Google holds 71% of the search market; Bing, 10% (chart).

Cory Doctorow has a clear crystal ball. Earlier this month, Rupert Murdoch accused Google of stealing his content and threatened to cut the search giant off. Cory guessed that Murdoch might be angling for a search-engine payment deal: Read more…

At one minute past midnight, YouTube announced a new tool for news organizations: YouTube Direct. With this tool, Google makes it clear that it wants to nurture individual “acts of journalism” (Shirky). And in the spirit of motivated self-interest, should news organizations adopt the tool, the quality level of Google’s YouTube content can only go up.

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For those of you who are in the Twitter “retweet” beta test, I have a word of advice: proceed cautiously.

Here’s why. Currently, retweets that are executed via the Twitter web “retweet link” are visible to your followers who are using the web interface to read your tweets but are not visible to popular third party clients. Read more…

Listening to Google CEO talk about the importance of a “new platform” while noting that “enterprise-focused” engineers are a small percentage of the company’s engineering team, I flashed back to 1984.

When Apple introduced the Macintosh with that Ridley Scott commercial, the company was making a statement about the “cultural implications of personal computers.” Apple’s deliberate shunning of IT departments, Steve Jobs’ goal of democratizing technology, the 1984 slogan “The Computer For The Rest of Us”, the 1998 slogan “Think Different” — each are examples of a company positioned as the alternative to “the enterprise.” Read more…

Twitter search has a FriendFeed-like boost that will enhance its usefulness while providing context: you can see a “conversation”. This enhancement suggests Twitter isn’t going to roll over and play dead even though Google and Microsoft are elbowing their way into real-time search. It also shows us how many Tweets are one-offs (not conversations), but that’s another story.
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In the wake of DePaul University’s announcement about its forthcoming journalism class focused on Twitter, John Cook at TechFlash has written about the University of Washington’s graduate-level summer course focused on Twitter.

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In England and New York City, The Economist is testing a program where customers can order a copy of the magazine by 9 pm on Thursday and have it delivered to their home before 6 am on Friday. The price? The same as the newsstands, which don’t receive the magazine until 9 am on Friday.

According to AdAge:

New Yorkers who have signed up for weekly texts announcing each issue’s topics will also receive a URL for a web page they can visit to order the issue. [...] The Economist’s on-demand delivery service aims to make it easier for occasional readers to buy on demand. [...]

Overnighted copies cost $6.99, just like newsstand copies readers have to go get themselves. The Economist says the resulting circulation revenue is just as profitable because the delivered copies don’t require giving cuts to retailers or wholesalers.

I’m a member of the “print isn’t going away soon” school, although I also believe that digital delivery is the direction. When Kindle/Sony eReader figure out how to “loan” and “sell used” copies, then that medium will take off.

I think it’s great that TheEconomist is experimenting with new distribution models. I don’t know TheEconomist sales per issue versus sales by subscription ratio, but it would be an interesting data point. Anyone? Disclaimer: I’ve been a subscriber to TheEconomist since graduate school.

Update: Twitter Case As Countersuit

On Monday, a Chicago realty company sued Amanda Bonnen, a (reportedly former) tenant, $50,000 for libel. The cause? She posted a tweet in May that the company considers defamation:

According to the Chicago Sun Times:

Jeffrey Michael, whose family has run Horizon for more than 25 years, said: “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.”

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