Techmeme's Gabe Rivera makes news aggregation profitable

Gabe Rivera, founder of news aggregator Techmeme. Credit: Mark Milian/Los Angeles Times.

Don't tell News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, but technology news aggregator Techmeme is raking in profits.

Rather than visiting the front pages of every newspaper or choosing a few out of brand loyalty, as Murdoch hopes consumers will do, aggregators put all of the Web's big headlines of the moment onto one page.

There's no shortage in news aggregation. General news readers might go to Google News, a computer-generated engine that pulls in more than 25,000 newspaper websites and authoritative blogs. Left-leaning political consumers might visit the Huffington Post; right-leaning ones might go to Drudge Report.

For tech news, Techmeme, with its smart computer algorithm for culling interesting links, is at the top. A space once dominated by sites like Slashdot and Digg, Techmeme is now the undisputed top influence for the Bay Area tech elite.

Today Techmeme launched a mobile site that's formatted for smart phones to appease news junkies on the go.

It sounds almost laughable that a 4-year-old property, being such a powerful voice in tech, took this long to build a phone-optimized interface. But Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera is not trying to build a trendy, cutting-edge site with its own comment system and social media share features.

Rivera is, to an extent, mimicking the medium that loudly whines about his breed of aggregation. "It feels like a newspaper," Rivera said over lunch last week in San Francisco. "It feels like something you can rely on."

Huffington Post wants to help

 

anna Huffington. Credit: Huffington Post.

UPDATE: The section will go live at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Tuesday (not 12:01 a.m. as originally reported below.)

You've got to love the left. Even when they're running capitalist enterprises, they want to find some way to help the downtrodden.

Arianna Huffington is adding a new section to her eponymous A-list blog site the Huffington Post, and calling it Impact. She's partnered with Causecast, a Santa Monica venture that has both nonprofit and for-profit arms, and which will provide both articles and, more important, technology to make the section work.

The section will go live at 12:01  8 a.m. Tuesday, and will feature stories on a variety of subjects, including gay issues, helping the homeless,  stopping bullying in schools and flooding in the Philippines. Each story will come with a Causecast "widget" that will help a reader plot a course of action.

"We want to document the hardships and to provide the means and the tools for direct action, money and service," Huffington said.

Ultimately, every article -- not just those in the Impact section -- could feature a Causecast widget. A sample of the widget, seen at right, shows how it could be used with a story on this past weekend's National Equality March in Washington, D.C., for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The widget is just a small box that runs with the stories containing buttons a reader could click to take them to a Causecast page that promotes other websites, such as the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that helps prevent LGBT youth suicide. 

"Every article has a cause behind it," said Ryan Scott, the founder and CEO of Causecast. "We’re going to show the actions that people can take to effect change on whatever that is. Say it’s a flood or a tsunami. Can they donate? Volunteer? Make calls? Make personal fundraising pages?"

Huffington said ads will run on the site, and the Huffington Post and Causecast will split the ad revenue. Any money donated to any cause goes directly to the cause, with nothing coming out of it. 

Her site continues to expand, reinvesting its proceeds in the product. "We’ve had a very, very good advertising year," she said. "We would be in the black if we were not expanding. Whether you are profitable or not depends whether you're standing still or expanding. This is a window we need to take advantage of."

In addition to Impact, the HuffPost started a Technology section and regional coverage in Denver in September, a Books section earlier this month, and new sections on Sports and Giving planned for November and December. Local news in Los Angeles is also planned for November, and a San Francisco Bay Area section could start before the end of the year, although it's more likely to hold off until early 2010.

Huffington said her audience is highly engaged, with 27 million people visiting the site each month and leaving 2 million comments. "We want to tap into that longing out there to give back," she said. "That was a big part of the success of the Obama campaign, when Obama promised to make service central. That has been slightly derailed with all the problems in the economy but we want to make it central. This is not the icing on the cake. It has to be baked into the cake."

-- Dan Fost

Bloggers must now disclose if they got paid to write a review

This sculpture outside FTC headquarters is called "Man Controlling Trade." It was done in 1942, long before bloggers. Credit: FTC.

A blogger who reviews a product -- but leaves out the fact that he or she got a payment, high-value gift or free vacation to write the review -- could run afoul of new federal regulations on advertising.

The blogger rules, announced today by the Federal Trade Commission, are part of revisions to the agency's Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

The last time these guides were revised was in 1980, and of course back then there was no such thing as a blogger.

But bloggers are mentioned several times in the 81-page revisions. "The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement," said the agency in a release. "Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

A blogger can, however, accept a free sample of a product for review purposes without disclosure, "provided that the product itself does not have such a high value that would make its receipt material (e.g., a car)," according to the revised rules.

There's nothing in the rules that specifies how the disclosure must be made. "That's left up to the endorser," said Richard Cleland, assistant director of the FTC's division of advertising practices. "It can be a banner, part of the review. The only requirement is that it be clear and conspicuous."

The new rules go into effect Dec. 1.

There are no penalties directly associated with violating the rules. But if a blogger constantly breaks them, the FTC could seek a cease-and-desist order.

If a blogger is thus ordered but continues to break the rules, it can run into real money. The fine for violating an order is up to $11,000 per incident.

-- David Colker (who was not paid by the FTC to write this post)

Cyber attack that brought down Twitter was aimed at dissident blogger

The cyber attack that brought down Twitter for several hours Thursday was aimed at a single blogger located in the country of Georgia.

The blogger was identified as a dissident who uses the name of Cyxymu, according to a source close to Facebook, which was also targeted in the attack.

The attack began about 5 a.m. PDT, with hackers trying to discredit Cyxymu by making him appear to be a spammer, according to analysts at the Sophos online security firm. The initial attack also tried to get a huge number of users to click on the blogger's Twitter, Facebook and other sites in an attempt to bring them down.

About an hour later, with the blogger sites still operational, the hackers mounted a direct massive attack on the sites. There was such a huge amount of "collateral damage" from the attack, said Beth Jones of Sophos, that Twitter crashed and Facebook's operation was compromised.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper in London, the blogger -- who declined to give his real name -- identified himself as a 34-year-old economics lecturer. He said he believes the attack was an attempt to silence his criticism of Russia's conduct toward Georgia.

"Maybe it was carried out by ordinary hackers," he told the newspaper, "but I'm certain the order came from the Russian government."

-- David Colker

Twitter hack is an eye-opener for personal online security

Karen Solomon using Twitter from her home kitchen in San Francisco. Credit: Associated Press

One immediate lesson from the leaked Twitter documents for journalists and bloggers, which we wrote about yesterday, is the ethical question of publishing stolen company files.

Further ethical issues came into question in a follow-up post today on TechCrunch in which the blogger claimed that Twitter gave them "the green light" to post the information.

Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams quickly questioned the claim in a tweet, and Co-founder Biz Stone followed up with a blog post denying giving authorization.

Inside the eye of the ethical hurricane is something everyone can take away from this (or at least those who use computers with any regularity) -- cyber-security is important.

Whether you argue that cloud computing via Google Apps or one of the company's many consumer software is dangerous, having passwords is inevitable in order to use the Internet. If you use e-mail or log-on to WiFi or buy things online, you're going to need passwords. And your account is only as secure as your password.

"Biz Stone said it best in his blog" when he stressed the importance of strong passwords, wrote Google Spokesman Andrew Kovacs in an e-mail, defending cloud computing (what a shocker).

Another Google spokesman adds, "Among the many solutions we offer are tools for consumers that help rate password strength and tips for creating stronger passwords during the sign-up process."

Security experts jumped at the opportunity to stress the importance of smart, safe computing, saying users should ...

Ethical implications of the leaked Twitter documents

Twitter co-founders Biz Stone (left) and Evan Williams. Credit: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press.

Last night, TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington posted an animated article describing 310 private documents from Twitter Inc. that had been leaked to the technology blog. Arrington plans to publish them over a period of time, he wrote.

Needless to say, the idea was polarizing.

As evidenced in comments on the post and in the flurry of tweets that followed, the existence of these secret documents, containing information about user and financial predictions, employees' personal details, TV show pitches and plans for a future office, tickled the curiosity of many.

In addition to feeding an insatiable appetite for gossip about San Francisco's hottest Web start-up, the ordeal also carries obvious ethical implications.

An overwhelming number of readers blasted Arrington for exposing classified papers from the Internet darling, calling the leaks "a violation of privacy," "a bad move," "disappointing" and illegal. The immediate reactions incited a quick response from Arrington, who defended the ethics of his decision.

How the Twitter documents were obtained also calls cyber security into question.

It speaks to the potential dangers of storing sensitive information on "the cloud," as some of the obtained messages were stored using Google Apps, according to a post by Twitter’s Biz Stone stressing the importance of having strong passwords. He and co-founder Evan Williams could not be reached for comment. A Google spokesman said the company doesn't comment on specific user issues.

-- Mark Milian

FriendFeed's new look: A little Twitter, a little Facebook

A series of similar streams: FriendFeed 2.0, TweetDeck, and Facebook. 

FriendFeed launched a new beta interface this morning, and, even though you've never seen it before, you've seen it before.

FriendFeed, which is a sort of real-time discussion feed, is now a lot more real-time. The new interface paints the screen with your friends' latest musings while you watch, blasting another high-caliber round into the now bullet-riddled concept of "refreshing" a Web page. 

In other words, it just became more like Twitter. Desktop clients such as Twhirl and TweetDeck have for some time employed constant refreshing to keep users' incoming message stream forever scrolling, pumping the present into the past to make way for the future.

Facebook, too, has become a believer in the Big Stream. Its controversial revamp got rid of a slower but less noisy news feed in favor of a roaring "river of everything" approach. Which is also what FriendFeed does. FriendFeed and Facebook also depart from Twitter's unadorned look and draconian character limit, allowing longer, bulkier messages, embedded multimedia content and strings of comments from followers. 

There are other differences between the three services. Facebook and Friendfeed are still private by default -- that is, access to users' profiles is governed by an explicit approval process. Twitter profiles are visible to anyone, unless the owner decides otherwise. And Twitter and FriendFeed make more sense for sharing content with professional colleagues and people you've never met, while Facebook, even though it's trying to be more public-facing, is still the best service for sharing with personal friends (as distinct, I guess, from impersonal friends).

Still, it's clear that Twitter's huge success has influenced the growth strategies of the other two services.  What's tougher to decide, though, is whether the ape-Twitter approach is smart or short-sighted. It may be early enough in the history of micro-blogging for the pretenders to steal a piece of Twitter's micro-pie, especially if the young company makes any serious missteps. But Facebook and FriendFeed are not, fundamentally, micro-blogging sites -- and mama always said you're better off being yourself. 

-- David Sarno

Google and Twitter, sitting in a tree, T-A-L-K-I-N-G [UPDATED]

Google's buying Twitter? Dang! I'd make a "Stop the presses" joke if the presses weren't already stopping of their own accord.

On his mega-megaphone TechCrunch blog, Michael Arrington reported Thursday night that "Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter," citing two people close to the negotiations. If it were true, this news would be the biggest tech bombshell of the year, with the Web's richest behemoth snapping up its biggest darling. But later, Arrington exploded his own ordnance by citing a third unnamed source who contradicted the first two by saying the talks were "still fairly early stage."

AllThingsD's Kara Swisher kicked around the shrapnel too, quoting more anonymous sources who said the rumor was bunko: “Seriously, no negotiations, no deal, nada,” the person told her, although there apparently was a discussion about "real-time search and about product stuff."

Add to that Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's straight-faced performance on the "Colbert Report" Thursday night, during which he said his company would become "strong, profitable and independent," a statement he might not make on the teetering verge of a buyout.

TechCrunch has a less than spotless record with anonymously sourced buyout rumors, including last July's dead-ender about Google almost buying Digg and last March's similar rumor that Google and Microsoft were bidding on Digg ("a sale looks like it might happen, and soon"), the latter of which made Digg Chief Executive Jay Adelson an unhappy camper. Swisher also recalls TechCrunch floating a Google-to-buy-Bebo rumor that didn't get much past the embryo stage.

Of course, this is the blogosphere, and everyone loves scuttlebutt. Plus, this one probably has truth to it, warped as it may have become. As Arrington himself says, one of Twitter's greatest assets is its searchable, 1.5 billion-tweet database, a platinum mine for marketers and info-entrepreneurs of many stripes. Adding a Google-strength search infrastructure on top of all that data would unleash the value that Twitter's limited, keyhole search engine just can't. And, seriously, Google and Twitter's business development people would be bobbing for pink slips if they weren't at least discussing some kind of tie-up.

Moreover, if the Twitter rebels are right, the natural course for the micro-messaging space is to move away from a monopoly model and splinter into a thousand networked mini-Twitters, the way e-mail became an open standard in the 1990s. If that's true, Google would be better off going with its DNA and establishing itself as the leading search provider for mini messages, crawling the Web of twitters like it does the Web of Web pages. 

And I've already thought of the name for Google's real-time search engine: Glitter. 

(Printing out trademark application now).

Update, 11:16 a.m.: Twitter's Stone responds to the rumors, saying what we're saying, which is that "it should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects." 

-- David Sarno

Start your own print media company with MagCloud

Kalina Magazine, an independent photo magazine that's printed on-demand with HP's MagCloud. Credit: Noah Kalina

And you thought starting a blog was easy…

Why start a blog when you can start a nice, glossy print magazine? Hewlett-Packard recently launched a new service called MagCloud, which flattens the entire magazine distribution process into one website. Give HP the content in PDF form and out comes a magazine. The cost: 20 cents per page. HP handles all the printing, mailing and subscription management. Users can set the subscription price for their rag (above the base price plus postage), leaving some room for profit if they choose. Gutenberg would be proud. And so was the New York Times. 

It used to be that only companies the likes of Amazon.com had access to such print-on-demand power, but MagCloud lowers the barrier of entry for niche blogs about gourmet cashews or antique typewriters seeking to become 'zines. Print-on-demand allows Amazon to offer a slew of niche titles without investing in the actual books unless they’re sold. For a blogger who’d like to see their stuff in print, it’s the same business model: pay only for what you can sell.

Using MagCloud, a one-person blog can go to print with only a little design experience. In fact, with sites like FeedJournal and Tabbloid (which, by the way, HP developed), a blog could completely automate a not-so-shabby print layout, simply by handing over its RSS feed.

It's not free: A 10-page monthly magazine would cost the blogger $24 plus postage per year, per subscriber. But if a dedicated audience is willing to pay a few dollars per month so that they can hold the blog in their hands, then there’s nothing to lose. Make that into a quarterly, annual or one-time e-book, and the profit margin starts to grow quickly.

This could have a impact on the already woeful print publishing industry. Though it seems like a step in the wrong direction, the indie blogs that bite into their online product can take a shot at their stubborn print subscribers as well. And why not? It’s about as risky as starting a blog.

-- Chris Lesinski

SXSW: Is the Internet killing everything?

Visitors to Austin's South by Southwest conference arrived Friday to a sky like a wet blanket. A cold, wet blanket. We traipsed our way from panel to panel, grumbling from beneath convenience-store umbrellas, wondering about the possibilities for eating barbecue in a rainstorm.

In the same kind of way, discussion at the new media portion of this year's conference was shot through with a chilly strain of winter. At least five panel titles mused grimly about which parts of the old culture are headed for the graveyard. "Is Privacy Dead?" one asked. "Are PR agencies a dying breed?" worried another, and while we're at it, "Is Web 2.0 Killing the Sports Business?" Others didn't even bother with question marks, declaring the death of friendship, personal blogging and print media.

It's true that giving your proposed panel an extreme name is a surefire way to grab attention and thereby boost your chances of winning a spot on the crowded schedule. Except I took a look back at last year's listings, and there wasn't a deathwatch in sight.

No, this year a woeful economic climate has compounded the problems of a slow-footed industry that's watching the Internet turn its revenue streams into...

Read full article here

-- David Sarno