WebProNews is asserting that some U.S. legislatures are enacting laws that will pose restrictions on technology that tracks user patterns online. Another survey cited indicates some 42 per cent would opt out of tracking technology if possible.
Which points to an anticipated hurdle. As technology improves access to users and understands their behaviours, so will users demand access to technology that protects them.
The Canadian newspaper industry has not experienced the same sort of economic revolution under way in the United States. Its revenue base, while not necessarily booming, isn't in the decline of its counterpart below the border. Indeed, with a wave of competition from free and niche publications, the daily newspaper has held its own as digital revenue starts to develop. A new Borrell Associates report examines the trends in online advertising. It notes whopping growth of about 50% in online advertising, but says the successes in news media are those shedding their old forms and moving into new fields. Increasingly the winners are those venturing into new product lines and breaking away from their roots. Jupiter Research has new data indicating that young people are turning to old media for their new media fix of news. A new newspaper has been launched. That in itself is an accomplishment in 2008 in America. A plug for a new site from the distinguished newspaper/online columnist Steve Outing, www.ReinventingClassifieds.com, which engages us in a conversation about how to revive the most ailing part of the newspaper business. Eric Schmidt has given an extensive interview to Frankfurter Allgemaigne organization and the Google CEO makes news in the process: If the headline is confusing, put yourself in the mind of the audience. At the risk of overworking the canine cliche, two new studies point to a transformational period in media. They indicate that print media are far from dying and that a new advertising model online isn't emerging the way people anticipated. Jakob Nielsen is the acknowledged seer on Web usability, and his Alertbox site produces and collates some of the most interesting behavioural information on browsing. |