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Mashups, Stickers, Powncified, and Why CNet.com Sucks - Some Monday Links

March 24, 2008 in Interactive, PR Nightmares, RSS, Random, social media | No comments

Random Links for Monday!

Here’s a quick round-up of some articles that I’ve found interesting over the weekend -

  • Why Media Executives Are Killing Morale/Asleep At Their Own Wheel - Sam Lawrence talks on his Go Big Always blog about current websites that are supposed to be the so-called “leaders” in the latest tech/web 2.0 news, yet are seemingly against consumer participation - The whole while still touting that they provide “engaging” and “interactive” portals. At least, that’s what they keep telling their advertisers. Engaging is the one trait that they all are in dire need of. Without being able to start a conversation with your consumer, you just become another static news site. Some of the examples used are CNET, ZDNet, and PCWorld - All three of which have solid content but asinine procedures/authentication processes, making any conversation that might have taken place almost a chore. He’s already gotten a few good responses that would be easy to implement yet would provide the user with a more inviting online news source (One being the introduction of OpenID, which would help make any forced site-registration a thing of the past)

  • How I Use Twitter To Promote My Blog - Chris Brogan stepping in as a guest blogger over at ProBlogger.net shares some advice on how twitter has helped make his own blog, www.chrisbrogan.com, a must-have on everyone’s RSS feed aggregator.

  • Free AdSense stickers from Google - Now I don’t know anyone who’d want these, but if you do, act fast… all that’s required is a SASE.

    • also on the same topic:

  • Free Stickers From Laughing Squid - Well, apparently they just ran out of the removable ones, but if you act now you can still get some free vinyl ones, once again, all that’s needed is a SASE.

  • How To Fine-Tune The Volume On Your Mac - The “Secret command” Revealed - Ok, nothing really secret about this, but it is pretty cool. Found at Creativebits.org - Apparently if you hold down Shift + Option while hitting the volume up or down keys (F4 and F5), you have greater control over the actual change in volume… Finally! I can now achieve that “perfect” setting I’ve only dreamed existed.

  • Powncified - The Top 10 “Pownced” Links In The Last 24 Hours - A neat hack by Tom Martin that uses the public Pownce listing API to show the most popular links for the day. This is very similar to http://powncememe.com/ although PownceMeme gives you something Powncified lacks - An RSS feed of its own letting you use its top 10 of the day in your own social-media mashup. PownceMeme was created by Bryan Pearson and it looks like he also uses one of the various API’s that are available to aggregate his posts.

    • And while still in a “mashup” mood there’s this:

  • www.DigAList.com - It’s a Digg.com like service that focuses only on “lists.” They’ve got a huge collection of both external and internal lists, all sorted based on tags (similar to dig) and arranged by popularity/votes. A cool feature is that they allow you to pull feeds from practically every part of their site, similar to what del.icio.us does. For instance I can pull an RSS feed of just the lists that have the tag “Humor” if I wanted to. The site can also be segmented by Channels as well. Great selection of Travel and lifehack lists too.

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    Download The Cult of Mac ebook FREE (and 100% legal too)

    March 22, 2008 in Alternative Advertising, Guerilla, Interactive, Marketing With A Twist, p2p, social media | No comments

    Cult of Mac and Cult of Ipod

    Following Chris Anderson’s recent experiment with his latest book entitled “Free,” book publisher No Starch Press has released two of their most popular books by Wired news editor Leander Kahney - The Cult of Mac & The Cult of iPod - in full unaltered versions on the infamous p2p torrent site, www.ThePirateBay.org

    Here are brief reviews of both books:
    The Cult of Ipod - Leander Kahney:

    Wired news editor Leander Kahney follows up his bestselling The Cult of Mac with The Cult of iPod, a comprehensive look at how Apple’s hit iPod is changing music, culture, and listening behavior. The Cult of iPod includes the exclusive back story of the iPod’s development; looks at the many ways iPod’s users pay homage to their devices; and investigates the quirkier aspects of iPod culture, such as iPod-jacking (strangers plugging into each other’s iPods to discover new music), as well as the growing legions of MP3Js (regular folks who use their iPods to become DJs).

    The Cult of Mac - Leander Kahney:

    No product on the planet enjoys the devotion of a Macintosh computer. Famously dedicated to their machines, many Mac fans eat, sleep and breathe Macintosh. In The Cult of Mac, Wired News managing editor Leander Kahney takes an in-depth look at Mac users and their unique, creative, and often very funny culture. From people who get Mac tattoos and haircuts, to those who furnish their apartments out of empty Mac boxes, the book details Mac fandom in all of its forms. This paperback edition includes an all-new chapter about the iPod, updates throughout, and new photos that reflect current Apple technology.

    To Download Via BitTorrent or Direct Download:
    Read the rest of this entry »

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    AOL Buys Social-Networking Site Bebo For $850 Million

    March 13, 2008 in Interactive, International, behind the scenes, social media | No comments


    AOL just announced it has agreed to purchase social-networking mega-site Bebo for a ridiculous $850 million in cash. A few months ago rumors started to spread across the internet that the Bebo, which boasts over 40 million users, was up for sale however te price tag then was a cool $1 billion dollars.

    This move is definitely aimed at trying to boost AOL’s declining advertising revenue by plastering it across the popular social network. AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco was quoted as saying, “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media.” The network plus its usage of Yahoo & AOL instant messaging services will undoubtably broaden the reach of their ad sales.

    Bebo announced earlier last year that it will adopt Google’s Open Social initiative, also hinting that the site would be compatible with all current Facebook applications. This places the site as a solid rival against Facebook and MySpace, which trumps the two in popularity outside of the US (as seen in the recently released map/chart below by le Monde).


    [click on image to enlarge]

    I guess the battle continues in the recent trend of large corporations buying out social-networks as a “quick-fix” to broaden their reach to the “community” markets…. I wonder who’s next?

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