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NBC to Apple: Build antipiracy into iTunes

SAN FRANCISCO--NBC Universal would like to have its TV shows distributed once again through Apple's iTunes service, a top executive said Wednesday, but he called for antipiracy measures to help protect his business' revenue.

George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal, didn't specifically mention Apple by name in his request, but it was clear he had the iPod maker in mind when it came to combating people's consumption of pirated content.

"If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how … Read more

Understanding duplicate content: Outside view

Are you being outranked by you? Is "your" content showing up in searches, but on sites that aren't yours? Do you have multiple websites that compete against each other? Well this discussion on duplicate content from external sources should be right up your alley.

Earlier in the week, I started our discussion on duplicate content by trying to lay to rest the idea of a duplicate content penalty. Now we pick up that discussion with one aspect of duplicate content . . . content duplication from other sites.

While I'd love to start out our discussion with the idea … Read more

Symantec CEO talks ID management, the future

Predicting the future for technology and business is never easy, yet Symantec CEO John Thompson ventured into that Tuesday morning in his keynote speech at RSA 2008.

On the future, Thompson predicted three things: that malicious software will outnumber legitimate software, increasing the need for so-called white listing; that identity management will grow beyond the enterprise and start to include every customer in the world; and digital rights management will be become a reality for all content, not just music and video.

He said businesses need to start thinking about these things now. "I believe this starts with a … Read more

Modern Feed serves up the ultimate Web TV surfing tool

Last week I got a chance to meet with J.D. Heilprin, the founder and president of a new video service called Modern Feed. It's a smart product, taking hosted video programming from a variety of sources and consolidating it into a single directory that's curated by human beings. The entire experience revolves around a small navigator that sits atop your browser in its own frame. It lets you browse around playlists, search for your favorite shows, and jump around to various content providers without getting lost.

What makes the product noteworthy is that it's taken some … Read more

Duplicate content: Separating the penalty from the filter

Several weeks ago at SMX West I had the pleasure of meeting and having lunch with Brian White from Google. White works on Matt Cutts' Web spam team, tirelessly working to make Google's search results the best they can be, ensuring the best user experience. Quite a hefty task indeed.

You'd think that someone who spends his days fighting the never-ending battle that is Web spam might be a bit negative or jaded. If that is the case, he does an amazing job hiding it. Instead, he was upbeat and you could feel the excitement in his voice as he spoke. Here's a guy who loves what he's doing and truly wants to not only improve the searchers' experience on Google, but wants to make the Web a better place. You can't help but like a guy who's fighting the good fight.… Read more

Has crowdsourcing jumped the shark?

Crowdsourcing has entered the mainstream big-time. It has become daunting to find a brand these days that does NOT have some crowdsourcing program in place.

My Starbucks Idea is just the latest example: Starbucks asks its consumers for advice, and besides certainly receiving a lot of good ideas, the troubled coffee chain makes consumers feel part of the brand remake.

It's the same template as usual: engage your community, harness its creativity, and let it create the content for you.

It works, sure, but it's getting stale. For some reason, marketing trends take two to three years before … Read more

It's about the experience

So today is a special day. My father celebrates his 70th birthday — aside from my outing his birthday and age (fortunately he probably won't see this), today will be just another day for him. Needless to say, he's not one for celebration. In fact, I think he sees most days as just another day, but in a good way. Let me explain.

My father comes from a time long before the web and computers. He didn't go to college, and fortunately grew up in a day when you could do a lot more with your life without … Read more

Microformats (I): Say it in six words

Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the micro-format by asking its readers for their own six-word memoirs. Thousands submitted short life stories, ranging from the bittersweet ("Three marriages. Two divorces. BA .333"), poignant ("Look Mom: I've finally written something"), and sad ("I still make coffee for two") to the inspirational ("Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah") and aspirational ("Next Life Van Morrison Backup singer"). … Read more

Create a simple form in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Office includes industrial-strength tools for creating forms of all types, but the Access database and InfoPath information manager are overkill for my meager form requirements. If I need to collect basic information from a bunch of people in a hurry, such as for planning a potluck lunch, I stick with the simple form-creation tools in Word.

Word 2007 groups the options found on the Forms toolbar in Word 2003 into the Legacy Tools button in the Controls section under the Developer tab. These form fields are a subset of Office 2007's Content Controls, which allow you to populate … Read more