Pew Internet have just published yet another survey of internet usage. Turns out that tagging is becoming widely accepted. The survey (pdf) was performed in December 2006 and found that:

"28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content."

Tags: tagging, Pew, taggar. Ping.

Ingvar Kamprad's Ikea today kicked off a new campaign asking consumers to create online videos for the furniture giant. The campaign is a contest which offers $5,000 in cash to the user who creates the best online video on making a bed.

Ikea is using Shycast, a new kind of consumer-generated video network where "brands can reach out to receptive users and engage with them directly".

So far 4 entries are up on the site.

Tags: consumer generated content, Ikea, reklam, Ikea. Ping.

Swedish marketing weekly Dagens Media has asked about 1,000 Swedes if and how they read blogs.

Respondents who read blogs:
* Daily: 11%
* Weekly: 14%
* Every second week: 4%
* Monthly: 41%
* Never: 31%

* 14% of the women read blogs daily, compared to 7% of the men

One caveat with the survey is that it is performed via market research institute Zapera's web panel. From the article it is not clear what that means, but according to Zapera Quickwise's web page, members sign up to this panel voluntarily and also get paid for participation. One could suspect that these individuals have a somewhat different profile than the average Swede.

And to be included in the panel you need to have both mobile phone and internet access. "Only" 80% of Swedes have access to the internet at home and a few more probably have access at work. So until more details about the respondents are published, I would be careful about attributing the findings to the average Swede.

[Update:] And another thing, I would not necessarily agree that Aftonbladet's blogs are the most popular in Sweden. Why? Because Aftonbladet is a blog platform and portal, and should as such be compared to other blog platforms like Blogg.se, Webblogg.se, Bloggagratis.se and others. Aftonbladet may still be on top, but it's not fair to compare their platform with individual blogs.

Tags: survey, blogs, bloggar. Ping.

At the bottom of the right column of this blog there is an icon that shows how many subscribers that are currently subscribing to my FeedBurner RSS feed. A while ago the number dropped to about 15-20 percent of what it used to be and then it went back up again. At the beginning of January the number was very close to 1,000, but two weeks ago it dropped again to about 200. The reason was that there is a problem with reporting Rojo subscribers. FeedBurner writes:

"Due to a bug with the way Rojo is reporting subscribers for some feeds, we're temporarily disabling the Rojo count in subscriber numbers. Rojo is aware of the issue and is working on it. Once the fix is in place and the numbers are accurate, we will resume including Rojo's subscriber count here."

I have had a hard time accepting that as many as 4 out of 5 subscribers to this feed are using Rojo and it will be interesting to see if the ratio has changed once Rojo is included in the statistics again.

Tags: Rojo, FeedBurner, RSS. Ping.

Deleting a post that you regret, is not considered comme il faut in the blogosphere. Forrester's Charlene Li lists a blogger code of ethics which among other things states that deleting a post is not ok. Updating incorrect information is often seen as the right way to go. But when you are up against a top notch law firm even A-list bloggers like Robert Scoble compromise with their own principles (see Scoble's own Corporate Weblog Manifesto. 8) If you screw up, acknowledge it. Fast. And give us a plan for how you'll unscrew things. Then deliver on your promises.)

In a blog post from Jan 5, entitled "Don’t get ripped off by franchises", Scoble links to a post on his brother's blog where Ben Scoble wrote about how he had lost his share of a $30,000 deposit with Java Jo'z coffee franchise. But later on, the blog posts on all three Scoble brothers' blogs have disappeared without explanation.

A good background and links can be found here and here. [Via Common Sense PR]

Cache here.

Tags: ethics, blogging policy, bloggar, moral. Ping.

Not for the multitasking challenged. Online Media Daily reports that users of Nintento Wii will be able to read news feeds from AP, the Associated Press, while playing games. The Wii News Channel is expected to go live on Saturday, enabling players to read about disasters and crimes from the real world while shooting their in-game enemies. What a blast.

Tags: Nintendo, Wii, spel, Wii. Ping.

I haven't been blogging very much lately. Been busy at work and at home. And there is so much to blog about right now, but I have nothing to say. So instead, since it's Friday, why not go for a Friday Random Ten? Fire up your mp3-player and set it to random play. List the ten first songs it plays. And no cheating. Here is my list:

Kraftwerk - The man machine
Mogwai - Stanley Kubrick
Nuyorican Soul - The black gold of the sun
China Crisis - Tragedy and mystery
Paris - Outro
World Party - Hollywood
Miguel Migs - Brand new day
Fibes, Oh Fibes - 57 kr
Depeche Mode - Strangelove (Razormaid mix)
Neon Judgement - Chinese black

Tags: music, musik, fredagstia. Ping.

The publishing house IDG launched a new site this morning, it24. To market the site a modified edition of the company's flagship publication Computer Sweden was handed out in Kista outside of Stockholm. Lars Dahmén, CEO of IDG said (my translation):

"We ran out of papers quickly when people realized that it wasn't Punkt SE that we waved with."

"Tidningarna gick åt snabbt när folk insåg att det inte var Punkt SE vi viftade med."

Footnote: Punkt SE is a free Swedish daily, owned by Aftonbladet's parent company Schibsted.

Tags: quotes, idg, it24. Ping.

A scandal broke in Sweden today regarding a player in the Sweden national football team. Jnytt, a local news site in Jönköping, claims that the player took back an investment in a finance company just before it went bust. The player's identity is not revealed but the photo is badly disguised so anyone who would run a Google search on different players in the national team would soon find the original.

Here is the blurred photo, and here is the original.

Now you might wonder how I dare to disclose who the player is, but don't worry. TV4 has already written that the player is Erik Edman and published a statement from Edman in which he denies the allegations printed in Jnytt.

Funny though that although Edman himself has chosen to talk openly about the incident, Aftonbladet still has a blurred photo, more than two hours after his statement was issued.

UPDATE: Jnytt has now "un-blurred" the photo.

Tags: football, fotboll, erik edman. Ping.

Nielsen/NetRatings have presented some fascinating figures regarding newspaper blogs. Traffic to blogs on the top 10 newspaper web sites more than tripled in the past year and readers of newspaper blogs made up 13 percent of total traffic, up from 4 percent a year ago.

66 percent of the blog readers are men.

Beta Alfa also comments.

Tags: media blogs, journalism, journalistik, media. Ping.

Eric Mattson and Nora Barnes of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research have published an interesting research project about the adoption and usage of social media by the Inc. 500, "an elite group of fast-growing private companies" in the US. In the report "The Hype is Real: Social Media Invades the Inc. 500", 121 companies responded to questions about six social media (blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, wikis) and as many as 26% of respondents said that social media is "very important" to their business and marketing strategy.

42% of respondents claimed to be "very familiar" with social networking, followed by message/bulletin boards (38%), blogging (36%), online video (31%), podcasting (30%) and wikis (16%).



The percentage of companies that use social media is quite high in my opinion and I am certain that Swedish companies are far behind in the adoption of social media.





According to a recent calculation, only 8% of Fortune 500 companies are blogging, while 19% of the respondents in this survey use blogs.

Another comparison can be made with this survey of 805 mainly UK based companies (including agencies) performed by e-consultancy:

* 42% are planning to apply user-generated content (UGC) to their websites in the next 12 months; 23% are using it already.

* 35% are planning to use corporate blogs in the next 12 months; 17% are using them already.

* 33% are planning to use podcasting in the next 12 months; 18% using it already.

* 35% are planning to use videocasting in the next 12 month; 17% using it already.

Tags: research, blogs, social media, sociala media, podcasting. Ping.

Swedish PR agency JMW runs one of the better local PR blogs. The agency is currently redesigning its site and you can get a sneak preview of the new site here (sorry guys, but the link was clearly visible via Technorati so I had to look). The site is obviously not ready for launch yet, since it has content like this: "Jupiter comfortably sacrificed the botulisms, although two pawnbrokers drunkenly towed one quixoti subway, and the trailers sacrificed umpteen wart hogs."

Besides, isn't it strange that Technorati is able to pick up this link but fails to find these links to my blog from Boing Boing and Buzzmachine, two A-list blogs?

Tags: Technorati, pr. Ping.

It's a challenge for mainstream media to involve readers in the news production with maintained quality. Remember six months ago when one of Metro's citizen journalists copied an article from Expressen and published it in Metro with his own byline? This week the competing free daily Punkt SE (online at Aftonbladet.se) publishes an article by a reader that is identical to an article published by the artist Ken Ring on Sourze in 2001. [Via Göken]

It's not extremely difficult to do a quick search and see if there is a risk of plagiarism. I just picked a random phrase and googled it, and found the original piece. The article had also been used in its entirety in an online forum in August 2006 and on Ken Ring's blog in November 2006.

Tags: plagiarism, citizen journalism, Sourze, punktse. Ping.

A Swedish online retailer (evasunderklader.se) that sells sexy underwear has approached a number of bloggers with an offer to receive a lottery ticket (Triss) worth 3.55 USD in exchange for a mention and a link on their blog. Many bloggers have already swallowed the bait. A link search on Technorati this morning showed only three incoming links that are older than one week, but 23 links the last 7 days. A similar search on Knuff, a Swedish blog portal, gives us 23 incoming links the last week and no links before that, so the deal seems to be paying off.

Several bloggers are very transparent and post the email with the instructions from the sender, Lina Månsson. Other bloggers state that they have been encouraged to blog about the site, but leave out the part with the payment.

But there are bloggers who completely distort the reason behind the link, like Per Jodenius, a key figure in the 2006 Swedish electoral espionage affair:

"One of my buddies shopped there a while ago and was very pleased. He thought I should give a tip about this site on my blog. Since I am a nice pal I do as he wishes"

I can see that bloggers might be tempted to earn a quick buck by simply posting a link on their blog and as long as they are candid about the circumstances, there's no real problem, right? A little surprising is when people who are in an official position, like being a member of the local council, allow their blog to become a marketing channel for underwear. But that's their choice. What is more difficult to digest is when the payback part of the deal is not disclosed or when bloggers simply lie about the whole arrangement. I mean, how dumb are you if you don't realize that many other bloggers have gotten the same offer and that at least some of them will be telling the truth? The details will be known to everyone in no-time and if your story is completely different, you look pretty silly.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that bloggers can be bought for less than 4 dollars. If you aren't well known it probably doesn't even harm your reputation one bit, so why not go for the freebie? Personally, I would strongly recommend to be transparent about pitches like these. Either way, let me ask you this:

- do you really think that Lina Månsson exists, and if you knew that you have been lied to, would you still post the link?
- if you knew that the company behind the site, MTY, owns a store that sells products that, let's say, can be helpful in the bedroom, would you still post a link?

Internetbrus has also received the email and reveals that it was sent from marcinnowak.se, an SEO consultant. Marcin Nowak also happens to be the holder of the domain name evasunderklader.se.

Tags: blog relations, underwear, mutor, bloggar. Ping.

Interesting initiative. Marketwatch writes that Washington Post hosted a blogger meetup earlier this week. The paper invited anybody who blogs about Washington D.C. and about 100 bloggers turned up.

"This was a chance for all sorts of local bloggers to hear from Post news executives about how the paper is not equipped to cover the micro-local events and issues that bloggers specialize in, and to explore ways in which the paper, its website and bloggers can collaborate, at least by referring readers to one another's work," Marc Fisher wrote.

Executives at the Post talked about sharing revenues with local bloggers from ads sold by the paper's sales staff.

Tags: washington post, DC, advertising, reklam, tidningar. Ping.

A quick follow up post to my last comment about Cisco's lawsuit against Apple for the use of the trademark iPhone. On a forum like a corporate blog you are bound to have many supporters, but critics are also known to come running. So when I read through the 50+ first comments on Cisco's blog I noticed that the supportive outnumbered the critics by about 5 to 1, which is very good. Here are a few good examples and especially note the ones calling out for a (blog) response from Steve Jobs:

"Excellent response. It's amazing what wonders blogging can do."

"This post reflects Cisco's openness in their communication. Very well explained. I just wished Apple showed some respect to Cisco's and its openhandedness."

"I am impressed by Cisco' transparency and willingness to communicate, especially so when these traits are exhibited by the senior management. Congratulations, Cisco. You're doing very well indeed."

"Excellent. Absolutely excellent, and that's coming from as big an Apple fan as you're likely to ever encounter. What Jobs and Company did was (and is) wrong."

"Very well stated. Apple, where are you? Oh, that's right, you guys don't blog..."

"Hats off to Cisco for your candor on the subject and willingness to have a dialog with comments open to all-comers. Steve Jobs? Care to chime in here?"

"I am an Apple fan indeed, but I must say I fully understand and support your point of view. Thank you for the excellent answer, it is time for Apple to think that way, too."

"I've never seen a suit explained as clearly as this before. Your openness is the reason that you will prevail in this suit. Thanks for posting this information for all of us to read! Great idea to blog it!"

The opinion battle is far from won for Cisco. The biggest criticism against the company is that they seem to want a piece of the action rather than just to sell or license the trademark. But they are off to a good start.

Tags: iPhone, Cisco, apple, corporate blogs, Apple, iPhone. Ping.

Cisco yesterday announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Apple, "to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark." For communicators it is expecially interesting to check out how Cisco uses its corporate blog to support the official press release. In the blog, Mark Chandler, Cisco's SVP and General Counsel, is able to add pathos to the story, appealing to the emotions of the audience. Apple on the other hand does not have an official corporate blog to my knowledge which could be a disadvantage at this stage. Advantage Cisco.

[Via WSJ Law Blog.]

Tags: iPhone, Cisco, apple, corporate blogs, Apple, iPhone. Ping.

"It's a man's man's man's world", sang James Brown back in 1966, but when we look at the online world it is increasingly becoming a woman's world. In the US as much as 64 percent of online gamers are women, according to research by Nielsen Entertainment. In my own surveys (pdf) of the Swedish blogosphere I noticed that female bloggers are now in majority (albeit with a very slim margin) in Sweden and a recenty study of social networks (pdf) by Pew Internet revealed that among online teens, 58% of the girls had created profiles online, but only 51% of the boys. In the age group 15-17 the difference was even greater (70% to 57%).

With that in mind maybe it is just fair that Allan Lööf, who was previously the world's oldest blogger, has now been dethroned by a woman, 95-year old Maria Arelia from Spain. According to an article in Sweden's Aftonbladet, she got her blog as a gift from her grand children on her 95th birthday. Maria Arelia was born on Dec 23, 1911 and she writes on her blog that she has already been interviewed by radio and tv. [Hat tip