| Short Stuff for October 16th |
| 10.16.06 | No Comments |
Second Life to start selling “Real Life” last names (OReilly via CNET)
Online Bartering Gets a Foothold on the Web (NYT)
| Take YouTube on your iPod |
| 08.30.06 | No Comments |
According to the Wired Blog, there’s a new app on the scene that lets you rip YouTube videos to play on your iPod, iTunes or PSP. The program, called TubeSock, is sadly, only available for Macs right now, but the possibilities of turning YouTube videos (including live music performances, portions of documentaries available on YouTube, and video series) are endless. Wonder when the copyright stuff will kick in on this one?
| iTunes Movie store by EOY? |
| 08.18.06 | No Comments |
iPodNN is reporting that LionsGate has confirmed their participation in offering movies for download via iTunes toward the end of this year. While Apple isn’t saying anything, I wonder if this will happen in conjunction with the oft-fabled full screen video iPod.
| Search with a human touch |
| 08.16.06 | No Comments |
Category: Tools
Great article from the Washington Post recounting the ups (and downs) of human done searches - both in the past (with programs like the now defunct one on Ask Jeeves - and the present (like Yahoo! Answers and Google Co-Op). While I like the idea of a human touch to a search, I wish there was a way to filter some of the more obnoxious questions I’ve seen while trolling through Yahoo! Answers - ones that look more like opinion polls. Questions like “If you could describe yourself in one word what would it be?” and “What is love to you?,” along with other, less savory questions, crowd out the legitimate questions. I prefer more serious “human run” information programs like Wikipedia.
Though, if I did have a question, it would probably be why so many people ask really, really stupid questions.
| The “Next Net” |
| 08.16.06 | No Comments |
Business 2.0 pushes aside the (somewhat overused) Web 2.0 moniker in favor of “The Next Net” when profiling 25 companies that are changing how we look at, use and think of the internet. They not only cover some of the standard “Web 2.0″ darlings such as Digg, YouTube and Technorati, but also highlight other great companies like Last.fm, Zimbra and Fonality. The article is well worth taking a look at, particularly in order to get to know some of the lesser known names on the list.
| Digg v.3.0 is out of beta |
| 07.11.06 | No Comments |
Digg annouced that it has taken the new categories off of beta, and users can now look at stories in the previously beta’d categories without having to register. To date, I’ve been relatively impressed with the additional stories that Digg users have included in the new categories - granted, not all of them are winners, and some of the newer categories (like World and Business) seem to be less beefy than others (like Entertainment), but all in all, its a handy tool to have.
| Hitwise on Digg vs. NYT |
| 07.07.06 | No Comments |
LeeAnn Prescott over at Hitwise takes an interesting look at stats that give a “reality check” to recent speculation that Digg’s traffic and new content areas could make it as big as the NYTimes. I like her approach, which doesn’t just look at traffic or pageviews, but also demographics (for instance, the fact that “6% of Digg’s users were in the 18-24 age bracket, while only 9.5% of NY Times users were in that age group“), and where their traffic comes from.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Digg and think they have a great thing going, but I do think we’re looking at two different sets of users, vs. news consumers (and trackers) as a whole.
| Short Stuff for June 30th |
| 06.30.06 | No Comments |
Newsgator and the future of RSS (TechCrunch)
NBC and YouTube make nice, run promos (Micro Persuasion)
Finally, a public service annoucement regarding the 4th of July, fireworks and your digital cameras from Gizmodo - and have a safe (and fun) holiday weekend!
| Google tries out photos with AdSense |
| 06.27.06 | No Comments |
GoogleSystem was pointed to a new type feature in some AdSense ads - a little picture on top of the ads. Evidently, this is part of a test to draw eyeballs to the text ads. After first the picture (bigger here) didn’t make much sense (ok, it still doesn’t) but according to Google System, webmasters are allowed to put pictures above the text ads. Seems like AdSense is all about experimentation these days.
| Short Stuff for June 26th |
| 06.26.06 | No Comments |
More on the music front - Tower Records kicks off Digital Download service (Engadget)
A peek at understanding Second Life’s potential (Neville Hobson)