Here’s another article from the NY Times breathlessly hyping the wonder of the e-book. I still don’t buy it. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to lug around one more electronic device, or curl up on the sofa with a radiation-emitting ”book.” The article does mention that many people are using new applications on their iPhones to read e-books, which makes more sense. Still, this sounds like a commuter phenomenon more than anything else.
OK, I’m off my e-book soap box just in time to ring in a new year. 2008 has been one heck of a ride in more ways than one. Here’s to success, health and happiness in 2009!
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With the increasing popularity of online news sources and the slow, downward spiral of newspapers, can we assume that online content is about to kill print books, too? A lot of people think so, thanks to the success of Amazon’s electonic book, Kindle. At the end of November, Amazon was apparently telling customers it would take 11-13 weeks to fulfill orders, and a recent entry posted on Paper Cuts, a NY Times blog about books, proudly stated that “2008 may be remembered as the year that e-books finally caught on.”
I’m a proponent of adapting to new technology and staying abreast of trends, but with all due respect, I’m not buying it (the hype or ... Read more »
I confess that I’ve contributed to the downfall of the newspaper. I’ve been reading my news online for years.
It’s now official: the internet has surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news, according to the Pew Research Center. For younger generations, the internet is in a dead heat with television as a main source of news. Check it out:
Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source
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We’re taking a bit of break this week at the Brilliant Blog so we can spend time with family, stuff our faces and recharge our batteries in preparation for the coming year. We’ll be back next week. Happy holidays to all!
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| Date: December 23, 2008 | Author: Liz Kelly | Category: For Fun |
Here are some great pointers on how to write for the internet. I found point #7 particularly interesting, as search engine optimization is all the rage right now. I think the key is to first think about your business and your potential customers – how do they find you now? If internet searches are yielding lots of business for you, then you may want to incorporate more search-friendly terms throughout your site. But don’t let search parameters dictate the content – it can make the language on your site clunky and confusing to visitors.
How to write successfully for the web
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Every now and then you need a break from work, and the Brilliant Blog is here to help. We’ve rounded up three fun quizzes, and best of all, they actually have educational value.
Quiz #1: The 25 Most Commonly Misspelled Words
Courtesy of Businesswriting.com, this quiz will help you find out whether or not you can actually live without “spell check.”
Quiz #2: “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” Punctuation Game
If you’ve heard of this popular book by Lynne Truss (which I ... Read more »
Much like “Web site,” the AP Stylebook dictates that the word “Internet” should be capitalized. This seems just as outdated as capitalizing the “W” in “web site.” I’m all for following rules, but every now and then the rules need to be adapted to common usage.
A proper noun names a specific person, place or thing, and by those rules, “Internet” should technically be capitalized – there’s only one, after all. That said I still find it distracting to see it capitalized. For reader-friendliness, I would choose “internet.”
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According to a recent survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association and reported on by The New York Times, more than 50 percent of consumers think companies overstate the environmental friendliness of their products in order to sell more, a practice sometimes referred to as “green washing.” The study also found that 38 percent of consumers were confused by eco-friendly messages attached to various electronic products.
There are important lessons here for communicators interested in green messaging:
· Don’t aggressively promote the “greenness” of your company unless ... Read more »
It depends on your brand. That’s my answer, although a recent NY Times article takes a more skeptical tone. The article examines Procter & Gamble’s social advertising efforts in support of two products: Tide and Crest Whitestrips. While the Facebook promotion of Crest Whitestrips yielded 14,000 fans, P&G offered thousands of free movie promotions to sweeten the deal, which makes you wonder if its success had to do with getting free stuff vs. the excitement of white teeth. The Tide promotion was less successful – in response to the “America’s Favorite Stains” campaign, which invited readers to share their “favorite places to enjoy stain-making moments,” only 18 people had responded after 11 months.
Well, duh! Does this seem surprising? Who posts ... Read more »
“Reading is a brilliant tool for self-expression.” — Honor Wilson-Fletcher, director of the National Year of Reading campaign
This came from a recent BBC news article, which stated that nearly half of all men and one-third of women have lied about what they have read to try to impress others. This seems pretty risky to me – what if you get busted?
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