Podcast audience is 9.2 million people; 5.6 millions downloaded video
The podcasting audience is now up to nine million people. 6.6 percent of the United States online audience has recently downloaded an audio podcast - that's is exactly 9.2 million people. And 5.6 million people recently downloaded a video podcast.
The percentage of people downloading podcast is about the same as the percentage of people who publish blogs. The younger the person, the more likely they are to download. Those data come from a Nielsen/NetRatings new study, click here.
Startrek.com is No. 1 among video podcasters
"The portability of podcast makes them specially appealing to young, on-the-go audiences," said Nielsen/NetRatings. "We can expect to see podcasting become increasingly popular as portable content media player media players proliferate".
Since the popularity of Apple's iPod is largely responsible for the spread of podcasting, not surprisingly podcasters use Apple products and sites, and therefore Safari is the primary Internet browser, followed by Firefox. Macworld is the No. 1 most-visited site. Apple and iTunes are the No. 2. But the Apple connection is not as clear for video podcasters, who flock to Startrek.com. Live365 and eMusic are the two most popular e-commerce sites for video podcasters.
Create customized DVDs with news video segments
CBS News has figured out an additional way to monetize its vast archive of news programming. CBS News will start offering current and past programming on DVDs using Amazon's CustomFlix customizable DVD service.
You're not stuck with just a full broadcast, you can mix and match your own stories, choosing from hundreds of program video clips. A disc can hold up to 10 clips or 90 minutes and costs $24.95.
Condé Nast Wired Magazine purchased Wired.com
It is said that Wired print magazine has preached the digital gospel, but that hasn't happened online. Now things may change. Condé Nast, Wired's owner, has purchased Wired.com back from Lycos Inc. Condé Nast has paid $25 million for Wired News online properties.
Remember that during the 1990's Wired company was divided: Louis Rosetto and Jane Metcalfe, the co-founders, and other investors sold Wired magazine to Condé Nast for $75 million. In the meantime, Lycos acquired Wired News for a reported $83 million.
Fox reporters shot by Israeli forces... Yes, Fox reporters!
Last week Fox reporters were shot at by Israeli Forces in Gaza. We couldn't find the clip on FoxNews, but it was on YouTube, right here. The clip got 274,147 views. A new way to watch what TV networks tend to forget.
RSS syndication technology triggers the explosion of podcast
Do you want cool names for different podcasting distributing ways, triggered by the RSS technology?
Our fellow Shelly Palmer, in his Television Disrupted book give us a glimpse:
Autocasting: The automatic generation of podcast from text-only sources
Godcasting: Religious podcasts, typically Christian
Javacast: Podcasting to mobile phones using J2ME Midlets
Learncasting: Delivering instructional content or academic support content
Media RSS: A kind of syndication of media files used by Yahoo!
MMScast: Podcasting to mobile phones using MMS.
Mobilecast: Podcasting to mobile phones
Palmcasting: Podcasting to Palm devices like Treo and LifeDrive
Punchcasting: Punching podcast directly into smartphone devices
Skypecasting: Recording Skype text, voice or video conversations
Soundseeing tour: Podcast utilizing ambient noise and descriptions
Streamcasting: When an RSS feed contains a link to streaming media
instead of a file, RSS becomes a way to control streaming syndication
Vodcasting/Vidcasting: Video-based podcast
Google's Cick-Fraud put at risk its multibillion advertising business
Google is facing a big problem with click fraud. How can they determine if a real person, and not a robot, is sitting at a keyboard and clicking on all those adwords. Bruce Schneier says in Wired.com that Google's 6 billion-a-year advertising is at risk because it can't be sure that anyone is looking at its ads.
And the fraud itself is becoming a business for some companies. Here is a site, ClickMonkeys.com, that offers to commit click fraud for you.
The problem for Google comes in two basic flavors. Bruce Schneier writes:
"You host Google AdSense advertisements on your own website. Google pays you every time someone clicks on its ad on your site. It's fraud if you sit at the computer and repeatedly click on the ad or -- better yet -- write a computer program that repeatedly clicks on the ad. That kind of fraud is easy for Google to spot, so the clever network click fraudsters simulate different IP addresses, or install Trojan horses on other people's computers to generate the fake clicks.
The other kind of click fraud is competitive. You notice your business competitor has bought an ad on Google, paying Google for each click. So you use the above techniques to repeatedly click on his ads, forcing him to spend money -- sometimes a lot of money -- on nothing."
Click fraud has become a classic security arms race. Google improves its fraud-detection tools, so the fraudsters get increasingly clever ... and the cycle continues. Meanwhile, Google is facing multiple lawsuits from those who claim the company isn't doing enough. My guess is that everyone is right: It's in Google's interest both to solve and to downplay the importance of the problem."
Google is testing a new advertising model to deal with click fraud: cost-per-action ads. Advertisers don't pay unless the customer performs a certain action: buys a product, fills out a survey, whatever.
"It's a hard model to make work -- Google would become more of a partner in the final sale instead of an indifferent displayer of advertising -- but it's the right security response to click fraud: Change the rules of the game so that click fraud doesn't matter."
