EngrishFunny Is Newest Site In Lolcats Empire
August 19, 2008 on 2:41 pm |
The company behind the popular ICanHasCheezburger site has launched a new website, EngrishFunny, which makes fun of grammatically incorrect variations of English (often found in Asia). Users send in photos of poorly translated or written products, signs, instructions, etc. to the site.
This is the seventh website for parent company Pet Holdings, Inc., which bought the ICanHasCheezburger site in late 2007 for $2 million. Other sites include Ihasahotdog (dogs), Failblog (my personal favorite), Totallylookslike (celebrities), Punditkitchen (politics) and Graphjam.
I sat down with founder Ben Huh today to talk about the new site and how the company is doing in general. The family of sites is generating 3.3 million daily page views, and around 5 million unique monthly visitors. Total revenue per page is north of $0.80, he says. Watch the full interview below.
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The State of WordPress 2008: Awesome Growth
August 17, 2008 on 8:00 am |
Today at WordCamp, a User and Developer 1-day conference for the WordPress blogging platform, Founder Matt Mullenweg announced impressive growth figures and reaffirmed Automattic’s focus on fixing some of WordPress’s biggest weaknesses. The theme for the “State of the Word”, Mullenweg’s yearly keynote, was “Strong,” and growth from both WordPress.com and WordPress.org (their hosted and self-hosted platforms, respectively) sure show it. Here are the stats for WordPress.com over the last year:
- Page views grew from 1.5 billion to 6.5 billion/month
- 1/3 of the page views come from VIPs like CNN and LOLCats
- 120-160 million global unique visitors per month
- Two million new blogs created for the year
- 35 million new blog posts (up from 20 million)
This growth is also seems significant versus WordPress.com’s main competitor, Typepad. Comscore numbers put US numbers at 20.9M uniques for WordPress.com against 7.2M on Typepad.com, and internationally 97.8M vs. 16.8M. Here’s the Compete graph (which only measures US traffic):
And for WordPress.org (the self-hosted, open-source version), Mullenweg announced today that there are 2.6 million active user-installed WordPress blogs in the wild. This figure is based on real data (not sampling), similar to Mozilla accumulating browser stats. Downloads from WordPress.org went over 11 million since last summer (up from 2.8 million the year before), thanks to over 11 new WP releases.
The focus for 2009? Easier upgrades. Their growth, Mullenweg says, is not dissimilar from other popular products (he mentioned Microsoft, OSX, iPhone, Facebook platform as examples), and believes that good platforms need good self-updating systems. Automattic has a three-prong strategy for better updates: better community awareness, working with webhosts, and adding automatic upgrades functionality to WordPress. Mullenweg envisions the upgrade process to work just like Firefox: one-click, with a list of plugin and theme incompatibilities generated. WordPress.org’s plugin directory (and a recently-launched theme directory) will help make this possible. Many new features are also in the pipeline, including the much anticipated BuddyPress, but that a clean update system will remove one of the biggest thorns for WP users.
Also up for 2009 is better security. Their most recent release, 2.6.1, was an optional update (no security patches), which is a nice departure from their previous, critical ‘dot’ releases. WordPress has received a lot of flack for this recently: they were given a 2008 Pwnie for Mass 0wnage for numerous vulnerabilities that led to mass hacking.
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FCC Says BitTorrent Throttling Illegal, EFF Releases Tool for You To Test Your ISP For It
August 2, 2008 on 12:38 am |
The Federal Communications Commission ruled this morning by a 3 to 2 vote that Comcast's arbitrary throttling of customers' use of BitTorrent was illegal. Hours before the ruling, the Electronic Frontier Foundation released software that anyone can use to see if their Internet Service Provider (ISP) is engaging in the same or similar behavior.
BitTorrent accounts for a substantial percentage of traffic on the internet and some people believe it causes unfair slowdowns for web users doing anything else online. Many other people argue that ISPs have an obligation to treat all internet traffic equally regardless of content. This is a key battle in the Network Neutrality debate.
Enforcement Against Comcast
Comcast voluntarily stopped throttling in March, but today's FCC decision is important FCC Chair Kevin Martin says so that "consumers deserve to know that the commitment is backed up by legal enforcement." Martin, a Republican, is believed by some to be taking an out-of-charecter populist stance on the matter because he's preparing to run for a position in the US House of Representatives.
EFF Releases "Switzerland"
The Electronic Frontier Foundation today released software called "Switzerland" (as in, the neutral country) that can be used by consumers to test our networks for ISP interference.
The EFF explains:
"Switzerland is an open source, command-line software tool designed to detect the modification or injection of packets of data by ISPs. Switzerland detects changes made by software tools believed to be in use by ISPs such as Sandvine and AudibleMagic, advertising systems like FairEagle, and various censorship systems. Although currently intended for use by technically sophisticated Internet users, development plans aim to make the tool increasingly easy to use."
We'll keep our eyes peeled for a version of the tool that doesn't require using the command line, though every network in the land can now assume that it has users tech-savvy enough to be monitoring its behavior.
This quote from the EFF release puts things into context:
"The sad truth is that the FCC is ill-equipped to detect ISPs interfering with your Internet connection," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney. "It's up to concerned Internet users to investigate possible network neutrality violations, and EFF's Switzerland software is designed to help with that effort. Comcast isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its own benefit."
What Do You Think?
The FCC's ruling was narrowly decided, through a 3 to 2 vote. Do you think ISPs have a legitimate interest in favoring some web traffic over others? On one hand, a future where big players get preferential treatment could cause a major slowdown in innovation. Startups and unknown application providers could be prevented from leveraging maximum bandwidth to offer new types of services to consumers. The most common example given is that YouTube may have struggled to make online video so common if they were discriminated against in their earliest days.
On the other hand, people downloading long lists of huge media files over common networks could be seen as an onerous drain on the "bandwidth commons." Slowing down an entire neighborhood's web use because you want to get the entire archives of some TV show is arguably pretty anti-social behavior.
Discussion above hasn't touched on legal matters, but for many people that's a big part of this debate as well. The US Congress, for example, voted this morning to require US colleges receiving federal funding to make commercial music purchasing services available to students online and filter traffic to deter P2P music sharing. The music industry says thank you! Some scientists using P2P on college campuses to transfer large files used in academic research, on the other hand, probably don't appreciate it as much. (That's probably not going on over the same networks, but the point is that there are very legitimate and important uses for P2P as well.)
We'd love to get our readers' thoughts on these questions - and for those of you able to put Switzerland to use, let us know if your ISP appears to be doing the same kinds of shady things that Comcast was slapped for today. These are going to be very big issues for the near-term future of the web.
Photo: Im in ur Internets by Jason Walton
Apple Confirms: No Online iPhone 3G Sales, In-Store Activation Only
July 2, 2008 on 10:13 pm |
Reader Steve has been chatting with Apple.com CSRs today - he’s already talked to two - and they’ve both confirmed my worst fears: you will not be able to order the IP3G online and it will only be available in stores and it will be activated in-store, provided you wish to purchase it at contract prices (i.e. $199).
What does this mean? It means getting an unlocked iPhone will be incrementally harder and considerably more expensive. Even if you pay for the phone and cancel your contract for a $175 fee, the phone will cost around $500, all told. While this is good news for Apple and AT&T - the unlocking imperative just got quite expensive - it’s bad news for folks who haven’t yet gotten iPhones in their respective countries and/or T-Mobile fans who don’t want to switch to AT&T.
The transcript follows, CSR replies in bold.
Hi, my name is Chris. Welcome to Apple!
Good morning.
Welcome back!
Good morning. I have a question about the iPhone
and the Activation process
Sure.
Will activation be the same as the previous version? Simply by using iTunes?
As previous agents had mentioned, activation will be done in store.
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The Top 40 Online Video Producers in May - This List Might Surprise You
June 25, 2008 on 10:51 pm |
We're watching the media landscape change in real time and one of the most interesting ways that's happening right now is through new online video producers breaking the monopoly of the old TV giants. Who's taking the lead in the new video landscape? Though old media is making a strong play - it's not winning so far. New, independent online video producers are the top publishers today.
A company called TubeMogul is keeping track of the viewership on 15 different websites from YouTube to Crackle. Today they've launched the TubeMogul Top 40, a monthly leaderboard for viewership across a wide variety of video services around the web. Below is a look at who those leaders are.
TubeMogul provides easy video publishing to multiple sites at once, then tracks the views that its users achieve. The company says it's got nearly 30,000 users today, including some of the biggest media brands in the world. Some of those giant brands are even holding their own online.
The list includes 40 different sources of video, but here's a look at the top 15. How many of these have you heard of?
- Next New Networks
- Chris Pirillo
- Howcast
- For Your Imagination
- Tornante
- WatchMojo.com
- iJustine
- Nalts
- MyDamnChannel
- Ford Models
- CBS Interactive
- HBO
- Rocketboom
- FUNimation Productions
- National Lampoon
A venture funded mini-empire of online video shows on a wide variety of topics, from sports to politics to a rip-off of the lolcat phenomenon as a video show. Run by former edge-TV execs. Some good stuff, and hey - they're winning!
A one man empire run by uber-(media)-geek Chris Pirillo. Pirillo notes in a blog post about the TubeMogul 40 that these numbers don't include his successful live tech-help show, either.
How-to videos, similar to the many other offerings in this space but with a little more allusion to sex. And more viewers.
Professional video producers, making content for brands to ride along with.
Michael Eisner's company, the holders of Vuguru.
More professional video producers, making content for brands to ride along with or otherwise make use of. Apparently it's working, given the presence of these kinds of companies.
Justine Ezarik, the woman who stole Justin.tv's lunch in terms of publicity. She's now interviewing top tech executives, covering movie launches for General Motors' I Got Shotgun social media campaign and generally having fun.
According to his bio: "Kevin Nalts is one of the most-viewed YouTube comedians with more than 650 short online videos seen more than 25 million times. By day he's a Marketing Director at a Fortune 100 company, and he speaks, writes and consults in the area of online marketing and viral video."
Hollywood veterans doing comedy, including the You Suck at Photoshop series. It's working for them.
Ad sponsored eye candy, content about beauty products, nothing new here - just supermodels blathering on the internet.
The rolled up web properties of CBS.
This daily short form, comedic documentary show just keeps on drawing crowds. It's getting more social media play than PBS (#20).
Anime! Why am I not surprised? I had no idea though.
Next generation, low-brow humor that's not as funny or smart as The Onion but is from a very established brand.
Notes
That's just the top 15 of TubeMogul's Top 40 and it's notable that these numbers don't count viewership through services like Blip.tv and Castfire, both big services. TubeMogul is a very successful service so far though and their claim of 30,000 users is remarkable.
Our take away from this list is that old media is still generally dominant but that video producers born and bred on the media fringe are holding their own very respectfully. And that Chris Pirillo is a maniac.
Bored With Web 2.0? Demand Change
June 24, 2008 on 9:36 pm |
In April, Umair Haque posted a manifesto on his blog on the Harvard Business Publishing web site where he called for today's investors and start-ups to start building applications to "change the world" instead of just making apps that make money. He challenged Silicon Valley to find a problem to fix that will change the world for the better and then pledged that he would help by providing free consulting. Recently, he revisited this topic which he was due to speak on at this year's Supernova conference.
The Manifesto
In this latest post, a summary of the speech Haque had planned for the conference, he claimed that 21st century capitalism needs a revolution. As businesses focus solely on profits, large part's of the world's population still fight extreme poverty. And our wealth, he says, isn't even sustainable:
We're richer, but that wealth doesn't reflect durable, authentic economic value - which is hitting fast diminishing returns. The growth that we're pursuing is neither sustainable - nor is it, in many ways, real growth at all.
This manifesto for change comes at an important time, when a recent, but growing trend of Web 2.0 ennui is beginning to strike the citizens of the social media landscape. Even VC Fred Wilson was recently caught wondering if he was "bored with Web 2.0," saying:
But I am a bit jealous of friends who are working on finding and funding alternative energy or biomedical technologies that have the potential to address the serious problems facing the world. At times it seems that helping the web become more social, intelligent, mobile, and playful is not as impactful.
Looking For Meaning
Our recent obsessions of late with all the latest new shiny objects, while fun, often leave us with an emptiness that comes from participating in what's ultimately inconsequential behavior in a world that's filled with turmoil. Thanks to the non-stop information flow coming in from all areas of the web, we're acutely aware of the suffering that's going on in countries with political turmoil, of how the latest natural disaster has torn apart people's lives, and even what challenges the disadvantaged populations from within our own borders face.
While a healthy dose of social media is fun and sometimes informative, it rarely taps into our desire to feel as if what we're doing has meaning or purpose. Being "social" online tends to be a casual activity where you make friends or share news, and not one where you're fighting to solve the world's problems. (Although we did discover a few ways to use social media for social good not too long ago, they're often few and far between). Web 2.0 is is like Internet candy (well, maybe not as sweet as lolcats and YouTube), but it's definitely not, for the most part, a satisfying meal.
Maybe that's as it should be - there's nothing wrong with having fun - but perhaps it's time for a shift. The social tools we know and love won't go away, but do we need more and more of the same? In the end, Web 2.0 is supposedly not making any money anyway, so why not use our knowledge to build tools to better the world instead?
Ideas Exist, But Where's the Money?
The ideas are already out there. Take for example, this post by Paul Lamb on MediaShift Idea Lab. He envisions a mobile app that could empower poor communities through the power of technology.
The fictional app called LOCOBEAT makes social media and collaboration a real tool for change for empowerment. The app, designed for use by the overlooked, low income segments of the U.S. population would map the neighborhood to provide users with safe routes to work and school; send alerts which post to the map when new job openings are available; the social network of the apps' users would keep them connected so as to communicate to each other about possible job postings, like a mobile LinkedIn; the app's music sharing service would let users rate music, and that is used by the community to promote local artists; text messages from the grocer would be sent to alert users when items go on sale; etc.
Alexander Vanelas also reminded us about Muhammed Yunus's idea for Microcredits, small loans to help poor gain employment.
Those are just a couple of ideas, and LOCOBEAT only lacks the people willing to fund and develop it. But where are the rest?
Time To Change?
In a post on SeedWatcher, Marc Hustvedt responds to Haque's article and ponders "how can we use Twitter to fight global hunger?" However, the real question may be "can we use Twitter to fight global hunger?" Will the tools of change really be the Twitters and Facebooks of today, or will we need to embrace a whole new paradigm designed just for the purpose of change? Isn't about time we put our money where our mouth is and find out?
Image Credits: Boredom: ArSiSa7; Shift: emilyd10; Money: TWCollins
Today in Joystiq: June 5, 2008
June 6, 2008 on 7:59 am |Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii
Joystiquery
Joystiq Poll: Worst of the XBLA chopping block
Let's talk about those Hummingbird ads ...
Meet the Team: Alexander Sliwinski
Metareview -- Lego Indiana Jones
PSN Thursday: Novastrike, Civ Rev demo, Commando 3, much more
Readers pick best webcomic: The Unhorse
Tomonobu Itagaki: A Blood Splattered History
X3F Week in Review -- May 30, 2008 - June 5, 2008
News
Ninjabee bringing 'city-building' Kingdom for Keflings to XBLA
GameTap Thursday: Cradle of Rome's Astro Fury
It's too hard to find stuff on XBLA, says Microsoft
God of War track hits PS3 Guitar Hero III today
Crysis Warhead dropping exclusively on PC this Fall
Ubisoft to develop games for iPhone, iPod Touch
Florida requests 10 years disbarment for Jack Thompson
EA discontinues work on Red Alert 3 for PS3
Gamestop's Metal Gear Solid 4 midnight launches revealed
Sony bundling Warhawk expansions as single DLC
Five new Guitar Hero III track packs in June, Motörhead up first
Nielsen: Wii usage is second to Xbox 360
SOE reactivates dead Everquest accounts with Living Legacy initiative
Activision, System 3 take the Ferrari Challenge
Survey reveals Rock Band 2 concept box art
The Sims 2 Apartment games coming to PC, DS in August
Grand Theft Auto IV DLC delayed until Fiscal Q1 2009
BioShock ships over 2.2 million
Reminder: COD4 map pack now available free for PC
GTA IV ships over 11 million copies
You can actually watch Duke Nukem Forever on Jace Hall Show
Take-Two quarterly revenues up 163% on GTA IV sales
Itagaki's departure causes Tecmo stock plummet
BioShock movie may be out in time for BioShock 3
The top-selling games in the US over the last 15 years
Take-Two: 'Portfolio balancing' drove GTA IV DLC delay, partnerships possible
Disney's games and internet divisions merging
Third Star Wars character joins Soul Calibur IV cast
Sci-Fi Channel creating an MMO/TV show hybrid
Rumors & Speculation
Culture & Community
MGS4 PS3 bundle on Amazon.com tomorrowPermalink | Email this | Comments
Too Many Choices, Too Much Content
May 14, 2008 on 8:00 pm |
Sometimes it's just hard to keep up. In this technology-focused niche we all live in there are new applications, new initiatives, and new platforms that spring up every day, not to mention constantly breaking news that fills our RSS readers. Take a day off and you're behind. Take an hour off and you just missed 300 more blog posts. In addition to the everyday struggles of information overload the average computer user deals with - like the overflowing inbox, for example - those in the internet/new media/technology space aren't just overwhelmed with new content, but also with new applications and choices to manage that content. What's a web-app loving person to do?
Drowning in Awesomeness
The double-edged sword that comes with keeping abreast of all the latest developments in technology means that we're always aware of the latest and greatest applications and services to try...but it also means that we've tried all of them. Unlike the average user, who doesn't even bother creating a Facebook profile until several of their friends cajole them into doing so, technology early adopters are the first to sign up and create profiles on every service that launches.
Sometimes these services have value; if so, they trickle down to the rest of the world over time. For example, social networks like MySpace and Facebook changed the way people interacted online. Flickr made photo sharing fun, easy, and social. YouTube let everyone be a star. However, sometimes they're not so great after all, and they end up fading away into nothingness in that area we've affectionately dubbed the "deadpool."
These failures don't seem to dampen our enthusiasm for trying the "next big thing," though. Every day, the web is filled with posts about this new app or that great service. When you think about it, it's really rather impressive that there are that many of them out there - enough to be written about in a seemingly nonstop fashion.
For technology enthusiasts, it's not enough to just "try" the new apps and services though. If they're the next big thing (or so everyone says), we're supposed to jump on board and use them, use them, use them. Scoble even recently threatened to expose some of the so-called "A-Listers" for not being active enough, saying:
"I thought about embarrassing most of the A listers on FriendFeed, because very few of them actually read that many blogs (I can tell, they rarely comment on, or link to, or FriendFeed with other people’s blogs)"
Right....because if they're not on FriendFeed, they're phonies, huh?
So, no. Commentary is not enough. We're supposed to live, breathe, eat, sleep, and dream this stuff. The problem is, while we're busy experimenting with this new thing and that new thing, we might miss out on actually enjoying the services that are already there for us, working just fine, thank you very much.
Too Many Choices
However, there are certain areas we've noticed that seem to be the biggest sources of conflict as of late. In these areas, several companies are clamoring to be the winner of the space, releasing duplicate or similar products, constantly adding new features, and generally trying to one-up their competitors in an effort to come out on top. When there are several companies doing the same thing, it gets confusing for the average user and time-consuming for the early adopters who play with everything. In the end, the hope is that one great service would come out on top, but that's hardly ever the case. We're already on MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, and LinkedIn because there's no one winner for social networks...are we going to have to use all these newcomers battling it out, too?
The Battle to Be Open
We never thought we would see the day that the big companies were actually fighting to see who can be the most open of the bunch, but that seems to be exactly what's taking place now in the battle of the social graph APIs. You've got Google's Friend Connect service vs. Facebook's Connect service vs. MySpace's Data Availability, each announced within days of each other. Instead of making it easy for users to understand what it means to be maximizing a social graph, the companies have just flooded the feeds with their separate announcements. As Marshall reported on Monday, the reason, at least according to Google is that "the beauty of open standards is that companies don't have to talk. They can just meet up around interoperable technologies." We would like to think that this battle for openness will lead to easier-to-use social networks as our friend graphs will get to follow us around, but something about the timing of these separate announcements smells like a battle brewing.
The Battle of the Lifestreams
There's MyBlogLog's lifestream, FriendFeed, Lifestream.fm and even Facebook's attempt at lifestreaming, which involves integrating a handful of services into users' Mini-Feeds and News Feeds. Too much? You betcha. Although FriendFeed is getting buzz, even it doesn't offer a way to really filter the info it displays. Sure, the "filter by service" Greasemonkey script can help narrow down content and the Friends & Groups script can help sort your friends into groups of your own choosing, but we shouldn't have to rely on a Firefox add-on to make our apps work for us. And while FriendFeed may be one service (besides Twitter, of course) that internet addicts can't live without, it still has a way to go to cross over to the mainstream user, especially if Facebook starts offering similar integration.
The Battle to Tweet on AIR
It seemed that every time our favorite Twitter AIR app Twhirl was updated, Alert Thingy followed suit and vice versa. Both struggled to integrate FriendFeed into their stream while still providing the best Twitter-on-the-desktop experience, and neither really accomplished that. Alert Thingy integrated FriendFeed updates into its stream in one window while Twhirl went with a second window just for FriendFeed. Neither was a perfect solution. Alert Thingy lacks the Twitter-specific features of Twhirl and Twhirl's two windows isn't ideal for users concerned with desktop real estate, like laptop users. What's worse is that in addition to Twhirl/Alert Thingy battle, we also had to contend with other also-rans which included both Twitter, FriendFeed, and combo apps like Snitter, Spaz, Feedalizr, bTT, and MySocial's browser sidebar and AIR app.
The Battle to Filter Your RSS
It's not just RSSmeme vs. ReadBurner - although that's an obvious pairing. Both of those sites feature top shared items from Google Reader. RSSmeme recently launched an API, which means it now offers filtering, albeit the geeky sort involving the creation of custom URLs. ReadBurner, not to be outdone, announced NetVibes support shortly thereafter. However, Google saw that other services were springing up around their RSS reader, so in an effort to keep people in "Googleland" they added friends to your reader to allow for a more personalized filtering experience. Those friends can also now share items with notes, so you don't even need to go elsewhere to comment on the items in the feeds.
Unfortunately, the downside to the friends feature means that in addition to those feeds that you now subscribe to, you're also reading suggestions from friends. Not that they're not great and everything, but is it really so hard for Google Reader to go ahead and mark it as read in your feed list if your friend's shared item is from a blog whose feed you already subscribe to? Apparently it is. Which means if it's really good news, we'll read it twice. Or even three times if someone else shares it later on. There might be a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to filtering Google Reader via AideRSS, but ranking by popularity is really only one way to find the best content. There's something to be said for the hidden gems that get overlooked, too.
But the battle of RSS filtering doesn't end with Google Reader either. Perhaps not as apparent, but both Twitter and FriendFeed are slowly becoming people's preferred method of getting news. Why read through hundreds of unread, unranked items just to stay on top of the news? If it's any good, you'll hear it on Twitter or see it shared on FriendFeed. Some users are even positioning themselves as "human information filters," on these services, something our newest ReadWriteWeb contributor, Corvida, discussed not to long ago on her personal site. These highly active users (yes Scoble and Louis come to mind) are good friends to have on the service since they'll constantly be posting and filtering the best stuff for you.
Then there are the other memetrackers that exist to highlight the top stories of the day, too: Techmeme is at the top of the list, of course, but there are also newcomers/up-and-commers like LinkRiver, Techsted, SocialMedian, and community builder BlogRize. I'm just scratching the surface here and that's already ten different ways to filter the news.
The Battle of the Mobile Social Networks
This one will really surprise those not following the mobile networking space closely. When researching mobile network up-and-comer Brightkite, I stumbled upon a slew of mobile networks already competing in the space.
There's MocoSpace, Friendstribe, Hobnobster, Dodgeball, Zyb, mig33, Mobiluck, MeetMoi, JuiceCaster, Loopnote, Rabble, Wadja, Treemo, groovr, flagr, Lime Juice, Loopt, and Next2Friends, to name just a few. There are, in fact, many, many more. Some focus on texting, some on sharing images, others on geo-tagging, and others on traditional social networking. They're all acting like the mobile web is the wild west and if they can just get there first they might have a shot at winning.
However, who wants to bet that the mobile networks everyone ends up using are the ones who aren't pretending that the mobile web is some different web altogether? Even more likely winners are the mobile versions of MySpace and Facebook, where all your friends already exist.
The Battle of the Social News Sites
Of course there's Digg. But Digg is opening up the space for competition once again now that they're focused on going mainstream and featuring less technology news. Mixx seems to be doing well as a small, friendly tech social news site, but they're not the only one looking to catch the Digg overflow. There's also Yahoo Buzz, Propeller, Reddit, Digg-for-girls Kirtsy (formerly Sk*rt), Sphinn, roll-your-own Digg tool Pligg, please-don't-link to us Hacker News, and "if-we-ran-Digg" clone Sift'd. While all these sites are great for getting a post noticed by a wider audience, they're also multiplying the numbers of places you can read the exact same story you read hours ago in Google Reader, saw tweeted on Twitter, shared in FriendFeed, promoted on Techmeme, etc.
What Can We Do?
It's hard to say. Early adopters are not going to stop playing with every new service, but it's clear that we're getting to a point where tools that centralize, aggregate, but most importantly filter our content are going to be the ones that win out. There are only so many hours in the day, and, as it stands right now, every single one of them could be filled just consuming and interacting with content, social media, and web services. There's also this little thing called "going outside" that we would like to take part in, too. Hopefully we'll see the killer web app to filter the noise someday soon to help us do so, but it's definitely not here yet.
WeeWorld: South Park Style Avatars Designed By Girls And Big Business
April 19, 2008 on 11:50 am |
UK startup WeeWorld is offering a avatar focused social networking service that is doing some great numbers.
WeeWorld is pitched as the “world’s first multiplatform visual identity” and offers a personalized Web experience that can be used across IM, blogs and social networking sites. WeeWorld users design a WeeMee, a customizable avatar that gets its own space, and embeding is fully built in for users. The site offers a social network platform in its own right, described as “a community offering of entertainment and exploration to enrich their online and mobile experience.”
Where WeeWorld gets more interesting is the link ins with big business. This from their email pitch to us:
On WeeWorld, users actually ask us for brands to help them express themselves. And the more we give them, the more they ask for … I think it works because it’s content, not ads. Plus it’s visual, fun, and helps our users express their mood and personality.
Brand advertisers and agencies are starting to get it and to get what WeeWorld is about. We’re in the midst of a big P&G PROM promotion for example. Girls are snapping up everything from make-up and hairstyles to beauty tips, while embracing brands like Herbal Essences, Crest Whitestrips, CoverGirl and more. They are even participating in brand-sponsored, surveys, contests and forums. Check it out at: weeworld.com/prom/.
comScore reports that the site did 100 million page views in March 2008 on 1 million uniques, and WeeWorld reports more than 21 million sign ups. The company took $15.5 million in their second round from Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital in 2006.
comScore notes the majority of users are female, and although many might presume that it’s a service targeted at kids, comScore notes broad usage among many age groups. Some screenshots of my avatar in action as follows.
Wow, I’m going to the prom!
Barack Obama, a LOLCat, myself and a Yeti in my apartment
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
BBtv — Terrorist training video from Soviet Unterzögersdorf
March 31, 2008 on 2:48 pm |Boing Boing tv received a classified video message from the People’s Republic of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf -- a message encoded in an almost-obsolete communist LOLcat cypher.
BBtv's terror analysts have decoded this video for you, dear viewer, and we present it in entirety today. Our encryption advisors from monochrom believe the two men in the movie might be His Excellency the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf — Nikita Chrusov — and secretary Nicolai Jossif Malkin.
WARNING: the last few seconds of this terrorist missive contain not-yet-decrypted data that some viewers may find disturbing. Tighten your tinfoil beanies, and lock down your wigs.
Link to Boing Boing tv blog post, with discussion and downloadable video.
Previously on BBtv:
Nikita Chrusov of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf crashes Disney party at ETech
PSN accounts possibly compromised, ’small percentage’ affected
March 27, 2008 on 1:00 am |Filed under: Hacks, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Online
While Sony claims that "system security is restored" and all potential victims are being directly contacted, the alert does "strongly suggest" that you sign into the PSN service and verify that you still have access to your account ... You still do, don't you? Muwhahaha!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Boing Boing tv - Filk, folk music for science fiction fans.
March 26, 2008 on 1:46 pm |Science fiction and folk had a baby, and its name is filk. This little-known DIY music subculture involves songs composed and performed by sci-fi and fantasy fans, and revolves around fandom themes. Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits the Consonance Filk Convention in the Bay Area, and learns that it is possible to combine vampires, computer virii, LOLcats, Tolkien slashfic, Battlestar Galactica, string theory, and World of Warcraft characters in a single Klingon lyric sung to the tune of "Kum Ba Ya."
Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion and downloadable video.
God 2.0 Online This Easter
March 21, 2008 on 3:00 pm |Its Good Friday and while millions will be enjoying the day off, others will be attending church and praying for salvation. According to a Pew survey in 2004, 64% of American Internet users perform spiritual and religious activities online, so here’s a few sites appropriate for the day.
We covered GodTube in April 2007 and the site is still spreading the word. GodTube is a YouTube like Flash video sharing site focusing on using “technology to connect Christians for the purpose of encouraging and advancing the Gospel worldwide.”
According to ChurchMarketingSucks.com, “If you’ve ever complained about the smut and garbage that can happen on community-driven sites like MySpace, then People2Pray is the answer to what good is all this online community.”
Billed as a 37signals for Jesus followers, CrossConnector helps users plan and manage mission trips and church activities.
Faith2 is a Popurls/ Alltop style site for “the Christian Web 2.0.”
Search the bible through a search box or navigate via tag cloud, eBible is “your personal online Bible that is easy to search and fun to use.” See our May 2006 review here.
For those looking for something lighter, the lolcat Bible offers a different interpretation of the Easter Story. Matthew 27, 1:5.
1 So liek iz teh mornins and all teh ppl sez tehy duznt liek Jesus and wantz to kills him;2 So tehy ties him upp and maed him goes to Pilate.
3 Judas feels teh stoopid and bringes teh moniez back,4 becuz he iz liek, “I iz stoopid, made invisibul err0r. Jesus iz innucent, k?”
And teh big catz sez “whtevr.”
5 So Judas sez “Do not want!” and he trows teh moniez and then killz hisself wiht sum yarn.
If God isn’t your thing, check out YouTube Awards finalist AngryLittleGirl on YouTube; her nominated video on religion here.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Video: Jon Kabat-Zinn on mindfulness and “falling awake”
March 17, 2008 on 9:58 pm |YouTube - Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at U Mass, and he’s highly regarded for his role in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine. He’s also an illuminating writer and speaker on the ways that mindfulness meditation can improve health and reduce stress.
I really enjoyed this hour-plus talk Kabat-Zinn delivered at Google last year. It’s a terrific introduction to meditation that includes a long portion where you can “meditate along,” learning how to follow your breath and become more aware of being in the moment. (I doubt I’m the only one who’ll benefit from that bit of help today).
I admire that K-Z’s work is so free of mysticism and faux-spirituality; there’s no incense or flutes needed to just be here in the moment — you only need your willingness to give the monkey mind a break for a few minutes and remember you’re here. As he says, this does get easier over time:
And the meditation practice winds up doing you much more than you are doing the meditation practice. And the world and everybody and every thing becomes your teacher. And not in any grandiose new age bullshit kind of way — just obvious. Basic.
Kabat-Zinn also has his share of fun taking the mickey out of over-wired tech people who are obsessed with to-do lists — don’t miss his bit on mindfulness and meetings around 47:40.
No, there’s no LOLcats and no one falls on their ass, and — yes — a huge piece of this video will feature an oblique view of a 63-year-old man’s face as he speaks quietly with his eyes shut. But, who knows? Maybe that’s just the thing you need today. If you’re looking for a refreshingly nonsense-free introduction to mindfulness and meditation, I think you’ll find this one’s very much worth your time.
Laugh at Agetec’s new DS game, ‘LOL’
March 15, 2008 on 4:00 am |Filed under: Nintendo DS, Casual
"As long as you are a fun-loving person with a little bit of an imagination, there should be no reason you find LOL to be anything less than a great time with your friends," says Agetec producer, Hiro Fukuoka. Indeed, you'll have to imagine most of the gameplay come this May, as LOL consists entirely of players writing and sending "challenges" to each other in the form of on-screen messages. The answers to the challenge (remember, the "crazier the challenge, the more fun everyone will have") are then shared between participants who then choose a winner amongst themselves. If they can find one.
So confident is Agetec in the power of imagination that it hasn't even bothered to include a single-player mode. "We decided not to include a single player mode in the game because that would defeat the purpose," says Mark Johnson, seemingly unaware of the purpose's execution-style offing at the hands of Pictochat years ago. "LOL concentrates on the comedic joy of using the imagination of everyone in the room." You'll probably have to lock the door though, LOL!
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Papercraft ceiling-cat
March 14, 2008 on 12:06 am |
Love LOLCats and papercraft? Now you can have them both in the same file, with this papercraft ceiling-cat cut-and-stick model! Link (Thanks, Dan!)
ComplaintRemover promises to rid the Intertubes of LOLCats
March 7, 2008 on 1:06 am | The good folks at Consumerist pranked the "ComplaintRemover" service, a company that promises to game search-engines and use legal harassment to make negative remarks disappear from the net. They got a CSR on a chat line and posed as a cat-breeding site and asked for help eliminating the scourge of LOLCats -- ComplaintRemover blithely promised to get the job done.CLIENT: How does that work? How are you able to get another company to get rid of something that's part of their business?Link
Kelly: we push the negative links back in serch engines
Kelly: so nobody will see that ones
CLIENT: So you like make new internets and push the bad internets down
Kelly: yes
CLIENT: My keywords are lolcats
CLIENT: I have a cat breeding business and people keep making pictures of cats with derogatory phrases on them
CLIENT: It's hampering my ability to attract new clients
The Joystiq Weekend: March 1 - 2, 2008
March 3, 2008 on 7:59 am |Filed under: Nintendo Wii
Joystiquery
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is back for the long haul
News
God of War III confirmed on Chains of Olympus manual
FFCC: My Life as a King to be WiiWare launch title, price revealed
Return to Dark Castle demo returns
Gamecock's WWII stealth shooter 'Sabotage' becomes 'Velvet Assassin'
Lego Batman's villain-packed trailer looks promising
Family of slain suspected PS3 thief to receive $2.45 million settlement
Team Fortress 2 PC update balances classes, introduces tournament mode
Jack Thompson offers to help EA with Take-Two takeover
Epic's Mark Rein and CliffyB explain PC gaming 'disarray'
Kojima: MGS4 too big for 50 GB Blu-ray disc
Culture & Community
Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 get celebrity love on Conan O' Brien
April issue of EGM reveals Bungie's next project: Lego Halo
How to ruin Christmas using only a 360 box and some clothesPermalink | Email this | Comments
Today in Joystiq: February 28, 2008
February 29, 2008 on 7:59 am |
Joystiquery
Joyswag: Win our GDC swag
Law of the Game on Joystiq: The 'Zombie Suit'
Metareview: God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
Off the Grid: Le Festival des Jeux
Today's most Microsoft Surface-y video: Firefly demo
X3F Week in Review: February 22, 2008 - February 28, 2008
News
Danish Lego Racer lost in translation
GameTap Thursday: I of the Dragon watches a Shadowgrounds Survivor while sipping Surakarta
Capcom: it's 'Shadaloo,' folks
Disgaea 3 to power level for PS3 this August
SingStar SingStore gets 67 songs with March 7 update
No Doubt now available on Guitar Hero III
Brawl effect: Wii outsells PS3 4-to-1 in Japan
Admitted murderer's lawyer brings up video games in defense
GDC08: Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer demo'd
Europe gets GT5 and Blu-Ray PS3 bundles, same €399 price
PSN Thursday: Sadists rejoice with new PAIN character
Iron Lore studios officially shuts down
'No plans' for Resident Evil Zero on Wii in Europe or US
DS LCD screen makers investigated for price fixing
Wii FreeLoader now available, mod-less region-free gaming
No demo for Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4 coming June 12, confirms Konami
Rumors & Speculation
Wanna take on World of Warcraft? Got a billion dollars?
Culture & Community
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Women’s Online Video Preferences Are Tamer Than Men’s
February 15, 2008 on 1:36 pm |
New figures from Nielsen’s new VideoCensus product reveal that women prefer mainstream media video content online, where as men prefer user generated content.
According to Ars Technica, the figures show women aged 18 to 34 were twice as likely as men of the same age group to watch network TV shows streamed from sites such as CBS.com or Hulu, where as men aged 18 to 34 were over twice as likely to check out user-generated video sites as women (YouTube and others.) The figures relate only to streamed content, and therefore excludes iTunes and downloaded content from P2P services such as BitTorrent.
Even if we discount the figures fully (Ars suggests men are more comfortable with BitTorrent therefore MSM content is not counted correctly) its a strange anomaly. Why would women prefer professional content and men preferred user content? and is it possible to obtain an answer without being completely sexist in a conclusion?
No doubt Nielsen and competing services will test the theory in the coming months. If it’s proven to be true, it may well affect the focus of sites in both spaces, and will most definitely affect the types of advertisers these sites attract.
(image credit: icanhascheezburger)
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
DICE 08: Riccitiello warns against consolidation, says EA ‘blew it’
February 9, 2008 on 3:30 am |Filed under: Business
Riccitiello highlighted "creative failure" as the most telling outcome of consolidation (Hello Activision!) and urged the industry to follow examples set by studios like Rockstar, Valve and Blizzard, who have succeeded by remaining autonomous within the corporate umbrella (Riccitiello used the analogy of "city-states"). Overall, Riccitiello's was a promising message of awareness and change from EA -- at the least, reassurance that BioWare will never be relegated to Madden duty under his watch.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Law of the Game on Joystiq: Call the cops, he stole my Cloudsong!
February 7, 2008 on 12:00 am |Filed under: Features
Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq, a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:
The baseline question that needs to be answered is: What is theft? According to Black's Law Dictionary (7th Ed.), theft is "the felonious taking and removing of another's personal property with the intent of depriving the true owner of it; larceny." Simple enough, but going back into the common law, many jurisdictions traditionally limited larceny (the root of theft) to tangible personal property. It's only more modern interpretations, especially in the US, that include intangible property in the grander concept of "theft." However, even assuming you can include intangibles in "theft," there are much bigger problems with trying to apply this concept to in-game theft.
Continue reading Law of the Game on Joystiq: Call the cops, he stole my Cloudsong!
Permalink | Email this | CommentsToday in Joystiq: January 24, 2008
January 25, 2008 on 7:59 am |Filed under: Culture
Joystiquery
Joystiq hands-on: Rez HD
Metareview - No More Heroes (Wii)
Metareview - Burnout Paradise (PS3, Xbox 360)
Today's most fruit-tastic video: Penny Arcade Adventures 'fruit lover' footage
X3F Week in Review: January 18, 2007 - January 24, 2007
News
GameTap Thursday: Starscaping the galaxy one ship at a time
See first gameplay footage from Twisted Metal: Head On ETE
Grand Theft Auto IV dated for April 29
Guitar Hero III 'Classic Rock' pack now live
Best Buy closing out 80GB PS3
EA to Fox News: 'correct the record' on Mass Effect
Rockstar finally pins GTA IV delay on PS3, er, it was a 'contributing factor'
Subpoenas place other UE3 licensees in midst of Epic, Silicon Knights lawsuit
Juiced (the franchise) dead; Juice Games (the studio) not dead
SCEE chief: PS3 to overtake Xbox in Europe by summer
Gizmondo refuses to stay dead
Far Cry 2 teaser debuts Dunia Engine
Rock Band standalone instruments dated, priced
Classic MTV programming coming to UMD
PSN Thursday: PixelJunk Monsters with a touch of Devil May Cry 4
Wii, Smash Bros. demo kiosks to hit Japan
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky coming to Steam day and date
The Xbox turns a profit!
Rumors & Speculation
First screen of possible Team ICO project: the chain
Mercenaries 2 possibly delayed until August
Culture & Community
Super Mario 2 is better with drummingPermalink | Email this | Comments
If TechCrunch Was Written By Cats
January 18, 2008 on 8:23 am |
TechCrunch isn’t written by cats?
Thanks to a tip from Ryan Kuder let me introduce LOLinator, a site that combines the still hot LOLcats phenomenon with any site of your choosing. The service comes from Malevolent Design and turns any site into one designed by cats. You can visit TechCrunch designed by cats here if you want the full version, or a screen shot below.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Street Fighter Online … with mouse controls
January 17, 2008 on 6:00 am |Filed under: PC, Fighting, Online
What also makes the game unique and bizarre (aside from the random cat in the above picture - perhaps it's omnipotent) is the ability to interchange body parts on your character. The game is reportedly about fighting Revoltech toys, which is a line of actual toys planned to be sold alongside the game. As IGN predicts, you could have the head and torso of Chun-Li, the arms of Zangief and the legs of Ryu (the gender identity issues are plentiful).
The game is expected to go into beta February or March, with full service coming in April. No word on a version for non-Japanese gamers.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
The ABCs of LOLcats.
December 26, 2007 on 12:57 pm |
Ape Lad haz dun it agin. Link to printable set with instructions. The hobos shall inherit the earth, you know. (thanks Foundling45 and others)
See also: BBtv -- Laugh Out Loud Cats, the true history.
GameStop opens inaugural tournament center
December 12, 2007 on 3:30 am |Filed under: Culture, Competitive Gaming, Business
Xkcd-inspired personal ad
December 9, 2007 on 3:19 pm | A lonely fan of super-geeky webcomic xkcd in College Station, TX, has posted a Craigslist personal ad seeking true love in the guise of someone who matches the strong, nerdy, impulsive stick-figure women that populate the strip.How sweet! Good luck, College Station! Link (Thanks, Zach!)But I'm just a male stick figure. I have no squiggly hair.
Surely there exists someone out there who is wandering through this world with the same hopes and uncertainties as me. Surely they've spent hours playing out those same little scenarios only to find that they were short one stick figure as well.
Let's run away and find a nice dark corner in which to do long division.
See also:
xkcd: The malware aquarium
XKCD creator in Wired; reappearance of blog-goggles in today's strip
Scary MBR-nuking program inspired by XKCD geeky webcomic
Ninjas attack Richard Stallman, reenacting xkcd comic
Cory Doctorow cosplayers at the XKCD picnic
Xkcd fans bring chess-sets on roller-coasters
Where LOLCats come from
Ironic Internet malapropism grid
Geeky comic about chess and roller-coasters
Nerd humor about Katamari Damacy
Sarcastic comic about computational linguistics (and emo kids)
Funny map of online communities in the style of a D&D map
Geeky comic strip uses Cory as the punchline
Bloggin' 'bout my generation
Jaffe vs. Joystiq: Hugs triumph over tirades
December 7, 2007 on 1:27 am |Filed under: Meta (about Joystiq)
We all know the massive assembly of computers and routers, the thousands of miles of fiber-optic wires, and the cacophony of adolescent voices that comprise what our grandparents call the "world wide web" is good at one thing and one thing only ... okay, well two things: that other thing ... and drama. We're here to talk about the latter.Back in May, a little situation occured that we at Joystiq HQ have come to refer to as "Jaffe-ton." It involved several of the key ingredients of internet drama: bad words, similes, misunderstandings of similes, and a convenient one-button publishing platform. Oh yeah, and lolcats.
Follwing a, ahem, candid response from Mr. Jaffe to a post of ours, we wrote a heartfelt response seeking to bury the hatchet (no doubt with a series of well-timed button presses) and "bee frends." Coupled with an email to his work account, our pleas went unanswered and, consequently, our therapy visits increased.
Well, as unearthed by our pals at GameDaily in their recent interview with the game designer, it turns out Mr. Jaffe did hear our pleas via our podcast discussion of the topic (which you can relive like it was the very first time here). He tried to reach out to us but, alas, in a cruel (but poetically appropriate) twist of fate, his plea also went unanswered. He explained, "I wrote them a letter and I said, 'Guys, I never got any invites to come on your podcast and I would be happy to come on to your podcast to talk games and talk about that issue.'"
Well, Mr. Jaffe, that invite still stands (it has an expiration date of 'never') so if you'd like to be on the podcast, we'd be thrilled to have you (send us an email at podcast aat joystiq dawt com). And what did we learn from this whole affair? That, like a simile about little girls ...Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
xkcd: The malware aquarium
November 28, 2007 on 1:46 pm |
Today on the marvellous geek webcomic xkcd, a great idea for a nerdy alternative to an aquarium: a collection of virtual Windows machines connected to the net without any firewalls, infected with every conceivable virus, a seething pit of virtual life. This would make a killer product -- a great Christmas present that could run on older, slower hardware. The breeders would have to tend them carefully to ensure that they catch a really interesting collection of malware, though. Link
See also:
XKCD creator in Wired; reappearance of blog-goggles in today's strip
Scary MBR-nuking program inspired by XKCD geeky webcomic
Ninjas attack Richard Stallman, reenacting xkcd comic
Cory Doctorow cosplayers at the XKCD picnic
Xkcd fans bring chess-sets on roller-coasters
Where LOLCats come from
Ironic Internet malapropism grid
Geeky comic about chess and roller-coasters
Nerd humor about Katamari Damacy
Sarcastic comic about computational linguistics (and emo kids)
Funny map of online communities in the style of a D&D map
Geeky comic strip uses Cory as the punchline
Bloggin' 'bout my generation
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