August 29, 2003
The South hasn't plugged into the Net
MSNBC.com: When it comes to U.S. Internet use, the East Coast and West Coast dominate, while fewer than half of all Southerners go online, says a new study of online habits.
Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.
UncleBob said:
It might be worthwhile to filter those study results according to the number of people below the official poverty level in each of those regions. My guess is that there are a lot more poor people in the South than in either of the coastal regions. If true, that means it's not a cut-and-dried choice that southernors don't venture online as frequently as the others, but that they are less able to afford the cost.
Just a thought.
Bill O'Reilly wants you to shut up
My friend Jack Shafer has a new piece up in Slate: Bill O'Reilly wants you to shut up. In which Shafter tallies up many of Bill O'Reilly's quotes telling people to shut up.
Tom McMahon said:
But that's one of his most endearing qualities!
Google News gaining ratings respect
Mark Glaser in OJR: Google News draws more than 3 million unique visitors a month, but Nielsen and Media Metrix have excluded them from news site rankings. Now both say they are looking into ranking them with the other top news outlets.
Google News is not ranked in Nielsen//NetRatings' Current Events category along with other top media sites, such as CNN.com and MSNBC.com, and it isn't in comScore Media Metrix's General News category for July 2003. A recent Reuters report on aggregators noted Google News' omission but posited that it was because Google News doesn't have an original reporting staff -- something missing at Yahoo News and AOL News, too, though they are in both rankings. ...
I'm all for adding Google News to the net ratings services, but let's point out that Yahoo News and AOL News both have editors and editorial staffs, while Google News does not.
the head lemur said:
Tracking Google would be a slap in the face for the guys who buy these reports that you can get elsewhere(i.e. Netcraft,etc.) and a big hit in the pocketbook of Nielson/Media Metrix as they are not buying ratings to compare with other news outlets.
The fact that they are considering it is a positive for the web overall. It also points to news sites having to confront the connected nature of the web, hopefully as you point out, the staffs of writers and editors actually producing content rather than paraphrasing feeds from AP or Reuters.
The fact of Google's not having editors makes it a goldmine of direction in consideration of news, bias and paraphrasers in delivery of content.
Note that all one's personal biases apply.
Mark Glaser said:
JD, to clarify: The Reuters report said that Google News wasn't included in the ratings because they "don't have reporters producing stories." I would say the same about Yahoo and AOL. They have editors and producers but no reporters that I know of. But both have been in the ratings forever.
And the real reason Google News wasn't in the ratings was that both services didn't classify them as being a news site. It's a very arbitrary system, with input from clients and the media (for some reason).
The funny thing is I had no idea that Google News' traffic was such a deep secret. Both ratings companies gave me their traffic numbers with no qualms.
Mark
Freedom's dark side
Bruce Sterling in Wired mag: The iron fist, the invisible hand, and the battle for the soul of open source. On cybercapitalism and free information.
