RSS
 

Archive for the ‘2.0 +’ Category

Google Buys YouTube

09 Oct 2006

Says MarketWatch: “after reports of talks with YouTube surfaced last Friday, many analysts said that they believe Google’s competitors will now seek to buy imitators of YouTube to keep pace. On Monday, the boards of both Google and YouTube approved the terms of the deal, which was announced after the market closed.

Over the last two days, Google and YouTube executives have compiled an extensive list of ways to integrate the two features. There’s now plans to soon incorporate YouTube videos into Google search results, and to make YouTube part of Google’s AdSense advertising feature, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.”

Says Coolz0r: Good, at least the videos will start loading now and no longer slow down the blog. Oh no, wait…

“YouTube founder Chad Hurley, during the same call, said that it was Google’s “revolutionary ad program that inspired us.” Plus, he added, “we wanted to remain independent. By working with Google, that’s still the case.”

Says Coolz0r: Damn. At least make Google host the videos… for the love of blogs and loading time…

Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.

Says Coolz0r: stock isn’t going to put butter on the bread, but okay. Let’s hope the AdSense brings in enough. Oh wait. There are hundreds of videos that violate the terms… hmm. A round of user-banning is coming up. The delete button is going to need replacement. Anybody knows a factory that produces ‘delete’ buttons? Major client coming up… :)

Is Google now responsible for all the illegal content? If so: lawyers, aim your arrows!

$1.65 billion. $1.65 billion. (I had to type it twice to fully comprehend.)

I thought YouTube was estimated on $1 billion. Did Battelle know? Even he thought $1 billion was way too much. Now it’s 65% more. Looks like the GOOG guys are trying to get rid of their stock. How much is there left to give away anyway?

Ah well. Good luck, YouTube, and congrats Google.

*continues living*

 
5 Comments

Posted in 2.0 +, Corporate News, Thoughts, Video

 

Meet Or Delete?

08 Oct 2006

A new dating show is in town and it’s called ‘Meet Or Delete’. It’s hosted by MTV and has an online and a mobile channel. You might think: yeah so? And indeed, so did I. Until I took a closer look at how it works, and I must say it’s pretty deep. ‘Meet Or Delete’ is a brand new twist on getting to know someone for the first time, be it for dating, identifying your next roommate or picking a new band member. Using some dogged detective work and IT investigation, ‘Meet Or Delete’s’ contestants will get to delve into the computers of their prospective partners and see what their hard-drives really reveal about them… As much as that sounds scary, it’s also pretty interesting to follow. How much of your privacy are you willing to give up and have aired internationally in order to meet a girl or boy?

Check out the commercial:

Tune in for some episodes on Meetordelete.com

Commercial credits: T-Viral

 
2 Comments

Posted in 2.0 +, Social Networks, Trends

 

How Not To Start A Social Network

07 Oct 2006

Ask WallMart. They know. They announced the launch of their network ‘The Hub’ two months and a bit ago, claiming they would be the virtuous MySpace, the sane and clean network which they thought was missing in this world wide web. They’ve pulled the plug already, as AdAge reports:

Less than three months after launching its quasi-social-networking site aimed at teens, Wal-Mart has shut down the Hub. [...] “The Hub” was designed by Wal-Mart to allow teens to “express their individuality” but it screened all the content, informed parents when their children joined and forbade users to e-mail one another. [...] In August, the site attracted 91,000 unique visitors, according to ComScore Networks. Social-networking giant MySpace.com garnered 55.8 million unique visitors the same month.

Okay. So let’s put it in perspective: there are quite some cars out there, but I think there’s one missing especially for teens, namely mine. So I create a car, but it has no doors so you have to crawl in the way I tell you to. If you turn on the radio, I’ll make sure your parents know what station you tune in to, for how long and what music you listened to. You can only pick up people who have an RFID chip that unlocks the window, otherwise they won’t get in the car. For evey friend that enters to drive along, I’ll contact your parents and inform them who you picked up, where you picked them up and how long they rode with you. See how stupid that sounds? Yet still, WallMart thought it would work. I guess not.

From the start people have been saying that the WallMart approach isn’t the right approach. Teens don’t want you to talk to their parents about what they do online and who they know. It’s the reason the internet is so popular. You can be whoever you want, talk to whoever you want to talk and block anyone you don’t like. Why would anyone want to give up that freedom, when it’s only a click away?

 
1 Comment

Posted in 2.0 +, Social Networks, Thoughts

 

Shoot My Blog

29 Sep 2006

It might seem as something euthanasic, but it has nothing to do with this blog. Shoot My Blog is an arty viral concept by Renaud Deha (Reno) and it’s purely non-profit. The idea is that people take an original photo of the shootmyblog blog with their digital camera or mobile phone. Then they send it to shootmyblog@hotmail.com. In the picture (somewhere, big or small) there has to be an imprint of the shootmyblog homepage. Participants are encouraged to be very creative and the reward is that the original picture gets published on the totally bizarre photoblog. The only thing I’m sad about is that the links to the photographer’s site is in fact plain text and not a link. Not only do I have to copy-paste the text in the address bar to check out that site, there’s also no linklove coming from the photoblog to the contributers. My opinion is: if you tap the consumer market, you also have to give something back. The words aren’t enough. A real link adds linkjuice to the contributors of the blog. A Flickr set makes it even more viral. It’s a good concept, but it still need some adjustments. I’ll send in a picture of my blog featuring his blog in a blogpost to contribute to the project. There’s already some cool art works on the index because the project first saw screenlight on July 29th.

Shoot My Blog

Visit ShootMyBlog | Thanks, Reno.

A little friendly warning though, Reno… if you’re planning to go viral, you better not encourage people to click your AdSense ads, especially not on a blogspot.com domain. It’s against the ToS agreement you have to follow. People got banned for less. I’d remove the request from your sidebar if I were you.

Update [09-29-06, 11 AM]: Reno says the links are ON the pictures themselves, I must’ve tried some images of authors who didn’t have a website to link to. My bad!

 
1 Comment

Posted in 2.0 +, Design, Interactive, Social Networks

 

Ending Conversations

24 Sep 2006

Good impressions, that’s what people must have of you once you’ve stopped the conversation you were having. At work I have a few colleagues who’re quite good at it. A closing line, totally off-topic and so far out it’s actually a damn shame nobody was there to record it. So that’s why I’ve been searching a little for a tool that suits fine to play along in the game. Every time I send out an email to one of these colleagues next week, I’ll include a cunning phrase to entice their thinking and make them philosophically ease back in their chair to stroke their imaginary beards. Examples might be:

“As my uncle Will always used to say: Nothing is quite as distracting as the memory of pressing an ice-cold cola bottle to their jugular right in the middle of a United Nations reception.”

“Someone has put it this way: Thanks to you, at this precise moment someone is feeling the sensation of a staggering religious epiphany right in the middle of soothing the escaped tiger.”

Or: “Remember: There’s nothing that can wake someone up like the feeling of having their nipples removed and cleaned right in the middle of freeclimbing the face of El Capitan.”

Yeah. It’s always good to end conversations with an impressive literate line.

Free Ride In A Police Car If You Shoplift

Want to have more? Check out the Instant Sensual Karma Generator, and you too can increase the amount of pleasure in the universe by granting a moment of bliss to some bewildered soul. (Careful, some links on that site are NSFW)

 
No Comments

Posted in 2.0 +, Geek, Humor

 

Graph Your Site

24 Sep 2006

I’m probably nearly the last one in the world to see this, but since I’m adding the image to the Flickr group, I thought I might as well blog it too so it’s ‘out there’. Sala programmed an HTML Graph Applet that renders your site into a graphical structure. Sala is an artist who’s active on many platforms. His alter ego art-project, onethousandpaintings.com, has also travelled the globe very fast. From the 1000 paintings he had on sale, as many as 583 are already sold. Amazing.

Marketing Thoughts Graph

See my graph being made | Create yours
On Flickr, 2023 photos have already been tagged with the websitesasgraphs keyword. Feel free to add yours.

 
No Comments

Posted in 2.0 +, Design, Technology

 

The Property Panel

22 Sep 2006

Banks aren’t always purely dedicated to managing your money. More and more we see them evolve and participate in the conversation. HSBC, the world’s local bank, just upped the ante with their dedicated monthly webcast. A panel of highly qualified professionals come together to discuss and debate consumers’ burning issues surrounding property, on anything from buying your first home to remortgaging. Sure, this is just for a niche in the huge financial market, but if you elaborate on the matter you can easily extend it to a webcast for youngsters with financial advice, a webcast for stock market investment and so on. The point is: conversation breeds satisfied customers. If you give your clients the opportunity to send in questions which will then be discussed, the added value for those clients goes far beyond ‘using an account’. And that’s something to remember if you’re planning your next campaign for a bank.

Property Panel

Tune in for their first episode
Check out The Property Panel | Thanks, Asi

 
No Comments

Posted in 2.0 +, Campaigns, Marketing, Trends

 

DoGooder

22 Sep 2006

DoGooderTV enables nonprofit organizations to present new videos and existing media assets to new audiences. Once site visitors see the compelling stories of nonprofits, DoGooderTV gives them a direct way to donate to the organization, join, volunteer or simply find out more information. DoGooderTV is building on the success of sites such as MySpace, Flickr, YouTube and many others that allow users to create community and share content.

DoGooderTV is using nonprofit media as the hook to link individuals to causes, organizations and other individuals who share a passion for an issue.

The goal of DoGooderTV is to grow a new generation of interested, engaged and active philanthropists and volunteers using web tools that have already demonstrated tremendous power.

DoGooder.TV

Registered nonprofits can upload up to 100MB of streaming video to their page for site visitors to view. When individuals see the videos and are moved to take action, the site provides ways to donate, volunteer, and create a community around those organizations. Looks interesting. Marc?

Visit DoGooder.TV | Seen on SpareChange

 
1 Comment

Posted in 2.0 +, Advertising, Campaigns, Ethics, Video

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »