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I’ve spent two days listening to and reading near-constant coverage of the wacko who’s planning to burn Korans in Gainsville, Florida, and increasingly the stories have been about whether or not all the press attention has been irresponsible. Whether constantly covering the outrage has made it a global one, versus something that only his fifty parishioners would have known about. If the events put American soldiers in danger—that’s a pretty real issue.

The media has long wrestled with how much it should give the public what it wants versus what it thinks the public needs, and it became more pronounced as the readership of stories became immediately measurable and comparable. Mad about Lindsey Lohan’s jail time being covered by serious news outlets? Groaning at another TechCrunch post about the iPhone? Well, then stop reading, watching, and commenting on them. Like a kid throwing a tantrum, the easiest way to get media you don’t like or think is irresponsible to go away is to stop paying attention. If a blog posts in a forest and no one is there to comment does it really exist? Not according to most bloggers.

But in the last year or so social media has made it more than an issue of we-write, you-read, so-we-write-more-until-you-stop-reading. Social media has given the world a persistent, open conversation. It’s no longer up to media to legitimize and publicize a story. On stories like this one, media has to choose to respond or not to a story that’s already been legitimized and publicized. This was a conversation before NPR, BBC or any other major news outlet weighed in. Once it has become enough of a conversation that world leaders were having to comment—how does the media not cover that?

There’s a lot of gray area and subjectivity surrounding the responsibility in being a reporter. Is it our job to tell the truth as we see it and damn the consequences or is it to be like Marty McFly in Back to the Future—observe but make sure you don’t do anything to affect the course of history! Social media hasn’t changed those questions—it’s broadened them from ivory tower press to anyone with a Twitter feed or a blog. The impact of social media to bring about world peace has been over-stated, but the destructive impact hasn’t. Distribution has been splintered into a million little pieces and so to as the responsibility for how you wield your own sliver of power.

FINALLY, there's a way to gamble on whether or not Florida pastor/crazy-person Terry Jones will go ahead with his big Koran burning event this weekend.

InTrade, which creates futures markets for elections and other current events, has set up a market on whether or not the event will take place as scheduled. It's currently trading at around $0.60, a fairly lukewarm show of confidence in Jones.

Definitely a market to watch:

The contract ID of this contract is: 736490

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See Also:

• Fox News Won't Cover The Koran Burning
• Koran-Burning Church Gets Its Website Taken Down By Rackspace
• How The Koran Burning Could Spur A Debt Crisis In America

Web hosting company Rackspace has taken down two websites run by Terry Jones, the Florida pastor staging a massive Koran-burning this weekend, CNN reports.

Jones has protested, calling the move "an indirect attack on our freedom of speech." That doesn't make a whole lot of sense -- Rackspace is a private company, not a government organization, and can do business with whomever it likes.

That said, what is Rackspace thinking?

There is absolutely no reason for web hosts to have an editorial policy, and this only gives Jones more attention, and makes him look more persecuted. Which, after all, is exactly what the lunatic is after.

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See Also:

• How The Koran Burning Could Spur A Debt Crisis In America
• Why Are Obama And Petraeus Condemning The Guy Who Wants To Burn Korans?

If Google wasn't already scared of Facebook, this ought to do the trick.

Time spent on Facebook was greater than time spent on Google sites in the U.S. in August for the first time in history, according to fresh data from comScore.

Meanwhile, Yahoo continues its slide from the top of the heap to the bottom.

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Google made huge waves yesterday with its announcement of streaming search results as you type.

While Google Instant, as it's called, is an excellent new feature, it's worth pointing out that this isn't quite as futuristic and new as Google is making it out to be.

Yahoo-owned AlltheWeb introduced a similar feature back in 2006. Check it out:

(via Stephen Hood)

See also: Here's What People Are Saying About Google Instant

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See Also:

• Here's Everything You Need To Know About Google Instant
• The ABCs According To Google Instant
• Here's What People Are Saying About Google Instant

When we first heard about AOL's latest inspirational slogan -- "beat the Internet" -- we called it "cringe-worthy and embarrassing." And that was before we saw this at AOL HQ.

This would be great inspiration for kindergarteners, but we imagine AOLiens find it a little odd.

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See Also:

• AOL Mantra "Beat The Internet" Actually Means Legal Needs To Do Its Paperwork Faster
• AOL Wants To 'Beat The Internet'

From the very same Internet that brought you The Twitter Movie, The YouTube Movie, The Auction Site Movie and The Other Social Network Movie comes today’s Ping parody: Another Social Network Movie. Something tells me that people are just going to keep making these parodies of David Fincher’s The Social Network until they run out of websites. Can’t wait to see what people come up with for Orkut.

While this trailer primarily focuses on the travails of the Ping user interface,  you can’t help but sympathize as the beleaguered  user checks for iTunes updates, dramatically agrees to the 36 page terms of service, restarts their computer, gets their login denied, tries to upload a photo, ends up following Keith Urban, etc …

My favorite part: “Ping is as simple as the push of 47 buttons.”

GetGlue, a social browsing assistant that shows ratings and recommendations of movies, books, restaurants, stocks, and more on the web, has been on a roll lately when it comes to the startup’s mobile strategy. In less than three months, GetGlue has launched a mobile website, an Android app and an iPhone app. Today, GetGlue is completing the package with an iPad app and a new deal with Fox.

Similar to GetGlue’s other mobile offers, the iPad app allows users can to check-in to their favorite shows, music, movies and books, and see what their friends are enjoying in real-time. With each check-in, users earn points and stickers from GetGlue and other major brands. The app also allows users to rate their favorite shows, movies, music and books and receive personalized suggestions.

You can also share check-ins with your Twitter and Facebook friends, rate lists of popular shows, movies, music and books, receive weekly new releases and customized recommendations, and access existing reviews, clips and ratings for 20 million movies, books and albums.

The iPad app could definitely be a winner for GetGlue considering the fact that consumers use the device to consume the same media (movies, shows, books) that they would be voting on and checking-in to within the app. And the app tries to take advantage of the native UI elements and larger screen by creating overlays for conversations, giving users the ability to vote directly from the stream and more.

GetGlue, which recently landed a deal with HBO, is partnering with FOX to offer stickers for for fans of Glee, Bones and two new shows premiering this fall, Raising Hope and Lone Staris. The startup will also be unveiling new stickers for shows and movies from HBO, Showtime, PBS, TwiT, and Universal Pictures.

GetGlue is seeing an average of 5 million check-ins and recommendations monthly and is growing fast. The company, which recently ramped up its personalization features, makes money through affiliate relationships when users click through from the site and app to buy books, movies, and more. GetGlue faces competition from Comcast’s Tunerfish and Miso.

The tablet era is upon us, playing out as maybe the last big chance for newspaper companies. By mid-2011, tens of Americans will be tabletizing, as some ready themselves to move to tablet reading of news — and newspapers — and away from that old habit of print.

But are those readers, once again, ahead of publishers? Behind the scenes, I see increasing urgency among daily news publishers to get their products on the tablet, though the movement is less urgent and less creative than it needs to be. For the moment, though, put aside product and platform issues. Let’s consider something more basic: knowing customers.

Read the rest at Newsonomics >>

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See Also:

• USA Today's "Radical" Restructuring Will Ramp Up Digital, Give 130 Staffers The Axe
• Local News Rivals Will Kill Newspaper Pay Walls
• With Paywall Months Away, NYTimes.com Adds Facebook Login Feature

Football season is upon us and that means many of you are making your fantasy football picks. While ESPN, Yahoo and others provide data and statistics on players to help you make decisions, numberFire is hoping to be an additional useful resource for fantasy football picks.

Originally presented from the TechCrunch Disrupt DemoPit, numberFire is an application that applies quantitative analysis and statistical reasoning to the world of fantasy football. Not only does numberFire have recommendations of pics, but the site also provides contextual data supporting each decision.

For example, let’s take Tom Brady, who is playing against Cincinnati this week and is known has one of the best quarterbacks because of his accuracy and decision-making. In order to find comparable players to Tom, numberFire evaluates his statistics and compares that data to players in the past in order to find a past QB who plays in a similar style and has performed with similar statistics. For Tom Brady in 2010, his closest comparable is Brett Favre in 2007.

NumberFire founder Nik Bonaddio says that the player is only one part of the equation. His site also factors in the team (Patriots), the defense he’s going up against (Cincinnati) and the situation (the start of the season so players may be rusty, off the field distractions such as injuries). numberFire also evaluates games and situations to find comparable situations. In this case, says Bonaddio, the closest comparable is San Diego vs. Atlanta in 2004.

NumberFire will be free for the first month (as to prove to people that the site can beat the predictions that platforms like ESPN provide, says Bonaddio), and will then charge a monthly subscription ($7.99/mo) or a flat-fee for the rest of the year ($19.99).

One interesting tidbit about Bonaddio: Before he demoed numberFire at TechCrunch Disrupt, he was on a primetime episode of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” hosted by Regis Philbin and won $100,000. He subsequently quit his job to develop and launch this project.

Microsoft will have Bing installed as the default search engine on a number of Verizon Android-based smartphones in the future, but it will not be the exclusive search engine for Verizon's Android phones.

Earlier today, we wrote about a rumor that was kicking up on a few Android blogs that Bing would be the default search engine on ALL Android smartphones for Verizon in the future.

Microsoft finally got back to us and shot down the rumor saying through a spokesperson, "Over the coming months, Verizon will announce the launch of new Android devices, which will be pre-loaded with Bing. The deal for Verizon Android devices is not exclusive."

We called to get clarity on the matter. Bing will be on a many Android phones, but not all, as part of a 5 year mobile search pact signed by Verizon and Microsoft in the first half of 2009.

So, that's that. If Verizon had granted Microsoft exclusivity it would have really damaged Google's plan to make money from mobile search ads.

In this scenario, Google is still somewhat hurt, because its search engine isn't always the default, even when it's mobile operating system is being used by a carrier. But, that's the risk of being "open."

See Also: 10 Reasons You Should Love Microsoft

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See Also:

• Verizon Screwing Google, Makes Bing Default On Some Android Phones
• 10 Reasons You Should Love Microsoft
• Samsung Uses Google's Free Android Software, Blocks Google Search

Ding, ding! It’s round four of our Super Angel v. VC SMACKDOWN. Both of our pugilist Davids live and work in Silicon Valley. Given that today’s topic is about whether or not the heft of East Coast Super Angels like Josh Kopelman, Chris Dixon and Fred Wilson is pulling the center of early stage funding gravity away from famed Sand Hill Road, you’d think it’d be nothing but agreement. “Oh, no, Silicon Valley is still the center of the universe.”

But you’d be wrong. In the first moments of this clip, the Davids can’t even agree over whether “management fees are great” and whether establishment VCs are “fat and happy” or “fat and sad” given the disastrous IPO market.

David Hornik of August Capital makes the distinction between hot companies found in other locales like Groupon and who funded them. In a lot of cases, it wasn’t local VCs, it was VCs flying in from the Valley. Put another way: Great companies can start anywhere, but not everyone takes enough risk to fund them.

Ultimately this segment ends in agreement that Silicon Valley will maintain its “market share” of venture capital influence, but that a big shakeout on the firm and partner level is unavoidable. (One note: I don’t buy that market share in question is just 30% globally and less in the US, as McClure says. Both NVCA and Dow Jones numbers for show that Valley companies get between one-quarter and one-third of venture capital dollars invested in the United States, and a huge percentage of Sand Hill Road money flows outside of the Valley. So the percentage of money coming from here would have to be substantially higher. Historically it was 75%–those numbers could well be dated, but it doesn’t logically make sense that it’s less than 30%.)

Check out the earlier segments of our SMACKDOWN on “Why the Hate?” “Are Super Angels a Phase?” and “Are Super Angels only about the Flip?”

We reported yesterday on Yahoo! Shine editor Brandon Holley leaving the company to head back to her old stomping ground at Conde Nast, where she was the editor-in-chief of Jane magazine until it folded in 2007. She now takes the reigns of Lucky, whose longtime founding editor, Kim France, who appears to have been let go. (Though the official line is that Conde and France "came to this decision together."

As we noted earlier, the move makes sense for Conde, which is ramping up its digital efforts with new websites, mobile apps and a business model that's moving away from the company's long-standing reliance on advertising revenue.

Holley clearly has sharpened her digital chops over the past few years. She grew Shine's traffic to more than 25 million monthly uniques, according to comScore.

Yahoo declined to comment. But we emailed Holley to ask her about how she would bring those skills to her new role at Lucky as part of Conde's larger digital expansion, and also to talk about how she's gone from old media to new media to old media once again.

We didn't hear back. But The Observer's Zeke Turner did. Here's what Holley had to say:

"I feel like I went to school for three years and now I can bring that back," Ms. Holley said. She compared Yahoo to MIT. "You have all these crazy, brainy geeks."

She said she is excited to bring her freshly minted web degree to Lucky.

"Lucky is an amazing magazine and perfect for what women are doing online," she said. "If you look at what women are doing a lot, what they're doing is looking at clothes and shopping and beauty."

We suggested that Ms. Holley is the first editor-in-chief at the Condé Nast with extensive web experience — a new breed. She agreed.

Conde Nast editorial director Tom Wallce spoke highly of her, telling The Observer:

Brandon also knows, because of her Shine experience, as much as anybody knows about building a success on the web ... Our hope here is that the combination of her experiences will make her ideal for helping, enriching and strengthening the Lucky brand across many platforms.

Meanwhile, in a New York Times piece yesterday, Wallace also praised France, who "invented Lucky magazine in 2000," and who had previously worked at Sassy, New York and Spin, among other glossy publications:

She worked ingeniously over 10 years, in good times and bad, to nurture a magazine and a Web site. Condé Nast owes her dearly, and we wish her the best.

A Conde rep stopped just short of saying France was fired, but it seems like the company felt she didn't have what it takes to steer the magazine out of the recession and into the digital world.

The Times points out:

As the recession deepened and shopping became less of a sport than a guilty pleasure, Lucky suffered a significant loss in advertising pages. While the weak recovery has brought other magazines part of the way back, Lucky has continued to languish.

In the most recent statistics from the Publishers Information Bureau, advertising pages in Lucky were down 7.3 percent from April to June, compared with the same months in 2009; many other magazines directed at female readers recovered.

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See Also:

• Brandon Holley Leaves Yahoo, Heads Back To Conde Nast As Editor Of Lucky
• Big Moves At Conde Nast: Bob Sauerberg Named President, Will Focus On "Digital Connectivity And "Technology Development"
• Peter Kaplan Named Editorial Director Of Fairchild Fashion Group

YouTube STILL not profitable, says Eric Schmidt.

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For the first time ever, after 250,000 apps have been developed, Apple finally decided to release some guidelines for developers to help them understand the app review process. The document is not only informative, but also entertaining to read. In general, for an app to make it through the somewhat opaque-until-now App approval process it needs to be a serious app (“We don’t need any more Fart apps”), it can’t crash or have bugs, it can’t be a beta or “practice” app that “looks like it was cobbled together in a few days,” and can’t “cross the line” in terms of being offensive. Oh, and when Apple rejects your app, if “you run to the press and trash us,” that will count against you.

The whole document is about keeping developers in line, but at least it is done with humor. Apps that contain objectionable material or pornography will be rejected, as will any apps which try to go around the App Store for payments or purchases, or have “interfaces that mimic any iPod interface.” Also, don’t try to use any of the “location-based APIs for automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other devices.” All of this, of course, is subject to change.

Apple also acknowledges that it is being stricter with apps than with songs or books in iTunes, which some might say is hypocritical. But here is how Apple responds, along with some high-level principles (the full guidelines are embedded below).

We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app. It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store. It may help to keep some of our broader themes in mind:

• We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don’t work unless the parents set them up (many don’t). So know that we’re keeping an eye out for the kids.
• We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.
• If your App looks like it was cobbled together in a few days, or you’re trying to get your first practice App into the store to impress your friends, please brace yourself for rejection. We have lots of serious developers who don’t want their quality Apps to be surrounded by amateur hour.
• We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask?  Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, “I’ll know it when I see it”. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.
• If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.
• This is a living document, and new apps presenting new questions may result in new rules at any time. Perhaps your app will trigger this.

Image credit: Flickr/Michael Stout

The Microsoft Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.

MSFT Up Slightly As Market Rises
Shares of MSFT are up today as the market gets a boost from reports indicating a modest gain in the job market. Upcoming catalysts include upgrade cycles of Office 2010 and Windows 7; any entrance into the tablet market; the launch of Windows 7 mobile; any adoption of Azure (cloud computing); and gamer reaction to Kinect. The stock currently trades at 8x Enterprise Value / TTM Free Cash Flow, inexpensive compared to historical trading multiples.

Verizon Dropping Google Search For Bing For Entire Droid Line? (Android Guys)
After the recent news and related gossip about Verizon's decision to drop Google Search in favor of Bing, Android Guys have heard that the Bing deal might go beyond the Samsung Fascinate. Unconfirmed reports say that Verizon may possibly be ditching Google Search for their entire Droid lineup as well. If that's the case, it's great news for Microsoft. Licensing software and exclusive partnerships are what help differentiate handsets.

Google's Instant Search A Thorn In Microsoft's Side (The Street)
Google's new and improved search functionality showing results as users type is bad news for Microsoft. Bing desperately needs to compete on equal footing with Google. With Instant, Microsoft isn't on equal ground anymore. The threat being that users will leave Bing for Google meaning that advertising dollars will leave Bing as well. And that's bad for investors. Microsoft is going to have to play catch up once again.

Too Little Too Late; Microsoft Continues To Lose Search War (The Motley Fool)
No matter how you slice the search share numbers, the game is already over in favor of Google. Advertisers can bypass Bing and still reach a majority of the Internet's curious browsers. Three years ago, Microsoft executive Kevin Johnson was targeting roughly 35% market share in search and 40% in online advertising within three to five years. Microsoft isn't remotely close to those numbers.

Microsoft Introduces Kinect To Japan In Game Of Catch Up (ABC News)
Microsoft debuted its controller-free Kinect in Japan yesterday in hopes of attracting gamers in that market. Microsoft has some catching up to do in Japan. As of last week, it had sold some 150,000 Xbox 360 console this calendar year. Nintendo sold about a million Wii units during the same period, while Sony sold just under a million.

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See Also:

• THE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: More Bulls Pound The Table On Microsoft; Dividend Increase Could Be Coming
• THE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: Microsoft Thinks It Can Catch Up To Apple's iPhone In China
• THE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: Despite Intel's Warning, Hedge Fund Managers Pound The Table On MSFT

"Dear Google, Apple, (and Xbox), if you want premium video content quickly, bring cash to LA or hold your peace/piece." -- Tweet from Quincy Smith.

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The Google Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.

GOOG Soars In Up Market
After another report indicating modest improvements in employment, the market is up with shares of GOOG soaring nearly 2%. Stock specific catalysts for GOOG include continued Android and mobile traction; the release of Chrome operating system this fall; regained momentum in China (if that's possible); as well as progress in other newer initiatives (Google Me, gaming, social, etc.) The stock trades at approximately 13x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to historical trading levels and the broader Internet group.

Mobile Search Queries Have Increased 4x In A Single Year (All Things Digital)
Mobile search is coming into its own. Nick Fox, Google’s director of product management, spoke at the 2010 Citi Technology Conference Wednesday and told the investor audience that mobile queries have increased by a factor of four in the past year. Citi analyst Mark Mahaney estimates that Google's mobile revenue will end the year at a $500 million net revenue run rate.

Google’s New Search Won’t Instantly Increase Revenues (All Things Digital)
Google's new instant search is cool, however it won’t make any significant impact on Google’s income statement in the near-term according to JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan. He believes the new product will have little to no impact on monetization rates and is purely an improvement to user functionality. That said, Google expects the impact on costs to be in line with existing search cost growth curve, which should ease investor fears of increasing costs.

The Smartphone Race Has Only Begun (Market Watch)
Google and Apple both stand to win the smartphone race according to Cody Willard at Market Watch. As of now, only 25% of the total mobile phone business is smartphone enabled; that's a lot of upside in an expanding market. There's no reason to think that there can't be several winners. Even Nokia and Research In Motion can survive. 'Survive' being the operative word.

Google And Apple Trading At A Discount To S&P (Market Watch)
The two companies who stand to profit the most of the burgeoning applications market are trading at cheaper valuations than the S&P 500. Google trades at 12x enterprise value to earnings while Apple trades at 10x enterprise value to earnings. That compares to Exxon at 12x and Caterpillar at 15x. Time to back up the truck.

Google Needs To Start Monetizing Apps To Move The Needle On The Stock (Seeking Alpha)
Developers have been skittish about Android because of the ability to have users pay for applications. Various studies show users of the iPhone OS pony up while Android users like the freebies. So how will increasing Android users and applications affect Google's stock price? Play around with the inputs you are comfortable with and see where it shakes out.

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Western Companies Like Google Will Fail In China
• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Google Voice In Gmail Accelerating, Not Good For Telcos
• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Welcome To The Pay-Per-View Party!

One thing is clear to me now: GM gets it. Government Motors now understands the importance of cutting edge technology. They understand rapid development processes. But most importantly, the once largest auto maker understands the future. If only they had “gotten it” back at the turn of the century, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in now.

I recently spent some time at a couple GM facilities where in between various PowerPoint presentations mainly about OnStar and the Volt, I was shown several labs and testing areas. All this was neat and about what you would expect: motion simulators, virtual testing, all housed in cold cement buildings. But it was the overall message that instilled hope in me that the automaker born in my hometown of Flint is actually on the right path.

After the grand tour with several fellow journalists we were escorted to a pair of early production Chevy Volts. This is where it all came together. Love it or hate it, the Chevy Volt saved GM and you can’t even buy it yet. Let me explain.

I'm in Silicon Valley and San Francisco this week meeting with companies. (Stay tuned for some cool office tours.)

Today, I'll be holding open office hours from 2-3 p.m. at the Starbucks on University in Palo Alto. (If it's nice, maybe even on the deck outside.)

Join me and tell me about your startup, your job at Apple, some hush-hush scandal, or whatever.

See you then!

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