A study, titled the Online Journalism Credibility Study, has just come out that shows a gap in how newspaper editors and readers feel about anonymous comments being posted on news articles.

The Results

The editors, overwhelmingly (70%) felt that anonymous comments harmed proper journalism, most likely due to the flood of factual corrections and emotional rants they get in these comments, neither of which seem to make them smile. Only 45% of readers, on the other hand, felt that allowing anonymous comments was bad journalism.

I first discussed the rumored Google interest with TV ads last year, and Google seems to be near ready with their product almost one exact year later.

Google invited some Adwords members to test out Google TV Ads Beta, which lets advertisers upload or mail a 15, 30, 45, or 60 second TV ad to be run on regular TV sets.

This development comes after Google entered the newspaper ad placement and radio ad placement business, and is the natural next step.

Here are some important notes about the TV ad industry before I jump into the features  of Google’s new system.

Pligg, the creators of free web software that works like Digg (where users vote submitted content up to the front page), announced in their second birthday newsletter some exciting news. They plan to launch Fraxi soon, which will operate like the Ning of Pligg.

To those of you who aren’t familiar with Ning, they offer a 5 minute setup for your own branded social network. This way you don’t have to worry about installs, upgrades, maintenance, and all the other obstacles for non-techy users to build their own sites.

TomTom and Google announced a partnership today, and it is a particularly interesting one.  Tom Tom, maker of the popular portable GPS systems many people use in their cars, plans to let users send addresses from Google to their devices.

While Tom Tom already has “Points of Interest” on its devices, Google Maps will soon be able to be transferred right over with one click. This should cause a lot of moving around in the young industry, and here are some thoughts on what might happen.

Analysis

Amazon has just announced that they are offering several widgets (small interactive units that can be placed on any site) to help Amazon Associates sell more products.

These widgets include interesting options like a tag cloud, a slideshow, your favorites, and several other personalized options you can modify from your Amazon Associates account.

Amazon’s widget builder includes support for all major blog systems, such as WordPress, TypePad, etc.

Example of an Amazon Widget

This development by Amazon is likely a move to catch up to Google, which just released its own version of Widget Ads, which will operate like Google Adsense, but with more interactive units.

Mint, the web 2.0 online money management system, went live today.  Mint had been in development for quite some time, and I was excited to see how they planned to simplify personal finance.  I had a chance to take it for a test drive, and I have some good news - it is incredibly useful.  Best of all, it’s free!

What Can Mint Do?

Mint Transactions Screenshot

Apple announced today that it has sold 1 million iPhones in just 74 days, in a move that has the industry buzzing about the effect on software developers, cell phone manufacturers, and wireless service providers.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, stated that it took 2 years to sell the same amount of iPods. 

This development comes just a week after Apple shocked everyone and lowered the price of the iPhone to $399 ($200 off the original price).  That switch, while angering some past purchasers of the iPhone at the original price (who were eventually offered a $100 credit with Apple as appeasement), also allowed Apple to move more aggressively into the cell phone market.

Google released a new feature on Google Maps called My Maps, which allows users to make custom landmarks such as road trip stops, vacation spots, favorite restaurants and more.  Additionally, My Maps allows you to share these maps with friends.  The platform aspect of this allows developers to import data into My Maps, which could help you geographically see where your friends are, see gas prices on the map, and all sorts of other nifty things.  To see this in action, I found a Googleplex My Map, which will show you around the Google Headquarters.  This is a new type of social networking which has many possibilities.  I have come up with just a few myself, but I’d love to hear of anything more you’ve thought of as a potential application of this new feature.

Google, which has been on a tear purchasing smaller web companies over the last year, announced that it has acquired GrandCentral, a company that helps users manage their phone communications.  Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

I have been using GrandCentral now for quite a while, and am hoping they keep the service active and supported (they claim it will be).

Why was this a strategic move for Google?

Google has spent a lot of money improving their AdWords advertising platform, including purchasing Urchin, the most respected webstat service, and integrating it as “Google Analytics“.  Analytics allows Adwords customers to track their return-on-investment (ROI) of campaigns they run online by tracking clicks and visits, and ultimately sales. 

Google has just come out with a free service called Google Paper (still in Beta), which allows you to “Archive” any email you want, and have Google mail it to you in an envelope.

An overview of some neat features:

- One click mail option
- Mail will arrive within 2-4 business days
- Attachments will also be printed and sent (excluding mp3s)
- Photos will be printed on high-quality glossy paper

I can tell you already, this is a major event in internet history.  This will bridge the gap for the non-internet literate folks out there who want to keep in touch with the internet crowd.