Page views in the rear view
Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2007 12:35 PM by Will Femia
All week I've been thinking about the impact of Nielsen/NetRatings dropping the page view measure for the "time spent" measure. My first thought was that this can only make the Web better for the average surfer. Y'know how sometimes you'll go to a page with a top ten list and only get the first two before it asks you to click and view the next page? That pagination strategy is meant to drive up the page view stat for the site. As obnoxious as it seems, the system has made it necessary. The way sites are ranked and ultimately ads are sold is on page views. But the system has been gamed so hard the stats are almost meaningless. So on the surface it seems that judging a site by how long people stay on it will mean less useless clicking and more engaging content and presentation. But surely this new measure is as open to abuse as the page view system, so I'm trying to figure what the downside will be. Might a site retard page load times? Surely we'll see more video since it keeps you on a page longer (you can't even print it out to read later). I wonder if we'll see more flashy introductions to videos and interactive applications. Since we'll be seeing stats about how much time people spend online, we can probably also look forward to more "are you addicted to the Web?" stories in the news.
Speaking of the future of the Web, The future of the Web as seen by its creator - Tim Berners-Lee explains the Semantic Web.
Speaking of predicting the future of the Web, how about this look ahead from 1994? "A global electronic mall is under construction." Nah, it'll never catch on.
Speaking of a glimpse of the future, looking at the trailer for the new Blade Runner Final Cut DVD, it's amazing how this movie could totally be released today and be on par with other offerings in the genre. UPDATE: I just realized they actually are releasing this movie to theaters. Very exciting. (There are a bunch of versions of this in YouTube but I don't see an official site yet. Anyone?)
Here's one to watch if you're avoiding Summer junk TV (and if you can stand the annoying monotone and stilted cadence of Wolf Blitzer's voice): Michael Moore suffers a bit of an ambush on CNN but recovers well and ends up blasting CNN for doing a poor job covering the lead-up to the war in Iraq. If you care to follow it, Moore's put his facts on his site as promised, and there's a follow-up video here. I hear Moore and CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Gupta will be on Larry King at some point so we'll look for a bootleg of that sometime soon. (UPDATE: It's on Moore's site now. Gupta stands up for himself well.)
Watching the above, I wonder if an under-reported angle on the story of the Web media revolution is a new disrespect for being on TV. Can interviewers no longer count on the advantage of the medium's dazzling effects on their guests.
I should also add, this probably looks like some kind of Michael Moore hero worship, but to be honest I haven't seen this movie or even the last one on the war. I like that Moore is an iconoclast but I don't look to him for governance because he's a filmmaker, not a legislator. I give credit to Moore for dragging this issue onto the national radar when literally no one else has, but I don't pay very close attention to discussions of his proposed solutions because there will never be a politician bragging about co-signing the Moore Healthcare Act.
What evolution left behind on humans - Kind of a funny twist on the "left behind" title. What's most amazing to me is how many of the items on the list explain that small percentages of humans still have some of these ancient traits. The idea that we lost some of our ability to smell in the course of evolution is odd to me. What would be the evolutionary advantage of not being able to smell as well? A willingness to make with more (smellier) partners?
"The screeners at Albany International confiscated the water bottle but missed the bomb. In all, the inspectors slipped four banned items through the main checkpoint during the test, sources said."
Maybe if someone had been there to take a picture of the decoy bomb they'd have caught it.
Speaking of security and pictures, "FreedomToPhotograph.com was created to allow photographers to tell their stories about run-ins with law enforcement agencies and what really happened."
Some of the international examples on this site feel a little irrelevant but I was interested to find their pointer to this NPR piece.
Speaking of protecting us to death, Commuter Click: "I've Got Nothing to Hide" and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy - It says "short essay" but the pdf prints out to 21 pages. That includes notes, but still longer that I'd like to read off a screen.
Still on the theme of whipping ourselves into a frenzy of panic, I admit that I found James Hetfield's beard terrifying when I saw their performance in the Live Earth concert. Not because he looks like a terrorist but because it's GRAY! If the young rock star I listened to when I was a young aspiring rock star is now old and gray... terrifying. But according to widespread reports some airport security found him literally terrifying and stopped him on his way into the country.
All of the stories cite "The Times" but it took me forever to find the source. It turns out it's the very last item on this page. I'll print the whole thing and you tell me if the story is being reported correctly:
"— James Hetfield, the frontman with US metal rockers Metallica, was apparently questioned by security officials at Luton airport when arriving for the Live Earth gig at Wembley. Friends put it down to his “Taliban-like beard”. We’re thinking of a particular scene in This Is Spinal Tap."
Better picture here.
"A new scientific study concludes that changes in the Sun's output cannot be causing modern-day climate change." Not that it really matters I guess. Everyone's got their studies that show what they want to believe.
Man floats 193 miles using chair, balloons - I feel like I've heard of someone else doing this. I love how non-crazy it sounds in the article. The guy has a GPS and a parachute and snacks. What else could he need?
"To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Radiohead's OK Computer we've asked some of our favorite musicians to participate in a song-by-song covers compilation."
Giant badgers terrorise Iraqi port city - The headline should be "Irrational rumors of giant badgers..." And besides, anyone who's been around the Web for any amount of time knows that snakes are scarier than badgers.
Even seeing the name of this film (advertisement) I didn't get it until the very very end. The Wind. Brilliant.
5 news aggregation methods compared - The examples are all sports news, so sports fans who've noticed my woeful ignorance of the field might want to check it out. The overall idea is that you can take a bunch of news sources and mix them together to make one really useful, extra rich news source. The variation comes in how the sources are selected and how the mix is presented.
Civics lesson for our time: The president is not America.
Laughing at the misfortune of others video of the day. I feel somewhat justified in laughing because this morning I was walking and texting and walked into a tree branch hanging over the sidewalk. Damn near poked myself in the brain.
I haven't seen any mention of the new Harley FXCWC in any of the magazines I read (all two of them) so I think it's only recently been released. I'm still getting used to the idea of the 2007 models with the big engines and tires. Their site is a pain but if you start at the 2008 model page, pull down the softtail menu and choose the bottom item you'll see it. Or check out this big picture from this Italian review. Ladies and other small riding partners, how does that passenger seat look to you?
Speaking of motorcycles, Speedy motorcycle
Oops, one more. I agree that reverse trikes are the future. I see the T-Rex every now and then even in New York City. I'm not crazy about something that sits me at SUV exhaust pipe height, but something along the lines of this guy's motorcycle hybrid has real appeal. $35-50 grand for it is a stretch though. I wonder what that front end assembly costs alone.
Speaking of vehicles, how married are Americans to their cars? They don't even get out to play basketball.
On to other means of transport... Inside the World of Mileage Running - Wired Magazine gives the guy 500 bucks to exploit the sky miles system as best he can. "Now with more than 6,000 miles and 31 hours booked, my only problem was how to spend the other $224."
"This is apparently the new 'fun' internet thing to do. Find old videos and sync them up to new songs." The "smack my hippie" video he mentions is this (no actual hippie smacking). The original for that is here in case you've never seen it. Apache!
A letter to Optimus Prime from his Geico Auto Insurance agent
Creepy hand soap - There's probably a funny Photoshop contest in this: literal interpretations of products with body part names. Skin lotion? Tooth paste?
Did you see the story of the 10,000 year-old baby mammoth found? Does it just go without saying at this point that there's no chance of there being DNA for cloning in something like that? The article doesn't even mention it. I must be the only one who thinks "Jurassic Park" every times something is found sticking out of a melting ice cap.
"Fat from the tummy or bottom could be used to grow new breasts in a treatment which could be carried out in an hour - or a lunch break." Scoff if you must, but you know the only thing that's going to give stem cell research a real push is if there's a pot of gold at the end in the form of bigger breasts and penises. Personally I'm holding out for stem cell injections in my scalp to bring back my widow's peak.