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Always a good idea to keep up with Web site trends. Many businesses are now using Facebook, etc. to network, it'd be nice to be on the forefront of something instead. Plus, there's just some neat stuff here.

Some Web site founders have been surprised that their products are better suited to cellphones.

The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc. (RLPG) has launched a new Web site to encompass all of its publishing programs: www.rowman.com. The site features the company's ten main imprints: AltaMira Press, Bernan Press, Government Institutes, Ivan R. Dee, Jason Aaronson, Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Education, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Scarecrow Press, and Taylor Trade Publishing.

Speaking of Web 2.0, this article takes an interesting viewpoint. While these sites have changed the way we communicate, they're not exactly raking in the money for their owners.

A survey conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review found that magazines' Web sites reflect a trade-off of standards for online speed.

Nielsen: Users Won't Pay For Web Sites - 02/17/2010

Told ya

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

Google may soon become the primary source of e-books on the Web sites of hundreds of independent booksellers.

Quick blurb about how readers on the Internet are turning to Wikipedia as a acurate Web site.

CNN.com is investing in Outside.In, a start-up that feeds neighborhood blogs and other local news to the Web sites of larger media outlets." />

By providing links to other sites, newspaper publishers are creating an added benefit to readers: filtering the web.

Conventional wisdom says that entrepreneurs who start a Web-based business will do so with VC money. Read enough stories of Internet ventures that enjoy lucrative exits in the millions (in some cases billions) of dollars, and it's easy to assume that the only path to success is to begin by securing deals with investors who are far less interested in helping a start-up build a substantial brand as they are in realizing a return as quickly as possible. Bootstrapping simply isn't sexy anymore. But for many start-up publishers, bootstrapping is a way of life, and VC money isn't an option.

AP gets ready to play rough with news aggregators and search engines - and with the notion of fair use.

HONG KONG — The Associated Press is considering whether to sell news stories to some online customers exclusively for a certain period, perhaps half an hour, the head of the news organization said Tuesday. The AP licenses its stories and photographs to many of the Internet's main hubs, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, and its work also is used by hundreds of Web sites owned by newspapers and broadcasters.

Interesting how a decision to make a logo the same on both their Web site and newspaper could cause people to start talking.

LOS ANGELES — The Hollywood trade newspaper Variety is putting its Web site behind a "pay wall" starting Thursday – reserving its online content for paid subscribers and hoping its advertisers will stick around despite the smaller Internet audience. Variety plans to shut off free access gradually, asking one in 10 visitors for a user name and password that will be sent to paying subscribers.

Rival magazine companies are discussing teaming up to build an ad network that would sell targeted ad space across many of the industry's web sites.

Dow Jones announced an online venture that combines The Wall Street Journal's Web site with Dow Jones's business-to-business news service and databases." />

Pulling media sites out of Google search results is a bold idea, but there are many reasons to think it's not the future of the web.