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publisher posts

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Social Software

Google Reader now reports feed subscriber numbers, offers Publisher Tips page

Google Reader now reports feed subscriber numbers, offers Publisher Tips page

For a long time now, Google Reader has sat in the camp with other online RSS clients who unfortunately don't (or more correctly: couldn't) report the number of readers subscribed to a feed. This of course can frustrate publishers, as they only see one collective hit from Google Reader instead of an actual number of their readers using that client.

As of this morning, however, the Official Google Reader Blog has changed all of that. In fact, the gReader team has not only enabled their crawler to report an actual number of feed subscribers, that number also includes users who are simply subscribed to a feed via Google Homepage.

Not content to stop at mere numbers, the Google Reader team have also created a Tips for Publishers page that offers ideas for best practices, feed implementation, feed "auto-discovery" and even a few catches to look out for.

It might not have been the much-requested search update that gReader users are salivating for, but these new features should certainly put a smile on most publishers' faces.

Filed under: Audio, Internet, News

Digital downloads change the pay-grade

MusicThe UK is also experiencing the growing pains of digital music downloads, resulting in writers and publishers of digital content being unhappy with the amount of compensation they receive from now different ways of marketing their creations. Digital downloads have changed a lot of how the music business works. No longer are CDs needed to get your music, there is a choice between buying a CD or downloading and rolling your own CD. This has taken some of the costs out of producing the media, since there is no media to purchase, it is only a file to download. Writers and publishers want a bigger piece of the action. A deal was reached between the writers and record companies "at the eleventh hour" as Media Guardian puts it. Writers of hit records will now get 8% of digital downloads, and 6.5% of streamed content revenues. It is good that everyone worked something out, now let the music play!

Filed under: Design, Office, Productivity, Microsoft

Microsoft 2007 Office system's new eye-candy

Office 2007 new iconsIf you downloaded the Microsoft 2007 Office system Beta 2 Technical Refresh (pardon me while I eat a bunch of jello, saying that just hurt my mouth) you may have noticed that all the Office splash screens and icons are now more slick looking and different. They area partially-rounded box shape, as seen in the pic here, and I think it adds a little something to the look and feel of Office. Of course this isn't by any means a big new feature, but I am always interested in little UI tweaks that draw the user a bit more toward a product based on the look, which the new icons in Office does.

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Video, Web services

Everyone is getting into digital video distribution, including NBC

nbbc digital video distributionNBC Universal, and NBC affiliates have teamed up to fund >nbbc, a company that will distribute and profit from video footage online. Noticing a rapid growth in the digital video segment, NBC thinks it has the perfect opportunity to get its toes wet. NBC will be tapping all affiliate channels, and other media sources for materials for the new online venture. Through the use of a user friendly video player created by >nbbc, website publishers can easily drop content into their websites, enabling them to profit from new sources of revenue, and a growth in website visitors from the new offerings.

>nbbc will be profiting by digital video syndication, revenue sharing, and different fee-based models. Through the revenue model, advertising dollars will be split between >nbbc, the content licensor, and the web publisher. This is a unique approach by a large broadcaster, leveraging the content they are already producing to provide for more streams of revenue, and aiding in the growth of revenue for other web publishers by harnessing the power of Internet content.

Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Google

Google Ad Supported Videos Test

google streaming video adsGoogle has started dropping some tests of their streaming video ads and video content from the recent deal with Viacom's MTV Networks.

The deal sees MTV Networks providing content for the ads that will run in place of Google's AdWords on websites. Through the ads, Viacom can showcase clips of such premium programs as SpongeBob SquarePants, Laguna Beach, The Real OC, and the MTV Video Awards.

There were a handful of publishers that were chosen to be included into the beta test of the program, and one of them has provided a link to where their test is occurring. The document that was provided to publishers explained that Google's Streaming Video Content and Ads enable website publishers to display streaming video ads and video content from MTV Networks on their sites. Publishers were instructed that they will get the specific JavaScript that will embed a Flash player into their website. The ad will still be served off of Google's servers and viewers of the ad must have the Macromedia Flash plug-in installed in order to view the streaming content.

Revenue for these ads is generated on a CPM basis depending on the number of views on each ad in the content. So if someone watches the whole video and sees five ads, the publisher will be paid for those five views. If no ad is seen by the user, there will be no payment for the ad. Revenue from the ad will be split between the content provider, Google and the publisher.

[via Google System]

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Macintosh

iTunes Publisher

iTunes Publisher

Sometimes we want to let the whole world know what we're up to. I mean everything. We have blogs, webcams, chat rooms, and tons of other things to let us communicate with people. A lot of people take pride in what music they listen to and like to share it with others. Whether for just the public eye or to see if anyone else likes the same kind of music, you still need a way of getting it on the web easily. iTunes Publisher does just that. Currently at 4.3.3, it's a great little program that let's you export your iTunes library in a number of ways. You can customize it by font and look, what columns you want shown (Artist, Album, Song, etc.), and how you want your data exported. The best way is probably via a webpage. It's listed nice and neat with tables so that everyone can just scroll away. Plus it's one file and you can easily upload it and update it anywhere. I highly reccomend checking it out if sharing your musical tastes with the world is your sorta thing.

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