links for 2009-08-27

"At a first glance, the website looks pretty much as it did when it first launched—with the straightforward input field. But inside that simple exterior an incredible amount has happened. Our development organization has been buzzing with activity all summer. In fact, it’s clear from the metrics that the intensity is steadily rising, with things being added at an ever-increasing rate." This project keeps getting interesting.

"Still early days on the ad, but since NYT’s one of the bigger media apps, would be interesting to get the data on interaction later down the line. The upside is this is as good a captive audience you can get in a digital medium, but risk of course is that these ads are pretty intrusive and risk irritating off some users. "

"We decided it was time to spread the wealth. Today we're excited to announce that we're extending the YouTube Partnership Program to include individual popular videos on our site. Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that accumulates lots of views, we may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it. To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, we look at factors like the number of views, the video's virality and compliance with the YouTube Terms of Service. If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an email and see an "Enable Revenue Sharing" message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account:" Very cool.

"When delicious redesigned its front page they hoped it would deliver “fresh” and more relevant front page links. While that’s still under debate, one thing is for sure: The redesigned delicious home page has lost significant value to publishers. To reach the delicious front page publishers need only 2 bookmarks… and tweets."

"Short answer: Very probably not."

"Average SAT scores in reading and writing declined by one point this year, while math scores held steady, according to a report on the high school class of 2009 released Tuesday by the College Board."

"For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year, driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the investment bank Piper Jaffray."

One of my favorite penny arcade comics.

"China has inaugurated a voluntary organ donor program, hoping to overhaul a system that now harvests a vast majority of its organs from black-market sellers and executed prisoners and leaves millions of ailing people without hope of getting transplants."

"The Transportation Department said that the program resulted in nearly 700,000 auto sales, and car dealers had submitted requests for $2.877 billion in rebates by the 8 p.m. deadline."

"While Twitter's user base historically favored older users, people between ages 12-24 have been Twitter's fastest growing age group of late. And now that age group is actually disproportionately visiting Twitter, according to comScore."