contentious.com

stevenberlinjohnson.com: Outside.in: Not Just For Placebloggers Anymore
“An important group we were missing: bloggers who write occasionally about places around them, but not exclusively. We track over 2,000 regular placebloggers, but the number of bloggers who post occasionally about locally-relevant info is much larger.” (tags: blogging community geotagging local tidbits+fodder)

Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog » Blog Archive » People are customers, not targets
“Of today’s media biz changes, the most difficult involve generating mass to be monetized. Many media cos don’t understand (or refuse to see) that herding people into masses is exactly what people are rebelling against. The people will win this one.” (tags: community mycoverage AmyGahran media+evolution business advertising problems tidbits+fodder)

Top news sites at Google News? Ask Newsknife
“Newsknife ranks these 5 news sites as the most upwardly mobile in Google News: 1, Houston Chronicle. 2, Times Online, UK; 3, Forbes; 4, FOX News; 5, Los Angeles Times.” OK, what the heck is the Houston Chronicle doing right? (tags: tidbits+fodder search findability rankings statistics research newspapers news+biz strategy)

SurfWax : The Customizable Meta Search Engine
Features include: ” “focus” link to add “focus words” that you can use to expand or narrow your search. “SiteSnaps” to see a summary of the page andwhich terms the engine considered relevant” (tags: search tools)

Google 2.0: Google Universal Search
In May, Google made “the most radical change to its search results ever, debuting a “Universal Search” system that blends listings from its news, video, images, local and book search engines among those it gathers from crawling web pages.” Big tutorial. (tags: search tutorial tips analysis findability)

Google’s New Navigational Links: An Illustrated Guide
May 16: “After months of testing, Google is rolling out new ways to navigate within its search results and between different Google properties. Here’s an illustrated guide to the old and new.” (tags: search usability analysis tutorial change)

Facebook goes hyperlocal with Neighborhoods – Lost Remote TV Blog
“In Seattle, 1,200 users have selected their neighborhoods — to meet neighbors, invite them to events, upload photos, browse real estate listings and post items on “The Wall.” (tags: community social+networks social+media geography local hyperlocal tidbits+fodder)

Google Earth Adds Real Time Traffic Layer
“By activating the traffic layer, little green, yellow and red balls are overlaid on the highways and roads, each symbolize the level of traffic congestion in that area.” (tags: maps local hyperlocal tools tidbits+fodder)

Campus Revolutionary – Chicago Magazine – September 2007 – Chicago
“The new curriculum emphasizes an understanding of “audience”—who the customers are, what they want, how to reach them. The concept of marketing—widely disdained by ink-in-their-veins journalists—would assume a key role in the teaching program.” (tags: education journalism change multimedia journogeek culture human+nature controversy tidbits+fodder)

The Good, The Bad, & The Incredible Usefulness Of User-Generated Content
“User-generated reviews, as we have mentioned in past columns, are not a ‘silver bullet’ that can build or sustain Web sites on their own. However, they sure can add relevant and useful content, as well as some entertaining anecdotes.” (tags: media reviews content+strategy content+quality)