Well, I think it would be cool

This essay, by a honcho at Google writing about the future of the Internet, Google, and the challenges it faces, really irked some of my colleagues the way the Yankees irk the Mets.

Specifically, it was this passage:

The experience of consuming news on the web today fails to take full advantage of the power of technology. It doesn't understand what users want in order to give them what they need. When I go to a site like the New York Times or the San Jose Mercury, it should know what I am interested in and what has changed since my last visit. If I read the story on the US stimulus package only six hours ago, then just show me the updates the reporter has filed since then (and the most interesting responses from readers, bloggers, or other sources). If Thomas Friedman has filed a column since I last checked, tell me that on the front page. Beyond that, present to me a front page rich with interesting content selected by smart editors, customized based on my reading habits (tracked with my permission). Browsing a newspaper is rewarding and serendipitous, and doing it online should be even better. This will not by itself solve the newspapers' business problems, but our heritage suggests that creating a superior user experience is the best place to start.

What irked them is that, for those of us in the trenches at your average regional news source, a site that can actually do all that sounds beyond impossible, indeed, far-fetched. "Maybe the Yankees can field a team like that, but how can we?" They may be right. Damn Yankees.

But that doesn't mean we can't aspire to such technological prowess. Not trying was one of the things that got our business into this mess in the first place.

And, no one could take exception to the last phrase, which rang so true for one of my smart colleagues: "...creating a superior user experience is the best place to start."

A glass full of potential

As Mr. Glass-Half-Full, by both position and personality, I try to see the still-unrealized potential of Internet-delivered news even while reading about the perilous state of the traditional news business in general.

Recently, OK, for a while now, there's been an awful lot of bad news in the news biz. Other people can chronicle that better than I can. I still see a lot of promise.

Here's one example: In this post on Publicola, an online alternative news site in Washington state, on whether the likely doomed Seattle Post-Intelligencer could make a successful go at it as an online-only publication, Glenn Fleishman offered this very well-phrased statement of what a newsroom like ours can provide that Googhoosoft just can't.

Even today, Google has had a tough time selling local ads, because Google doesn’t have per se local content. It’s likely that by 2012, the company will have suffered significant reversals because of its inability to diversify revenue much beyond online advertising and providing search results. It may feed 10 times the search results its site does today, but their growth will have tapered off. All of this means that the store down the street or the national chain with local outlets will be desperately working on strategies that let them focus on customers just down the block or a few miles away. With radio unlistened to, TV unwatched, and newspapers shells of themselves, where will the money go? To whatever media is left online.

I believe that's true, indeed, inevitable.

But, the glass-is-empty crowd says, you can't make money online the way you could in print. I respond we aren't, but why can't we?

I've written here before on the potential of self-service, search-based local advertising. And I've written how studies show readers' eyes are now trained to ignore the normal display advertising one finds online. This post, from the always insightful BrassTacksDesign, opened up my eyes to how ineffective online ads are now, and how much more effective online display advertising on the net could be if done well.

I'll jump to the chase, while encouraging you to read the whole post. Instead of confining our beloved advertisers to those little rectangles and squares our readers are now conditioned to avoid, why not create a page that is advertiser friendly but still editorially pure, like these or some of these? Those presentations don't scream "Sponsored/Brought to you by ..." but they are much more effective in delivering the advertiser's message, and they separate the news and the advertising, rather than jumbling them together.

This sort of display, combined with unique local content, would be worth top dollar, not just nickels and dimes.