Joey Alarilla wrote a piece on “The truth about INQ7.net…” which explains what has happened to the site Inq7.net and what will happen to the new Inquirer.net.
That, after some months of speculations (and denials), a praise release, and an obvious re-alignment of articles (with the occasional incidents of infinite domain redirections). Nice to really hear it from the horse’s mouth this time.
It almost completely answered the what but none of the why. So, now that it has been put on record, we can safely say that the Inquirer group took the better half of the deal. Here’s what I think why:
- The Inquirer team has always been on the driver’s seat while GMA7 has been at the back-seat all these 5 or 6 years of partnership.
- GMA 7’s Php100 million investment for the joint project ended up producing the No. 1 site in the country.
- All existing advertisers at Inq7.net were all moved to Inquirer.net. I don’t see the same ads displaying on GMANews.tv. Not sure how the sales team and the ad revenues were split though but I suppose it would have been cut into half as well.
- All organic search engine results with the domain inq7.net on it re-directs to Inquirer.net. See sample search results here.
- Inquirer.net still (somewhat) inherits the Inq7.net brand.
In the end, Inquirer.net only lost the Inq7.net brand domain but all the other perks are still intact esp. the most critical one — advertising.
So, the challenge is on for the best Philippine news sites — the more players and content providers there are, the better for us the reading public. May the one with best original and relevant content wins.
Published by: yuga under: People.
posted:
January 31st, 2007
I’m looking for great pictures from the Blog Parteeh which will be used and featured in the GMANews.tv portal. I’m seeing tons and tons of photo galleries and I don’t have a lot of time to browse thru all of them so, I’ll just ask for them directly here.
In the comments, please post your best pictures (use the IMG tag if need be). Don’t post a link to your gallery, just the specific pictures you think best captures the event. We’ll then select several shots from those and submit them to the guys at GMA7 which they will use on their website.
Take note that by posting the pictures or the link to the pictures here, you are explicitly allowing GMA7 to use your pictures for their website. Thanks!
Again, don’t forget to add the blogparteeh07 Technorati tag whenever you post something about it. It’s easier for other bloggers to find you and your blog. 
Here’s mine, again:
The Steering Committee & Volunteers planning for the next big event.
Handing out hundreds of prizes is no simple task.
Aileen Apollo of Google Philippines raffling off a Google T-Shirt.
The guys from GMA New Media Inc., in full force.
A link to an article in Digg talks about eh floppy disk being put to rest just like the video player, cassette deck and film camera. So, when was the last time you used a floppy, huh? And you don’t see them whenever you buy a new PC or laptop.
I think the ZIP drive is also on its way out. I still have dozens of ZIP drives in my closet from way back in college. The king of the portable storage device will ultimately be the flash drives, if we could only get them a little bit cheaper these days.
See discussion on Digg.
Read original article on Metro UK.
It was Bryanboy who first notified me that he lost his ranking/listing on PinoyTopBlogs the other day. When I checked the site, I realized it already reset and it was just the 29th. Oh well, since I disabled tracking, the system listed the blogs in some weird way. After re-activating the system, Lauren Dado’s Laurganism dominated the list.
But where’s Rickey.org? So he did act on that promise to remove his Philippine Idol blog from the list and concentrate on Pinoy Rickey and hopefully take on Retzwerx head to head (that’s what he told me in his last phone call). Retz is going to get some serious competition around. 
*hehe*
Noemi sent an email notifying me about Lauren’s blog getting a link from Boingboing for her Flavors of Negros post. That one little link has catapulted her to #1 at Pinoy Top Blogs.
Just and FYI to those who are always monitoring their rankings there.
I’m no Election Law expert nor am I a lawyer trying to explain some mumbo-jumbo about the Omnibus Election Code. However, I’d like to start some discussions about online or internet advertising in relation to the upcoming May 2007 elections (looks like I’m into this election lately).
First, Internet Advertising. I quickly glanced at the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines and there wasn’t a section about campaigning thru the internet nor any provisions which monitors advertising online. There are specific sections on equalizing air-time among candidates on TV and radio but still none for the internet. (A side note: Will blogs and news site be the new target for these type of online campaigns?)
Second, Text Message Campaigns. SMS is huge and there hasn’t been any provision to control or monitor campaigns thru mobile phones. I heard the NTC is going to move to make some necessary adjustments for this. I’m already annoyed at the amount of text spam and alerts I’m getting. I sure hell don’t want any more “vote me” messages in my Inbox.
If you haven’t heard of it yet or you weren’t listening to Rico’s announcement during the Blog Parteeh, I’d like to echo it here again:
We’re launching a 10-strong blog network called the BBN (Bayanihan Blog Network) which is initially composed of 5 pre-existing blogs and 5 newer ones:
- Pinoy Tech Blog
- Pinoy Urban Blog
- Pinoy Travel Blog
- Pinoy Cook
- My Filipino Wedding
- The Comic Blurb
- Space Invaded
- You Had me at Hello
- Sporting Break
- Pinay Expat
We’re gearing up to launch more newer blogs in the next couple of months. Not much changes to the existing ones really. It’s a strategic alliance that makes better business sense.
Go blog-hopping. 
Published by: yuga under: Events.
posted:
January 28th, 2007
We pulled it off again. I hope everyone enjoyed and got to take home something — shwags, food, prizes and new pal-bloggers.
The Steering Committee & Volunteers planning for the next big event.
Handing out hundreds of prizes is no simple task.
Aileen Apollo of Google Philippines raffling off a Google T-Shirt.
The guys from GMA New Media Inc., in full force.
Thanks to everyone who joined us — the bloggers, the sponsors, the volunteers and the team who made this event a success. T’was a great way to start the year off.
There are too many stories to tell, and too many bloggers to link. Good thing we had the Technorati tag to track all these: [tags]blogparteeh07[/tags]
Jove Francisco and I discussed about the technical merits of this story where Senatoriable Mike Defensor is claiming the opposition (apparently Chiz Escudero) is behind the hi-jacking or cyber-squatting of his domain, mikedefensor.com.
Continue reading ‘Mike D. claims Chiz squatted on his domain?’
This question has been asked of me many times by people from the media — how will bloggers affect the May 2007 polls? What role will they play in the coming elections?
I couldn’t really put in a solid answer to this one but I offered several possibilities along the lines of citizen journalism:
- Bloggers can influence their readers’ opinion and might sway their senatorial list.
- Bloggers can provide the lead for MSM follow-up, verify facts and run stories.
- Information Campaign. In times of election, a lot of propaganda are being hurled left and right. Bloggers can provide a second opinion or help clear up mis-information.
- Bloggers can provide more coverage than MSM can ever squeeze in 30 minutes of airtime
In the US, every candidate has to have a blog or a podcast. Will our aspiring public officials follow the trend and embrace the long tail? How will they regard the internet a new campaign tool?
Watch out for an exclusive scoop on how the politicians and their PR advisers are using the web to do smear election campaigns. Only on Yugatech this Sunday midnight.
Published by: yuga under: Events.
posted:
January 26th, 2007
That’s our tag line for our blog parteeh which will be tomorrow. I never really got to explain that one until yesterday while I was having coffee with the editorial team of GMA 7 (News & Public Affairs). As they’ve graciously invited me to drop by their station and introduce me to the team involved in their blog network and the new GMANews.tv portal, I decided to stay for a while (if you can call 5 hours a coffee break) and discuss my ideas and plans for a solid blogging community in the Philippines as well as get their side of the story on the recent break-up on the Inq7.net project. I don’t know if I did promise them I won’t tackle the issue anymore here on my blog as it’s already done and been dealt with although I said it would be nice if the online reading public would know the whole meat of the story.
Ok, going back to the party. This event is a landmark for me to show to the rest of the local IT industry that there IS a community and it’s not just virtual but a real one you can meet and greet. The event tomorrow will be the proof of that — organized by bloggers for bloggers. As of last count, we have over 100+ attendees (though only around 80 are bloggers as we have to give slots to sponsors, speakers, etc.)
The overwhelming support that we have from the sponsors and donors who selfishly sent in their contributions is unbelievable. What I am most proud of is the amount of effort the members of the Steering Committee put into this project. If it were not for them, this event wouldn’t even be possible. Some of them are even the first ones who pledged money for the party. Huge, huge props to the team.
So, well see y’all there tomorrow!
P.S.
I’m hoping to win that iPod Video too! *hahaha*
Published by: yuga under: WiFi.
posted:
January 25th, 2007
Well, that’s what the AirborneAccess website says — that Eastwood City in Libis is the first and only WiFi City in the country. That means the entire area is covered with their wireless signal although that remains to be proven.
In any case, this is good news to all nearby residents who has Airborne Access or people with Smart Bro’s WiFly account.
The other question is, will the wifi signal be able to reach their units? That I’m planning to find out. Let’s see how far and wide this wifi coverage really is. Anybody living/working in Eastwood tried this?
I wonder if they’ll be able to do the same in Makati, where Globe’s beendusting them asi
This Technorati screen shot says it all…
Now, that’s buzz!
[tags]blogparteeh07[/tags]
Published by: yuga under: SEO.
posted:
January 24th, 2007
Sometimes, whatever you do and however you follow the webmaster guidelines, you just don’t understand the outcome from Google.
I just discovered that my blog has turned PR6. But it’s not the URL that I’ve always been using — i.e. http://www.yugatech.com/blog — that one is still PR5.
So which one is it? Check out the PR6 results for http://yugatech.com/blog/ here. All the rest — http://yugatech.com/blog and http://www.yugatech.com/blog/ remains at PR5 (mind the leading slashes). Now, how did that happen when is something I can’t understand myself.
So I say forget about PR.
Published by: yuga under: SEO.
posted:
January 24th, 2007
Sad to hear the news that Performancing Partners (the ad network) will soon be closed down, Chris Garrett, the new CEO, announced:
I’m sad to tell you that Partners has to close. While I have every faith it could have worked, it wasn’t going to happen fast enough. Without more money invested it wasn’t going to happen at all.
Any ads currently in the system will continue to run until the end of the month at which time the ad code will stop working. Please take your ad code down from your templates then. Remaining ad time will of course be refunded.
This news is surely not going to be popular. All I can say is thank you to all the publishers and advertisers who tried the service and to all the people in the forums who provided feedback and ideas. I am gutted I couldn’t have some time to act on your suggestions.
That’s after they also disclosed that the sale of the Metrics to PayPerPost did not push thru and they’re looking at putting the codes open source. The only thing that’s left of the original class of products is the Firefox extension and the blog which looks like it will be on limbo for a while.
I still have some money form the Ad Network program which I couldn’t get because it was sent to my supposedly not-working Paypal account. I guess it’s time to put out the ad banners here and over at PTB.
P.S.
Was wondering if Chris would give away the Performancing Partners codes as open source. I could really use it for a similar but local project.
I’ve been asked about the Technorati link counts every so often and though the quickest explanation to the fluctuations is that Technorati only consider links to your blog from the last 6 months. But sometimes, the links aren’t counted and you feel that you ahve more incoming ones than Technorati wanted to count.
Here’s some more explanation based on observations I’ve had with the way Technorati crawling/counting links:
- The links to your blog is only counted if and when Technorati crawls/indexes the linking blog.
- If a blog gives you a link thru a blog entry, and it’s counted by Technorati, it’s counted as one blog linking in. That link is then counted in the next 6 months until it expires.
- Unless that existing blog who has a link to your blog links again, the expiration will stand. If in a later date, a new link was sent your way, the expiration is extended.
- If a blog has a link to your blog on its blogroll displayed on the front page, everytime a new post is published, Technorati crawls that page and finds a link in the blogroll. It is then discovered and added to your link count. So, as long as your link is on the blogroll, and new entries are regularly published, that link will not expire on Technorati’s count.
Well, that’s how I look at it. Be reminded though that these observations do not apply 100% of the time.
I’m currently upgrading this blog to the latest version of Wordpress 2.1 (codename Ella). Just check out the really nice feature updates:
Continue reading ‘Upgrading to Wordpress 2.1′
Just came back from the office of Newsbreak Magazine in Ortigas to discuss details of the blogging/podcasting workshop I’ll be doing for them next month. I got the chance to chat with Carmela who wrote a piece on “Blogging About the Elections” and asked me to comment about the blogging atmosphere in the Philippines. (Check out the front page of their website for the story and a picture from our Christmas Meet-up last December.)
At the same time, I also got the news that Newsbreak (the magazine) will be finally put to rest next month:
Let me give you the bad news and good news in one blow. This is our second-to-the-last hard copy edition. Yes, what you’re holding in your hands, our 179th issue, will soon be part of history. But we will continue our work online, the platform that is transforming journalism by opening the doors of our profession to citizens all over the world and, at the same time, forming tightly knit communities and audiences in cyberspace.
However, they will continue to exist as the online magazine (e-zine) as they try to find more funding to revive the print version. Maybe that’s why I was asked to help their staff familiarize with the online version as well as give focus on blogging and podcasting as new media tools to enhance their interaction with their readers.
As for the business model, well, there’s online advertising and paid subscription. And yes, it will be a huge challenge to go from print to RSS.
See what I got from Google when I arrived back home…
I was somewhat wishing I’d get one of them Digital Picture Frames they’ve been sending Premium Adsense Publishers last December.
I only got the holiday card, no sign of the picture frame. Oh, maybe this year.
Published by: yuga under: Events.
posted:
January 22nd, 2007
While I am away, a lot of questions have been thrown out to our committee team leads that needs to be specifically addressed by me. So, while we’re still at it, let me be frank and sort out some of the nitty-gritty details why the event may seem exclusive in the outset.
- Budget constraints. While we were very fortunate to have a lot of our fellow bloggers donating their hard-earned problogging cash to this event, they’re not overflowing with cash and so am I.
- Limited venue space. We looked hard and far to get several possible venues for this event. We even had several offers from corporate entities like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf as well as Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant, and we weighed the pros and cons of having the party in those venues. In the end, we grabbed the opportunity offered by FeedText to sponsor a private venue which will allow us to stay longer and have games and activities.
- Schwags & goodie bags. Again, related to point #1, we’re giving away schwags and goodie bags to everyone. Thanks to Krispy Kreme who will be sending 50 people with a box of doughnuts to take home. Unfortunately, the schwags will also be limited and so are the bloggers who can take them home.
- Personnel resources. I called out, several times actually, since December for volunteers to help organize this event. We got a dozen people but not enough to do crowd control of over a hundred attendees.
- Security. The venue we got had some strict policies on guests so we were asked to give them a list of names ahead of time. This prompted us to gather complete names of interested bloggers, their contact numbers and even arrange for them to get ID tags on the event itself. We’re trying to appeal that maybe the serial-numbered e-Tickets we’re sending as official invite is enough to pass security.
- Gate crashers. I tell you, this is a true story during last year’s BlogCon. Someone (a foreigner) came in National Sports Grille, registered his name, lined up for the buffet, sat down amongst the bloggers and ate his share quietly and left just before we started the presentations. We never traced who that guy was or what his blog is. Nobody else from our team knew him as well.
- Aye or nay? We wanted complete attendance, right from when we start at 2PM until we end at around 8PM. The previous meet-ups and parties we had before got a lot of people saying they’re coming but never really came. So, when we prepared for 60 people, just around 40 actually came. We don’t want to waste the extra food and giveaways to those who aren’t really sure to come. Thus the registration process was formulated.
- You know what I mean when I say active blogger, right? Who is a blogger and who is not? Who is active and who is not? These were questions we debated during our Steering Committee meetings. If someone started a blog and posted one (and only one) entry about the event just to pre-qualify for an invite, does he become an active blogger? Or what about that girl whose last post was way back in June 24, 2006? This blog party is about community, about networking and about getting to know fellow bloggers. We believe that by inviting only those who are genuinely interested in the Philippine blogging community, we create a better relationship online and off-line.
- Tag alongs. I hope we don’t offend anyone here but it was also discussed that this is a bloggers’ party and not a blogger-and-his-entire-family picnic. Unless your spouse and kids are also blogging, we can’t extend the invitations to them. See #1 & #2 above.
Blogging involves some technical hurdles and we thought very hard how the registration process be made as simple as possible — blog, link & tag — three very basic exercise we assumed a regular and active blogger would be already expert with.
We didn’t really want to explain the why’s of this event in the same manner that would-be couples do not need to explain why they ask their visitors to wear formal attire or barongs on their wedding day. Still, we’re all about transparency, right?
So, let’s all move along and spread the word.
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