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Computing, Libraries, Tennis, India & other interests of Vikas Kamat
Content Rotation | | What is Content Rotation ?
Content Rotation is the technique by which content publishers (TV
studios, magazine publishers, websites etc.,) recycle previously published
contents, to reach audiences missed during an earlier broadcast. It is an
effective way for content producers to get ROI (Return of Investment) on popular
content that they own. In the television world it is called the re-runs, in Cosmopolitan
it is called How to have Great Sex, and on MSN, Seven Stocks to Watch.
The idea is same -- great content is extremely hard to produce, so sell
popular old content over and over again.
Website Content Rotation
The Internet advertising industry is the champion of content rotation,
although it is the advertising banners that they rotate. The decision to show
which and how many banners is decided based on sophisticated user and surfing
profiles. The Web publishers can learn a lot from their experiences.
A simplistic content rotation just involves picking a random story or picture
and displaying it. Picture intensive sites like Corbis
do this; every time you refresh the page, you see a new picture. An arbitrarily
generated number determines which picture to display. Our Kaleidoscope
is implemented this way. It is an inexpensive way to amuse visitors for a long
time.
But you do know that not all content is equal. Some photographs are prettier
than others, and some episodes more popular. A good CMS (Content Management
System) must adaptively rotate superior content more frequent than inferior or
unpopular content. A sophisticated, personalized content server would actually
learn (like Tivo does) a users habits to suggest most relevant content.
Content Rotation Tips
- A publication based on news has a much smaller place for content rotation
(imagine seeing last week's news on news.yahoo.com
or last year's weather on weather.com
!), than a website like ours where the content has much longer life-span.
- There is danger in rotating just popular content; the users might feel
stale. The trick is to blend popular content (most read pages) with quality
content (editors' favorites) that for some reason did not receive the
exposure it deserved.
- The designer should find an order in the chaotic world of random numbers
(randomization is the essence of content rotation). For example, on Kamat's
Potpourri I have segregated the rotations by the type of media (pictures,
blogs, articles), by dates and periods (latest, other), or subject
categories (theme or genre).
(Comments Disabled for Now. Sorry!) | First Written: Saturday, October 13, 2001 Last Modified: 5/24/2002 |
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About Me:
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This is how I surf the web. Turns out
creating your own start page beats all portals, back-flipping,
personalized corporate pages, and book-marking tools. |
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