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'What is Robots.txt?'

  • This week's OJR reader question addresses how you can use this technique to improve your website's search engine optimization effort.

    • By Robert Niles, May 9, 2008

    Every Web publisher ought to be thinking about how to improve the traffic that they get from search engines. Even the most strident "I'm trying to appeal only to people in my local community" publishers should recognize that some people within their community, as is the case in any community, are using search engines to find local content.

    Which brings us to this week's reader question. Actually, it isn't from a reader, but from a fellow participant in last week's NewsTools 2008 conference. He asked the question during the session with Google News' Daniel Meredith, and I thought it worth discussing on OJR, because I saw a lot of heads nodding in the room as he asked it.

    Meredith had mentioned robots.txt as a solution to help publishers control what content on their websites that Google's indexing spiders would see. A hand shot up.

    "What is robots-dot-text?"

    Meredith gave a quick and accurate answer, but I'm going to go a little more in depth, for the benefit of not-so-tech-savvy online journalists who want the hard work on their websites to get the best possible position in search engine results.

    Note that I wrote "the best possible position," and not "the top position." There's a difference, and I will get to that in a moment.

    First, robots.txt is simply a plain-text file that a Web publisher should put in the root directory of their website. (E.g. http://www.ojr.org/robots.txt. It's there; feel free to take a look.) The text files includes instructions that tell indexing spiders, or "robots," what content and directories on that website they may, or may not, look at.

    Here's an example of a robots.txt file:

    ...Continue reading "'What is Robots.txt?'"

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    Confessions of an online journalism tool

  • Q&A: Guest writer W00tBloggyBlogg sat down with OJR's departing staffer Noah Barron to chat about tips and tricks for online journalism success.

    • By Noah Barron, May 8, 2008

    Yahoo!

    Financial support for OJR is provided in part by Yahoo!:
    Yahoo! is proud to partner with the Newspaper Consortium consisting of almost 400 daily newspapers. The partnership combines newspapers’ high-quality content and local market relationships with Yahoo!’s leading technologies and extensive online audience. www.Yahoo.com

    Photo
    Have tiger, will travel.

    Journalist Noah Barron has been with OJR for two years now and, having completed his Masters' degree, is ready to (re)join the real world. Guest writer W00tBloggyBlogg interviewed Noah about the secrets to success in online journalism that he learned at Annenberg and OJR as well as his plans for the future.

    W00tBloggyBlogg: u graduated wtf are you gonna do now?

    Noah Barron: Boy, I sure wish I knew. I'm looking for a job but it's turning out to be really difficult, given the journalism market right now.

    WBB: lol srs? u prolly suck at jourlsm amirite? or maybe they saw ur uggfase on fasebook hehehehe ;)

    Noah: I hope not. I think I bring a variety of skills to the table--writing, editing, Web design, video production, photography and graphics, but mostly I'm finding it's well-nigh impossible to get any kind of response from employers I send applications to.

    WBB: wtf is well-nigh? also dont end ur sentences w/ a preposition. so like u send apps in & the doods are like "rofl this fool sucks" or wut?

    Noah: Honestly, I have no idea. I send out resumes to nearly every position on MediaBistro and other similar media job sites--dozens of applications total--and have never gotten a single return e-mail or call. Not one.

    My only job leads are from internships I've done and personal contacts I've made. I guess I'm just surprised that in the age of digital journalism, a digital journalist's digital job searches are so seemingly useless.

    WBB: whatvr dood dont cry QQ y not start ur own blog and make bux on ads etc?

    Noah: I mean, that's definitely an option. I already have a site, but haven't developed it properly. I just feel like I need health insurance and a steady income coming out of graduate school...is that too much to ask?

    WBB: obvi!!!! u should post more lohan upskirts imo :P

    Noah: See, that's what I'm trying to avoid. If I'm going to be a DIY-blogger/journalist, I want to create meaningful, interesting content that is relevant enough to belong in a newspaper, but is tailored to an online audience.

    WBB: o so like blah blah darfur blah blah global warming zzzzz yeah thatll get lots of hits. gg dood.

    Noah: Come on Bloggy, don't you think we can find a way to package socially-conscious, important news for the casual Web reader while also turning a profit?

    WBB: ....

    Noah: Well, what do you suggest?

    WBB: durr y not offer something useful to ur readers instd of whining on the interwebz? that's y most blogs r real boringzzzzz urs included :/

    Noah: You're right, Blogg. It's not too late to turn this column around and offer helpful content. How about a toolbox filled with essential survival equipment for freshly-minted online journalists, resources I've gathered over the last two years?

    ...Continue reading "Confessions of an online journalism tool"

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    How to get your site into Google News

  • From NewsTools 2008: A Google insider explains how the search engine decides which sites to include and feature in the popular online news portal.

    • By Robert Niles, May 6, 2008

    Topix

    Financial support for OJR's coverage of social media is provided in part by Topix:
    Topix is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and city. Apply to edit your local news today: www.topix.com

    Google News' Daniel Meredith made the trip to competitor territory to speak to a roomful of online journalists at Yahoo HQ during last week's NewsTools 2008 conference in Sunnyvale, Calif.

    Meredith explained how Google makes the decision to include a website in Google News, and what else news publishers can do to improve their websites' performance in the view of Google's robot army.

    Why should publishers care? Google News is one of the world's most popular news portals, "in the top five worldwide," according to Meredith. As important than occasional presence on the Google News front page, though, is presence in Google highly popular e-mail news alerts, which draw upon, and drive traffic to, Google News-indexed websites.

    These alerts don't just drive traffic to the New York Times and CNN. News sites covering a niche area can see hundreds, if not thousands, of new daily unique visitors if their stories are included in a keyword-driven Google News e-mail alert.

    Finally, "being in [Google] News does buy you credit in Web" search results, Meredith said. News publishers undermine their search engine optimization strategy by not making a request for inclusion in Google News.

    And if you haven't asked, you are not in, Meredith said. News publishers must make an explicit request for inclusion in Google News. Though Google News is published by an algorithm, the decision to include a particular website as a source in Google News is made by human beings, Meredith said.

    "What do we look for?" asked Meredith. Four things, he replied:

    ...Continue reading "How to get your site into Google News"

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    Sunlight Foundation offers reporting tools to cover U.S. politics online

  • More from NewsTools 2008: The Washington-based foundation is working on "one-click disclosure" to help the public see why federal money is going where it does.

    • By Robert Niles, May 5, 2008

    The Sunlight Foundation ought to be in the bookmarks list of any journalist covering U.S. national politics. OJR talked with Sunlight's Ellen Miller two years ago about the organization's efforts to enlist readers to help keep a watchful eye on Congress. Last week at the NewsTools 2008 conference in Sunnyvale, Calif. Bill Allison, senior fellow at the foundation's Sunlight Labs, described some of the new online reporting tools on which the foundation is working.

    Sunlight Labs has been digitizing a variety of federal disclosure data and making that available online via application programming interfaces [APIs]. Current projects include a widget that pop-ups a hyperlinked profile of a member of Congress when someone mouses over his or her name on your webpage and a Google Map mash-up pinpointing the geographic location of almost all earmarks from last year's Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill.

    But it was the Labs' newest project that Allison demonstrated in an early-morning break-out session at the conference. "Influence Explorer," still under development and not yet released to the public, will allow readers "one-click disclosure" of a lawmaker's earmarks, contributions, expenses and trips.

    ...Continue reading "Sunlight Foundation offers reporting tools to cover U.S. politics online"

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    What's wrong with us?

  • Commentary: The NewsTools 2008 conference sets its agenda as participants identify (and sometimes, exemplify) problems confronting online journalists.

    • By Robert Niles, May 1, 2008

    Yahoo!

    Financial support for OJR is provided in part by Yahoo!:
    Yahoo! is proud to partner with the Newspaper Consortium consisting of almost 400 daily newspapers. The partnership combines newspapers’ high-quality content and local market relationships with Yahoo!’s leading technologies and extensive online audience. www.Yahoo.com

    SUNNYVALE, Calif. - I am on the road today, attending the "NewsTools 2008: Journalism that Matters" conference at Yahoo! The conference is the work of the Media Giraffe Project, which bills the event "a concept/design mashup for journalists, technologists and entrepreneurs."

    Today's event focused on the 'concept' half, with 'design' - whatever it might turn out to be - left for tomorrow's agenda. Organizers eschewed a traditional, panel-oriented format in favor of asking participants to design their own sessions on the fly. That format offers great potential, for keeping topics fresh and audience members engaged. The risk, however, is an event that resembles a junior high school mixer, with everyone glued to their seats around the perimeter, afraid of initiating contact with anyone.

    To the organizers' credit, many volunteers stepped forward, and the participants I spoke with reported the sessions they attended worthwhile, though not revolutionary. I meant to hop between concurrent sessions, but found myself sitting through my first choices until their end, engaged in the discussions.

    We will be interviewing some of the participants about their initiatives, in future articles on OJR. And I hope to bring you reports of some of the research and production tools and operational solutions we examine tomorrow in a future column.

    But today, I'd like to start with the problems -- the challenges and roadblocks that I saw, or heard others describe, during today's sessions. How many of these sound familiar to you?

    ...Continue reading "What's wrong with us?"

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