“Google is not going to be Facebook. Likewise, Microsoft was not going to be Google. And it is partly because, contrary to the shibboleths of user-created blah-blah, people love content—and, mirabile dictu, it increases traffic. The problem is, advertisers don’t love it. Or they don’t love it enough. Or there is so much of it, they can be fickle lovers of it—hence the cost goes down (and down). This math has actually created an entire genre of online businesses that are all about being able to keep lowering the cost of content to keep up with the ever-lower price that can be charged for it.
And yet, there is content that works—that remains unique and that commands premium pricing. That’s television—or video.
Put another way, what still works, what advertisers and audiences still seek, is superexpensive content.
And there is a model in which mature non-content-producing businesses help themselves by becoming sophisticated content producers: the premium channel business, the HBO model. HBO was not a content creator; it was effectively just an aggregator and a redistributor. But faced with higher licensing fees and lower margins, and looking to solidify its own brand, it started to produce its own content.”
When I look around at other people’s blogs, I usually find myself trying to decypher how they really are at the other side of their deliberately published self-image. This diagram shows more or less what I think about that. I know there are a lot of different people and ways of posting online, but I think this could be close to the “average” mode.
This gets to the idea of identity projection and social media. On the Web create cool simulacra of ourselves and project these simulacra as ourselves. The best services let us do this easily and efficiently, convincing ourselves and the world that we are this “cooler” version of ourselves. Tumblr is excellent at this, which is a very big reason for Tumblr’s success.
I was cool before I had a tumblr.
Go Daddy?
Hey guys, I know Tumblr had some hiccups this morning but I always have connection or slow loading issues when using my custome domain name: brooklynmutt.com. I just removed it and I’m using .tumblr, and now it’s working fine. Is this a Go Daddy issue? Should I change hosts? If so, who do you guys recommend?
P.S. Am I locked in with Go Daddy? I know I renewed for two years not long ago, can I remove my domain name and use a new host?
Yes, the die hard hipsters on the internet might flock to G to be the first kids on the block embracing the new network, and might even have their own little Google Plus cliques, but most of those who have gone there have found it to be an empty room. They’ve left one party at Facebook, which yes, may have been going on a bit too long, and could be starting to wind down, but arrived at a new one where simply no one has shown up. And those who have arrived aren’t exactly calling their friends to come on over, as there isn’t a whole lot to see. It’s the same party with different decorations but only 3% of the guests. It might be nice there’s better music or drinks, but none of that matters without anyone there to hang out with.
“
We’ve all been there; You’re at an outing or a dinner table with friends but itching to check your email or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Google+ or Yammer or what ever digital hit of serotonin you prefer. Have you ever “gone to the bathroom” in order to check email or come up with a socially appropriate excuse to pull out your smartphone just so you can check your @ replies on Twitter?
Remember when the critical mass of smokers used to leave the table or meeting in groups to go indulge their habit? I straight up open my laptop at bars and parties, and then feel more guilty about that than drinking.
A new British study released today backs up what we otherwise know intuitively, that Internet usage is increasingly becoming an addiction. Out of 1000 people surveyed after being cut off from the Internet for 24 hours, 53% reported feeling “upset” about being deprived of online access and 40% said that they felt lonely after not being able to connect to the Internet.
”Technology Is The New Smoking | TechCrunch
Traffic & Reddit
I’m am very, very far from what anyone would call a tech geek but I figured I’d share this bit of info for those of you who may be interested in such matters. And, at the same time, ask for some help. Over the weekend I added, among other buttons, a Reddit button to my Tumblr. It’s just a small sample, but I have noticed an marked increase in traffic.
If anyone can point me towards a Reddit button that includes the “vote up/down” arrows and also isolates a post’s url I’d appreciate it. The buttons I am using now are part of “Share This” and they do not provide the voting option. I can’t seem to find a Reddit button (with voting options) that shows on my main page, and at the same time isolates a post’s url.
Thanks
Any suggestions?
In 2010 we ditched our cable TV. Here’s how we replaced it with online content.
(via poynterinstitute)
“Internet freedom is about defending the space where all these things occur, so that it remains not just for the students here today but for your successors and all who come after you. This is one of the grand challenges of our time.”
(via joshsternberg)
Directv Internet?
Does anyone have an internet connection through Directv? I’m thinking about switching. Opinions please.
Code Rush, produced in 2000 and broadcast on PBS, is an inside look at living and working in Silicon Valley at the height of the dot-com era. The film follows a group of Netscape engineers as they pursue at that time a revolutionary venture to save their company - giving away the software recipe for Netscape’s browser in exchange for integrating improvements created by outside software developers.
“Typically what happens in countries like Tunisia or Iran or China is people exert very surgical control over information, they will block particular domain names, or they’ll block particular Web sites or particular small networks that host content that they don’t like. When Iran had its problems after its elections, they slowed down their Internet so they could use it more effectively to control protestors but they didn’t take it down. Normally, when someone has a problem on the Internet, it’s a single provider, a single organization, that gets in trouble or loses a piece of equipment or runs out of power for their generator after a blackout or something. In this case, within the space of about 20 minutes, all of the largest service providers in Egypt mysteriously and with no apparent coordination all left the Internet. It’s a completely different signature.”
Jim Cowie, Renesys Chief Technology Officer in How Was Egypt’s Internet Access Shut Off?
The rest is pretty interesting too. The internet, man. It’s a crazy place.
(via notthatkindagay)
(via enteekaygee)
Boston ad agency Hill Holliday asked five families to replace their cable connection with one of the current crop of networked TV devices: Roku, Boxee Box, Google TV, Apple TV and XBOX 360.
The results show what many of us already knew: due to a mix of challenges ranging from intellectual property territorialism (e.g. Warner Bros and Netflix and other similar power plays) and the fact that, in most cases, the very cable companies you’re escaping are still providing the broadband pipe into your house, we’ve got a ways to go for truly “connected TV”.
Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel baffled by Internet. Circa 1994
How do you consume media? - How do you deal with information overload? Like a lot of people I know, I spend a fair amount of time on Twitter. But unlike a lot of the people I know, I don’t find it useful or informative. I rarely find great articles or thoughts linked. The conversation is biased toward whatever is dominating cable news at that moment, which isn’t really what I write about. But I do find it fun. And I consider tweeting regularly to be part of my job. So on Twitter, I’m generally looking for things to tweet. Which is fine, but I’m spending too much time on it. The thing is, it’s like an instant-pleasure button. There’s always something new to read. Always a quick distraction. But if I’m attracted to Twitter, I’m reliant on RSS feeds. Full RSS feeds, to be more specific. My information consumption is overwhelmingly biased toward outlets I can read fully in Google Reader. That cuts out a few blogs I’d like to read more of, but not that many. What it does do is bias me in favor of blogs and against newspaper articles, magazines and so forth. Wonkbook was in part an effort to bring this into better balance, but it hasn’t changed my day as much as I’d hoped. continue reading… EzraKlein
99% - New Media, Old News
Blogs have become an important source for news junkies looking for breaking news and instant analysis, but blogs still look to old media for news stories. In fact, more than 99% of the news stories linked to in blogs come from traditional media sources such as newspapers and broadcast networks. The larger news organizations dominate these links. The BBC (23% of all blog links), CNN (21%), the New York Times (20%) and the Washington Post (16%) combined accounted for fully 80% of all news stories linked to on blogs. Web-only sites, on the other hand, made up less than 1% of the links in the blogosphere. - Pew
