Author: David Dalka

I just became aware of a new beta Web 2.0 site, Commentful.com, that just soft launched. Commentful.com is designed to watch all of your comments and posts from Digg, Flickr, Zooomer, Youtube, etc. I just opened an account and I am going to toy with it for a bit. Let me know what features you think it needs via comment so I can see how well it works.

The past few days there has been posts raging on blogs regarding Payperpost and the issue of disclosure. While technically not a blog, Steve’s Digicam’s is a heavy traffic, blog like web site that reviews new digital cameras as they come to market. The site has no disclosure at all on what happens to the cameras after they are reviewed. Personally, I could care less whether Steve returns the cameras, keeps them until they fill every room in his house, sells them on Ebay or gives them away after he reviews them. Why? Steve provides a valuable service via a disciplined process that he follows with each camera. The site is so successful in fact that Steve’s Digicams is imitated and scraped in countless splogs that you can find on blog search engines

Steve’s Digicams includes high quality, expensive to serve test photos, most painstakingly taken from the exact same location and lighting conditions so that site visitors can make their own decisions and judgments on quality before purchasing a camera thanks to the site. The service he provides is invaluable, I couldn’t imagine buying a new digital camera without visiting the site.  But the site has no disclosure. If what the disclosure crowd says is indeed correct, this site most certainly should have been rejected by the public for the non-disclosure in regards to the cameras, right? Then why is it a popular (Alexa ~4,000) site still running strong 8 years later? When it’s a source you trust that provides consistent value to you, disclosure is a non-issue.

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One more prop to Steve’s Digicams, they understand their visitors and they value highly that each site visitor has a smooth user experience on each visit and they focus on visitor retention – as stated on their about page:

“Steve’s Digicams was created in early 1997 and since then we have often considered making major site changes to make it “flashier” — we have opted not to do this in an effort to keep our site accessible to everyone. It’s nice to visit sites with tons of fancy graphics and lots of WOW factor, but many times those sites do not load properly or they take a long time to load due to net congestion. We also realize that not everyone has DSL or cable modem access to the net, many are still using 28.8 or 56K dial-up modems. We write our code in a manner so that our pages load as quickly as possible and, for the most part, you can find what you are looking for within 2 clicks. We know many people bookmark pages on our site, so for that reason we do not remove any items which we have previously posted nor change their URLs.”

I don’t know when they started doing it, but currently residing in Chicago, I read the Tribune Online often and this is the first time I’ve seen it. You can view the story in question via this Google News link without subscription.

While I highly applaud the video being added to this story as it adds an emotional element, I have one major problem with it. That is that the ad and the video starting running and stream audio without my permission. They should immediately add a YouTube like feature to allow the user to choose when and if in fact if they want to view this ad and story. This is a serious issue as I frequently edit audio, record streaming audio or am listening to music as I surf. What if a viewer is in a public place with a laptop and the audio launches when they don’t expect it? This is bad news. Anything that launches audio automatically is going to get on my bad side towards the publisher at one point or another. They should listen to this feedback and take swift action. I would welcome discussions with Dan Hess or anyone else over at the Tribune on this issue. Since Ryland Homes is the sponsor, it would be great if they led the charge on making this change.

In addition, how does this advertising model work exactly? If I’m an advertiser, how do I know how many people are actually listening to the 10 second ad that it is automatically launching without permission? There are people in offices and other places with no professional speakers who will never hear it for example. How do you charge for something so variable and uncertain?

If the Tribune wants to be innovative, I would suggest a Sphere This link or the ability to add blog trackbacks directly to a news story would be a good move!

UPDATE: It appears that all video has now been changed to starting with a click.

I’m attending my first unconference! I hope you can join me with my new tech startup, geek and entrepreneurship friends at Barcamp Chicago! Please RSVP here. 

Yesterday, I canceled my cable to become an Internet only household! So today is not only a day of Independence in the United States, but it is also the First Annual Internet Service Provider Only Day! Say no to tiered, duplicative service monopolies and speed the integration of Internet with TV and force a discussion about saving net neutrality – go Internet Service Provider only today!

The first ever TECH cocktaill event is scheduled for Thursday, July 6, 2006 from 6:30 to 9pm at State in Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois. Wine will be available for free as part of Stormhoek’s 100 Geek Dinner series!

Please RSVP on the comment section of this web site. I look forward to meeting you there. Let’s show the world that Chicago can be a tech startup leader in the 21st Century! Remember to bring your business cards and I look forward to meeting you there and hearing your ideas!