20 Aug 2008 17:33:50 | Paul Glazowski | Los Angeles,News,social networking,web,Children,disney,disney family,family,parent community,social network | Comments
While Disney devotes most of its resources to entertainment for the youth of the world to consume and grow zealous over, the people dishing dollars for the company’s attractions - from theme parks to movies to books to toys and, more recently, online destinations - are naturally the adults of the world. So, after having constructed a thoroughly glitzy network on the Web called DxD (short for Disney Xtreme Digital), it has deemed it appropriate to launch another space, Disney Family, designed for use by “moms and dads to share the pride of being a parent, and have a lot of fun while (they’re) at it!”
The differences between Disney Family and Xtreme Digital are stark. While XD has no pretensions of being reserved in terms of the sheer volume of stuff presented for users’ eyes and ears, Disney Family is more basic. Its layout and color wheel are far more gentle on the senses. It is clearly meant for generations of people responsible for the those who spend their hours of playtime in XD land.
Disney Family is, in short, a content network. It does hold social aspects, mind you. But a quick glance at where among the main menu of options the ‘community’ tab is listed shows what Disney is prioritizing on the site.
Not that its slight understatement of the community feature is a bad thing. Disney is after all good with delivering material - whatever material it might be. So it is naturally going to trumpet reading material wherever it can. Sections for Food, Parenting, Travel, and Entertainment are all filled with things that typical Disney-aware family would likely appreciate. And the way each section is structured makes for an easy time. Dare I say appreciable as well?
Even if the Disney Family community isn’t writ large upon the site’s front page, it is there among the links. And like other facets accessible across the broader network, it is elegantly designed. Nothing alpha or beta about it, really. Everything seems to work as it should, and it’s all very intuitive to browse and operate. The only quibble I can make at this moment is that the site is very slow to load. Whether an intense traffic surge is to blame or that Disney Family requires more work behind the stage, I’m not sure. But going about the network is definitely not something I would currently call a speedy experience.
Also, though the sign-up process is simple enough, it is a bit tedious. Unless you desire to have your inbox stuffed with daily and weekly newsletters of all sorts, you’ll be unchecking at least a half dozen boxes before you’ve agreed to Disney’s terms and hit the registration button. And for those who tend to scramble through sign-ups on the Web, Disney Family by default selects female gender before male. So, all the dads out there, watch where you click. Of course, you can change this if you mistakenly choose wrongly out of habit of ignoring such particularities.
In all, I approve of Disney Family. I would certainly wish the site performance to be greatly improved, and soon, but the design itself is commendable. If Disney’s promotion of the new venue is effective, it will presumably fare very well.
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20-word Description: MeGlobe is a Web-based instant messaging application that provides real-time language translation.
CEO’s Pitch: Although technology has exponentially increased the rate of globalization, language barriers still keep us worlds apart. MeGlobe allows the global online community to communicate with each other and collaborate across language borders. Our free, Web-based instant messaging application lets you to type in your own language and instantly translates it into the language of whomever you are chatting with.
Users can also make contributions to the translations MeGlobe performs. These contributions are used to teach MeGlobe to become a better translator. Every correction from the community brings us closer to our goal of erasing language barriers.
Mashable’s Take: It goes without saying that the best way to communicate across linguistic barriers is to learn tongues of others (and vice versa). The ability to speak multiple languages, either for business or personal use, or both, can be of limitless value. But of course it is hardly realistic to think we can know all. So it is good news when something of MeGlobe’s design makes its way to the public stage.
First introduced as a limited public beta in early summer, MeGlobe is now open to anyone who wishes to use it. It is free, and in addition to its support for Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Russian, Dutch (Netherlands), Greek, Korean, Arabic, Swedish, Chinese Traditional and Chinese Simplified, it recognizes two French flavors, French standard and French Canadian, and four - yes, four - English labels, including American, UK, Australian, and Canadian.
The interface of MeGlobe may take some getting used to. Its features are heavy on gloss. Some visitors I imagine won’t enjoy this. But others will probably think little or nothing of its visual attributes. The powers below the surface are what will have one’s lasting attention. And what makes MeGlobe particularly interesting, as with other language-based learning/translation startups of recent construction, is that it is very much user driven.
Granted, it appears to be a very small operation at present. All MeGlobe rooms appeared vacant in my personal trial with the service. But if you know who it is you wish to speak with, it may well turn out to be a convenient meeting ground.
I should note that I came across a bug of some kind when using the service. When browsing its features in my Firefox 3 installation, my cursor would seem to occasionally disappear beneath the surface of the main window in MeGlobe. Even so, aspects of the site could still be triggered and would continue to function. Closing the tab for MeGlobe and returning to the website did fix the issue, of course, and I was unable to replicate the problem, so I imagine your experience will likely be a decent one, more or less.
As it is freely accessible, I would advise giving MeGlobe a try. It is certainly new and requires some more attention on the development side as well as its user recruitment efforts. But for starters it seems rather promising. And as the CEO’s note made clear, the service is open to user contributions, too, so if you wish to offer some expertise as a sort of community service, you can do so. We here at Mashable hope to see more languages added to the fold. As a social construct, MeGlobe could grow to relatively popular proportions. It really only needs the right balance of members and backend managers to facilitate expansion.
Residents of Massachusetts and California led the nation in googling the term “social networking” during the last 12 months according to Google Insights for Search, a new search analysis tool.
Launched on August 6, Google Insights for Search is a free service that allows users to track the popularity of phrases and words that have been typed into Google’s search engine from 2004 until the present day. The resource enables users to sort data by country, sub-region, time and industry. The application also includes heat maps that display the geographic location of where terms are most popular, the top searches related to a term or phrase, and the fastest rising searches.
As of August 8, Massachusetts and California each had a search volume index or SVI of 100 for regional interest in social networking, tops in the nation for the past 12 months. The term “search volume index” or SVI is a measurement that reflects how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. Rounding out the top ten were New York (SVI=96), the District of Columbia (96), Washington (88), Maryland (86), Illinois (84), Georgia (80), New Jersey (80) and Utah (80).
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Nationwide, the top three related searches to social networking were “social networking sites,” “social networking site,” and “social network.” The fastest rising searches were “social networking trends,” “social networking tools,” and “social networking scripts.”
By city, Google searches for the term “social networking” was highest in Pleasanton (SVI=100), a suburb of San Francisco. Close behind were New York (92), San Francisco (91), Austin (76), Washington (76), Los Angeles (73), Boston (71), Reston (69), Chicago (66) and Atlanta (63).
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Also of interest: How search volumes for the term “social networking” have changed over time. After periods of relatively minimal interest for the term in 2004 and 2005, search volumes took off in first quarter 2006 and peaked in November, 2007. After a sharp dip in December, 2007, search volumes have shown steady upward growth throughout the first half of 2008.
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Google cautions that the results show the likelihood of users in a particular area to Google search a term on a relative basis. In this case, just because a particular city, say Minneapolis, didn’t rank in the top ten, it could mean Minneapolis residents don’t use Google to search for social networking information (maybe Yahoo? MSN?). They may also use a different phrase or term to search for social networking information (social media? Facebook?).
Another caveat: I suspect Google hasn’t worked out all the bugs in the data just yet, but they’re not letting on. Case in point: On August 7, I used Google Insights for Search to track regional interest by state for the term “social networking” in the last 12 months On August 8, just 24 hours later, I ran the same search, and the results were significantly different.
Why the big differences in the ranking and the scores, especially if the results captured data from the last 12 months? Small sample size? Data glitch? Human error? Maybe it was an issue at my end with my Internet connection. Perhaps I misunderstood something? A difference of one day shouldn’t make that much of an impact in the rankings, right? My suspicion is that Google launched this application only a day or so before and they’re still tinkering with its algorithms and ranking systems. The designers should get a pass on this one, but we should be on the lookout for similar inconsistencies in the future. If a year or even six months from now, we’re seeing the same kind of significant fluctuations in day to day results for the same search over a one year period or longer, it may be time to raise some red flags.
New York Leads Nation in Googling “Facebook”
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The application was also used to track Google search statistics for leading social networking brands in the last 12 months. At a state level, Google searches for the brand “Facebook” were highest in New York, Arkansas and Connecticut. At a city level, searches were highest in New York City, Sterling and Milpitas.
California Leads Nation in Googling “YouTube”
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At a state level, Google searches for the brand “YouTube” were highest in California, Virginia and Hawaii in the last 12 months. At a metro level, searches were highest in Milpitas, Sterling and Los Angeles.
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Oregon Leads Nation in Googling “Twitter”
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At a state level, Google searches for the brand “Twitter” were highest in Oregon, California and Washington in the last 12 months. Clearly, the Pacific North West and the West Coast love Twitter. At a city level, searches were highest in San Francisco, Austin and San Jose.
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California Leads Nation in Googling “Mashable”
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At a state level, Google searches for the brand “Mashable” were highest in California, New York and Texas in the last 12 months. Beyond these three states, search volume was not sufficient enough to show results. At a city level, searches were highest in San Francisco and New York. Search volume was not high enough to get results from any other cities.
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Insights for Search: A New Data Frontier
These findings illustrate that Google Insights for Search is an amazing new application for social networking pros of all stripes. While not without its quirks, the tool is quite literally a mind reader that allows researchers to peer into the brains and online activity patterns of Google users.
While the tool was designed to help online marketers create more and better AdWords marketing campaigns, I suspect the resource will be deployed for so much more. It will be used for everything from environmental scans to trend spotting to brand tracking and countless other applications that Google hasn’t yet planned or maybe ever imagined. Perhaps this is a stretch, but the new database (which is updated daily) has seismic implications for the forecasting of consumer behavior and business investment. It could completely revolutionize the way economists measure and track personal and corporate spending intentions.
Currently, the gathering of intention data is done by written or phone surveys which are fraught with issues. Sample sizes may be low or not truly representative. People or organizations conducting the surveys may be biased. Those being surveyed may be less than honest or complete in their responses.
Not here. Users want something. Users search for that something in Google. Google delivers information on that something. That’s it. It’s pure. No messy survey gets in the way. No agenda. No ego. Google never blinks. For better or worse, Google captures it all from hundreds of millions of users all over the world, countless times a day. No survey can do that.
Experimenting with this tool, I feel like an ADD kid again. I’m tinkering with different keywords and phrase combinations like some digital Rubik’s cube, and going wild playing with the different geographic, time, and industry filters. On a whim (and strictly out of professional curiosity of course), I checked which U.S. state led the nation in googling the term “sex” during the last 30 days. Answer: South Dakota. For the term “Britney”: Louisiana. The term “Obama”: District of Columbia. The word “carpet”: Colorado. The phrase “air conditioning”: Arizona. The word “babysitter”: Ohio. I’ve barely started, and my head is already spinning with ideas on how this data can be used in business plans, Powerpoint presentations, sales pitches, brainstorming sessions, concept testing or for just plain fun.
Not to sound ungrateful or greedy, but I’m already preparing a wish list of upgrades for Google Insights for Search 2.0. How about including a filter for time, not just for dates? In the last 30 days, the tool revealed that Phoenix led the nation in googling the term “pizza.” That’s great, but could you add another filter which identifies search volumes for specific times (3-4 pm? 7-8pm ? 10-11pm), particular days (Friday? Saturday) or even exact dates (March 14, 2008) for a word or phrase? Could you take the data that’s currently available in the Google Web History for individual users, and aggregate and publish the data for all Google users? This would allow researchers to scan search volumes by the different types of Google searches, say, Web, images, news, products, sponsored links, video, maps, blogs, and books?
Could you arrange a meeting with the YouTube folks down the hall and create a comparable “YouTube Insights for Search” application that provides comparable search volume data for YouTube searches? And while you’re at it, why not spring for lunch and invite the Facebook and Twitter suits to the Googleplex? While you’re chowing down, explore the feasibility of creating a “Facebook Insights for Search” and/or “Twitter Insights for Search” that provides a database of Facebook and Twitter search volumes and activity patterns, also broken by location, date, times and location. I can already hear the thunder of privacy advocates banging their war drums, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Perhaps I’m thinking too far ahead, but the point is that Google Insights for Search is a flawed but still spectacular new research tool for business and Web analysts everywhere. The resource has countless applications in not only social networking, but in virtually all industries, products, and services. Look for more detailed articles and tutorials on how to fully tap this resource and take your online research and forecasting skills to the next level.
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20 Aug 2008 15:41:14 | Don Reisinger | News,Opinion,web,auction,ebay,ecommerce,shopping | Comments
eBay on Wednesday announced that it has dropped seller fees in an attempt to save you some money and increase the number of listings on each page.
According to the company, sellers will now be levied a flat 35 cent listing fee and will base fees on the successful sale of items instead of the fact that you’re simply listing them. Of course, that drop in rates will only impact those trying the company’s Buy It Now feature.
Although I commend eBay for trying to increase the number of listings on the site and trying to make customers happier with the service, I see so many glaring problems with the company that I don’t even know where to start.
According to eBay’s second quarter numbers, profits are up 50 percent to $376 million, but its listings are down once again by 6 percent. And in a protest of eBay’s ridiculous idea of charging more to increase profits and (hopefully) listings, the company witnessed a 13 percent decline in listings — a figure that is simply unacceptable for a site of this magnitude.
But it’s as if all that doesn’t matter. As I just noted, profits are up and things have been going relatively well for eBay when all things are considered. Let’s not forget that part of those profits can be attributed to other sectors in the company’s business like PayPal and Skype, and that as listings continue to decline, it can only enjoy a profit for so long.
Suffice it to say that eBay has lost its way and is only successful today because no other online auction site has been able to offer the kind of community and marketing eBay has.
eBay was originally created to be an auction site; nothing more, nothing less. But today, the site lets you buy products outright through its Buy It Now feature and has significantly reduced the number of real auctions on the site. A quick glance at the company’s main page will tell you everything you need to know about today’s eBay: it’s just as much a retail store as it is an auction site.
But that’s unacceptable. eBay is an auction site and the only reason it was ever successful in the first place. Why would it want to abandon its roots in favor of competition with Amazon and other online retailers? It doesn’t make sense.
eBay’s problems go far beyond retail. The company’s page hasn’t been updated in years and it’s still the same, ugly, Web 1.0 website that makes it too difficult to find anything in a reasonable amount of time.
And that’s why I think some companies could jump on the auction bandwagon and supplant eBay in that space. Right now, eBay has few competitors and none that can compete to the same magnitude. But that doesn’t mean that eBay is unbeatable. Quite the contrary, eBay is vulnerable.
All it will really take is a site that’s well-designed and has some strong financial backing with a focus on online auctions to knock eBay off its pedestal. eBay is too anti-customer and too focused on everything other than its auctions to truly stand up to a real online auction competitor. Granted, a slew of companies have tried and failed, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the majority of eBay users would be more than happy to move to an alternative if that meant getting away from eBay’s draconian policies and downright ludicrous money-making schemes.
eBay is not the impenetrable force it once was. It may still enjoy profits and sit atop the online auction hill, but it’s not going to last forever if it doesn’t start adapting and changing its business model to a strategy that adequately reflects its original vision: Online auctions. And for goodness sake, update the site — it’s poorly-designed and much too old.
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20 Aug 2008 14:55:39 | Doriano "Paisano" Carta | Lists,Web 2.0,social networking,web,dating,dating sites,group dating,online dating | Comments
Group Dating isn’t new in Japan, where compa or gokon parties have become a regular part of their dating scene. The word compa comes from the word companion and gokon is a combination of the words goudo (group) and compa (companion). It is said that this practice evolved from the difficulties of finding a partner due to the pervasive shyness that exists in Japanese society.
Group dating gatherings usually take place at public venues such as restaurants where each attendee brings a couple of eligible friends. The thing that people seem to like best about this concept, besides the whole law of averages, is the fact that if all else goes wrong and you don’t find a match you still wind up having a good time out with your friends. (Traditionally, compa isn’t for one-night stands but obviously there are many that will seek this type of experience.)
The trend has become a cultural phenomenon, gaining popularity in the UK and now the US. Here are some popular online services that cater to the group dating/compa concept:
Ignighter
Ignighter is a new group dating service from the TechStars camp that hand-picks the top ten best startups out of four hundred entries they receive every year. You can use their free service on their site or via their facebook app.
The key to the service is the group profile that you create which is similar to the kind filled out on standard dating services, except this one describes everyone in your gang. Once two groups agree to meet up they just decide where they want to hang out: Dinner and a movie, coffee house, happy hour, Tapas, ballgame, etc.
Team Dating
Team Dating is from the well-known www.Match.com which focuses on group dating. They claim to be different than the rest by not requiring as much profile information to get started. They also state that they require less personal information which means more privacy.
Here’s a video about Team Dating from the company itself:
Date-My-Mates
Date-My-Mates Started in the UK in 2006 so its database serves that corner of the world. The same concept applies, just in a different area. Just because you don’t live in the UK doesn’t mean you can’t use this service. If you and your pals are planning a group trip to that region then this service could make the journey all the more fun.
Let’s Meet Out
Let’s Meet Out serves only the New York City area at this time so it won’t be for everyone. However, NYC is one of the most popular places for tourists so you could make arrangements with your friends to meet another NYC group.
PlanJam
PlanJam has a slogan that says it all, “From your screen to the scene.” They aren’t actually a group dating site but they can facilitate such an event. Their event planner is impressive as it can calculate what the entire evening will cost you in addition to gathering all of the details you will need to know.
I Am Free Tonight
I Am Free Tonight is owned by eTwine and offers not one but two Facebook apps called Meet New people and Are YOU Interested? The website looks like something from the late 1990s so it’s doubtful that much action is taking place there, but I would venture to guess that a great deal of activity is going on with the Facebook apps. I’d like to test it out myself, but the wifey frowns upon such behavior.
Conclusion
Group dating seems like a fun and useful experience. Marrying the technology of online dating services with the real world benefits of group activities is also a brilliant idea. The services that make the best use of social networking and provide the easiest interface will come out on top. Give these a try and share your experiences in the comments area. Also share any other group dating services we might have missed this time around.
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20 Aug 2008 12:40:53 | Stan Schroeder | Firefox,web,IE,private browsing | Comments
Private browsing is browsing the Web without leaving any traces of your activity: No caching, cookies, history, or form data. Porn viewing and illegal activities come to mind, but the feature - currently present only in Safari - has a number of good uses.
Ok, who am I kidding: it’s only for porn.
In any case, I Started Something notices two of Microsoft’s trademark filings, which indicate that something akin to private browsing might show up in the next iteration of Internet Explorer. The filings were for:
CLEARTRACKS IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; and computer programs for deleting search history after accessing websites
INPRIVATE IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; computer programs for disabling the history and file caching features of a web browser; and computer software for notifying a user of a web browser when others are tracking web use and for controlling the information others can access about such use
If IE gets the feature, and since private browsing didn’t make it to the final build of Firefox 3, this might be one of the rare cases where IE is actually ahead of the ‘Fox, much to the joy of porn viewers everywhere.
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20 Aug 2008 11:51:14 | Kristen Nicole | News,Web Apps,social networking,konnects,professional networking | Comments
Konnects is a social network entering the crowded realm of business social networking, seeking out those users that are caught in limbo between the likes of LinkedIn and Facebook. And while this space is getting more crowded by the day, I think Konnects has a good idea of what it’s targeting in terms of its solutions presented on its site, as well as its ongoing plan of action. Having privately tested its network for the past year, Konnects now boasts 350,000 users taking advantage of its online service upon its public launch, which aims to provide your “traditional” social networking tools in a manner suitable for business use. This goes for both individuals and companies alike.
So what’s this gap between LinkedIn and Facebook that Konnects is trying to bridge? Konnects isn’t as restrictive as LinkedIn, and more business-oriented than Facebook. Instead of having a user profile that looks like a resume, Konnects understands that many recent grads and newcomers don’t have a decade of work experience and would benefit from having a place to discuss and showcase what their current life represents. The same goes for early-stage startups: what projects are they currently working on, and what issues are important to them? Such promotion occurs in features like blogs, photos, etc., which is more reminiscent of the feature you’ll find on Facebook.
Even though Facebook lets you organize your friends into various groups now, the whole of Facebook isn’t designed solely for business networking purposes. This may not sound too different from other business networks that have emerged in the past year or so, but Konnects has a couple of other features that bring an interesting mix of web-based tools into the business-networking realm. For instance, Konnects will not only recommend people you may want to connect with, but it’s also building a recommendation system that will deliver suggested groups, discussions and forums you may want to join, as well as user-generated content (such as blog entries) that you may be interested in viewing.
There are also user-generated groups that can be created as standalone entities, designed for use by companies and professional organizations that would like a place to network. This feature operates more like Ning than a group you can create on a site like Facebook, giving the network admin the capability of creating a walled garden if need be. Similar to Soceeo, end users can join and manage multiple groups from their centralized location.
Other upcoming features will be the inclusion of chat IM and VoIP integration, enabling users to connect with each other in multiple and direct ways. Konnects CEO and co-founder Jim Crabbe explains that all these integrated tools along with the recommendation engine are designed to factor in relevancy and time, so that users can “get to know each other when they meet in person, instead of having to deal with the nitty gritty details of building a relationship.” This means that Konnects is focused on providing as many tools for direct transactions as it can, when connecting its users with each other.
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20 Aug 2008 11:50:52 | Kristen Nicole | News,Search,Web Apps,centrd,event planning,local search | Comments
Center’d is a new site that combines a bit of local search and review features with event- and organized event-planning features for an inclusive tool that, in the end, helps you connect with others in the offline world. Whether you’re offering your two cents on your favorite neighborhood bar or seeking out a venue for an upcoming fund raiser, Center’d hopes to be your one-stop shop.
You can begin by leaving a review on a specific location, or searching for a local event. If you’d like to post an event, you can do that as well, listing the time and location. Of course, the beauty of having this feature included in a local review site is that you can see what others have said about a particular location prior to organizing your own event. From there, you can upload your own image, enter the URL for an image online, or choose from one of the stock images that Center’d already has. This would also be a great place for a web image search that pulls from public images on sites like Flickr, adding to the customization of this event-posting option.
From there, you provide the rest of the data like the time and place. I found this portion of the process somewhat frustrating, as Center’d seemingly requires you to choose from one of its pre-populated venues based on the information your provide, which could be an intersection, a landmark, or even an exact address. Seeing as I provided Center’d with an exact address, I was frustrated with the Center’d suggestions for venues, seeing as none of them were the venue I was trying to insert.
Aside from this, Center’d does a pretty good job of what it’s set out to do. If you’re organizing something like a fund raiser, then you can indicate whether or not you need volunteers. Public events can be added to your Outlook or iCal, but given Center’d focus on user-generated information and community, I’d love to see similar integration with Facebook Events and other third-party services that can help with the promotion of a particular event, especially those that can tap into an existing friend base which is likely housed elsewhere on the web.
20 Aug 2008 08:53:49 | Stan Schroeder | Google,Web 2.0,web,gmail,hack,security | Comments
If you check Gmail’s settings, the last option under the “General” tab lets you “always use https” when accessing Gmail. It’s a fairly new option, and it might sound strange; isn’t Gmail secured by SSL (Secure Socket Layer) by default (hence switching to “https://gmail.com” when you type in “gmail.com” in your browser)?
The answer is: yes and no. Once you log in, Gmail reverts back to an unencrypted connection, since SSL connections are slower than regular ones. This means that whatever you do on Gmail is unencrypted from now on, and someone sniffing traffic on your network can easily obtain sensitive data.
Of course, not everyone has the skills to do that, so the chances of it actually happening are pretty small. Or, better put, they were small until now. As reported by Hacking Truths, a tool has been presented at DEFCON that makes stealing session IDs from Gmail a relatively easy affair. And once someone has your session ID, he/she can log in to your Gmail account without authentication.
In practice, this means that not having the “always use https” option checked, especially if you’re accessing Gmail through a wireless hotspot, or any other unsecure network, has become a hazard, and is not recommended. Google has been fairly silent about this, letting users decide what they want to do, but I’ve switched to SSL and I recommend you do, too, especially if you use Gmail for business purposes.
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20 Aug 2008 08:02:23 | Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins | Celebrities,Film,Los Angeles,News,Opinion,Web Apps,gemini division,nbc video,rosario dawson | Comments
I just finished watching the first two episodes of the new NBC Web Series Gemini Division. It’s an intriguing story that’s already got me convinced I’ll be watching all of the next 48 episodes slated to be released, something I never quite thought I’d say about a web video play by NBC.
The web video play is also intriguing on a number of levels, as it’s clear a whole lot of thought and savvy has been put into the release of the series, and that NBC is out to make a statement with it: we don’t need a community distribution portal, we’ll bring the viewers in to us.
Sure, they’re putting the series out on Xbox Live and “a few other various platforms” they don’t care to mention in the press materials, but it’s very clear that they intend for the show to be viewed primarily on NBC’s video portal, and it’s a tool to get visitors used to the idea of watching web video at NBC.com, as opposed to places they may be currently used to like YouTube.
Intentionally Low-Budget Look While the series had a $2 million production budget, the eagle eye of the internet video audience will catch obvious production quirks meant to trigger the low-budget, indie producer spark in their mind. The entire series was filmed on a green screen set with professional grade lighting and high definition cameras. It’s clear, though, that in certain spots low-resolution backgrounds were used, which stand out against some very sharp anti-aliasing between the subject and the background.
Similarly, in the scenes that break away from the second-person perspective of Rosario speaking to her PDA, two camera coverage is used; these scenes are brief, and only those with a savvy eye will notice it. For the most part, the show has the feel and vibe of a LonelyGirl15.
The low-budget feel is a bit of a farce, though, since the acting, directing, scripting and post-production is otherwise top-notch. Rosario completely drew me into the character and the story immediately after I hit play and the video properly buffered. The product placement and futuristic gadgetry is incredibly obvious but somehow unobtrusive. In short, this show is a professional piece of work and by and large isn’t in your face with the monetization.
I’m guessing once this series takes off, we’ll end up seeing this model used to finance future productions on a much wider scale.
A Unique and Sensible Way to Finance Production I actually first learned about it when I was on the plane from Houston to Austin for the SummerMash event earlier this month. For years, I’ve had the habit of always picking up a copy of Wired Magazine any time I travel by plane, and Gemini Division recieved a feature length writeup in the hard copy of the magazine. Wired’s Frank Rose covered a wide array of details in the piece, but what interested me the most was the way the show was financed. In the beginning of the piece, he said:
Sure, the YouTube explosion was fueled by amateurs, but it will be showbiz professionals who cash in on Web video. That’s because most big corporate advertisers want a safe, predictable environment — not the latest YouTube one-off, no matter how viral.
And later, when he talked about the financing of Division, he explained that the production company Electric Farm at the time hadn’t decided on NBC as the distribution outfit yet, but had moved towards other financing options:
Meanwhile, [Electric Farm CEO Stan] Rogow has been talking with Cisco and a handful of other companies about another way to make money: product placement. As a Buck Rogers-style serial set “five minutes in the future,” the show presents many possibilities for tech companies. Dawson’s smartphone, for instance, is the aperture through which we see the entire series. She talks urgently into the device throughout each episode, sending the feed to someone — we don’t know whom — and occasionally holding it up to capture what’s going on around her. It’s a prominent branding opportunity for any handset maker willing to plunk down the money.
Of course, at the time of Wired’s press, Electric Farm wasn’t disclosing who those advertisers were, but on the first two episodes, the product placement advertisers appear to be Microsoft and Cisco. The story is told with the vehicle being video emails sent from a mobile device.
Remember those Cisco ads we ran on Mashable Conversations (”Pete Cashmore here. What’s your biggest pet peeve about online video…”)? Cisco’s placement in Gemini is a perfect fit for the campaign they ran with us and other videobloggers, as they’re focusing on the future of online and personal digital video. When the device ‘boots up’ for a new missive from Rosario, it shows a Cisco logo in the bottom right for a few seconds.
Similarly, the Microsoft involvement is both seamless and appropriate. At the beginning of the second episode, a combination of some sort of futuristic Windows mobile operating system that segues into a drill down approach of Paris, France (using the Microsoft Live maps protocol) showcases many existing and future possibile features of mobile mapping services. The only thing missing from the placement is the little icon that we used to run on our mobile posts saying “this sponsored post powered by Windows Mobile.”
This Isn’t Just for the Hollywood Pros… The fact that I recognize all the placement sponsors so far and add to that have been sponsored by them here at Mashable under these very same campaigns tells me that these advertisers are accessible. If they’re accessible to the likes of me, that means this style of sponsored production is easily attainable soon for the common indie producer, contrary to what Frank Rose summized that this is going to be a boom only cashed in on by the Hollywood veterans.
Certainly, it didn’t hurt that there was a laundry list of Hollywood success stories signed on for this project, but this whole operation took place outside of the entrenched Hollywood studio system. NBC ended up distributing this piece, but it could have easily been any number of other highly trafficked portals.
For the work that’s been put into what looks like a very interesting storyline (not to mention a companion alternative reality game), I’d hate to see NBC’s gambit harm the viewership numbers for this series. They are doing a few things that us old New Media hands would consider very wrong in the distribution of this series: it isn’t being released in video podcast form, only the first four videos will be available for remote embed, and the distribution platform looks to be exclusively NBC’s web video portal.
This could end up being the rare case where a solid production ends up carrying the numbers through to respectable levels for NBC, but they could have done so much more in terms of return on investment and increased visibility had they chosen a more portable and open distribution strategy for this series.
Check it out, you’ll be glad you did. Aside from all the industry analysis, it’s a great show, and I’ve embedded the first two episodes here at the bottom of this post. Take about six minutes and watch them both, and I’m sure you’ll be hooked as quick as I was.
Episode One
Episode Two
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20 Aug 2008 03:27:36 | Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins | News,Opinion,girls gone wild,legal,social media | Comments
Joe Francis, the fellow you see every early morning on Comedy Central pitching DVDs with girls baring their breasts for the low price of $3.95 for first three days and $19 a month after that, has launched a new website under the auspices of championing the first amendment and exacting a bit of retribution against an unfavorable judge.
The website he has launched displays videos of a non pornographic nature, though. In his plea to the public, he says “I recently experienced an unbelievable miscarriage of justice that made a victim of not just me but of all Americans who chirish their constitutional right to free expression,” and that “if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
While the melodrama and the wide-reaching extent of his claims are debatable, the allegations he makes in the case are particularly eye-popping and admittedly credible. The site also announces that he’s seeking a $300 million lawsuit against Panama City, Florida authorities and opposition lawyers over a 2003 civil suit which saw him jailed without set bail for eleven months.
He alleges that the lawyers and judge worked ‘in cahoots to extort a ransom for Francis’ release from Panama City jail.” The site is also pleading on viewers to write Congress to have the judge from the 2003 case removed from the bench.
Pornography and First Amendment cases have a history, and Joe is likely setting himself up to be the Larry Flynt of the modern age here, and is breaking new ground, along with others like Google and the Sunshine Foundation’s LetOurCongressTweet. Launching a social media component to a lawsuit is becoming almost a pre-requisite, it seems, if imagine your lawsuit or legal action might have more far reaching implications than just your own small world.
Coincidentally, though, this topic came up with a friend of mine over the weekend. My friend has been a contract lawyer for thirty years, and has handled more than his fair share of civil cases. We were discussing a possible civil action for libel and slander that I had in my own future, and he strongly advised against me participating in this sort of action.
In my efforts to gather evidence for my own case, I had worn my journalist had as I plied potential witnesses for my case for information, which I justified by assembling the interviews and raw data I had assembled for a website that would be presented from an investigative journalists’ perspective.
When I discussed this idea with my lawyer friend, he said that it only had the potential to lower any damages I might be awarded in the case significantly (since in this particular case, the damages couldn’t be construed as having damaged my professional reputation since I was rebroadcasting the slanderous words in question), as well as limiting the legal avenues that could be pursued by me down the line.
Clearly, the social media approach to augmenting civil and criminal defenses isn’t a one-size-fits-all, but it is definitely turning into a trend that we can expect to see more of.
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20 Aug 2008 02:19:38 | Kristen Nicole | News,3D,mesa,sosauce,travel guide,virtual environment | Comments
Sosauce, the aesthetically-pleasing network designed for sharing photos and travel adventures, has rolled out two new major updates, both of which revolve around the sharing of media in an enlightening environment.
Expanding on its existing travel features, Sosauce’s new Travel Guide works in conjunction with the site’s travel recording tool for improved journey-sharing capabilities. This reflects Sosauce’s desire to become a more comprehensive service for planning trips, recording trips, and seeking advice from others, whether they are friends or other members of the community.
The specific features that are taking Sosauce in this direction include the ability to search for a destination and review opinions as well as itineraries from others that have shared their experience on Sosauce’s site, as well as the ability to embed your trip album on other sites and blogs for exported story-telling.
On the trip-planning front, there are new Trip Recording capabilities for planning a trip and then layering in media via photos, videos, journals, reviews, and points of interest. This can all be stuck onto a map for geo-location if you’d like, and all of these trip-planning features can be used for groups as well.
While the added trip-planning capabilities are fun, Sosauce’s new Mesa 3D environment is more interesting in my opinion, and combines the majority of the features you’ll find throughout the Sosauce site into a virtual world setting. The result isn’t entirely different from a Second Life home or building that features images from one’s travels boldly displayed on the virtual building’s walls.
But, while the act of media-sharing is becoming rather prominent in the web-based virtual worlds that are popping up, Sosauce’s specific implementation is rather interesting and highly customizable. You can even view a virtual globe for geo-locating media that’s being tagged from places around the world.
So far, Sosauce is working on extending its 3D environment to include virtual travel destinations as well as multiplayer games, and I’m sure another long term goal is to find some way in which to make one’s 3D travels exportable to some degree, just as the service has done with its 2D features in this current release.
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20 Aug 2008 00:54:31 | Don Reisinger | Search,advertising,microsoft,powerset | Comments
Powerset, the company that was acquired by Microsoft in an attempt to shore up its search, may be more lucrative than originally thought. According to reports, Microsoft may be tapping Powerset’s technology to improve advertising in search results and in the process, change the way advertising is done.
Right now, advertisers bid to display their ads on search results pages containing specific keywords pertaining to the product or service they’re advertising. For certain, niche products, that’s not so bad — fewer keywords mean more chances of targeting the right audience. But for larger companies like Dell, which need to worry about countless keywords, the process can be far more taxing. But Powerset believes that its natural language processing could change the way ads are displayed and enhance the profitability for all parties involved.
I think Powerset is totally wrong.
If a particular company sells sneakers, they can bid for placement on search results pages pertaining to “sneakers,” “shoes,” “footwear,” “socks,” “feet,” and the company’s and its competitors’ names. But with natural language processing, as Powerset proposes, that company would need to bid on search concepts where people ostensibly ask for the best kinds of sneakers or where to find sneakers.
Powerset’s belief that this new type of ad-placement mechanism is game-changing may be true, but it’s wrong in believing that it would work better for advertisers. How could it?
Keywords may not be fool-proof and may tend to make things more difficult for advertisers, but we can’t forget that bidding on them works for one reason: it simplifies a process that is extremely hard to gauge. More often than not, people that search for sneakers will use some of the keywords listed above. And while they may use others, a company is almost guaranteed that anyone even remotely fond of shoes will see their ad.
But in Powerset’s scheme, companies need to rely upon the intention of those same people and how well it can guess how they interact with a search engine, regardless of the keywords used. In other words, they have to hope that a large portion of users will look for the same thing within the same basic parameters: “where to find sneakers at an affordable price.”
Trying to guess what people will say, as opposed to what people will include in their query, is extremely difficult. Why try to guess a whole sentence or a structured query when you can pick one word and hope people use it?
Natural language is too subjective. Sure, it might help return better results at times, but I think it will fail to make advertising any easier for the advertisers. Keywords simplify things and help companies increase the chances of their ads being placed on the right pages at the right time. But when they need to guess based on “natural language”, they’re forced to guess what each individual would say at any given time. In the process, things become too complicated and the chances of engaging the highest number of people in the right market is limited.
Let’s not forget that Powerset worked with Wikipedia and there is currently no indication that it will work with Web search, let alone search results advertising. This idea sounds too much like straw grasping from a company, in Microsoft, that’s desperately trying to pull one over on Google. And if it goes through with this idea, that certainly won’t happen.
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Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.
Which note taking applications do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.
Evernote
Evernote is one of the most talked about online note taking applications. One special feature here is the drag-and-drop desktop version that allows you to see your notes and clips offline. You can use the Evernote mobile application for your Windows Mobile phone or iphone to capture pictures and record audio to send to your Evernote account. You can also email notes to Evernote using a secret email address.
Google Notes
Google Notes has some nice features including collaboration among multiple users, a publishing feature, integration with Google Bookmarks, the ‘Unfiled bookmarks’ link on the left sidebar of the Google Notes Web interface that sorts and displays all the urls you have saved, quick clippings of Web pages with the ’star’ button, and the export to Google Docs feature.
UberNote
UberNote works in the same manner as Google Notes. However, one neat feature here is that you can add your tasks in any note that you are working on. Later, you can view the ‘Open Tasks’ link on the sidebar of the UberNote interface to open all notes with incomplete tasks. Similarly, you can integrate your bookmarks with any note and find it later with the ‘Bookmarks’ link. Other nice things to know about UberNote are that it runs on AJAX and has a history feature that will save all the revisions you make on your notes. You can clip notes with the UberNote online dashboard, with the browser extension, email your notes to a personal email address, or from an AOL IM application.
Springnote
Springnote is an OpenID enabled online note taking application that takes a different approach than the ones mentioned above. This one is not for writing short notes and clipping websites, but longer notes, and comes out just a bit different than an average online office suite. The Springnote note editor is feature rich and you can choose from a variety of templates, plugins , and insert video and audio to enhance your notes. You can collaborate, share your notes with friends, or post them on your blog.
WebAsyst Notes
WebAsyst Notes comes with features for including attachments to your notes. You can sort the notes into specific folders and share the folders with your contacts. WebAsyst also has features to add files, photos, contacts, mail, projects, an issue tracker, pages, and a shopping cart.
Luminotes
Luminotes,a personal wiki notebook, as the site describes itself, is an easy to use wiki that lets you create notes. You can attach files to your wiki, and share them with your friends. Features such as automatic saving and revision tracking are very useful. Once you have completed your wiki, you can download it as well. This is not one of the conventional online notebooks but a key reason why you might want to use this is because of one feature that allows you to hyperlink one word or sentence in a notebook to another.
Stikkit
Stikkit wants to be a smart application without being clever. What it does is pick up specific terms from your notes and arrange your notes as to-do lists, calendars, contacts (peeps), bookmarks and tags list. Now is that smart enough? You can also choose to share your Stikkit notes with your contacts and receive comments. For quick Web clippings, it provides a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari, and a right click menu option for Internet Explorer users.
Fruitnotes
Fruitnotes allows you to create notes by calling a specific phone number, though currently they have only listed a US and UK number. It also allows you to create your own profile and view others’, thus doubling up as a social networking platform. The note editor is feature rich and lets you upload images and videos. Once done, you can publish your note for everyone to see.
Notefish
Notefish is a simple online note taking application that allows you to drag and drop your notes, resize them, color them, tag them, and share with contacts. You can also move one note from a particular project to another easily. There is a Firefox addon that you can use to clip Web pages conveniently. Zoho Notebook
Zoho Notebook is the most sophisticated and most feature-laden online note application of the bunch. Zoho Notebook provides you a palette where you can type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. There are also various tools like the Line tool, Freehand tool, Select tool, Hand tool, and Shapes. There is a rich text editor with export, publish, and share features. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats and IP telephony, or use the Firefox plugin to add Web clips easily. If you are the advanced online notebook user type, then you will find Zoho Notebook providing the solutions to almost all your requirements. I said ‘almost,’ as I couldn’t find a mobile phone support for Zoho.
19 Aug 2008 22:14:23 | Kristen Nicole | Fashion,New York,News,Web 2.0,bebo,video,web,fashion,model.live,models,vogue.tv,webisode,women | Comments
A new series called Model.Live is debuting this week on Bebo (see here). As you may have guessed, the show is about models. Produced by IMG Media and Vogue.TV, this made-for-Web series follows three female models, Austria Alcantara, Cato van Ee and Madeline Kragh along their journeys from their homes to the catwalk.
The show will premier on Vogue.TV tonight, and will be redistributed on Bebo, where each model will also have a profile for updating their blogs, video diaries, text messages, photos, schedules, and more. This format is rather typical of what we’ve seen for webisodes, especially those that are syndicated on networks like Bebo and MySpace, as they leverage the multi-faceted capabilities for sharing and spreading content throughout a community in hopes of engaging viewers on a higher and more integral level. It’s worked for the most part, carrying on the legacy of EQAL from LG15’s success on YouTube into the Bebo-specific KateModern series.
Model.Live’s sponsor, Express, has found some sensible branding opportunities with this very targeted content, providing featured merchandise available for purchase on its retail website. It seems like a prime opportunity for the inclusion of interactive video ads such as those offered by Overlay.tv and others, especially as such Web-only series begin to provide improved traction for brand marketing, and potential content for mainstream media outlets.
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Experimenting with this tool, I feel like an ADD kid again. I’m tinkering with different keywords and phrase combinations like some digital Rubik’s cube, and going wild playing with the different geographic, time, and industry filters. On a whim (and strictly out of professional curiosity of course), I checked which U.S. state led the nation in googling the term “sex” during the last 30 days. Answer: South Dakota. For the term “Britney”: Louisiana. The term “Obama”: District of Columbia. The word “carpet”: Colorado. The phrase “air conditioning”: Arizona. The word “babysitter”: Ohio. I’ve barely started, and my head is already spinning with ideas on how this data can be used in business plans, Powerpoint presentations, sales pitches, brainstorming sessions, concept testing or for just plain fun. 
Joe Francis, the fellow you see every early morning on Comedy Central pitching DVDs with girls baring their breasts for the low price of $3.95 for first three days and $19 a month after that, has 
Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.
A new series called Model.Live is debuting this week on Bebo (see