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Paid online access to New York Times – my opinion
As a publisher, I’m happy to see the New York Times take a real lead on paid content. I’ve always thought that the Web wants to be “FREE,” but everyone knows that anything that is always given away free turns into garbage. And that’s the road most print publications are on unless they change their model. The New York Times can’t continue to create leadership journalism as it watches home delivery and newsstand sales dwindle to those few remaining octogenarians who want the inky, bulky broadsheet hanging into their cereal (Full disclosure: I’m one of them). While Google AdSense can make publishers a few dimes and nickels each month, it’s revenue potential is way over-stated and decreasing. There has to be another way.
I love the NYT solution for the following reasons:
1. It provides a benefit and distinction for home subscribers. Part of this reaction is selfish, since I’ve subscribed since I lived in New York fifteen years ago. But it stands to reason that you promote sales by giving benefits to the people who increase your value as an asset. And, advertisers like to see paid subscription since it connotes involvement.
2. It allows people to get a little bit for free. They haven’t yet said how many articles per month you will get for “free” as a non-subscriber, but it’s at least ten, that should give you enough to read your favorite columnists or features every month. Beyond that, as with public radio, you really should be donating something anyway.
3. It keeps the NYT open to Google and Bing searches. I always thought this was the way things should go. Allow the NYT to be searchable via search engines so people can find the best info online and perhaps discover the Times.
4. Most importantly, it still allows bloggers to tell the world about stories they find in the NYT, without resorting to copying articles wholesale. I often make a comment on an article, providing an interesting snipped with a link to the full article. The NYT will still allow this though clicking the link will count towards the monthly quota for unpaid users. This should help the New York Time get more readers while not destroying their model.
This is the system the New Yorker should use as well. It’s fun to send an great article to someone who is not a reader. It’s not good if someone is reading the whole thing on line while everyone else is paying. And face it, a new generation of readers is growing up and they are happy reading a book or magazine on an iPhone rather than a physical magazine.
Hats off to the New York Times.
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Top internet searches for kids identified – “Sex” and “Porn” near the top of lists
What were kids most interested in and curious about in 2009? Parents can tell a lot from monitoring internet searches, which may also alert them to possible topics they may need to discuss with their kids. On a more macro level, Norton has identified the top searches conducted by kids in 2009 through data from OnlineFamily.Norton, a free family safety service that parents can use to protect kids online.
Do You Know What Your Kids Are Looking For Online?
Norton looked at the top 100 searches conducted by kids age 18 and under and also broke down results by age and gender. Some of the top terms may surprise parents. “Sex” and “Porn” made it to the top overall search terms for both Teens group and “Sex” for the Tweens group. These terms should raise a red flag to parents if they haven’t had “The Talk” with their children about content that may not be appropriate for kids. Kids’ top three overall search terms in 2009 were YouTube, Google, and Facebook. While these sites can be entertaining and educational for kids under supervision, parents need to monitor usage and talk to kids about appropriate and inappropriate things they may find on-line.
Teens’ Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Facebook 3. Google 4. Sex
5. MySpace 6. Porn 7. Yahoo 8. Youtube.com 9. eBay
10. Wikipedia
Tweens’ Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Google 3. Facebook 4. Sex
5. Club Penguin 6. Youtube.com 7. You Tube 8. Miniclip
9. Yahoo 10. eBay
7 & Under Top 25
1. YouTube 2. Google 3. Facebook 4. Porn
5. Club Penguin 6. Yahoo 7. Webkinz 8. You Tube
9. Games 10. Miniclip
We use Safari installed on a Mac in our family room that the kids use periodically to play games. When they are logged into their account, Safari only allows them to surf to sites we’ve approved. We don’t allow them to look at YouTube and other sites without us being there to control the buttons. Our kids are still only 5 and 9 so that is bound to change soon.
Norton offers the basic OnlineFamily.Norton at no charge, but plans to launch a premium subscription version later in 2010.
Popularity: 9%
Options for dads with young kids who want email
My kids are 5 and 9, and we are always trying to keep them away from all the evils the 21st century has in store. It may seem really antediluvian, but that includes PG-rated movies, Nintendo DS-style solitary video games, the wild and wooly internet, and even email. The longer we can put off the inevitable, the greater the chance that we will have an intersection of knowledge gained at the appropriate maturity level. My pulse races at what things my son and daughter might see if we didn’t work hard at this.
Some day soon my daughter is going to “require” email though, I’m sure since she has many friends whose parents are more liberal than we are when it comes to these things. Email is a great thing, and I’m tempted to give it to her today so she can write to her grandmas and aunt and uncle. But I’m also worried that it’s a Pandora’s box with some unpleasant surprises very quickly in store. I certainly don’t want to see her getting spam for low mortgage rates or black market Viagra, or worse.
There are now products though that open up email to little kids without fear. One is the Etendi BRIDGE, a product we gave our GreatDad.com Recommends seal to earlier this year. This site is subscription based and allows communication, IM and video, between a very limited number of people and was designed more for kids and faraway relatives than it is for young girls. I’ve encouraged them to consider a variation on this site for limited kids’ social networks.
Another is My Secret Circle, a USB-based device that allows your daughter (this is a “girl-oriented” product) to connect with friends in a safe and secure environment. The USB key is required to enter the website and use its functions including a personal Facebook-like page, chat/IM, email and games. Friends must have a My Secret Circle USB “key” as well to interact, and must be given a written out “Friend Code” to find each other on the site. My Secret Circle costs $19.99 on Amazon, and an extra BFF USB key is available for $10.
This product is developed for kids 8+ and is designed for this age group with appropriate messaging. Unfortunately, there is no parent supervision function, which might be problematic for two reasons. One, if the site password is ever forgotten for any reason, there is no way to retrieve it, unlike most sites that are tied to an adult’s email. Second, and more serious, is that there is no monitoring function for parents. While kids need private spaces, 8-10 year old kids are still very young to have completely private online spaces that might need to be monitored in many very easily imaginable situations.
Our favorite option right now is the magazine/website developed my New Moon Media, called NewMoonGirls.com. While this site does not have email, it does have many of the functions that My Secret Circle has like forums and IM with one key difference: it is completely monitored in the background by adults who see every word written. My daughter loves the magazine, which comes every two months.
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Webkinz and and the new Webkinz Jr.
Webkinz is a fun game for kids who are less than ten years old. I think Webkinz is better than Club Penguin. On Webkinz.com, you can buy more rooms, you can send packages, you can even chose your own wall paper and flooring and much more! Webkinz has more advantages then any other computer game. Webkinz, unlike Club Penguin, has another site that is good for kids who are just starting to read. Webkinz is a fun game for all children!
By Hadley (age 9), owner of Julianna, a 
Webkinz Golden Retriever.
Dad’s POV: Webkinz Jr. is for pre-readers so a lot of it is easier for them to do. As a parent, I’m kind of amazed that they have the motivation to play sorting games with little “wow” factor and dead-slow animation, but it’s a testament to Webkinz that kids seem to stay intrigued. The concepts are pretty easy to grasp, so a lot can be done without mom and dad’s involvement, which may or not be a good thing.
Webkinz Jr., like the regular Webkinz cost from $20- $30. They have a “cute” factor that kids love, though adults might find they are not as well made as other plush toys. The kids are more interested in the game in this case, and I haven’t seen my kids anyway, focus to much on the similarity of their real live doll to the one featured on the screen.
Like Club Penguin, there are security features so that kids can’t chat with other kids (or adults) unlimitedly. Kids are limited to a selection of simple phrases and questions, such “hello.”
A deluxe membership will soon be available that includes more activities and a section that allows parents to track their child’s involvement with different parts of the site. It would seem that at this price, this would be included.
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UPDATE: Facebook Fights Second Phishing Attack – FBStarter
Actually, nice to know that Facebook is reacting quickly and forcefully to this attack. If you saw this one, it’s just a good reminder not to stick in your password without thinking twice, or three times.
Facebook early today suffered its second phishing attack in 24 hours, but the social networking site took swift action to resolve the matter.
Yesterday, attackers worked to lure Facebook members to FBAction.net, a site displaying a bogus Facebook login page that hijacked users’ accounts. Today, a second attack appeared, this time using fbstarter.com.While the creator of the site remains uncertain — the site is registered to “Boris Soroka” in Moscow, according to Whois records, which aren’t necessarily legitimate — Facebook and its security partners are moving quickly to lock things down.
“We’ve already blocked www.fbstarter.com from being shared on Facebook, which stops the spread,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told InternetNews.com. “Now, we’re deleting that URL from walls and inboxes. We’ve also blocked access to the URL so if someone does find it on Facebook [on their wall, in their inbox, or in an e-mail notification] it won’t send them to the destination. Finally, we’ll automatically reset the password on any account that sent the malicious link. Thus, the data becomes useless to the bad guys very quickly.”
[From Facebook Fights Second Phishing Attack - InternetNews.com]
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