The Internet

Advertising sometimes goes too far. They just don’t always understand exactly what they are implying. I’m sure they didn’t mean to command people like dogs (or worse?) but that’s exactly what they did on this ad that is currently appearing on Digg.

Here is a portion of the original page where it was found:

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Find more odd news here.

Advertising on the Internet isn’t what it used to be. People aren’t falling for the “9,999th Visitor” iPod winner ploy. They are catching on to Google Adsense, and pop-up blockers have destroyed that avenue.

The problem is, they also don’t want to pay to visit websites. “Don’t make money off of us, AND make it all free.” That’s the message, and a recent study described in Arstechnica about Web surfers and Behavioral Targeting touches on this fact. Check out that article (later) but first, let’s take a look at a solution. [click to continue...]

In the short life of this blog, it has received quite a bit of attention both negative and positive. One of the stories in particular about McCain Fanning the Obama-Clinton Flames has received comments on it as well on Digg and Propeller that are not complimentary.  It has been called names, bashed, yadayadayada.  It’s awesome!

Bloggers are in many ways amateur journalists.  I have written columns for print publications in the past and I prefer the editorial license allowed in blogs.  Why?  Because you can be more bold on the Internet than you can in a newspaper or a magazine. [click to continue...]

Over the past several weeks, I have been privy to many projects in different stages of development. One thing that seems to hold true for many of them is that the developers’ idea of “the next big thing” is a hybrid of sorts.

Some are leaning towards social media mixed with social networking. Most of the social media sites have tried to head in this direction to some extent. All have fallen short. Most notably, the Digg changes a few months ago have turned from an attempt to socialize social media (with shouts and other features) into an unfair way to game the system. The results have been disastrous. [click to continue...]

A little-known but dangerous epidemic is spreading across members of social media websites like Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Newsvine, and Mixx. Like a secret scourge, SM-FPA (social media front page addiction) isn’t making national headines yet, but the effects have been felt in thousands of households across the world.

“Ever since my wife’s submission hit the front page of Reddit last month, we only see her on the way to the bathroom,” said Jake Dixon. His wife Amber, better known as “diggwho”, made the front page of Reddit with a story titled Bush makes more people mad by saying something stupid. Since then, Amber has been submitting 15-25 stories per day and has a submission hit the front page 3-5 times per week. She declined to be interviewed. [click to continue...]

When I stumbled upon a site called Local Buzzer last night, I have to admit that I was skeptical. “Easiest Local Search Ever” is what it uses as its tag line. My reaction to this:

“Oh reeeaaallly.”

One thing I liked and probably the only reason I tried it was the homepage layout — one of the cleanest I’ve seen. I tried something pretty random – Chiropractor/my zip code. While the results page is nicely set up with Google maps integration, the real juice is in the community aspect. It has a chance to be truly local.

Two interesting quotes from the About page:

“We are here to promote that conversation and provide tools for our community to discuss the places that they are passionate about.”

“By looking at local businesses through the lens of the collective community on Local Buzzer, you will always find a place that is new and interesting. We are committed to giving every local business a fair chance at being the next big thing.”

Interesting concept. The only way this will work (and I definitely think it can) is with a nice number of people in one’s local area using it. The bad part about most of the review sites is that you can’t find sites or businesses that haven’t been reviewed. The problem with classifieds and map searches is that they don’t have many, if any, reviews. In theory, Local Buzzer brings the two together into one neat, clean package.

Here are some more quotes from the About page and our analysis of what they propose:

User Powered Local Search

We believe that a community working together will create the best search results. Every user will have the power to suggest new businesses, edit business details, review and rate businesses. We will rank our search results based on the user input for any particular business.

Assuming that they are able to get businesses themselves to be active and participate with the site, this can be a really good thing. It’s like having a free listing, so they should be more inclined to make sure the details are correct. Since it offers reviews, those who know about it will be more inclined to visit often and suggest that their clients check it out.

Speedy Results

The whole focus of the site is to give the users what they want, quickly. We have spent a lot of time making sure users should be able to find businesses they are looking for in the shortest amount of time.

This is the part that I’ve been personally dying to see for ages. The search engines are too gamed, too cumbersome, and don’t always have relevant results. If I can pop in and find my next Pizza purchase quickly… that’s a beautiful, wonderful, awesome thing.

Community Driven

We dont worry about any bottom lines and “pay for placements”. You get honest results. We are not about clients, page impressions and traffic. We write reviews, upload pictures, choose our favorite businesses, and enjoy making friends just like everyone else.

I have questions here, but that’s not to say that it won’t work. I can see it as a valuable service, but getting people to sign up is the tough part. I signed up, and while I admit that it was a no-brainer, no-time-waster style setup that I prefer, I wonder how many people will use it but never sign up. On the other hand, there are advantages to having limited signups. Those who do are probably doing so because they feel passionately one way or the other about local businesses. They want their opinions to be heard. That part alone would make signing up worthwhile.

Pound for pound, I think LocalBuzzer has a real chance of making it. I hope it does — I know I would use it.

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For more website reviews, go to the homepage.

For a while now, I’ve been looking for a consolidated place to store and share files. Pics, videos, large files — so many needs, so few offerings.

FileDropper came highly recommended like BZ Results, but there was a cost associated. Granted, the basic plan was only $.99 per month, but it’s still a hassle to buy anything on the Internet when there are free alternatives. Then, someone sent me an offer for a Free accounts for bloggers as well as members of Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, and del.icio.us. It was a sign. I tried it tonight.

What I found was that their claim of being “The simplest file sharing website ever” is quite true. The interface is one that my mother-in-law can use (and she has trouble with working her email). Member files are never deleted, it has incredibly fast upload and download speed, and there are no count down timers.

MegaUpload has issues. A premium account is great but when you upload something and send it to your friends, they have to wait for a slot to clear. You get 250 gigs of file storage with a $9.99 monthly fee. It’s the slowest service I have tried, particularly in the download area. If you don’t have a US, UK, or Canada based IP, you’re in for a long wait. Worst of all, the beeping buttons when you mouse-over them drives me insane.

RapidShare is one of the most popular options for downloading or uploading files. The monthly account is around 10 euro and provides some good options for premium users. The problems is, when it comes to the free user, the road is a bit rocky. There is excessive pressure to sign up for a paid account and bandwidth is slower for free users.

While I’m not a big fan of paying for anything when there is a free alternative, I can say that FileDropper would be something that I would actually buy. Luckily, I don’t have to. This free offer came at the right time. I’m a blogger, digger, stumbler, redditer, mixxer, and deliciouser, so I think I qualified for the freebie. FYI, it expires May 15.

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There will be more stories about free offers on the Internet coming soon. This story was too fun to let it go.

With Flickr dominating the photo storage and display market, the fact that Photobucket passed the 5 billion uploaded photos mark today is an unexpected accomplishment. For the most part, it has also gone unnoticed.

There has been some recent negative publicity — negative but minor — about censoring babies in diapers as nudity. There was also an unfortunate bit of timing with the release of their photo editing features coming a couple of weeks before getting overshadowed by Adobe’s launch of a web-based photoshop service.

These three events plus other important things happening in the industry have let Photobucket’s proliferation of 5 billion photos pass unnoticed by just about everyone. They seem to be okay with this, as they haven’t even posted about it at the time of this article on their own blog. That seems to be their style — quality of service instead of loudspeaker marketing.

The marketing seems to be going towards News Corp’s online darling, MySpace. Meanwhile, Photobucket keeps popping out features, including a “Baby Einstein” styled slideshow, Photobucket Mobile, and a new MySpace App.

It should be noted that this blog hosts most of its photos on Photobucket, just in case this seems a little biased.

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Read more noozeez. It’s good for the brain.