Disney Tries to Pull the Storybook Ritual Onto the Web

Disney is introducing a new line of story books online for kids. For $79.95 a year, you can order these books for children of the ages from 3 to 12. The books are organized by the reading level of the child, the books are read aloud with each word highlighted at the bottom. The child can click on any word they can't say and the word is pronounced louder. Not all of the series is geared towards children learning to read, but also to kids who already can. Disney Publishing has stated that this may be one of their industry defining moments, though rivals may disagree.


I think this new line of web based story books is a great idea. It has been done before but not by Disney Publishing. Babysitting through the years, kids have always loved to play on the computer. I think children would thoroughly enjoy learning to read as well as watching/listening to stories online with animated characters. The only thing I wasn't sure about was if it was going to take away from the bedtime stories with children and their parents. The article stated that this wouldn't happen, but I know if I was a kid and had the choice to listen and watch a story online rather then in bed, I would most definitely choose online.

Netflix Awards $1 million Prize

Netflix has awarded their $1 million prize. Netflix, the movie rental company hosted a contest to see whocould come up with a software that could predict what movies customers would like that measures a 10% improvement of what they were already using . The contest was almost a draw between two different groups, a seven-person team of statisticians, machine-learning experts and computer engineers from the United States, Austria, Canada and Israel called BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos and Ensemble, a global alliance with about 30 members. BellKor came up on top and received the $1 million prize. The contest was so successful that Netflix has now decided to do another one.

I was looking on the Internet to find something to blog about this evening and Netflix caught my eye. Earlier this evening my Dad had given me a free 30 day trial for Netflix and I plan on setting it up right when I finish with my blog. I found this article interesting because all the failing video stores around. A Hollywood Video just went out of business down the street as well as Blockbuster going bankrupt. Netflix has become one of the top competitors with Redbox and other one night movie rentals you find around town. I'm interested in seeing how this new system predicts movies for their customers, which I'm assuming will be very accurate. It'll be interesting to see if Netflix will hold out in this economy.

Google Releases News-Reading Service

Google has recently introduced a site to help spark new hope in plunging advertising revenues. Fast Flip is Google's new news site that allows readers to view dozens of ads and articles from dozens of different publishers at one time. Google has for a long time been seen as somewhat of a bully to others in the news industry. Google is now able to be seen as a friend to this new service and will be splitting the revenue with all publishers involved. Google is hoping that this site will give users a quicker way to view news, just like they would in a magazine or newspaper. The Internet is slow to load which many a time turns off readers. Fast Flip is hoping to change the way people view news on the Internet.

We had just discussed flip book in class today and I had found it very interesting so I decided to look more into it. I have always thought the Internet was the most convenient way to get news quick. I have always gone to the Internet for everything and never thought of it as "slow to load" as they had stated in the article, but it makes sense. If you're reading the paper or a magazine, the first thing you're going to do is scan over it, then read whatever catches your eye first. If nothing does, you just flip the page. But why would someone waste their time waiting for the next page to load when most likely they won't find it interesting anyways, and click out of it. I'm very curious to see how this news site will turn out. I think it has a lot of potential and could most definitely become the next big thing.

AOL, Seeking to Revitalize Its Internet Role, Turns to a Candid Ex- Yahoo Executive

Mr. Garlinghouse, a former executive of Yahoo is now taking on the role of expanding and fixing some of AOLs most recent problems. Garlinghouse and new chief executive, Tim Armstrong will be working together to help put AOL back on top with the other top companies, such as Yahoo and Google. AOL was said to have formed multiple problems over the years since merging with Time Warner over a decade ago. Time Warner was also said to have recruited other top executives from Google to help make AOL into its own independent company by the end of the year. AOL was once known for its instant messaging as well as email but that too is now ranked 3rd in the email service in the United States. Although Garlinghouse said that he faces significant challenges with AOL, they were not as large as the challenges he once faced with Yahoo in 2006 and is very confident to turn AOL around.

I found this article interesting because it was just the other day in class where we discussed what email we were using. I remember a kid in the class had their AOL email up in the chime of “you’ve got mail” kept going off. I remember hearing that noise and it taking me back to AOL instant messaging and staying up all night in the 5th and 6th grade talking to my friends, and hoping my parents don’t catch me on the computer that late. Mr. Blade had also asked who was using AOL email and the fact that people haven’t used it in years. I also found it interesting that to even sign up to use this blog site, we had to actually make a Google account. I’m curious to see what will happen during the next decade. I wonder if AOL will still be around or maybe Google will the next company to fall by the wayside.

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