The once highly popular web-based news aggregator Bloglines will end their services as of Friday, October 1 2010. According to the Ask.com team that runs it, the reason for the discontinuation of the service is simple ? social media is killing off the need for RSS feeds.</p> <p>Before the popularity of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon, people depended on RSS feeds to subscribe, create, and share news feeds, web content, and blogs. Users used RSS to automatically be notified any time a website updated its content. In 2005, when Ask.dom acquired Bloglines from originator Mark Fletcher, RSS was at the top of its game. But that is no longer the case.</p> <p>While some users still use RSS, many have turned to social media to follow their favourite websites instead. Still others have stopped following much of anything ? relying on friends and contacts to share information and offer news that makes for interesting reading.</p> <p>?RSS aggregator usage has slowed significantly,? wrote an Ask.com rep on yesterday?s blog post. ?Bloglines isn?t the only service to feel the impact. The writing is on the wall.?</p> <p>For those who still depend upon Bloglines to obtain their updates, there is a three week lead-up time to discontinuation of their service. During that time, it is advisable to transfer feeds to another RSS application, such as Google Reader or switch to a social media application which offers similar features.</p> <p>The decrease of RSS is just another sign that businesses who want to stay relevant in this new era of socialised content must embrace social media.

Yesterday, a placeholder went live for a personalised social news service called News.me. The service ? developed by Betaworks, and The New York Times ? is still under a shroud of secrecy, with neither company willing to describe the service in any detail.</p> <p>?We?re building something wonderful and amazing in the social news space,? said John Borthwick, Betaworks CEO. While Michael Zimbalist, VP for research and development at The New York Times has this to say;</p> <p>?We?re abstracting from that a vision of how social sharing and the real-time Web are going to influence the news consumption experience. We decided to develop a prototype that we thought was illustrative of where the world was heading.?</p> <p>?From the Times? perspective, we think this is a really interesting way for a company like ours to foster an entrepreneurial culture through a start-up,? he said.</p> <p>Betaworks is the creative umbrella that includes such companies as TweetDeck, Chartbeat real time analytics, bit.ly the URL shortener, and SocialFlow, which allows users to set times for Tweets, Facebook status updates, and Google Buzz updates. Through an agreement with The Times, Betaworks has purchased a prototype application created by Times? developers with teams from both companies collaborating in its final design.</p> <p>Potential competition for the new service includes Siri, Apple?s virtual personal assistant and Flipboard, which manipulates social media feeds and places them in an easy-to-read format. But Betaworks holds an ace ? their bit.ly service already tracks which links are shared the most and from where, giving them a definite advantage.

Purecontent will today reach a milestone in the company's history when we deliver our 900,000th article.</p> <p>When Purecontent started as Delegate2 in 2006, David Hobart the founder did not even contemplate that we would ever reach such a point. In fact at the time, writing articles was just a sideline for a business that started as a pay per click management service. Over four years later and the company and the internet world look very different. Purecontent is purely about internet content but not just the written word. "Last month we sold our first batch of video content which I'm very excited about", said David. "In two years I expect video to be about 25% of a content manager's budget, so it makes sense that we should be getting into this market."</p> <p>So, on this special day, thank you to all our customers and we look forward to serving one of you our millionth piece of content, whether that's the written word, video or something else within a very short time.

Google has sped up Internet search with a new service they call Google Instant. Through it, results are displayed as the user types in their search terms ? shaving seconds off individual search times.</p> <p>?[Google] Instant takes what you have typed already, predicts the most likely completion and streams results in real-time for those predictions?yielding smarter and faster search that is interactive, predictive, and powerful.? Google says on their blog.</p> <p>According to Google, the average user spends nine seconds entering search terms and 15 seconds looking for answers. With Google Instant?s predictive results, two to five second can be shaved off of that search ? resulting in saved hours of the course of weeks or months.</p> <p>In an interview with BBC, Harry McCracken of the Technologizer technology blog said, "Google is betting all they have that speed is everything. </p>

Late last week, Google updated the numbers in their keyword tool; bringing about reports of significant drops in search traffic numbers on industry websites and forums. The speculation was that perhaps the tool was broken; but it wasn?t. In fact, it is now more accurate ? and that news has distressed more than one SEM campaign.</p> <p>For many, the Keyword Tool plays a major part during the planning stages of a website. Of course, not all of them take Keyword Tool results as law. Many will cut the resulting numbers in half and build on that; others will go as far as divide the results by 10 before determining campaign strategies. For these individuals, the new numbers may actually fall in line with their already adjusted estimates. But for those who have been building SEM assuming 100% accuracy in those numbers, this is a major wake-up call.</p> <p>When looking at Google Keyword Tool for some of the examples ? particularly single keyword phrases ? drops of major proportion can be found, with some going from numbers in the 100,000s to numbers closer to 10,000. This means SEM campaigners in the middle of strategy build must go back and check the numbers and adjust accordingly before moving forward with their campaign.</p> <p>While the new, more accurate tool is certainly a good thing going forward; this revamp and the resulting discrepancies it shows highlight an important issue; one should never depend upon a single source when determining best way forward or creating a new marketing campaign.

In a recent letter discussing editorial guidelines for credit and attribution, AP has announced that bloggers should be cited as new sources where appropriate. The announcement comes as quite a surprise, given AP?s history of dismissing bloggers as non-news sources. It is also long overdue; with bloggers having long served a part in both breaking and reporting newsworthy stories.</p> <p>The implication of the announcement for the individual blogger is profoundly hopeful. Although AP says that the citation does not have to appear at the start of a story, even mention at the end will provide valued visibility to a larger audience. Further, by being cited as a news source, a blogger has access to higher levels of the news chain; which could mean that, instead of having to source the stories themselves, they could possibly be approached with the information and perhaps even be provided with exclusives ahead of other media. Of course, that is probably looking a bit far into the future; but still a worthy thought.</p> <p>In addition to higher visibility, another hope is that this recognition by AP will open employment and money-making doors for bloggers; with news organisations finally recognising the real influence bloggers hold, especially in regional areas, and offering them position on their teams accordingly.</p> <p>To succeed in this new era of news reporting and reading, news associations must adapt. By acknowledging and grasping all of the differing sources of news and bringing them together, bloggers may finally begin to see credit long deserved.

According to Apple, many of their users who are downloading 1Tunes 10 to their iPhones, iPads and other gadgets are also joining Ping, the company?s new music social networking site.</p> <p>?One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,? writes Eddy Cue, Apple?s vice president of Internet Services on Apple?s blog. ?As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing.?</p> <p>But, despite people signing up in droves, not many of the reviews of the new Ping service have been kind. CNET writes:</p> <p>?Ping is pants. The new social network that Apple has added to iTunes 10 offers to link you up with your mates, and with musical celebs, to share and comment on your favourite tunes. So far, so good. But a</p>

On 1 March 2011, the United Kingdom is set to implement the world?s most comprehensive online ad regulation. This new code, written by the Committee of Advertising Practices, serve as response to over 4,500 complaints received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over the past two years on adverts where the ASA didn?t have the authority necessary to take action. All advertisements or statements made on a website with intent to selling products or services will be affected. This includes fund-raising and direct requests for donations. Actual commentary and content of a journalistic or editorial nature will not be affected.</p> <p>Currently, the ASA is able to ban misleading and offensive advertisements on television, in print, and in online banner adverts. But they say there are still far too many grey areas, therefore they need to be able to address advertisements on a case-by-case basis.</p> <p>Using this new code, the ASA will be able to demand that online marketers remove any advert or message found to be in breach of regulations; whether on a private website or social media site like Twitter and Facebook. YouTube video will also be subject to the new ASA regulations. Companies that refuse to comply will find themselves with warning labels on their search results and possibly inclusion in an online rogue?s gallery.</p> <p>The cost for the policing and enforcing the new code will be initially funded by Google, with an initial </p>

Paid prioritisation ? the ability to set higher prices for certain types of Internet service ? and its impact on net neutrality has long been in debate. Now, with the recent ruling by a federal appeals court against FCC interference, the debate is raging louder; with Free Press and AT&T standing on opposite ends of the issue.</p> <p>First Free Press</p> <p>This newest debate began when Free Press, a pro-regulatory advocacy group, sent two letters to the FCC stating that paid prioritisation was ?discriminatory? and would ?only benefit the few content giants that have deep enough pockets to pay for favourable treatment.? According to them, allowing paid prioritisation completely undermines the concept of net neutrality.</p> <p>Now AT&T</p> <p>AT&T begs to differ. In a statement made yesterday, they assert that a net neutrality plan restricting paid prioritisation goes against Internet ideologies. They say telecommunications companies must be allowed to set prices according to service and claim that they are already doing so, with AT&T business customers paying extra for premium services like real-time voice communication and financial transactions.</p> <p>Who is Right?</p> <p>According to AT&T, Free Press? position results in average consumers being charged more in order to fund the broadband infrastructure needed to support all applications equally. According to Free Press, AT&T?s position allows for abuse by prioritising certain applications over others, thus giving the video conference customer precedence over the online shopper.</p> <p>"[Differentiating services] was not designed to be a tool to allow the network provider to drive application-level discrimination," Free Press says. The organisation plans to send another letter to the FCC today.

Last week everyone was discussing and trying out the newly-redesigned Digg site which went live on 25 August. With changes like a new focus on social interaction and incorporating friends from Facebook, Twitter, and Google and an upgraded link submission, Kevin Rose, Digg?s co-founder and the rest of the Digg crew waited in anticipation to see our reaction. Unfortunately for some, it was like throwing gasoline on a fire.</p> <p>Until now, one of the primary problems with the Digg site were Digg?s ?power users?; people who worked alone and in groups to game the news pages in order to promote or bury stories based upon their own personal agenda, which was often a political one. However, this new design is supposed to put an end to that; or so Digg hopes. Of course one should never underestimate the wrath of a power user; especially when you?ve taken away their bury button. On Monday, they spoke out by flooding the Top News page with links leading to Reddit, a rival social media site.</p> <p>In his Twitter feed, Kevin Rose has acknowledged technical problems and the issues with the new design. He promises they will be recovering some of verson 3?s more popular tools, including the section highlighting uncoming stories. Users will also be able to recover deleted favourites through the ?Saved Story? section and the new ?popularity contest? element will be eliminated.</p> <p>As of this writing, changes are still being made.