Ever since I started making blogs I’ve been obsessed with news aggregators. News aggregators, which gather online news content from various sources to present a curated form of what’s happening, help me sort out patterns in social and political behavior. But some also dislike news aggregators because, not done properly, they can rightfully be seen as content stealers. But what if your news aggregator was based on YouTube channels, and not news platforms. That’s what Oakland News Now Blog is.
Zennie62Media Inc.’s Oakland News Now Blog uses technology produced by Zennie62Media’s long-time strategic partner IFTTT.com such that YouTube videos become blog posts at Oakland News Now Blog by connection, or by just simply “liking” a YouTube video. On top of that, Zennie62Media vloggers can add to the stream by making a video of any length that goes to our Zennie62 YouTube channel. The result is a new kind of news content delivery system. Moreover, the Oakland News Now Blog approach is not “scraping”, and for a set of basic reasons.
First, YouTube, (owned by Google) by design, allows automatic and manual embedding of any YouTube video, as standard practice. As a YouTube Partner since 2008, and on YouTube since April of 2006, I can tell you this has been, as they say, a thing, for years. It’s part of an overall philosophy I was introduced to back in the days of Web 2.0 of integrating with the Web ecosystem. If you think about it, it’s a vital part of the online sharing of content, and in particular, news content.
Second, embedding a YouTube video to a web page just helps market that YouTube video. That fact shows up in the stats for that YouTube video, where “embdeds” or “external” traffic numbers jump when that YouTube video is embedded on another website. As Bill Murray might say “That’s the fact, Jack.” So, for YouTube Partner Channels that make money from more views, Oakland News Now Blog is doing them a giant favor.
Also, by extension, Oakland News Now Blog is doing Google itself a favor by helping those YouTube Partner Channels make money that’s shared with Google. It’s the perfect win-win-win and a process specifically allowed in YouTube’s Terms of Service.
Third, Oakland News Now Blog does not “touch” any website independent of YouTube itself. Moreover, the Oakland News Now Blog process only embeds the YouTube video and its description, and has automatic links back to that video and to that YouTube channel, and names the channel, itself. That’s a perfect win-win.
Moreover, it must be said that Google itself shares ownership of all YouTube channels with the YouTuber. So, a video that’s uploaded that violates YouTube policy is flagged, and where necessary, removed. So, the degree to which a YouTube video is solely owned by the YouTuber is challenged by YouTube policy. Read:
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Michael Arrington Was Right: News Aggregators Are Good – I Say Oakland News Now Blog Is Better
In 2010, TechCrunch and Crunchbase Founder and friend who once accused me of disrupting his TechCrunch Disrupt New York Event….
…Michael Arrington wrote a blog post defending the news aggregator called “Everybody Forgets The Readers When They Bash News Aggregators”. In it, he said:
But when Mark Cuban starts saying aggregators are bad, that’s something new. He’s one of the guys that gets it. He’s not supposed to be on the losing team:
Outspoken billionaire cum provocateur Mark Cuban charged Google and other content aggregators Tuesday of being freeloaders — or worse. “The word that comes to mind is vampires,” he said. “When you think about vampires, they just suck on your blood.”
Telling the world that you don’t want them to do you the favor of visiting your site is just ridiculous.
Let me repeat that. When someone visits your site they are doing you a favor. Not the other way around.
And when an aggregator puts up a link to your site, they are doing you a favor by sending you traffic. Not the other way around.
Let me expand on that: When someone visits your YouTube channel they are doing you and Google and YouTube favor. Not the other way around. And when an aggregator puts up an embed to your YouTube video, they are doing you a favor by sending you traffic. Not the other way around.
Oakland News Now Blog Is My Pride And Joy
Oakland News Now Blog is my pride and joy. The latest version of my news aggregator obsession going back to my “Zennie’s Zeitgeist” blog of 2005. With Oakland News Now Blog, I’ve been able to see patterns in news reporting around America and the World. Sadly, mass shootings are all too common. Reporting reflecting a political bias is all too standard. Sports news is dominated by highlight videos that would make good NFTs. And there’s good news: there are more women, African Americans, Latinos, and increasingly Asian Americans in television newsrooms in America than standard rhetoric would have you believe.
Moreover, I can literally poke my nose in the doings at 10 Downing Street, or Indian Politics, or pretty much any country represented by an active YouTube channel.
I am proud of what I built. Oakland News Now Blog is the future of news, today, and supports my favorite online place to be and where I am partner: YouTube.
Stay tuned.