Ultra-geeky and venerable tech news site Slashdot will have its job listings powered by JobThread, a company that provides the site publisher with the turnkey software in exchange for a piece of the classified action.

JobThread CEO Eric Yoon told WebProNews in a phone call that website owners who want a job board desire one that can be tailored to their users. The broad approach of a one-size-fits-all job site like a Monster or a CareerBuilder does not provide the same experience.

The most recent convert to the JobThread experience, Slashdot, recently debuted its jobs site. Visitors can browse through jobs placed by companies like Cisco and others, or search through the site's listings by job title and location.

JobThread has a straightforward business model for sites like Slashdot, VentureBeat, and Salon. The site sets the rate for placing a classified on its site. The site publisher and JobThread split the revenue 50/50.

Currently, Slashdot has about 150 listings available through its JobThread classifieds, at $400 per 30-day listing. That's $60,000, divided evenly between Slashdot and JobThread. That should help cover Slashdot's expenses for fixing a posting bug on the site.

A couple of advantages should be evident. JobThread provides a monetization option for sites that does not involve banners, text ads, or other intrusive marketing. Also, people who visit those classifieds do so by choice, making them more valuable to a recruiting firm.

Since the website has done the work needed to draw in a person who likely fits a desired background for a job, the person should be a better candidate. Enough quality leads should bring in repeat business for the site publisher.

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Tag: JobThread

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It's always been relevancy that drives the efficacy of search - that's a no-brainer, and the reason Google is king of general search. But because that search is general, riffraff makes its way into the results, sometimes old riffraff, which is the very foundation for the rise of vertical, or niche, search engines.

Take, for example, a Google search for [brittle bone disease]. Google does a nice job of bringing up alternative and supplemental results, and the first few results are quite relevant.

But note also a BBC article link from 2004, a badge of slightly dated information, which isn't exactly what a medical researcher wants.

It's a minor issue, but it demonstrates that there is room to improve both in timeliness and category. We've also learned recently that three-quarters of American Internet users (100 million adults) inherently trust the source they've found online, without taking the time to vet the information.

When I was in college, the Internet had just become a grand public experiment - Website directories were still in phonebook format then. Echoing what are now mainly the chief criticisms of Wikipedia, professors shunned any information that could only be found online. You didn't really know where it came from.

And that risk is still there, even if to a lesser degree. The Internet is becoming, at least somewhat, self-correcting with the advent of user-generated media and search engines that can squirrel out subject-matter experts. But again, growth from here will be found in the gaps.

Do another search for [brittle bone disease] at Healthline.com. Like Google, except with more emphasis, Healthline provides the medical terminology Osteogenesis Imperfecta via its "Medically Speaking" function. But directly beneath are four links to articles penned in-house and vetted by doctors.

These sources receive a "trust mark" to indicate that the information checks out. Below those results, are Web results - well, not the whole Web. Healthline searches about 170,000 selected medical Websites.

"Originally (when it was YourDoctor.com), doctors created content for the Health Map," said Healthline.com vice president of sales and marketing, Bill McGee. "It was originally a content site, but it was very expensive to maintain the staff of doctors and editors for that."

And thus was born a medical search engine with verified information results. Healthline provides a pretty good case study for an examination of the potential for vertical search. But also, vertical search becomes a base for directly marketing to people with a stake in your product.

McGee says Healthline can't create enough ad inventory for the pharmaceutical companies. Centers that offer body scans or diagnostic labs, he says are "willing to pay a bounty" to bring in customers. "Cost-per-call is going to be very big in a world where people would pay to connect with customers."

But this vetted-source vertical search thing isn't the end-all of potential. Imagine, to stay with a medical theme, a user-generated network in conjunction with this service where patients review and rate specific doctors, hospitals, clinics, et cetera.

Healthline doesn't offer this…yet…but I think I may have given them an idea.

"With healthcare costs, indices are going to be more important," said McGee. He continued my train of thought to a Web-destination that included prices of certain procedures.

On a side note, McGee says the price of a procedure isn't always reflective of its quality. A hospital running a half-price bypass operation is usually one that has so much experience and business, it can afford to discount.

Tag: Vertical Search

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Candidates for political office often run advertisements that portray opponents in a damaging light. Likewise, bloggers are beginning to take an increasing amount of liberty in their negative portrayal of certain individuals who are viewed as influential throughout the blogosphere.

Most would think that since Election Day has passed, the practice of mudslinging would begin to die down.

… don't tell that to Loren Feldman.

The outspoken head of production for 1938 Media has made some waves in recent weeks with his sometimes heated, often satirical criticisms of what many consider to be some of the blogosphere's most influential players.

First, let's consider the much maligned PayPerPost and the subsequent surrounding the company's payment-for-blogging model. Jason Calacanis goes on the record repeatedly as an opponent of PayPerPost, even labeling the company as "stupid and evil".

Feldman, however, had some choice words for Calacanis in an October 23rd video blog entry. He responded to Calacanis' criticism of PayPerPost by retorting, "What people want to do with their blog is their own (expletive) business."

Offering guidance to PayPerPost, Feldman advises the company to "…tell [Calacanis] to (expletive) and get out of your office!"

Clearly, Loren Feldman isn't afraid to say what's on his mind.

A week later, Feldman introduced a new show, entitled Jason's Place, in which he pokes even more fun at Calacanis. This time however, Feldman didn't limit his ribbing to the Weblogs, Inc. founder, but also drew blogosphere darling Robert Scoble in to the fray.

When I asked Robert for his taken on it, he told me, "I thought it was funny."

Calacanis, however, would seem to be less jovial in his attitude toward Feldman's criticisms, as multiple attempts to contact him for a response have went unanswered.

Feldman's venomous volleys, however, haven't been limited to just Calacnis. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has felt the sting of his video antics as well.

So what is point of all this mockery? Well, other than my personal amusement, I believe it all hinges around the concept of blogosphere politics.

Bloggers, like politicians, serve a constituency. For most politicians, it takes years of careful planning and perfectly executed strategy in order to build a solid constituency of voters.

In the same respect, bloggers are always looking to add to their viewership; and election results are tallied in terms of page clicks and community feedback rather than raw voting numbers.

So while Feldman's tactics could be perceived as underhanded, he is accomplishing his goal. More people are taking note of 1938 Media and his video blog.

Is it moral? That's debatable.

Is it effective? Most definitely.

Tags: Jason Calacanis, Loren Feldman, 1938 Media, Michael Arrington, Robert Scoble, Blogosphere, Politics

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With the less than stellar results companies have seen from the ability to download television shows, rock clips, and other video entertainment onto portable consumer electronic devices, video sharing on cellular phones is gearing up to be the next possible rage.

Spearheading the future of this once science fiction-like technology is not surprisingly, YouTube, the ultra-successful consumer Internet media company where ordinary folks watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.

It should be no secret to industry watchdogs by now that consumers would rather watch and share videos with family members, friends, and even strangers(!) instead of catching the latest episode of C.S.I. on their laptop or cell phone. (Could it have something to do with the tiny screens and being in areas where the viewer can't fully devote all of their attention span to longer programming?)

Recent studies have concluded that consumers would really prefer to share vacation moments, baseball games, concert events, family barbeques, and other slice-of-life events with each other more than anything else, especially if these convenient features were available on cellular phones. It's the next natural step of evolution for cell phones that have picture taking and sharing capabilities.

Moblogging, by definition, is the combination of the words "mobile" and "weblog." A mobile weblog, or moblog, consists of content posted to the Internet from a mobile or potable device, such as a cellular phone or PDA. Moblogs generally involve technology which allows publishing from a mobile device.

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley recently announced that the video-sharing site will allow users to send clips to other YouTube members within a year, according to a Reuters report. (YouTube users already can upload clips from their phones to the company's site and then watch from their personal computers.)

Although it's obvious that consumers have the desire to use video-sharing capabilities on cell phones, the big question will ultimately be how many people actually take the initiative to do this. According to data, only 50 percent of U.S. mobile phone subscribers that have cameras in their phones actually use them. And many more people find all the extra ‘bell and whistle' devices added to phones difficult to use and cumbersome in many cases. Another barrier right now is that less than 3% of cell phone users use the (limited) video recording capabilities of their devices.

Despite the obstructions that might be there to overcome, YouTube is not the only company venturing into moblogging territory. MobiTV landed $30 million dollars more of funding at the beginning of November to jump into the race and Alex Kelly, the CEO of startup company Veeker has already unrolled a service that lets consumers ‘write' video clips taken with their cell phones, eventually getting them onto websites where "video voicemails" can be retrieved by friends and family.

Other companies such as Tiny Pictures and JuiceCaster (aiming their product at college students who want to stay in touch with each other through moblogging, kind of akin to a video version of Facebook) are also joining the cell phone ‘video-on-demand' party, and there's sure to be more to come with the certainty that this is something every consumer wants and needs.

The big thing to watch, as this moblogging technology evolves, will be who (or what company) actually comes up with the first mass produced person-to-person live video-feed cell phones. It can't be that far off… "Kirk to Enterprise…Scotty, please beam me up now!"

Tag: Moblogging

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Knowing that their online video service could not compete with YouTube, Google purchased the company to eliminate competition. They received a surprise bonus in the form of copyright infringement lawsuits filed by owners of pirated videos.

In a quarterly filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, Google revealed that they were currently involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit. However, they did not disclose the identity of the party, or parties, that filed the lawsuit.

Google purchased YouTube last month for a reported $1.65 billion after realizing that their efforts to compete with the online video were in vain.

YouTube was conceived only a year ago, and gained iconic status in pop culture thanks to its cult-like following of viewers. They had even already signed agreement with three of the largest music labels in the world: Universal Music, Sony BMG, and Warner Music.

YouTube also fielded countless videos from online contributors, some of which was not actually owned by them. So subsequently when Google purchased YouTube they purchased their copyright infringement lawsuits. Google expected the lawsuits because of the numerous videos from pirated sources as well material, which were owned by others.

Representatives from Google have not released the names of the parties involved in the lawsuit and have yet to make any comments.

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In a major screw-up that has nothing to do with Tequila, Google sent out the Kama Sutra worm to 50,000 video email subscribers. The worm also known as W32/Kapser.A@mm was mistakenly sent by Google's video team on Tuesday night.

In an apology post on their video blog site they said this "Still, some of these posts may have contained a virus called W32/Kapser.A@mm -- a mass mailing worm. If you think you have downloaded this virus from the group or an email message, we recommend
you run your antivirus program to remove it.

If you do not have an antivirus program, you can download Norton Antivirus software for free from the Google pack, http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?nopers
We're sorry for any inconvenience, and we're taking steps to ensure
that this doesn't happen again. "

Google uses the emailing list to alert subscribers of entertaining videos that are posted on their video blog site. The email alerts are sent by a small group of Google employee's known as the Google Video Team.

It is unclear how the malware got distributed to the subscribers. According to a pcworld.com article Google has taken precautions to prevent this from happening again.

This is definitely not good news for Google. It does not encourage one to want to sign on to be on their video blog mailing list. One positive for subscribers is that the Kama Sutra worm is generally blocked by most antivirus software.

These kinds of mistakes are not uncommon. Almost on a weekly basis there is a story of some type of security breach of people's personal information being lost or stolen.

Security and privacy remain serious issues. What can be done to prevent these kinds of attacks from occurring is something that is still not fully perfected and may never be a reachable goal.

Maybe Google did learn something from this mistake, maybe not. Risk is a reality for all Internet users.

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You would think an epic battle was being fought if you listened to the hype being generated about Microsoft releasing an "equivalent" to Apple's iPod. Who will win the war of the digital music players: iPod or Zune?

On November 14th, the world will finally see if Microsoft has created a superior product to Apple. Microsoft's answer to the iPod, Zune, has created a quite a buzz among skeptics and the curious public since the announcement of the device.

It would seem that iPod is the monopoly in portable music players, controlling 70 percent of the market. So why then would anyone attempt to compete with device? Microsoft is competing simply for capital gain, of course. Since it's release five years ago, Apple has sold over two million iPods and made a tremendous profit.

Other companies have attempted to compete with the iPod and capitalize on its popularity by introducing their own versions of portable music players. So far none have even come close to being competition, but Microsoft apparently felt they could create a rival product that was equivalent to the iPod.

Critics do not seem to think that Zune has much of a chance either. "I'm very skeptical about its ability to take hold in a market that already has a dominant player. It doesn't feel disruptive enough to gain a foothold," said Ted Schadler, a Forrester analyst.

Skepticism aside, it is time for Zune and iPod to put on their gloves and step into the ring to battle it out for the title of the superior product. This article will compare the features and services of both Zune and iPod in their 30G versions.

On the issue of price Zune is barely ahead of iPod currently because of a recent price reduction. The price of Zune was originally reported at $284 and then dropped to $229 after iPod's price was lowered to $249. The cost was determined to attempt to market to a college-aged demographic.

Zune wins again in screen size, boasting a 3" screen while the iPod only has a 2.5" screen. However, both devices have the same resolution meaning that while the Zune screen may be bigger the picture is more pixilated because it is stretched.

However the iPod is light and slimmer than Zune and is also the clear winner in the category of battery life with 14/4 hours, over Zune's 12.

Zune has three more advantages over iPod: FM radio capability, WiFi connectivity, and music download prices. iPod does not have FM radio or WiFi capabilities and its songs cost 99 cents a piece to download. Zune has a pay-per-month downloading plan, which allows customers to download as much music as they wish.

Microsoft made a valiant effort with Zune, but iPod knocked it out in the end. iPod wins in all major, and technical categories such as OS support of both Windows and Mac and has an easy to use click wheel for navigating the device. Also iPod is most definitely the standard in portable music players and most definitely has longevity. With it's Pod Casts, iTunes, and online communities. iPod also has far more features and capabilities than Zune.

Perhaps Zune and iPod will have a rematch in the future, but for now the fight between heavyweight champion iPod and featherweight Zune just does not seem fair.

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The burning question, as Internet giants make a ritual of dining on user-generated startups, is about whether this bubbly climate can continue, and what, exactly, makes a good candidate for acquisition.

Google made two very different acquisitions in the span of a month: YouTube, a runaway video success, serving up 100 million videos daily; and JotSpot, a small wiki startup. And, according to analysts, we can expect more of the same from the big guys at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Fox, IAC, and eBay.

So what gives? What makes YouTube and Skype worth billions, and why do small startups attract the big player attention as well? Is this another bubble? If so, how is it different from the one that burst just over half a decade ago?

Jon Silvers, director of marketing for Atlassian, a proprietary wiki company and JotSpot competitor, says it most certainly is a bubble, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

"It's a bubble insofar as there's more hype than reality. It's different than in the late 90's, because the technology then was often vaporware, whereas the stuff being developed today works," said Silvers. The obstacle, he says, will be creating simple user interfaces that mesh well with other technology standards.

In Google's hands, JotSpot will be transformed into a far-reaching, publicly accessible Web-based wiki, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.

This transition, according to another JotsPot competitor, Ross Mayfield of SocialText, will leave many of JotSpot's larger enterprise customers, who prefer to keep their company wiki behind the firewall, in "a spot." As soon as the JotSpot deal hit the wire, SocialText and Atlassian offered a free migration to their services.

"When Google acquires a company, it freezes all innovation for about six months," said Mayfield in a phone interview. "We've been migrating users from their appliance to ours, to help them 'get out of a spot.'"

But what's the motivation to buy a high profile company or to buy a smaller, lesser-known company? For the YouTubes out there, where mammoths are willing to fork out hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, experts agree that some acquisitions are part of a grander mind game.

Cliff Kurtzman, CEO of ADASTRO Incorporated and Executive Director of MyCityRocks, a "social engagement" startup seeking to connect local grassroots communities with businesses and organizations through local concerts, said Google bought YouTube "for psychological reasons."

"In most cases," said Kurtzman, Google's in a position where it can act flamboyantly." But the real Web 2.0 targets won't be the billion dollar memetic runaways. The real targets will be the smaller companies with great concepts, the tools to implement them out of the box. That's attractive because companies like Google don't have to build anything in-house.

Silvers agrees with Kurtzman in that Google's motives involve a certain amount of keeping up with the Yahoos. "I think Google, et al., are competing for mindshare as much as anything. The YouTube acquisition is like Yahoo's acquisition of Broadcast.com."

He pointed out that Microsoft and Yahoo both already have wikis in their arsenal. "[Google] got JotSpot for a steal," he said. "Those guys are really bright and energetic. The built a great product."

Plus, smaller companies can afford to take the risk on their concepts, perhaps more so than larger ones, who have brands and images to think about.

"In this industry," said Kutzman, "it only takes six months to a year to get a site going." But, he says, the larger players should focus on the small ones. "If they fail, they're coming out ahead anyway. "Those big acquisitions should be few and far between."

Instead, he says, the Googles of the world should continue picking up strong companies like Applied Semantics and Keyhole, smaller companies that later became smash successes like AdSense and Google Earth.

"There's a lot of pressure, particularly on Yahoo," said Kurtzman. "I wouldn't be surprised to see Yahoo make some big plays. They have a bad history, like with their acquisition of Geocities, so I can understand them being cautious."

In the end, the most successful startups will add value to Web 2.0 by meaningfully improving the way people and businesses communicate. "We are in a cycle of activity where the emphasis is starting to shift from those who create Web 2.0 networking environments to those who demonstrate how to use those environments to actually enrich people's lives."

Tag: Google, Mergers and Acquistions

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In a major screw-up that has nothing to do with Tequila, Google sent out the Kama Sutra worm to 50,000 video email subscribers. The worm also known as W32/Kapser.A@mm was mistakenly sent by Google's video team on Tuesday night.

In an apology post on their video blog site they said this "Still, some of these posts may have contained a virus called W32/Kapser.A@mm -- a mass mailing worm. If you think you have downloaded this virus from the group or an email message, we recommend
you run your antivirus program to remove it.

If you do not have an antivirus program, you can download Norton Antivirus software for free from the Google pack, http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?nopers
We're sorry for any inconvenience, and we're taking steps to ensure
that this doesn't happen again. "

Google uses the emailing list to alert subscribers of entertaining videos that are posted on their video blog site. The email alerts are sent by a small group of Google employee's known as the Google Video Team.

It is unclear how the malware got distributed to the subscribers. According to a pcworld.com article Google has taken precautions to prevent this from happening again.

This is definitely not good news for Google. It does not encourage one to want to sign on to be on their video blog mailing list. One positive for subscribers is that the Kama Sutra worm is generally blocked by most antivirus software.

These kinds of mistakes are not uncommon. Almost on a weekly basis there is a story of some type of security breach of people's personal information being lost or stolen.

Security and privacy remain serious issues. What can be done to prevent these kinds of attacks from occurring is something that is still not fully perfected and may never be a reachable goal.

Maybe Google did learn something from this mistake, maybe not. Risk is a reality for all Internet users.

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In the world of E-commerce, everyone in the business of hawking something on the Web, big or small, knows how important Keywords and Search Engines can be in leading prospective customers to their website.

The latest unofficial tally is that Web users conduct over 500 million searches a day (who knows how they calculate such numbers), and that the number continues to rise. Success used to be defined for many companies as being listed among the first five or ten listings on a Google or Yahoo keyword search, but with so much competition and so many new search engines popping up, remaining at the top of the search pack seems to be getting more and more difficult.

Keyword research is the process of figuring out what key words potential customers will enter into various search engines, hopefully leading them to your company as opposed to a competitor. Websites should be search engine optimized (SEO) for key words that are regularly used by prospective customers on all of the search engines. This includes having company key words integrated into copy, page titles, link text, and other website elements.

Greg Jarboe is a well-known trailblazer in the field of using SEO in combination with press releases for news search engines and also the co-founder of SEO-PR. In a recent interview about news search engines, Jarboe mentioned a MarketingSherp press release that challenges web-based businesses to "optimize press releases for news search engines, going beyond the basics of editing your copy for the news search engines and distributing your press release on one of the wire services that get crawled by Google News and Yahoo News."

MFP LLC recently announced the launch of WordZe, its professional keyword research tools. According to the MFP press release, WordZe "offers search engine optimization specialists and SEO firms innovative keyword tools that are 20% to 35% cheaper than most keyword research services."

WordZe compiles daily, weekly, and monthly search terms from internet portals, and ISP logs all across the globe. It also provides a large collection of search engine optimization tools to help you estimate the market value of keywords and competition.

As the Internet continues to grow and expand, more and more companies will be coming up with ways to help web-based businesses stand out and rank high on search engine results, but there's no doubt that business owners must stay updated on the rapidly changing technology and tools that can assist them in their plight.

Tag: Keyword Search Engines

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