Newsday (LI) Drops Paywall Temporarily

On occasion, I think we all check on the news in a place we used to live.

For many years, Long Island's Newsday was, in large part, the primary newspaper for those who lived in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

I grew up reading it .... as did my parents and grandparents.

Newsday has changed hands a few times over the years and some time ago became one of the first major newspapers in the nation to put up a paywall. (IE: If you wanted to read it online, you had to subscribe).

Those of you that have read my stuff know how I feel about monetization via paywalls (except in certain circumstances).  Newsday (and their advertisers) lost this guy's business when the paywall went up a while back ... and it wasn't too difficult to find alternate sources.  In fact, a few entrepreneurs found opportunity and started brand new websites.

This evening, I was curious about how Long Island was doing with the first major snowstorm in a while.  I was also curious if Newsday would drop the paywall during an emergency (for visitors and others?!).

I wandered over to Newsday.com to find the site wide open.

The photos were good.  The copy was (very) current.   Overall the paper looked great ... online.

The official explanation had nothing to do with a pending emergency:

"Enjoy open access to the new Newsday.com until January 7, 2011, courtesy of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular".

Cablevision's News 12 (which still has it's paywall in place) can also be viewed live (and open) via a link at the bottom of the Newsday main page.

I'm writing this piece not only for those that might be interested in the weather (and airport) coverage .... but also because if enough people point to this (Tweet it?), maybe, just maybe, the Cablevision / Newsday Interactive oligopoly might just realize how many pageviews the site is capable of ... without the paywall.

I'm not hopeful considering the past, but for now, if you're stuck on Long Island (all the major New York area airports are closed at this hour) or you're just curious, Newsday and the live feed from News 12 Long Island can be found here.

Merry Christmas (and Changing Times)

I just took a look at the site analytics for this blog, that I started back when 'early adopter' was a relatively new phrase.

Given the fact that I haven't had time to update it as often as I used to, I was surprised to find that over 90 per cent of you (recently) have been new visitors.  (So much for 'sticky' ? :)

That's a long road from when it was the complete opposite and SEO and Tech Daily had a 'regular following'.

First .... welcome!  I hope you'll find something here occasionally that you find interesting (or just makes you smile :)

2010 was a year of hyper change on the Internet and all industries effected directly or indirectly by the web.  Governments, Social structures and Businesses everything literally ran to adapt and ...

..... There are more websites and blogs (and others) trying to get your pageviews than ever before.

That has never been a real mission here.

Originally the blog was started to re-brand my own name after having spent over 5 years very quietly doing in-house SEO.

Then came Friendfeed (now owned by Facebook) and a community that I truly believe has yet to be rivaled in it's intimate networking by like minding people.  Friendfeed has changed since it's acquisition but suffice to say I met more of you (electronically or in person) there than on any other Web 2.0 start-up, rivaling only going personally to a conference or meeting.

Two years ago, I made a career switch (Think that's easy at 54 ?? :), but I continued to self-educate myself on the rapid changes on the Internet and tech in general ... something I've done my whole life.

If I write something here now, it's either some sort of experiment, or because the fact is, that I simply enjoy doing it, and, over the years, so many of you have dropped e-mails that just make me feel good.

I continue to prognosticate occasionally, or report unreported news.  I also still maintain a few legacy accounts ... people or companies that I just LOVE helping out.

So there's a very brief update.  No Year in Review (yet?!) ... No Negative or title-blazing stuff.

Just Thanks ...

.. to the many of you ... way to many to count ... that have been part of my tech life one way or another or contributed to this blog in some way since it's launch.

From my family to yours ..

Happy Holidays .... and many years of health and happiness!

Your friend,
Charlie

Paid (Promoted) Tweets Move to More Clients

Twitter's first attempt at monetization is called 'promoted Tweets'.

Paid trends that usually appear in the top ten with a defining label.

It started with the Twitter home page (both new and old versions) and the popular Twitter client Hootsuite.

It appears the Adobe Air version of Tweetdeck has joined the fray this morning, automatically turning on Worldwide Trends for some users including promoted Tweets.

A screenshot from earlier this morning appears below.

Google Sends Mass Thank You E-Mail and 20 Million for Charity

Checking my Gmail tonight, I came across this:

Well, you're welcome Google, and even though my wife is going through the same thing that Kristine Gray is going through, we're very happy to be part of your success ... and certainly grateful that you were able to give $20 million to various charities in 2010.

It's an exciting (and challenging) time for the web.  It's been a fun ride, and I, for one, can't wait for the next chapter.  I don't ever remember technology and communications changing at this pace, and the success and failure stories that have come along with that change.

I should point out that the link in the e-mail goes here.

Enjoy .....

.... and the Happiest of Holidays to readers of this blog and the occasional others I contribute to ....

Together, we ALL can make a difference.

A Significant Windows Update Later Today

Users of Microsoft operating systems and software will be receiving some significant security updates later today.

Most users with Windows Update (or Microsoft Update) set to auto-update will likely be prompted to re-boot sometime Tuesday (as some of these updates effect core OS components).

17 bulletins, addressing a variety of security issues, will be patched on current and some supported legacy operating systems.  The December version of the 'Malicious Software Removal Tool' will also be part of this package.

Office and SharePoint products are on the complete list, which can be found in the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for December here.

Microsoft Montage Takes a Direct Shot at Paper.li

Microsoft's latest from Fuse Labs was introduced at LeWeb.

It's a personal aggregator that you can set up and publish to the web dubbed Montage.

Personal web-based aggregators are nothing new but they've have been maturing.

In the right column of this blog you can click through to my own 'personal collection' at my.alltop.com, created just after the service was introduced. (Admittedly, it hasn't been refined in months but still serves a purpose for me).

The most talked about personal aggregator in past months and weeks has been Paper.li.  LOTS have already been set up an are posting updates to Twitter.

It's notable that Guy Kawasaki maintains an interest in both Alltop and Paper.li.  Kawaski has shown a keen interest in 'online magazines'.

I wandered though the Montage Gallery this morning.  The tech crowd, as can be expected, have already created more than anyone else.  It's a interesting journey and can be found here.

Take the ride.  See what you think.

Great Weekend All
Charlie

Firefox Updates to Version 3.6.13

Firefox users should check their latest version number if they haven't been auto-updated.

Earlier today, Mozilla released the latest stable version of Firefox, now version 3.6.12 .

This latest version fixes a variety (over 50) of security and stability issues.

Simply tap 'Help' at the top of the browser then 'Check for Updates' in Windows.

Linux and Mac users can find the latest version of Firefox here.

The Year in Review - According to Google (Updated)

A short time ago, Google posted a new video to YouTube.
As of this writing, it's only had about 300 views so it's pretty 'fresh'.

Sort of Google - ized Year in Review 2010 ... (so far).

I found it interesting, disturbing, thought provoking ... and actually pretty good considering it's short length.

Thought you might too.

The first of many I'm sure. Google's version of 2010 is here:





Update: Apparently this post was a touch premature.

More on Google's Zeitgeist 2010 video has now been posted to the Official Google Blog here.

Update 2: Google apparently changed the 'embed code' earlier today.  The video is now back above.

The NY Times Best Seller List and The Best of the FREE

Earlier in the week, I noted the opening of the new web-based Google Book Store.

Since then, Google has hit the web with a barrage of announcements.

The difference, this time, is that Google is delivering stuff you can use right now.
Some fun ... some productive ... and some simply mind-boggling.

I'm the first to admit I stayed up late (very late) last night with Canary messing with various apps in the new Google Chrome WebStore.

Previous to that, I had been dual-booting the closest thing to an easy, out-of-the-box simplified Linux (Ubuntu) based product, Jolicloud (who notably, yesterday, released their much improved Version 1.1).

Jolicloud is probably the closest thing you can find right now to the upcoming Google Chrome OS but Google has chosen (for now) to stay hardware specific, which should, after some testing, make it MUCH faster.

I'm pretty much thinking the 'cloud' is coming home in 2011 (and NOT liking the way Microsoft appears to be attempting to brand the term "to the cloud" in it's TV commercials).

But I digress?

Back to the title.

Unlike my late Grandfather, my Mom ... and my daughter, I've never been much of a book reader.  No doubt I've missed a lot .... but with the attention span of a hamster, it's always put me off.

Revisiting the Google Book Store this evening, I noticed two cool changes on the greeting page.

The NY Times Best Seller List is there.  It was kind of sad to see Elizabeth Edward's book being discounted.

The next section was the 'Best of the Free'.

I paged through and one notable title was Moby Dick.  There were others, most in their original typeface (cool stuff).

It's never too late for a little catching up.

A vision that others have tried and ailed in the past is here.

I might just curl up later ... with my laptop ... and a good book.

If you missed the first post, be sure and checkout the Book Store here (as well as the online reader).

Kudos to Mountainview this time around.

Just great stuff.

Period.