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Given Mark Zuckerberg's announcements at the Facebook F8 conference , one thing is certain: newspapers can no longer ignore Facebook's impact and reach. Whereas publishers continue to scapegoat Google for many of their current troubles, they should be equally, if not more, wary of Facebook. Whether they acknowledge it or not, newspapers are losing out to the social networking site on the fundamental fronts of community relevance, attention and information dissemination. Yet behind the perceived threat from Facebook, there is also a new opportunity for publications to achieve newfound audience relevance. Sponsor Guest author Chris Treadaway ( @ctreada ) is founder and CEO of Lasso , and author of the upcoming book Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day, an imprint of Sybex. He blogs at treadaway.typepad.com . Facebook's rise to dominance has been astounding. It is currently the most visited site in the United States, and boasts 400-plus million worldwide users. We've seen it go from a dorm room distraction to now being larger than the combined population of the United States and Mexico. With the social network claiming that roughly 70% of its user base is outside the United States, that means that there are at least 120 million Americans on Facebook today. Taken down to the local level, though, this means that Facebook might just already have more reach in the community than any other media outlet - especially local newspapers. With the unveiling of their Web-ubiquitous "Like" button and "social bar," as well as their Graph API, Facebook is now using its strengths to redefine how we interact with the Web in its entirety. So what does all of this mean for the publishing industry and for newspapers in particular? A few very important things: Facebook is now a legitimate threat to Google. It has accomplished this by changing the game from search discoverability to social context, which wasn't doable with 40 million users but is with 400-plus million users. Facebook is trying to become the first place people visit when logging into their computers every morning. The site that leads this battle carries the most online leverage, at least until it is knocked off the pedestal. Facebook is attempting to become pervasive across the entire Web, and without permission. Like it or not, site owners are going to have to deal with social media, but now in a much more pervasive way than ever before. Facebook is a competitor for the attention of local audiences. One minute spent on Facebook is a minute not spent on another Web property. Facebook will become a more interesting place as it aggregates data on what people are doing and how they are reacting to the Web as a whole, not just Facebook's network. So it isn't just necessary for media outlets to build a better Web sites anymore - they have to build engaging content that can appear on Facebook and drive value to their paper. It isn't impossible, but it has to be a priority. All of these things impact discoverability of a newspaper's content, who monetizes it and how. Those that succeed in becoming a viral Facebook content commodity will grow rapidly. Likewise, the decline of those news sources that fail to realize the necessary potential of Facebook will be swift. A deep and complete understanding of social media is necessary for publishers of any kind to modernize, grow and ultimately survive. It's becoming a necessary core competency, and fast. Yesterday, The Washington Post announced their "Network News" initiative, integrating Facebook into the paper's website. The Post's incorporation of activity from users' Facebook friends immediately creates a value of social relevance that trumps efforts like the New York Times' similar, though detrimentally insular, TimesPeople network . More importantly, however, are the possibilities such integration might provide for local newspapers. Relevance is a central theme to both the content shared on social networks and the community publication. Facebook offers those newspapers a readymade audience that is already connected to their desired local demographic. Local publications need to recognize the importance of tapping into Facebook's community, because, first and foremost, it is precisely where their readers are finding, sharing and discussing the types of pertinent content that the papers seek to champion. Newspapers no longer need traditional Web developers. Papers now need Facebook developers, experts who can partner with creative social-savvy businesspeople who know how to take advantage of the social graph. In the wake of Facebook's new features, it will not be long before newspaper and media executives are attacking and blaming Facebook for their problems in the way they do Google today. However, those publications that more progressively pursue the opportunities and value opened to them by Facebook's new tools will have a very different reaction. Photo by Michael Rogers . Discuss
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Why Newspapers Need to Heed Facebook, Now
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Our selection of the 10 most popular YouTube videos about the Web is of course based on page views. But we also filtered the results for videos that are most true to explaining the big-picture version of what the Web is. The selection includes some of the most creative ways the growth of the Web has ever been explained. The fast paced growth of the Web too often keeps us focused on the latest and greatest, to the point were we lose perspective for how the Web has changed over time. So let's take a step back and get a more culturally-oriented overview of the Web. From a 1969 film about an internet that didn't have a name , to the most recent video on the Future of Publishing - as both nostalgia and analysis, we offer you these videos to help you reflect. Sponsor Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us 10,892,454 views Internet People! 3,316,195 views History of the Internet 1,944,479 views Social Media Revolution 1,734,985 views Internet Party: When Google's parents leave town... 841,295 views 1981 primitive Internet report on KRON 643,333 views The Internet in 1969 567,941 views Web 2.0 544,862 views The Internet Stars Are Viral 434,424 views The Future of Publishing 431,759 views Discuss
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Top 10 YouTube Videos About The Web
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Cloud computing is affecting the evolution of content management systems and the manners in which data becomes a service. Business services are evolving as cloud computing forces people to think more about how information is organized and shared. At the consumer level, Apple iTunes will be replaced by cloud computing services, often referred to as online music storage lockers. People have become accustomed to using iTunes but as people get access to more data, they will find new ways to organize information. And the kids will realize how the information can be shared. Sponsor At the business level, cloud computing is having a profound effect in a number of markets. In the mapping world it's leading to new forms of content management systems that use data for specific niche purposes. Services like WeoGeo offer new forms of geo-spatial, content management systems and marketplaces that offer deep repositories of data, like a giant map case in the sky. It's in some ways like a content management system and marketplace for map makers, an age old craft now in a different dimension. Foe example, WeoGeo offers a map library and a marketplace , designed specifically for surveyors, engineers, architects, geoscientists, and cartographers. It offers both the library and the marketplace as data services, petabytes of data stored in the cloud. All of its services are available via RESTful web services. Is that a big deal? We kind of think so. Web oriented architectures require the data to be browser compatible. With RESTful, companies can create new kinds of mashups baked into a new generation of content management systems that correlate to specific communities. That's the evolution taking place. Applications that can share data through API's that provide the capability to organize new sets of data and shared in a variety of manners. The service is in contrast to what Google and Microsoft offer. Both of these companies use map data to enhance their services. They serve as ways to lock in data that they use for search and advertising. SimpleGeo is a similar service to WeoGeo but it uses geodata to makes applications more location aware. ESRI represents the old guard of the industry and is the market leader in mapping software. It's a proprietary platform. But the real future for the mapping world is in the cloud. It serves as a place that data can be served and built upon. It's also the place where markets will develop. It's like a data fabric that the map makers use to sell their works. It's a community made of developers. And that's how communities evolve. They trade between themselves, thus creating the demand. It's similar to how the publishing market evolved several hundred years ago. Book makers traded books. As more books were published, the market grew. We are in the same place with data as a service. Google and Microsoft will not and can not control the entire market. The foundation for geo market services will strengthen as its developer/small business community evolves. Its these small businesses that represent the future. Discuss
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WeoGeo: How the Cloud Makes New Markets Possible
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Excitement is building for our upcoming Mobile Summit - May 7th at the Computer History Museum. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of Mobile! As in our last event, The Real-Time Web Summit , it will be you - the attendees - who ultimately set the agenda. We will have two main tracks at this Summit, Development and Business. Here's a sample of some of the topics we'll explore in both of these tracks. Sponsor Geo-location services - what can you do using location as a platform ? Commerce & Marketing - as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel? Content, Publishing & Recommendations - the technologies and best practices. Mobile Social Networking - how to tap into communities on mobile devices. Internet of Things - the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data. Augmented Reality - the technology and business applications of AR. Native App vs. Browser Based - Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian. We already have some amazing attendees including: Deb Schultz of Altimeter group Patrick Chanezon , Don Dodge & Bob Meese of Google Matt Galligan of Simplegeo Ted Morgan of Skyhook Wireless Scott Raney & Tom Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures If you haven't already registered, please register now ! Supporting the conversation are an amazing set of sponsors who are not only committed to releasing products that are shaping the future of mobile but also supporting that conversation. Below we're announcing the first 3 sponsors of the summit. If you'd like information on joining these sponsors and supporting the upcoming mobile summit please email me . Platinum Sponsor: CallFire CallFire allows SMBs and developers to easily & cost-effectively build rich interactive phone systems. In minutes, users can create useful toll free hot-lines, send notification & emergency response phone calls, and even setup cloud call centers with agents located anywhere in the world. CallFire's text-to-speech engine lets you create database-driven appointment reminders, toll-free information hotlines & outbound power-dialing campaigns for pennies a call. Call 877.897.FIRE to learn more, or check out a video: IVR , Cloud Call Center , T oll Free Numbers . CallFire will be introducing our very own Richard MacManus for the keynote and has a surprise giveaway for all attendees of the morning keynote - so make sure you arrive early! Travel Sponsor: World Mate WorldMate, the world's leading mobile travel assistant with over 5 million members worldwide, is the official travel sponsor of the upcoming 2010 ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit. Add WorldMate to your Blackberry or iPhone today and use its powerful features to deliver an unparalleled travel experience as you make your way to the Summit on May 7th in Mountain View. WorldMate can recommend flights, hotels and ground transportation to suit your individual needs - you can even book your travel through the mobile application. Visit www.worldmate.com for more information. Lunch Sponsor: Alcatel-Lucent Application Enablement Finally, Alcatel-Lucent Application Enablement will be sponsoring the lunch at the Mobile Summit. By the way, this isn't a boxed lunch, we know that shaping the future of mobile takes energy and therefore you need good food - so we're pleased to announce the lunch will be fresh grilled made to order tacos, burritos & quesadillas. Also, while ordering your lunch make sure to drop your business card in for a chance to win one of the six iPads Alcatel-Lucent's Applicantion Enablement team will be giving away! Discuss
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Announcing First 3 Mobile Summit Sponsors
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Thanks to a deal with Apple, books from Smashwords , the e-book self-publishing service for independent publishers and authors, will be featured in the new iBookstore on the iPad. There are already about 2,000 Smashwords books in the iBookstore today and as the company's CEO Mark Coker told us, the company plans to add another 2,000 to 3,000 books in the next few weeks. Interestingly, Apple - which is famous for strictly controlling the content of the App Store - seems to be more than happy to abdicate control over the inventory in the iBookstore to its partners. Sponsor Self-Published Books in the iBooks Store: Apple's Deal with Smashwords Authors and publishers simply have to follow a straightforward set of guidelines for making their e-books iPad read. All of these are related to the formatting of the books. It's worth noting that Apple will get the same feed of books from Smashwords as Barnes & Noble , Sony and Kobo . Publishers and authors will be able to set their own prices and after Smashwords and Apple take their cut, authors will get 60% of the digital list price. Other iBooks Deals Apple has made a number of direct deals with large publishing houses to supply their books to the iBooks store. Besides Smashwords, there are currently only a few other e-book content aggregators that work directly with Apple right now. One of these is LibreDigital , which Apple has certified as a trusted e-book aggregator for the iBooks store. LibreDigial works with larger publishers and has already delivered thousands of e-books from companies like Harper Collins and Hachette to the iBooks store. Who Controls the iBooks Store? Given the vast number of books on the market, Apple obviously can't control the iBooktore to the same degree as it controls the App Store. Censoring books, too, would create a far larger outcry than banning a few apps. As far as we know, Apple is currently only filtering a few "naughty" words out of some e-books' descriptions. It is interesting that Apple is taking a very hands-off approach here, especially with regards to a self-publishing company like Smashwords. While Smashword's catalog includes a number of great books from well known authors who simply decided that they wanted to bypass the publishing industry and publish their own books, it's worth noting that Smashword's requirements for including books in the iBookstore are currently just mechanical. Are Apps Different? While it isn't linked directly from the iBookstore's homepage, it is also worth noting that a large selection of erotica is already available in the store - some are from Smashwords, but quite a few are from larger publishers like Harper Collings and Penguin as well. Apps with similar content to these books would have never made it into the App Store. What About Parental Controls? Given that parental controls on the iPad don't apply to e-books and that there is no ratings system for these texts, it'll be interesting to see if Apple will decide to create its own ratings system and force publishers to adopt this if they want to be published in the store. Apple, after all, is notorious for trying to control every aspect of the user experience on its devices. Discuss
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E-Books on the iPad: Who Controls the iBookstore's Inventory?
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