Alert Blog Reviews

Quick, you’re lost somewhere in France, it’s cold, dark, and all you have is your smartphone, a signal flair, CB radio, map, flashlight, French/English dictionary, and some french fries. What do you do? OK, first, eat the french fries–you look hungry. Then throw all that other stuff in a trash can, because all you need is your phone and Twitter! Two new Twitter services are rolling out, both will help you–should you ever find yourself in this scenario. First, Twitter has added a French version of the web site. The fact that the Twitter team will be in Paris for Le Web is purely coincidental! Second, Twitter is rolling out a new API that will bring location awareness to the popular microblogging service: We’re going to release geolocation to platform developers before we add the feature to Twitter.com. Most of the mobile applications people use and love are built by Twitter platform developers. Developers will have access to this new geolocation feature early which means it will most likely be available on your app of choice before it’s available on Twitter’s web site…It’s easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake. Now, before some of you rush off to WordPress and crank out that scathing post about privacy invasion–you know, the one that will get retweeted like crazy and a ton of comments (you know who you are)–Twitter is one step ahead of you. Geolocation in your tweets will be an opt-in setting: Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won’t be stored for an extended period of time. It will be interesting to see what new apps and features will come from this. Dear developers, please create something a little more practical than FourSquare. How about an app that can translate my panic-stricken tweets into French, then tell the local authorities which bush exactly I’m cowering under. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

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Ou Est La Twitter? La Twitter Et Voici!

It seems like every month another news organization toys with the idea of charging for their content. But, we always rejoin, you’ll ultimately sacrifice your audience if you charge for news content. However, the Boston Consulting Group says that may not always be the case—in fact, even Americans are willing to pay for online news . Well, sort of. The average amount an American was willing to pay for news was $3—and not $3 a day, but $3 a month . Not exactly the profits Rupert Murdoch dreams of, is it? The survey also found that people were more willing to pay for news that was: Unique, such as local news (67 percent overall are interested; 72 percent of U.S. respondents) or specialized coverage (63 percent overall are interested; 73 percent of U.S. respondents) Timely, such as a continual news alert service (54 percent overall are interested; 61 percent of U.S. respondents) Conveniently accessible on a device of choice And good news for newspapers: “consumers are more likely to pay for online news provided by newspapers than by other media, such as television stations, Web sites, or online portals,” especially since these other media have so much free competition. Interestingly, while Americans were more likely to pay for sites that offered access to multiple papers, only national and local—not major metropolitan-based papers—have that level of appeal. (I’m not sure which category The New York Times and Washington Post fall into here.) Marc Vos, a Milan-based partner and leader of BCG’s media sector in Europe, tells newspapers that they “should be experimenting with paid online content. It will take trial and error to find what works.” The prospects aren’t so bleak everywhere. In addition to 1000 US respondents, the survey also looked at results in Germany, Australia, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Norway, Finland. While Australians also wanted to pay only $3 (USD?) for their news, other countries saw higher rates. The New York Times said that this may be because Western Europe has more consolidated news offerings, where news in the US is a very fragmented industry. However, before Western European news sites get all excited, note that the highest amount on the survey, in Italy, was $7 a month. What do you think? What would you be willing to pay for news? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

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Consumers Willing to Pay (Pennies) for News