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Facebook Responds To New Privacy Problems

While many people already lie on their Facebook profile despite the pleas by Privacy Czar Mark Zuckerberg to keep the Facebook database clean for YOUR benefit, it is now an informally ‘recommended’ practice by some at Facebook. Before we move forward, let’s put this on the table first. Facebook’s move toward less privacy for its users may have profoundly changed the service once the full scope of what they are looking to do hits the masses.

Is it Really Crazy to Block Google?
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After all is said and done Rupert Murdoch may still be seen as the sly old fox that really knew best. Many bloggers and journalists have pounded the insanity of Murdoch’s suggestion that News Corp publications might strike an exclusive indexing deal with Bing and delist itself from Google’s search engine.

Facebook Is Still In The Thoughts of Marketers

It’s always great when the mainstream media realizes (again) that something is big—like social media marketing or Facebook. The Wall Street Journal posted an article Friday on the popularity of social media marketing on Facebook. Okay, so really they were reporting about the Social Data Summit in New York Thursday.

The Latest Rumors About Razorfish

Microsoft’s interactive agency Razorfish is the subject of some varying rumors as of late. The one common thread in all of these reports is that Microsoft is shopping the company. That much we know for sure. Where they end up is the subject of much speculation.

Will Micropayments Work for the Wall Street Journal?
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The Wall Street Journal Online will reportedly be launching a micropayment model for content this fall. Some other news publications appear to see this is a brilliant move, but asking people to pay for content on the web will draw its share of skepticism.

WSJ Managing Editor Robert Thomson says, "It’s a payments system — once we have your details we will be able to charge you according to what you read, in particular, a high price for specialist material."

A Wild Week For Facebook, And Its Users

Facebook has had quite a week. If it is true that there is no such thing as bad publicity then this week has been a social-media-collagewindfall for the social networking giant. I have even read some conspiracy theorists who believe that the whole terms of service ‘incident’ was intended. I’m not sure I can go there but to be honest it does make some sense.

Facebook’s Terms Of Service

Yielding to pressure from it seems like just about everyone, Facebook is saying that it will make changes to the recent changes in its Terms of Service (TOS) (in other words going back to how it was). The WSJ covers the ‘event’ in their online edition.

Money for Content
The WSJ let the "our content will be free" story spread for months to generate public relations related coverage and to misdirect competitors before announcing that they are going to keep their subscription service:

Mr. Murdoch made his latest comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in answering a question.

WSJ Will Not Abandon Subscription Model

If rumors are to be believed, the Wall Street Journal has been considering abandoning the subscription model for months.

But alas, it’s not to be. Rupert Murdoch announced today that the Wall Street Journal, while expanding its free offerings, would not leave the subscription model. In fact, he stated that:

WSJ May Need Big Subscription Increase to Make Up Lost Revenue

The Wall Street Journal would have to increase traffic to their site by 12x to make up for the lost subscription revenue. WSJ.com is going from paid subscriptions to free online access.

A report from Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang made the prediction based on advertising rates for banner ads.

News as a Commodity
In my last post about how contextual advertising targets the weak and poor, I promoted the idea of niche publishers shifting to sell niche products and services directly as a better means of monetization.

What Better Relevancy Can Google Come up With?
Google, already has a near infinite number of data points to compute relevancy for the active parts of the web, and is looking to gather even more user data information. The WSJ has background on the story:

Free WSJ Online Access Coming

Rupert Murdoch plans to make WSJ.com free to increase readership and generate far more in advertising. Right now the site gets 1 million viewers and Murdoch hopes to see it go to 15 million. For now a subscription just to the online edition is $79 for a year.

Digg This: Wall Street Journal Adds Buttons
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Only one website’s buttons appear on Wall Street Journal stories, inviting readers to share articles, and those buttons belong to Digg.

Google Drops Ads From Orkut

Advertising on social networks can be tricky. Google has found this out and has decided to remove all AdSense ads from it social network Orkut.

Selling Information Will Become a High Touch Industry

Newspapers Going Free

The NYT just went free and likely the WSJ will follow. Once something goes free it is hard to start charging for it again – just ask Prince.

Sponsored Content Hosting and Renting Subdomains
Ads becoming content is not only true from a thin affiliate site perspective, but also on larger more traditional ad buys. Selling content hosting is going mainstream.

WSJ gets Blogging History Wrong

Mike Arrington is right, (so is Duncan Riley) the Wall Street Journal got blogging’s history wrong.

State of Denial at WSJ & USA Today?

Perhaps the joke “What’s black and white and read all over?” should be updated to “What’s black and white and in the red all over?

My defense and love of print media is well-documented. But the following scenario seems the exact opposite of smart.

Automated Content Development & Moral Dilemmas
Fantomaster had a great comment about whether automated content generation is moral:

Murdoch Would Bolster WSJ’s Digital Presence

The letter has it all – bold print, bullet points, and italics.  It’s 1,200 words long.  And it’s signed by billionaire Rupert Murdoch.  That’s right – Murdoch’s most recent communication regarding a Dow Jones takeover has been published by The Wall Street Journal, a Dow Jones property.

Which may not have been what the billionaire intended.  “We are disappointed, as I imagine you are, that the details of our proposal and the discussion of the merits of a potential combination have become a matter of public debate,” he wrote to the Bancroft family (which owns Dow Jones).  Yet the letter was unfailingly courteous, and modesty ruled the day.

EMI Drops DRM Restrictions On iTunes
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Crusaders against Digital Rights Management (DRM) believe the practice does nothing to curtail music piracy while placing unnecessary restrictions on downloaded audio content. In a move that should please the anti-DRM contingent, EMI has announced that it will remove the restriction from its tracks on iTunes.