The Next Round Of Bailouts

I just read on AutoBlog.com that Bush has decided to greenlight the "$17.4 billion in low-interest loans to General Motors and Chrysler (Ford Motor Company has said it does not require relief at this time)." Props to Ford!

At this time I would like to extend a very special thank you to the UAW. Thanks for not supporting a reduction in the wage rages for those you represent (sarcasm intended).

For years we have seen inexpensive and high quality import cars flooding into America. These cars are built by hard working individuals for about 1/2 of what US union auto workers are paid. I don't understand how simple economics has escaped the big 3. If you are paying too much for labor which causes you to no longer be competitive in a market, why aren't you allowed to cut wages?

But let's also focus on the R&D and marketing efforts of the big US automakers. The way I see it, the US car manufacturers had a choice a while back. They could either research, develop and market fuel efficient vehicles OR they could have picked a different route. The alternate route was the one they ventured down.

"Hey, I got an idea, let's make the biggest, most inefficient vehicles that we can muster (Hummer, Suburbans, Escalades, Excursions, The Hemi, etc) and when gas peaks out at four something a gallon, let's panic."

The pain of $4 gas caused an almost overnight shift in consumer behavior. Unprecedented by most standards, this shift in buying patterns and lifestyle choices happened fast and will take a long time to change, if at all. People won't soon forget the $4 pain at the pump and have made changes in their driving and buying patterns that will last for quite some time.

Now that car dealer across the country have HUGE, unpaid inventory of trucks and SUVs that aren't moving, the juice on the floor plan is putting some out of business.

Granted, this isn't free money. The $17.4 Billion is in the form of low interest loans. But I ask, where do we draw the line? How big do you have to be to get bailout money from the Government? What about the lifeblood of our economy, small businesses? I am sure there are plenty of small to medium sized companies that are feeling the recession pain. $17.4 billion would go a long way if small businesses were allowed to get up to $500,000 in low interest loans. This means that 34,800 small to medium business would be able partake in a similar loan program that, in my opinion, would go much further in stimulating the economy.

I wonder how many people are employed by 34,800 small to medium businesses across the country. AND how much in taxes do those same businesses pay? Am I being ignorant or naive? Do you know of any small businesses that could use 500 large?

What are your thoughts on this whole deal?

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

The Bailout?

On the heels of the $750 Billion lender bailout, there is yet another proposed governmental bailout for the big 3 automakers in the US. It seem that when the Federal Government starts handing large sums of cash to businesses, high powered execs come running from the four corners to lay claim to their portion of the dole.

Someone correct me if I am wrong here, but the way I understand it, the proposed $25 billion for the automakers would be in the form of loans instead of a simple, one time, corporate welfare payment. There are many that claim bailouts equal more bailouts and questions of where it will end are raised. Proponents of the bailout say that it is needed to prevent an economic disaster of global proportions if the automakers go bankrupt.

So am I to understand this right? If we didn't bailout the lenders who made bad loans and bought bad paper, we would have been in much worse shape than we currently are? What if we loan the automakers the money and they can't pay it back? Aren't we in the same situation we were with the mortgage lenders?

Shouldn't a Government loan to the automakers be treated just like any other loan to any other business? The beauty of a capitalistic society is that you realize the rewards and the failures of being in business. If you do it right, you are rewarded. But if you do it wrong, you suffer the consequences. This very principle is why I opposed the lender bailout. Businesses start and fail every day and if you are proactive and stay ahead of the market trends, your business will thrive.

Until about a year ago we had it pretty good in America regarding the cost of fuel. BUT, when gas jumped to $4 a gallon, seemingly overnight, energy dependent Americans felt the slight twinge of panic. Instead of developing, marketing and pushing the largest SUV's like the Excursion and the Hummer, should we have been a little more proactive in decreasing our dependence on foreign oil through the design and development of fuel efficient vehicles? If you haven't seen it yet, check out "Who Killed the Electric Car." Now granted, there is quite a liberal spin in the movie but there are some very interesting points made about choices the automakers made.

What are your thoughts on the bailouts?

 

The Power Of Blogging

Everyone knows that blogging will give you super powers. I am not talking about "Wonder Twin powers activate" type powers. I am talking about the power to say what's on your mind and have a potential audience that reaches exponentially further than other no-cost publishing mediums.

Sure if you want to write a book or do something like start a magazine, you could potentially impact just as many people but it's going to cost you. What most of us don't know is that some bloggers actually have significant power. It all depends on who you are connected with or what you are connected to. What if you had the ability to effect the stock price of a major, publicly held company? Well, one industrious 18 year old did.

On his blog, this youngster fabbed up a story about Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, having a heart attack. Now normally you wouldn't think much about it. But as it turns out, the post was picked up by a CNN staffer and reported it as fact. Immediately, Apple's stock went down as much as 5.4%. The SEC began an investigation into the incident and to date, they have not been able to find any trading records that show benefit from artificially causing the stock to drop. You can bet the kid almost soiled himself when the cops came to his door and wanted to "ask him a few questions."

Another blog story about a non-existent $800 Apple laptop was picked up by the New York times. This hot little news tid-bit peaked investor interests thinking that Apple was going to be delving into the low-price laptop market. Some analysts even made up charts predicting Apple's increased market share. The result was a big spike in Apple's share price. Once Apple unveiled their new laptop lineup with prices starting at $1299, the hoax was realized and the information sent Apple's share price plummeting.

CNN Money reports that Apple, "...which had gained a record-breaking 13% on Monday and opened higher Tuesday morning, was down more than 5% by the time Jobs finished his presentation"

2 times in the last couple of months, a blogger has caused a major alteration in a publicly traded company's share price. Are these stories of how powerful bloggers have become or stories about the prevalence of sloppy journalism? And why is the market so volatile that unfounded claims by an 18 year old blogger can create so much havoc? What are your thoughts?

Oh, and did you hear that GM is introducing a new SUV that is powered by some new energy source? I think something was said about dilithium crystals? That should bolster their share price a bit.

 

Internet Ad Spending Report

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently released information on Internet ad spending. Internet advertising revenues reached $5.8 billion for the first quarter of 2008. These numbers represent an 18.2 percent increase over the same period in 2007, and represent the second highest quarter ever recorded, after Q4 2007’s $5.9 billion.

“We continue to experience significant growth and vitality in interactive marketing, media and advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “We expect growth to continue, as consumers spend more and more time online, and marketers find more – and more innovative – ways to reach them through digital media.”

This is what they were saying in Q1. When we take a look at the 6 month numbers they have fallen off pretty sharply. Compared to the same 6 months of 2007 we are only at about an 8% increase due to a 3.7% decrease (vs. 2007) in Q2.

But where is this money coming from? Is it magically appearing from the government printing presses? No, of course not, this isn't a corporate welfare bailout, it being diverted from other mainstream media outlets.

"Spot TV spending dropped 4.4 percent as reductions in automotive, retail and telecommunications advertising offset gains from political spending. Network TV fell 2.4 percent on weaker prime time results. Newspaper media slipped 7.4 percent and radio media decreased 6.5 percent on further slowdowns in spending from auto, financial, retail and telecom categories." via

Notice the most significant decrease. Yep, newspaper. Many of you know that for some time I have been predicting the death of newsprint as we know it. Trends like this continue to support my theories.

Bottom line? Explore how advertising online can benefit your company. The formula is simple. Plan, plan, execute and track. Soon you will realize that an reallocation of dollars from newsprint and yellow pages has not hurt your business, but helped.

 

300 Million Not So Well Spent?

Earlier this week I wrote about Microsoft Vista and how the big M was dropping 300 Million on an ad campaign featuring funny man Jerry Seinfeld and former CEO Bill Gates.



Evidently Seinfeld received 10 million to appear in these commercials that made a poor attempt at trying to connect with consumers. According to Valleywag the commercials were as well received as Vista was and they are now pulling the plug. An announcement tomorrow will state that they are dropping Seinfeld altogether.

"The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates's company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company."

10 Million to do 2 commercials that were a flop. Wow. I think if someone handed me 10 million I wouldn't have to worry about money ever again. 10 Million to Mr. Gates is probably like $5 buck to me. Maybe I should give ole Bill a call. Anyone have his number?

Enjoy the weekend!

 

The Front Fell Off The Oil Tanker

On August 19th 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two, dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil.

Senator Collins, a member of the Australian Parliament, appeared on a TV news program to reassure the Australian public. This actual interview is so funny, you'd swear it was a Saturday Night Live or Monty Python skit.



I didn't know that they weren't allowed to make oil tankers out of paper, string, cello tape or rubber. Who knew.

 

The Good Life At Google

It seems that the employees of Google have been living the good life. I have seen the pictures of the Googleplex work environment it looks like one of the best places on Earth to work. As it turns out, Google has been spending $72 MILLION dollars per year feeding it's employees. That's $7350 per employee to give them 3 chef created meals per day. Wow, that is one hefty benefit.

Your asking yourself, how can they afford that? Well, they make $4.2 billion dollars. When you take that into consideration it doesn't seem that bad. But wait a minute, what about the share holders. Since the big G is a publicly traded company, do the shareholders have anything to say about that?

According to Valleywag, the free dinner program is going bye bye for some. "Google's food cutbacks are more targeted than we'd first heard. Dinner will still be served in buildings which house engineers...Google's only eliminating the evening meal in cafes frequented by nontechnical employees."

The dinner cutback as well as eliminating the tea trolley and the afternoon "snack attack" may not be good for morale but it will definitely add significant dollars to the bottom line. Don't cry for the Googlers just yet. They still receive (free of charge) breakfast AND lunch in quality and quantity fit for a king.

Long live the G.

 

Tropic Thunder Being Protested In Iowa

The Hawkeye Down Syndrome Association protested the showing of Tropic Thunder at the Wehrenberg Theater in Cedar Rapids. The protest was waged "for the movie's use of the 'r' word, retard, in the movie. Protestors (sic) called for a boycott of the movie, saying the word's use in the movie is very offensive to people with mental disabilities." Via KWWL

As it turns out, people all over are protesting the movie. I can think of a lot more offensive things to protest movies for. I guess everyone has their cause. I can't remember people protesting a movie this much since The Last Temptation of Christ.

The picketers must not have seen Something About Mary.

 

Bigfoot Has Been Found?

Uhhh, I don't know how to say this but it appears that they have found a Bigfoot! If you saw Fox News this morning, you would have seen the picture. It is not on Fox's site yet but the same picture has surfaced on The Inquisitr's site.



According to the press release on the site:

"A body that may very well be the body of the creature commonly known as “Bigfoot” has been found in the woods in northern Georgia.

DNA evidence and photo evidence of the creature will be presented in a press conference on Friday, August 15th from 12 Noon to 1:00pm at the Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto at 4290 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, California, 94306. The press conference will not be open to the public. It will only be open to credentialed members of the press.

Here are some of the vital statistics on the “Bigfoot” body:

• The creature is seven feet seven inches tall.
• It weighs over five hundred pounds.
• The creature looks like it is part human and part ape-like.
• It is male.
• It has reddish hair and blackish-grey eyes.
• It has two arms and two legs, and five fingers on each hand andfive toes on each foot.
• The feet are flat and similar to human feet.
• Its footprint is sixteen and three-quarters inches long and five and three-quarters inches wide at the heel.
• From the palm of the hand to the tip of the middle finger, its hands are eleven and three-quarters inches long and six and one-quarter inches wide.
• The creatures walk upright. (Several of them were sighted on the same day that the body was found.)
• The teeth are more human-like than ape-like.
• DNA tests are currently being done and the current DNA and photo evidence will be presented at the press conference on Friday, August 15th."

The main site that has been featuring the pictures, Cryptomundo, has been down. It probably can't handle the traffic that is hitting right now. The beast in question was discovered dead in Georgia by two men, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer and authenticated by Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi.

I will remain skeptical until the press conference on the 15th. What does this mean? I don't think it means anything until we hear the results of the DNA tests. My guess - clever hoax.

Do you believe in Bigfoot?

 

The Olympics

Seems like everyone is blogging about the Olympics and everyone seems to be doing a fine job. After last night, I have got to mention something about the 4 x 100 freestyle swimming event.



HOLY COW, what an amazing race. It reminded me of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. I was almost choked up when Jason Lezak swam what is being called the greatest anchor leg in swimming history.

Here's the best part. The pre-race smack talkin'. The French said they were going to "smash" the US team. According to Alain Bernard from the French team, that was why they came to the games. The guys in the American crew had this quote pasted up all over the place as motivation. Trash talking only takes you so far. You have to pony up in the skillz department if you dont want poo poo in the face. So what do you think now? Still in the smashing trades?



If you missed the race, you can check it out on NBC's Olympic coverage site. Welcome to a new week everyone.

 

Spam Will Eventually Kill Ya.

From the Net - Eddie Davidson was convicted as a spammer. He was caught sending out spam promoting certain penny stocks as a good investment. Because of his involvement in the operation, Davidson was sentence to 21 months in a federal prison.

After serving only 2 months of his 21 month sentence, he escaped. Just 4 days after he escaped from the federal minimum security prison he was found dead from a self inflicted gun shot wound.

Davidson had been cooperating with the FBI and acting as a consultant prior to his escape.

Karma?

 

Advertising In Things That Are Printed On Pulp

I am specifically referring to the newspaper and the yellow pages. How much do you spend on advertising in the yellow pages? Are there 2 or 3 yellow page books in your market and are you in all of them? Does the newspaper work for you?

I have published several posts about the death of newspaper and how the industry is in turmoil. Newspapers across the country have been taking hits in circulation and ad revenue for the last 10 years.

I was thinking about how information was disseminated recently, during all the flooding. People were desperately seeking information about weather, water levels, evacuations etc. Those that could, got online to find out the latest information. They didn't wait for the newspaper or turn on the TV. Granted this was a time of crisis and people needed information rapidly. I would propose that this instant need for information is not isolated to times of crisis. After all, we are in the age of instant information and a low deferment of gratification.

If consumers have to wait for information they are going to move on to the next source as fast as they can and we all know how the Internet has, well you know, a bunch of sources (reliability to be determined). For this very reason, companies that charge more for their services and don't have an auto attendant on their phone system will often times get more business. Customers want to talk to people, and they want information now.

But what about the yellow pages? Isn't this fast enough? There is still a following for the good ole' phone directory, but do you need a $3000 per month ad? I say NO. As part of a long term plan, we have been systematically pruning back every one of our client's yellow page ads with zero effect on the amount of calls they receive from the pulpy paperback. The dollars saved from this reduction have been allocated to other forms of advertising and marketing (mainly the web) and have been more successful from an ROI standpoint.

When I need a service, if I absolutely CAN'T find it on the internet, only then do I blow the dust off my 2004 yellow pages. Most of the generation behind me also operates this way. The bottom line? Take a leap of faith and cut your half page yellow page ad to a 1/4 page and track the results. You will be pleasantly surprised. BUT, you have to be disciplined to take the dollars saved and apply them to areas that WILL get you results. The same thing goes with newspaper. Limit your display ads to event or promotion based ads and see what you end up with.

If you get nothing else from this post take this one piece of information. Track your results. When someone buys something from you, ALWAYS ask them how they heard about you. Keep a log and evaluate your most effective means of advertising on an annual basis. Be diligent about this. So many business owners set out to do this but never end up following through. They are missing some valuable information by neglecting this simple little tool.

If you have a story about your reduction in yellow page spending or how you are handling your newsprint ads, let me know about your results.

 

Back In The Saddle

OK I am back. You were probably saying to yourself, "Hey, what happened to Big Pappa?" Either that or you really don't care. I like to believe that you really did miss me.

I was up in the great Northwoods of Wisconsin for the last several days. While I was up there, tornadoes were tearing up the area around my home town. Fortunately I didn't come home to a destroyed home. Some however weren't so lucky.

Here are some pictures of the town of Parkersburg, Iowa and the destruction that was left behind.

Tornadoes are a funny thing. They will completely destroy one house and the house right next door will be untouched. Residents of Dunkerton, Iowa and several other surrounding communities emerged from their basements to find their homes, cars, farms, and towns in ruin. A massive clean-up effort has begun with the help of volunteers from all over. The large amount of people turning out to help those in need is a testament to the character of the people here in the Midwest.

I have noticed one thing in this time of tragedy that is different from some "recent" disasters you heard about. The people here in Iowa aren't blaming the government for anything. Most of the people that are now homeless are relying on family, friends and volunteers to pick up the pieces. They aren't standing with their hands out bellyaching about how the government isn't there to help. This was a true tragedy for HUNDREDS of people. Schools were destroyed, farms, and businesses. It was truly amazing to see how many people turned out to help just hours after the destruction.

Here are some additional pictures from Dunkerton, Iowa.











Again as a measure of the quality of people here in the area, there have been so many volunteers that new offers to volunteer are being turned down. Here at The Big Bald Blog, our prayers and thoughts go out to everyone who has lost property and loved ones in last weekend's storms.

 

Bloggers VS. Traditional Journalists

I was watching Costas this weekend and featured on the show was a sports blogger and a "traditional" journalist. Both guests reported on sports but had different outlets for their information. The question was asked if blogging is going to replace traditional journalism?

The blogger, claimed that his style of reporting was better based on the ability of his readers to provide feedback. He also claimed that he isn't swayed by the locker rooms, press box, the glamor and other intimate settings and therefore can be more unbiased in his reporting of the news as it relates to the teams and players.

The traditional journalist, a certain Buzz Bissinger, was obviously incensed by the bloggers presence on the show. His body language, attitude, and tone made it glaringly evident that he has no love for bloggers, or at least this one in particular. He went on to say that for over 40 years he has been perfecting his craft and how bloggers have bastardized the business. He continued to lambaste bloggers and their horrible writing skills and lack of involvement in the business. The sports writer claimed that sports bloggers don't have to do any real work, they can just sit in their office chair and provide inaccurate reports. The funny thing about his tirade was that I don't think he knew the difference between a blog post and a blog comment.

There was a third guest on the show, a professional athlete. I think that it was Braylon Edwards but I am not sure, I am not a very "sporty" person. When asked if he ever read the blogs, he said yes. In fact that was his primary source of information. He went on to say that most, if not all, pro athletes read the blogs to find out what the fans and the reporters are saying. And if they say they don't, they are lying.

The blogger claimed that his blog had grown to sufficient size that he can and has been granted press credentials. Since the average age of newspaper readers is now 55 and rising, I think the roll of blogs as viable news sources is gaining momentum at an amazing rate. I also think if traditional journalists aren't willing to embrace the new mass media, maybe it's time to hang up your pad and pen.

Sports arena aside, I do think that blogs are seen as the number 1 source of information when it comes to tech information and most consumer electronics. I know I turn exclusively to the Internet when I am looking for information about SEO, web design, and industry trend news.

Where do you turn when you look for news? What information type of news do you seek on the internet?

 

No More Domain Tasting

Domain tasting is NO MOE! YES!

I have always wondered why ICANN allowed this "try before you buy" policy in the first place.

What is domain tasting you ask? It is the process of registering (temporarily) a domain to determine it's "financial viability". Basically, you monetize the heck of it to see how well it does. If the domain didn't pass the test, the owner had a 5 day grace period in which he could get a refund. The ones that do good, are retained by the registrant.

Now, you all have seen these "financial viability test sites" pop up in searches. You are searching for your favorite whatever and perhaps you misspell the word or maybe you don't. Either way, included in your results page is a link to a page that has absolutely nothing to do what what you are looking for except that it may have your keyword on there as a link to something else.

Wikipedia states, "In April 2006, out of 35 million registrations, only a little more than 2 million were permanent or actually purchased. By February 2007, the CEO of GoDaddy reported that of 55.1 million domain names registered, 51.5 million were canceled and refunded just before the 5 day grace period expired and only 3.6 million domain names were actually kept."

According to ICANN, this whole process was initially designed to help people out who made a typo in the registration of their domain. Of course, as you can tell from the above numbers, people soon began to exploit this clause of generosity.

DotSauce.com reports that a unanimous vote of 13-0 turned the once flexible rule into a thing of the past.

"The discussion was sparked in response to the scandalous practice of Network Solutions hijacking domain searches in recent weeks. Oddly enough, the industry can be thankful to Net Sol for getting the snowball rolling on the end of domain tasting."

So what does this mean for regular Joe Surfer? Better quality results? I hope so but we will have to wait and see. One thing is for sure, there may be glut of "bad tasting" domain names that will soon come up for sale on the secondary market. And I bet that it will dramatically cut down on the amount of "typo squatting." (FYI - That anchor text is going to www.budwiser.com, an obvious typo.)

 

Looks Like BlueRay Wins!

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses!

You heard it right. For those of you who can remember the Beta vs. VHS battle, it looks like the second battle of video format is going to be won by BluRay.

I just got this in an email from a friend of mine who happens to be an electronics junkie:

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- "Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD."

Well, there you have it. We will have to see what happens. Will the rest of the manufacturers follow suit?

I just thought of something. What ever happened to those really BIG "laser disks?"

 

Finally - Spammers Get What They Deserve!

The Associated Press reports that, Jeffrey Kilbride, 41, of Venice California, and James Schaffer, also 41, of Paradise Alley, Arizona, were sentenced to 72 months and 63 months in prison, respectively, fined $100,000 and were ordered to pay $77,500 in restitution to AOL. They also were ordered to forfeit over $1.1 million in commissions they made spamming inboxes with pornographic emails.

They sent millions of unsolicited e-mails, prosecutors said. During nine months in 2004, Kilbride, Schaffer and an associate transmitted more than 600,000 spam messages advertising pornographic Web sites, according to court documents. Even after Congress passed the law called the CAN-SPAM act, the 2 perps continued sending email via remote servers in Amsterdam. The authorities were able to track the spam back to the individuals in Phoenix.

To prove that there is no honor in spamming, 3 other individuals that were involved, turned on Kilbride and Schaffer and testified against them in court to in order to avoid prosecution themselves.

YES! I love to hear stories like this. Obviously there is some big money to be made in spam, I have always wondered how much people make spamming and why they do it. Now that those 2 are going to be in a prison cell for quite some time, someone needs to go to the door of their cell every 5 minutes and scream at the top of their lung, "Click here to see the hottest girls on the net."

 

Faster Internet For All - The Fiber Way

I was going to title this post, "More Fiber For Regular Traffic" but I didn't think that would catch someones attention if they were only an RSS subscriber. Anyway, back to the news at hand.

According to the Fiber to Home Council, in 2006, 1 million U.S. homes had direct access to the Internet from their homes with fiber. NOW, just a year later, 2.14 million homes have the fiber to home access. With the number over doubling in the last year it is apparent that "...American consumers want what only fiber can deliver – and that is a pipe big enough to handle the high-bandwidth Internet and video applications of the future,” said Joe Savage, President of the FTTH Council."

"Now in its seventh year, the Fiber-to-the-Home Council is a non-profit organization established to help its members plan, market, implement and manage FTTH solutions. Council membership includes municipalities, utilities, developers, and traditional and non-traditional service providers, creating a cohesive group to share knowledge and build industry consensus on key issues surrounding fiber to the home. Communities and organizations interested in exploring FTTH options may find information on the FTTH Council web site at www.ftthcouncil.org."

This is a great thing they are doing. It's too bad that we had to leave it up to a non-profit to further the interests of the U.S. people. After all the BIG Telcos did get a HUGE take break to the tune of 200 million that was supposed to be earmarked for this very thing. Where did that money go? Oh yeah, in their pockets. I think that those same companies that realized the tax breaks should have to give a certain percent of their sales to organizations like the FTTH council.

 

Chinese Censorship V2

Reported by Ars Technica, the Chinese Government has started blocking certain sites like Blogspot and Word press. For "the Great Firewall of China, there are certainly many interpretations of what is and isn't allowed through the country's cyber connection."

" Savvy Internet fans in the people's republic have known for a long time, however, that there have been simple ways to get forbidden information. One of those ways was the magical gift of Real Simple Syndication, or RSS. The Great Firewall can block specific web sites all it wants, but as long as there's an RSS feed, many Chinese surfers can use feeds to access otherwise forbidden information."

The Chinese Government eventually got wise to this and started banning all forms of RSS feeds. Any URL that started with "feeds", "rss", and "blog" are now on the blacklist. Basically with the blanket RSS ban in effect, they have eliminated all, approve and non-approved, site syndication.

This is just like when the "Great Firewall" came in and shut down an entire data center because it was hosting one blog that contained some "non-approved" information.

China - HA. They must be doing something right. We buy so much product from them through their official intermediary - WalMart.

 

The Impact Of The Internet On Newspaper Advertising

How the Internet has hurt newspaper sales and advertising revenue continues to pepper the press. Back in May I wrote an article about the decline in newspaper advertising dollars and again just a few weeks ago I referenced the falling percentages of newspaper advertising revenue in a post called "Rate Card Woes."

A very interesting study was released this month from Harvard. Funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, this new report contained information that describes the increase in website traffic for major brand newspapers and other major online news sources. The report also studies small to mid-sized city newspaper websites. Findings indicate that online news seekers are neglecting the local newspaper websites in favor of major newspaper and television websites.

Nationally known newspaper Web sites such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today are attracting a larger audience. On average large newspaper site traffic increased by 10 percent over the past year. In comparison Web sites of most other newspapers of large, medium and small cities are losing their audiences. This isn't the most interesting finding though. The biggest traffic gains are being seen by non-traditional news sources. It was found that Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN had significant increases in traffic over the past year with social media sites and news aggregators seeing an 800% gain in site traffic.

The study also found that the Internet is a bigger threat to local news organizations because it decreases the influence of geography on user's choice of a news source.

For me, the biggest surprise in the report were the findings for commercial radio station web traffic. Large commercial radio station saw a huge increase in web traffic and mid-size radio station saw a slight increase during the term of the study.

At the bottom of the heap was national and local public radio with their stats plummeting sharply over the last year. NPR alone lost 20% or 400,000 of their unique visitor from April 2006 to April 2007.

Brand name, large market and local television websites all saw increase traffic from people seeking new during the study.

So what does this study tell us?

• First and foremost - People are seeking news on the internet
• People are seeking news on large, brand name websites
• People are getting their news from non-traditional and social media outlets

Does this mean that people are caring less about local news? Not at all. You can get your local news from an aggregated feed on Yahoo Local News can't you?

The most significant quote from the study:

"The Internet is redistributing the news audience in ways that is threatening some
traditional news organizations. Local newspapers have been the outlets that are most at risk, and they are likely to remain so. If our trend analysis is borne out, many newspapers are going to have difficulty even holding onto their online readers. Brand-name newspapers’ sites, as well as some others are growing, but a significant proportion of newspaper sites are stagnant or losing visitors. This development was perhaps inevitable. The problem of newspapers is compounded by the fact that they cannot succeed simply by replacing their hard-copy readers with online readers. On a person-by-person basis, the sale of hard-copy newspapers is vastly more profitable than drawing people to the paper’s website. It is estimated that a newspaper needs to attract two or three dozen online readers to make up for—in terms of advertising revenue—the loss of a single hard-copy reader. When people go to the Internet for news, they can just as easily navigate to a source outside their community as one within it, bypassing a local site in favor of a known site elsewhere. Therein is a primary reason why brand-name news organizations, like CNN and the New York Times, have large Web audiences."

That being said, could it be possible that we will witness the death of a media in our generation?
I still have a few 8 track tapes, I think.


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