Bloggers Worry Google Might Reverse Its Position On Net Neutrality

Bloggers Worry Google Might Reverse Its Position On Net Neutrality


Drew Clark over at GigaOM asks a great question: Does Google plan to change its position on net neutrality? It seems that while Google has been the foremost business booster for net neutrality in public, the online company has been cutting deals with the carriers to be their preferred provider.

Google Senior Policy Counsel Andrew McLaughlin made some interesting remarks at the Tech Policy Summit in San Jose on Feb. 27:
Cutting the FCC out the picture would probably be a smart move. It is much better to think of this as an FTC or unfair competition type of problem.

Compare this with comments from Google's Vint Cerf during Senate testimony just one year earlier:
For the foreseeable future most Americans will face little choice among broadband carriers. Enshrining a rule that permits carriers to discriminate in favor of certain kinds or sources of services would place those carriers in control of online activity. Allowing broadband carriers to reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy need.

McLaughlin's comments are apparently causing bloggers to worry. These comments also are making people inside Google, as well as some of Google's partners in the fight for net neutrality, a little uncomfortable.

Is this an example of an attorney just trying to keep options open or does it hint at a shift in Google's strategy? What do you think? Is Google about to sell out on net neutrality or is it just trying to find some wiggle room?

If Viacom Wins Its Case Against Google

If Viacom Wins Its Case Against Google

Viacom's lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement probably will probably be withdrawn when Google blinks and offers Viacom a major portion of the ad dollars it brings in hosting Viacom content.

But on the off chance that the case makes it to trial and Viacom wins, Google should argue that any damages get reduced by the value of the traffic Google has sent Viacom's way, not to mention the brand awareness Google has helped foster for Viacom by presenting Viacom programming that users have uploaded to YouTube.

My guess is that if the calculations are made, Viacom will come out owing Google money for all the marketing exposure it has provided.

Viacom Sues Google For Massive Copyright Infringement On YouTube

Viacom Sues Google For Massive Copyright Infringement On YouTube

The media company's complaint asserts that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom content have been made available on YouTube.

When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock last October, the property was widely seen as a fixer-upper. Based on a lawsuit filed by Viacom on Tuesday, the house that Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim built has a nice view but its foundation looks shaky.
Google's September 2006 10-Q financial filing put it thus: "[O]ur planned acquisition of YouTube may also subject us to additional copyright claims upon the closing of the transaction."
Rumors at the time, denied by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, suggested Google had set aside some $500 million to pay copyright claims. A company spokesperson reiterated Schmidt's dismissal of those rumors.

On Tuesday, Viacom, the parent company of MTV, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures, announced that it had filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube in New York for "massive copyright infringement of Viacom's entertainment properties."

The complaint asserts that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom content have been made available on YouTube and that these clips have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.
Echoing charges made by Microsoft executive Thomas Rubin last week at the Association of American Publishers annual meeting in New York, Viacom said in a statement: "YouTube is a significant, for-profit organization that has built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others' creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google. Their [sic] business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws."

Google, having heard and addressed such claims before on YouTube, and on other properties like Google News and Google Book Search, issued a statement insisting its behavior is lawful. "We are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree," the company said.

Gregory Rutchik, founding attorney at the San Francisco-based Arts & Technology Law Group, more or less agrees. "I think Viacom has an uphill battle to argue that YouTube, as a broadcast model, is really a media company and not a service," he said, referring to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" protection, which shields online service providers from liability for the actions of customers.

Google's statement, in fact, attempts to make clear the value of its service: "YouTube is great for users and offers real opportunities to rights holders: the opportunity to interact with users; to promote their content to a young and growing audience; and to tap into the online advertising market. We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community."

Viacom could have attacked that community by suing the individuals responsible for uploading those 160,000 unauthorized clips, following in the footsteps of the Recording Industry Association of America's ongoing crusade against song sharing. The fact that it didn't do that suggests Google's message -- there's money to be made with us -- isn't lost on Viacom.

"I think this is a negotiating tactic," said Rutchik. "It's an opportunity for Viacom to turn the heat up. It's very standard operating procedure in business litigation."

Verizon Business Launches Nationwide Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service

Verizon Business Launches Nationwide Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service

The service is designed to give U.S. businesses and government agencies the ability to link their Ethernet LANs that are scattered among various locations.

Verizon Business on Monday launched an Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service (E-VPLS) that's designed to give U.S. businesses and government agencies the ability to link their Ethernet LANs that are scattered throughout various locations.

The technology, which utilizes Verizon's converged packet architecture, allows users to adjust network bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps. The boost in data speeds transmits voice and data applications efficiently and cost effectively, Verizon said.

"This new service combines the simplicity of Ethernet, the reliability of synchronous optical network, and the flexibility of multiprotocol label switching to help organizations cost-effectively upgrade their existing corporate networks for converged voice, data, and video applications," said Tom Roche, Verizon's VP of business data products, in a statement.

As a layer 2 networking technology, the Verizon E-VPLS offering lets customers control their own routing and not be dependant on a service provider. E-VPLS is useful for frame relay or ATM users who want to upgrade their WANs. The new offering is protocol independent and supports both IP and non-IP applications, according to Verizon.

E-VPLS establishes priorities for four classes of service as follows: Real Time, Priority, Business, and Basic Data. For instance, users can stipulate that business-critical apps receive the highest priority on a network. An advantage of the Real Time class of service is that it's capable of carrying latency-sensitive traffic like VoIP and digital video.

Nokia To Challenge Google and Yahoo With Mobile Ad Services

Nokia To Challenge Google and Yahoo With Mobile Ad Services

Nokia plans to launch two new mobile advertising services. What? Nokia is going to offer advertising? Does that mean Nokia is now a rival to Google? Yes, Virginia, it seems everybody is now in competition with Google.

Nokia's two new mobile ad platforms, Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector, will move the company into the mobile advertising market, making it a competitor with Google and Yahoo.

Nokia Ad Service is a fully managed platform for advertisers looking to expand their reach to the third screen. NAS will give advertisers access to tools for planning, deployment, optimization, and reporting for campaigns. NAS also will support interactive content like banner ads in mobile browsers and multimedia ads in applications like videos.

Nokia Advertising Connector is designed to help advertisers port different ads to different mobile devices and content formats. NAC will switch ads between text, image, audio, and video formats depending on the mobile phones a users are on.

Nokia said that both services will give users lots of data and reporting -- must-haves for today's online marketers. Nokia plans to launch both services in the second half of 2007.

Bill O'Reilly's Web Site Taken Down By DoS Attack

Bill O'Reilly's Web Site Taken Down By DoS Attack

Over the course of two days, the controversial conservative pundit's site was repeatedly "bombarded" by the efforts of a botnet.

The official Web site for Bill O'Reilly was taken down by a repeated denial-of-service attack this week.

The site for the controversial conservative pundit was hit over the course of two days, according to an advisory posted on the Web site. "BillOReilly.com was attacked repeatedly by a malicious technology called a 'botnet,' " reads the statement. "This means that the site was bombarded by data that overloaded our firewalls. We had to take the site down in order to protect it, and so we could make sure that every possible countermeasure was being taken."

Paul Ferguson, a network architect with security company TrendMicro, says this is a wake-up call for Web sites with a political bent, much like O'Reilly's. As the upcoming presidential election heats up, more and more candidates, pundits and everyday bloggers are taking to the Net to weigh in. That, says Ferguson, will draw a new wave of attacks.

"Somebody just decided to point their botnet at his Web site and get their jollies by taking his Web site off the Net for a period of time," he says. "People should open their eyes and realize their public Internet presence can be subjected to abuse, especially with the presidential campaigns coming up. If you're going to run a Web site, particularly a controversial political one, you've got to focus on security."

Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS Institute and chief technology officer for the Internet Storm Center, says attacking politically oriented Web sites is nothing new but he, too, thinks this denial-of-service attack may be a bellwether event.

"The thing is they're very random and hard to predict," says Ullrich. "It's not necessarily cheap to protect yourself because you do it by buying more bandwidth. And sometimes with a bigger attack, it's too expensive to protect yourself and you just have to roll over and take it."
Ferguson says the timing of this attack was perfect in terms of sending a message to other pundits and candidates.

"The timing was immaculate with the political season heating up," he adds. "Left-wing bloggers, right-wing bloggers, candidates, and spin doctors are getting a lot of attention. If they're taken down and their messages don't get out, then that's a big factor for them."

MySpace Age-Check Bill Debated In Connecticut

MySpace Age-Check Bill Debated In Connecticut

Intended to protect children from sexual predators, the bill proposed by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal would be the first of its kind in the United States to imposestrict regulations on social-networking sites.

HARTFORD - Connecticut lawmakers debated a bill Thursday that would require social-networking Web sites such as MySpace to verify users' ages and force minors to obtain parental consent before posting profiles.

Intended to protect children from sexual predators, the bill proposed by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal would be the first of its kind in the United States to impose strict regulations on the fast-growing sites, which are a virtual hangout for millions of American teenagers.

"There is no such thing as a fool-proof, magic bullet system," Blumenthal said, "but this one provides a much greater degree of security for children and it empowers parents to protect their children."

His office said 10 to 20 other U.S. states were considering similar legislation.

In Connecticut, at least six alleged sexual assaults involving older men and underage girls have been tied to MySpace in the last year, while there have been dozens of similar arrests nationwide, Blumenthal said.

He said an applicant would submit a driver's license or other form of official identification, and the Internet site should use public information on record to check the age, address and date of birth.

Sites that fail to verify ages and fail to obtain parental permission to post profiles of users under 18 would face civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, he said.

The legislation also allows individuals to bring private lawsuits against sites such as MySpace, the Internet's biggest social network, which is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

"This system would be effective in reducing criminal assaults on kids, inappropriate content, and parents failing to know what their kids are doing," Blumenthal, a Democrat, said in testimony to the state legislature's General Law Committee.

The committee in the Democratic-controlled legislature approved the measure to another board for further review. No representative from MySpace or other Internet sites testified.
Committee Chairman Chris Stone, a Democrat, said he supported the measure.

"This is not about putting companies out of business, this is about helping parents," he said. But a Republican on the committee, Len Greene, said some issues were raised with the use of a driver's license as identification.

"It's in the rough stages. There needs to be some more work done on the language, it's very broad right now," he said.

eBay Arms Its Site For Security

eBay Arms Its Site For Security

''Security on the Net is actually an arms race in its most classic form,'' says CEO Meg Whitman.

As threats against e-commerce mount, online auction site eBay is building up its arsenal of security technologies and tactics, president and CEO Meg Whitman said Thursday at Visa USA's security summit in Washington, D.C., adding, "Security on the Net is actually an arms race in its most classic form."

Phishing has been a huge challenge for eBay and its PayPal subsidiary, and it's crucial that they identify as quickly as possible fraudulent sites duping customers into providing their payment information. eBay and PayPal find out about many of these fraudulent sites from users, who can report suspicious sites to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com. Once eBay and PayPal confirm a fraudulent site, they'll report that site to companies such as Mark Monitor that aggregate blacklisted sites and contact the site's ISP to have the site shut down.

While Whitman allowed that eBay isn't to blame for phishing scams, they've certainly become a big problem when as they've managed to erode trust in online transactions. The solution to phishing is, of course, to prevent customers from ever seeing an e-mail containing a phishing site. To help prevent Web users as a whole from being duped by phishing scams, eBay has worked with Microsoft to include anti-phishing features in the new Internet Explorer 7.
To ensure that legitimate eBay e-mails can accurately be identified, the company includes a digital signature on every one of the e-mails it sends. The company is encouraging ISPs to route only e-mails that contain this signature.

A further security measure eBay is pushing is a PayPal security key that creates a random transaction code used to authenticate a transaction, much like the key fabs offered by some banks. "It's a combination lock for your PayPal account," Whitman said. The PayPal security key has been in beta for about a month, and this beta version is available to any eBay user who requests one. The company has not determined when the keys will be generally available to all users and who will absorb the cost of buying and distributing the keys.

One of the first, and still the most efficient, outlets eBay offers to keep fraud in check is its online feedback system where buyers and sellers provide a system of checks and balances. "It works brilliantly because it's transparent," Whitman said, adding that eBay has stored every single feedback comment since the company launched in 1995; approximately 5 billion comments.
When Whitman took the helm of eBay in 1998, most payments were made using checks, money orders, and even cash sent via the mail. (That year, 8% of all merchandise sold on eBay were Beanie Babies). eBay's acquisition of PayPal in 2002 incorporated key payment system into eBay's strategy. eBay's goal is to expand PayPal so that its services are used by a greater number of large businesses--iTunes, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard already offer it as a payment option.

For eBay, which made its bones as an online community where people worldwide could buy and sell just about any product, trust is essential. "eBay is a level playing field where everyone has the same chance of success," Whitman said Thursday. In fact, "90% of those who conduct business using PayPal have less than $25,000 per year in sales."

eBay, which has 222 million users worldwide, has become a force in online sales. Whitman noted that a car is sold every minute via her company's site, which makes eBay the largest channel for used car sales in the world. But eBay's success is not a given. "These transactions require a lot of trust," she said.

Nothing diminishes trust faster stolen customer data, particularly when the thieves make off with payment account information that can be used to commit fraud. Whitman noted, however, that the merchants and other victims who are the targets of the attack are often the last to know about it. Bank card networks receive information about fraudulent transactions days and sometimes weeks before merchants do, and that's a major problem, Whitman says. eBay wants to know about fraudulent payment accounts before its users get stung by shipping goods but not receiving payment.

Microsoft To Blast Google For Its Copyright Policy

Microsoft To Blast Google For Its Copyright Policy

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. is set to launch a blistering attack on rival Google Inc. Tuesday for what the software giant argues is the Web search leader's "cavalier" approach to copyright protection.

In prepared remarks to be delivered to the Association of American Publishers, Microsoft Associate General Counsel Thomas Rubin argues that Google's move into new media markets has come at the expense of publishers of books, videos and software.

The Microsoft attorney's comments echo arguments at the heart of a 16-month-old copyright lawsuit against Google brought by five major book publishers and organized by the Association of American Publishers, an industry trade group.

"Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people's content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue and IPOs," says Rubin, who oversees copyright and trade secret law at Microsoft.

"Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google and tells it to stop," said Rubin, noting that Microsoft takes the position of seeking the copyright owner's consent before they copy.

Competition is heating up this year between Google, the world's dominant provider of Web search services, and software giant Microsoft, which recently entered the Web search market.
At the same time, Google has recently expanded into the business software market with a set of Web-based subscription services it sees as a major revenue generator which could chip away at Microsoft's 15-year dominance of computer software.

Rubin invokes criticism that Google has faced since its acquisition late last year of YouTube, which has come under fire from several major media companies for allowing widespread copyright infringement of professionally produced video.

"In essence, Google is saying to you and to other copyright owners: 'Trust us - you're protected. We'll keep the digital copies secure, we'll only show snippets, we won't harm you, we'll promote you,"' Rubin argues in his speech.
"But Google's track record of protecting copyrights in other parts of its business is weak at best," he said.

David Drummond, Google's senior vice president for corporate development and its chief legal officer, said in response that Google works with more than 10,000 publishing partners to make books searchable online and has recently added the BBC and NBA basketball league as YouTube video partners.

"We do this by complying with international copyright laws, and the result has been more exposure and in many cases more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content."
Rubin cites anecdotal media reports that a handful of Google sales people were caught encouraging advertisers to capitalize on the demand for pirated software on the Web.

Rubin sides with publishers in criticizing Google's ambitious plan to scan millions of published works in the world's great libraries and make them available to consumers via its Google Book Search system. He said by scanning copies of published works without first seeking copyright holders' permission, Google opens the door to massive infringement.

The attorney also says Google's defense of 'fair use' is overly broad. "Concocting a novel "fair use" theory, Google bestowed upon itself the unilateral right to make entire copies of copyrighted books," Rubin argues.

Drummond replied: "The goal of search engines, and of products like Google Book Search and YouTube, is to help users find information from content producers of every size."

The publishers' lawsuit against Google, filed in October 2005 in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York, remains in the discovery process with no trial date set.

Microsoft's move bears parallels to an attack five years ago by the Redmond, Washington-based company on so-called "open source" software, which has emerged over the past decade as the biggest alternative to Microsoft's Windows software franchise.

WordPress Combats Hack Attack With Blog Software Update

WordPress Combats Hack Attack With Blog Software Update

The fix comes after a hacker gained access to one of the WordPress servers and installed a Trojan horse in the code for a security update to the blog publishing software.

WordPress has released a new version of its blog publishing software to combat a hacker attack that resulted in users downloading a Trojan horse onto their systems with a security upgrade that was released a few days ago.

Whomever broke into the WordPress network gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, according to a blog by WordPress Founder Matt Mullenweg. The intruder then used that access to modify the download file, according to an advisory on the WordPress Web site. The hacker added malicious code to the source code for the 2.1.1 update, adding a Trojan that would allow for remote PHP execution. PHP is embedded scripting language that creates dynamic content on Web pages.

WordPress did not disclose how many users downloaded the infected version.

"This is the kind of thing you pray never happens, but it did and now we're dealing with it as best we can," says Mullenweg in his blog. "Although not all downloads of 2.1.1 were affected, we're declaring the entire version dangerous and have released a new version 2.1.2 that includes minor updates and entirely verified files. We are also taking lots of measures to ensure something like this can't happen again, not the least of which is minutely external verification of the download package so we'll know immediately if something goes wrong for any reason."

The new software release can be found at the WordPress download site. The company has also set up this e-mail address to field related questions: 21securityfaq@wordpress.org.
The U.S.-CERT is advising people to upgrade immediately.

Masaki Suenaga, a security response engineer at Symantec, wrote in a blog that while a Web server may be running the hacked version of the software, a user who visits a Web page on a server containing the hacked WordPress software is not at risk, so long as the server has not been compromised by other malicious threats downloaded by the back door.

Amazon Launches Video Download Service On TiVo

Amazon Launches Video Download Service On TiVo

To entice potential customers, Amazon is offering $15 worth of free movie or TV show downloads to TiVo subscribers who register for the new service by April 30.

Amazon.com on Wednesday made its video download service available on all broadband-ready TiVo boxes, opening a channel for taking movies and TV shows from the Web to the big screen in people's living rooms.

The move places Amazon's Unbox in front of more than 1.5 million subscribers of TiVo's Series2 or Series3 digital video recorders. Before the launch, content could only be viewed through a PC. Amazon had been testing the download service since February with a small group of TiVo subscribers.

To entice potential customers, Amazon is offering $15 worth of free movie or TV show downloads to TiVo subscribers who register for the new service by April 30. TV shows cost $1.99 an episode, and movies sell for $9.99 to $14.99. Movie rentals are available starting at $1.99, with most costing $2.99 or $3.99.

To activate the service, TiVo subscribers have to register on Amazon.com's Web site to establish a link between their TiVo account and Unbox. In launching the service, Amazon.com and TiVo announced that Sony Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios have agreed to offer movies to subscribers. Other content providers include CBS, Fox Entertainment Group, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Making the connection between the Web and the home TV is seen as a potential advertising bonanza. Other companies heading in that direction include Apple and Microsoft. The former is expected to ship in mid-March the Apple TV, a device that would bridge the company's iTunes music and movie download service with the TV. Microsoft, meanwhile, hopes to become a leading distributor of digital content through its broadband-ready Xbox 360 videogame console.

C-SPAN Shares More Of Its Video Online

C-SPAN Shares More Of Its Video Online

The television station of the U.S. government adopts a liberal copyright policy based on a popular licensing format.

Acknowledging the growing importance of online video sharing, C-SPAN on Wednesday announced two initiatives to expand public access to its online video of federal government activities, such as congressional hearings, agency briefings, and White House events.
The first is a more liberal copyright policy. The second is a plan to offer better online access to C-SPAN video content through its capitolhearings.org Web site.

"C-SPAN did a really, really good thing today," observed author, professor, and entrepreneur Carl Malamud in an e-mail sent to David Farber's Interesting People mailing list. "Our public civic life will be much richer because of [its] actions."

"Giving voice to the average citizen has been a centerpiece of C-SPAN's journalism since our network's founding in 1979," said Rob Kennedy, C-SPAN president and co-chief operating officer, in a statement. "As technology advances, we want to continue to be a leader in providing citizens with the tools to be active participants in the democratic process."

C-SPAN's new copyright policy was inspired by the Creative Commons license. It allows noncommercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, as long as C-SPAN is identified as the source. The new policy covers current, future, and past video of "any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency." C-SPAN's studio productions and coverage of non-federal events, political campaigns, and other feature programming remain under traditional copyright protection.

C-SPAN intends to improve its capitolhearings.org portal with congressionally-produced Web casts and other content in the coming months.

NewsTrust Aims To Go Deeper Than Digg

NewsTrust Aims To Go Deeper Than Digg

The site is looking to judge news articles online by quality, rather than simple popularity, with a more finely grained evaluation of news stories than one gets from the gladiatorial thumbs-up, thumbs-down votes by which stories live and die on Digg.


A little over a month ago, NewsTrust began a public beta test, hoping to help Internet users find good journalism online. This might seem like reinventing the wheel, given the excess of news aggregation sites like Digg, Findory, Newsvine, and Reddit, not to mention Google News, Yahoo News, bookmark sharing sites like Del.icio.us, and millions of blogs that point to news stories.
But NewsTrust isn't necessarily looking for the most popular stories online; it aims to present the best journalism. "Because journalism is so important for democracy, for citizens to make informed decisions," explains Fabrice Florin, executive director of NewsTrust, "we want to offer a way to identify quality journalism based on standards other than popularity. That's not to say that popularity doesn't have a role, but as a primary measurement, it weakens the effectiveness of the material that get promoted."

For Florin, a former journalist who spent twenty-five years at technology companies like Apple and Macromedia, this is an issue of critical civic import. "I really think that the mission of this initiative has to remain nonprofit, even though it makes the job a lot harder for us," he explains. "That's partly because we really want to put the public interest first, rather than the shareholders interest, and we couldn't do that in a for-profit."

Whether or not you share Florin's view about the necessity of a vibrant Fourth Estate as a safeguard for democracy, it's clear that NewsTrust and Digg, for example, promote different types of stories.

The top story on NewsTrust at the time this article was written was "Majority of Americans View Media Coverage of Iraq as Inaccurate." The top story on Digg in the last 24 hours at the time this article was written was "Ten Things I Wish I Knew Before I Switched to OS X."
NewsTrust, in essence, aims to counter the fascination of the inclusive crowd -- picture Britney Spears on a Linux-based iPod sold by Microsoft -- with the wisdom of the vetted crowd.
NewsTrust's news-rating system is based on 10 inputs supplied by users: recommendations, balance, context, evidence, fairness, importance, information, sources, style, and trust. The result is a much more finely grained evaluation of news stories than one gets from the gladiatorial thumbs-up, thumbs-down votes by which stories live and die on Digg.

"The average consumer, due to the Internet, is deluged every day by a tsunami of information that makes it difficult for a single individual to filter and sort," says Florin. "By joining forces with other individuals and adopting a set of principles to filter the news together, we think we can be more effective as a community than we can individually."

The blogosphere was supposed to save the world from the lazy, partisan mainstream media, but as Florin sees it, blogging is more focused on conversation than qualitative analysis.
What's more, says Florin, many bloggers make insufficient effort to be objective. "The issue you have is many bloggers are absolutely fantastic journalists," he explains, "and many are professional journalists, but you've got some folks who are just getting started and don't necessarily have the discipline to review journalism they comment on with rigor. Often they let their own opinions interfere with the evaluation of the story."

NewsTrust hopes to avoid politicized story evaluation by encouraging transparency among its news reviewers. On ideologically divisive stories that might encourage interest groups to game the rating system, Florin says, NewsTrust plans to convene an ad hoc panel that adequately represents views across the political spectrum to arrive at a fair rating.

Whether Florin's crusade to wean the Internet community from junk news will prove more successful than ongoing efforts to improve the American diet remains to be seen. It's arguable that Digg and its ilk represent democracy in action rather than its downfall. Nonetheless, Florin appears to be committed to his cause.

"We would like to offer the equivalent of a Weight Watchers for information, to help each of us balance our news diet over time," Florin explains in a quote posted on the NewsTrust site. "For example, future versions of NewsTrust could check if you've been viewing too many partisan opinions or entertainment news. We might encourage you to balance your diet with more factual information, more international coverage, or read more viewpoints that you don't agree with. Tools like these can help each of us broaden our perspective, become more discriminating thinkers, and make more informed decisions."

If that sounds a bit like an admonition to eat your vegetables, well, open wide.

Blog Traffic Triples at Newspapers' Web Sites

Blog Traffic Triples at Newspapers' Web Sites

Opportunities abound for staff writers that have expertise in certain areas, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Blog traffic at the top 10 online newspapers more than tripled in December compared to the same period a year earlier, according to Internet market research firm Nielsen//NetRatings.
Online newspapers saw interest in blog pages grow by 9% during this period, rising from 1.2 million viewers in December 2005 to 3.8 million in December 2006. Unique viewers overall for online newspaper sites increased from 27 million to 30 million.

"The blogging arena is a good opportunity for online newspapers to really leverage assets they already have," said Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics at Nielsen//NetRatings. "And by that I mean their staff writers, their expertise in certain arenas. If you think of it from a marketing perspective, it also allows direct communication with their consumers and their staff, which always a good thing, to engage folks that way."

The online audience at these newspapers is disproportionately male -- 60% are men and 40% women. Among readers of blog pages, the statistics are even more out of balance, with 66% men and 34% women. Creekmore attributes this to a male proclivity for being early adopters of technology and content preferences.

"In general, the news category in the top newspapers will skew slightly male to begin with," said Creekmore. "And in the blogging arena, we're seeing that a little more emphasized. But I think that depends largely on the type of content. If there's more lifestyle or entertainment focused blogging within this blog section of a newspaper, you may get that female presence more than you might in a sports section, for example."

Nielsen//NetRatings also reported the top 10 Web site brands during December 2006 in terms of unique visitors and time spent per visitor. Microsoft led the list with 121 million unique visitors who spent an average of two hours and three minutes on its sites. Google came in second, with 112 million visitors whose visits lasted an average of one hour and fifteen minutes. Yahoo placed a close third, with 111 million visitors to its properties who spent an average of three hours and two minutes online.

The surprisingly long average time spent online by visitors reflects not just browser usage but also application traffic, according to Creekmore. Thus, Microsoft's users might have been using Windows Live Messenger or Windows Media Player rather than, say, navigating its Web site for two hours straight.

Digg Dims List Of Leading Lights To Curtail Corruption

Digg Dims List Of Leading Lights To Curtail Corruption

Founder Kevin Rose responds to thwart attempts to manipulate the social networking site.

In a blog post on Thursday, Digg.com founder Kevin Rose said that his popular community-driven news link site would no longer list "Top Diggers" who "are being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg."

This change comes even though Rose in the same post said, "We strongly believe attempts to game Digg are ineffective."

Other sites that rely on user input have issued similar denials. Google used to insist that search result manipulation wasn't a problem until it recently took steps to diminish the impact of so-called "Google bombs." It continues to claim that click fraud is overstated and under control.
At Wikipedia, a constant target for manipulation, correcting "corrections" has become more or less a continuous task. Microsoft was recently pilloried online for offering to pay a blogger and developer to revise certain Wikipedia articles seen as biased against the company. And no doubt another such scandal awaits discovery.

Whether or not Digg can be gamed, Web marketers appear quite keen to try. In a post on the Pronet Advertising blog, University of Chicago economics student Muhammad Saleem published an e-mail that he claims represents an offer to pay top Digg users for votes to promote the sender's Web site.

The wisdom of the crowd faces a potent challenge from the venality of the connected.

Soldiers' Blogs Monitored

Soldiers' Blogs Monitored

The suit claims the Defense Department violated the Freedom of Information Act by failing to expedite the Electronic Frontier Foundation's request for information and for withholding agency records.

It's no secret that the military monitors soldiers' Web postings, can remove certain items, and will punish those posting content that violates military rules.

Still, recent publicity about a special military group monitoring soldiers' blogs and other Web postings has gained widespread attention and led to a lawsuit.

After the Army News Service published a short feature article about the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell, several media outlets followed up with stories about the unit. Then, advocacy groups began to question exactly how the monitoring works, what data is collected, and what privacy protections are in place.

Last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation requested information about the Army's Web site monitoring and asked for an expedited release. Now EFF is suing in a Washington, D.C., U.S. District Court. EFF claims that the Defense Department violated the Freedom of Information Act by failing to expedite EFF's request for information and for withholding agency records.
The group argues soldiers' views are particularly important because of the war in Iraq, and the public has a right to know how military personnel's blogs and Web sites are controlled. It also argues that the need to know is urgent.

"It's important to hear what active-duty military personnel have to say," an EFF spokeswoman said during an interview Tuesday. "Some outlets said last year that they're not blogging anymore, more or less because of the monitoring."

EFF points to news reports stating that the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell monitors hundreds of thousands of Web sites each month and notifies Webmasters and bloggers of inappropriate information.

"Some bloggers have told reporters that they have cut back on their posts or shut down their sites altogether because of the activities of the AWRAC," EFF wrote in a prepared statement.
EFF is seeking information about monitoring procedures as well as orders to revise or delete information.

"Soldiers should be free to blog their thoughts at this critical point in the national debate on the war in Iraq," EFF staff attorney Marcia Hofmann said in a prepared statement. "If the Army is coloring or curtailing soldiers' published opinions, Americans need to know about that interference."

The military has disclosed some information about Web monitoring for information that can compromise the security of soldiers and their families. During previous interviews, a spokesperson for Multi-National Corps -- Iraq confirmed that a written policy states that military personnel owning official or unofficial Web pages, portals, and sites are required to register with their unit's chain of command. They must provide their unit, location, as well as the Webmaster's name and telephone number.

Hofmann said the EFF wants to know if military policies are restricting publication of soldiers' opinions as well.

Some blogging soldiers claim they were demoted after posting information and opinions their superiors deemed inappropriate.

An Army spokesman said the military does not comment on pending litigation.

Google Still Plays Catch-Up With eBay

Google Still Plays Catch-Up With eBay

Traffic figures for the competing e-commerce sites are on opposite ends in the spectrum, according to an Internet metrics company.

When it comes to e-commerce, Google can't touch eBay.

Last week, Google Base received 844 times fewer visitors than eBay and Google Checkout received 71 times fewer visitors than PayPal, according to figures released on Friday by Internet metrics company Hitwise.

Google Base in particular appears to be suffering. The search giant's free submit-it-yourself content repository experienced an 18% decline in traffic between July 2006 and January 2007. Google Checkout saw a 362% gain in visitors during the same period.

Hitwise research director LeeAnn Prescott attributes Checkout's traffic growth to aggressive promotion.

eBay and Paypal showed gains of 1.3% and 1.9% respectively during this period.
eBay also led in terms of session time -- the amount of time users spent at the site. eBay visitors spent an average of almost 20 minutes on the site, compared to 8 minutes for Google Base. For ad-supported sites, longer session times are generally better.

For transaction-oriented sites, shorter session times are more desirable (assuming the transaction gets completed) and there at least Google appears to have performed better than the competition. The average session time for users of Google Checkout was roughly two minutes less than the average session time for PayPal users.

MySpace Tests Filter To Block Unauthorized Videos

MySpace Tests Filter To Block Unauthorized Videos

The tool from Audible Magic scans videos for unique digital fingerprints and then compares them with those in a database. If there's a match, the videos are blocked from the site.

MySpace, which is under pressure by media companies for unauthorized showing of copyrighted material in videos, on Monday said it's testing filtering technology that would block such content from being posted on the popular online community.

The software tools from Audible Magic scan videos for unique digital fingerprints and then compares them with those in a database. If there's a match, the videos are blocked from the site.

The technology is being used to block music videos and other content from Universal Music Group, the Vivendi SA unit that sued MySpace last November for copyright infringement. That suit is still pending.

The filtering tools are available for free to other content creators, as well, MySpace said. NBC/Universal and Fox are also participating in the pilot program. MySpace and Fox are both owned by News Corp.

"MySpace is dedicated to ensuring that content owners, whether large or small, can both promote and protect their content in our community," Chris DeWolfe, chief executive and co-founder of MySpace, said in a statement. "For MySpace, video filtering is about protecting artists and the work they create."

MySpace already uses filtering technology for audio clips. The newest filters should be particularly helpful in ensuring that video taken down at the request of copyright holders is blocked from being reposted on the site. MySpace users often repost unauthorized content that has been taken down.

Nokia Partners With YouTube

Nokia Partners With YouTube

Announced at the 3GSM Conference, the deal will allow Nokia customers to view YouTube content on their handsets via broadband links.

BARCELONA, China — Nokia Corp. President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced at the 3GSM World Congress a new partnership with YouTube that will allow Nokia customers to view YouTube content on their handsets via broadband links.

With the YouTube deal, Kallasvuo uttered the universal marketing theme of the 3GSM show: "You can now watch the content you want, when you want it, on the move."

YouTube is scheduled to launch its mobile site shortly. It will initially pre-edit YouTube clips, encode them in the H.264 compression format and optimize them for mobile viewing, according to Nokia executives. Nokia has developed new application software called Nokia Video Center designed to provide a single interface for finding, viewing and storing video on Nokia N-series multimedia phones.

Nokia's move illustrates rapidly changing market demands for diversified video delivery to mobile handsets. Cellphone vendors are preparing for not only mobile TV broadcast technology but also broadband connections with an easy-to-use video application software. To enable YouTube video-on-demand, handsets also need wireless LAN or 3G connection capabilities. Nokia's N95 and the recently announced Nokia N93i provide the links.

Although Nokia insisted that both mobile TV broadcast reception (via DVB-H) and video-on-demand via broadband connection will complement each other, the company acknowledged that the two video delivery technologies will not converge on the same Nokia handset until 2008.
For now, Nokia's N77 handset, based on S60 software on the Symbian operating system, receives DVB-H-based mobile digital TV broadcasts but does not enable YouTube video-on-demand capabilities on handsets.

The N77 comes with a dedicated TV key to provide access to DVB-H broadcasts. The N77's is priced at 380 euros ($492), "a big reduction" compared to its previous mobile TV handset which cost 600 euros ($777), according to Jonas Geust, vice president for multimedia. The DVB-H-enabled mobile TV handsets are designed to work on 3G, Edge and GSM networks.

Nokia's CEO called the N77 a handset that "takes mobile TV to the mainstream market." He said the price of DVB-H chip set, including antenna, will be "around 7 euros" in 2008. Asked whether the price may be too aggressive, Geust responded, "We know the price because we buy them."

Nokia's CEO projected that the global DVB-H handset market will grow to "5 to 10 million units in 2008," reaching "20 million by the end of 2009."

EBay Pleased With Yahoo Ads, As Google Tests Start

EBay Pleased With Yahoo Ads, As Google Tests Start

The online auction site is ratcheting up its use of Yahoo search advertising to help boost buyer activity, after initial U.S. testing produced positive results.


SAN FRANCISCO - EBay Inc. is ratcheting up its use of Yahoo search advertising to help boost buyer activity, after initial U.S. testing produced positive results, an executive of the auction site said Tuesday.

The online auctioneer has found few conflicts between these ads and traffic to existing sellers, Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan told investors at a Merrill Lynch investor conference in New York.

Some sellers feared that incorporating Web ads alongside online auction listings would siphon away customers. Last year, eBay struck deals with Web search ad suppliers Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. to use Web search tools to help eBay buyers find products to purchase.

The online marketplace leader also started testing search ads on international sites with Google last week, but this will not affect financial results for several quarters, Swan added.

"We wouldn't really see any impact until the second half of the year because we are just beginning testing now," he told investors at the presentation, which was Webcast.

Swan also reaffirmed that he is comfortable with its earnings and revenue outlook for 2007, with growth coming both from its core auctions market and from newer businesses.

The company's 2007 outlook is for earnings per share growth of 20 percent to 23 percent over 2006, on revenue growth of 18 percent to 22 percent.

In January, the San Jose, California-based company had said it expected 2007 revenue to range between $7.05 billion and $7.30 billion. Full-year earnings, excluding one-time items, were expected at $1.25 to $1.29 per share, eBay had said.

Shares of eBay dipped 2 cents to $32.78 in late session trading on Nasdaq on Tuesday.