Still images are no longer enough. People want live video — high definition video. Take for example these series of footages taken by one of the witnesses in yesterday’s incident at Serendra / Boni High Street.

Technology drives citizens journalism. We need more mobile phones with HD video recording, more portables devices like the Flip MinoHD to be more affordable, and convergent devices like the iPod Nano Video to be more connected over-the-air and a much faster/better 3G connections for live “by the minute” coverage.

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That means any recommendations by bloggers on products/services they feature on their blogs will be scrutinized if they do not disclose compensation. The “compensation” may be in cash or in kind. The “in kind” is not specified but may include free products, free meals, trips and hotel accommodations.

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers.

The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

This new rule will be in effect by December 1, 2009. Though this does not involve bloggers in the Philippines, it’s not improbable that the DTI might also do the same around here anytime soon.

More about the press release here.

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Though the site is not yet open for registration and details aren’t posted yet, it’s pretty easy to imagine what this new marketplace will be:

1) Advertisers buy tweets by the thousands (CPM model) — say $200 per 1,000 tweets.

2) Pay Per Tweet (PPT) auctions the tweet ads and each tweet costs $0.10 (50-50 share).

The model is similar to Pay Per Post — someone buys a post; someone publishes it and earn a couple of bucks.

Question is — will it be just plain per-tweet or will PPT also consider the number of followers a twitterer has? We’re already seeing lots of masked affiliate links on the Twitter stream. I’m pretty sure this PPT will eventually open the floodgates for more ProTwitterers.

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TechCrunch picked up the story initially reported by Asiajin.

Paid reviews and link buying is a practice Google itself discourages so it’s a little confusing why Google would use the same tactics that it openly disapprove.

Hours after being outed, Baba Yasutsugu posted as response on the official Google Japan blog:

“Google Japan is running several promotional activities to let people know more about our products.

It turns out that using blogs on the part of the promotional activities violates Google’s search guidelines, so we have ended the promotion. We would like to apologize to the people concerned and to our users, and are making an effort to make our communications more transparent in order to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.”

Apparently, Google is trailing behind Yahoo! in Japan — just 39%, way below Yahoo’s 51.2% market share. This paid review campaign may just be one of Google’s efforts to gain more users in Japan. Too bad they got caught.

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I never looked at it that way but it does make sense. We go thru some of the more common stuff we do everyday without knowing we’re actually doing the same. I’d be the first one to admit to some of these oversights.

• The MP3s we download, the movies and TV shows we share on torrents and P2P networks are a common form of piracy. Filipinos are very fond of sharing digital content, even way back in the days of the IRC.
• The pirated CDs and DVDs sold in Quiapo, Baclaran and other smaller malls. We either patronize them or just ignore them as if it’s normal and legit in our society. We never cried foul because we know we benefit from it (not until it’s own work that’s being peddled and used without compensation or attribution).
• The softwares we use on our PCs and laptops — Windows XP, MS Office, Adobe PhotoShop, WinZip/WinRar, Nero CD/DVD Burner, Kaspersky Anti-Virus are just some of the more commonly pirated softwares a lot of people use.
• People flock Cartimar to buy fake branded shoes, hand bags and clothes.

There are a lot more actually — inks, batteries, cellphones, perfumes, jewelries, etc.

But what can we do — either we accept that we’re a country full of freeloaders/cheapskates or we start paying for those software licenses and buy only originals. I’d prefer we do the latter.

I believe piracy did some good to a lot of people (especially those who don’t have the capacity to afford some of the more expensive licenses). I personally benefited from it too — learning how to use PhotoShop, Flash, DreamWeaver and Premiere as well as program in VB and .NET.

I would be hard-pressed to stand in court, point to someone who infringed on my copyright and not admit I do the same thing myself.

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In a short email to Pownce users, it looks like the userbase was bought by SixApart:

We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15, 2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new pro accounts.

To help with your transition, we have built an export tool so you can save your content. You can find the export tool at Settings > Export. Please export your content by December 15, 2008, as the site will not be accessible after this date.

Please visit our new home to find out more: http://www.sixapart.com/pownce

Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the Pownce community,

The Pownce Crew

Pownce is co-owned by Digg founder Kevin Rose who started the service to compete against Twitter. Despite Rose’s popularity, the service didn’t picked up much users. By Kevin’s last mention, the numbers were just around 100k worldwide.

The first sign of its impending doom was when Kevin Rose opened up a Twitter account and was pimping it during their Diggnation show instead of his own service. According to Twitterholic, Kevin is on top of the list at 75,718 followers.

It’s possible Jaiku will be next in line, an acquisition made by Google back in October 2007 that has not made any much noise since then.

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The bill which has been filed as early as April 2008 states that:

… all persons who are accused directly or indirectly of any crime or offense or are criticized by innuendo, suggestion or rumor for any lapse in behavior in public or private life shall have the right to reply to the charges published in newspapers and other publications or to criticisms aired over radio, television, website or through any electrical device.

In essence, this bill could also include blogs (websites). That means if you accuse an individual or entity in your blog, you will be required by this bill to publish their reply in the same space where you first published your entry. It’s not clear if the “space” means the “same entry/webpage” or just the “same website/blog”.

Likewise, if the accused leaves a comment on the blog entry, the blogger will be required to approve the comment (regardless of the tone and language of the content?). At least that’s how I read it.

The Senate version was authored by Senators Aquilino Pimente, Jr., Ramon Revilla, Jr., and Chiz Escudero. The House version was filed by Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella.

Fines and penalties prescribed are as follows (for the House Bill):

- Php10,000 for the 1st offense
- Php30,000 for the 2nd offense
- Php50,000 and imprisonment for not more than 30 days for the 3rd offense
- Php100,000 and imprisonment for not more than 30 days for the 4th offense

Then, a Php200,000 fine and imprisonment for not more than 30 days and the closure/suspension of the franchise of the publication or broadcast media outlet or station for 30 days for the 5th and succeeding offenses.

If the bill passes and becomes a law, I’m not sure how they will handle this. What if Malu Fernandez wrote something nasty about the 8 million OFWs worldwide — should all 8 million be given space on the publication to reply? The printing cost alone will bankrupt the publication.

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Yes, Blogger is also widely used as a blogging platform by a lot of Filipinos but it did not generate the same level of popularity as YouTube in the country. This is primarily because of other competing platforms:

• While Blogger had the first mover advantage, it did not enjoy as much popularity in the early 2000 as LiveJournal (DiaryLand, Pitas, Blogger and LiveJournal were all launched in 1999). The Philippines is on the Top 10 LiveJournal users worldwide, at #8 with 60,961 users. In terms of search volume, Philippines is at #5 for LiveJournal.com
• According to Google Trends, Multiply has 200,000 daily unique visitors from the Philippines, twice as many from a year ago. In Alexa, the Philippines ranked #5 for Multiply’s traffic origins contributing to an estimated 13.4% of its total users. With Google Insights, Philippines is #1 for Multiply searches. (Read my related story on ABS-CBN and Multiply deal.)
• According to Google Insights, the Philippines is in the Top 5 for Xanga.
• Friendster also enjoys the #1 spot for the Philippines worldwide. Google trends estimate 1 Million daily unique visitors to the site. There’s an estimated 10 Million Filipinos having a Friendster account. If just 1% of them opens a Friendster blog, that’s already 100,000 users.

On the other hand, Blogger.com isn’t even on the Top 25 of countries by usage according to Alexa. I can’t get any more traffic details since Google Trends don’t show data from Blogger.com. However, Google Insights rank the Philippines #5 for blogger.com searches.

And almost everybody knows that BlogSpot is the #1 host for spammers. Last year, a study found out that 75% of all blogspot.com accounts are spam blogs. Even antivirus and security company Sophos noted that the number one host for malware on the web is Blogger, with blogspot.com accounts contributing to at least 2% of total malware webpages globally.

There’s also the growth of an alternative (and ad free) platform in i.PH, WordPress.com as well as the self-hosted WordPress.org application. Even offline support is present, credited to the two upcoming WordCamp Philippines. We’re not even counting the local Drupal and Joomla community as well as alternative platforms such as TextPattern, Expression Engine, and MovableType.

Unlike YouTube, Blogger has so many other popular competing platforms being used in the Philippines that it failed to dominate the market despite the surge of blogging in the country.

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The site will become part of Conde Nast’s Wired Digital Group, the same company that earlier bought Reddit.

The sale priced wasn’t revealed but it’s rumored to be within the vicinity of $25 Million. This is the same amount Wired.com as sold for back in 2006 as well as Jason Calacani’s 80-plus strong WeblogsInc blog network back in 2005.

For a single website attracting about 3 million readers a month generating close to 19 million pageviews, $25 Million is a steal. Ars is like the Methuselah of blogs — it’s already a decade old.

I have had a couple of offers before for several of my blogs and I know that feeling of getting to that level when others are willing to put a price (and shell out the cash) to the value of your blog. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on where you stand), I didn’t sell. The guys over at Ars Technica can now comfortably retire.

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While the results of the survey are pretty interesting, I find some of them almost unbelievable (at least the ones that involved the Philippines). Take note however, that the sample population included in this research only involved people who used the internet daily or every other day aged between 16-54 years old. That means, the figures are skewed towards the hard core or heavy users.

McCann puts the Philippines’ Internet Penetration at 15.4% (based from InternetWorldStats.com).

• 90.3% of the respondents from the Philippines said they’ve read a blog at least once, ranking 2nd to South Korea at 92.1%. China came in 3rd at 88.1% while Global average is 77%.
• The Philippines ranked 4th (65.8%) on the respondents have started or created a blog. South Korea topped the list at 71.7%, followed by Taiwan (70.9%) and China (70.3%). Japan is No. 9 at only 47.3% which is strange since according to Technorati, Japanese is the #1 language in the blogosphere. Global average is 44.8%.
• The Philippines ranked #1 in joining a new social network sites (83.1%). Friendster rulez! hehehe
• Again, the Philippines ranked #1 on uploading photos on photo sharing sites with 86.4% of the respondents. Friendster rulez x 2!
• With online video, the Philippines (60.5%) is second to Brazil (68.3) on uploading videos to a video sharing site. YouTube Philippines should be in Tagalog so we can beat Brazil! Chinese came in 3rd at 58.1%.
• Filipinos are No. 1 viewers of online videos at 98.6%! iyotTube rocks! Oops, Youtube rocks!
• 61.8% of the respondents form the Philippines says they’ve downloaded a podcast. That’s 5th from the list after China, Mexico, Romania and Brazil.
• The Philippines ranked #6 in RSS subscribers at 45.2%, beating the Japanese (31.4%), Germans (27%), French (25.7%), Brits (24.9%), Canadians (18%), Australians (24.6%) and Americans (18.6%). Now that’s unbelievable.

The reason behind the skewed figures on the last item, RSS, is that the average Filipino “active” internet user is more tech-savvy than the average internet user in most western countries. Active means daily use or at least every other day. That means “active” internet use in the Philippines isn’t that mainstream yet. But that’s already evident from the internet usage penetration stats above.

Update: Copy of the research study can be downloaded here {PDF, 26MB}.

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Yoani’s blog, Generation Y, was awarded by “Ortega y Gasset Prize” in Digital Journalism (named after a Spanish philosopher). Sanchez was however unable to leave Cuba to go to Spain and personally received the award herself.

This is a huge feat for a one year old blog and it clearly shows that you don’t need to be a western blogger to get as much recognition in the field of journalism. Yoani, though, is one in a million.

On another front, that New York Time’s article about blogging as a health risk is just pure bull. In this and age, anything can kill you. In the Philippines, there’s a much higher risk of dying from singing in a karaoke along street bars than blogging 24/7 in the confines of your own room.

However, this video below may shed some light on this issue:

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Hidden content injected in the blog templates with links to each other in order to push the rankings in the SERPs. Blog monitoring services like TailRank, which tracks interlinking content, obviously showed those spammy content.

I’ve seen and have had experience with such types of blog hacking:

• Modifying “header.php” or “footer.php” and inserting links to spammy sites. These text links are enclosed in DIV tags so they can be positioned way off of the screen.
• Popular and free themes are modified and inserted with obfuscated PHP scripts to be injected remotely. The themes are then repackaged and re-distributed to the public. These scripts can then be manipulated later to inject spammy content and text links to any targeted sites. Much like a zombie blog.
• Uploading CGI scripts into the “cgi-bin” directory via unrestricted folders. The CGI scripts can then be accessed and used to run whatever command lines the hacker wants.
• SQL injections. Older and vulnerable versions of WordPress can be attacked via SQL injections to add content to existing/archived blog posts/entries with links to spammy sites.
• Modifying .htaccess files to redirect (301) certain popular or high rankings pages to other spammy or affiliate-filled sites.
• Directly modifying unrestricted pages to insert AdSense codes or modify existing AdSense Publisher ID to that of the hacker.
• I’ve also seen blogs being sabotaged by creating empty folders that follow the same permalink structure as some of the pages of the blog. This, in effect, overrides the custom permalinks and disables the affected pages.

What’s surprising is that most of the hacks that I encountered were deployed by Filipinos too. Here are some snippets of their codes:

if ($epwd ne $npwd) {
$msg = “<br /><h1>Mukha Mo!</h1>
“;
}

print header( -COOKIE=>$cid ), start_html(“BUTAS”);

Either they coded the hack themselves or got the script somewhere else and modified it to their own liking. It was obvious because some of the coding (commands and variables) used in the script are in Tagalog.

Tony adds some advise on how to prevent this. I’ve written an more general blog post about security and contingency plans here as well.

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Anybody who’s been following his blog knows the scandalous posts and pictures will only attract libel suits. Lawyer’s of the parties involved have made their moves so far, though nothing concrete has been done. Google, the owner of Blogger.com where the BlogSpot blog is being hosted, has been sent a letter of request to take down the blog as well (not sure if it’s a C&D though).

What other bloggers who have been religiously covering this issue is that they might be also accountable about the spread of such libelous acts and can be held liable in Philippine courts. That’s according to Atty. JJ Disini who was also one of the resource speakers of ANC. Even JV Rufino, EIC of Inquirer.net, said he made sure all their articles (9 so far and counting) steer clear of identifying names, linking or publishing URLs.

Here’s what bloggers might be doing that could get them into trouble if they’re covering the issue.

• Publicly mentioning names of people being exposed in the blog.
• Posting pictures of the people being named by Brian Gorrell in his blog.
• Publishing the URL of the blog or linking to the blog.
• Quoting a libelous sentence on the blog or re-publishing/summarizing allegations thereof.

The personalities and families of the people being exposed in the blog are desperate to end this and looks like they’re doing everything they can to stop people from talking about it and they will include bloggers too.

Watch Media in Focus on ANC this Thursday to learn more about this issue. We tried real hard not to name names or mention the blog. The only name we can really talk about in the segment was Brian Gorrell himself.

Updated: To those who are unfamiliar with my previous battles with libel cases in the Philippines, please refer to this, this and this. In fact, I still have another one right now in Civil Court.

Please read them first so you’ll know where I’m coming from and how ridiculous our system is.

[tags]brian gorell, brian gorrell blog blogger[/tags]

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In the case of Malu Fernandez’s recent article in Manila Standard {via Connie}, I think because of her previous experience with the alleged “internet mob”, she knows controversy can draw a lot of traffic.

The difference between a journalist and a blogger is that journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech. And whatever a journalist chooses to write about—be it popular or unpopular—we do not hide behind an anonymous name and are resigned to the fact that we have to take as much as we dish out.

You have to give it to her. She knows this piece with get some tons of flak. What’s a single article in exchange for hundreds of raw back links and millions of page views? ShoeMoney and Jason Calacanis became top bloggers and master link baiters because of their controversial stance on sensitive issues.

And, for an online commercial publication like the Manila Standard, that traffic can be converted to ad revenues.

So, as early as now, I’d like to nominate Malu Fernandez as the 2008 Master Link Baiter. Let’s see how much raw links and pageviews MST will draw in after all these pans out. Besides, her previous scorching encounters didn’t leave her with 3rd-degree burns — she’s still writing for the newspaper, right?

And I’m even beginning to think she’s secretly doing freelance SEO for the publication.

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Apparently, there’s a huge spike in the number of spammers that even the blog search engine Technorati is swarmed by them. More than 99% of all pings and updates to the search engines are spam. {source: BW}

Despite the over-all count of 112.8 Million blogs on Technorati’s index, only 11% of them are active (have had any blog updates in the last 60 days). However, new bogs have grown three-folds from 40,000 new ones each day back in 2005 to over 120,000 each day now. And yes, that does not count the splogs.

What interests me the most is the 89% inactivity rate. Almost 9 out of 10 bloggers are inactive or stopped blogging altogether, and that percentage can be applied to any sub-niche or region. It seems to be a pretty high number though.

My other concern is spam. At 99+%, this could be a much, much bigger problem in the future. It could crash systems and make blog services bow down on its knees. Will spam kill blogging eventually? Well, parasites cannot live without its host but it can transfer to another host too.

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The debate shifted from being a funny prank to a word-fight between bloggers and legitimate media people. The video was funny the first few seconds.

This prank stirs big debate among bloggers as well as mainstream media to the point that it has turned into bloggers versus journalist (again!). Brian Lam, Editor in Chief of Gizmodo, finished it off with a recent lash against their critics:

Many of our harshest critics have done far worse than clicking off a few TVs. I’m talking about ethical lapses such as accepting paid junkets to Japan by Nikon, or free trips to Korea by Samsung. Turning a blind eye to Apple’s mistakes when they didn’t make an iPhone SDK and sought to lock down the handset. Stock prices torn downward by publishing incorrect leaked info. Writing about companies that also pay you for advertorial podcast work.

And I consider those offenses far worse than our prank, because it ultimately it puts the perpetrators on the wrong team. Every tech journalist has to decide whether or not he’s writing for companies or for readers. When they start writing for the companies, covering all their press releases and regurgitating marketing jargon, you do no one any favors (not even the companies, which already hire press release machines).

Brian makes a valid argument, but I think that’s beside the point. I don’t think he and his team planned out the prank to pay homage to the notion of independence and independent reporting. He’s just officially escalated the debate from a simple question of ethics when pulling a prank to issues of personal credibility, journalistic integrity and independence.

Does Giz deserve their punishment? Rightfully so. If they thought the CES was boring, why cover it? Try pulling the same stunt at MacWorld.

Is Brian Lam justified to pull the “He who hath not sinned cast the first stone” card? I think he’s got balls. But he’s also throwing the same stones back at him and his team.

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1. At least one Yet another blogger will get published. It will be a book about a blog, not a book about blogging. And no, it’s not me.
2. More bloggers with bow down to Google’s wrath, drop TLA and all other link ads. Matt Cutts will personally see to it that those who put out links because of any form of sponsorship will get their day in Google hell.
3. Mobile Advertising will significantly rise. And no it’s not AdSense for Mobile but AdMob. The iPod Touch, iPhone, N95 and upcoming Nokia Touchscreen S60 devices will push this. The web will slowly move on to the mobile phone.
4. Facebook will be the next Friendster. Everyone will be on Facebook that it won’t be that cool anymore. It will fade away, in favor of a newer fad.
5. Bloggers will blog less and flock more on Twitter. It needs to get bought though in order to survive. Maybe by Yahoo. Google already went with Jaiku 3 months ago.
6. More bloggers will join main stream media. It will more likely be broadcast media rather than print.
7. Adsense will lose its age-old glory, thanks to prediction #2 and the fall of the US dollar.
8. A 2010 Presidential candidate will blog, and will actually write it himself/herself.
9. Podcasting will continue to fade. Unless, there’s a good model that presents itself, it will be hard to continue producing podcasts. Just look at what happened to PodTech (a podcast network) in the US.
10. Local e-commerce will finally take a huge leap forward, thanks in part to Paypal. Let’s just hope that this doesn’t make the hackers/crackers/phishers work double-time.

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I may have over half a dozen trolls linger on this blog for months, sometimes even years. I even got a blog once dedicated just to mock me. Oftentimes, I’d ignore them; other times I’d try to engage their good side (hoping they do have one) before I take evasive actions.

What strikes my curiosity is why would these people keep on trolling your blog:

• They hate your guts, big time.
• Crab mentality?
• Jealousy.
• They have a lot of time on their hands.
• They’re just plain psycho.

I wrote something similar (Acknowledging Blog Critics) to this over 2 years ago when I had my first critic on this blog. Critics are sometimes good, but trolls?

Several other bloggers have asked me how to permanently block trolls from their blogs so I suggested the ff. — How to permanently block someone from your blog? — with additional suggestions from the commenters.

So, what’s your troll story and how did you deal with it?

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More and more bloggers are pimping the “Subscribe to my feeds via Email” banner knowing that this is where a huge portion of the subscribers come from. This is more evident with blogs that are not tech-related as the target readers may not be familiar with feed readers, thus email subscription takes the center stage.

The problem though is that these visitors may not really wanted to get email alerts from your blog on a regular basis. There are several cases I’ve encountered this:

• A casual visitor subscribes to your RSS-2-Email feeds because a specific post attracted them. I got a lot of this when visitors subscribing to my email alerts after visiting my “Mel & Joey” post about making money blogging. They would then expect that all succeeding posts would be about problogging or making money online.
• Some visitors just cannot cope up with daily updates from this blog. If a visitor subscribes via email, he or she will get emails from YugaTech on a daily basis since I’m updating everyday. For a casual email user, this may be too much to fill their inbox.
• Others are just oblivious about email subscriptions. They’d reply back to an email feed delivery asking why they’re getting such emails from me. I really wonder how they’d end up in my subscription so I always tell them that email subscriptions are not effected unless they actually activate and verify it from their email.

When a subscriber emails asking why they get emails from me, wanted updates about a specific topic only or asking why on hell they’re getting updates they aren’t interested, I always do any of the ff.:

• Apologize and explain how email subscription works. Also explain to them how my updates may have reached their inbox or that they may have accidentally activated the subscriptions.
• Point out the disclaimer at the bottom/footer of each email delivery and direct them to a link there where they are asked to click if they want to unsubscribe.
• Manually un-subscribe them from email delivery and clarify that the entire email subscription cycle was done by them and this should not happen if they’d read the fine print before typing in their email address inside the blank box.

In hindsight, these type of incidents only shows that some people don’t really read stuff on the internet carefully. What’s more surprising is that they easily give away their email address without knowing what’s in store for them. Guess that’s why email spam is still a huge problem.

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The most common problem for them is how to contact the people on their shortlist, aside from the fact that they don’t know who else to tap or invite. So the obvious questions to the bloggers are — are you willing to be contacted and how can we contact you?

On several occasions, I’ve declined giving out contact information due to privacy reasons. First, I don’t know if you are open to such invitations or if you’re willing to give up your anonymity. Apparently, a lot of bloggers are still comfortable hiding behind a pseudonym or a nickname as they feel this contributes to their editorial freedom.

My usual approach is to email or send an SMS to the bloggers list (if I have one) and personally ask them if they are willing to engage with the interested parties. Only them I can freely send out contact information and facilitate the discussions. This could range from product reviews, a simple meeting, a media interview/guesting, an advertising deal, a press conference, a private dinner, an exclusive party, participate/facilitate a seminar/workshop or cover an event.

The response I get ranges from a resounding yes, an apologetic no to a simple no-reply. I do keep tabs of the ones who have been constantly willing to join such activities and take note of the others who want to keep their privacy, anonymity or dis-interest.

Another agency was asking me for a database and said was willing to pay for it. I said no, there’s nothing to sell here.

However, I’d like to extend the same opportunities to other bloggers I haven’t touched based with yet. If you believe you can enhance your blogging, further your career in professional blogging or citizen’s journalism, even just have fun joining such activities, then here’s a chance to opt-in to my list.

I’ve modified my blog’s Membership Page to accommodate a couple information such as complete names, mobile numbers, location and description. It looks like this:

If you have already registered as a Subcriber in this blog, then you can update your Profile Page here. if not, you need to Register here.

P.S.: I am not paid to do this. If ever I am, I will disclose it. I just believe that this will help fellow bloggers get to the next level.

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• We’ve seen variations of this before — BlogExplosion, BlogMad, etc. Were they successful? If they were, why start with another one?
• Traffic exchange is all that — exchange of traffic. If you don’t have any, you can’t trade ‘em. And obviously, those with little to nil traffic will be the ones who’ll be most interested/excited in getting traffic. It means, it will be hard to get traffic from this program if you don’t have traffic to put in it as well.
• If you’re running Google AdSense, you could also be violating the TOS. Read this previous entry I wrote about it.
• Unequal widget positioning could pose a problem. Since you’re paying traffic for traffic, anyone can just put that widget way down the page, get the needed impressions but with very thin CTR. Darren Rowse got 35 clicks from 70,000 impressions. I don’t think a 0.05 CTR is worth the real estate you’re allocating for that widget.

Still, if you think you have some blog space to spare and a 0.05% CTR (that’s 1 click for every 2,000 impressions spent) is worth it, try them. It doesn’t hurt to get a few targeted visitors once in a while.

My suggestion to BlogRush is to switch from trading traffic to trading unique clicks. That way, bloggers will have more incentive of putting that widget way up above the fold to get more exposure and CTRs. Just make sure to filter duplicate clicker IPs to a minimum.

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Before we go on an all out war, let’s review the facts and the apparent misinformation that’s been going around the blogosphere.

First, Mark Verzo was not arrested. There was no arrest warrant against him by the NBI. He was invited to go the HQ for questioning. He could have declined that invitation but he didn’t knowing there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing.

The NBI raid was due to a Search Warrant issued by an unnamed judge. I suppose that he has jurisdiction over Alabang where Mark Verzo lives. If there’s one person to ask why the raid was made on Mark’s house, it would be the judge. Search warrants are not issued lightly. They should have probable cause to do so.

Lastly, there’s no Martial Law going on. If there was, the NBI didn’t have to get a judge to sign a search warrant and we didn’t get to see Mark on TV.

If you want a legal perspective from a lawyer, check out the The Warrior Lawyer on his explanation about the issue.

Yes, I’m all for helping those who are oppressed or harassed but let’s straighten up our facts. It’s sad to read all those blogs citing news reports and claiming Mark Verzo was arrested when in fact he wasn’t. It doesn’t legitimize our claim for responsible citizen journalism.

Update:
Basapa.com has a video footage of a TV report saying Mark was arrested and let go after the NBI couldn’t find anything to charge him with. It still boggles me why the NBI would arrest him in the first place when there was no probable cause to file any charges. If there was indeed an Arrest Warrant, was he read his Miranda rights or was he allowed to get a lawyer? Nevertheless, the footage shown was disturbing at the very least. This issue needs more digging.

Update:
Some lawyers said fingerprinting and mugshots are SOP. Come to think of it, I remember getting fingerprinted and mug shots the last time I went to the NBI office to get a travel clearance.

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Reports say that unlocking the iPhone invites DMCA complaints from AT&T and Apple. As usual, Apple will fiercely try to lock this down to protect their contract with AT&T. But what if they can’t?

It’s all about the money…

Apple gets 10% of all charges done by the customers thru the iPhone. So, an unlocked iPhone would mean bye-bye to that 10%. Never in recent history has any company had that much leverage over a telco.

Speaking of money, Shoemoney claims he’s being extorted by a DMOZ Editor. The editor wants $5,000 or else he’d remove Shoe’s listing in DMOZ. Wow, that’s a lucrative SEO underground market, huh?

And while we’re talking about SEO, the Macalua is inviting everyone to attend the 1st SEM Conference in October. The Php8,500 registration fee might be a bit steep but will be worth it. Aaron Wall (SEOBook) will be the keynote speaker. I will be on the “Tracking Buzz: How to Manage Your Online Reputation” panel on the second day.

Where there’s buzz, there’s traffic. WikiPilipinas claims to attract 100,000 visitors within 24 hours of formally launching the site last Wednesday. Apparently, it’s not enough so they’re inviting more bloggers to a dinner party this Friday. I’m not gonna make it but if anyone’s interested, I can give you my slot.

ABS CBN Multimedia, Inc. is also launching its AMPED Games on September 1 at the Trinoma. The Amped Fest 2007 will showcase games, music and entertainment demos.

Nokia’s MOSH (“MObilize and SHare”) social networking site has finally open its beta phase to the public. Invite and share with over 15,000 existing members. Looks like MySpace for mobile users.

For the photo-enthusiasts, check out MyPhotos.com.ph to have your photo collections printed in a book, gallery or canvas. Interesting service. I might try the Photo Book (Php1,800 for hard bound) myself. I checked out the prices at DigiPrint earlier and they charge Php3,200 for something similar.

If you’re still up for some digital camera shopping, check out DigiShop at Auction.ph. The Niko D40 and D200 are on sale until September 2.

That’s a wrap. I will be preparing several future-dated entries in the next 3 days that I’m in Singapore plus another contest/giveway. Who would have thought it’s gonna be that hard to send a USB drive via LBC? I may try JRS or Aboitiz GO instead.

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This would have been a huge triumph for the blogosphere that have been very vocal against her — but death threats?

Demanding a public apology and outright dismissal from the said publication is a valid argument. Name calling and cursing is treading on thin line but is always expected in times of outpouring emotions. Making death threats is totally crossing the line.

GMANewsTV reports, quoting her:

Fernandez claimed that because of the article she became a subject of hate blogs, a target of death threats and personal insults.

“Our society is bound together by human chains of kindness and decency. I have failed to observe this and I am now reaping the consequences of my actions.” Fernandez said.

Fernandez said she now truly understands the “insidiousness of discrimination and prejudice disguised as humor.”

Yes, she might deserve the ridicule thrown at her but subjecting her to death threats is a huge cause for concern (isn’t that a criminal offense under Philippine Law?). Death threats are no joke. The internet (and blogging) is a great tool for freedom of expression. That liberty, coupled with the inherent benefit of anonymity online, shouldn’t be used to cause anyone bodily harm.

Bloggers should also be vigilant to prevent this. I know it’s an impossible task but measures should be made to minimize it. Moderating comments deemed to be libelous and threatening should be exercised especially in situations like these. The same is true with anonymous blogs that calls out for someone to be physically harmed — do no link to them or allow them to post links on your blog.

This reminds me of Tim O’Reilly’s call for a Bloggers Code of Conduct after fellow blogger and friend Kathy Sierra was subjected to hate comments and death threats.

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I’ve been meaning to write some more local stuff but ended up deleting 3 separate drafts. Will just point you to some of the brewing discussions elsewhere…

• WikiPilipinas will officially launch next week. Hopefully, I could attend the launching and meet the proponents of the project to get more details. Last month, Eugene said there’s no point in having one. I’m 50-50 on that issue but if the WikiPilipinas (formerly called WikiPiniana) fork can come up with its own set of content (not lifted from the mother Wiki), then it becomes a worthy endeavor. If it’s just a copy, it becomes redundant already.
• Mike Villar and Marco the Siteguy publishes a rather late but still interesting take on the goings-on in the local sphere. Check out the 3rd episode of the FOBCast. Just a trivia to Marco – one of the very first blogs were actually just linklogs. And yes, we make our own definition on what the blogosphere ought to be. However, the state of the entire sphere right now is not a product of what the earlier bloggers of the late 90’s envisioned it to be. Rather, it is a product of all the individual players taking action and the inter-action that ensues afterwards. As to the issue of “content is king” vs. “traffic is queen”, that can be best explained by Mike Villar as he works for an SEO company.
• Nick of Tingog.com is calling out everyone to take a stand against Malu Fernandez of Manila Standard Today and People Asia Magazine. Read more about it here. I don’t read either of the two publications so I can’t really boycott them as suggested.
• Jhay shared his concerns about testifying for an upcoming TV feature by The Probe. The story, which will air on Wednesday the 22nd of August (on ABS CBN, 11:00PM) will tackle the state of broadband connectivity in the Philippines. I was also interviewed by them that afternoon and my hesitations were more like “am I fairly representing the entire Smart Wifi subscribers when I share my opinion about the issues plaguing the entire broadband market in the country?”.
• Jaypee cites an example on the borderlines of blogging and the freedom of speech and how one freedom is curtailed while another is rightfully exercised.
• Ajay writes about “a publicists guide to dealing with bloggers“. Gail then asks if “we’re selling ourselves too cheaply“. What’s more unnerving than the post is the cartoon that came with it. But, the greatest lesson I learned from all these PR events is what Chin Wong explained on his blog — 7 deadly PR sins. Ahh, we’re all warm bodies.

I’m off for tonight. Very early talk in Ateneo tomorrow about blogging and new media as enabling tools. I sure hope I don’t mis/under-represent us all and be called out for it. :p

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Here are the numbers and the charts:

Highest traffic for a given month was March 2007 at 8,499,495 page views from 1,464,829 unique visitors. The month with the highest number of unique visitors was May at 1,538,765 but it generated less page views (8,026,274) than March. Remember, these pageviews and visits are the aggregate number for all those who are using the tracking button (approved, pending, and suspended). This also includes traffic directly generated by the site but that is negligible considering the Pinoy Top Blogs site barely hit 1,000 pageviews a day.

The traffic was also plotted on an hourly basis and this is how it looks like:

Based on the graph, you can see that blog traffic tops at 11AM (just before lunch), dips at 12 noon (lunch break) and goes back between 1PM to 2PM. This might indicate blog reading habits peaks and hour before and after lunch (probably mostly due office workers accessing blogs from work?).

On the other hand, the lowest traffic hours are between 4 to 6 AM.

In any case, this chart tells us to publish our posts just before noon to take advantage of the traffic trends.

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DJ Samantha Ronson, an erstwhile friend of teen actress Lindsay Lohan , is suing the blogger behind PerezHilton.com, Mario Lavandeira. The libel suit , which amounts to $20 million big bucks, implicates Mario for republishing content on his blog.

And it does not stop there. More copyright problems are plaguing the popular celeb blogger.

Perez Hilton Sued By The Paparazzi

Web Host Drops Celebrity Blog PerezHilton.com After Copyright Complaints

Before it comes to that, complainants can send out a DMCA to the blog’s web host and shut it down. WisDump suggests subscribing to affordable and legit photo services like PR Photos. I suggest start investing on a camera and getting your own photos. Doing both might be better at the start. You could also save all those revenues from your blog as future legal fund.

Could it happen here in the Philippines? If the PCIJ blog got a TRO before, nothing will stop anybody from doing a repeat performance. Yeah, I know, we all don’t want to hear these kind of discussion. But it’s already out there.
And if you do, I can refer you to my lawyers.

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See video after the jump.

Click To Play

Interesting discussion from people who worked (or used to work) in main stream media, though I disagree with some of the points they raised. I guess they’re perspective is influenced by how mature blogging has become in the west. (video by OneMansBlog)

[tags]John C. Dvorak, Om Malik, WordCamp 2007, WordPress[/tags]

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Now, she’s back in the news as the most widely read blogger in the world — 100 million pageviews in 600 days (yup, that’s 8 zeros after the 1). CNN reports she reached the 100 million mark last July 12, 2007. She started only blogging back in October of 2005. Although Xu’s blog dropped its rank down to #47 in Technorati, the sheer volume of blog readers has propelled her blog to be the world’s most widely read blogger.

At 100 million pageviews in 600 days, that’s close to around 100 visitors per second. Now, that’s a feat in itself. With 162 million internet users in China, it’s not really a wonder why she’s getting that many visitors. Another Chinese blogger, Han han, will soon pass the 100 million mark as well.

Update: Valleywag notes that this news could be slanted to totally false. 100 million pageviews in 600 days breaks down to about 166,000 pageviews a day. Allegedly, showbiz blog Perez Hilton rakes around 33 million pageviews a month or roughly just over 1 million a day.

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A lot of sleepless nights tweaking mySQL, tons of spam submissions, and several thousand dollars in server costs later, it’s still running and tracking over 2,800 Pinoy blogs (probably the largest list of active Filipino blogs out there).

It has been cited in so many academic research, both in print and broadcast media as well as conferences and summits. The Filipino Librarian has also been very diligent to track the monthly progress and shifts in the rankings.

Despite that, I often encounter comments from casual visitors how the list has degraded. There was this one time, at the band camp during the recent iBlog Summit, a person came up to the microphone and addressed Manolo this question (and I’m paraphrasing here) — “You talk about creating great content refer to this top blogs list, but if you look at the list all you see are blogs ranking on top with not much compelling content. Does this top list represent the Philippine blogosphere? If this is the creme of the crop, then I don’t think blogging is a performance art.”

I wanted to stand up and offer my opinion but I don’t think he’ll understand SEO or search popularity. Content might be king, but it’s the Search Queen that drives traffic. Besides, I suppose he might have not noticed that the showbiz and entertainment industry cuts across all borders, and that includes blogging. Even in Inquirer.net, it’s usually 9 out of the top 10 most read articles of the week are about showbiz. That makes Dolly Anne Carvajal the most widely read or popular columnist.

Again, the list doesn’t represent anything grand or majestic. It only tells us which blogs gain the most traffic without distinction between direct, organic search or repeat readership — that’s it. It does not represent the creme of the crop (I originally hope it would but I gave up on that one too). It only tells us entertainment is still #1.

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