As the race to save traditional news media continues, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone had some choice words to say about NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s plan to prevent Google from spidering content on NewsCorp sites like The Wall Street Journal:

Instead of trying to “put the genie back in the bottle” and revert to an [...]]]>

As the race to save traditional news media continues, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone had some choice words to say about NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s plan to prevent Google from spidering content on NewsCorp sites like The Wall Street Journal:

Instead of trying to “put the genie back in the bottle” and revert to an even more “ridiculously closed” model, Stone said Murdoch and co. ought to be thinking about how to make up lost revenue by embracing a radically new and open strategy.

Co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman joined in with similar sentiments: “I am sure that during the transition from horses to automobiles there were some people bemoaning the loss of horse transport.”

Such comments represent but one side in the debate, with Murdoch and Mark Cuban occupying the other corner. Ultimately, there is no rule that says one must allow Googlebot to spider all one’s premium content– unless you don’t mind the loss of traffic that will inevitably result. Given the explosion of lo-fi news sources (ahem… bloggers), it’s a real question whether people will care enough to give a micropayment for premium content.

My sense is that this effort will only succeed if Murdoch can bring over a significant number  of popular premium content providers– The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc. Without such a cooperative, planting robots.txt on NewsCorp sites will only hurt NewsCorp… and benefit anyone else who is smart enough to see this as an opportunity to pick up share.

via Twitter Founder to Murdoch: Blocking Google Will Fail Fast.

Hey, newspapers– want to know how to increase user engagement and regain some of the considerable mojo you’ve lost over the past four years? Present your content in ways that new digital citizens want to consume it. Check out what NPR is up to:

National Public Radio is already a leader in podcasting. But [...]]]>

Hey, newspapers– want to know how to increase user engagement and regain some of the considerable mojo you’ve lost over the past four years? Present your content in ways that new digital citizens want to consume it. Check out what NPR is up to:

National Public Radio is already a leader in podcasting. But a free NPR News iPhone app, approved late today and launching tonight, opens up a new dimension for the network and its member stations with live and on-demand mobile streaming. It’s also the first app to make reading the news and listening to it equally important, providing full-text coverage along with audio. In addition to NPR’s own programs and those it distributes, the app includes direct access to local shows from more than 600 member stations live and on demand.

NPR recognized the potential in podcasting early on, and its programs remain among the most highly-downloaded on iTunes. Hopefully, its latest foray into the digital downloading space will catch the attention of the ailing newspaper industry and inspire some new creativity.

via NPR Mobile Strategy Mixes Text With Live And On-Demand Audio | paidContent .

Retweeting is the act of re-posting another Twitter user’s comments under your own username, and crediting the other user by inserting the text “RT @username” in front of the forwarded message. (Replacing username with the original author’s Twitter handle.)

Twitter users know the power of the retweet. It is the engine which drives viral topic reach [...]]]>

Retweeting is the act of re-posting another Twitter user’s comments under your own username, and crediting the other user by inserting the text “RT @username” in front of the forwarded message. (Replacing username with the original author’s Twitter handle.)

Twitter users know the power of the retweet. It is the engine which drives viral topic reach on Twitter. It is also a convention which originated with Twitter users due to a lack of formal accreditation on Twitter.

All that’s about to change now. Twitter recently announced it will formally incorporate retweeting into its service. Mashable’s Van Grove explains–

They’re opening up the flood gates so that developers can tap into the four new APIs and update their applications, or build new ones, in preparation for the official release, which is expected to happen in just a few weeks.

Twitter’s ability to listen to its users when determining its product development is a model for other companies. The use of mentions (sending a publicly-visible message to another Twitter user by placing @username at the front of your message) was another innovation that had its origins in user-initiated etiquette.

I can’t wait to see what this looks like when it goes live.

Project Retweet: The End of RTs as We Know Them?.

URL-shortening service Tr.im recently announced it would be shutting down its services, and that all URLs shortened via its service would cease to redirect by the end of the year. Although it later reversed its decision to brickify these links, the announcement sent red flags up throughout the world of social media: what [...]]]>

URL-shortening service Tr.im recently announced it would be shutting down its services, and that all URLs shortened via its service would cease to redirect by the end of the year. Although it later reversed its decision to brickify these links, the announcement sent red flags up throughout the world of social media: what guarantee do we have that the URLs we shorten today through bit.ly, TinyURL, or any other of the dozens of URL shortening services will continue to work in the future?

Enter 301works, which has announced a central exchange through which all URL shorteners can send their newly-created links. 301works will then secure these links by ensuring they continue to function even if their originating service goes under.

Given the rise of text-limited services like Twitter, the creation of a secured exchange for shortened URLs is a great development for individuals and companies who want to know that the links they post will continue to function in the future.

Following The Tr.im Incident, 301works Is Ready To Insure Shortened URLs .

Just select the platforms where you want your shared items to go, and you’re all set. Sharing [...]]]> On Wednesday, Google announced it is now making it easier to share news stories from Google Reader to a host of social networking platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other options are now accessible via a user setting:

Just select the platforms where you want your shared items to go, and you’re all set. Sharing news stories remains an under-appreciated activity on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, one that often spurs meaningful discourse around important events. (OK, and celebrity tabloid-fare as well.)

This is an interesting move for Google, considering it incorporated its own private Share feature in 2008. Items shared using this feature were visible to others within your iGoogle community. By adding the platforms above, Google seems to be acknowledging that it needs cross-platform share compatibility in order for Google Reader to remain relevant.

See anything missing from the list above? Try Wordpress. Google purchased Blogger in 2003, and has a stake in providing the service with as many competitive advantages over Wordpress as possible.

Even with the omission, the incorporation of these services is a major step forward for Google Reader, which I consider the best, easiest-to-use RSS reader available.

via Official Google Reader Blog: A flurry of features for feed readers.

Blaming the new leaders or aggregators for disrupting the business of the old leaders, or saber-rattling and threatening to sue are not business strategies – they [...]]]> By charging $12.50 for each snippet taken from its site, the AP really is walking down the path to extinction. Thomson Reuters nails it perfectly in its recent blog post:

Blaming the new leaders or aggregators for disrupting the business of the old leaders, or saber-rattling and threatening to sue are not business strategies – they are personal therapy sessions. Go ask a music executive how well it works.

via Reuters Tells AP: “Stop Whining”.

“We will not be ceding our content rights to the fine people [...]]]> An interesting development in the small but growing field of eBooks: who owns the relationship between content and customer? Amazon clearly believes it should do so, following in the model of Apple’s iPod. Newspaper tycoon and Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch feels otherwise:

“We will not be ceding our content rights to the fine people who created the Kindle. We will control the prices for our content and we will control our relationships with our customers. Any device maker or website which doesn’t meet these basic criteria on content will not be doing business long-term with News Corporation.”

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch

Which model will prevail? Or will publications with hefty clout (like the Journal) own the relationship while the little guys cede control to the device manufacturers?

via Murdoch: Why News Corp. Isn’t BFF With Amazon | paidContent .