Google taking steps to block content farms

SEARCH ENGINE LAND: Google has fired a warning toward “content farms” — you’re in our anti-spam sights in 2011. READ MORE>

That message was made loud and clear in Matt Cutts’ blog post today, a post in which Google also says its search quality has improved due to new spam fighting techniques.

Cutts points out that Google has already taken steps against content farms (which he defines as “sites with shallow or low-quality content”), pointing out the so-called “Mayday” update and other algorithmic tweaks made last year. But he also promises a renewed effort in 2011:

Young people not the web wizards of legend

DER SPIEGEL: Manfred Dworschak hits the nail on the head with some wry, research-based observations about young people and Web 2.0. This is the intro to his recent feature, The Internet Generation Prefers the Real World, in the magazine’s English edition:

They may have been dubbed the “Internet generation,” but young people are more interested in their real-world friends than Facebook. New research shows that the majority of children and teenagers are not the Web-savvy digital natives of legend. In fact, many of them don’t even know how to google properly.

Hat tip: Jim MacMillan

How Google works – the graphic

JIM TUCKER: For those who wondered how Google works, take a look at this graphic. Thanks to Julie Starr (Evolving Newsroom) for alerting us.

Infographic by PPC Blog

‘Living Stories’ is there for the taking

By Virginia McMillan

Google has made available the code behind its Living Stories project to anyone wanting to present news and features on single issues as they develop over time.

Auckland’s Super City springs to mind. Perhaps I’m not the only online reader who sometimes wishes for more context to a developing story.

This example shows the Living Stories approach has potential to make updates meaningful, with lots of linking, timelines, and a choice of views by type of story. The theme is educational reform but online media could also present all their “rounds” in this way if they chose.

Much more use would need to be made of photography,  infographics,  video and audio than is the case here, but it’s a platform up-and-coming online publishers may want to consider. That’s if there are more waiting in the wings in these uncertain economic times.

Google’s nerds breathe life into news presentation

By Virginia McMillan

GOOGLE is leading the way again – this time, suggesting online news sites organise and display particular stories in one place, and in many ways, as they unfold.

With The Washington Post and The New York Times, Google has constructed a one-page, one-story, many media approach to journalism: Living Stories.  It seems, once again, the nerds have a lot to teach the journos about making our content work.

The Google Living Stories approach looks promising and challenging, demanding much more attention to sequencing – ie, point-and-click for background on the same page rather than add it to every story and dish it up on a mixed news page.

The “living story” approach demands summaries that clarify the significance of new developments.

The living story also links all the varied types of material (including opinion pieces, source materials, multi-media) on the one subject in the one place. An example is this health-reform page. The design isn’t exciting, yet, but over all this is great stuff. It seems likely to make good journalism costlier to present – reinforcing the need for staff with sub-editing as well as HTML skills. In some cases, the idea may also help news outlets develop online content for which the public will pay.

And Bing was its name-o

By Virginia McMillan

I CAN’T say that I want Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Microsoft to force me to make Bing a regular part of internet life. Is this the best the two giants can come up with to get reach and revenue?

I searched for NewsWire on Google (New Zealand) and it was the top-ranked site; Bing couldn’t find us in its first 20 returns… It’s not the only “fail” I’ve had using Bing.

I am amazed that Murdoch appears to consider his media empire can do without Google. The strategy, explained here by columnist Dan Kennedy  in The Guardian, goes against the inherent chaos of the internet and Google’s excellence at navigating its (almost) entirety.

Perhaps free, easily searchable content is the wrong model for mass media (and I am not so sure about that). But even then, it doesn’t mean making the content harder to find is the right model.

Then again, I might be struck down by lightning, and Bing might overwhelm Google in popularity in the next few years.  Stranger things have happened.