AP Finally Learns That On The Internet, You Can Link To Other Sites

from the about-time dept

Thu, Jul 21st 2011 3:12pm — Mike Masnick

Well, look at that. The Associated Press has reached 1993 or so, and realized that they can (and probably should) link to other sites when reporting on a story that those other sites reported first. Of course, they're still learning some of HTML's features, such as the idea that you can link to actual words in a story. Instead, they'll be putting the links (via Bitly) in parentheses right after they cite the source.

Pickups will now include a parenthetical bit.ly link to the original story, in addition to the credit. So in the fireworks story, you might see: �According to the Boston Globe report (http://bit.ly/pDHZ6h)...� The change will be most noticeable on state wires, where pickups are common.

And, of course, they're still working out the kinks. Apparently, some of the tests didn't show up as links, but instead showed the full HTML text for a link (i.e., <a href="...">). Oops. Still, we welcome the Associated Press to the world wide web. Look around, you might enjoy it. Just, please, skip over the blink tag phase.

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Filed Under: journalism, linking
Companies: associated press

45 Comments

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Hulser (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 3:13pm

First of none?
Doh. I thought I submitted this one in time to get a "Hulser was the first one of many to point us to..." ;-)
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 3:16pm

and the marquee tag or any combination of the two
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Designerfx (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 3:27pm

Re:
no please. let them proceed. I want to see the hilarity of them being like (marquee+blink): BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!

etc etc.

while the world basically facepalms.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 3:36pm

Re: First of none?
Doh. I thought I submitted this one in time to get a "Hulser was the first one of many to point us to..." ;-)

Heh. Sorry. This was one I spotted myself before any submissions. :)
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FatGiant (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 3:41pm

Re: Re:
And small animated gifs, like that extreme novelty of the "dancing baby".

Can't wait for that...
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 3:44pm

Yes, let them go to the marquee tag immediately
and the animated gifs.

It's amazing that these organisations are so much behind the times. Indeed we welcome the AP to the 90s. In about 18 years, they'll (re)discover youtube and twitter.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:06pm

Don't mess with my pickup
"pickups will now include a parenthetical bit.ly link ...."
My Ford F150 could use a bit.ly link, will they offer these as upgrades to older trucks?
"The change will be most noticeable on state wires, where pickups are common."
I live in Texas, a state wheres pickups are very common, will I see something different on the tailgates of the new pickups?
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:10pm

Re: First of none?
You got to get up early to find a story before Mike does. Trust me.

Curious that they use the bit.ly format. Is that some kind of analytics gaming?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:13pm

Oh, good choice, AP, good choice...
bit.ly is, like all URL redirectors, so absolutely overrun with spam and abuse that it's found its way onto numerous blacklists. Apparently the crack Internet-savvy techies at the AP missed that bit of fairly common knowledge. So instead of providing links that actually go somewhere useful, they're going to rely on a kludge...that's not going to be accessible to anyone whose site has those blacklists in place on its web filters.

Duh.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:28pm

Re: Re: Re:
And a big "Under Construction" sign on every page.

Then later on, they'll start captioning all the pictures that go with their news stories. That fireworks story, for instance, would have "IM IN UR SKY" and "SPLODIN" plastered across the top and bottom of the image, respectively.
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Hephaestus (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:38pm

Re: Re: First of none?
"Curious that they use the bit.ly format. Is that some kind of analytics gaming?"

Thanks, I didn't realize bit.ly did that.
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william (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:41pm

Re: Yes, let them go to the marquee tag immediately
and who would forget about the dancing hamsters.

Oh the cruel page with it's cruel dancing hamster gif(s) and it's cruel catchy, stick-in-you-head for a week music that actually had an album made.

Woe is the day when AP would have a dancing hamster day. Come one, come all! Step right up! Free dancing hamster in all articles! No extra charge!

now I am just rumbling... end of the day I guess.
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Ewan Marshall, 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:41pm

They've still missed part of the html spec
seems they haven't learned that one doesn't need the parenthesis and could just make the text the link like this:
Boston Globe Report
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:44pm

Re: Don't mess with my pickup
Well it's your lucky day, sir. You have a choice! What will it be? Truck nuts or bitly links?
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:46pm

Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
In fact, they don't even need the Bit.ly link in those cases, just use the full URL, so that everyone knows where that link will lead to.

I fear clicking those bit.ly links, I've seen enough of Rick Astley.
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:47pm

Re: Re: Yes, let them go to the marquee tag immediately
Could be a lolcat, though.

Actually I'd prefer a lolcat over a dancing hamster. I can't believe I just uttered that sentence.
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taoareyou (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 4:55pm

Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
Perhaps that is for people who don't receive their stories in an HTML format and are thus unable to hyperlink directly from the message?
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Marcus Carab (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 5:29pm

Re: Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
Actually, you know what - I think you might have (almost) nailed it... These stories get pushed out to a tonne of sources and I'm willing to bet they don't go in plain HTML or XML, but rather some proprietary AP format (and we all know how good they are at those)

As such, the body copy of the article probably gets extracted as plain text, and they couldn't figure out how to include HTML with it (knowing the AP i wouldn't be surprised if something as stupid as character encoding tripped them up)
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Jon B. (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 5:33pm

WTF Bit.ly?
Why are we still hung up on using URL shorteners? Why the fear of real URLs?

If the deal is that we still want non-HTML agents to still show a brief inline cititation, when why not stick to footnotes? Make the inline line a Source 1 and then let non-HTML agents show the full URL in a footnote.
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Jon B. (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 5:35pm

Re: WTF Bit.ly?
Whoops... noticed that the SUP tag is not on the whitelist of HTML tags. Sorry.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 6:33pm

Re: Re: Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
It could just be that they want to include it in the plan-text wires that go to dead-tree newspapers. You know, so that the bit.ly link could appear be printed without using too much space and looking clunky, and they can be much more easily typed than a full URL.
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Jake, 21 Jul 2011 @ 6:56pm

Re: WTF Bit.ly?
Because typing out any URL much longer than, say, www.techdirt.com whilst reading off a page in a dead-tree format newspaper or magazine is rather time-consuming?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 7:08pm

They couldn't come up with their own link shortening service?
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David Muir (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 7:54pm

The intention of the URL is undoubtedly for use on the "wire" where a teletype machine clackety-clacks out a story. Why, just yesterday, Mr. Smith stood up to filibuster to save his boy's club and reporters rushed to the phones to file their stories. I overheard one smart cookie say that she thought it was "just swell" that she could type in a web page now to find out more about the story. "Looking up my own research gave me paper cuts that hurt like the dickens!"
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Rich Fiscus (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 8:15pm

Be nice Mike. They would have figured it out sooner except they just got the email last month. Not that it was sent last month, that's just when AP started using email. I hear next month they're planning to get some of those fancy new color monitors.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2011 @ 9:43pm

What about the blinking marquee changing color phase?

God help us the dancing baby phase
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Nicedoggy, 21 Jul 2011 @ 10:29pm

Re: Re:
I thought the "marquee" thing was deprecated, it still works?
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Ed C., 21 Jul 2011 @ 10:31pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
DING! DING! DING! DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!
It might surprise everyone else in this modern digital age, but the AP is still by large a news[b]paper[/b] business.

(BTW, I would have but the first line in a flashing marque, but the TD comments are missing large parts of the HTML spec as well.)
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Ed C., 21 Jul 2011 @ 10:35pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
Sorry, that should have been "newspaper". (There's too many forums still using UBBCode...)
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G Thompson (profile), 21 Jul 2011 @ 11:14pm

Re: Re: Re: Yes, let them go to the marquee tag immediately
You still... have a myspace presence don't you?

*runs*
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mike allen (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 1:14am

perhaps they will realise that instead of suing people and moaning at bloggers that it can work the other way. but it may take another twenty years so I wont hold my breath.
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Nicedoggy, 22 Jul 2011 @ 3:00am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: They've still missed part of the html spec
Even then they are behind times, everybody else is using QR Codes for dead trees printing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soniafrommarseille/2569551589/
http://www.mobile-barcodes .com/solutions/newspapers/
http://2d-code.co.uk/images/mid-day-qr-code.jpg
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 22 Jul 2011 @ 3:32am

I Wonder If We�re Showing Our Age ...
... any kids here wondering �what�s a <BLINK> tag?�?
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Andrew (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 5:02am

Excellent. I look forward to AP marking up their news output with nice structural tags like <section>, <header> and <article>… in about 2030.
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 5:20am

Re: Re: WTF Bit.ly?
And typing the arcane strings of letters behind a bit.ly link is less annoying?

Hmm is that a capital I or an l?
Is that a 0 or an O?
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2011 @ 8:16am

Re:
>>I hear next month they're planning to get some of those fancy new color monitors.

Never. You can have my green screen text-only monitor when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
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halley (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 9:35am

Re: Re: First of none?
Using bit.ly has two benefits: short to type, and analytics.

Mike giggles about AP not knowing how to do html links, but it looks to me like there is a reason to the madness here. Links short enough to type is not a factor for online usage, but if it's put into print, you can't do the HTML tags. They could do some cute filtering to make the print-shows-URL version from the HTML original, but to be honest, this also serves the distinction between an author's story and the editor's role. The parenthetical link is handled the same way an Editorial Note is handled: minimize changes to the article author's content while offering additional context information.
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CypherDragon (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 10:56am

Re: I Wonder If We�re Showing Our Age ...
Back in my day, we didn't even have the tag, and that's the way we liked in! No siree, none of this fancy-schmancy "hypertext markup," or "flash-enabled" doohickeys, or WYSIWYG editors. Just simple, straight text, transferred at 300 baud! Gods how I miss those blinking lights and the musical notes of modems handshaking...

Now get off my lawn, ya damn hippies! And take your tag with ya!
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CypherDragon (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: I Wonder If We�re Showing Our Age ...
Stupid WSYISYG...that should be "<blink> tag"
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2011 @ 11:18am

Re:
My old AP bureau was still using Pine email on a VAX system when I started working there in 1997. We "upgraded" to Outlook Express in 1999.
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PJ, 22 Jul 2011 @ 11:40am

bitly
Bad idea, all those bitly links will stop working eventually.
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Rich Fiscus (profile), 22 Jul 2011 @ 3:54pm

Re: Re:
Ouch! If I recall correctly that's about the time the VAX platform was discontinued.
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Mark Ranzenberger (profile), 23 Jul 2011 @ 9:35am

They're listening to the customers
AP actually is listening to its customers here. Many news operations select only a small portion of the massive AP feed, choosing only the AP-provided content that fits its brand and positioning and reader interest.
For competitive and branding reasons, news outlets might be willing to link to some sources, but not others. The New York Times would harm its brand if it linked in any form to the New York Post. CBS News would be more than happy to link to the New York Times, or even the Post, but it would undermine the credibility of the CBS News brand to link to a Fox News report.
Offering the link as an option forces a human to decide if it's going to be there, and if the link is of value to the newsorg and its brand. In most cases, it will be.
Customers also are free to rewrite AP material to put it into each customer's own voice. The customer might use completely different wording than the AP writer, but the broken-out link allows linking to original sources with a minimum of fuss.
Bit.ly does offer limited analytics.
And finally, the AP has thousands of different customers that use a huge variety of HTML editors and content-management systems. They ranging from extremely modern and sophisticated to ancient and decrepit. There's no guarantee that tags would be read properly.
AP also serves many broadcast customers - and it's not uncommon for AP copy to simply get slapped on the prompter, particularly in live, breaking-news situations. Gunking it up with long URLs would make it useless.
Hope that helps.
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LindaJoyAdams, 23 Jul 2011 @ 2:22pm

AP can't click?
I'd not been in front of a computer screen much since 1994, but necessity of the times and needing to express some grave concerns that affected me personally got a computer and Internet in our home. I knew very little about the new information highway or how to get on it and share info. I found most search engines very user friendly and just followed the prompts. Began leaving comments on articles and very soon was prompted to set up a free web site by one search engine and then Google.I'm still following the prompts and learning. For years I was a news item clipper and found Blog spot a great way to ' clip' items I wished to keep on a web site by just linking. All the proper copyrighting, etc is done for me. I get paid nothing and its as easy as a click while reading my daily e-mails. AP can't click?And its a great way to share with anyone interested including family and friends of items they may be to busy to learn about that affects them.
Linda Joy Adams
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LindaJoyAdams, 23 Jul 2011 @ 2:22pm

AP can't click?
I'd not been in front of a computer screen much since 1994, but necessity of the times and needing to express some grave concerns that affected me personally got a computer and Internet in our home. I knew very little about the new information highway or how to get on it and share info. I found most search engines very user friendly and just followed the prompts. Began leaving comments on articles and very soon was prompted to set up a free web site by one search engine and then Google.I'm still following the prompts and learning. For years I was a news item clipper and found Blog spot a great way to ' clip' items I wished to keep on a web site by just linking. All the proper copyrighting, etc is done for me. I get paid nothing and its as easy as a click while reading my daily e-mails. AP can't click?And its a great way to share with anyone interested including family and friends of items they may be to busy to learn about that affects them.
Linda Joy Adams
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