Tim March 6th, 2007

Facebook notices traffic shift from Grey’s Anatomy. Due to a cliffhanger in the storyline of the popular TV show, Facebook saw a drop of almost 200,000 users during the one hour period, with scattered “Facebook breaks” during the commercials.

• facebook , quickbit
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Tim March 6th, 2007

Microsoft attacks Google on Book Scanning. If Microsoft isn’t careful they could be biting the hand that feeds them. If gathering content and indexing it is viewed as illegal by the courts, web search could be dead.

• google , microsoft , quickbit
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Tim March 5th, 2007

ReadWriteWeb reports on some very cool visualizations coming out of the product ManyEyes that was launched by IBM last month. This is a great post on the benefits of social data analysis and how ManyEyes is making it easier to aggregate this kind of information.

• ibm , manyeyes , quickbit
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Tim March 5th, 2007

The 50 Most Important People on the Web, I’m #15! Alright, no I’m not, but one of these days…I’m actually somewhat disappointed that Tim Berners-Lee is #46 and Steve Jobs makes #2 behind the Google Exec Trio. Perhaps the list is a bit out of order, but it’s not a bad roundup of who’s making waves in the web world.

• quickbit
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Tim March 5th, 2007

Apparently there was a bug requiring people to enter an email address to post a comment, even though there’s no email form field in the comment section. That’s been fixed now so feel free to go comment on the reviews. By the way, my offer for a Joost invite by adding a comment review is still active. Any takers?

• joost , meta , quickbit
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Tim March 4th, 2007

USAToday redesigns, adds social features. Voting system, profile pages, and a community blog fill out some of the more recent social additions to the online newspaper.

• quickbit , usatoday
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Tim March 4th, 2007

Gigoit, a community swap project, has launched. Gigoit is a completely free resource for people to give their unwanted but usable items to neighbors in their communities who can use them. And if you’re wondering what the cryptic name means, it’s “Garbage In, Garbage Out”.

• gigoit , quickbit
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Tim March 2nd, 2007

Schtuff acquired by PBWiki. OpenID provider JanRain has sold their popular wiki platform (and userbase) to the recently funded PBWiki. JanRain will continue to narrow its focus on the OpenID platform with MyOpenID and PBWiki gains a million users for an undisclosed purchase price. Seems a win/win for both parties in my opinion.

• openid , pbwiki , quickbit , schtuff , wiki
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Tim March 2nd, 2007

GigaOm reports on why IM clients are still maintaining a desktop presence despite the release of online applications for other software including Meebo which addresses instant messaging on the web. Good points are made regarding both sides of it. For me the biggest drawback to Meebo is of course that it excels at messaging but not much more in regards to video conferencing, VOIP, and file sharing. Is this a hurdle that can be overcome (possibly with Adobe Flex) or are we destined to always come back to the desktop for some functionality?

• VoIP , adobe , meebo , quickbit
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Tim March 2nd, 2007

While YouTube continues to remain focused on user-generated content, Zooppa is a startup that aims for users to create their own ads. Users can read briefs from companies and take a stab at creating their own ad for it. If they win, the earn “Zoopp Dollars” which are equivalent to US Dollars with the exception that you can’t cash out until your balance is $1,000. The site is missing all of the typical social elements you would expect like top rated videos and recently released ads, but the idea is creative and paying users for content is in strong demand these days.

• quickbit , youtube , zoopa
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Tim March 2nd, 2007

eMarketer has released some survey results for kids age 17-24 and the results look good for Facebook. #1 preferred social network by Females and Males alike with Myspace falling to #6 with males. This certainly validates Facebook as a company that is nowhere near its peak yet.

• facebook , myspace , quickbit , youtube
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Tim March 2nd, 2007

You don’t have to be a startup to work in the new web business. Web Worker Daily has listed 5 jobs with a low barrier of entry that relatively anyone could do with little work involved. It’s a catch 22 however, as most experiments are hit or miss and many expect to work very hard with little to no pay before hitting it big (if they ever do).

• quickbit
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Tim March 2nd, 2007

The Ambient Clock is a cryptic device still in testing phase and they’re asking users to test their software platform. Basically it connects to Google Calendar and changes color based on scheduled event times. The clock itself has some extra markings to show what time events are scheduled in relation to the actual time. The software looks interesting but as a device it’s a bit gimmicky for my taste.

• google , quickbit
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Tim March 1st, 2007

After raising $700,000 from Tim O’reilly’s OATV, Wesabe is expanding its service by allowing up to 12 accounts. They are completely against ads, taking the position that the idea of advertisements luring users to spend money goes against the goals of their business, but they had originally planned on offering a Pro account with the features they are now releasing today. They will still have a Pro option later with expanded functionality and will remain ad-free for all plans.

• quickbit , wesabe
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Tim March 1st, 2007

RIAA launches P2PLawsuits.com where those who’ve gotten caught under their crosshairs can choose to settle online out of court (who needs that whole justice thing anyway?). RIAA knows their battle in the courtroom is losing ground so they’ve set up this site to try to inject even more fear into individuals, even promising that online settlements will be at a “significant discount” to losing in court. Welcome to the music industry’s new business model, mafia style.

• quickbit , riaa
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