Donate to Candidates Through Search

We had a story appear on the Digg homepage the other day and in the comments someone pointed to a site I hadn't seen before: Presidential Quest.  

Basically Presidential Quest has created search sites for every single Presidential candidate.  Users then search the web from the site of their chosen candidate and all the ad revenue that is generated from the searching is donated to their chosen candidate.  Here is a link to Rudy Guiliani's website as an example.  

They have another site that donates search revenue to charity. 

This is a good example of what Jason Calacanis calls media philanthropy and I think it is a great idea.  The rub is that for this to work the actual search engines on these sites will need to be in the same ballpark of the industry leaders in terms of quality.   I haven't look at it enough to judge the search quality yet.

USA Today Website Redesign is Live

USA Today's new website went live this morning.  You can read a note from the editors about the redesign here and a breakdown of the new features here. 

I like it. 

The key here is the social networking component.  Users can create profiles that include personal information, blog entries, photos and a list of friends.  These profiles are then linked to every time a user comment on articles.  You can see the test profile I created here. 

The site also includes tons of other features such as tagging, voting on stories, RSS feeds, etc.   The user interface includes a good dose of Ajax, which is smart.  It will cut down on page views a bit but it creates a much better user experience.

In order to succeed online newspapers are going to have to build vibrant communities around their websites.  With its new site, USA Today appears to be doing just that. 

Give it a look and let us know what you think in the comments.

USA Today to Launch New Website this Weekend

Mark Glaser points to a blog entry by USA Today’s Patrick Cooper announcing that they will launch a new version of their site this coming weekend. Jeff Jarvis was given a sneak peak at the site and links to a screenshot of the new homepage.

Here are some key components of the new site based on my reading of Cooper’s post:

• Open commenting on every article.
• Profiles where users can post personal information, photos and their own blog entries.
• Active participation in site discussions by reporters.
• Tagging of articles.
• Digg style voting on stories and alternative view of content.
• Site forums where users can discuss anything they want.

Sounds really, really promising.

Tom from our office took a shot at rethinking the design of USA Today a few months back so I’m interested in giving it a thorough test drive once it goes live.
Other related posts:

• 9 Ways for Newspapers to Improve Their Websites
• The Use of the Internet by America’s Newspapers

Early Presidential Campaigning: 3 Reasons Why it’s a Bad Idea

As we all know, the 2008 presidential campaigns are getting swamped with coverage lately.  It is beginning to seem slightly ridiculous to me the amount of media attention that these potential candidates are getting.  Shouldn't the country still be paying attention to who is currently in office?  What's that guy's name…..Bush or something? 

With almost two years left until the 2008 elections, it seems like all American media outlets are becoming more and more obsessed with the 2008 candidates, instead of focusing on the current status of our country.

Certainly, this is great for Bush…the less negative attention he gets, the better.  But is this extensive coverage good for the 2008 candidates?  On the surface, most people would say yes.  Candidates need to get their names and faces out in front of the public so voters become familiar with them.  However, not all coverage is good coverage.  Here are a few reasons why all this early campaigning might backfire for the 2008 candidates currently stealing headlines:

Continue reading “Early Presidential Campaigning: 3 Reasons Why it’s a Bad Idea” »

Try Clicky for Blog Statistics

We’ve had a bumpy history with blog statistics programs here at The Bivings Report. Services we like keep getting shut down.

Here is a quick summary:

1. Industry leader Measure Map got bought by Google a year ago and since then has closed registrations for new users. I’ve been on the waiting list for over a year now with no luck.
2. The excellent (though buggy) Blogbeat was bought by Feedburner around six months ago and was simplified to the point where it is no longer useful except for the most basic analytics.
3. The excellent Performancing blog stats programs shut down in December for some unknown reason.
4. I’m not a fan of SiteMeter, MyBlogLog or Google Analytics for blog tracking.

So I was shocked and happy to come across a new service called Clicky the other day. It is the best blog stats program I’ve used. Clicky has all the basics like site visitors, page views, incoming/outgoing links, and search keywords.

It also has a bunch of goodies like RSS feeds of your stats, a Spy section that lets you watch your users come in real time and a Google Map that show the location of your fifty most recent visitors (screenshot above right).

You can check out a demo on the Clicky website. If you are a blogger, I’d give it a whirl.