Do Not Stop the Presses
October 8, 2009
One of my two or three readers called to my attention that certain sectors of publishing are doing well. I asked this former newspaper professional and licensing expert to expand on her email. The original essay by Patricia V. Roberts appears below:
If you’re waiting for paper publishing to die, don’t hold your breath. Gloomy headlines notwithstanding, the total audience for magazines has quietly increased over the past decade. MediaDailyNews reported recently that an analysis of 81 top titles shows an overall audience gain of 8 percent between 2000-2009. How can that be? Print is going the way of the dinosaur, isn’t it? Nobody reads on paper anymore, right? Well let’s just take a peek and see.
Magazine subscriptions reached a ten-year high in 2008, and 21 percent of new subscriptions came from the internet. And magazines return the favor. Paper publications outperform internet and email advertising, online communities, and WOM in influencing consumers to do a merchandise search online. In the past five years, the number of issues read per month has increased 5 percent among the total population, and that’s not just among older readers. In the oh-so-attractive 18-34 year old segment, the number of issues read each month rose by 8 percent. In fact, the median age of magazine readers consistently trends younger than the total population.
It makes sense if you consider a few of the key characteristics of paper publishing that aren’t easily translatable to the electronic world. Magazines are portable, they can be shared easily, and they can be beautiful. You can’t tear a page out of an electronic newsletter, and even if you print a copy of a travel article with a gorgeous photo of the Rainbow Bridge, the quality of your printer and your paper will determine how pretty it looks tacked over your desk. Magazines can be kept and read again, or passed along to others. They can cover topics in depth versus the “new right this minute” blurbiness of the internet. Don’t be fooled by the “soft” nature of these benefits. Smart publishers are using multiple channels to delight their readers. So don’t stop the presses just yet.
Sources: Media Post Publications, FOLIO, DMNews, MPA.
Patricia Roberts, October 8, 2009
ArnoldIT.com Video Experiment
October 8, 2009
On October 15, 2009, the first of six five to seven minute videos “How to Make Money via Google” will become available. The subject is how an individual, small business, or organization can generate revenue surfing on Google; that is, taking advantages of various Google programs for individuals and companies.
The video series came about as a result of my receiving spam that alleged that anyone could make a great deal of money fast by exploiting Google. The premise of these spam messages was appealing. In fact, there was an element of truth in them. But making a living with AdSense or other Google products, services, or programs can be challenging.
ArnoldIT.com believes that Google is creating revenue opportunities. But taking advantage of those opportunities requires commitment, effort, and excellent problem solving skills.
The ArnoldIT.com team identified many opportunities that Google offers users to generate money from the “digital Gutenberg”, but we narrowed our focus to four:
- AdSense
- Search Engine Optimization Consulting
- Developing Commercial Software for the Google Platform
- Becoming a Google Partner.
An introductory video explains briefly how Google creates opportunity as a side effect of its own innovations. The last video in the series explains why Google is likely to grow to be a $60 to $!00 billion company in the next 36 to 48 months. The idea is that by surfing on Google today, Google’s growth will create revenue opportunities somewhat similar to those created when Microsoft rolled out its MS DOS software in the early 1980s.
The videos have been designed to be viewed independently or as a sequence. Each video is brief and factual. We have had to be selective and had to simplify to stay within the six minute time window. The videos will provide the basics about these Google opportunities.
The message in the videos is that Google creates a wonderful opportunity. However, nothing worthwhile comes easy. The spam promises of overnight riches creates what our research suggests is an off center impression of the Google opportunities. Each video is backed by a page of links mentioned in the videos on the ArnoldIT.com Web site.
We will be posting the AdSense video on October 15, 2009. a more detailed description of this video will appear coincident with my talk at the international library conference in London, England. The videos will be available without charge from ArnoldIT.com. ArnoldIT.com is not affiliated with nor connected to Google in any way.
More information will be posted on October 15, 2009. Since these videos are an experiment, I will be learning from the comments, criticisms, and suggestions the videos trigger.
Stephen Arnold, October 8, 2009
Comments about Google and Content Preservation
October 8, 2009
The search pundits are chasing the Google press conference. The addled goose flapped right over the media event and spent time with “Google’s Abandoned Library of 700 Million Titles”. The article, which appeared in Wired Magazine, tackles the history of the Deja.com usenet archive. The article is interesting for three reasons:
- The content is “ancient ruins”; that is, not in good shape
- Access is problematic because the search function is, according to Wired, are “extremely poor”
- There has not been much attention focused on this content collection.
I access Google Groups’s content occasionally. My personal experience is that I can find useful information on certain topics. For me, the most interesting comment in the Wired article was:
In the end, then, the rusting shell of Google Groups is a reminder that Google is an advertising company — not a modern-day Library of Alexandria.
Not as affirming as the news flowing from the Google media event, but I found the Wired article suggestive.
Stephen Arnold, October 8, 2009
Google Sheds Some Light on the Google News Algorithm
October 7, 2009
Sounds good, but contain your enthusiasm. The Computer World article “Inside the Google News Algorithm” tantalizes with its statement that it will “explain how the service’s algorithm picks the topics and stories on its home page.” You should read the write up, but there were no surprises in my opinion. Clicks, backlinks and Google’s “scores” with a little bit of Google’s “quality” recipe. There you have it. No traditional editors or their fabulous lunches needed.
Stephen Arnold, October 7, 2009
Stratify Presses the Accelerator
October 7, 2009
Stratify (formerly Purple Yogi) rolled out an early case assessment tool called eVantage. The idea is that by processing quickly available information, those engaged in a legal matter can get a flash view of the information germane to a particular issue. I found the article “Stratify Sweeps left [of EDRM] with eVantage” a useful summary of this new service. For me, the most important comment in the article was:
For Stratify, the news is that they will deliver a box on site that can: process data (over 300 file and archival formats, including Encase, FTK, Exchange); remove system files and detect duplicate and near-duplicate data; search multilingual data (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) using complex Boolean and faceted search strategies where facets equal domains, custodians, e-mail senders and receivers, etc.; and offers intelligent ways to conduct first-level review and data analysis by e-mail threads and identified concepts and groups.
The appliance solution allows a quick deployment. The advantage of an eDiscovery “toaster” is that content can be processed quickly. Speed of deployment has been an irritant to Type A attorneys who want to begin the information review process quickly.
Will the Stratify solution pay off for Iron Mountain? One thing is certain. Other eDiscovery appliance vendors will have to respond to the Stratify appliance.
Stephen Arnold, October 7, 2009
eDiscovery 1994
October 7, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to the blog post to “Old ZyLAB Promotional Video from 1994”. Christopher Spizzirri wrote in the Delaware eDiscovery Report:
This is apparently a 15-year-old ZyLAB promotional video recently posted on YouTube. The video covers some eDiscovery related technologies, including OCR, fuzzy searching, and automatic bates numbering.
The video makes clear that significant progress in content processing has been made in the last 15 years. Fun to watch.
Stephen Arnold, October 7, 2009
Microsoft Visual Search
October 7, 2009
The Inquirer has a knack for innovation. The story “Microsoft Demos Visual Search” provides a good description of a forthcoming Microsoft service. Images are grouped in galleries, making it easy to spot a particular image. The Inquirer reported, “Once a gallery has been selected, the images can be filtered and sorted through a series of sub-categories based on the gallery.” The Inquirer pointed out that the demo included 40 topics including dog breeds. Everything was flowing smoothly. The Inquirer then pointed out that the service would be particularly useful in an image segment popular with some folks but not discussed in polite circles. Kudos to Microsoft and to the Inquirer for its product application savvy.
Stephen Arnold, October 7, 2009
Exalead and Documentum Connect
October 7, 2009
Exalead, announced that its CloudView information access platform has received the “Designed for EMC Documentum” accreditation, a mark of quality and value that customers can depend on in enterprise applications. The “Designed for EMC Documentum” accreditation demonstrates that CloudView has successfully met a comprehensive set of criteria for solid design and quality integration. Exalead CloudView provides indexing and searching services for Documentum databases. It extends the Documentum enterprise content management platform by automatically collecting, structuring, contextualizing and delivering in real time high volumes of data from any source, helping customers around the globe improve information search, discovery, management, security and storage. Exalead has carved out a chunk of the search landscape with its innovative search based applications.
Exalead’s CEO Paul Doscher told Beyond Search:
The ability to effectively locate and search information is crucial to the smooth operating and progress of any business, no matter the industry. CloudView is designed to offer flexible and scalable search functionality for the vast and varied array of content that enterprises generate. This accreditation is another proof point of CloudView’s excellence and allows EMC and Exalead to bring superior information access to their joint customers and enable quicker, more effective and better-informed decisions.
Exalead’s CloudView offering received design accreditation through participation in the Designed for EMC process, which helps ISVs, VSPs and SIs design, develop and go-to-market with successful offerings based on the EMC Documentum platform. As a member, Exalead received specialized consultation and guidance, along with access to dedicated
content management technical resources. Partners can submit their offerings to be considered for the “Designed for EMC Documentum” accreditation – which if achieved, signifies to customers that the offering meets high standards for architectural compliance with Documentum practices and will provide a reliable integration with less uncertainty for joint customers. To learn more about CloudView and Designed for EMC, please visit www.emc.com/solutiongallery.
A happy quack to Exalead. You can read an interview with the founder of Exalead in the Search Wizard Speaks series here.
Stephen Arnold, October 7, 2009
Google and User Tracking Again
October 6, 2009
I found “Google View Thru Tracking: Has Big Brother Been Watching” quite interesting. In my Google monographs I describe briefly some of Google’s mechanisms for capturing user behavior data. This article is one of the first that references Google’s method for “knowing” what happens whether the user clicks or not. That statement is a simplification, but the idea is that Google’s systems and methods maintain an awareness in user sessions. Chrome is one step to a richer data collection and management method, but that technology is not referenced in the article. If you are interested in this type of monitoring, read the Search Engine Watch story.
Stephen Arnold, October 6, 2009, No dough
PubMed Overhaul: Looking Good
October 6, 2009
Short honk: PubMed, the NIH medical information search system, has been reworked. Quite a few new features. You can read the run down of new features and see screen shots in “PubMed® Redesign” in the NLM Technical Bulletin. A happy quack to those involved in the project.
Stephen Arnold, October 6, 2009, No dough
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