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[rcjordan]

excerpts:

AOL’s new chief plans to combine algorithms, marketing partnerships and cheap freelance writers in order to turn the stale web property into a vibrant online content factory pumping out stories to fit the zeitgeist.

Tim Armstrong, a former Google ad executive, wants AOL to create automated content for the people. The idea is to mine search data and traffic patterns to find the latest hot searches and then automatically commission matching stories from a bevy of freelancers at Seed.com, according to the Wall Street Journal.


AOL says its new system determined that the most popular topic on the Web last Tuesday was “crib recalls,” following news of a massive recall by Stork Craft Manufacturing of Canada. AOL had only one story on its sites on the recall. But, if the new system had been live, editors would have geared up to supply stories on the subject from a number of angles, the company says….

AOL says it will pay freelancers based on how much its technology predicts marketers will pay to advertise next to their articles or videos. It says that will range from nothing up front, with a promise to share ad revenues the article generates, to more than $100 per item.


Additionally, AOL is planning to let advertisers commission stories for its ads to run around. For instance, a videogame store could ask AOL to write a story about how online games make users more social.

The internet is already filled with unresearched and uninformative ‘articles’ intended to draw readers through online searches, but the payoff in that game is thin for everyone except Google.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/aol-automatic-content/

[perkiset]

What is an "AOL?" I think I read something about that in a contemporary history book...

[rcjordan]

Surprisingly, they do have some sites that they can leverage.

"spun off from Time Warner back into a standalone company in December. Earlier this month it announced it would lay off about 2,500 employees.

But that leaves AOL with a thriving business of online, niche media sites, including PoliticsDaily, Love.com and popular blogs like Engadget and Joystiq."

[perkiset]

Hmmm.

Content and contemporary rumors, and their previous association with Time/Warner...

Hmmm.

[rcjordan]

Their model appears to be similar to Demand Media's

"This year, the privately held Demand is expected to bring in about $200 million in revenue; its most recent round of financing by blue-chip investors valued the company at $1 billion."

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

Could work. But I'd rather have AI bots doing the writing. More dependable than freelancers.

[perkiset]

Hey now ... you got that data from a magazine. They're all dead, you know.

[rcjordan]

>from a magazine

Their online skeleton.

[perkiset]

 

[rcjordan]

Gawker is not amused:

AOL's Big Plan: Robot Traffic Whoring

"The internet needs more hot search keyword-driven advertorial 'content' about as much as the internet needs AOL."

http://gawker.com/5415242/aols-big-plan-robot-traffic-whoring

In theory, AOL's plan to shepherd freelancers' output based on content-du-jour could work, but it'd take a STRONG editorial staff to do so. I suspect the reality --particularly once the cash gets low-- will be closer to Gawker's vision of what's to come.

[lamontagne]

I can't wait for all of this. I already have a little scheme worked up for it... :-)

[perkiset]

  I'll betchudo ...

[nutballs]

this type of on demand content gen already happens with videos.

A company named Demand Somethingorother, churns out about 5000 videos a day on whatever the current traffic trends are. Its crazy.

[rcjordan]

^ look upstream, nb.


http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

[nutballs]

lol dammit. thats twice this week. oops. I gotta stop multi tasking.