Twingly Blog

Union Square Ventures were one of the participants in a newly completed round of financing of Twitter. They’re motivating their participating in an interesting article:

There is something really powerful about public, asynchronous text communications where a reply is not expected. A great example is blogging. You blog something and it’s out there on the Internet for public consumption. Others read it and they either comment or create their own blog post in reaction. Collectively, we engage in a discussion.
The asynchronous aspect of blogging is critical because “real time” conversations such as conference calls don’t scale past something like 20 people. Keeping the communication public is equally vital. When anything is made totally public with no limitations on who can participate, you create an open market for ideas, thoughts, and opinions.

Blogs and microblogging tools like Twitter and Jaiku are examples of how the Internet has created a wholly new form of communication that, by virtue of being asynchronous, allows dozens or hundreds of individuals to participate in a huge conversation without geographical limitations. It’s a possibility that’s not existed at any point earlier in world history.
Blogs and microblogs will keep evolving and remain an important feature of the online world for the foreseeable future. Having millions of people participating on equal terms in a conversation the size of the current blogosphere is something unique and as far from a passing fad as you could possibly go.

This post was written by Anton

BusinessWeek recently wrote about thirteen blogs making heaps of money. These blogs are making most if not all of their money from advertisement. We’re definitively seeing a bright future in blog advertising: it allows publishers to more accurately target their key audiences.

BoingBoing.net
Over $1M/year

ICanHazCheezBurger.com
€5600/month

3. ShoeMoney.com
$12000/month

4. OverHeardInNewYork.com
$8100/month

5. Kottke.org
$5300/month

6. TalkingPointsMemo.com
$45000/month

7. PerezHilton.com
$111000/month

8. Gothamist.com
Inkomster: $250 000 per månad

9. TechCrunch.com
Inkomster: $200 000 per månad

10. GoFugYourself.typepad.com
Inkomster: $6240 per månad

11. Mashable.com
Inkomster: $166 000 per månad

12. Problogger.net
Inkomster: “Över $100 000 per år”

13. Michellemalkin.com och HotAir.com
Inkomster: N/A

However, we believe that you’re not going to need a blog with hundreds of thousands of visitors to make money. “The Long Tail” means that the future is not to be found in the mainstream, but rather in precisely targeted audiences. Many advertisers will be better off putting their money in highly specialized blogs within their particular sector instead of paying for banners on mainstream media where only 0-2% of the audience has any genuine interest.

More:
Businessweeks article about blogs that make big business.
Businessweeks pictures of the bloggers.
New Study: Top 50k blogs had $500 million in 2006 Revenue (TechCrunch)

This post was written by Anton

With conferences and seminars taking place worldwide, Ifra is currently the leading international organization for newspapers and media. Recently there was Newsroom 2007, a conference dealing exclusively with the news desk. The lesson from this conference: traditional systems no longer work in news desks – what’s required now are systems integrating web and print for efficiency and synergy purposes.

The speakers of the conference touched upon many different subject areas. Among the speakers was Henrik PÃ¥lsson from Ericsson who spoke about the mobile phone as a new form of media. He ended his talk with a remark about paper-based news not having any place in the future:

Finally, when taking questions, Pålsson observed that of all the teenagers in focus groups in Sweden he knows none for whom paper is an important medium, and he doesn’t see that changing as they reach their 20s. In a reference to the Long Tail theory he noted that paper has its place in the long tail part of the equation (i.e. dealing with niche interests) but doesn’t see its future as being in the head (mass consumption).

Murdoch MacLennan (CEO, Telegraph Media Group) talked about four head-challenges for the future mediaactors: practice, branding, copyright and constitution. When he talked about practice he noticed blogs and podcasts as a key component.

Lamenting the traditional lack of attention paid to training journalists, MacLennan noted that blogs and podcasts are now key ingredients for correspondents following stories both far afield and close to home; hence a familiarity with the new media landscape is essential for editors

Ifra.com

This post was written by Anton

The blogosphere is growing at an incredible pace. Figures show that at the end of 2005 there were approximatly 20 millions active blogs around the globe. At the end of the second quarter 2006 that figure had grown to 40 millions and at the end of 2006 is estimated to reach 80 millions. The number of blogs worldwide is doubling every 6 months, and has done so for three years or more.

A blog has characteristics that makes it an application of its own, right beside regular homepages and e-mail. A unique feature of a blog compared to a regular homepage is the concept of time inherent in the blogosphere architecture. A blog consists of individual posts, all of which have a timestamp. A blog is thus an ordered record of the past.

A blog is a timeline

The fact that every blog is an ordered record of thoughts and opinions makes the aggregated data of many blogs very valuable. With a large amount of data from various blogs it is possible to analyze the spread of ideas and monitor the effects of a campaign or public knowledge of a brand. Without the time axis, a statistical report is just a snapshot in time. With the concept of time, a new dimension is added to the equation.

Twingly is an aggregation of the global blogosphere into a single database. The immense power of this data will be made available to our customers through a number of applications. With sustained innovation over a long period of time we are continously improving the tools available for connecting to the blogosphere.

This post was written by Bjorn