Colin's Corner

Flash content now being indexed by search engines

According to VentureBeat Adobe, Google and Yahoo are about to make it easier to have rich multimedia websites in the Flash file format (SWF)

Previously, search engines only indexed the “static” text and links on a site, falling far short of capturing all the content.

“It’s like reading the index of a book, rather than the book itself,” says Justin Everett-Church, a senior product manager for Flash.

Google made the announcement on their official blog noting they had developed a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites.

The result is that Web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and can expect to see better search results and snippets. There's more info on the Webmaster Central blog about the Searchable SWF integration.

Further coverage on Infoworld, Computerworld, Editechial and Search Engine Land

The new, news room

Based on research from the Context-Based Research Group, commissioned by The Associated Press in 2007, AP has designed a new model for news delivery to meet the needs of young adults, who are driving the shift from traditional media to digital news,

This study showed that consumers of news were overwhelmed and fatigued and were looking for assistance to get to the news content that interested them but also for guidance to help navigate to deeper content.

In addition to easier to navigate online news, AP has optimized a mobile news service for the iPhone and other smartphones

The unifying theme of AP's approach is that each piece of journalism is designed to give news consumers something worth discussing with their friends, acquaintances and co-workers.

The UK Telegraph has acted on many of the concepts and redesigned their web site with the result that the Telegraph has become the third most-visited national newspaper Web site in Britain– 17 million unique users in March 2008, compared to 7.2 million in March 2007,

The Telegraph has built a multi-layered news presentation by cross-linking current news stories with other relevant content – background, analysis,video, etc. By extending the user’s time on its Web site, The Telegraph is able to display more targeted and contextual advertising and consequently generate more revenue.

Editorially, the Telegraph has a simple-to-manage news strategy: headline first (via any available communication method – SMS, e-mail, phone call), followed by a 150-word brief, and, within an hour, a 450-word, multimedia story. Following that, assigned editors decide whether to commission analyses, opinion pieces, additional multimedia, etc.

For those interested in the Newsroom of the future check out the Next News Room discussion on Ning

Google Wallet

The web is buzzing with rumors that Google plans to launch Google Wallet The story broken by the WSJ and Reuters

"....the Google Wallet may provide the Mountain View search giant with extra strategic marketing and business information related to how its present advertising customers would be spending their money. Google might in fact be able to start tracking and monitoring how those Web users who click on Google-managed ads go about spending their money and whether or not they spend it on the products and services offered by those very same advertisers."

In other Google news Dave Winer reports on a rumor that Google is readying an iTunes-clone, based on RSS 2.0, and fully podcast-capable.

Vietnam

For the last several days I have been the guest of IDG Vietnam run by Le Thanh Tam who has to be one of the most hardworking and enthusiastic IDG country managers. The company was founded in 1992 with the launch of PCWorld. This week, IDG Vietnam hosted the CIO INDOCHINA CONFERENCE & AWARDS  and the Banking Vietnam conference. IDG has also made a major Venture Capital Commitment in the region through IDG Ventures Vietnam and is considering further investments.

IDG Ventures Vietnam, a limited partner of the International Data Group (IDG), is mulling over investing in two more Vietnamese enterprises, raising the number of Vietnamese enterprises that it has invested in to four.  Details about the two enterprises will be revealed on June 1, when IDG Ventures Vietnam will open its office in Hanoi. With $100 million under management, IDG Ventures Vietnam has a plan to invest $80 million in between 30 and 40 young Vietnamese enterprises. Of the capital, 30% will be invested in telecoms and mobile phone companies, 25% in software firms and 20% in e-commerce. "IDG will invest $500 million in Vietnam over the next 20 years," said IDG chairman Patrick McGovern. IDG Vietnam opened its office in Ho Chi Minh City on March 25, 2005. The first two Vietnamese enterprises that IDG Ventures Vietnam has chosen to invest in are Peacesoft and iSphere software companies.

I’ve been meeting with colleagues from our Asia Pacific Region, including representatives from China, Japan, Korea, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Phillipines,Thailand and Singapore. One of the central themes of the meeting is the growth of online and events  and the importance of the Asia Pacific region to our business in the years ahead. The dedication, enthusiasm, work ethic and just wonderful personalities of this group is impressive. I’ve shared ideas but received much more in return. Meetings such as this remind me of the global power of IDG as a provider of information on Information Technology. With the pace of change going on around the world, the decentralized culture of IDG provides us with an experimental environment on a worldwide basis that is hard to beat. It is amazing to learn first hand of the developments on mobile devices and broadband from colleagues from Korea and Japan.

I’ve been checking out blogging in Vietnam which is in its infancy but the momentum is starting  - see also Vietnam Journalism 

The trip over also gave me a chance to catch-up with Dan Gillmor on his way to the 12th World Editors Forum in Seoul coverage of which can be found here.

The importance of brand, content and community at IDG is a theme running through all our discussions. The power, trust and credibility of our brands is key but so is engaging our communities It was articulated well by Pat McGovern

“We regard ourselves as providers of information services. The most valuable information for us comes from other people, from the users. We create a community where people talk together. We focus not only on the distribution of information, but also, and more importantly, on sharing it.”

Pat’s vision and world view is unique. His diplomacy and ability to work with officials at the highest level is legendary but you’ve got to experience it in action to fully appreciate its impact !

Also impressive is Lore Harp-McGovern’s work as a director of Human Rights Watch which I got to learn more about during the 17 hour trip to Hanoi. I recommend you check out the work of this excellent organization.

The opportunity and growth in the Indochina region of is quite stunning as is the beauty of this region. The dinner tonight was at the Ly Club - a Vietnamese restaurant and theatre right in the heart of Hanoi - where a truly wonder banquet was accompanied by traditional music and performance art.

Vietnam is a definite for a vacation visit.

Yahoo! to be a tech publisher ?

According to Sam Whitmore's Media Survey , CNET.com editor-in-chief Patrick Houston departs today to join Yahoo! to head up a new tech editorial channel. At CNET, Patrick was responsible for a recent major makeover of CNET's Personal Technology Reviews.

Sam notes "Leveraging contributions from PCWorld.com, MacCentral, CNET and other technology publishers, Yahoo!  has offered a weekly feature called "Tech Tuesday" as part of Yahoo News. But now Yahoo wants to publish its own tech editorial and has recruited Houston -- also a veteran of BusinessWeek, PC Week and ZDNet -- to build a team".
 
Yahoo's move underscores its desire to become a publisher in its own right. Last fall Yahoo1 hired former Wall Street Journal online executive Neil Budde to oversee its news operations. No longer should Yahoo! -- or Google, for that matter -- be seen merely as a search engine and aggregator. Both have the cash and prestige to cherry-pick publishing's best editors and sales execs -- and that process clearly has begun. Once Yahoo! begins siphoning traffic from today's editorial sites and offers even richer marketing and advertising programs, traditional publishers will be tested like never before.

There is absolutely no doubt that traditional technology publishers have to move  quickly to better leverage the power of their brands, their loyal audiences and their unique content. Recognizing the potential for disintermediation of content by users and a move from the traditional "push" media model to the "pull" model where the consumer is in charge is essential. Main Stream Media (MSM) has to embrace the new user democracy by providing proper communication tools. Sites need to provide their communities with forum/discussion groups,blogging, vlogging, mologging, Podcasting, RSS/XML, tagging tools etc if they want to keep them loyal and fully engaged or risk losing them.

EBay launches Kijiji Classifieds

EBay has launched Kijiji  an international network of nearly 50 classified-ad Web sites in China, Germany, Japan, Canada, France and Italy but noted it has no current plans to launch in the US. A decision no doubt influenced by their 25% stake in Craig’s List

For now, EBay is allowing users to post ads free of charge, while it tries to build up market share in each of the cities. In the US – Craig’s List allows readers to post for free with the exception of recruitment advertising.

Although Craig’s List has launched overseas all their sites are in English whereas all of the Kijiji sites are in each country's native language.