Internet Entrepreneurs Blog

Let me start this off by saying I’m no neo-Luddite - I like to think I embrace the latest technology just as quickly as the next person (though I’m more of a rev. 2 kinda guy for practical reasons). Anyway, I can’t be the only person that gets annoyed by the lack of control DVD players give consumers.

Remember the old days when you popped in a VHS tape from Blockbuster to watch a movie and you’d hit play then fast forward to skip past the FBI warning, previews, and credits? Annoying, yes, but not as annoying as popping in a DVD and hitting menu only to see a “Not permitted” message flash on your television while you are forced to sit through the FBI warning, the “commentary expresses the views of the actors and not the studios…” message, and these days, the beginning of the previews. DVD manufacturers have taken freedom away from consumers and as a freedom-loving American this pisses me off.

Yep, the studios must be quite satisfied with DVD technology since it allows them to control every aspect of the home viewing experience. What’s next - the inability to fast forward through slow parts of the films themselves? Eject button stops working during the credits? No pausing?

I read commentary recently where one writer noted the irony of the FBI warning on DVDs these days. Pirated copies don’t have this warning (obviously) so studios are really just wasting the time of honest, paying customers and not getting the message out to those who need to see it.

As soon as movie companies stop treating their paying customers like a captive audience of criminals I’m convinced good things will happen. Power back to the people!

After writing on the subject of how much webmasters rely on Google earlier this week I realized I forgot to mention the one product that is, in my opinion, the most risky for webmasters: Google Maps. Even if you don’t have a website of your own you’ve no doubt used websites that have integrated Google Maps into the site to help you find directions, locations, etc. It seems that everyone is using Google Maps these days including some big companies like Zillow and Trails.com.

But is this wise? First of all, let’s consider why Google created Google Maps in the first place. It would be nice to think Google built an open mapping application to help out small business owners but in reality Google Maps was created to make money (eventually, somehow). Serving all those map requests and licensing the map data is EXPENSIVE and clearly Google would like to recoup that investment. It’s not obvious how they plan to recoup but it’s safe to guess they will do that through sponsored location marks. That means sites like Trails.com may start to see icons on their maps for Krispy Kreme donut shops or Jiffy Lubes scattered among the trail locations.

Suppose Google doesn’t decide to monetize their maps through location “sponsorships” because advertisers aren’t interested. This won’t be good news either (remember how I mentioned that serving maps is expensive?). In this case Google may decide to pull the plug on the Maps API entirely. Thousands of websites would go dark instantly without any real mapping alternative. There’s no such thing as a free lunch and those who rely extensively on Google Maps for their web operations may be in for a wake up call in the future.

We’ve been tempted to offer further Google Maps integration on our own sites but so far we’ve resisted for the reasons mentioned here. For us this has meant investing in alternative technologies (like professional mapping software from ESRI) and so far it’s worked well to distinguish our services from the competition. Consider who you rely on for the success of your business and make sure you at least have a backup plan - you never know what can happen tomorrow!

When your consumer review website grows beyond a certain size you may find that your users inadvertently add duplicate listings. This could be because folks are having a hard time searching through all your listings or it could just be that they didn’t even bother to search to see if a listing already exists before posting. In either case, it’s important to deal with duplicate content quickly and properly, particularly if your site is set up for user reviews.

When a site contains duplicate listings it gives users the impression that the site is not being actively managed and this makes them less inclined to add a review. Duplicate listings also make it tough to determine which one is the “right” listing where new reviews should be posted. Once reviews have been posted to both listings, neither is “complete” and the confusion grows.

It’s important to make it easy for your site manager to find and deal with duplicate listings quickly. Review App, for example, gives administrators the option to be notified whenever new listings are posted so they can double-check the uniqueness of the listing. Administrators can choose to either delete a listing or temporarily remove it from the public site for further review.

In some cases managers may wish to “convert” duplicate listings into a review of the original listing. For singletracks.com we created a custom tool that takes all the content associated with a duplicate listing (photos, reviews, wishlist entries, etc.) and reassigns that content to the original listing. Using this function singletracks is able to keep categories clean while avoiding potential duplicate content issues.

Consumer review website managers should create a duplicate content plan early on to ensure a clean and useful web experience for every visitor. Web based tools make dealing with duplicate listings quick and easy - be prepared!