What the BBC's strategic review actually says about online
The BBC’s strategic review has created a lot of fuss – especially around the closure of 6 Music and the supposed “halving” of its website.
To save you having to read the review, here’s what it actually says about the BBC’s online presence (and given the amount of confusing repetition in the report, I should be given a medal for saving you having to read it – can I suggest getting some more editors for the next strategic review?)
The BBC's misguided approach to social media
News organizations are getting hip to social media. For many of them,
figuring out how to use social media hasn't been easy, but a growing
number of them have seen the light and realize that social media
platforms can serve as valuable tools for journalism.
But should news organizations require that their journalists use, say, Twitter and Facebook? The director of BBC Global News, Peter Horrocks, apparently thinks so.
What a lot of rubbish everyone is talking about Google and paywalls
The biggest load of old rubbish ever has been written about the changes to Google's first click free program. Here's a round up of who understands what they are talking about (and might survive with a paywall) and who hasn't got a clue ...
Site review: BBC Democracy Live
The BBC yesterday launched a new political website, Democracy Live, which enables the public to keep up with TV coverage of political debates.
The site offers live and on demand coverage of the Commons, the House of Lords, the European Parliament, Scottish Assembly and more, so you can keep up with debates on a variety of issues that may effect you.
Journalists aren't happy about The Washington Post's new twitter regulations
It's familiar by now to hear mocking sounds come from new media champions and writers when old media takes a stand against Twitter or Facebook or some other new tech tool. But new Twitter guidelines issued by the Washington Post on Friday came from inside old media.
Why? Because beyond helping a publication gain traction and authority on news items in real time, social media can be a journalists best tool for job stability. And the new rules threaten them more than anyone else.
Is the BBC finally using hyperlinks?
Having experimented with various ways of linking out, it looks like the BBC may finally be using good old hyperlinks to send readers to external websites.
This was spotted by techchuff, via Twitter, which remarks that the 'Google juice is being sprayed like champagne at an F1 podium', and indeed, the links appear to be passing on PageRank, which hasn't always been the case with the BBC.
Google may take BBC's iPlayer global
Google's bread and butter may be search and the recession may have led Google to cut back on projects that weren't bringing home the bacon but that doesn't mean that Google isn't looking to expand its already large footprint on the web.
It just announced that by the end of the year, it hopes to be offering its publishing partners the ability to sell ebooks through Google Book Search, putting it in competition with Amazon in the burgeoning ebook market.
Hulu tries to schedule its UK debut: report
Hulu has fast become one of the internet's top destinations for professional video content. With free high-def programming from the likes of NBC, FOX, Comedy Central and many others, it's not hard to see why.
There's only one problem: it's only available in the United States.
BBC has the best headlines on the web - Nielsen
The BBC's descriptive yet concise news headlines are a great example of writing for the web, and are always written to the 'highest web usability standards' according to usability guru Jakob Nielsen.
He cites headlines like 'Mass Thai protest over leadership' and 'Iran accuses journalist of spying' as best practice examples, with the average news headline containing five words and 34 characters.
Site review: BBC mobile
The BBC has just launched the beta version of its new mobile site which, like the web version, allows users to personalise the content they view.
It's a welcome development, as the current BBC mobile site is a little basic, and the new version provides access to more of the corporation's content. I've been taking a look at the new version...
Websites vs Facebook Pages: which URL should you promote? 
Food for thought: driving demand and innovation through Twitter
Google
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
