Creativity curber. Alias Google.

Once upon a time, a journalist worth his salt wrote for "fickle readers and nitpicking editors", writes Deepak Mankar.

Grinding one's own axe is an universal trait, I reckon. When Forrester Research released 'Podcasting Hits the Charts' (Charlene Li is their principal analyst) claiming the odds against people listening to podcasts were very low at present (please see below 'TALK, TALK, TALK. Not do, do, do.'), it raised quite a storm of protests. ('Podcasts: Is Anyone Listening?') emarketer. PodTech.net founder John Furrier was quoted by WebProNews webpronews as follows: "I don't know what planet Charlene is on these days but her report on podcast adoption is way off base. I don't know why she would come out with these low numbers. My only guess is that it's typical old school research method - take a handful of people off the street and ask them if they know about podcasting…that might make her report justified." On his own site, Mr Furrier later softened his stand, saying Ms Li was "a very solid analyst." But reiterating that he didn't know "why or how she would come out with these low numbers." He estimates that around 15-20 million people are accessing podcasts on iTunes. The report under attack in fact says inter alia: "We expect MP3 adoption to be almost 11 million households in the US this year, and grow to 34.5 million households by 2010. So that means in four years, about a third of those MP3 owners will be listening to podcasts on those devices. Podcasting will get easier and the content will get better, but it will all take time." The eMarketer article goes on to clarify the situation: "While the future of original podcast programming may be in doubt, the ability to time-shift material from other channels - radio, news, webcasts - will create great a growing, perhaps vast, audience." And: "In fact most of the disagreement simply comes down [to] a difference of definition. The low numbers, such as Forrester's, refer to 'active' or 'regular' listeners (usually defined as those who listen at least one a week). The higher numbers refer to those who download podcasts at all."

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Find a new way to search. It can make you Google-worthy.

Ori Allon, an Israeli student at the University of New South Wales and Google's newest acquisition, developed an advanced search algorithm. This caught Google's and Yahoo!'s eye. Only Google managed to get its hands on Ori first. The Orion search tool, Ori's brain child, "reportedly provides text extracts for each link found with a search, showing the keywords from the query and where they are in each extract. The idea is to keep people from having to go back and forth between the search result page and each link while looking for a page that best meets the searcher's needs," explains David Utter, technology and business writer for WebProNews. He cites The Sydney Morning Herald which reported that the University of New South Wales stands to gain millions in the bargain. Apparently, the new tool does something similar to what Google Book Search - only much better: giving "the information directly and immediately … a great time-saver for users," as Allon's PhD supervisor Eric Martin at New South Wales is quoted saying in the Herald article searchnewz. Search Engine Watch's Danny Sullivan's 'guess': searchengine. Also, Andy Beal, President & CEO, Fortune Interactive ('Google Aquires (sic!) Rights To Text Search Algorithm'): searchnewz.

Creativity curber. Alias Google.

Once upon a time, a journalist worth his salt wrote for "fickle readers and nitpicking editors". Now "a third important arbiter of their work: the software programs that scour the Web, analysing and ranking online news articles on behalf of Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN," laments Steve Lohr ('This Boring Headline Is Written for Google'). And: "The search-engine 'bots' that crawl the Web are increasingly influential, delivering 30 per cent or more of the traffic on some newspaper, magazine or television news Web sites. And traffic means readers and advertisers, at a time when the mainstream media is desperately trying to make a living on the Web. So news organizations large and small have begun experimenting with tweaking their Web sites for better search engine results. But software bots are not your ordinary readers: They are blazingly fast yet numbingly literal-minded. There are no algorithms for wit, irony, humour or stylish writing. The software is a logical, sequential, left-brain reader, while humans are often right brain." QED nytimes. Andy Beal ('The Search Engines Are Killing Creativity'): searchnewz. PS: A relevant point is made by Steffen Fjaervik in his April 10, 2006 post at poynter: "I did a study for large Norwegian news site a couple of years ago, where I found that 12 per cent of the headlines appearing in lists were useless, in the sense that they did not give me a chance to decide whether I was interested or not. Displaced from the original article, they were of no value. A typical example was the headline: 'Grey Ford Escort.' That was for an article about a (wait for it...) grey Ford Escort that was missing in a criminal case." What do you think?

Talk, talk, talk. Not do, do, do.

It's a real pity, say what you may. "Everybody seems to talk about podcasts, but nobody seems to listen to them," writes Frank Barnako in his April 6, post, citing a recent report from Forrester Research that podcasts have hit the mainstream consciousness, but only 1% of US online consumers say they use them regularly barnako. "It's been months since I synced my iPod, because I'm not commuting anymore and I just don't have time to listen," is the lament of Charlene Li, Forrester's principal analyst. One probable reason: "Using podcasts remains complicated and content remains sparse," according to Forrester. (The data was collected in the third quarter of last year.) "In the past nine months, there has been a lot of publicity about podcasts, hundreds if not thousands of new shows launched and several upgrade releases of Apple Computer Inc's iTunes software. Even so, she doesn't think podcasts have become ubiquitous. "If usage has doubled or tripled, it's still a single-digit percentage," she added. forrester. (Please read her April 5, 2006 post.) Luckily for us, she summarizes the report 'Podcasting Hits the Charts' available only to Forrester clients gratis: "Podcasts have hit the mainstream consciousness but have not yet seen widespread use. One-quarter of online consumers express interest in podcasts, with most interested in time-shifting existing radio and Internet radio channels. Companies that are interested in using podcasts for their audio should focus not only on downloads but also on streaming audio as a means to get their content and ads to consumers." Li suggests an interesting use for podcasts, though: language instruction. She says she's planning to brush up "my very poor Mandarin" with podcasts from chinesepod. Well, best of luck, Charlene.

High PB. It can make a man dizzy.

No, it's not a misprint. I did not mean to write BP (Blood Pressure) and type PB instead. The initials stand for 'Phone Bill'. In this case, it's the highest in the world. $218 trillion, to be exact. Yahaya Wahab, a Malaysian from the northern Kedah state, fainted the moment he got it from Telekom Malaysia Bhd, the country's largest telecommunications company, in early April. The notice from the company's debt-collection agency virtually said: settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings. Can you blame the man for fainting promptly? 9news.

That's all for now though there's plenty more out there. Join me again next week, same place.

Copyright (c) 2001- 2006 by Deepak Mankar. All rights reserved. Deepak Mankar, an advertising practitioner on the creative side since 1965, is also intensely passionate about the web and web content creation. Read his online articles at asiaondemand.com. Website: http://www.addgandhi.com/original/. You may e-mail him at dmankar@bom8.vsnl.net.in.