The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, was shut down this past week by its current owner, AOL. The service, which provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 and was the first major online service, had seen the number of users dwindle in recent years. At its height, the service boasted about having over half a million users simultaneously on line. Many innovations we now take for granted, from online travel (Eaasy Sabre), online shopping, online stock quotations, and global weather forecasts, just to name a few, were standard fare on CompuServe in the 1980s.
(via basex)
nickdouglas:
Spotted on a piss-poor commercial: “internet celebrity” Justine Ezarik.
This is what Internet celebs accomplish. This is not what talent accomplishes. But your Wikipedia entry will never be as thorough as Justine’s.
She did these Mozy commercials a long time ago. I believe it was December of 2008. It actually helped her out more that Mozy’s marketing department deems it worthy to spend thousands of dollars on Hulu advertising with her face on it. It’s actually a very expensive in-joke with just internet geeks.
Newspaper Club, a project to release a self-publishing newspaper service.
Turn Your Tumblr Into an OpenID
bradybd:
I’m both a supporter and implementor of OpenID (as well as a card carrying member of the OpenID Foundation) — but one thing I’ve always struggled with is that many OpenID providers force you to use cryptic, hard to remember URLs as your primary identifier.
Wouldn’t it be great if the one URL you never forgot (your Tumblr), also served as your OpenID? Making that happen is easier than you’d imagine. So, in the spirit of independence day, set your OpenID free!
Here’s what you need to do:
- If you don’t have one already, get yourself an OpenID account (any provider will do: myOpenID, claimID, Chi.mp). Make sure you keep your new OpenID URL handy.
- Next, paste this code before the </head> tag of your Tumblr theme. You’ll need to make sure that the URL for the server corresponds to that of your OpenID Provider, and that the delegate is your OpenID URL:
<link rel=”openid.server” href=”http://openid.com/server” />
<link rel=”openid.delegate” href=”http://openid.com/user” />
- Voila. Apply the changes to your theme and you’re all set. You can now use your Tumblr URL as your OpenID!
Obviously, you can also use this method for any website — so don’t be shy, why not configure all of your sites to function as an OpenID?
geisen:
via soupsoup:lunchfood:jakec
catbird:
I cannot believe how utterly and completely clueless the online advertising industry people are. God, would you please bring down a Wall Street -style crash on them so we can finally clear out all this bullshit and start rebuilding this online ad stuff from the ground up?
There are a few issues with this TechCrunch mock-up:
A) The Pushdown actually pushes the content at the top of the page down rather than covering it up. It then resolves to a smaller size (970x45) and the content is moved back up to fill in. More intrusive than previous IAB-standard sizes yes, but publishers can independently determine how long the pushdown is pushed down.
B) XXL Box is ostensibly more intrusive than standard IAB placements, but then again publishers can determine how it’s deployed. My guess is most top-tier pubs will require that this unit expands on user initiation (sometimes on rollover, sometimes on a click). At CBS Interactive, we always require Rich Media executions to be user-initiated via click. We do this because we know most people hate overtly interruptive ad-executions, but they feel better about it when they expand the ad by clicking on the ad unit rather than randomly rolling over it or doing nothing at all.
C) Probably most important is that naturally big, glaring yellow boxes with enormous red text plastered all over TechCrunch are pretty clearly incongruous. It’s easy to rip into these ad sizes when the example used is outrageously garish and incorrectly deployed.
I’m not saying these new OPA units are necessarily the answer, but when you neglect to mention relevant details regarding how they’ll be deployed you’re missing the point. Online publishers are trying to find formats that appeal to advertisers and command pricing premiums. I think if the creative is contextually relevant and well done (read: like pretty much any of Apple’s big format digital executions which were actually the inspiration for these new standard sizes) and if there are steps taken to preserve UX by being conservative with how it’s deployed, then they might actually be well-received.
Tokyo Zokei University website
Win-win or lose-lose? Download a special Live Nation optimized Internet Explorer and get a free Nickelback song.
My answer to that is that Daring Fireball is decidedly not free. It’s simply a question of who gets charged. Readers don’t, but sponsors and advertisers do. What makes it work so well (so far) is that this makes everyone happy. I’m earning a nice salary. Readers get to read my writing in exchange for a small portion of their attention which I direct toward ads. And sponsors and advertisers are happy to pay a fair price to reach an audience of good-looking, intelligent readers such as yourself. But there’s nothing free about it.
— John Gruber (via chrisbowler) (via marco)
How To Save The New York Times
soupsoup:
Yesterday, the New York Times declared it’s revenue was down 18.6 percent. The company incurred a $61.6 million operating loss compared to an operating profit of $6.2 million in the first quarter of 2008.
While the economy had a great deal to do with the paper’s financial woes, there are things the Times can do to put themselves in a better position for the future. Here are my 5 ideas to help save the New York Times.
- Partner with Instapaper…People who want to read New York Times content cannot always access that content if they have no web connection. Give them the ability while they’re reading the times on the web or on their phone to save articles to read later, even if they are not connected to the web. The Times can make some money doing this too. Partner with Instapaper to get the Instapaper button on every article on the New York Time online. In exchange, Instapaper would give the Times a percentage of their revenue. This is all assuming Marco would be interested in this sort of arrangement.
- Charge for exclusive content…ESPN Insider provides reader with content they can’t get from the public ESPN. Those folks who want to dive deeper into the information behind the articles, get those great analytical presentations the Times is known for, should pay a nominal monthly fee for access to this kind of content.
- Sell content to web publishers…Give web publishers access to Times photos and widgets to publish Times content for a fee. While it is easy to just grab it off the website, some publishers don’t want to be bothered and would welcome an interface that would allow them to search relevant content or have a ‘smart’ widget that could find Times content relevant to the topic being discussed on the webpage it is placed on.
- Auction ad space…Force advertisers to fight over ad space. Competitors will try and outbid each other for prime real estate on NYTimes.com.
- Sell content space to bloggers…For bloggers who want more exposure, sell space on NYTimes.com to bloggers who want their content displayed among other NYTimes writers. Editors who find the blogger’s content compelling enough may push the content to the front page of the NYTimes.com and even to the print edition as well.
These are just a few ideas that came to mind. Reblog and add others or why you think mine won’t work.
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