data about the U.S. online video market from December. Americans reportedly watched 33.2 billion videos online during that month. 178 million users watched video online.

Google sites ranked at the top of the list by a significant margin, just like usual. Hulu was next in line with about a 12 million video difference. Google sites accounted for nearly 40% of the market share, with Hulu accounting for 3%. Here’s the top ten:

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

According to comScore, users watched an average of 187 videos per viewer in December. That works out to be roughly 6 a day.

"Google Sites attracted 135.8 million unique viewers during the month (97.5 videos per viewer), followed by Yahoo Sites with 59.8 million viewers (9.0 videos per viewer) and Fox Interactive Media with 56.8 million viewers (9.7 videos per viewer)," comScore says. "The average Hulu viewer watched 22.9 videos during the month, representing another all-time high for the property."

The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: Tremor Media Video Network with 30.5% penetration of online video viewers, BrightRoll Video Network with 21.7%, and BBE with 21.2%.

86.5% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video. 134.4 million viewers watched over 13 billion videos on YouTube.com (97.1 videos per viewer). 44.9 million viewers watched 423.3 million videos on MySpace Sites (9.4 videos per viewer). The average Hulu viewer watched 22.9 videos, totaling 2.2 hours of videos per viewer. The duration of the average online video was 4.1 minutes.

Related Articles:

> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads

> IAB Releases Ad Unit Guidelines Updates

> YouTube Videos In Adsense Could Drive Clicks

February 5, 2010
More Than Just a Redesign Going on with Facebook This Week

It’s been a pretty big week for Facebook. Not only is there a lot of talk about Facebook’s potential for becoming the top news source on the web, but the company celebrated its sixth birthday, is passing the 400 million user mark, and began rolling out some new design changes. In addition, the company is said to be rewriting its messaging feature and preparing to launch a webmail product, but first things first.

The Birthday and 400 Million Users

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed it in a blog post last night. "Today we’re celebrating our sixth birthday, and this week there will be 400 million people on Facebook. Just one year ago we served less than half as many people, and thanks to you we’ve made great progress over the last year towards making the world more open and connected."

"Facebook began six years ago today as a product that my roommates and I built to help people around us connect easily, share information and understand one another better." he added. "We hoped Facebook would improve people’s lives in important ways. So it’s rewarding to see that as Facebook has grown, people around the world are using the service to share information about events big and small and to stay connected to everyone they care about."

Facebook hosted a celebration and announced some releases at the Facebook headquarters last night. This was followed by a hackathon where Facebook staff stayed up all night coding and building new ideas for products.

Do you like the direction Facebook’s gone in for the past six years? Let us know.

Design Changes

Facebook announced some new changes to the design of its homepage. Users can find their newest notifications, requests, and messages in the top menu. When a user receives a notification, they will see a red bubble appear in the left-hand corner by the search bar. When the icon is clicked, a drop-down menu appears with the most recent notifications. The Home/Profile links are in the top-right corner with the Account menu, which includes privacy settings and the log out link.

The menu on the left-hand side of the screen has been completely reworked. "The left menu has been organized to make it easier for you to communicate with and discover content from your friends. You can now access your messages and other core features all in one place, to the left of your News Feed," says Facebook’s Jing Chen. "With the Photos dashboard you can browse recent photos of your friends, and the Events dashboard lists your upcoming events along with events your friends are attending. The Friends dashboard will help you find friends, see which of your friends have recently updated their profiles and filter your News Feed by Friend Lists you may have already created."

Chat has also been made more prominent with a list of online friends displayed on the left. The new apps and games dashboards, which have been discussed lately, can be accessed from the menu as well. The dashboards feature personalized updates from the apps, and they have launched with new privacy settings.

The changes are still rolling out, so it’s possible that you do not have them yet, but you will soon enough.

What do you think about Facebook’s design changes? Good Move or bad? Tell us what you think.

The Webmail Product

Michael Arrington is reporting that a "source with knowledge of the product" says Facebook is launching a webmail product. If MySpace can do it, surely Facebook can too. It’s being referred to right now as "Project Titan", although the name will likely change.

Facebook’s messages as they stand right now, lend to email notifications. When you check your email, you find that someone has sent you a message on Facebook. If Facebook gets you using its own email service, it’s cutting out the middle man, and that means…you guessed it – more time spent on Facebook.

Would you use Facebook for email if they offered a full webmail product? Tell us why or why not.

Facebook As the Web’s Top News Source?

I’ve already written on this topic this week, but basically, the more time people spend on Facebook, the more convenient they may find it to simply get their news feeds there. If Facebook enters the email game, that’s only going to get people using Facebook that much more, and even open up yet another way for them to get their news on Facebook, through email newsletters and news alerts.

Do you see people increasingly getting their news on Facebook? Share your thoughts.

Update: Microsoft has announced some changes to its partnership with Facebook. Facebook will now be taking over its own display advertising, and will get a more feature-rich version of Bing search for its web search.

Related Articles:

> Respond to Facebook Comments From Your Email

> Pingdom Names Facebook "Most Engaging Social Network"

> Content Can Now Go Viral More Easily with Facebook

February 5, 2010
Vote For Your Favorite Super Bowl Ads Online

Brand consulting and advertising firm Hanon McKendry is holding it second annual online Super Bowl ad poll.

Viewers of the game will be able to visit superadbowl.com at the end of the first quarter to cast their vote for their favorite commercial. As votes are casts, the results will be compiled immediately and posted so fans will be able to see how their favorites compare to others.

"Super Bowl advertising is big entertainment, and everyone wants to voice their opinion," said Bill McKendry, founder and chief creative officer at Hanon McKendry. "We wanted to give average viewers a place to weigh in, in real time, on the ads they think hit the mark."

According to a Harris Interactive poll over 57 percent of U.S. adults plan to watch Super Bowl XLIV as much for the commercials as for the game. Among those who watch commercials, 35 percent say they are more likely to visit an advertiser’s website after seeing a Super Bowl ad. In addition, 48 percent of online adults who watch the ads say they are at least somewhat likely to discuss them on social networking sites.

Visitors to the site will be able to cast their votes for one favorite commercial from each quarter. Voting will open at the end of the first quarter and remain open through February 9.

"As more and more Super Bowl advertisers maximize interactive opportunities, viewers are getting in the game and watching with their laptops by their sides," said Pete Brand, co-founder of Mindscape at Hanon McKendry, Hanon McKendry’s interactive division.

"Superadbowl.com gives those interactive viewers a place to go, immediately, and be part of the action."

Related Articles:

> Go Daddy Back In The News For Super Bowl Ads

> Pepsi To Skip Super Bowl For Social Media

> Amazon.com, Pepsi Bank On Free MP3 Music

February 5, 2010
Google Experiments with Different Google News Design

Some people have spotted a new design for Google News, which is part of a limited test experiment Google is running. A Google employee posted the following message in the Google News Help Forum:

At Google, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments at any given time on our websites all over the world. Right now, we are running a small test of a new Google News homepage design. More information about how Google runs experiments can be found at:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/search-experiments-large-and-small.html

We’d love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think at:

http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/request.py?contact_type=report_news&source=redesign

Regards,

The Google News Team

At this point, there don’t seem to be any screenshots of this design floating around, so maybe someone that is actually seeing the different version will post one eventually. There are descriptions out there, however.

The design has been described as focusing on a single category of news at a time. The user has to click on a different category to view that, as opposed to the current design where many categories are featured on the home page and arranged according to the user’s preference. It doesn’t seem like the feedback of those who have used the different Google News design has been pretty positive. (Hat Tip: Barry Schwartz)

Google recently did add a feature to the mainstream version of Google News, which allows users to star news clusters, so they can follow up with them later.

Would you prefer Google News to focus on a single news category at a time? Share your thoughts.

Related Articles:

> Google Trying to Differentiate Between Blogs and News?

> Google Adds "Real-Time" Suggestions to Google News

> Google News Organizes a Lot More of the World’s Information

February 5, 2010
Online TV Still Few People’s First Choice

This week’s big TV event was unquestionably the season premiere of "Lost"; lots of people have, over the course of the previous five or so years, become huge fans of the show. But new stats imply that very few of them sat in front of computer monitors on Wednesday, rather than televisions on Tuesday, in order to watch the two-hour episode.

Nielsen took a look at why people watch online TV, and the leading reason doesn’t have much to do with convenience or fewer commercials. Instead, 54 percent of people simply watch TV online because they forgot to catch an episode as it aired. And the next-most common reason, with 47 percent of people citing it, is similar: because they missed a large number of episodes.

It’s not until you get down to the least popular reasons ("Another member of my household watches another program at the same time," "I watch TV programming online when I am at work," and "I watch TV programming online when I travel") that online TV sort of distinguishes itself. Otherwise, it appears to act as more of a memory aid (or way to avoid buying DVDs) than anything.

The details relating to how people watch TV online also make the activity look like less than an integral part of everyday life. Jon Gibs, Nielsen’s Vice President for Insights, Online and Cross Media, noted, "When we go online to watch TV shows, that activity dominates that particular online session," and "the viewing of TV shows online proves to be a rather solitary activity."

This all makes for less than fantastic news for Hulu and YouTube. Of course, we have to note that neither site is exactly starving for page views, regardless of people’s reasons for visiting them.

Related Articles:

> DivX Rolls Out Online TV Platform At CES

> More People Watching Online TV

> DVR Users Fans Of Online Television

February 4, 2010
Mark Cuban Updates His Stance on Google

Update: Cuban has now posted a lengthy explanation of his stance on Google. Essentially, he appears to view Google as helpful if not necesary for lesser known brands, but as a bad business decision for big names in the news industry.

Oriinal Article: The always outspoken Mark Cuban has contributed his thoughts on the whole news aggregation/Google News/publisher debate, one that is most often credited to Rupert Murdoch. It appears that Cuban has a similar opinion on the matter.

Cuban spoke at a keynote address this week at the AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC 2010 Conference, and is quoted by numerous sources as calling Google in particular a "vampire."

"When you think about vampires, they just suck on your blood," he is quoted as saying, reportedly telling newspapers and other publishers to "show some balls" and block Google News and, "There’s absolutely no reason for you guys to be indexed on Google News … if they don’t pay you."

Michael Arrington points out that at the TechCrunch50 conference in 2008, Cuban said he’d like to be an investor in TechMeme, which provides a similar service to Google News and other aggregators. In addition, Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land notes (in great detail) that Cuban is an investor in Mahalo, which actually "touts to advertisers how it taps into Google to generate page views."

While on the topic of the news industry debates, the topic of charging for news is always a conversation starter. The Wall Street Journal has taken down its pay wall for the day, giving users access to articles that would otherwise require a subscription to access. The effort comes as the result of a sponsorship from Acura (Via SIA).

Related Articles:

> News Corp. Blocks Content from News Aggregation Site

> Do You Have the "Right" to Link?

> Murdoch On Blocking Search Engines: "I Think We Will"

> Murdoch’s War with the Aggregators

> Is it Really Crazy to Block Google?

February 4, 2010
How Important are Comments to the News?

Comments have become part of the news. In the old days, publishers released articles and any reader comments would be addressed on the publisher’s own time. In a newspaper or magazine, it may have been in the form of letters to the editor. Sometimes news radio programs would read audience feedback on the air. These things allowed the publishers a great deal of control over the commentary associated with their story.

The web, blogs, and social media have since opened up the floodgates of commentary, and there is really no stopping anybody from saying anything related to a specific news story and not being able to get that comment read. That could come in the comments on a web article itself, it could be on Twitter or Facebook. It could be a whole new post started on another blog. There is no containing conversation on the web.
All in all, that is a good thing. It means free speech, and it means that any fact, opinion, or slant can be heard, and perhaps more importantly disputed by the masses.

The worth of blog comments is a subject that is debated from time to time throughout the news industry and the Blogosphere. The subject has been thrust into the spotlight this week, as popular tech blog Engadget has decided to temporarily shut its comments down. In a post announcing it decision, Engadget wrote:

Hey guys, we know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand. What is normally a charged — but fun — environment for our users and editors has become mean, ugly, pointless, and frankly threatening in some situations… and that’s just not acceptable. Some of you out there in the world of anonymous grandstanding have gotten the impression that you run the place, but that’s simply not the case.

Luckily, our commenting community makes up only a small percentage of our readership (and the bad eggs an even smaller part of that number), so while they may be loud, they don’t speak for most people who come to Engadget looking for tech news. Regardless, we’re going to crank things down for a little bit to let everyone just cool off, and we’ll switch them back on when we feel like we’ve shaken some of the trolls and spammers loose from the branches (AKA swing the banhammer in our downtime). See you on the other side!

Engadget has taken a fair amount of criticism for shutting down comments completely, even if it is only temporary. The fact that it is even a topic of debate shows the significance of comments to the way readers get their information. People want to see what others say. It adds to the story, and can often make the original piece more interesting. Even if the readers who actually comment are the minority, people still like to read what others have said. It can help them gauge the credibility of a story, or simply gain more insight into the topic being discussed.

Comments are not always useful or productive. Sometimes they are offensive. Sometimes they are just spammy. In fact, it has been discussed that such comments may actually hurt the search engine friendliness of your page. However moderating comments well can presumably help you avoid anything like that (although sometimes that is easier said than done).

Is such a risk worth closing the door on reader responses anyway? If people have something to say about an article or blog post, they’re going to find somewhere to say it. Allowing comments encourages that to be said right there, and frankly makes it easier to keep up with. If, for example, someone disputes a claim you make via Facebook or Twitter, you may miss it and not have a chance to defend that claim (granted, there are ways to incorporate the conversation from FB, Twitter, etc. into comments on a blog).

Stan Schroeder at the all things social media blog Mashable asks a good question, "How important are comments in this age where a lot of commenting is happening off-site — on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks?" He also points to Apple analyst John Gruber’s Daring Fireball blog, which doesn’t allow comments, but another site has been set up by others just to provide comments about the articles from that blog. According to CultofMac, it pulls in the articles via RSS (including the ads). It’s even called DaringFireballWithComments.net.

That is another clear indicator that not only will people find a way to comment if they want, but readers find the commenting process important. Do you agree? Should all blogs have comments? Should they ever be shut down entirely? How important are comments to your blog? How important are they to the news in general. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Related Articles:

> Could Comments Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?

> Comments Make Content More Valuable

> Blog Comments Going Real Time?

February 3, 2010
Newspaper Sites Attracted 37% Of All Internet Users

Newspaper websites attracted an average monthly unique audience of 72 million visitors in the fourth quarter of 2009, representing 37 percent Internet users.

The figures come from a custom analysis by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America. Newspaper websites users generated more than 3.2 billion page views during the quarter, spending more than 2.4 billion minutes sites.

"These strong and consistent audience figures come as newspaper publishers continue to transition their companies into multiplatform content providers to meet the needs of today’s audience," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.

"As the economy begins to stabilize, newspaper companies are in position to leverage their trusted brands to reach a highly engaged audience and deliver maximum value to advertisers."

Time spent per person during the fourth quarter varied. In October users spent an average of 34 minutes and 14 seconds on newspaper websites. In November it was 32 minutes and 44 seconds. In December it was up slightly to 34 minutes and 52 seconds.

Related Articles:

>Newspapers Not Effectively Using Social Media

>Google News SEO Tips-Ranking In News Search

>Newsday To Charge For Online Access

February 3, 2010
AOL Shares Financial Results of the Transition Period

AOL has announced it Q4 earnings, which show how the company performed during its final days as part of Time Warner, as well as the beginning of its transition to the current incarnation.

"We have made significant progress in support of the long-term vision we see in the future of AOL, but today’s results continue to reflect the need for our focus and execution on the work required in the turnaround of the Company," said Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong. "2009 marked the closing of an important chapter in AOL’s history and the opening of a new chapter that we are passionately pursuing. We have a clearly defined strategy, and we enter 2010 incredibly focused on day-to-day execution."

Here’s the summary:

AOL says Q4 revenue declines reflect continued attrition in the subscriber base, leading to declines in subscription and search & contextual revenue. While AOL Properties global display advertising revenue declined 3%, AOL Properties domestic display advertising revenue grew 1%, its first quarter of year-over-year growth in eight quarters. Other noteworthy items as highlighted by the company include:

– Q4 costs of revenues declined at a lower rate than revenue reflecting a 12% increase in traffic acquisition costs (TAC) primarily associated with payments for shipments related to a significant product distribution arrangement. As of December 31, 2009, new shipments under this contract ceased.

– Full-year and Q4 2009 Adjusted OIBDA, operating income and pre-tax income include $190 million and $107 million, respectively, in restructuring costs and certain other items fully discussed on page 8 of this press release.

– We anticipate our restructuring efforts will reduce ongoing operating expenses, excluding TAC and net of incremental operating investments in the business, by approximately $150 million in 2010.

– Full-year and Q4 2008 operating loss and net loss reflect a $2.2 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge.

– Full-year cash provided by operations declined, driven by Adjusted OIBDA declines. The cash flow impact of these declines was partially offset by the timing of working capital changes, including lower employee bonus payments in 2009. Full-year 2009 Free Cash Flow grew slightly, reflecting reduced capital expenditures in 2009. Q4 2009 cash provided by operations and Free Cash Flow declined due to the settlement of a legal matter and a Value Added Tax matter in France.

– AOL had $147.0 million of cash-on-hand as of December 31, 2009, and has not borrowed under the terms of our revolving credit facility, as of February 2, 2010.

Further details and charts can be found here in the release. It will really be interesting to see the report a year from now after AOL has settled into its new role on the web.

Related Articles:

> AOL Acquires Video Creation/Distribution Company StudioNow

> AOL Top Ad Network In December

> Tim Armstrong Weighing Search Deal With Microsoft

February 3, 2010