Media consumer, tech enthusiast, and gamer
For an introduction to the concept behind Digg, see A Beginner’s Guide to Community Driven Web Content. This post assumes you know what “Digg-like” means and will dive into the pros and cons / advantages and disadvantages of the top 5 Digg-like sites (read: community driven web content sites; it’s just easier to say Digg-like). The sites to be compared are Digg, Netscape, Reddit, Newsvine, and Shoutwire.
Read More “Top 5 Digg-Like Sites Compared & Contrasted (including Digg)” »
Back in the day (like two years ago), “browsing” the Internet for news and information was usually limited to using search engines for finding something specific you needed or checking out your favorite sources for the latest news and stories. But that was/is problematic for two reasons: 1) search engines are calculated and cold and don’t always lead you to what you want 2) sticking to a few favorite sources narrows your exposure to what’s really happening around the world both on and offline.
Read More “A Beginner’s Guide to Community Driven Web Content” »
The well respected Economist.com (subscription required) released an article today called Going Pro with a subtitle of More people are quitting their day jobs to blog for a living. The article claims that there used to be only two types of blogs: personal diaries with tiny audiences (and no interest in advertising) and niche magazines explicitly run as businesses, quoting Jason Calacanis (the Engadget / Weblogs Inc. guy) claiming such blogs are “the most profitable media business today.” But the Economist explains that a third category is on the rise: “mom-and-pop” blogs.
Read More “The Economist.com on People “Quitting Their Day Jobs to Blog for a Living”” »
ReviewMe is a new online service that is in the business of paying bloggers (like myself) to review products or services. The company is owned by Text Links Ads, which was recently acquired by MediaWhiz. I only mention this because both companies are fairly well respected and give the automatically-labeled-as-controversial new business ReviewMe some much needed support.
Is it just me, or did these two giants start adopting each other’s more classic tactics?
A friend of mine was explaining how he wasn’t impressed with a certain Canon camera he had purchased from Costco months earlier. There was a problem with the focus that he was hoping would just go away. Otherwise, it was a great camera for a great price. In fact, the original price was greatly reduced by a $100 mail-in rebate. After finding out from other owners that this focus problem was not unique to his particular camera, he decided it was time:
Read More “Why Costco & Rebates Go Together: You Keep the Rebate After Return” »
Not surprisingly, Hell.com failed to have any bids placed above the $2.3 million reserve set by the seller at a live auction on Friday. Bids were apparently above $500,000 but still a far cry from the $2.3 million minimum. Personally, I would have taken the $500,000, especially considering the site is only getting around 5,000 hits a day with whatever hell-driven community is there (which would translate to significantly less than $500,000 in ad revenue by practically any calculation). But some other names did sell:
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) explains how YouTube is following in the steps of Google and TiVo: It’s now a verb and an adjective. Politicians are calling this midterm election “the first YouTube election.” They are posting videos to YouTube that show their opponents’ less-than-impressive moments. Never before have we had such an easy way to see politicians using insulting racial terms or falling asleep at hearings. But it gets better…