Tag: internet

Breaking News is Broken

I wonder if anybody is thinking that there might be a better way to organize a story using the tools of the Internet, creating a timeline view of the news. What if each news story had its own “blog” and the developments were added as they occurred?

news indeed needs to use the hyperlink much more pervasively than the timid linking to company homepages, often not even with markup, that media does today.

Should the Net forget?

The New York Times recently got some search-engine-optimization religion, and as a result its articles, including old stories from its vast archives, are now more likely to appear at or near the top of web searches. But the tactic has had an unintended consequence, writes the paper’s public editor, Clark Hoyt, in a thought-provoking article today: “Long-buried information about people that is wrong, outdated or incomplete is getting unwelcome new life. People are coming forward at the rate of 1 a day to complain that they are being embarrassed, are worried about losing or not getting jobs, or may be losing customers because of the sudden prominence of old news articles that contain errors or were never followed up.”

the notion that any “story” is ever finished is so quaint. as media gets serious about exposing their archive to search, they will have to deal with these undead stories.

Mutual Catfishing

He tried to explain what drew him to his computer. “When I’m talking to Cindy or you like this, face-to-face,, it’s hard for me to say what I feel.” As Tommy, however, the words came easily. And then there was Jessi. He loved her, or at least believed he loved her, though he knew he was “never going to meet her.” His plan was to “kill Tommy off” in Iraq, but Cindy intervened too soon. He nearly committed suicide because of his guilt about having lied to Jessi. Why, I asked, when he was suspicious of so much of what Jessi said, did he believe she was who she claimed? “She kept sending pictures. 1 picture, maybe not. But there were so many pictures over a period of time.”

too funny. both sides were internet dogs, as it were

LOLcats

Mr. Nakagawa’s simple Web site has become the center of the “LOLcats” phenomenon, a booming online subculture built around digital images and deliberately bad grammar. There’s not much to it: Take a digital photo — often one of household pets, particularly cats — and purposefully place misspelled text on top. Anyone with elementary skills in Adobe’s Photoshop or Microsoft’s Paint software can make their own. Nearly 9 months after launching icanhascheezburger.com, Mr. Nakagawa’s site receives around 200K unique visitors and a 500K page views each day.

hat tip to the new owner or trying to be more attuned to the times?

Changing Health Care

In politics, every serious candidate for the White House has a health care plan. So too in business, where the 2 leading candidates for Web supremacy, Google and Microsoft, are working up their plans to improve the nation’s health care. By combining better Internet search tools, the vast resources of the Web and online personal health records, both companies are betting they can enable people to make smarter choices about their health habits and medical care.

industries that stop fighting the internet and embrace it offer vastly superior services. so it will be with these hidebound guys.