The YouTube Generation

From the The Tech Chronicles on the SFGate.com site. The Pew report is here.

One day in the future, a significant portion of this blog content will be YouTube how-to videos. It will only happen after I have donated the Greenscaper Consumer lab. My plan is to create a virtual lab with many physical locations connected via the web.

Almost 60 percent of Internet users have watched videos online, the Pew Internet & American Life Project said in a report Wednesday.

Among its findings on people's online video watching habits:

* Three in four young adult Internet users aged 18 to 29 watch online video.

* Roughly one in three of that same group said they do so on a typical day.

* It's still a small group of people posting all those homemade clips online. About one in 12 said they have uploaded a video file online.

* Despite the flood of amateur, semi-professional and mashup videos, most viewers still like the professionally produced ones. More than 60 percent said their favorite videos are "professionally produced."

* They don't call it the YouTube generation for nothing. Nearly 30 percent said they watch video from YouTube. Of those who watch or download videos from more than one location, 29 percent said they go to YouTube most often.

NOTE
Sorry that comments don’t work. There's a software bug that I don't know how to fix. Please email your comments, questions and suggestions until I can get comments working again. Thanks!
e-mail Bob Hyland
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Flickr Photos now in Yahoo Image Search

Thomas Hawk explains about a very significant improvement in Yahoo Image Search. The most significant stream of activity on this blog is from image searching—with Google Image Search clearly in the lead. That may change.

Search Engine Journal is reporting this morning that Yahoo has added over 300 million indexed Flickr images into it's image index. And so begins the single most important reason that Yahoo bought Flickr back in March of 2005 -- to use social search and rank to increase the relevancy of image search on Yahoo. And with that, Yahoo just took a huge step in overtaking Google in relevancy for the first time even if in one small area.

NOTE
Sorry that comments don’t work. There's a software bug that I don't know how to fix. Please email your comments, questions and suggestions until I can get comments working again. Thanks!
e-mail Bob Hyland
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Googling Redirection

My primary source of information for IPL has been web searching using key words related to houseplants, indoor plants, horticulture, etc. One or more of the following adjectives…boring, repetitious, and inaccurate could describe most of what I find in the mainstream media. I’m tired of reading it and you probably would be too if I posted it.

Have no fear, Google to the rescue. I’ve recently discovered that Google has significantly improved blog searching, which by the way is a separate category of searching. With that, I’ve discovered a wealth of interesting and creative stuff about inside plants, some practical, and some rather loopy and far out. But hey, that’s where products and styles of the future are born.

Green geeks, designers, architects, artists, and people who simply have an eye for good design write many of these interesting blogs. So, you’ll notice the source of many future posts will be from this creative sphere of the blogosphere.

NOTE
Sorry that comments don’t work. There's a software bug that I don't know how to fix. Please email your comments, questions and suggestions until I can get comments working again. Thanks!
e-mail Bob Hyland
bobhyland[AT]insideplantslive [dot]org

A Blogosphere Pioneer

 
 

Meg Hourihan is one of the founders of Pyra Labs creator of Blogger.com, now owned by Google. Meg is a well-recognized blogging pioneer. I enjoyed reading this Tufts University profile and in particular, what she had to say about women and science.

"My career path in technology is not at all an aberration," she explains. "Many women in technology come to technology later and don't come through traditional academic, undergraduate degrees."

She is a strong advocate of creating an educational environment where women are encouraged to enter the math, science and technology fields.

"For me, when I was growing up, I felt there was a stigma of computers and being a nerd," she recalls. "I went to computer camp in sixth grade. I told people when I got back to school that I went to computer camp and I was just mocked. That definitely had an impact on me."

While she feels there is still a ways to go, Hourihan notes that some progress is being made.

"More proactive encouragement of women in technology needs to happen," she asserts. "At least now it seems like girls have more exposure to it at younger ages and the opportunity to be familiar with it from the beginning."

New Yahoo Video Search

It looks like Yahoo scooped Google for the first time in my recent experience. I’ve been an early adopter of Google News Alerts, Desktop Search and Search History. Yahoo’s new video search is a cool new feature and I agree with the bullish outlook of the article. Video search opens up awesome new potential for the web.

How-to videos are definitely in the future of this blog.

I tried out a search on the word "houseplant” (one-track mind). The one and only hit in the spotlight was a video of a “moisture meter” on Barron Fujimoto’s blog Takoyaki.org. Please don’t try this at home.

Business Week Ballyhoos Blogs

A Business Week cover story says a lot about the significance of blogging. It is a worthwhile read for anyone building a business or espousing a cause as a public service.

Blogging is the most powerful communication tool of my lifetime. For those willing to put the time and effort into a blog, it is the most effective way for an individual to express a point of view. The cost is measured in time rather than money.

Don’t be misled by my cutback in posting frequency. This blog isn’t going away. There’s a story to be told and I plan do a better job of telling it when I am done with what I have to get done. That’s finding a home for the plant lab and relocating back to my hometown.

Comments Feature Fixed

I believe the comments feature is fixed. Please email me if you have a problem posting a comment. bobhyland [at] insideplantslive.com

Thanks,
Bob

Comments are not Working

It appears that the comment feature is not working. Until I can get help to fix the problem, please e-mail me at bobhyland [at] insideplantslive.org. I will publish comments of general interest.

Your feedback is of value and I appreciate it very much. Thanks! Bob

Comments Inadvertanly Deleted

Somehow the Movable Type comment spam fighter plug-in (MT-Blacklist) deleted all comments except those with my IP address. I believe I can reconstruct them, but not today. Ah, such are the joys of blogging in the age of spam. Tomorrow is another day!

What's a Blog?

An answer.

Blogging News About Spam

Spam is one of the ugly sides of the blogosphere. It is very frustrating to spend time every day (including today) deleting comment and trackback spam. It is even more frustrating to think that the bad guys may be winning the war over the good guys.

There has been much naïve thinking by blog software writers in the past. That time is long gone. These spammers are technically savvy and have no conscience.

New Green Business Blog

The launch of a new blog by Greenview Fertilizer gets a bravo and a big round of applause from this blogger.

It’s great to see a company involved in the green plants business recognize the value of a blog. I like what they’re doing and wish there were people and companies in the “plants in buildings" community (houseplants or interior plants) with the courage to publish a blog.

This press release was the first news of the blog. This link captioned What is a blog? from their website explains more about their rationale for the blog. I often wonder how many people in the green plants business yet know what a blog is.

Comment Spam

If you've been with us for a while, you know we were bombed with comment spam. It was an extremely frustrating experience. Here's yet another potential countermeasure attracting mixed reviews.

Thanks to Dave Aiello, Weblog Improvement, we now have a means to fight back. He installed the MT-Blacklist plug-in for us. We still get occasional comment spams but it's now much simpler to remove them. We're grateful for that.

What's A Blog...Huh?

Here's some current media hype about blogs including a new Pew report. Maybe the subject matter of this blog isn't of great importance to society, but it is our thing. Perhaps it's yours too.

Thanks for reading this past year. We look forward to blogging along with you in 2005.

Blogging Awards

It's not only the holiday season, it's the awards season too. Here are the "2004 Weblog Awards". No, you're not going to find anything about plants but there are some interesting blogs to read.

This Bob Isn't A BOB

It's now down to the finalists in the BOBs, Best of the Blogs awards contest sponsored by Deutsche Welle (German wave) broadcasting company.

Excerpt: The Bush-Kerry debate held the attention of bloggers in all seven of the BOBs’ competition languages -- Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. But while the world’s bloggers were examining America, American bloggers were scrutinizing themselves.

Characteristic of the rest of American media, bloggers in the United States, home to the world’s most blogs, were busy looking inward and analyzing what was happening in their own backyard rather than looking out into the international arena.

Soon the blogosphere will see whether the end of the election means the inward-oriented US bloggers will start looking abroad for ideas and influences. The media can only benefit from doing so, as Deutsche Welle's BOBs' nominees from the rest of the world show that there's a lot to offer outside the US and English.

Competing With Google

Frank Barnako at MarketWatch posted an interesting story about blogging including an interview with Mena Trott, co-founder of Six Apart creators of Typepad and Movable Type. Frank has more blog information, including links to Bloggercon III on his weblog.

Long Tail of Blogging

Steve Rubel wrote an excellent article about the blogosphere and the impact blogging is making. You can read more of Steve's well thought out observations on his blog, Micro Pursuasion. We have added it to our link list.

Excerpt: A similar long tail effect is now forming in the media content sphere. As blogging becomes more popular, it is now easier for news consumers to find specific niche blog sites that adequately meet their information needs. It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in knitting, gadgets, cars, sports, politics or music, there’s a blogger out there who’s covering it well who can serve as your information filter.

It might even work for the subject of indoor plants for home and business!

Update On The Digital World

John Battelle's Searchblog reports on Mary Meeker's research report Update On The Digital World (a PDF file). It's a worthwhile read that includes up to date information about blogging.

Free Wall Street Journal Next Month

As a subscriber to the online Wall Street Journal we found this news most interesting. The emerging power of blogs is a fascinating story.

Getting The WordBiz Out

Interest in starting a business blog is high, but so is concern about the time required to write one. We can vouch for that.

Excerpt: 71% of marketers reported time as a key concern in managing a business blog for their company or organization according to results from a recent WordBiz survey. 45% were unsure what to write about, 18% questioned if the content needs to be edited or pre approved and 15% wondered who would be responsible for the content. Yet, when asked if they have considered starting a business blog, more than 80% responded yes.

New Funding For Six Apart

Six Apart, creators of Movable Type, has received $10 million of new funding. This blog is published using Movable Type. The investment is yet another endorsement of weblog communications.

Blog On!

Here's an interesting article on blog marketing. Read on!

RSS Feeds Have Been Added

We forgot to mention about adding Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed links. Scroll down on the left, right click and copy our link into your RSS reader.

If you’re not familiar with RSS, start with this tutorial. There are links to more information.

Excerpt: RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, Web publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or weblog postings. Meanwhile, consumers use RSS reader applications (or one of a growing number of online services) to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place (RSS content from a publisher, viewed in one of these readers, is often called a "feed").

Consumer Bottom Line: RSS makes reviewing a large number of sites in a very short time possible.

Publisher Bottom Line: RSS permits instant distribution of content updates to consumers.

We The Media

This is a Forbes book review of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People. You can buy it or read it free online here.

Excerpt: Blogs have been a hit. There are more than a million out there, although it's tough to verify precisely how many people are reading them. Newspapers, by sad contrast, know precisely how many of their readers are vanishing. Have they decided they have no time to read? Or are these folks only interested in missives and reports that directly touch their lives?

We the Media (hardback) (O'Reilly) July 2004 Grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media's monopoly on the news, transforming it from a lecture to a conversation. Not content to accept the news as reported, these readers-turned-reporters are publishing in real time to a worldwide audience via the Internet. The impact of their work is just beginning to be felt by professional journalists and the newsmakers they cover. In We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, nationally known business and technology columnist Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon, and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make and consume the news.

Dan Gillmor is a nationally known columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. His column runs in many other U.S. newspapers, and he also writes a daily weblog for SiliconValley.com, an online affiliate of the Mercury News. Gillmor has been consistently listed by industry publications as among the most influential journalists in his field and has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. We the Media is his first book.

Blog Curious?

If you're curious about starting a blog, read this from Debbie Weil. Good stuff!

If we were starting over, we'd use TypePad from the creators of Movable Type. Consider it for personal, business or photoblog use.

TypePad makes it easy to:

Publish a weblog

Publish a photo album

Maintain lists of your favorite books, music, weblogs, and links

Personalize your site's colors, layout, and design

Connect with others who share your interests

Limit who reads your weblog through password protection

A New York Opinion

Not everyone in New York was captivated by the opening of Home Depot's new store. Charlie Suisman, publisher of the Manhattan User's Guide (MUG) is never bashful about voicing his opinion. He did and we find that refreshing.

We may not always agree with MUG, but we read his blog regularly. If you're a New Yorker by birth, residency or just at heart check it out. The content is interesting and Charlie knows how to write.

A Trade Association Is Blogging

The Washington Times featured an article about blogging citing the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) weblog called "ACCA Buzz". It’s interesting to see a contractor’s trade association using a blog to communicate. The application of weblogs for a wide range of businesses is growing daily.

ACCA is using Six Apart's TypePad service, a good choice in our opinion. We use their Movable Type software but it's a bit above our pay grade.

We would use TypePad if we were starting today. Check it out. They offer a 30-day free trial. All you need do is invest a little time to test whether blogging is right for you.

We would like to see more bloggers in the inside plants community, particularly blogs written by interiorscapers and other horticultural professionals. As far as we know, this is still the only one.

Moblogging

No that's not more blogging, it's moblogging as in mobile phone. Some sharp interior plantscaper might jump on this and create a real competitive edge.

Here A Blog, There A Blog, Everywhere A Weblog

Here’s a comprehensive article on blogs from Time Magazine. Follow the links in the article and you’ll learn a lot about the blogosphere.

Debbie Weil posted it on her blog. We might not have found it if we hadn’t just installed an RSS reader and a notice of the post crawled onto our screen. We think her new blog design (skin) is cool. Well done Debbie.