Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 5, 2011 · 10:01 am

The Shotgun Approach

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry this morning about a situation one of my clients is having. They, like many other sites, get a fair amount of traffic from Google. In their case, because they’re a news site, Google News is a key traffic driver as well. A week ago, with no notice or changes to the site, their articles disappeared from Google News and their traffic dropped precipitously. What’s really weird is that the site is still fully indexed in regular Google – only News is affected.
Why am I telling you this? Because while the cause is still unknown we have an idea of what’s doing it and there are larger thoughts beyond our specific case that I want to share. Continue reading →

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May 4, 2011 · 8:20 am

What Boxing Tells Us About Broadband

Ricardo Dominguez (left) rallied late to win a...

Image via Wikipedia

Growing up, I used to follow boxing.  It was pretty easy to be a fan – there weren’t a lot of weight classes, there was a single sanctioning body that mattered so there was only one champion in each weight class, and it was on free TV (although pay TV didn’t exist yet) every week. In short, it was simple and fan friendly.  A high-quality product was made available each week and promoters and TV networks did everything they could to get me to watch.

What does this have to do with the broadband (and wireless for that matter) business? Continue reading →

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May 3, 2011 · 9:13 am

The Shrinking Universe

Image representing Nielsen as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

I know I sometimes get a bit “out there” with some of these posts.  Today might be one of those but hopefully you find the tidbit I’m about to discuss as interesting as I do.

Those of you who are outside of the media business might not be aware that Nielsen, the ratings company, updates what are called “universe estimates” every year.  This is to reflect the growth in households and of the numbers of people who live in them.  Those ratings you see reported are percentages of a universe – a 10 rating means 10% of what’s being measured – homes, Men, Women 18-34 – was watching.  Percentages are constant; universes aren’t, and this is where it gets interesting.  Let’s see what you think. Continue reading →

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