Every week, new websites, beta tests, products and start-ups show up in the digital world. We try to keep up with everything. Here a few things this week that we believe you will find interesting and useful:
Google states it has quadrupled the number of newspaper articles it has archived in its News Archive Search section, a handy tool that pulls up articles from papers around the world it has digitized going as far back as 1753. New archived publications include the Halifax Gazette, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Village Voice. Google sells contextual AdSense ads against searched article content.
People CD, creators of the Zac web browser for Autistic Children, has launched a new web browser targeted for the tween demographic. It sports a colorful interface, built for multiple platforms: PCs, netbooks, tablet PCs, touchscreen PCs and the Wii remote. The idea is that it steers kids toward appropriate content and filters sites for violence, racism, pornography and chat, automatically blocking anything that parents will find offensive.
A new digital ad platform from ShortTail Media, run by former CNN executive David Payne, launches a 4-week beta trial this week that will make it even easier to repurpose 30-second spots. The Digital 30 interface launches video commercials over search result pages in a 16×9 video player, before taking the user to the premium content site. The platform also includes a wealth of social media integrations. Adobe Creative Suite, R2C Group and Special Ops Media are the first beta clients for campaigns that will run across Weather.com, Entertainment Weekly‘s EW.com, Reuters.com, and the Wall Street Journal Digital Network during the next four weeks.
Digital music distributor The Orchard tells the world it is launching a new platform using an open API; it will provide clients access to third party business solutions from a marketplace within The Orchard’s proprietary Workstation client. At launch, the applications will include various forms of sales and analytic tools, marketing vehicles, email and mobile services, widget creation, iPhone App creation, and data tracking services. The Orchard says several marketing, sales and analytics application providers have already joined the platform including ArtistData, Band Metrics, TheBizmo, BMAT, FanBridge, Mediaguide, Mobile Roadie, New Reach Technologies, Peekok, Topspin, Trendrr, and uPlaya.
YouTube has created new local news section dubbed News Near You that identifies a user’s location then serves them with videos sourced from local radio stations, newspapers and colleges. About 200 outlets have signed up so far to distribute news clips on the platform, in exchange for a 50% share of the revenue generated from ads that appear with the content.
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