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if you’ve been following all the hoopla over ad-block plus, the firefox plugin that let’s you strip advertising from websites and improve your online experience by letting you view content without any distractions (and loading sites faster), you already know of the impending battle between consumers and ad-supported content producers/publishers.

while consumers argue that ads are irrelevant and slow down access to the content, the anti-ad-block camp argues that they rely on advertising as their main source of revenue and the plugin is killing their business model. the latter argument makes sense at first, but when you think about the users who are actually installing the extension, the argument doesn’t hold anymore. these users are already largely banner-blind (i.e. they are practically blind to advertisements on sites) and are extremely unlikely to ever click on an ad. by installing the extension to their browsers, they are only improving their experience without causing any additional loss to the content creators/publishers.

regardless of which side of the argument is more legitimate, pretty soon we might see lawsuits flying.

many web sites prohibit any kind of ad-blocking in their terms of service agreements. myspace.com prohibits ‘covering or obscuring the banner advertisements on your personal profile page, or any MySpace.com page via hmtl/css or any other means.’ six apart’s livejournal uses similar language, as do some news organizations including the chicago sun-times and fox tv’s houston affiliate.

what we’re seeing here is reflective of nothing more than the fact that the advertisements are so poor in their targeting and relevancy that the users just don’t want to see them and won’t click on them even if they do see them. at the same time, rather than acknowledging the flaw and improving the ads, the content producers/publishers want to push the ads in the consumers’ faces. with reference to the question of whether something can be done about firefox and ad-block plus, the honest truth is that all that is going to come from discussions of the plugin is increased exposure and greater user adoption to the point where advertisers are forced to innovate towards more viable ads.

Technorati Tags: online, advertising, adblock plus, firefox

compete is reporting that facebook, the rising star of social networking sites, is not only ranked number 3 in terms of page views now (and possibly stealing users/visitors away from myspace) but the site’s developer platform is a huge success. a total of 14 million people interacted with facebook applications in august alone.

have a look at the following visualization from compete, depicting the different activities that facebook users engaged in during august.

the size of the circles represents the share of all facebook visitors that engaged in each activity, and the shade of the color represents how much each function was used (dark is more).

Technorati Tags: facebook, social networking, compete, f8, facebook applications

i was going through the archive of articles on my site when i realized something. i’ve written some articles that i usually put in the ‘other’ bin because though they represent some of my other interests, they don’t rhyme with the main purpose of my blog. here’s a look at 3 such articles that i’ve recently written and where they would’ve found a better home.

original photo: darwin bell

1. i wrote an article yesterday about prince, trent reznor, and the future of the music industry. it was an article that i really wanted to write in response to prince’s lashing out against digital media and content piracy but in retrospect the article is much better suited for ohad’s music and entertainment blog, the plugg.

2. a week ago i wrote an article detailing 4 ways you could get your money back if you were an iphone early adopter. i felt compelled to write the article because i got my money back and i wanted others to know the different ways they could get their $200 refunded. this article, i think, would’ve done much better for k. stone’s dumb little man, a site about tips that can save you money and increase your productivity.

3. about a month ago i wrote an ‘expose’ on at&t and how their paper bills for iphone users would kill more than 70,000 trees. when i mentioned the article to hank, he quickly wrote it up on his site, ecogeek. because i am conscious of the environment i just wrote the article on my site, but now that i think about it, writing it for hank would’ve given the post much more exposure, to a much more relevant audience, and much faster.

i’m certainly not the only one who from time to time writes articles for the ‘other’ bin. by guest blogging this content that you are interested in by isn’t directly relevant to your blog, you can not only get more exposure and more relevant exposure, but there are other benefits too. for example,

1. the content on your own site stays laser-focused.
2. by using a byline and a link on the guest blog, you get draw a more diverse audience to your blog.
3. by writing for other people you can instantly build lasting relationships with people who share the same interests and beliefs as you.

with that out of the way, i wanted to get the word out that i’m always open to guest bloggers and guest blogging!

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging

let me ask you a question: what’s the difference between prince and trent reznor? the answer is quite simple and gives gives us a look at two distinct camps in the entertainment industry.

the artist formerly known

in an effort to ‘reclaim his art on the internet’, prince is planning to sue youtube, ebay and the pirate bay. the move comes as somewhat of a surprise since acts like this are usually reserved for for the record industry (i.e. the big labels) with whom prince has had a rocky relationship to say the least. furthermore, it is an interesting about-face. before he decided to reclaim his place on the internet throne, prince was last seen giving away copies of his album ‘planet earth’, for free with a british sunday paper.

also ran: metallica, elton john, and just about every other entertainer out there.

the people’s artist

representing the other camp, we have trent reznor of nine inch nails. known for publicly lashing out against the record industry, the nine inch nails front-man has posted tracks from ‘year zero’ on the pirate bay and has made other material available for download, directly from the band’s site. furthermore, reznor was recently quoted in china as making the following statement,

as for the special situation in china, it does not seem to be easy to obtain western music via legal channels, so i have the following suggestion for our fans: if you can find and buy our legal cds, i express my thanks for your support. if you cannot find it, i think that downloading from the Internet is a more acceptable option than buying pirated cds. our music is easy to find on the internet, and you might not need to spend much effort to find most of our songs. if you like our songs after you’ve heard them, please feel free to share it with your friends. as i have put all my effort and heart into my music, i sincerely hope that more and more people can share the enjoyment with us.

also ran: trey parker and matt stone, many indie bands

so what does this say about the entertainment industry?

the positions that these two artists have taken (they aren’t the only ones but they are the most vocal/popular) shed light on the two major problems with the entertainment industry that are the main cause of the content piracy problem.

1. content is not ubiquitously available

if content is not available everywhere and accessible anytime, people who are locked out will have to turn to the black market to get that content. furthermore, if content is not made available everywhere at the same time, there will be people who do not wish to wait another 6 months to get your content while others are already enjoying it, and these people will steal it instead.

2. content is not fairly priced

this is perhaps the touchiest point in the whole debate. consumers argue that the record labels are fleecing them and trent reznor has given legitimacy to the claim. consumers not only argue that content is generally overpriced but that the additional revenue isn’t going into the pockets of the content producer. if prices were lowered and the artists were given a more reasonable share of the revenue (as defined by the consumers) perhaps we would all be happier. of course this is also the argument that can most easily be challenged.

so what are prince’s odds?

just like reznor’s position has gave him a huge amount of free publicity and has made him a godlike figure in the eyes of the consumers, prince’s decision is going to have the exact opposite effect at a time that he could really use some good press. the lawsuits won’t do prince any good. youtube is going to comply and take down all infringing content (as is their policy), only substantially decreasing the artist’s online visibility, and not only is the pirate bay not going to comply but they’re going to throw the lawsuit and the take down notices back in the face of the artist formerly known.

Technorati Tags: prince, nin, nine inch nails, trent reznor, music, entertainment, riaa, youtube, the pirate bay, ebay, metallica, elton john, trey parker, matt stone

it’s official ladies and gentlemen, people still have absolutely no idea what socially driven news means. a study from the project for excellence in journalism finds that news promoted on socially driven sites like digg, reddit, and del.icio.us is significantly different from the news reported in mainstream media and that the many of the stories selected by the users often don’t appear in mainstream media at all. furthermore, the sources used by these sites are much different (70 percent of them were blogs or other sites) from the sources that more established outlets use for their content.

to some of the claims in the study i can’t help but say ‘no shit sherlock’ while others are simply misguided.

before we look at the media’s misguided reaction to the study, let’s take a look at some of the most regularly featured sites on digg (from march 14, 2025 - april 14, 2007, latest data available):

1. nytimes - featured 44 times - ranked 3rd
2. yahoo news - featured 32 times - ranked 6th
3. cnn - featured 32 times - ranked 7th
4. washington post - featured 30 times - ranked 8th
5. bbc news - featured 27 times - ranked 9th

i would hardly make the case that news from mainstream media isn’t represented on social media sites. regardless, the study has prompted nick gonzales to wonder, does social media make you dumb? at the same time, nick carr refers to the social media audience as the people formerly known as informed, and matt ingram is one of the few people to have a levelheaded response to the study.

carr writes,

when you replace professional editors with a crowd or a social network, you actually end up accelerating the dumbing-down of news. news becomes a stream of junk-food-like morsels. the people formerly known as the audience may turn out to be the people formerly known as informed.

what he fails to understand is that social media is driven by the people and the news that is submitted and promoted is what the people are actually reading and what actually matters to the people. just because the new york times prints something, doesn’t mean that the people are reading it or that they care about it. all it means is that the publishers think that’s what should matter to you. that said, if people (like nick and other haters) think that their view, or what they think is important, isn’t being represented in social media, rather than jumping to half-cooked conclusions, these same people should register on the sites and have their say.

all socially driven communities rely on the law of large numbers and are only as good as the communities that powers them. as these communities grow, they start to more accurately represent the community at large, and the content promoted on these sites changes to reflect that. social media is just a platform and the results are exactly what people want them to be. it’s not social media that’s dumbing the people down, rather it’s a reflection of people’s true interests (no matter how shallow they might be).

Technorati Tags: social media, digg, reddit, del.icio.us, project for excellence in journalism, techcrunch, nick gonzales, nick carr, matt ingram

the new york times has an interesting article today on why we’ve been seeing social networking sites refocus their attention towards an older crowd. the argument, and a good one, is that the younger demographic tends to stick around only as long as you’re on the cutting edge or only as long as you’re the latest trend. a few days ago it was friendster, yesterday it was myspace, today it’s facebook, tomorrow it will be something completely different.

the older demographic, on the other hand, likes the comfortable. once they’ve learned how to use one site and have created a network, they are most likely to stay there regardless of the latest trends.

with that in mind, here’s a quick look at 4 social networks and the demographic they target.

1. facebook

target demographic: 20 years and older
what can you do with it: this is one social network that doesn’t really much explanation. but in case you’ve been hiding under a rock these past three years, facebook let’s you do pretty much everything you want. from networking with your friends, family, and co-workers, to sharing any kind of digital media (and this doesn’t even include all the fun you can have by integrating 3rd part applications into your profile).

2. multiply

target demographic: 30 years and older
what you can do with it: multiply lets you create, post, and view blog entries, photographs, videos, music, links, events, and private messages to/from other users.

3. teebeedee

target demographic: 40 years and older
what you can do with it: teebeedee is not as developed as the rest of the networks mentioned here. from what i could see, while you can make profiles to network with other users, the site is mostly focused on question-and-answer discussions about different topics.

4. eons

target demographic: 50 years and older
what you can do with it: eons lets you create and personalize your profile using photographs, videos, and widgets.

with almost 80 million baby boomers (almost three times the number of teenagers) and the number of internet users who are 55 or older being the same as the number of internet users in the 18-34 age range, it makes sense to try and capture a market that’s equally as large but far from being as fickle as the younger crowd. furthermore, given that sites like facebook and myspace already have a majority of the younger market in their paws (and are facing competition from dozens of other virtually similar networks) it seems not only logical but rather smart to tend to the older, untapped market where you can exist with almost no competition.

Technorati Tags: social networking, facebook, multiply, teebeedee, eons

whos.amung.us, the site that let’s you track how many concurrent visitors you have on your site at any time, has launched a new visitor mapping service called maps.amung.us.

in just 4 easy steps, you can choose the kind of map you want (size and map style) and the kind of pins you want to use to represent the visitors (shape and color), and create your own visitor mapping widget. once you’re done customizing the widget, simply paste the code into your site and watch as the interactive map shows visitors and their locations in real-time.

simply click on the map and you will be taken to the amung.us site where you can see more detailed visitor data. for this and more widgets check out the service’s widget archive.

Technorati Tags: amung.us, whos.amung.us, maps.amung.us

a few days ago i expressed my frustration with the blogopshere for intentionally misinterpreting netscape’s re-branding as social suicide and today i want to tell all the detractors to chew on their hats. tom drapeau, director of netscape, clearly pointed out that the netscape social news site wasn’t being killed, rather that it was just being moved to a new location where it would be relaunched under a new brand and with additional features, but no one would believe it.

techcrunch for example, ever so audacious, remarked,

drapeau claims that the social news service will go on at a new site, but failed to name the site or when it would be launched; certainly not a good sign for the current netscape editorial team.

well he has delivered on the first of many promises by announcing where the new site would be (http://propeller.com) and the branding of the new site.

my first thoughts on the brand name and the logo are both great. here’s what ‘propeller’ means to me. by definition, to propel means to motivate, actuate, move, prompt, incite, impel, or to give incentive for action and cause to move forward with force. that said, what will we (at propeller, previously netscape social news) be propelling?

on a very basic level the name symbolizes socially driven news. interacting with content by submitting, voting, commenting, and sharing interesting, entertaining, and otherwise important news items. but more than that it symbolizes what netscape plans to do going forward, i.e. propel the social news model into the next generation through a mix of fixing the problems with the current generation and innovation.

so there you have it. the first step in the unveiling of the new home of netscape’s social news site.

disclaimer: i am a netscape scout

Technorati Tags: netscape, social news, propeller

iilwy (im in like with you), also known as hot or not for the web savvy (read this for a primer on the service), and the facebook of online dating sites, recently released a preview of their new interface for their beta users. here’s a look at what you can expect, and unlimited invites for all my loyal readers for the next 2 days so you can try out the site yourself.

with the new design, the site has said farewell to html and made a complete leap into flash. say goodbye to page refreshes and load-times as you seamlessly travel from one aspect of the site to the next. the main page (or your ‘home’) consists of 6 main panes and three menu bars. from here you can view a snapshot of the most important aspects of your profile and shortcuts to all the ways you can interact with the site.

the first pane displays news and updates from iilwy as well as other ‘breaking news’. clicking on any item from the small boxes will open it in the bigger box above and clicking a link from there will take you off the site and to the full story.

right underneath that you can see all the games (the playful mechanism through which you connect with other users) that you are currently bidding on and the bets you’ve made. clicking on the icon for a game will take you to that game’s page with additional information on the person who created the game, what the game is about, and a list of other bidders along with their comments on the game.

next to these to panes we have a user photo along with some quick statistics. clicking on these will take you to your profile page.

right underneath your profile is the latest addition to iilwy, called chatter. chatter is iilwy’s on-site messaging system that works similar to messaging on the micro-blogging site, pownce (i.e. messages can be public or private, and are threaded). along with chatter you also have ‘recent activity’, which indicates what your friends are up to, tells you who is bidding on you, if you’ve been outbid on a game, and so on.

in the last column, you have a box that displays the games you are running, your tagline for the games, the time left, who has bid on them and how much. clicking on a game will take you to your profile page where the game is displayed.

the last box on your main page displays the most popular games by users from across the site.

apart from these 6 main panes you have two menu bars at the top that give you quick access to your profile, other people’s profiles, chatter across your network, and the ability to view the site in full screen (you have to try full screen mode, it really allows you to enjoy the site and the new interface without any distractions). at the bottom, you have one more menu bar that shows you how many rubies (points you can use to bid on games) you have, which of your friends are online, let’s you edit/update your profile, and check the weather.

i was impressed by the design and the user interface when i first joined the iilwy beta some months back, but with the new design i was blown away. you can seamlessly jump from one part of the site to another without having to wait for pages to load, and every aspect of the site looks flawless.

so what’re you waiting for? click here or here to sign up using one of the two invite systems that charles foreman (founder of iilwy) set up for us. a special thanks to phil butler for making this happen.

p.s. check out some other private beta invites that i have.

Technorati Tags: online dating, iminlikewithyou, iilwy, design, private, beta, invite

about two weeks ago, jordan mccollum reported on an interested study conducted by nielsen that found that online ad-blindness is worsening. if you look at the following heatmap from studies tracking the areas where most users focused on a webpage, you see that ads get little-to-no attention.

the reason for this is not that users hate all advertisement, it’s that users hate how you’re advertising your product. for example, ads with flashing colors, or animals jumping around, and those that are generally distracting or annoying will be noticed by users but will deter 90 percent of them from clicking on the ad or buying a product advertised therein.

no wonder the firefox plugin that wipes ads clean from websites - adblock plus - has garnered so much attention. most people are happy to block out these advertisements because not only do they range from intrusive to obnoxious, but they also take longer than the rest of the content on a page to load, causing you to wait unnecessarily. as noam cohen wrote in the nytimes, adblock plus may soon become an ‘extreme menace to the online-advertising business model’. in fact, the backlash has already begin, with some people blocking access to their content for people using the firefox browser (because it implicitly endorses adblock plus) and for communities whose members use firefox.

what comes as a surprise is that while other business dependent on the viability of the online advertising model are worried, google remains unshaken. in fact, rather than reacting against it, google (which probably has the most to lose) continues to support the development of, and work with the firefox team. perhaps it’s because google remains committed to providing ads that are truly useful and believes that if an ad is useful enough, the users will take it upon themselves to not unblock it.

while the adblock plugin has found millions of friends (and is adding hundreds of thousands as we speak), steve lambert is taking a different approach. unsatisfied with simply blocking the ads, lambert has decided to replace them with artwork from contemporary artists.

replacing annoying and obtrusive ads with some eye candy, turning them into their exact opposite, is a consequent continuation of what adblock started — making the web endurable and enjoyable.

but who says we cannot achieve a compromise between adblock’s goal of making the web ‘endurable and enjoyable’ and lambert’s goal to do so by replacing ads with art, without sending the entire online advertising industry into complete disarray? in fact, the gawker network of blogs has managed to do exactly that. they offer their unsold ad-space to artists (free of cost) to display their artwork.

their decision to do so, coupled with my desire to see this artwork (while i’m browsing their content) not only makes me keep my adblock plugin disabled while i browse some of their less popular blogs, but also gets me to click on the artwork to read more about it. if we were to take this model a few steps further, to the point where we’re not just advertising products, rather are ‘artvertising’ them, perhaps we can get more people to stop blocking the ads and start appreciating them.

Technorati Tags: online, advertising, adblock plus, firefox, steve lambert, artvertising, gawker