PaidContent.org: August 01, 2005 Archives:

…Yahoo News Hires Osder To Head Social Media Initiative: [Staci D. Kramer] You’re reading it here first … online journalism pioneer Elizabeth Osder reports to work at Yahoo Media Group today as senior director, social media, reporting to Neil Budde, executive producer of Yahoo News. She’ll be responsible for what Yahoo Media VP Scott Moore tells me is one of his top three initiatives. (The other two are broadband and the user experience.) Moore said Osder’s hiring is “a clear indicator of our intention to go deep in social media and user-generated content.”

…AskJeeves Launches Contextual Ad Network: AskJeeves has made the switch: it is launching an upstart advertising network powered by its own search engine, a move likely to rankle its longtime business partner, Google. ASKJ just finished its acquisition by Barry Diller’s IAC.

ol cranky has shared at Philly Future an intriguing idea whose time has come – I suggest blog PSAs (public service announcements) for missing persons; yes, I’m suggesting blogs become today’s milk cartons. My ultimate goal (with which I need help, since I have no idea how to do this myself) is for bloggers to be able to register somewhere so they can place missing person PSAs on their blog that will be generated randomly to rotate those currently on police/FBI blotters as missing persons.

Rasmus’ 30 second AJAX Tutorial – A wanderer’s journal – a breath of fresh air in simplicity. Nice work.

If you’re an admin the UBCD for Windows sounds like it could be a lifesaver.

Bokardo: No Learning Curve as the Most Important Feature of a Web App:

Jason Fried says that the most innovative software in the next 10 years will come from companies like his, those who build web-based applications for very small businesses.

Though much of Jason’s mantra seems to be – do it our way, I think that most of what he’s saying dovetails nicely with the notion I’ve been playing around with: tryability.

Jason says: “What they (independent freelancers) crave are low/no-learning curve, simple focused tools that let them get their work done quickly and then get out of their way.”

Note the low/no-learning curve part, I think that’s key. This is exactly the feature that people need when they can’t find an immediate answer to the question: “how is this application better than the one I’m currently using?”.

It’s not that people aren’t smart enough to figure this stuff out on their own. Given enough time, anybody can do anything, or close to it. It’s that we lack the window of attention to do all the things that we want to do. How long, do you think, would it take to evaluate all desktop email applications right now? One day, a week, a month? The point is that nobody is going to take the time to find out!

Has truth about the motivations of some media been revealed in how it is handling LaToyia Figueroa’s disappearence? Read Ol Cranky and Attytood on Carlson – you decide. For most of my readers, this won’t shock you. For others, it will leave you raging mad.

This is the transcript for Wednesday’s show, the one for Thursday isn’t up yet, but it is even more revealing as SpinDentist from the All Spin Zone goes toe to toe with them:

CARLSON: All right, but we start with the tale of two missing women tonight, the first, of course, Natalee Holloway, missing in Aruba since May 30.

Authorities today drained a pond near the Marriott Hotel on the island, so far, apparently, to no avail.

The missing woman is 24-year-old Latoyia Figueroa. She’s pregnant and the mother of one. She disappeared nine days ago in Philadelphia. The search for Latoyia intensified after a man named Richard Blair began blogging about her because of her race and her background.

And his point was the obvious one. And it is that black women from city centers, from urban areas who disappear get none of the coverage that like Natalee Holloway get, who are obviously from a different demographic. And, you know, it’s impossible to deny the truth of this.

The point, I guess, I would make is, I think we may be overstating the effect of media attention on these cases. You can think of missing women cases, Chandra Levy, Natalee Holloway, for that matter, that didn’t make all the difference. These women have not been found. They made all the difference for us in the press. We got great ratings.

CRAMER: Right.

CARLSON: But it didn’t solve the crime.

CRAMER: I think we got to focus on this ratings issue for a second, because I don’t think people—we all—we all understand this because we’re in the business. I didn’t get.

If you can get a huge number of people watching a particular story, it gives you the license to do a lot of other stories. Now, some people abuse the license by going to Aruba every single night, as far as I’m concerned. But I have to—I—I—I love programing that gets watched.

CARLSON: Yes. I do, too.

CRAMER: So, I’m not going to damn this kind of story.

CARLSON: I’m not either.

MADDOW: No. And the media makes decisions based on what is going to sell advertising. And so, what is going to…

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: It’s commercialism.

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: Isn’t that why we have CBS and that thing, that radio air network that you’re on?

MADDOW: That thing that I’m on? Yes, I can never remember…

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: It’s only on Sirius Satellite. That’s the problem, right?

MADDOW: No, we’re not on Sirius.

CRAMER: Oh. Oh, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: I was close, close.

MADDOW: If you must know, 1190 in New York, if you need to know.

(LAUGHTER)

CARLSON: Good luck.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDOW: Thank you. But, listen, but, see, you can’t blame…

CRAMER: You worked that in.

MADDOW: You can’t blame the media in the sense of what they decide to cover. But you have to admit that it does—I think it does drive the police coverage and I think it does drive the resources. We wouldn’t be draining that pond in Aruba…

CARLSON: Yes. No, you’re right.

MADDOW: … if Natalee Holloway wasn’t such a big story.

CARLSON: You’re right. However…

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: That’s breaking news. Did you say just they drained the pond in Aruba?

CARLSON: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: That’s breaking news.

(LAUGHTER)

CARLSON: You obviously—you obviously don’t watch cable, because, Jim, that was breaking news last night.

(LAUGHTER)

CRAMER: No, you can slug breaking news whenever you want and—it’s also first on MSNBC.

CARLSON: Exactly.

MADDOW: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: That’s right.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDOW: … team coverage right now.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

CARLSON: I do think our viewers should know…

CRAMER: SWAT team coverage. Excuse me.

CARLSON: People who don’t—people who don’t work in the press who look at this and immediately draw the conclusion that people who work in the press are racist ought to know there’s another dynamic involved here. And it is this. Things that are unusual or perceived to be unusual are the ones that are considered news.

It’s like planes that land safely aren’t news. When someone, not just a black person or a Hispanic person, but someone who lives in a tough neighborhood, is injured in a crime, the feeling, right or not—or wrong—and it’s probably wrong—is, this is a more common occurrence than if it were to happen in a suburban area.

MADDOW: But it’s the per—again, it’s the perception. We’ve got a woman who has been missing for nine days. She’s pregnant. She’s a young mother. It has all the components of the other stories that get covered. But because of the race, because she’s from West Philly, it’s not getting covered.

CARLSON: But…

MADDOW: So, people are trying to drive…

CARLSON: But…

MADDOW: … the media…

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: But the truth is, we are covering it. It was on our air today. And it’s on our air…

MADDOW: Because of an enterprising blogger.

CARLSON: It’s…

CRAWFORD: Where would you rather vacation, Aruba or West Philly?

MADDOW: West Philly has…

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: Forty-second and Baltimore is nothing like Aruba.

(LAUGHTER)

Mochikit and script.aculo.us.

Also: CSS Transparency.

Scripting News: 7/28/2005:

Russell Beattie gets aggregators. “You should only see an RSS item once.” Bingo. Every would-be aggregator designer should tatoo that on their forehead in reverse so they see it in the mirror when they’re brushing their teeth or shaving or whatever. Memorize it. If your user sees an RSS item more than once, your aggregator is broken. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Now, the problem is, that while Yahoo’s interface is pretty good, and lots better than most of the rest, it still shows you old items before new ones. Any of the competitors could leapfrog Yahoo. Want to give it a try? I can be hired as a consultant. Seriously. Let’s get going on this.

Agreed. That’s why I love Bloglines. Such a simple thing. One click, one scroll, and I’m done.

Other than that, there is a lot the My AOL aggregator gets right. Check it out.