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Google’s news experiment Living Stories to go open source

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

After delivering traffic, is making Living Stories publicly available to provide a deeper user engagement

Taking the next step towards better relations with news publishers, today announced that it will make its Living Stories project available to news outlets globally by becoming an open source.

The Living Stories projectwas originally developed together with the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Similar to topic pages it groups content around keywords such as “politics of global warming” or “the war in Afghanistan”, and unfolds how a story develops over time. Binding news bits together using a story summary, the Living Story sorts content according to how important it is and makes it possible for the reader to approach it in different ways – focusing on news, timeline, graphics, quotes, and resources. If a user signs in, it also highlights new articles when they return.

Going open source with its API, will now allow publishers to implement this experiment in a news context. Furthermore, the company hopes to even engage with journalists and web developers.

“We look forward to working with developers and journalists to see how we can work together on Living Stories. We’re keen on finding new innovative ways for news publishers to deliver content and find online readers, and this is one of many efforts we’re working on in that direction,” said ’s print content partnerships director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Santiago de la Mora.

With Living Stories, tries to play a further part in transforming journalism into the digital era. Up till now, only delivered traffic. Although recently there have been some discussions as to whether trafficwise Facebook might be a new threat to Google, its figures are impressive overall. “ news deliver 1bn clicks per month directly and 4bn clicks from overall,” says de la Mora.

However, with Living Stories tries to take it a step further as it now also provides a way of engaging the user. “If you have the traffic, what do you do with it? Focus on engagement,” de la Mora describes the approach.

Living Stories was developed together with the New York Times and the Washington Post to increase user engagement by collecting all the different pieces of a story in one place as well as making it easier for the user to follow it over time.

“The experiment with Living Stories, the New York Times and the Washington Post yielded good results, so we’re excited to be able to offer this technology more broadly,” he said.

The project recently implemented on the news homepage in the US, was generally welcomed by critics. According to , 75% of people who gave feedback said they preferred the Living Stories format to the traditional online news article. “On an average visit users spend more than nine minutes with each story”, said spokesperson Oliver Rickman about Living Stories.

Living stories can only be applied to specific topics that develop over a longer period of time, however by making Living Stories now available for all news organisations, emphasises its broader aim to find new methods not only of delivering but also of consuming news online – perhaps to become a content management platform for news in the not-so-distant future.

Can we expect further news experiments from ? “Yes,” confirmed de la Mora, adding, more evasively: “We try to be strong contributors to news organisations on the technology side.”

Mercedes Bunz


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Privacy group files FTC complaint against Google Buzz

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Epic asks US Federal Trade Commission to step in and require Google to make Buzz a ‘fully opt-in service’

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Despite making significant changes to its Buzz service (and apologizing), Google still can’t shake the ire of critics. The electronic information group has now filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Comission (FTC) over Buzz, asking the FTC to step in and require Google to make Buzz a “fully opt-in service” and to “cease using Gmail users’ private address book contacts to compile lists”. (via LA Times).

Epic says that while Google has turned off an “auto-follower” feature, so that users now have to manually approve the people whose updates they follow, the company is still making suggestions based on who users contact the most. “Google Buzz still allows people to automatically follow a user,” the foundation says. “The burden remains on the user to block those unwanted followers.” It also says that Google doesn’t make clear that the profiles Google Buzz users are required to set up are public.

(In a statement, Google says: “Buzz was launched only a week ago. We’ve already made a few changes based on user feedback, and we have more improvements in the works. We look forward to hearing more suggestions and will continue to improve the Buzz experience with user transparency and control top of mind.”)

The reaction to Buzz has similarities to the criticism that has followed some of Facebook’s moves to make more of its users’ information public; indeed, in mid-December, several groups filed a complaint with the FTC over recent changes Facebook had made to its settings.

Google, however, seems to have learned at least one lesson from Facebook’s troubles. Two years ago, it took Mark Zuckerberg nearly one month to apologize for his company’s controversial Beacon program. By contrast, it took Google six days to do the same.

Here’s the complaint: “Request for Investigation”

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Forget the technology fast – here’s a feast of iPhone apps

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

As church leaders call for a fast on pancake day, we review applications from Metro, and Localpeople

Have you read that church leaders are calling on people to have a “technology fast” for Lent and try a day without their TV, iPod, computer or mobile? We love our here on PDA, so instead we’re going offer you a feast of apps.

The is a high-carb food source, bringing publishers a steady stream of revenue. Those joining the feast this week come from the world of television (), (Metro) and hyperlocal websites (Localpeople).

Since launching at the end of January, freesheet Metro’s app has been downloaded 100,000 times, making it No1 in the free news app category as well as catapulting it to the top 10 of free apps overall.

To be honest, Metro’s app is a bit frustrating, as allows the user to see tiny versions of the print pages, which they can browse only by flicking through them. According to Associated 20.5% of visitors read more than 20 pages per visit, but afterwards they might be so frustrated that they never visit again.

Operations director Stuart Wood still has high hopes for the app. He said that the page model is attractive to advertisers and he expects to make revenue from the app. “For advertisers and sponsors, the app offers further benefits, such as links direct from the newspaper editions to their websites, driving customers and revenue streams,” he said.

Like Metro, Freeview’s app is free. The digital service launched a free TV guide as an app “designed to help viewers plan their TV viewing whilst on the go”. That is good. Now you don’t have to wait for the fight about the remote with your partner, you can argue on the way home! Plan ahead and catch your favorite shows before your partner bags them as has a lot of content worth fighting about.

Last but not least in today’s feast is Localpeople, the app launched by the hyperlocal project of the same name. Localpeople is a network of websites for people to connect in the same area. Initially launched to cover the south-west of England the project has grown from 23 to 70 sites (including London).

The app enables the user to read the local news nearby and browse businesses in their area using Google Maps. It includes a “top places nearby” feature with content provided by real users, not advertisers.

Do you think a fast is a good idea? What apps would you download before you start?

Mercedes Bunz


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Why 2010 will be the year TV and the web really converge

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Steve Plunkett explains how milestones such as Project Canvas will bring together broadcast television and online

There is a real feeling within the TV that the year ahead looks set to become something of a milestone for our industry. The long-heralded convergence of television, video, broadcast and the internet is reaching a tipping point. But why are things about to change dramatically and what is this likely to mean for programme-making, post production – editing, sound, special effects – and delivery of TV content?

Looking back at the past decade, highlights that will change the trajectory of the industry in the next 10 years include the steady migration to digital at all points from acquisition to consumption, the emergence of an increasingly universal transport medium built around the internet protocol (IP) and the ever-expanding reach, capacity and performance of the public internet as a viable platform for rich distribution, including video.

But the most significant recent innovations have actually happened away from television sets and the broadcast networks that serve them. They have taken place on the PC via the internet. The huge success of iPlayer and similar catchup TV services – as well as Hulu, YouTube and many others – have changed the expectations of PC-savvy TV viewers. But the next major evolution of the TV experience is only just beginning and the action is moving back from the PC to the big-screen TV.

Project Canvas – the joint venture with backers including the BBC, ITV and BT planning to bring video-on-demand content to the TV sets of Freeview and Freesat viewers, in the first instance – could be a significant milestone, not just because it has so much potential but because it is representative of a new model of the television experience that is gaining common currency around the world. This is the bringing together of broadcast television, online (on-demand, streaming, linear and non-linear), communications and applications in a highly integrated “hybrid” manner.

While the hybrid model has been discussed for some time, this year is when it is actually going to meet the public. Analysts are predicting that 20% of televisions sold in Europe in 2010 will be internet enabled. Combine this with the fast-growing range of digital receivers and games consoles that are starting to offer television and video content delivered via broadband and it becomes clear that a new model is emerging.

What then are the implications of this trend for programme-making, post production and delivery?

One fundamental difference is that a hybrid model provides virtually infinite channel capacity as the broadband connection is augmenting the traditional digital receiver. More than this though, it should dramatically lower the cost of entry for content and channel owners as platforms such as Project Canvas are intended to be open.

The use of internet rather than broadcast economics will allow much more specialised content and channels to become viable. Expect to see a large number of “brand channels” coming to these new platforms. Content will also become more fluid across devices and platforms as IP-delivered sessions now reach the TV, PC and mobile device, driving a “three-screen strategy” for channel owners.

In summary, the long tail of television and video can be fully realised in this new environment both technically and commercially. The relationship between linear broadcast content and non-linear is likely to converge and both will change because of it.

This in turn will both drive new demand and encourage new innovation all the way along the programme-making, post production and delivery chains. History has shown us that periods of disruptive innovation can be very exciting and rewarding for those who try to understand, anticipate and influence what’s next.

Here’s to an interesting new decade for what used to be called television.

Steve Plunkett is director of customer innovation at Red Bee Media, the TV and web branding and channel management agency, which is attending the Broadcast Video Expo conference this week


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BBC’s James Cridland joins Audioboo

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Former BBC head of future and to advise UK sound-sharing website on Pro service

James Cridland, the former BBC radio head of future media and technology, has joined UK sound-sharing website Audioboo. Cridland, who has previously given talks about , will lead the thinking on the development of its Pro service.

“I’ve been a user of Audioboo since launch, and am excited about how the behind can change the sound of for the better,” said Cridland. “ is a transformative step in allowing stations to become even closer to their listeners, and I look forward to working together with their inspirational team and the brightest brains in .”

Cridland, who is also at home discussing beer, left the BBC last September to travel and “explore the world’s industries”. Having worked on the BBC iPlayer for , he now brings his experience to .

“James is understanding of both the present needs of the industry and where it needs to get to in the future is unparalleled in terms of depth and can do attitude,” said the founder and CEO, Mark Rock. “We have a roadmap, part of which sees as a tremendous opportunity going forward. Working with James on this means we will be able to develop for the needs of the future, rather than just the present.”

Launched in March 2009, has become an essential tool for mobile journalism allowing the creation of broadcast quality audio recordings including location data, image, title and tags. It provides a version for the mobile phone – iPhone and ’s Android – that makes it easy to record. The Guardian has used it to report from events such as the climate summit in Copenhagen.

Have you used ? What are your experiences? If you have any tips or questions for Cridland, please let us know below.

Mercedes Bunz


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Sony Ericsson branches out with tweeting tree

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Phone giant puts tree that sends out Twitter updates on show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

To show that it is prepared for the new era of mobile communication Sony Ericsson developed a device that makes a tree tweet. And this is just the start.

It put the tree on show at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where staff hooked it up to an electromagnetic field sensor that enables it to detect motion.

“Arrived in Barcelona. The tension is building. #ectree”, it tweeted, followed by: “Things are shaping up. I just wish someone could clean me up a bit before it’s showtime. #ectree”

In comparison with others countries, the UK is generally ahead in terms of embracing social . A quick view on Trendsmap quickly shows that Twitter is by far the most popular in the UK out of all the European countries, and the British are already used to twittering objects – for example, BigBen tweets “Bong”, or the River Thames tells you about its tides.

Sony Ericcson believes that everything that can benefit from a connection should have one – even a tree, they say. And what does the tree respond?

Well, being hired by the company for a promotional gig it is obvious that it can’t really express its opinion freely. “My leaves have been stroked by 52 friendly visitors. I’m starting to like MWC. #ectree”, it says over and over again.

However, there are some signs of rebellion: “99 touches in an hour. Can an orange tree get swine flu? #ectree”, or: “106 people have played with my leaves the last hour. Are there no phones to play with in this place? #ectree”

The tree is right. Dear Sony, there are more than 6.67 billion people on earth, and most of them already have nothing to say. Leave the twittering tree alone!

Mercedes Bunz


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Can streaming end illegal filesharing?

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

As it becomes easier to stream video content, the attraction of illegal downloading is diminished

Streaming video is booming online – 64% of internet users watch video clips.

Okay, you will say, we knew before that watching clips on YouTube is popular. But on top of that 31% – almost a third – watch full-length TV and video programming, a recent survey revealed.

The fact that more and more content is available via streaming obviously has an effect. Indeed, the research conducted by Global Web Index suggests that downloading content will be less attractive if the content is available somewhere else.

“Thanks to the rise of online services such as Spotify, Hulu, iPlayer and of course YouTube, the environment has been created where you can stream almost all the content you would ever want,” said Tom Smith, the managing director of Trendstream, the company that launched the service Global Web Index.

Michael Comish, the CEO and co-founder of blinkbox, a UK provider of streamed TV and movie agrees. He says that in the UK the activities of the BBC has helped to educate the market. “Our research suggests that the most active consumers of video show both the highest probability of being a pirate and of purchasing online. We expect that a large percentage of the £2bn DVD market will migrate online in the next five years, driven by the natural adoption curve for a new product, streaming, and TV-based viewing.”

The research of Global Web Index shows that 55% said they were downloading films via filesharing because it saves them money – but the other 45% can be persuaded to consume films legally if the technology allows them.

What were their reasons for filesharing? As the chart shows, 32% said they wanted instant access, 11% said it was the only way they could find the material and 2% said that it was a way to get it as soon as it was released.

“If everything I want is available on demand, the concept of ownership is diminished. I no longer need to have it on my hard drive. I just play what I want when I want. This is not only a threat to traditional packaged sales of music, TV and film, it will also kill off piracy. Why pirate when you can stream?” said Tom Smith.

Indeed, streaming can be attractive for the entertainment industry as well, because it is an alternative revenue model – and not only in terms of advertising. “Our buy rates increased three-fold since we switched from a download-only model to a streaming model for all our pay programming,” said Comish.

The time may be approaching when online video becomes more important than live TV.

What do you think – will filesharing diminish as more ways to get content legally arise?

Mercedes Bunz


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After Yahoo integrates Facebook, Google integrates Twitter

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Search giant attempts to incorporate and real-time live-streams through tie-up with microblogging service

That was fast. Yesterday revealed that it was integrating Facebook Connect deeply into its site; today announced that will become a log-in option.

From now on, people using will be able to log in to any of the sites that use Friend Connect with their logins. That use what? Never heard of it? That’s why they are teaming up with .

Friend Connect is an online service that allows web users to connect with their friends on different websites. It was announced last May in an attempt to become more social and has about 8 million monthly users – not a lot for the web.

might not have as many users as Facebook, which has 350 million users, but for that’s not the point. has enough users – the problem is that they don’t use for . There are 146 million users of Gmail, but the days of email as or main message system might be numbered.

So to keep up pace with Facebook, tries to get more social because in todays you need to have a real-time live-stream. The integration of is definitely an interesting attempt.

But there is another point. Facebook and are becoming something like identity providers. Taking your identity from site to site might be convenient, but it is not always a good idea as Americans will be reminded tonight why so. After a little bit of marveling about the lovely headquater interior Maria Bartiromo’s report “Inside the Mind of Google” discusses that fact in her report on the search engine tonight on CNBC 9 pacific & 8 central time.

Mercedes Bunz


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Yahoo and Facebook extend tie-up

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Search engine and site to integrate further – but is it an even partnership?

Joining forces is the big new trend in digital . Recently, Twitter and LinkedIn linked their status updates, and today and Facebook have announced that they will allow their users to combine their activity streams.

Currently the homepage lets Facebook users check their stream in a preview window without leaving the site. The plan is to establish some real cross-posting.

At some point in the first half of 2010, users will be able to see their friends’ Facebook activities directly within “ updates”, while activity on sites like Flickr may be automatically re-posted to the Facebook news feed.

So far, so good.

More interesting, though, is reading between the lines of this integration.

First, it seems to indicate that Facebook is now more powerful than , which once upon a time had its own ambitions for . Remember when was buying delicious and flickr back in 2005? Well, these times are over. Now has to bow for a little bit of Facebook. As Charles Arthur said, not exactly a position of strength.

Indeed, Facebook answered the question of whether this is a partnership as follows: “Facebook Platform is an open platform, and as such any on or off Facebook can integrate with Facebook.”

Secondly, there might be a block war coming up. Well, there is a secret block war going on all the time, and as Jack Schofield put it: Facebook wants to be the hub of the social web, and (among many other things) Google wants to be the hub of the social web, the whole web, the deep web, the advertising web, and everything else.

So, ’s lack of power was exposed years ago when Microsoft started trying to take it over, but it probably still wants to be “your dashboard to the web”. If it is so, then it is about time that looked at integrating Twitter. We are waiting.

What do you think of all of this integration? Do you like cross-posting? Or is it confusing, and it is better to keep the different platforms apart from each other?

Mercedes Bunz


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Google News changes are a bad way to cure a misdiagnosed problem

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Today’s announcement by that it will change the way that subscription content is listed in Google News is nothing if not carefully timed. The internet’s most powerful company hopes it can quieten some of the aggravation with newspaper groups and shift the conversation about paywalls and potential collaboration with its rivals.

But underneath the headlines, it’s worth unpacking the news – because while some paywall-happy publishers may feel giddy at forcing ’s hand, the truth is that the changes are actually a limitation, not an expansion, of what they can do.

Here are a few points worth remembering.

• This change really only affects the small proportion of traffic coming through News. Despite the obsession that some industry folk have with it, News is small fry compared to ’s main search index. A quick look at the traffic figures for the Guardian’s pages, for example, suggests that News is responsible for around 2% of all the readers that come our way, while itself brings maybe a quarter of traffic. Those figures are pretty representative across the industry.

• News already allowed subscription content, but in the past a publisher had to agree to let privately index the entire article. That’s why, if you search for some obscure term like “orange space camel” in News, you might end up getting a link back to a big subscription database or pay-per-article newspaper archive. knew your article included the terms you were looking for, but readers had to pay to find out why. This isn’t a new thing.

• These changes reduce the visibility of subscription content because News will now only index the content that readers can actually see. Whether that’s the headline, the first paragraph or a summary of the article, it means your paywalled content is most likely going to become more obscure with this move. It doesn’t matter whether your story mentions the “orange space camel” somewhere – if it’s not in the preview text, it won’t appear in a search.

• First Click Free makes more powerful, not publishers. The scheme which allows ’s main search index to send traffic to paywalled stories is used by lots of publishers (including Rupert Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal). It lets readers get a taste of the product before bringing down the subscription curtain. says it’s expanding FCF to give publishers finer controls, but the irony is that it actually makes Googling the news easier for casual drive-by readers without increasing the value to publishers. Just compare a visit to the WSJ for a subscriber and a casual Googler: if I’m a subscriber, I have to make sure I’m logged in or I can’t see the page in question. If I come from , there’s no sign-in, no barrier to entry, no annoying reminders. It’s easier – and cheaper – for readers to use as an intermediary precisely because the Wall Street Journal uses FCF.

• It’s the job of the news business to fix its problems. There’s a lot of rhetoric banging about that visitors from sites like are “worthless” or of little value. While that’s true in one sense (in fact, serving millions of page impressions to people who don’t bring you profit actually costs you money), the language shows that there’s been a fundamental misdiagnosis of the problem. Readers who arrive at your website have the potential to be turned into more valuable customers, and it’s a publisher’s responsibility to convert their attention into profit. It isn’t the fault of the referrer or the readers themselves that news companies are unable to do that to the same extent that they did in the past. If hundreds of people like your shop’s window display so much that they come in, it’s the owner’s responsibility to sell your products to them – not the window dresser’s.

Ultimately, knows it has a bit of a PR problem with news publishers. Rupert Murdoch’s banging the drum fiercely and trying to unite the troops, either in the hope of squeezing money out of or (on a more Machiavellian note) forcing everyone to bring in paywalls before launching a price war. That’s why the internet giant is making this sort of announcement in an attempt to appease those who grow angry with it.

But if publishers think today’s news is a solution, then it’s because they’ve misunderstood what’s happening and how to fix it. It reminds me of an episode of House – a bizarre complication emerges that sends everyone into a tizzy; the medical team think they know what the issue is, but in treating for the wrong condition they actually make things worse; eventually, Hugh Laurie has a blinding insight that tells him what the real disease is – and suddenly curing it becomes the simplest thing.

The truth is, you’ll never fix something if you don’t really understand what’s going on.

Bobbie Johnson


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