'Net Features : news

Web Highlights from Week 16 for 'Net Pros

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

It's been quite a week - one that many likely will want to quickly forget (and it's not even over yet). But there were many developments to remember from the World Wide Web this week that may prove important to your enterprises' future 'Net success.

In this week's Weekly Web Roundup, Website Magazine has assembled some the top stories (from here at WebsiteMagazine.com and elsewhere) on digital advertising, software, social media, e-commerce and a whole lot more. Did we miss something you think is important? Let us know by sharing a comment.

Google Brings Google+ Comments to Blogger: - Users of Google's popular Blogger platform will now see direct comments from direct visitors alongside comments from people talking about that content on Google+.

Bing Integrates Pinterest into Image Search: Amid reports that Google Image Search changes in early January are driving less traffic, Bing announced that users of its image search product will featuer the Pinterest "pinit' button on every photo detail page.

IAB Updates "Quality" Guidelines: The Interactive Advertising Bureau released a new version of its Quality Assurance Guidelines or QAG (only for public comment). The self-policing framework aimed at insuring transparentcy the the quality of digital advertising between buyers and sellers.

Twitter Keyword-Based Advertising: Advertisers on the social network are now able to reach consumers based on keywords in recent tweets and the tweets that they have recently engaged with.

The Value of a Facebook Fan 2013: Syncapse released research into the average value of brand fans on Facebook and found that of the top 20 global consumer brands, the "fan value" was $174.17 U.S.

Wordpress Under Attack: Popular blogging and CMS solution Wordpress has been the subject of a recent attack, compromising thousands of site with low-level administrative credentials. Here are a few security tips to consider to protect your Wordpress deployment. Check out some Wordpress security tips here.

Intel Acquires Mashery: API management solution Mashery has reportedly been acquired by Intel. Mashery will service as a buildin gblock for an Intel suite of services - cloud services, digital storefronts, location services, network services and security - according to the announcement.

Google Affiliate Network (GAN) Retired: Google announced that it will be retiring the Google Affiliate Network and focusing on other products in the future. Note that GAN is seperate from both Adsense and DoubleClick for Publishers.

E-Commerce in China: The e-commerce market in China generated 1.3 trillion RMB ($190 billion USD) worth of transactions in 2012, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), an increase of 66.5 percent over 2011's total.

Abandonment in Online Retail: Almost three-quarters (72.5%) of shoppers have left an online store or marketplace because they couldn't easily find what they were looking for. Two-thirds (66%) terminated an online purchase because the process took too long, or was overly complicated (60.8%).

Rackspace's Openstack Expanding for Hosts, Telcos: Rackspace announced plans to build OpenStack deployments for other hosting providers and telecommunications companies in a move which many believe will position it to take on rival Amazon.

Amazon S3 Storing 2 Trillion Objects: Amazon announced that it's S3 storage service now holds more than 2 trillion objects, up from 1 trillion in June and 1.3 trillion in November.

LinkedIn Updates Apps: Professional socnet LinkedIn updated versions of its iPhone, Android and web paps to focus on content and personalization. The company also recently gave a make over to its Recruiter product.

Facebook Launches CPA for Advertisers: Facebook will soon offer advertisers the ability to promote listings on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis. The functionality measures conversions within 24 hours of FB users clicking on ads.

Online Content Provides Value to the Internet: 92 percent of 1,000 Americans surveyed agreed that free news, weather, email, blogs and video content was either somewhat or extremely important to the overall value of the Internet according to a poll commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance.

Email's Top Performers and Benchmarks: Silverpop relased its 2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark study and found that consumer product emails scored highest for open rates with a media 25.4 percent success rate.

How Does Breaking News Affect Search Results?

Michael Garrity — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:15:00 GMT

Business-to-business (B2B) inbound marketing software provider Optify has released new data about the differences in the way that search engines react during breaking news events.

The study specifically looked at three hot-button news topics from the past few years: the Japanese tsunami, Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO of Apple, and Amanda Knox's return to Seattle after being released from an Italian prison.

Optify conducted the study by identifying specific keywords for each event that would drive the highest volume of results on Google and the Microsoft-owned Bing. The evolution and performance of these keywords were observed on each search engine over a period of time, and Optify found that to react to the news, both Bing and Google made dramatic changes to their search engine results pages (SERPs).

Both sites diminished or eliminated the presence of sponsored content, increased the amount of results containing integrated or multimedia content, and pushed recent news content to the top of the page at the expense of ranked results. Overall, about 70 percent of all the content shown above the fold was breaking news.

However, there were some expected differences. Mainly that when it comes to surfacing news results, Bing favors the most recent results and those coming from MSN.com, also Microsoft-owned. Google prefers authority and reach and serves more results from "prominent" publications.

The study ends up concluding that organizations with higher authority and social reach tend to do better in a breaking news cycle.

Yahoo! & ABC News Form Information Alliance

Michael Garrity — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:35:00 GMT

In a huge announcement made early this morning, two global media powerhouses, Yahoo! and ABC News, revealed that they will be combining their journalistic forces. This unprecedented move could have major ramifications in the news and search industries, potentially forcing other major search engines to establish similar partnerships with news organizations.

Currently, the two companies reach a combined audience of over 100 million people in the United States on PCs and various mobile devices.

This interesting, multifaceted relationship should prove to be a boon for both organizations. Yahoo! will provide a huge, unique and new audience to ABC News, a well-respected and trusted news enterprise with decades of experience.

The biggest part of this "information alliance," in addition to providing far more people with far greater access to news, is that the companies will establish more original news videos online than ever before.

Today saw the launch of GoodMorningAmerica.com on Yahoo!, the official beginning of the partnership. Also debuting today will be the first of three new, online-first video series featuring some of ABC News' most popular anchors and correspondents. The new shows include Newsmakers, which presents online-first video conversations with top ABC anchors, like Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric or Barbara Walters, interviewing "everyone from politicians to global leaders to celebrities." Today's installment, which airs live at 2:35 p.m. ET, features George Stephanopoulos talking with President Obama. No big deal, right?

The two other new shows are Around the World with Christiane Amanpour, which spotlights the internationally-renowned host bringing her special background to light as she explains, contextualizes and analyzes the biggest stories around the world, and This Could Be Big, a show, hosted by Nightline anchor Bill Weir, about future innovations that could drastically alter the world. Other shows will debut in the coming months and throughout 2012.

A headline making announcement like this is bound to really change the way many people around the world get their news. For instance, ABC News will now be Yahoo! News' premier provider, which really alters the makeup of Yahoo! News for its millions of readers. Also, the aforementioned GoodMorningAmerica.com will exist as a co-branded site that offers a wide variety of video and news so that the huge audience of the GMA morning broadcast can engage with the content online before, during and after the show airs.

The two companies will also begin collaborating on news content and co-producing coverage for major events. There will be "integrated bureaus" in the cities of New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.

And lest we forget that there is also money involved, the two enterprises will be creating a suite of premium online video advertising opportunities, as well as new enhanced sponsorships that will allow advertisers to benefit from the unique strengths of each sales organization.

Yahoo!'s recent struggles have been well-noted, so it should be interesting to see how this new partnership affects the company in this period of transition.

The two organizations promise to "deliver the latest breaking news, the biggest exclusives and award-winning investigative journalism from a powerful lineup of journalists -- all with the ability to extend across TV and online like never before."

Ramp Up Your Press Releases

Linc Wonham — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Online news distribution service PRWeb is offering a new tool that evaluates the components of Web releases such as headlines, content, multimedia, keywords and links. Called Make it Better, the service aims to help small business owners gain online visibility and improve the impact and reach of their releases and SEO opportunities.

The interactive news releases are distributed to search engines, news sites and thousands of regional, local and national outlets, letting users include keyword links, video and images to earn more reader interest.

“The majority of journalists and bloggers search for news on the Web," says director of product management Jiyan Wei. "And the majority of consumers search for information about businesses online, rendering old, expensive wire services ineffective for most businesses. Companies large and small need to get their news where everyone is looking – the Web. And they need to create releases that work well on the Web, which means including multimedia, images, keywords and links.”

Distributed News Releases Now in Zemanta

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:30:00 GMT

News distribution service PRWeb announced a rather interesting partnership today with blogging application Zemanta, which recommends content to bloggers.

If a PRWeb customer’s news release is considered relevant by Zemanta’s recommendation engine, it will now be suggested as related reading to bloggers using the application.

“We are providing a better way to connect our customers with the blogging community,” said Jiyan Wei, director of product panagement at PRWeb. “The Zemanta engine ensures that relevant customer content is provided to bloggers who have opted to subscribe to Zemanta’s application. It’s both a savvy and friendly means to boost visibility for our customers in the social media space.”

PRWeb is the first newswire to partner with Zemanta.

Consumers Say "No" to Paid News Content

Mike Phillips — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:36:00 GMT

Times are tough in the publishing world. And the news doesn't seem to be getting any better. A new survey from PaidContent:UK and Harris Interactive polled nearly 1,200 UK readers and found that a scant five percent would consider paying for their "favorite" news site if it began charging for access. Close to 75 percent said they would find a free alternative while the others would either continue to scan headlines or were "not sure" what they would do.

This comes on the heels of Rupert Murdoch's proposed plan to form a "bloc" of sorts, urging top content providers to start charging for access all at the same time. The idea is that by blocking access in unison, users will be forced to pay up. But if this recent study is any indication, it doesn't look good for Mr. Murdoch and friends.

“This does not look like good news for a pay model in a competitive environment,” says Andrew Freeman, Harris’ senior media research consultant. “As long as free alternatives exist, consumers will turn to them for their daily news information, meaning heavy losses in terms of audience figures for those that charge. It remains to be seen whether the news industry will take the leap and begin charging for that which has been free for so long.”

One interesting note is that younger readers are far more likely to pay for content than their older counterparts. Among those aged 16-24, 13 percent would pay to continue reading; among those aged 25-34, 6 percent would pay. Just one percent of those aged 35-44 would pay.

What's often left out of the discussion of paid vs. free content is a middle ground, hybrid model. The Wall Street Journal, for example, offers free content, but premium content requires a paid subscription and they have been very successful. That's because much of their content is of tremendous value to the financial community and drives business decisions. (Full disclosure - Website Magazine also utilizes the hybrid model, with a free quarterly edition but a paid monthly subscription.)

As a publisher, how are you dealing with declining ad revenue? How do you monetize your content and what are your plans moving forward? Please join the discussion by commenting below.

Also read: WordPress Membership Plugins, Transparency is So 2008. And don't miss Website Magazine's November issue, including an article on selling Informational Products - Subscribe now!