Real-time bidding allows marketers to buy known audiences. The winner serves the advertisement, often customising it—so you may see more ads for convertible cars on a sunny day. The whole process generally takes some 150 milliseconds, or less than half the blink of an eye.
Real-time bidding makes it easy to aim ads at susceptible eyeballs. Firms such as John Lewis (a British department store), Zappos (an online shoe-seller) and Lenovo (a computer-maker) know that you have visited their websites because they dropped digital markers onto your computer. They then outbid others to reach you again. This is called “retargeting”.
Read more at The Economist
Friday, May 13
5 Major Life Lessons Journalism Taught Me
1. Prepare for a first date like you prepare for a big interview.
Dress nicely, but not nicer than they usually do. Begin by asking a question you know they’d love to answer, whether it’s important to you or not. Don’t be first to fill an awkward silence. Do your research in advance, but never let it show. Put your cell phone on vibrate and don’t look at it until you’re in the bathroom. If they insist on splitting the bill, insist on paying the tip – and let them see you do so generously. Always end with, “If I have any more questions, can I call you?”
Read the rest here.
Dress nicely, but not nicer than they usually do. Begin by asking a question you know they’d love to answer, whether it’s important to you or not. Don’t be first to fill an awkward silence. Do your research in advance, but never let it show. Put your cell phone on vibrate and don’t look at it until you’re in the bathroom. If they insist on splitting the bill, insist on paying the tip – and let them see you do so generously. Always end with, “If I have any more questions, can I call you?”
Read the rest here.
Wednesday, May 11
What the Microsoft-Skype Deal Means
In a record acquisition for the company, Microsoft announced it’s buying Skype for $8.5 billion. Explains the release: Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices. There’s every reason to believe that Skype’s relationship with Facebook will expand.
For news organizations that increasingly use Skype for live interviews, the acquisition could be good news. Skype is still reeling a bit from its December outage, and Microsoft could beef up Skype’s dependability. For TV, that’s critical.
Read more here
For news organizations that increasingly use Skype for live interviews, the acquisition could be good news. Skype is still reeling a bit from its December outage, and Microsoft could beef up Skype’s dependability. For TV, that’s critical.
Read more here
Tuesday, May 10
Facebook now ‘critical’ to online news traffic, says Pew study
In the most recent sign that Facebook is encroaching on Google's heels, the 2011 study from Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that the social network is becoming an important traffic mover in the world of online news.
Google may still hold the top spot as the primary traffic driver to news websites, but according to a new study from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, social networking giant Facebook is emerging as a “critical player” in the Internet mechanisms that push readers to news stories.
“Google and Facebook are increasingly set up as competitors (for) sorting through the material on the Web,” said Pew in the report. “If searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next.”
While this may sound impressive, Facebook currently remains well behind the top three traffic drivers, which include Google, the Drudge Report and Yahoo. Despite positive numbers from Facebook’s corner, the study shows that Twitter is a terrible traffic driver: “Twitter appears at this point to play a relatively small role in sharing of links to news sources,
Read more here
Google may still hold the top spot as the primary traffic driver to news websites, but according to a new study from Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, social networking giant Facebook is emerging as a “critical player” in the Internet mechanisms that push readers to news stories.
“Google and Facebook are increasingly set up as competitors (for) sorting through the material on the Web,” said Pew in the report. “If searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next.”
While this may sound impressive, Facebook currently remains well behind the top three traffic drivers, which include Google, the Drudge Report and Yahoo. Despite positive numbers from Facebook’s corner, the study shows that Twitter is a terrible traffic driver: “Twitter appears at this point to play a relatively small role in sharing of links to news sources,
Read more here
For Journalists, a Call to Rethink Their Online Models
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY has surveyed the state of digital journalism, and it has concluded that journalists must rethink their relationships — and their audiences’ relationships — with advertisers. That does not mean yielding editorial control to sponsors, but it might mean coming up with alternatives to impression-based pricing, creating higher-value content for the Web by tapping into page view data, and helping to ensure that Web ads have value on their own.
Read more at the New York Times
Read more at the New York Times
Sunday, May 8
Random acts of Journalism
There are countless people out there who use social media as part of their daily lives, and every so often some of them find themselves in the right place at the right time - or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on the situation. Given that they're already using social media to document their lives and the world around them, it's natural for them to capture a news event they're witnessing firsthand.
People find themselves caught in the middle of a newsworthy situation, and they try to capture it. While they're conducting random acts of journalism, we should try to guide them, as best we can, to be the best journalists they can be. Even if it's fleeting.
Read more here
People find themselves caught in the middle of a newsworthy situation, and they try to capture it. While they're conducting random acts of journalism, we should try to guide them, as best we can, to be the best journalists they can be. Even if it's fleeting.
Read more here
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