The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘media-companies’

“Media insiders” in Australia are reporting that Apple has approached them to produce content for a device “larger than the iPhone.” The Sydney Morning Herald puts another shrimp on the barbie by saying:

Apple has sent specifications of the device to Australian media companies in an effort to sound out whether they would be interested in delivering their content to the tablet. None would speak about the device on the record.

This follows Bill Keller’s offhand remark that the paper was working for content on an “Apple Slate.”

I call bull.

There are millions of blogs on the web and making sense of all of this user generated content can be a challenge. Israeli startup BloggerBase hopes to solve this problem by offering a competition-based discovery platform that aggregates content from bloggers for readers to sift through via topic or subject matter.

BloggersBase is made up of multi-authored blogs that cover a variety of popular topics. Writers submit their content to the blog and then the posts are read and rates by readers. Readers can rate content on professionalism, presentation, value and writing style. As a blog post gets high ratings, it rises to the top of the page. Each blogger has a profile where the writer is rated. with the number of posts and popularity.

BloggersBase is hoping to monetize its platform by offering a premium user generated content discovery and delivery platform for media companies to help sift through and organize citizen journalist’s content. For example, The Jerusalem Post is using BloggerBase’s technology to power a UGC submission contest.

In theory, the idea of BloggersBase, especially when it comes to its white label offering, is attractive. There is definitely a need for a mechanism by which you can sift through the millions of blogs in the blogosphere.

But the most significant challenge for BloggersBase is the ability to consistently attract the notice of blogs and readers. Without compelling content, the site won’t draw engaged readers. Of course, with the popularity of media companies incorporating UGC into their news platforms, such as CNN’s iReport, BloggersBase could provide media companies with an alternative way to sort through content.

Funded by Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi and VoiP pioneer Jeff Pulver, BloggersBase faces competition from Digg, Helium, and Newsvine.

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As Hulu continues its spectacular rise (it is the No. 3 video site in the U.S. and is closing in on No. 2), it just got major buy-in from yet another major media company. Disney is now an investor, joining News Corp and NBC (along with private equity firm Providence Equity Partners). Each of the three media companies now reportedly own 27 percent of Hulu.

As the initial exclusivity for NBC and Fox content expires, Hulu will be adding Disney/ABC videos and TV shows to its distribution mix as well. Hulu is becoming the preferred distribution channel for the big media companies. And it is succeeding in attracting the fickle Web audience. This should worry YouTube, which is still casting about for a business model that will pay for its enormous storage and bandwidth costs. The media companies cannot ignore YouTube just yet, but by strengthening Hulu they can give it their best content first.

In the world of media companies, every new distribution window is a new opportunity to make money. So instead of thinking of the Web as one big distribution window, maybe Hulu gets first dibs at the hottest shows and movies, and then YouTube after a while. the media companies would like nothing better than to displace YouTube as the king of all Web video. And with a stake in Hulu’s success, they have even more incentive to help it win.

But if Hulu does become the de facto distribution vehicle for the media companies, the TV and movie companies who are not part of the partnership will be at a disadvantage. Companies like CBS and Time Warner have to consider joining as well. But Hulu can’t let them all in because at a certain point it will trigger antitrust concerns. So there is a limit to how dominant Hulu can become, but Hulu is still along way from getting there (Hulu streamed an estimated 380 million videos in March in the U.S., compared to 5.9 billion for YouTube). For now, merely presenting a serious challenge to YouTube is a good thing for competition and for video on the Web.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

We love our new TechCrunch world headquarters in downtown Palo Alto, and we’re working hard to fill it with smart, hardworking and fun people.

Team members needed:

Developers (2): We think it’s critical that next-generation media companies actually build product and test new apps developed by other start-ups. It gives us street cred and keeps us engaged in the community. It’s also creating new assets for our business. In the last year, in addition to launching our own CrunchBase structured-wiki product and API, Henry and Mark were some of the first developers to have access to roll out Facebook Connect, Google App Engine and Yahoo! BOSS search. And we have many more great projects ahead of us. Rails developers preferred, but raw talent and drive are most important to building out our team.

Great developer perks include our new (used) Segway, Microsoft Surface, outdoor deck, unlimited supply of caffeine, and friendly dog-wonder, tester-hacker Laguna. We also host major events throughout the year and lots of cool start-ups pass through our office every day.

Developer, Summer Intern. We have one paid internship available for a developer. Open to college students.

Our paid summer internships for CrunchBase and Events have been filled, but if you’re interested in working part-time at TechCrunch this summer for academic credit (or just great experience), please send your resume to gene [at] techcrunch [dot] com.

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Not sure who else to add to that group email? Gmail Labs now has a useful “suggest more recipients” feature that suggests contacts that you might want to include in a group email based on the people you’ve grouped together as email recipients in the past.

For example, if you often send family emails to your mother, father, husband, sister and brother, when you start composing an email to your mother and father, Gmail will suggest adding your sister, husband and brother. The feature is triggered only after you’ve added at least two recipients to the email.

To enable the feature, go to Gmail Labs and turn it on as a setting. This clever feature is just one of the many nifty innovations that has come out of Gmail Labs, including offline access, contact time zones, search suggestions, an undo button, multi-pane viewing, and many more.

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