CNN.com and
MSNBC.com are requesting photos, videos, and stories from Katrina witnesses and survivors through Hurricane Katrina special-report sections. Both sites offer a nice assortment of material, but what I found particularly interesting is the text used in each site's title bar (located at the very top of the browser):
CNN: "CNN.com Citizen Journalists: Send your pictures, video, stories"
MSNBC: "CJ Experience: Hurricane Katrina - Citizen Journalist - MSNBC.com"
Adding "Citizen Journalists/Citizen Journalist" to the title bar has significant search-engine ramifications. The title area, while often overlooked by Web users, is used by most major search services to catalog and serve up information. Search-engine experts stress the importance of this area for associating specific search phrases (known as "keywords") with specific webpages. Planting a buzz-worthy phrase like "citizen journalist" in the title area is probably not a coincidence.
