User generated content has become synonymous for cheap, unedited stuff. More and more newspapers have blogs. The same holds true for directories, with user ratings and reviews. But user generated content is actually having a more radical impact on publishing itself.
Easy-to-use, enabling technologies such as mashups, wikis, tags, RSS, popularity counters, self-publishing, just-in-time publishing, and storage software and devices have made publishing as (potentially) personalized and easily archived as music on iPods – and much more dimensional. Publishing’s transformation by technology was testified to by speaker after speaker at the Software and Information Industry Association’s Content Forum May 14-16 in San Francisco.
“The definition of user generated content is changing; it is now the product of acting in one’s own self interest,” said Looksmart CEO Dave Hills.” People save pages, and meet people who save those pages.”
Many of the conference speakers were people I’ve only read about in PaidContent.org. A tech panel moderated by Forrester’s Charlene Li boasted Digg’s Kevin Rose, Six Apart’s Marisa Levinson, De.licio.us’s Joshua Scachter, Google’s Bret Taylor, and Wetpaint’s Ben Elowitz. With millions of VC- or portal money in their pocket, some of them might be getting a little carried away with their own success. Or maybe they only speak the truth.
Digg is New Kingmaker?
Digg founder Kevin Rose, for instance, said that the site’s ability to highlight popular articles puts the lowly blogger on a level playing field with major media companies. “Users decide what’s interesting,” he said. And featured writers can “get a bigger share than being on some obscure part of MSNBC.”
Wetpaint CEO Ben Elowitz showed the power of Wikis across a wide chain of verticals by demonstrating WikiFido, which allows users to send in pictures of their dogs. Some in the room were probably skeptical of the site’s importance – but not many.
Actually, you better not laugh. “This is trackable, traceable media,” said DeSilva & Philips Managing Director Ken Sonenclar. “And someone is saying their only option is liquidity? If I was head of Purina, the first thing I’d do is buy ads on Wiki Fido.”
The impact of the technology and its viral nature is already having an impact in changing traffic driving strategies. Salon VP of Operations Max Garrone, for instance, said the site’s launch of Video Dog, a favorite site of mine, gets tons of traffic from the search engines. “It used to be that 90 percent of the (Video Dog) traffic would come from the site, and ten percent would come from search engines,” said Garrone. “Now it is 50 percent engines, and 50 percent viral. It is pretty incredible.”
Google’s Brett Taylor, meanwhile, observed that the world is still broken down into technologies that require some rudimentary programming knowledge, such as Google Maps and other mashup features; and those that don’t, such as tagging, blogs, and wikis. But the level of knowledge that is needed is getting very fundamental. “It is high school level,” he said. However it plays, Google wins. “We provide a sustaining ad network” to any and all, he said. “We can help.”
But Looksmart’s Dave Hills noted that the impact of user generated content technology goes well beyond Google (and Yahoo). It is especially strong on a site like Looksmart, which has 25 city sites and 155 other verticals. “Based on my 27 year career in media” with Cox, 24/7, About and now Looksmart, “it won’t just be two players,” he said. “It is an extremely noisy marketplace. The technology will meet consumers; and consumers will fragment. And advertisers will find them. At the end of the day, it remains yield per 1,000 users.”
