Google search algorithm changes hurting small publishers

As Google continues to exert significant control over what web surfers see, publishers big and small have had to become experts in search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure that their content gets discovered and shown. But that’s become a losing battle.
Continual changes to the Google search algorithm have shifted which publishers benefit and which are left out.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of smaller websites complain that recent Google algorithm changes have led to a big drop in traffic to their websites.
Some have called it quits, like entertainment news sites Giant Freakin Robot and Quiet Earth and Apple news website iMore.
Giant Freakin Robot said its internet traffic went from more than 20 million unique visitors a month to just a few thousand a month because of changes to Google search.
“Nearly every independently owned entertainment news publisher is in the same situation, in one way or another,” website founder Joshua Tyler wrote in a Nov. 4 post. “Hundreds of independent publishers have shuttered in the last two years, and thousands more are on the way.”
Another worthwhile entertainment news site that has been negatively impacted by Google’s algorithm changes is The TV Answerman, run by Phillip Swan. The website has lost 90% of its traffic and revenue due to Google’s abrupt and dramatic change to its search algorithms, Swann said in an Oct. 11 blog post.
I understand why Google changes its search algorithm. It wants to weed out bad actors from gaming its search engine. But it doesn’t appear to be working very well. Content from legitimate publishers has been buried and spam content from other sites is being promoted.
Plus, Google is favoring some large publishers because they have legal teams that can fight it or can sign business deals with the search giant.
This is not the open internet we were promised.

Photos: Cover of “Internet: A First Discovery Book” by Scholastic (2000), top;
Poster using the book’s cover as seen in 2008. (Photo by Leslie Lindballe via Creative Commons.)

2017 pop culture predictions: Top movies, celebrity marriages, big book deal

What follows are some interesting pop-culture predictions for 2017 that I’ve seen online.

‘Star Wars 8’ reigns supreme

“Star Wars: Episode 8” is a “no-brainer lock” to be the highest-grossing movie of 2017, Screen Rant proclaimed.
Rounding out the top five earners in descending order will be “Despicable Me 3,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “Transformers: The Last Knight” and “Justice League,” Screen Rant forecast.

Kardashian-West marriage goes south

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton predicts that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West “will get divorced in 2017.”

Celebrity weddings ahead

The Knot predicts that the following celebrity couples, among others, will get engaged in 2017:

• Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
• Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton
• Kylie Jenner and Tyga

Barack Obama gets huge book deal

Fortune magazine predicts that retiring President Barack Obama will get a book deal worth $20 million.
“The post-presidential book deal is a time-honored moneymaker for past Presidents,” Fortune said. “But Obama, already the author of a writerly bestseller and a historic figure as the first African-American president, will command a higher premium than most.”

Streaming video service wins an Oscar

Fortune also predicts that either Netflix or Amazon.com will win an Oscar for its original content.
“Netflix’s ‘13th,’ by ‘Selma’ director Ava DuVernay, is a strong contender in the doc genre, and Amazon’s devastating drama ‘Manchester by the Sea’ is getting buzz,” Fortune said.

The 2016 presidential election in children’s books

Based on children’s books, Hillary Clinton was destined to be president. But in reality, it wasn’t to be.
Clinton was the subject of a couple of glowing, inspirational children’s books: “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls Are Born to Lead” and “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Dreams Taking Flight.” Yeah, not so much.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump was parodied as a big baby and a strange creature in two children’s books released during the election. They are: “Little Donny Trump Needs a Nap!” and “A Child’s First Book of Trump.”

Museum expert Victor Danilov says some museums too expensive for families

Museum expert Victor Danilov says one of his proudest achievements as director and president of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is that he kept it free during his 15 years at the museum.
After he left in 1987, the museum instituted an admission fee and hasn’t looked back since.
“The thing that shocks me these days is what it costs to go to a museum,” Danilov told me by phone Monday. “We’re talking about $15 or $20 to go to a museum. One thing that I’m especially proud of doing over the years: when I was the director for 12 of the 15 years (at the Museum of Science and Industry), and my predecessor was also proud, that he never had to charge admission to the museum. And I continued that until I retired.”
Danilov wanted to make the museum experience open to as many people as possible.
“I had almost 4 million people attending the museum free (each year) and as soon as I retired they applied an admission fee to help cover the expenses and now it’s $15 to go to see that museum. And the attendance is a million and a half as opposed to 4 million. So it dropped off that much mainly because of the admission.”
Actually, entry to the museum is now $18 for adults and $11 for children ages 3-11. But the price can go much higher if you add in special exhibits and activities.
The admission fees are keeping more families with children from visiting the museum.
“When they started charging admission, they started slowly at $5 and gradually it ran up to $15,” Danilov said. “Some museums charge even more than that these days. They need the money but there ought to be some other way of raising the money besides charging families these big numbers, particularly if they have children to take. It can cost them $50 just to get into the museum.”
Danilov, 91, is retired and living in Evanston, Illinois. He is the author of 28 non-fiction books and more than half of them are on museums. His last book was “Famous Americans: A Directory of Museums, Historic Sites, and Memorials” (2013).
Danilov is a leading figure in the museum world. He was the founder and director of the Museum Management Program at the University of Colorado from 1988 to 2003. He holds degrees from Pennsylvania State University, Northwestern University, and University of Colorado, and has been an officer in national and international museum organizations.
He is a life trustee on the board of trustees at the Museum of Science and Industry.
He got into the museum business through a fortunate turn of events.
“I was a journalist originally,” Danilov said. “I was a reporter and rewrite (person) for the Chicago Daily News ... and out of that I did some other jobs. I taught journalism at several universities and was the editor of a number of science magazines.”
He was working for a publication on industrial research and technology when he was hired to work in 1972 with the then-president of the museum.
“I had no experience with museums before that except as a visitor. But I sort of got a short course in a year or two,” he said.
Danilov became part of the science museum movement and helped other groups start their own museums.

Photos: Covers of two Victor Danilov museum books.

Victor Danilov wrote the book on halls of fame

In my research on halls of fame, I learned through Google Books about the 1997 book “Hall of Fame Museums: A Reference Guide” by Victor J. Danilov.
His book appears to be the last comprehensive reference guide to halls of fame produced.
Before his tome, the last major work on the subject was published 20 years earlier. That earlier guide was “The Big Book of Halls of Fame in the United States and Canada” (1977) by Paul Soderberg and Helen Washington.
Danilov was the director and/or president of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago for 15 years, and the founder and director of the Museum Management Program at the University of Colorado from 1988 to 2003. He was the author of more than two dozen books, mostly on the museum field.
Next year will be the 20-year anniversary of Danilov’s book, so it might be time for a new reference guide. But given the state of book publishing, such a work might be an online-only reference. The closest I’ve seen to that is the listing of halls of fame on Wikipedia. But it is incomplete.
Danilov’s book listed some 274 hall of fame museums and exhibits located at 242 sites in 11 countries. Some sites housed more than one hall of fame. He also included walks of fame and stadium rings of fame.
Looking at just hall of fame museums in North America, I counted 213 sites in the Danilov book. (I excluded three that I didn’t consider to be true halls of fame.) Of those, 60 are now closed, or 28% of the total from 1997.
But a lot of new ones have popped up in the last 19 years.
My current list of halls of fame in North America has over 300 museums and exhibits you can physically visit.

7 more fun this-or-that quizzes

Following yesterday’s list of 14 this-or-that quizzes from CollegeHumor, here are seven more fun this-or-that quizzes from other sources on the Internet.

Who said it: tech executive or evil dictator?

This quiz from the Verge compares quotes from tech executives with those of evil dictators.

Line from “The Great Gatsby” or a New York Times profile of Lena Dunham?

The Washington Post noted that the Grey Lady likes to use “flowery, excessively descriptive prose” in its profiles of actress Lena Dunham.

Hemingway or a children’s book?

BuzzFeed put together a quiz comparing lines from Ernest Hemingway books with those from children’s books.

Drug or programming language?

This quiz from Slate compares the names of drugs and programming languages?

Who said it: Justin Bieber or Johnny Manziel?

Sports Illustrated noticed that singer Justin Bieber and Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel say similar things.

Who said it: John Mayer or Pepe Le Pew?

Comedian Billy Eichner challenged actress Olivia Wilde to identify quotes as being from either singer John Mayer or cartoon lothario Pepe Le Pew. (See articles by the Huffington Post and Entertainment Weekly.)

Celebrity child or Kentucky Derby winner?

Eichner quizzed Late Show host David Letterman with this challenge.

Authors can sign paper books, but not e-books

The rise of digital books could spell the end of book signings.
Author meet-and-greets have been a staple of the publishing industry. They establish good will between book writers and readers. Plus, they’re a good way to sell books.
Book lovers get a hand-signed memento from their meeting with an author. But with the rise of e-readers and tablets, physical books might be headed for the dust bin of history.
In 1985, I had dinner with author-historian-broadcaster Studs Terkel at a Chicago restaurant. My brother Paul, a doctor at a Chicago hospital, was treating his wife at the time. At the end of our dinner, Studs signed a copy of his Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction book “The Good War” for me.
The inscription reads, “For Pat – What a delightful companion – and I’m sure, a splendid journalist. Studs Terkel.” I still have the book and the memories.
For Black Friday this year, Barnes & Noble, nation’s largest retail bookseller, organized a massive signed-book sales event.
It offered 500,000 signed editions from more than 100 of today’s biggest authors. It made a selection available in every Barnes & Noble store nationwide. The authors included James Ellroy, Dan Brown, Rick Riordan, Clive Cussler, Jodi Picoult, Donna Tartt, David Baldacci, Ann Rice, Amy Poehler, George W. Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Is this a last gasp from a dying business or will physical books have many years left?
We shall see.
The answer has implications not just for the tradition of book signings, but all areas of our lives touched by books.
For instance, what’s to become of book shelves? Will people start putting other things to display on those shelves?
What about the expression “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? That could become as archaic as saying something sounds like a broken record. (The New York Times wrote about this issue back in 2010.)

Photo: A before and after photo of Stephan Pastis, author of “Timmy Failure: Now Look What You’ve Done,” signing more than 5,000 copies of his book as part of Barnes & Noble’s Black Friday signed editions offering. 

Original classic book titles, songs about masturbation, other interesting lists

Continuing my series on interesting lists, here are several on the theme of music, books and magazines.

What 10 Classic Books Were Almost Called (Mental Floss) 

7 Curious Facts About 7 Dr. Seuss Books (Mental Floss)

12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music (BuzzFeed)

40 Masturbation Songs (BuzzFeed)

The Most Ridiculous Magazines Of All Time (The Huffington Post)

Photo: Cover of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” 

Studio tries to trademark ‘Dorothy,’ other public-domain Oz characters

My 7-year-old daughter got a Wizard of Oz toy with her McDonald’s Happy Meal the other day and I was shocked to see that Dorothy and other Oz characters were listed as trademarked.
The toys are to promote the Oct. 1 release of the musical “The Wizard of Oz” on DVD. And while that film is copyrighted, the characters from the original 1900 story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum are in the public domain. As such, artists, theater companies and others are free to produce versions of the original work.
Baum’s classic story included all the main characters used in the 1939 MGM movie starring Judy Garland. That movie is now owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment and Turner Entertainment Co., both units of media conglomerate Time Warner.
The lawyers at Time Warner will make the case that how the characters look in their version of the story is copyrighted, such as Dorothy Gale’s ruby slippers. (In the original book they were silver shoes.) But there’s no way they can trademark the names Dorothy, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.
Those characters belong to everyone now because they are a part of the public domain.
It’s distressing to see the big TM trademark symbol next to their character names on the toys themselves and on McDonald’s Happy Meal website.

Art: Screenshots from the McDonald’s Happy Meal website showing the trademarked toys. Click photos for larger view.

In praise of public service graffiti

Not all graffiti is bad. Some of it does a public service, such as correcting bad grammar, making an important social statement or even helping traffic flow.
What follows are some examples of public service graffiti.

The Great Typo Hunt

Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, described as editors with no off-switch, formed the Typo Eradication Advancement League to correct misspellings and poor grammar on signs across the U.S. They chronicled their adventures in a book, “The Great Typo Hunt” (2010).
“Armed with markers, chalk, and correction fluid, they circumnavigated America, righting the glaring errors displayed in grocery stores, museums, malls, restaurants, mini-golf courses, beaches, and even a national park,” the book’s description says.

The Tutor Crowd

U.K.-based online tutoring service The Tutor Crowd created a Tumblr blog of its viral marketing campaign to bring English language education to the streets. It corrected poor spelling and grammar on graffiti around London and added a sticker for its service as a signature.

Guerrilla Public Service

In 2001, artist Richard Ankrom surreptitiously installed a new traffic sign over the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. Frustrated by the lack of signage to point drivers to the I-5 North exit, Ankrom took matters into his own hands and crafted a replica directional sign and installed it. He called it “Guerilla Public Service” and hoped it would ease traffic congestion and perhaps save lives.
The sign was so authentic that Caltrans officials let it remain for more than eight years, even after it was revealed shortly after its installation to be an art project. It was replaced as part of a signage upgrade initiative in 2009.
See articles by LA Weekly and Good.

Stenciled Compass Project

In 2010, an unknown street artist began stenciling directional compasses on the sidewalks outside subway stops in Manhattan. The compasses likely proved helpful to many disoriented tourists and other New York City visitors.
See article by NYC The Blog.

Adbusting 

An unknown street artist in Hamburg made a statement about an H&M ad campaign that featured photos of a model heavily altered with photo-editing tools. The artist affixed a Photoshop toolbar to billboards with the ad campaign.
See article by Brandflakes for Breakfast.

Book cover fail

I recently spotted this book called “12 Steps to a New Career” and wondered who could have approved the cover art.
Obviously an art director sorted through stock photos looking for something artistic that represented the metaphor of taking a “step.” Instead, what the publisher chose was a picture of a guy taking a death-defying leap over a deep rock chasm.
The subject of the photo clearly had to make a running start and it doesn’t look like he’s going to make it.
If that’s the first of 12 “steps” to a new career, then count me out.

Get ready for 9 new ‘Frankenstein’ movies and TV shows

Among the many public domain works of literature that are being developed into movies and TV shows now, some are more popular than others.
“Frankenstein” tops the list with nine movies or TV series now in development or production. Second place is a tie between “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and “Beauty and the Beast,” each with six movies or TV shows in production.

Top 10 most popular public domain works today based on movie and TV show adaptations in the works

1. “Frankenstein” – 8 movies and 1 TV series
2. (tie) “Dracula” – 5 movies and 1 TV series
2. (tie) “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” – 5 movies and 1 TV mini-series
4. (tie) “Beauty and the Beast” – 2 movies and 2 TV shows
4. (tie) The Bible – 4 movies
6. (tie) “Peter Pan” – 3 movies
6. (tie) “Pinocchio” – 3 movies
6. (tie) Sherlock Holmes – 1 movie and 2 TV shows
6. (tie) “Snow White” – 3 movies
10. (tie) “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” – 2 movies
10. (tie) “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” – 2 TV series
10. (tie) King Arthur and Merlin – 2 movies
10. (tie) Robin Hood – 2 movies
10. (tie) “Sleeping Beauty” – 2 movies

Photo: Title page from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” (1818)

5 more fun Tumblr blogs

Following yesterday’s post featuring 10 fun and interesting Tumblr blogs, here are five more worth checking out.

Animals Being Dicks

Animals Being Dicks features silly animated GIFs of animals being jerks.
The Next Web interviewed the blog’s creator in August.

Starbucks Spelling

Starbucks Spelling is a blog that offers “a collection of misspelled names from the inventors of the ‘Frappuccino.’”

The Lisa Simpson Book Club

The Lisa Simpson Book Club features images of “Simpsons” cartoon character Lisa Simpson reading books.

Posing With Friends

Posing With Friends is a photo blog featuring people imitating tourists taking pictures.

Unnecessary Journalism Phrases

Unnecessary Journalism Phrases “was created to showcase linguistic crutches journalists employ. Each entry looks at a particular phrase, an unnecessary one, if you will, and links to the offending article.”
This blog got a nice write-up by Poynter.

10 fun Tumblr blogs

Tumblr is hot.
The upstart blogging platform is easy to use and ideal for posting photos, videos and short messages. Tumblr combines the simplicity of microblogging service Twitter with the visual appeal of a photo or video hosting website.
Lately I’ve noticed quite a few Tumblr blogs spotlighted in The Huffington Post’s regular feature “7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time On Right Now.” It’s become a new hotspot for Internet memes.
The following are 10 fun and interesting Tumblr blogs, some of which have been featured in HuffPo’s “7 Sites” and TheNextWeb.com’s Tumblr Tuesday.

Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street

Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street features photos of attractive women protesting at the Occupy Wall Street rally in New York City. (See sample photos above.) Salon.com recently wrote about this controversial blog.

Shit That Siri Says

Shit That Siri Says shows screenshots of funny responses from Siri, the speech-recognition personal assistant app on Apple’s iPhone 4S.

[sic] Humor

[Sic] Humor spotlights examples of bad writing found by a professional book reader.

CAPTCHArt

CAPTCHArt turns nonsense Captcha security words turned into funny cartoons. TheNextWeb.com recently wrote about the website.

New Condoms

New Condoms features Photoshopped images of condom wrappers sporting well-known brands and logos.

Letterheady

Letterheady displays interesting and notable letterhead designs.

Scandybars

Scandybars shows photos of the insides of candy bars from around the world.

Presidential Pickup Lines

Presidential Pickup Lines runs photos of U.S. presidents with humorous pickup lines they could have used.

Reasoning with Vampires

Reasoning with Vampires savagely critiques the poor writing and grammar of author Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series of books.

Replaceface

On Replaceface, a digital artist replaces the heads of Russian generals in famous paintings with modern celebrities. This sample features Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Remembering Cary Grant

Jennifer Grant, daughter of actor Cary Grant and actress Dyan Cannon, recently published a book about her father and growing up with the Hollywood elite. The book is titled "Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant."
As a movie buff, I am a fan of Grant's work, especially his films with Alfred Hitchcock and his screwball comedies.
I had a ticket to see him discuss his career at an event in Davenport, Iowa, on Nov. 29, 1986, the night he died. At the time, I was working as a newspaper reporter in the Quad-Cities, a metropolitan region on the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois.
I went to the Adler Theater with some friends from the paper and we were informed that the show had been cancelled because Grant had taken ill. Disappointed, we went to a bar and got hammered.
The next day was a Sunday, a day off, but I was called in to work because Grant had died. A team of us worked to trace his final hours in our region.
I got a refund for my ticket ($25), but someone posted a photo of their tickets on the Internet.
I recently scanned our coverage of Grant's death in the Daily Dispatch of Moline, Ill., and sister paper the Rock Island Argus. You can see them on Twitpic here, here and here.

Articles:

Cary Grant's Daughter Pens Memoir of Her Legendary Father (People; April 26, 2011)

Cary Grant: Debonair dad (CBS News; May 1, 2011)

Cary Grant Dies (Quad-City Times via Carygrant.net)

Cary Grant's Death (Alan Light via Carygrant.net)

10 interesting websites

The Web is full of fun, time-wasting diversions.
Here are a few that I’ve come across in my travels that I’ve enjoyed:

The Great Gatsby for NES

The literary classic “The Great Gatsby,” written by my cousin F. Scott Fitzgerald, is adapted as an 8-bit video game in the style of Nintendo NES. (See articles at The Creators Project and Boston.com.)

Shit My Kids Ruined

As a parent, I can appreciate Shit My Kids Ruined, because my kids have ruined carpets, broken mirrors and glassware, and committed other acts of destruction. The photo website is the work of Julie Haas Brophy.

My Kid Is Gifted

My Kid Is Gifted is a website based on the fact that kids say the darnedest things.

The Nine Eyes of Google Street View

The Nine Eyes of Google Street View is a website by Jon Rafman that curates interesting photos taken by Google Street View cars.
The only flaw with the site is that it doesn’t say where in the world the photos were taken.

Hanzi Smatter

Hanzi Smatter is a website dedicated to pointing out the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture, usually in bad tattoos.

Born This Way Blog

One of the rare websites selected by Google’s Blogs of Note that I think is truly notable. “Born This Way” Blog is a photo/essay project for gay adults to submit childhood pictures and stories (roughly ages 2 to 12), reflecting memories and early beginnings of their innate gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender selves.

Asians Sleeping in the Library

Asians Sleeping in the Library is an odd photo blog on Tumblr. The description reads, “They’re better at life and they get better grades than you for a reason. Pictures of Asian students from universities sleeping in the library and lecture halls.”

SolarBeat

SolarBeat is a beautiful website that shows the relative speeds in which the planets and dwarf planets of our solar system obit the sun. For each solar year elapsed, the planets strike a note. The effect is like a music box.

The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator

The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator lampoons the author of so many best-selling business management books. The website is a hit-and-miss series of fake book covers, but Gladwell is ripe for satire.

Ransom Note Generator

Type some text in the Ransom Note Generator, hit enter and voila! you get what looks like a ransom note with cut-out letters from magazines.