Over the last two days I looked at the Heatmaps of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as well as news sources and other information about what TextMap is and how I feel about the the service; today I'll look at TextMap Popularity and what it  might mean to both candidates in the next Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

Barack Obama News Source Analysis (above) and Hillary Clinton News Source Analysis (below)

From the looks of it there's a lot more news coverage of Barack than Hillary -What  would be helpful, from my point of view, is to click on the chats above and get the news stories in the media being covered so you can drilldown and compare - esp when the time period overlaps;TextMap does not yet allow you to do that now and is somewhat useless for real analysis.

There's also a sentiment analysis set of charts but I find them difficult to understand.  Maybe all of this information form TextMap is useful to a statistician, but from the point of view for someone that does not use that language - I find it harder to get  much useful out of TextMap yet..even though the TextMap service has a lot of interesting features and is way more interesting, to me, than, say www.Knover.com, which tried to do much the same thing but does not succeed even as well, in my opinion.

Textmap is an intersting service that you can play with - but I would not place much stock in it, for now, just keep an eye on it and hope it gets better. 

The other problem with this service right now is the news sources for each state are way too restrictive and in the case of New York, lacks the New York Times - and I can't imagine this being accurate for New York without it.

Following up on my post yesterday on TextMap - here's a comparison of the heat maps of both Democratic candidates for the next Presidential Election in 2008.  According to Textmap, the definition of a heatmap is:

Heatmap: shows the relative interest in an entity at every locale in the United States. We have developed a geographic model of news influence which enables us to gauge the relative amount of exposure a given entity has received as a function of location.

The heatmaps are actually more relevant because they tell me where Obama is stronger than Hillary and vice versa.  California, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin are moving more towards Obama than Hillary Clinton and that's information that a politician can use even now - but it will get a lot more relevant as the elections loom closer.

I'll cover a little more of what you can do with TextMap on Friday.

A long, long day that's finally ending with some well deserved sleep  - I filmed much of my first day in Paris but was unable to get the software working that would make larger movies so…. here's all the clips in case anyone would like to see what's happening in Paris, at least, for me.

But then, I figured it all out and decided to put most of my Paris Trip Movies all on one page, for easy reference - this page.

In fact, I decided to also add the link for more detail on each video - and most of these are on http://www.artnewyorkcity.com/ - you'll also find the same video there as here.

Trip to Paris on 5-30-07 - Getting There for Marsha Wooley's Painting Trip to Paris and Aix-en-Provence.

First Day in Paris - May 30th, 2007 - Went on a boat ride, viewed Effiel Tower and had a great dinner.  After dinner - went up to the large church, near our hotel and heard a lot of singing.

Au Lapin Agile Cabaret in Paris and other stuff on 5-31-07 - there's a whole story around "The Agile Rabbet".

The Louvre, Monet and various Paris sights on June 1st, 2007 - I was late and the group I was with went to the Louvre ahead of me … I had to find them but could not - so I gave up and enjoyed the view.  Finally, around lunchtime I hooked up with some of my party and found out where the rest were.

Trip to Eugene Delacroix’s Studio on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 - I want to say that I had a sense of the most profound peace while sitting in the garden of Delacroix’s studio; perhaps, I have only felt such peace once or twice in my entire life.

Visiting Paul Cezanne’s Studio and my first day in Aix-en-Provence  - I made my way to Paul Cezanne’s last studio and managed to touch his robe, cap and cane.

At the base of Mont Sainte Victoire at dusk with my friends - We went right up to the base of Mont Sainte Victoire at dusk, and that led me to cancel my trip to Nice the following day and accompany Christine Boulet on a tour of Bibemus plateau which I have a lot of footage I just published.

My trip up rocky plateau of Bibémus, Paul Cezanne's motifs - My guide, Christine Boulet, was wonderful company - but little of that is really translated in this movie and yet, I hope all of that comes though, past the limitations of the medium of Online Streaming Video - via YouTube.

My trip up rocky plateau of Bibémus, Paul Cezanne - Part 2 -

After the first hour, or so, of our walk, we had the sandwiches and Pepsi Light (we brought no water - or sunglasses) - the heat got to be almost unbearable and when we reached a midway point there was a water fountain - near a dam - and I got my shirt all wet, just to deal with the the intense heat/sun.   But then, as the afternoon progressed, it cooled down and rained and that was magical.

Rocky plateau of Bibémus & tree breast & Restaurant later -

Video Part 3 (the longest segment) - also note the Tree Breast at 1 minute into this clip - it’s special and way off the path (you have to climb down to it and it’s not seen from the road). Also, there’s some footage of the best and most expensive restaurant in Aix-en-Provence, Le Clos De La Violette, at the end of the file (but the URL link does not seem to work).

Bryan Eisenberg wrote a post about what the ideal single web analytics report might be and tagged me.

That's a hard question to answer because there's so much ad-hoc work that has be done, more often than not, that it's difficult to know in advance all the information you'd need for each client.  Sure, there's basic stuff all clients need, but each client is different and the ideal report …… would probably be the one that addresses the unique needs each client has but also include:

1. Total traffic and Search Referral traffic to a site monthly for the last year
2. Keyword Traffic
3. Top Conversions by keyword and by page
4. Social Media Traffic to site (also sorted by page and area of site)

There's more to write here and I'll return to this subject again in the near future.

I'm in Paris right now - it's a long day and I have had little chance to post (though I do have some posts queued up).   I meant to write about SaveNetRadio.org two days ago; B.L. Ochman already posted on SaveNetRadio today - the case is compelling.

"…Internet radio is in immediate danger of extinction, according to Save Net Radio, a coalition of artists, labels, listeners, and webcasters fighting to preserve the diversity of Internet radio. The group's blog is here."

What made the Internet attractive in the first place was the freedom people have in consuming content that's usually free - if that changes many of the streaming Internet radio sites will not be able to continue to broadcast.  According to B.L.

"..The Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House (H.R. 2060) and Senate (S. 1353) to save the Internet radio industry. Internet radio provides promotional and royalty opportunities to independent labels and artists that are not available to them on broadcast radio. Internet radio listenership increased over the past year, from 45 million to 72 million listeners a month. I'm listening to WBGO's internet stream on iTunes as I write."

Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!) …. It seems to, as I understand it, companies like Clear Channel are behind the recent rulings and want to put in dependants out of business, let's hope they don't succeed.

I'm surprised I did not hear about TextMap, the entity Search Engine, earlier. According to the marketing text, TextMap is a search engine for entities - namely important (and not so important) people, places, and things in the news. TextMap news analysis system automatically identifies and monitors these entities, and identifies meaningful relationships between them.

There's a good post about TextMap's capabilities at ResourceShelf.

But how good is it? I tried using TextMap but can't say I felt there was anything that I could use as direct information.   I tried a political figure - Hillary Rodham Clinton, just to get a full readout (since many of the other candidates don't have all the information processed that TextMap can provide).

First I get a bunch of articles and a map:

I don't actually understand this map as well as I'd like to - nor do I understand what to do with the information - maybe that's the problem for me.

And yet, if we compare the TextMap of Clinton with Barack Obama we get something  much stronger, more direct in h is map than hers - and that's all based on semantic analysis of text in the news media that may, in itself, not be that accurate - but that's what we have to work with and that's what TextMap is using - along with the other online sources that were cited:

It's all very interesting - and I'll get into that more in my next post, tomorrow.

I found this user generated Flash game at PlayMyGame to be very interesting - to say the least!   At any rate - you can take a swipe at me by pressing the A, S, or D keys (the Space Bar is for blocking).

Seriously, the idea has possibilities because people are more engaged when they can play games - I think the architects who I have had as clients could have benefited by this approach.  Also my current clients in the travel industry - IE: Trip to Ireland / Scotland - can benefit from searching for a "pot of gold" in a travel package …. it's not so far fetched - the tools almost are ready for something like this.

Add a dash of Social Networking - people uploading their videos of trips to a travel package - or people uploading videos of their built houses based on an architects plans - and you have the beginnings of the way you need to market now.   But it all starts with getting people engaged and there's nothing a game to do it.

Go ahead, take a punch at me - the game even gives me a back eye bruised upper lip.  I read about PlayMyGame.com from TechCrunch - which has a bit more of a write up than I have …. figure I'd go right for the action!

Since being elected to the Board of Directors of the Web Analytics Association I've started to think about what kind of Social Media tools would benefit WAA members seeking to communicate with each other - to add value to the membership.

One example that comes to mine is what the New York times did with it's travel section on going to Paris and where to stay (I happen to be going to Paris tomorrow, BTW).

Readers were asked to contribute suggestions - to contribute content - and it was focused on a subject (which makes it a little different than a blog post with comments).

There's also a lot of content created by The Times with attractions on what to see, where to eat, where to stay and nightlife (with user ratings).  For example, Paris Nightlife Listings are listed and rated by readers - this is a level of "engagement".  Personally, I find such listings extremely useful.

I think this approach would benefit the membership of the Web Analytics Association Membership site - with the subjects being created and voted upon by members and moderated by WAA volunteers on subjects such as first/third party cookie debate, mobile technology, user engagement you name it.

This is part of my notes of how I would build Social Media tools that benefit members - and there's an older model - Webmasterworld.com - which had a part of the site with content that only paid members could see as well as an email  system (sticky mail) and a user community.

I'm also thinking that KickApps might be one way to build the interactivity of a site - I haven't yet seen anything that is prepackaged version of what the NY Times Travel Section put together for Paris but I think it's worth looking into, at some point, to see if prepackaged solutions exist (I am thinking past what Magnify.net and Ning.com already provide out of the box).

I thought this story in the New York Times tonight about Google Deal Said to Bring U.S. Scrutiny  worth commenting about:

"…The inquiry began at the end of last week, after it was decided that the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department would conduct the review, said the executive, who asked not to be identified because he had not been authorized to speak. The two agencies split the duties of antitrust enforcement."

"…In the complaint, the groups noted that Google collects the search histories of its users, while DoubleClick tracks what Web sites people visit. The merger, according to their complaint, would “give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world.”

Google would be able to construct more of the click stream of the majority of people who are online. Does increasing the quality of search results require the DoubleClick deal? Don't they have enough information with the Search and Web History they already collect (2 years worth!) to improve their search results? 

More and more, Google is acting as if it has the right to unite the web under it's banner - it's "Manifest Destiny" - because they "can do it better" than anyone else. 

Manifest Destiny…that's when the settlers to the New World quickly pushed their way West and slaughtered or enslaved anyone in their way.

I think Google - DoubleClick deal will go though, but it's getting harder for me to like Google as it becomes more monopolistic - and I don't know what other word to call it.

I just remembered that I got an email a couple of days ago mentioning that Darren Rowse will be back in NYC on June 9th at The Speakeasy in upper Manhattan.  I went to the last get together with Darrow Rowse a couple of months ago and it's definitely worth attending.

Here's a link off ProBlogger mentioning the evening get together - New York Bloggers Meetup - 9 June

I'll be back from my Paris Trip on June 7th and should be able to attend - and if Penelope Trunk, via her book tour, it would be nice to meet her again that weekend, as well.

"…Date - Saturday 9th June

Time - 7pm - 10pm (we might go on somewhere afterwards)

Venue - The Speakeasy (a party room at 442 Amsterdam Ave between 81st and 82nd st - http://www.privatepartyroom.com/speakeasy.htm ).We have the whole room to ourselves.

Cost - Free - thanks to our generous sponsors Chitika (they are providing some snacks and a free drink to the first 100 people to arrive). All we ask is that you tip the staff and 'be merry'!"