Facebook, Twitter and the economics of attention

Submitted: July 9, 2012 - 7:12pm
Originally published: July 9, 2012
Last updated: July 9, 2012 - 7:15pm
Location:

Facebook (new HQ), 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, United States

Some wonder whether Facebook will ever be able to make advertising work at all, because of the nature of the network and the purposes for which most people use it ? and whether alternative networks like Twitter aren?t better equipped to do so.

One of the more recent discussions of that idea comes from startup advisor and entrepreneur Alistair Croll, who argues in a recent blog post that despite its enormous size and reach ? something that should theoretically make it perfectly suited for advertising ? the nature of Facebook?s network actually makes it less effective at doing this than Twitter. In a nutshell, Croll says, we are more likely to be open to commercial messages appearing in our Twitter stream because the network is asymmetric (meaning you don?t have to approve every follower, and users can send you messages by simply using your Twitter name). Facebook, by contrast, is based on a more symmetric model ? one that is designed to allow users to control their social network at a very granular level, by approving each and every ?friend,? and therefore implicitly accepting that messages from them will appear in their timeline. The network has added subscriptions and other features to try and duplicate the asymmetric model that Twitter uses, but those don?t seem to have really taken off for most users, many of whom complain about subscriber spam. And that kind of structure, Croll argues, makes it a particularly ineffective medium for advertising. (July 5)

Source: http://feeds.benton.org/~r/headlines/feed/~3/TVwAWJK5A4Y/128700

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What Good Search engine optimisation Copywriting Providers Do ...

There are literally 1000?s of Seo copywriting providers to decide on from these days. The majority of them are a waste of time and cash for the ambitious internet organization proprietor. Prior to you throw money away on an unqualified and inept Seo copywriting firm, it pays to be informed about exactly what?s involved in excellent Search engine optimization copywriting.

This post will go into detail about what you should search for in a web copywriting business in order to distinguish the true top rated-top quality companies from the rabble. Don?t forget ? Search engine optimisation is an investment. No matter how small or how significantly you spend for it, it has to produce a return to be worthwhile. Usually the much more pricey Search engine optimization copywriters also generate much more for you in earnings.

Very good Copywriters Comprehend Your Audience

The largest sign of an amateur copywriter is an inability to alter his or her style to suit the target audience. A great Search engine marketing copywriter can get within the heads of your target consumers and craft copy exclusively to communicate to that demographic. Very good writers know which variety of language to keep away from with particular crowds, and when and wherever buzz words can be powerful.

Amateur copywriters will tend to cram their copy with hyperbole. A seasoned copywriter understands that although this type of creating may be effective for some items in some markets, it is not optimal as a catch-all approach to promoting on the internet.

Very good Copywriters Communicate Plainly

Web copy need to be straight to the point. Several inept Seo copywriting companies will offer you with extended-winded or dull copy that doesn?t get its point across as obviously and speedily as feasible. On-line, you have to grab consideration rapidly and hold it by communicating precisely what the reader needs to hear, in as number of words as possible.

If you use a copywriting service that generates muddled copy, your readers will see you as a muddled enterprise. No one desires to do business with a organization that can?t communicate its marketing and advertising message clearly and with passion. Your copy should be clear and constant across your total internet site ? this presents the impression of authority and integrity, both of which are keys to selling on the internet.

Very good Copywriters Compose for Folks Initial, Search Engines Second

This is by far the most significant error that lets you know an Search engine optimization copywriting organization is firmly in the ?amateur? realm. Good net copywriters comprehend a single straightforward truth and align all their operate to it: search engines don?t buy stuff, folks do. There?s definitely no point in creating Search engine optimization-friendly garbage that won?t inspire anybody to buy. You might get targeted traffic from the search engines, but your conversion rates will be atrocious.

This is a single of the marks of a genuinely successful web copywriting services: the copy is crafted to have an immediate emotional appeal to the reader, and the Search engine optimisation side of the creating is worked in seamlessly behind the scenes. There are no clunky or awkward sentences that outcome from odd, ungrammatical keyword phrases getting crammed in wherever they don?t belong. This kind of creating turns folks off speedily and harms your conversions.

The Results of Excellent Search engine optimization Copy

Investing in exceptional Search engine optimization copy is properly worth it. The excellent issue about balancing Search engine marketing with careful copywriting is that you?ll see not only increases in site visitors, but also increases in your conversion rates. This is a two-pronged approach to including to the bottom line.Visit Copywriting Services for more information.

Do not settle for sub-par website copy. Commence generating the returns you deserve you are from the money you reinvest in your enterprise. Discover far more about the best high quality Search engine marketing copywriting providers provided by Premium On the web Writing.Check out Copywriting for more details.

Source: http://jcis-online.org/what-good-search-engine-optimisation-copywriting-providers-do/

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Attorney: Casey Anthony rejected early plea deal

MIAMI (AP) ? Casey Anthony's attorney said he strongly considered early in the case whether she should plead guilty to a lesser charge to avoid the death penalty if convicted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, but Anthony adamantly insisted she had nothing to do with the toddler's death.

In his just-published book "Presumed Guilty, Casey Anthony: The Inside Story," attorney Jose Baez said prosecutors offered in 2008 to allow Anthony to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child and serve up to 13 years in prison. Baez said in an interview with The Associated Press that in those early days he thought taking it might be in Anthony's best interest.

"There were times, difficult times, when the evidence didn't look good for Casey," Baez said, adding that it was his obligation as a lawyer to convey any such plea offers.

Anthony, he said, "would not entertain it for a second." As he became more familiar with the state's mostly circumstantial case, Baez said he grew convinced she would be acquitted by a jury ? as she was a year ago Thursday of all charges except for four misdemeanors of lying to investigators.

"There was nothing in the trial that ever made me think Casey was guilty of anything as related to the murder," Baez said. "Every single piece of evidence favored us."

Prosecutors claimed Anthony suffocated Caylee with duct tape so she could spend time with her boyfriend and be free for Orlando's nightlife. Baez said during the trial ? repeated again in his book ? that Caylee accidentally drowned in a family swimming pool and that her father, George Anthony, hid the body. Baez also claimed George Anthony sexually abused his daughter.

George Anthony denied both allegations, and there was little brought up about them during the trial. Baez said the defense wasn't required to put on any such evidence because proving the case is the prosecution's burden, not the other way around.

Evidence and testimony showed that Anthony was a habitual liar, even making up fake friends and pretending every day to go to a job she didn't have. Baez was asked whether Anthony's lies surrounding her daughter's disappearance might be indicative that she was guilty.

"I don't think the lies are indicative of innocence or guilt," he said. "The lies were there long before Caylee passed away." In the book, he says Anthony had built a "fantasy world," and her lies weren't evidence of guilt but signs of someone with "serious mental health issues."

Baez said one piece of prosecution evidence he was most concerned about was that police cadaver dogs had indicated a body may have been in the trunk of Anthony's car at one point and also that a body may have been in the backyard. None was discovered in the backyard and there was nothing but rotting bags of trash in the trunk.

But, he said, people ? and jurors ? believe in dogs.

"That concerned me a little bit. Most people really think dogs can do magic," Baez said.

The prosecution's flaw, he added, was that regarding the car search the dog and handler were focused only on Anthony's vehicle and did not include others in a lineup to give the dog options.

Overall, Baez attributed the strong public backlash against the jury's verdict to a lack of understanding about the judicial system and because "a lot of people bought into the hype" that Anthony must have been guilty. He noted that jurors who gave media interviews after the trial said they waited for weeks for strong evidence that never came.

"We need to talk about whether an actual murder occurred," he said. "That's where the focus should have been, and it never was."

Baez declined to comment on what Anthony is doing these days and on how often he talks to her. He said he promised her confidentiality when she agreed that he could write his book, in which she did not participate. Anthony is living in an undisclosed location in Florida serving probation for an unrelated conviction, which Baez said ends on Aug. 21.

"She's doing a lot better than she was in prison," Baez said, but then added: "She's a prisoner of her own freedom."

_____

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/attorney-casey-anthony-rejected-early-plea-deal-122507066.html

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The Garden of Our Neglect:  How Humans Shape the Evolution of Other Species

Features | Evolution

As humans have come to dominate the planet, they have modified not only their own evolutionary course but also that of fellow species. Although such alterations help us survive, their unintended evolutionary consequences often produce ?harmful results that threaten our well-being

By Rob Dunn ?| July 5, 2012?|

Image: Flickr/emueller

Why do testicles hang the way they do? Is there an adaptive function to the female orgasm? What does it feel like to want to kill yourself? Does ?free will?...

Read More??

For the vast majority of the history of our kind we were in some ways no more sophisticated than crows, which use sticks to poke around in promising holes. Eventually, of course, we discovered fire and invented stone tools, which then led to guns, pesticides and antibiotics. Using these tools, we encouraged the survival of favorable species such as wheat and yeast needed for beer and cows for meat and milk?a garden of delights.

But we also encouraged a garden of neglect?a surprising number of resilient pests that have been able to survive in spite of our weapons. These species are now coming back to haunt us as toxins, pathogens or worse. Here are ten ways we have helped this garden of neglect prosper.

1. SHARP ROCKS, SOFT FLESH. In the beginning someone held aloft a sharpened rock. "Progress!," he screamed out, or maybe, "Ouch!," depending on which end he grabbed. With that first stone weapon and its many pointy descendants, life changed. Our initial impact would have been small. However, by 10,000 years ago we had extinguished many of the largest species on Earth?mastodons, mammoths, American cheetahs, giant kangaroos and many more. In our wake, we left behind smaller species more able to reproduce rapidly or escape detection in the first place.

As humans came to rely on tools to survive, those with hands better able to make and wield those tools were more likely to pass their genes to the next generation. Mary Marzke at Arizona Sate University in Tempe argues that hand bones of humans are quite different from those of other primates because of our use of tools. Our hands are better able to manage the subtle grips necessary for making and using tools to maim or kill other species. In response to our first tools the animals around us changed. So did we.

2. BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH. Not only have we altered the course of big game evolution on land but we've also effectively reduced the size of fishes in the sea. Fishermen prefer to catch big fishes, and fishing regulations tend to prohibit the harvest of the smallest individuals of a species. In response, fishes have evolved the ability to reproduce at a smaller size and/or younger age. If they can breed before they get big enough to be harvested their genes stand a much higher chance of being passed on. American plaice, Atlantic cod, Atlantic herring, Atlantic salmon, brook trout, and chinook salmon all have appeared to grow more slowly and/or to reproduce at smaller sizes where and when they are heavily fished (Jorgenson et al., 2007; Palcovacs, 2011) Once, a large cod could eat a small boy. Now, a small boy could almost eat an entire cod.

3. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. Bacteria have been evolving in response to threats from other species, including fungi, for hundreds of millions of years. Bacteria and fungi compete for food and often do so using chemical warfare. A fungus evolves an antibiotic and bacteria evolve resistance, so fungi evolve a new antibiotic. Recently, though, things changed. We invented (or rather stole from fungi) antibiotics, which allowed us to kill bacteria?and, importantly, treat bacterial infections. However, by using them too much, too incompletely or too indiscriminately we cause bacterial strains resistant to our drugs to evolve. Unlike fungi, we cannot retaliate by simply evolving new antibiotics. Hundreds of bacterial lineages have evolved resistance to more than a dozen of our antibiotics. In response, we are forced to discover new antibiotics, an endeavor that has proved ever more difficult.

4. GOING (ANTI)VIRAL. Viruses generally evolve even more quickly than bacteria. For example, multiple drugs for HIV infection are taken together as a cocktail for one reason: the HIV virus evolves quickly. The cocktail slows the evolution of full resistance. Even if HIV evolves resistance to one drug, the odds it will evolve complete resistance to all three are far lower. Similarly, the flu that usually starts each year in Asia is different by the time it reaches North America. The flu virus evolves to get by not only as a function of how we respond to it but also in response to our population size and patterns of movement. It, and other viruses, even evolve within our bodies. The virus that makes you sick is almost inevitably different than the one you give someone else.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9b2102a65df72a68ae2bc68151df0ca6

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Iraq says al-Qaida fighters flowing into Syria

Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari speaks at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Zebari says the government has "solid information and intelligence" about al-Qaida militants infiltrating Syria from Iraq to carry out attacks. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari speaks at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Zebari says the government has "solid information and intelligence" about al-Qaida militants infiltrating Syria from Iraq to carry out attacks. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebari speaks at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Zebari says the government has "solid information and intelligence" about al-Qaida militants infiltrating Syria from Iraq to carry out attacks. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraq's top diplomat on Thursday said he had "solid information" that al-Qaida militants were crossing from Iraq to Syria to carry out attacks, warning of a violent spillover that could shake the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Baghdad had for years urged Damascus to clamp down on militant traffic as Sunni fighters headed from Syria to aid the Iraqi insurgency.

"Now their direction is the other way around," Zebari told reporters in Baghdad.

"We have solid information and intelligence that members of al-Qaida's terrorist network have gone to Syria," he said, without elaborating. "Our main concern, to be honest with you, is about the spill over ? about extremist, terrorist groups taking root in neighboring countries."

Zebari also blamed a recent surge of violence in Iraq on the months-long political crisis that has gripped the country. Militants have launched major bombings and shootings at least every three days since the start of June, killing nearly 300 people. Among the chief targets have been Shiite pilgrims, security forces and government officials, groups that al-Qaida-linked Sunni insurgents frequently attack to destabilize the government and try to stoke retaliatory violence between the wider Sunni and Shiite communities.

On Thursday, explosions in two Iraqi cities ? Baghdad and Mosul in the nation's north ? killed at least six people and wounded 17 more.

Police say a bomb at the home of an Iraqi government official killed his wife and two daughters in Baghdad. Senior city government official Ali Abdul-Amir, a Shiite, was wounded along with his two sons in the strike in the Sunni-dominated western neighborhood of Ghazaliyah. Hospital officials confirmed the deaths.

In the central city of Mosul, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt at the door of a barber shop frequented by Iraqi police and soldiers. Police and health officials said three died, including an off-duty soldier, and 14 others were wounded in the attack 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

While terror attacks have been a fact of life for Iraqis for years, their pace and magnitude has increased in recent weeks. In the months before U.S. troops left on Dec. 18, extremists were launching large-scale attacks only every few weeks, indicating they needed time in between to coordinate and gather explosives.

Experts say extremists may be benefitting from the crisis in neighboring Syria, where Iraqi insurgents may have been getting their hands on weapons intended for rebels fighting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

At the same time, feuding between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Sunni, Kurd and Shiite political rivals has given insurgents an opening to try to exacerbate sectarian violence.

"We have a political crisis; this definitely reflects on the security situation," Zebari said. "And these groups will find ways to operate, to strike in order to widen the gap between the political leaders."

Zebari, a Kurd, said the political impasse ? and the violence it has stoked ? also is spooking foreign businesses from investing in Iraq as the country struggles to gain normalcy after decades of dictatorship, sanctions and war.

___

Associated Press Writers Bushra Juhi and Kay Johnson contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-07-05-Iraq/id-17975585b47144618bb5f336ddca8fb5

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Antidepressant use falls in Medicare "donut hole"

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/antidepressant-falls-medicare-donut-hole-212837064.html

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