Today’s Globe and Mail chronicles the rise of Scribble Technologies Inc. and its liveblog platform ScribbleLive, from its bootstrap days to its recent $4-million round of financing. The article, titled “Breaking a story with the speed of social media” notes that Scribble arrived on the scene at a time when news organizations are forced to compete with the immediacy of social media. The Globe is a ScribbleLive client that produces liveblogs on a variety of topics, including interviews with newsmakers and regular live discussions around newsy topics.

Reporter Grant Buckler interviewed Michael Gay, executive producer of digital content for ScribbleLive client Hearst Television Inc. who told Buckler: “In the past, if [users] came to one of our stories that was breaking, they’d have to sit there and hit refresh in order to see any new updates, and we don’t think that’s a good experience.”

Buckler writes:

“What sets ScribbleLive apart from similar tools is its ability to create complete web pages, built using the same Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code on which most of the web is based, so that it looks just like other pages in the site. This integration means search engines pick up the real-time content, Mr. De Monte explains, and publishers can put advertising on their ScribbleLive pages, as well as use web analytics to measure traffic.

“Mr. De Monte says newswire services such as Reuters and the Associated Press can syndicate ScribbleLive content to the publications that subscribe to their services, which is one reason why Scribble has ‘nailed down 90 per cent of the English-speaking world when it comes to the syndication of content.’”