Check out this decked out sports car which is littered with all sorts of FireFox references. This thing has a very slick paint job. How many chicks do you think you’d be able to pick up with this baby?
Click on the image to see a larger version. Taken by nobihaya
On a side note, I was reading the comments on Digg and I finally read a comment which had me laughing my ass off.
by oneoverzero 4 hours ago The IE car must have crashed.
Mozilla has finally released FireFox version 2.0.0.7 to the public. This release is nothing more than a security fix which squashes the recently discovered Quicktime bug. To download the latest version, visit the official FireFox home page.
I thought this video was pretty funny. How many of you agree with what Bill says? By the way, the nerd tax bit was hilarious.
Gamma4Xray has put together a video which provides visuals explaining how we think web 2.0 works vs how web 2.0 actually works in regards to sites such as Reddit and Digg. The video does include some nice theatrical music to go along with the graphics and at the very end, Gamma asks the question, How Can We Make Web 2.0 Give Us What We Want? I was surprised that an answer to that question wasn’t given as it’s an easy answer. The answer is RSS. At any rate, watch the video and let me know what you think.
Theres a new buzzword in town that is sweeping across the blogosphere like wildfire, but what is it? That word is, BlogRush. A new way of generating traffic to your site or blog.
As I was monitoring my RSS feeds on a very early Saturday morning, I read a post that discussed BlogRush and what it was suppose to do. I saved it in my news bin as I was interested and wanted to give it a try. Here we are, two days later and this BlogRush widget is appearing on just about every site that can be considered a blog.
BlogRush in it’s simplest form is a content syndication network. If you add the widget to your blog, your own site will appear on other blogs with the widget installed. I know it may sound like one of those other blog advertising deals but this service dives into the equation a bit deeper.
BlogRush works like this. Users signup and install the widget and display it somewhere on their site. If your site receives 100pageviews a day, your blog links will appear 100 times on other BlogRush widgets across the network. That’s great and all, but here comes the juicy part. If a user who is browsing your site clicks on the tab underneath the widget that reads ADD YOUR BLOG POSTS FOR FREE and they signup for an account, that user is added to your own BlogRush account as a referal. Now, when that user installs the widget to their site, your blog content will appear on that users widget 100 times in addition to the 100 times your site would appear across the network. As you add more referrals to your account and gain more traffic to your site, your traffic grows exponentially.
Throughout the day on Saturday, I noticed that the same links would appear on my BlogRush widget, no matter how many times I refreshed the page. I think this was due to the lack of websites that were added to the same category as mine. However, the links have changed each time I have loaded my front page today, so that problem appears to be fixed. I also want to let you know that I myself, have clicked on a few of the links that appear on the widget that is published on this blog because they have been relevant and interesting. So in a sense, I have demonstrated to myself how this syndication network works.
Since displaying the widget, I can attest to seeing at least 5 people who were visiting this site who were referred by a BlogRush widget. The reason for this varies. Either the headlines to my articles suck or, it was early in the adoption phase. Considering this widget is gaining in popularity extremely fast, I expect to see the referral links increasing as time goes by.
I’d like the ability to edit the width of the widget. The one on this site is just a pixel or 2 too big and it’s crunching the left sidebar. Right now, there is no way to edit the size of the widget. There are also no reports or stats as of yet. Apparently, that part of the service is still under construction. At first, I wanted to suggest a way for us to customize which sites appear on the widgets based on tags, but I have to admit, the BlogRush algorithm seems to be doing a pretty good job displaying related content.
At times, there are blog headlines that appear in my widget which seem screwed up. The headlines appear as all question marks as if I don’t have the language pack the headline was written in. It could also be the case that the blog entry was spam. Speaking of blog spam, it will be interesting to see if BlogRush actually syndicates blogspam which in my opinion would send this service back to where it came from.
This service has come out of no where and is really taking the blogging world by storm. John Reese hit the nail on the head with this service although, I’m not sure what the revenue model is just yet. If you own a blog or a website and you need traffic, definitely give this service a try. It’s free, it’s easy to install, and so far, it seems to be working. If you would like to take part in this blogging phenomenon, be sure to visit BlogRush.com and sign up for your own free account.
If you are currently using BlogRush, I’d be very interested in hearing your experience with it thus far.
Reactee.com gives users of Twitter.com the chance to design a shirt where the text can be customized to suit your purpose. The shirts are $20.00 each and come in the following colors: white, light blue, organic, pink, silver, asphalt, olive and black. T shirt sizes range from small to extra large and are made out of 100% cotton, so you may want to purchase one size bigger than you need to compensate for shrinkage.
Creating a shirt is a 6 step process. Users begin by choosing a topic for their shirt. In my case, I chose Technology. The next step is to choose a slogan. Although Reactee provides quite a few slogan templates pertaining to the category, I decided to take the custom route and created my own. “Blogging The Webolution”
The next step requires me to provide a Reactee Keyword which is used for contacting my shirt. Not sure what that means yet but I’ll look into it as I’m sure, shirts can’t talk. Next to the Reactee Keyword tab is a Twitter tab. If you have a Twitter account, this is where you put in your Twitter username. Next, we have the option of choosing an image as we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. I chose an image of the United States. The last step in the process is to provide additional text which is also optional. I selected the text template “To Subscribe” for my additional text template.
Now it’s time to activate the shirt. Apparently, this shirt is alive. If users send a text message from their phone to my Reactee TShirt, they will receive a response with my Twitter Status. After completely activating the TShirt, Reactee then gives me the option to order the shirt.
Interesting service which gives users the ability to customize their own Twitter shirts. The idea of text messaging a shirt is rather strange but whatever floats your boat I suppose. I’m thinking about purchasing the shirt I created because I sort of like the design. Tell me what you think.
I just finished reading a very thoughtful post written by Bill Snyder, A Preemtpive Strike: Death to Web 3.0 (and 2.0 while we’re at it). In his post, he makes quite a few valid points. One of those points is the fact that companies abroad are jumping aboard the web 2.0 bandwagon. It doesn’t matter what the company does, or what the company sells, that company needs a social network, and a Twitter user account even if they have no clear understanding as to why. As I have stated in numerous other conversations, social-networking is out of control but the good news is, the users themselves will determine which ones stay and which ones fall by the wayside.
Bill also makes another excellent point about the definition of web 2.0. Is web 2.0 one thing, or is it a series of concepts? I tend to agree with Bill in that the term describes a series of concepts. Since the web 2.0 O’Reilly definition was published, users have been coining the term Web 2.0 as a variety of different things. Whether it be the use of AJAX, website design or social-networking. Has anyone ever tried to explain what Web 2.0 is to a noob? It’s practically one of the hardest things on earth to describe because everyone has a different sense as to what it actually is.
Bill also states that Web 2.0 did not replace Web 1.0 and the web is not based on version numbers. Tim, I think your related to Bill! In any case, if you dissect a number of websites, web based applications, and quite honestly, anything that is related to web 2.0, it’s quite obvious that the web is still the web and the underlying code is still the same. So why are we still using the term web 2.0?
The whole point of defining Web 2.0 was to figure out where we are. Unfortunately for those who like buzzwords, we are everywhere. The whole point of discussing Web 3.0 is to figure out where we are going. Well, here’s the news: We’re not all going to the same place, and that is the beauty of this medium (or perhaps these mediums). The possibilities are endless and will continue to defy labels. We are just at the beginning of this “internet thing,” and what comes next is going to be many things — some will die anonymous deaths and others will change the very nature of the way we communicate.
I couldn’t agree with you more and I am definitely looking forward to what lies beyond the horizon of the web, however it will be described or defined.
Smashing Magazine has put together a list of 20 plus icon sets that are not only eye candy, but they are also free. Some of the sets featured include: iPhoneSketch OpenPhone Pack Social Bookmark Iconset and Feedicons
I know there are still quite a few people who are looking for Web 2.0 based icons, especially those that were featured in this post Web 2.0 Icons but unfortunately, the link for those icons has been taken down. I have emailed who I believe are the creators of that specific icon set, but I have yet to receive a reply back. Some of the sets featured by Smashing Magazine do have Web 2.0 characteristics. Look at a few of those before you continue your search.
Revver, one of the first video sharing sites to share revenue with it’s userbase have announced they have paid 1 million dollars to video creaters and sharers.
To coincide with this announcement is Revver’s one year anniversary. Doug Bresler, the creator of “Doogtoons” ended up being the one to receive an honorary check for the one millionth dollar earned.
Steven Starr, the founder of Revver shared his thoughts on user generated video,
“The time and place to be an independent creator is right now, online.” said Steven Starr,
founder and chairman of Revver. “Smart advertisers are financing an online economy
that supports these creators, and the top talent will build fortunes. This is historic: It is the
birth of a sustainable art form, and it’s happening before our eyes.”
I would have to whole heartedly agree. Bloggers, podcasters and video creators are developing brands. Those brands just happen to be “themselves” Those who become successful in the user generated space will probably net some pretty lucrative advertising deals. Here is a small bit of history concerning Revver.
Revver launched the 1.0 version of its site in September 2006 to foster the independent creator community emerging on the Internet. From the beginning, the Revver business model sought to reward these creators for sharing their work. By screening submissions and not accepting copyright-infringing content, Revver is able to monetize each and every video. The company’s performance-based advertising system also rewards video owners based on the popularity of their content without instituting barriers to entry. The result is the first open and effective marketplace for online video.
Congratulations to the users of Revver. Apparently, their ‘ad revenue sharing model’ is working. Here is a video showcasing the celebration.
According to AppScout, Microsoft has signed it’s first major deal involving Silverlight, Microsoft’s competitor to the Adobe Flash Player. The deal took place with Internap Network Services Corporation. The company will equip websites of several large radio groups with the Silverlight media player. Radio stations that will be participating in this deal include, Citadel Communications, Univision and Radio one.
This is great news for Microsoft as it could be the beginning of the end of the adobe flash player dominance. From everything I’ve read thus far, Silverlight is said to be the flash player of choice as it virtually eliminates the need to buffer before presenting the content. Between Silverlight and Adobe Flash, which one do you think is going to win?
Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff 