The guidelines apply to AP reports in print, broadcast, and online news, and stress the importance of giving proper attribution to other publications that break stories.

"We should provide attribution whether the other organization is a newspaper, website, broadcaster or blog; whether or not it’s U.S. based; and whether or not it’s an AP member or subscriber," writes Oreskes. "This policy applies to all reports in all media, from short pieces, such as NewsNows and initial broadcast reports, to longer pieces aimed at print publication."

Oreskes says attribution doesn’t have to be at the beginning of a story, and that sometimes it can be two or three paragraphs down.

"If some information comes from another organization and some is ours, we should credit ourselves for what’s ours and the other organization for what’s theirs," he writes, adding that if material from another source turns out to be wrong, that will be cited in corrections later. (emphasis added)

The AP is one organization that has famously expressed disdain with blogs in the past (ones that quoted AP stories and gave credit), and was cited among various other publications earlier this year by Danny Sullivan as one that failed to credit where it got its information (most likely his article, at least somewhere in the chain).

It is interesting however that these guidelines appear to suggest that its reporters can freely do what the AP has in the past complained about others doing – using snippets of content. Now, the guidelines don’t exactly say anything about using "snippets", but it’s either that, rewriting, or regurgitating something that’s already been discussed elsewhere (hopefully with some additional original content added). Am I wrong? It’s a matter of fair use, and the AP’s stance on fair use in the past has basically been that there isn’t any when it comes to the AP’s content. Is it a double standard? Clearly, this is admission that the AP has participated in this same type of reporting.

It’s good to know that they’re recognizing that this is just part of how it works in this age of online news, but you still have to wonder what side of the fence they come down on with regards to their own content. I guess we’ll see if AP reporters abide by these guidelines and whether or not the AP attacks anybody for using the same methods with AP content.

The whole thing is very related to the AP’s stance on search engines and aggregators as well. These sites do, after all, provide snippets, links, and credit to the sources.

While stressing the importance of attribution, he does also make a note of telling reporters not to use other sources so much that it appears they’re "free riding" on another organization’s work, and stresses matching or further development of the story.

What is not mentioned once in the guidelines is the word "link". There is no mention of linking whatsoever. It is unclear whether linking is included it in the proper attribution described or whether they deem simple credit to be sufficient. While obviously you can’t link in print or broadcast (one reason why online content is more valuable to readers), linking has become commonly looked upon as necessary to attribution in online news, so those who deserve credit for breaking a story can in turn get traffic to that story.

The letter does say that it will continue to use "information from" lines with URLs, but that attribution should be in the body of the story as well. However, it is unclear whether or not this attribution will actually include links.

It will be interesting to see how the AP proceeds in this regard. Without links, the organization is setting itself up for a great deal of criticism.

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Yahoo and Microsoft both gained in month-over-month share (2% and 4%, respectively). This is all good for Microsoft, as Bing has now completely overtaken Yahoo’s organic results in the U.S. and Canada. We’ll see our first glimpse of how this is working out next month.

Do you think Microsoft and Yahoo combined can take on Google? Share your thoughts.

"In terms of a Year-on-Year comparison there has been little change in Google’s share but more significant movement amongst its closest competitors," says Nielsen. "MSN/Windows Live/Bing’s share has grown from 9.0% to 13.6% (a delta increase of 4.6% or a relative increase of 51%) while Yahoo!’s share has fallen from 17.1% to 14.3% (a delta drop of 2.8% or a relative drop of 17%). Consequently, over the last year Yahoo!’s delta lead over MSN/Windows Live/Bing has been reduced from 7.1% to only 0.7%."

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft account for more than 9 out of 10 searches (92.1%).

The total number of searches in the U.S. over the last year has gone down by 16% from 10.5 billion to 8.8 billion. This is a very interesting stat. I wonder how much of this has to do with increased use of smartphones and mobile apps, taking the place of traditional searches. There are some other good points in the comments.

Why do you think people are searching less? Comment here.

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Guardian reports that Apple has refused to allow its iPhone to be included in the UK’s green ranking system, which gives phones a rating of zero to five based on their environmental footprint.

As you may have heard, Google unveiled a new feature in Gmail today that allows users to make and receive phone calls. In addition to this, Google will be setting up phone booths on college campuses and in airports. Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land shares a video looking at the inside of the phone booth and talking to the product manager about it:

According to PaidContent, Alibaba has acquired eBay auction management provider Auctiva. It recently acquired a similar service in Vendio.

Nick Bilton at the New York Times has an interesting profile of a startup called Stipple, which aims to tag the web’s images. It lets publishers add tags to parts of an image with info about its contents and related links. Launch partners include Six Apart, Jive Records and E.W. Scripps.

Ian Sheer at the Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece about online coupons and how they’re getting smarter. "Among the new approaches: computer programs to better target consumers with personalized deals and staff on the ground to help merchants," he writes.

ReadWriteWeb points to a video of Apple SVP of software engineering, Bertrand Serlet, who talks about using Apple’s private APIs.

According to Guardian, Facebook is now being valued at over billion as investors try to secure a stake in it. Facebook shares are changing hands for up to each, the publication reports. Still, it doesn’t look like there will be an IPO anytime soon.

Ad firm Specificmedia is being sued amid accusations that it is re-creating deleted cookies, according to Wired’s Epicenter.

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at the WSJ reports that Amazon has lost a big e-book deal with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This comes as the company also announced that its new Kindles are selling faster than any previous models.

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The app comes with some changes to how LinkedIn displays profile updates from connections. You can see more info about what changed from All Updates or Profiles.

You can also tap on your connection’s name from a profile update to go to the top of their profile, or tap a section to jump to it. The app will also now inform you when your connections add a Twitter account, change their address or phone number, or add their birthday.

"One of the most commonly used features in our current iPhone app is viewing who you have in common with another LinkedIn member," says LinkedIn’s Chad Whitney. "It’s a great way to build out your own network, and it’s also useful when you’re meeting someone new and need to know more about them to help start the conversation."

"You can now see how many people you have in common right from the main profile screen," says Whitney. "We’ve also created a single view that lets you quickly switch between viewing who you have in common and viewing their full connections list."

Finally, the app is optimized for the iPhone’s Retina Display, featuring new icons and images.

Whitney says LinkedIn will have some "great things" coming in October and November that the company is excited about.
 

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According to Kara Swisher‘s anonymous sources, Yahoo’s prepared to pay 0 million.  CafeMom would like to see 0 million instead, so the deal isn’t a sure thing.

Still, setting aside financial issues, the acquisition would make a fair amount of sense for Yahoo.  A CafeMom "About Us" section is quick to point out, "As the #1 media property for moms, CafeMom reaches 6.7MM unique visitors per month on cafemom.com (comscore, May 2010) and 18MM+ unique visitors per month on CafeMom Plus (comscore, May 2010), a boutique network of sites that reach moms and parents."

It’s not like CafeMom is only about eyeballs, either, as the section also noted, "CafeMom was profitable in 2009 and expects even more rapid revenue and profit growth in 2010."

So Yahoo could to some degree justify the purchase to investors and dangle the site in front of advertisers, showing off its track record and traffic numbers.  Which is more than anybody can say for at least one or two other acquisitions the company’s made over the years.

We’ll see what happens.  Yahoo’s stock finished the day up 1.09 percent, anyway, giving the company a larger market cap.

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The New York Times reports that Dell has been accused of withholding evidence in a lawsuit over faulty computers it sold to businesses. Said evidence includes emails among company executives.

There is a parody Twitter movie trailer going around, and it’s actually pretty funny:

An intern at Digg created a platform for setting up monitoring dashboards, called AWACS. It was designed for internal use and he notes that "there is zero security and anyone can create or update any existing dashboard, widget or display." Learn more about it here.

PaidContent talks about Blockbuster’s struggles in the second quarter and the growth of bankruptcy fears, despite its new release advantage over competitors like Redbox and Netflix.

The LATimes has a post about Apple’s iAd mobile ad platform. Advertisers have been pleased with the results according to the piece.

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Dan Coughlin, who spent more than a couple years at Facebook, will be responsible for handling the east half of the U.S., and Amanda Levy, who was Yelp’s first salesperson, will take care of the west.  Both will then report to Twitter COO Dick Costolo, according to Michael Learmonth.

Otherwise, Learmonth reported, "Both will be charged with building out a team to move what Twitter is calling its Promoted Suite, or Twitter ads that today consist of promoted tweets and promoted trends."

The execs are sure to handle other advertising concepts, too, as soon as Twitter conceives and/or unveils them.

It’s significant that Twitter was able to lure Coughlin and Levy away from their old employers, in any event.  Yelp’s sales department has perhaps had to endure some negative PR in recent months, but Levy predates that mess, and Facebook isn’t exactly a dying company.

It should be interesting to see what Coughlin and Levy can achieve as they settle into their roles and expand their teams.

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That’ll provide director Kevin Macdonald, whose job it is to piece together a documentary showing what the world was like on July 24th, plenty of material even if some people included copyrighted content or lots of foul language (the final product probably isn’t meant to be R-rated).

It’ll hardly matter if a few folks forgot to take off the lens cap or did something silly like point their camera at a goldfish bowl, either.

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The Wall Street Journal posted an interesting piece on companies that use softare to capture what people type on websites and sell it to other companies. The WSJ calls such spying on Internet users, "the fastest-growing business on the Internet."

Google revealed a new imagery update for Google Earth that will soon also be available in Google Maps. The update includes high resolution aerial updates for numerous locations in the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands, as well as high resolution satellite updates for quite a few countries.

Intel announced a milestone confirming that light beams can replace electronic signals for future computers. The company created the world’s first end-to-end silicon photonoics connection with integrated lasers, which it says can revolutionize computer design, dramtically increase performance, and save energy.

The FTC is looking into a browser-level way for consumers to opt out of behavioral advertising to avoid being tracked by advertisers, Brocasting & Cable reports.

Live Science points to a study that finds that you may increase your chances of living longer if you have strong social relationships. Interestingly, the study assessed how involved people are with their social networks and communities.

Mike Masnick at Techdirt points to a new open iPhone App Market that doesn’t require jailbreaking, and that "Apple can’t stop." It’s called OpenAppMkt, and creates an app market for iPhones via HTML. "Effectively, this is an entire ‘app market’ for the iPhone that simply routes around Apple as a gatekeeper, and there’s really not much that Apple can do to stop it. And, of course, since the apps in the OpenAppMkt are just HTML, it likely won’t be difficult for OpenAppMkt to extend this to other platforms as well, such as Android (even though Android’s much more open market means that there’s less of a reason to developers to use OpenAppMkt for Android)," he says.

Masnick also posted another interesting piece about how software firms are overwhelmingly against patents.
 

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If you see "powered by Google" on the logo on the search results page, then you’re using the old one. In a post on Google’s Inside AdSense blog, Katrina Kurnit writes:

AdSense for search with CSE gives you more control over your search results without changing how you earn money showing AdSense for search ads. For example, with the new version, you’ll have access to advanced features like refinements and promotions. Our team has developed a number of updates and improvements during the past few months, and you can access more advanced features at www.google.com/cse.

Your existing AdSense for search box will continue to work normally for a few more months, and we’ll be sure to update you when we retire this version. To take advantage of the benefits offered by the new version of AdSense for search and ensure you don’t miss any revenue during the transition, we encourage you to update your code now.

To upgrade go to AdSense setup and "AdSense for Search" then select the sites you want your users to be able to search across, customize the look and feel and update the code for your site. Google offers more info here.

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