( * Source: InsideTonic.com *)

We recently had the chance to talk to Cindy Jiang, head of marketing at HiPiHi, to understand a bit more what HiPiHi is about and how it aims to attract users.

What are the social networking aspects and tools of HiPiHi? How can users interact in HiPiHi?

HiPiHi is a platform, which can offer a totally interactive, immersive and open-ended experience for users to create, inhabit and govern a new world of their own design. So it is also natural to be a social networking platform. Just like in real life, communication is the basic part of your life in the virtual world. The users can exchange their ideas through the online chatting tools (only text for now). They can also send messages to each other both online and offline.

How is it different to Second Life?

HiPiHi does have some similarities with SL. However, the fundamental difference is that we are targeting different values and cultures. A virtual world is not just a 3D environment, but a complicated social system involving relationships, policies etc. HiPiHi was born in China, and we really hope it can embrace Chinese culture. We also believe functionality will be better in HiPiHi than in SL. For example, HiPiHi will make creativity a much simpler process by using pre-fabricated objects, and there will also be advanced setting for users to build customized objects for trading.

 




 
How can you move around? What equipment is available?

In the HiPiHi world the user can choose different actions, such as walking, flying, jumping, swimming, dancing, and etc. Moreover, during the period of the limited beta test, every users can have their helicopter, which can make them move fast.

6 of the 10 characters you can choose from are women. Does that mean Hipihi is aimed more at women?

Absolutely not. We want to target anyone with a computer and net connection.

We only saw human avatars. Will other creatures be available? Tell us about the different customizations available.

Not yet. When you enter the world, you can customize your avatar first, by choosing different hair, face, clothes, body, etc., everyone can be unique and special. Then you can claim an 100mx100m area (It’s only free for the limited beta test). So in your own area, you can try to create things. You can use those pre-fabricated objects, which will be a little easier to use for beginners. You can also use the advanced settings for more complicated creations.

Describe the economy. Can you buy property? Are you expecting people to create and sell products inside the environment?

A business model similar to a 2D model can be applied in 3D. Advertising and branded products will be incorporated within HiPiHi. We have been approached by the marketing departments of many foreign and Chinese companies looking to become involved in HiPiHi. Subscription to HiPiHi will be free, although there will be products/services for sale within the world. We haven’t yet decided whether there will be a HiPiHi currency as in SL yet – a lot depends on market regulations – but of course there will be trading.

More here 

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(* Source: eMarketer *)

Some MySpacers never log off.

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 (* Source: Robert Levine *)

EMusic, the nation’s second-largest online music seller after Apple’s iTunes, plans to announce a deal with AT&T today that will allow people to buy songs from independent labels through their cellphones, without the need to go through a personal computer.

Several services, including those run by Sprint and Verizon, let people buy songs directly over the air. But they focus on songs by mainstream performers like Prince, who has a deal with Verizon. EMusic sells music only from independent labels, a category that these days includes the new album from Paul McCartney as well as obscure punk bands. The arrangement with AT&T Mobile Music will make those songs available just as easily as the more conventional ones.

Nearly all of the 2.7 million tracks eMusic has the rights to sell will be available through the service, which will work on several handsets by Samsung and Nokia.

“We know that we have a lot of customers in the segment that eMusic is trying to reach,” said Mark Collins, vice president of consumer data services for AT&T’s wireless unit.

Record labels have long believed that selling songs in mobile phone-based music stores will encourage impulse purchases. EMusic will encourage consumers to browse, reading about bands and hearing snippets of songs to discover music they might like.

Tracks will cost more than they do over the Internet — $7.49 for five songs, as opposed to $9.99 for 30 at the online site — because of the expense of sending them over a mobile network to a user’s phone. For that price, however, users can also get another copy of the song, which they can download from the Internet as an MP3.

EMusic, which is owned by Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of JDS Capital, currently has a marketing deal with AT&T to encourage consumers to “sideload” their phones with MP3s from its existing Internet store — meaning that they can plug their phones into their computers to transfer the music. But this will be its first time selling music on a mobile network.

More here 

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Music mogul Sean Combs is looking for an assistant, but don't send a resume. The star is accepting only video applications uploaded onto YouTube.

Combs, known as Diddy, videotaped a help-wanted ad on the popular video Web site hoping to find a helper to replace his former assistant, who did everything from holding his umbrella in the rain to playing chaperone to his hip-hop group Da Band.

While Combs declined to comment on why he chose YouTube instead of a job-recruiting site like Monster.com, he offered some explanation in the video.

"It's a new age, new time, new era," he said in his first posting, a minute-and-a-half clip of him yelling behind his desk. "Forget coming into the office and having a meeting with me and being all nervous."

Hopefuls must audition by posting a video that is less than three minutes long explaining why they deserve the job. Initially, Combs opened it to anybody with a camera or a little creativity, but in a second posting, narrowed the applicant pool to only college graduates.

Combs's two short video clips did not provide a job description or list of qualifications. But if his previous actions are any indication of what the new assistant can expect, the job could be very demanding.

Combs once made members of Da Band walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn to fetch him a slice of cheesecake. And his last assistant, whom he named Fonzworth Bentley, became famous as the umbrella-toting manservant often seen fluffing Combs's bow ties on the red carpet. Bentley, whose parents named him Derek Watkins, has turned his job as Combs's assistant into endorsement deals, a record contract--and a line of umbrellas.

"What better job than that to have me scream at you, go crazy, keep you up at late hours, have you sleep-deprived?" Combs asked.

More than 600 people have submitted videos.

John Challenger, chief of the recruiting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said Combs's online video search is more than a ploy to get attention. More applicants are adding video clips to their applications. "It helps put a face to all the faceless resumes," he said.

Viewers will pick the finalists on YouTube, but Combs will pick the winner.

"It's an interesting way to engage his fan base, and it's a creative way to do it," Challenger said. "It's like 'American Idol,' and you can only choose one."

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 (* Source: Ypulse *)

According to the teen panel at YPulse, yes.

Social networks are the new hubs and operating systems. Facebook and MySpace messages are the new email. Teens check these sites several times a day as opposed to that many times a week. “Even then, my emails are all from Facebook,” said one girl on the panel. Some even call it “email.” “I use it to communicate with adults, but hardly ever with friends” said Ashley Qualls (right), and that was the consensus.

This anecdotal evidence is backed up by the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. According to their overview, 91% of all social networking teens say they use SNS like Facebook, MySpace and MyYearbook to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use these sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person. 72% of all social networking teens use these sites to make plans with friends.

Call for an SNS Client
As Social networks threaten AOL and Microsoft, the question is raised of compatibility. Just as IM clients like Jabber, Adium and Pidgin amass all your IM addresses into one central server, social networks need a similar aggregator. With the proliferation of niche SNS, teens are signing up for them like clubs on the first day of school. Join as many as you can and see what sticks. As such, they are also impermanent, unlike phone numbers or addresses for adults. This causes the digital drop-off effect (to coin a phrase). A friend can leave a social network and be impossible to find again. Until all social networks open their APIs like Facebook, though, this may be long way off….

IM Texting U
Alternatively, teens use IM for friend-to-friend messaging. A friend’s little brother actually asked his prom date out over AIM (where’s the romance?) But Aseem Badshah from Scriptovia (left) boldly declared that even “IM is dead”–that texting has taken its place. Aseem sleeps with his phone under his pillow and even takes it into the bathroom while he showers. Catherine Cook admits to sending over 1,000 texts a months, often typing away at the dinner table. Indeed,  more than 158 billion text messages were sent in the U.S. in 2006. We’re guessing a good portion where over pot roast.

The Hard Cell
The mobile panel later in the day spoke about SNS opportunities via mobile—definitely an emerging space (check out VelvetPuffin). 73% of teens ages 13-17 are sending text messages from their cell phones. 40% of teens have downloaded apps to their phones, such as Facebook. But right now, only 20% of teens have e-mail on the handset. For this to truly evolve, data plans need to come down in rates (ad-based models? Check out Mobile Campus), and mobile phones need to be more, well, mobile.

 More here

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(* Source: Nextgreatthing *)

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(* Nextgreatthing.com *)

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

Constant Comedy is a new site that’s launched as a niche project for Crea8tivity, the content-sharing site.

The main differentiating factor of Constant Comedy is its live comedy show, where you can view ongoing videos and give your vote. This is an interactive tool, so other users and site visitors participating in the live comedy show will be able to view and vote along as well. There’s a live chat option included in this, though you’ll need to register to vote and chat. After a clip has played for 20 seconds, viewers will be allowed to vote. If the overall rating falls below 30%, the clip will be voted completely off the show, and the next clip will play. A “crowd” bar displays below the currently playing video so you can see how well each clip is doing.

The other aspects of Constant Comedy make for a good social network that revolves around niche content–view video clips from other users, vote and comment, bookmark your favorites and become a fan to the comedians you like best. Make friends, submit your own content, and see who tops the leaderboards. Stay updated with the programming guides, too. Jellyfish and SoLow are sites that incorporate live activities for more interaction amongst users.

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

Boo-box, the contextual marketing company, has raised $300,000 in a round of seed funding, led by Monashees Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm.

The funds will be used for product development and expansion of the Brazil-based company. The boo-box service lets you create contextually based content throughout your site, and when visitors click on the links, they will receive recommended items that are relevant to your site. These recommendations appear in a new box, and visitors can scroll through the items as they please. Publishers are rewarded when a visitor completes a purchase. Boo-box has global ambitions, and has launched its service here in the US as well. Similar services include Media River and Open ads.

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

Buzzwire has launched its beta service for streaming mobile media. The service lets you create your own programming lineup and view it on your mobile phone. Buzzwire has received an undisclosed amount of funding by Matrix Partners and Spark Capital.

This service offers acess to a music and video library, which includes live Internet radio streams. The content provided through buzzwire comes from feeds found across the Internet. From international news to sports and entertainment, buzzwire is looking to provide content for all preferances. Content can be added to Buzzwire by users as well, via feeds. Search and collect the music and videos you like, and create your own streaming playlist of sorts. These playlists can be shared with friends as well.

The service will be offered through certain mobile networks, but will be available directly to consumers during the beta test phase. So far, Buzzwire works on most 3G phones, including the Motorola Razr, Samsung Sync and recent versions of the Palm Treo, and for a limited time is available directly to consumers. Buzzwire is scheduled to launch its service later on this fall, when access will be provided through select mobile providers.

While partnering with certain mobile networks can ensure face time with a large number of mobile consumers, limiting service to select carriers could hinder its growth potential in the end, and in some cases may compete with mobile networks’ own streaming content offerings, such as Verizon’s VCast Mobile.

Similar services include MeeVee and MyWaves.

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(* Source: 901AM *)

YouTube announced its second major music promotion, the YouTube OntheRise Rap Edition. This follow-up to last year’s highly successful YouTube Underground contest is the first of three genre-specific music competitions. This first installment seeks to discover the best rap and hip-hop artists in the United States, inviting unsigned talent who aspire to be professional artists to submit their own original music videos.

Artists can submit original videos that best represent their talents from August 10 through August 17. 50 Cent, Common and Polow da Don will help judge the contest and will select 20 finalists to be presented to the YouTube community on August 29. The YouTube community will then vote on a final winner who will be unveiled on September 7.

Here’s the OnTheRise RAP Edition ‘07 by 50 Cent.

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( * Source: Dan Tynan *)

First Facebook opened the dorms to the world; now it has turned them into a mini-mall.

Over the last nine months the social network has gone from being the online equivalent of a college kegger to the hottest new development platform on the web. When Facebook opened up its platform to independent developers in May, it became a hotbed for hungry startups eying the network's rapidly expanding base of 31 million members.

Instead of being a mere social network, Facebook's aim is to create a social operating system where e-commerce can thrive.

But can you run a business entirely on Facebook? According to a company spokesperson, some are doing it already, such as Lending Club, which facilitated $100,000 in personal loans via its Facebook application within a month of launching the app.

The commission on $100,000 worth of community loans isn't what's generating the buzz coming out of Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters, however. It's the ease with which Facebook apps can be developed, the speed at which they're being adopted and the attention they're getting. At press time more than 1,800 apps had been built in less than two months; nearly 30 of those apps have signed up more than a million users apiece.

"Facebook has to be the undisputed king of rapid distribution," says Max Levchin, CEO of Slide.com, whose Top Friends is Facebook's most popular third-party application. Roughly 9.5 million Facebook users have installed the app, which lets you give special billing to up to 32 friends on your profile.

Like many new Facebook apps, Top Friends is simple, free and aggressively viral. After you install it, you're prompted to invite all of your friends to do the same. As you add new names, it prompts them to install the app as well.

But as with human viruses, the ones that spread fastest often die off first, warns David Hornik, general partner for venture firm August Capital. Though bullish about the Facebook platform's potential, Hornik says it's far too early to tell which applications will have legs.

For the short term, Facebook will be more of a marketing medium than an e-commerce engine. MediaMaster CEO Neil Day sees Facebook apps as a way to acquire customers for his company's free music service, in the hopes of selling them a subscription down the road.

Consumers can upload their DRM-free music to MediaMaster's site and play them on virtually any connected device. Its Facebook app allows subscribers to put a MediaMaster "radio station" on their homepages and share it with others.

"The big attraction of Facebook is its demographically appropriate audience and its built-in viral distribution," Day says. "We look at it as a two-way street: We provide a compelling application for them, they help us build our initial user base. But I don't see any indication that users are coming to Facebook with their wallets open."

More here 

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(* Source: Pete Cashmore *)

There’s money in them thar widgets: Clearspring, which helps you build, deploy and track widgets around the web, has raised $10 million more from a single investor, according to a regulatory filing.

We already covered the $5.5 million second round in March 2007, which included AOL founders Steve Case and Ted Leonsis as investors. That came on top of a $2 million round from Novak Biddle Venture Partners in April 2006. So, we’re talking $17.5M so far.

Clearspring has also been working with big name clients, including the NBA. Founder Hooman Radfar runs the Widgify blog.

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(* Source: Mediabuyerplanner *)

Youth are expert multitaskers and able to filter different channels of information, according to the "Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground" technology and lifestyle study, which examines assumptions about youths' relationships with digital technology and the impact of culture, age and gender on technology use.

A fiew of the findings from the global study by Viacom's MTV and Nickelodeon, in association with Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, into how kids and young people interact with digital technology (via MarketingCharts):

• One in three UK and US teenagers say they can't live without their games console; on average, a Chinese young person has 37 online friends s/he has never met; Indian youth are most likely to see mobile phones as a status symbol.
• Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has 94 phone numbers in his or her mobile phone, 78 people on a messenger buddy list, 86 people in his or her social networking community.
• But youth are not geeks: 59 percent of 8-14 year-old kids prefer their TV to their PCs; only 20 percent of 14-24 year-old young people globally admitted to being "interested" in technology.
• Youth audiences also want more control of what they watch and when they want it: They expect content to be on all platforms - mobile, computer and TV - and they want it to be searchable and increasingly expect it to be supplied on demand and online.

"Digital communications - from IM, SMS, social networking to email - have all revolutionized how young people communicate with their peers. We wanted to understand more deeply how young people interact with these technologies and consequently what this means for our advertising partners focused on reaching this highly engaged and influential audience," said Chris Dobson, VP, Global Advertising Sales, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.

More here on the study's conclusions

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(* Source: Mediaplannerbuyer.com *)

Casual gamers are open to alternative business models, expressing broad support for advertising - eight of ten are willing to view an ad in return for free play - as well as for online trials and cross-game promotion, according to the results of Macrovision's annual global survey on casual gaming, reports MarketingCharts.

Casual gamers are serious about their game-playing, with 28 percent reporting that they play more than nine sessions per week - and 32 percent of those sessions lasting at least an hour, according to last year's survey.

Some highlights of the current casual-gaming survey:

• Some 83 percent of survey participants - casual gamers - are willing to view a 30-second ad in order to play a game for free.
• 53 percent are willing to purchase the game only after they have played with a trial version. Of this segment, 54 percent say they would decide whether they are willing to purchase a game within 60 minutes of play time.
• The percentage of survey participant that rely on promotional emails for more information about new games rose from 14 percent last year to 34 percent.
• The percentage of survey participants that use gaming websites to find out about new games rose from 28 percent to 45 percent.

(MarketingCharts provides more data, including on demographics, playing and purchasing habits, and preferred genres.)

"This year's survey highlights that advertising is now an increasing revenue option and trials are a must in marketing to casual gamers," said Michael Buchheim, EVP and general manager of the Distribution and Commerce Business Unit at Macrovision.

"Gamers are now turning to advertising and promotional materials to help them make their decisions on which games to play and purchase."

 More related articles

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(* Source: Kris Graft *)

Microsoft-owned in-game ad firm Massive Inc. has inked a deal with Electronic Arts that will bring dynamic ads to five high-profile titles.

Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360, PC), NASCAR 08 (Xbox 360), NHL 08 (Xbox 360), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360, PC) and Skate (Xbox 360) will all go live in the Massive Network this year.

Massive CEO Cory Van Arsdale added, “The addition of EA’s leading titles to our network represents a tremendous opportunity for brands targeting the youth demographic and sends a clear message that in-game advertising has arrived as a compelling medium for marketers.”

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

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(* Kristen Nicole *)

Curse-Gaming, the game social network for MMOGs, has launched V4 of its site, and donned a new name.

Now called Curse, the latest version of this site has more social tools and is looking more to be a destination site for gamers. Some new features include MyCurse, highlighting social networking tools such as blogs, the ability to make friends, share files, and upload multimedia user-generated content. There’s also streaming video posting, and social bookmarking to track news within forums and blogs.

The Curse Client is a downloadable application that syncs with various games including Vanguard and World of Warcraft so users can grab screenshots, etc. The new Mini-Portals offer additional resources and add-ons for games, and the MMO Wikis, in partnership with Wikia, lets users better collaborate with each other.

In related news, GuildCafe has raised an undisclosed amount of funding for its MMG tools.

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(* Source: Dennis Bouchand *)

MyLifeBrand, a social platform which allows users to aggregate and manage their favorite social networks, communities, services and friends on one site, announced today a new multimedia video platform, MyLifeTV.

The customizable multimedia platform enables any community on the social platform to create a fully community focused, immersive line up of video broadband channels for their specific community members. Additionally, community creators will have the opportunity to syndicate their channels into thousands of other target communities on MyLifeBrand, as well as more broadly across the Internet. This video platform will also provide some default channel content ranging from comedy to sports and lifestyle programming.

MyLifeTV provides users a unique experience specifically tied to whatever community they are a member of on the MyLifeBrand platform, and enables them to not only view, but organize, save, share and soon upload user inspired video content around a range of interests. MyLifeBrand has partnered with Brightcove and Revver, leaders in the internet video space to deliver the highly interactive MyLifeTV video platform.

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(* Source: James Brightman *)

The study, which used qualitative and quantitative methods and biometric testing to analyze advertising impact across 36 dynamic and integrated in-game and around-game ad placements across 10 top-selling games from a variety of genres, examined factors that influence how gamers notice ads in games. The research looked at the type and depth of the ad placement, the type of the game, ad size, ad placement relative to the game camera, screen clutter, brand relevance to the audience, and more.

Some key findings as outlined by Double Fusion and Interpret were as follows:

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(* Source: 901am *)

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(* Source: Gamevortex *)

Electronic Arts may just change the face of rhythm games forever, with their upcoming game, Rock Band. Taking cues from games such as Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero, Rock Band allows up to four different players, with various instrument types, to play together. Now, you can live your dream of forming your own rock band and touring, with a guitarist, bassist, drummer and singer.

As an interesting twist, all multiplayer modes allow any combination of local players and online players, allowing you to get together for a rockin' party or to practice with friends located across the country or across the world.

Rock Band will include a Quickplay mode so you can just jump in and have fun jamming out, a Practice mode that allows you to work on your skillz, both a Solo Tour and a World Tour mode, to give you a "career" experience, Band Co-op play as well as a Head to Head mode where two players duel for bragging rights, in person or online, but the duels have to be of the same instrument, so, unfortunately, no Drummer vs. Bassist opportunities here.

When I went to my EA "appointment" and was just sort-of left to my own devices, I gravitated to Rock Band and just stood there watching for a while. They actually had a small stage, with about a 6 to 8 inch rise, and had a television on the ground for the players to watch, allowing them to play while facing the onlookers, very concert-style. It was an amazing thing to watch how popular Rock Band was. There was no public relations person or developer explaining anything, just a whole lot of excited gamers (most, if not all, being gaming press) watching the performance, waiting for their turn and then just letting go and having fun... and, so far as I could tell, none of them were drunk. Just think how much more rowdy and entertaining Rock Band will become under typical party conditions.

As I heard one member of the press put it, let's hope that Guitar Hero can survive with such obvious direct competition as Rock Band. Rock Band is scheduled for a Fall 2007 release on the 360 and PS3.

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(* Source: Gemma Simpson *)

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

S-Curve, the record label known for hits like “Stacey’s Mom” and the launching of Joss Stone, is re-launching its full service music company and has taken on its first venture for online marketing with its equity stake in Nabbr, a company that creates and distributes viral video players.

The company will be expanding and adding to its larger scope of offerings, looking to the spreading of viral content as well as another tactic of artist management. After a nearly three year absence, S-Curve is coming back with a strong emphasis on Internet marketing, banking on the spreading of its content across social networks with Nabbr’s service. The video players will include video and audio content, as well as tour dates, personal appearance information, contests, merchandise, sales and the ability for artists to chat with fans.

Other Nabbr clients include Justin Timberlake, the Beatles, 30 Seconds to Mars, Amy Winehouse, and other S-Curve artists as well. The music company has also added two artists to its label; We The Kings and Tom Jones. Nabbr is one company that allows traditional media companies to leverage the power of web 2.0.

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(* David H.Deans *)

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(* Source: Linda Roeder *)

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

San Francisco based social networking site Hi5 has raised $20 million in a new round of funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures.

Hi5 doesn’t get a lot of coverage (we last covered it in January), however whilst Facebook has been getting all the press, Hi5 has become a global success story.

According to Alexa, Hi5 is now ranked as the 11th most popular site online above Facebook at 13th. If you’ve never heard of the site though, there is a reason; most of Hi5’s traffic doesn’t come from the United States. Hi5 is the No. 1 ranking site online in Portugal, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala, and ranks at No 2 in Jamaica, Honduras and The Dominican Republic. 16.2% of visitors to Hi5 come from Peru and 7.7% from Portugal, by comparison visitors to Hi5 from the Unites States makes up only 2% of the sites traffic.

As of December 2006, Hi5 claimed to have 50 million registered users.

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(* Source: Reena Jadhav *)

The new rules of interactive marketing include finding ways to monetize the "my" generation of users who want control over their information flow.

Online marketers have done such a great job that we've landed ourselves in trouble. Online users are absolutely rebelling against the onslaught of information thrust upon them when they are online. Ads, banners, pop-ups, email, newsletters, the list goes on. Users are demanding more control over what information they get and how they get this information.

I call this new online generation the "my" generation. They want a my-centric web universe, my landing pages, my favorite things, my music, my friends, my life. So the new challenge for interactive marketers is to become a "my" application: personalized, pint-sized and portable.

Here are the three Ps of the new age interactive marketing:

Personalized: Imagine each visitor having a uniquely personal experience with your service and website. It drives loyalty and interaction because it's "mine." Make it a priority to allow personalized access to your site.

Pint-sized: Think capsules, small but potent; the hottest parts of your site and service in a bite-sized format so users can custom aggregate from you and other favorite publishers. Remember, with all the user ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) out there, less is more. So what are the top three things your visitors want to stay connected with constantly? Answer that and well, that's your pint.

Portable: Your users want to connect with you beyond the boundaries of your website. Think browser, desktop, mobile device and any other "my" application such as MySpace or Facebook. Users don't want to constantly come to your website; they want your website (content and services) to come to them. Being compatible, portable and accessible is the key to being top-of-mind for your customer.

So how do you get a personalized, pint-sized and portable version of your website to engage with the new generation? The answer lies in community toolbars and widgets.

Community toolbars
The concept of toolbars is not new and I am sure you are familiar with Google and Yahoo! toolbars. They occupy the most valuable real estate on the browser, providing incredible brand exposure and driving user loyalty.

Community toolbars are a particularly interesting option for publishers. This option allows publishers to offer powerful interactive functionality to their users via their own branded space on a user's browser. It has quickly become a hot trend with major brands, including Major League Baseball, Greenpeace, eBay, Fox Carolina TV and even Kevin Federline, joining the movement with their own community toolbars. Community toolbars are quick to create, free, completely customizable, quite small and portable to the browser. Take a look at an example of a couple here:

1) Major League Baseball Community Toolbar:
For baseball fans everywhere, this community toolbar allows constant connection with MLB radio, breaking news, tickets, live chat with other fans, scores, playoff information and much more.

2) TechCrunch CRUNCHbar Community Toolbar:
For TechCrunch addicts, the CRUNCHbar community toolbar is an absolute necessity. It hooks users up with content updates, podcasts and a constant stream of "CrunchStuff" from their favorite blog.

3) Lufthansa Community Toolbar:
The Lufthansa community toolbar puts customers one click away from the Lufthansa booking engine and has given Lufthansa an exclusive venue for advertising low fares, special deals and discounts on flights.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Michael Estrin *)

Google is planning to take the gaming world by storm, according to a story in The Seattle Post Intelligencer, which reports that the company is working on AdSense for video games.

Dubbed AdSense for Games, Google's new application, when launched, could be a significant player in a fast-growing market, according to a Yankee Group study that predicts in-game advertising will exceed $971 million by 2011.

Google will compete with IGA Worldwide and Double Fusion, which already participate in the $78 million in-game ad business.

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(* Reuters *)

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(* Source: Dreamstation *)

More here

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(* Source: James Mowery *)

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(* Source: Reuters *)

  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steve Jobs, the father of the iPod, was crowned on Tuesday as the undisputed king of the online music revolution by U.S. music magazine Blender, topping a list of the 25 most influential people in Web music.

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(* Source: Christopher Megarian *)

When was the last time a video game had you doing push-ups, yoga, and balancing acts in front of your TV?

That's what Nintendo (NTDOY) is aiming for with its new peripheral, tentatively named Balance Board, for the Wii video game console. Players stand on a pressure-sensitive platform, which looks much like a white bathroom scale, and perform exercises in time to on-screen prompts. The board can detect subtle changes in body movement and pressure, allowing the user to perform more than 40 different exercises. It can also track body mass index (BMI) and something known as the "Wii Fit Age," a measurement created by combining the user's BMI and results from balance tests.

The Balance Board was one of several new video game peripherals announced last week in Santa Monica, Calif., at E3, gaming's biggest trade show. It demonstrates Nintendo's continuing quest to capitalize on the success of its Wii console, which to date has sold 10 million units worldwide. The company also unveiled the Zapper (again, not its final name).

This plastic contraption combines both standard Wii controllers (the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk) into a single unit that looks like a submachine gun, a configuration Nintendo hopes will revolutionize the first-person shooter game experience. The device, which is scheduled to be released in the U.S. in the first half of 2008, will be packaged with specially designed first-party software.

I'm with the Band

But Nintendo is not alone in realizing the potential selling power of the interactive, absorbing game experience. Other peripheral developers used E3 as a forum to showcase their bright new ideas. In the case of Harmonix (now owned by MTV Networks (VIA)) of Cambridge, Mass., it was the chance to showcase the forthcoming release of Rock Band, which builds on its top-selling Guitar Hero concept. In Guitar Hero, players strum notes on a plastic, guitar-like controller in time with the music in the game.

Rock Band will push the concept one step further. Instead of featuring a single guitar, this game will allow players to hook up an electronic drum set, a bass, and a microphone for a full-band experience. Up to four players will thus be able to rock out simultaneously, either playing their instruments in time with on-screen cues or singing along karaoke-style.

Harmonix has not yet specified whether the peripherals and the game will be packaged together or sold separately, but the stage is set for success: The second game in the Guitar Hero series, originally developed by Harmonix and now owned by Activision (ATVI), sold more than 2.9 million copies in the two months following its Apr. 3 release, according to the NPD Group.

More here 

 Click here to view a slide show of some of the most interesting introductions coming to the gaming world.

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(* Source: Stan Schroeder *)

In an inspired blog post, Jason Kottke said that social networks aren’t helping us organize; since all of them require different credentials to log in, they’re just adding to the noise. He just might be up to something there. It’s getting harder and harder to remember all those logins, passwords, and most importantly to remember which of your friends are using what network.

Social network aggregators is a relatively new breed of applications which try to consolidate all your various social networking profiles into one, with varying success. Let’s check out 20 biggest competitors in this field.

Profilactic

Profilactic has very recently been upgraded to version 2, which brought a decent amount of new features - a new look, support for Pownce, LinkedIn, Shelfari, and the ability to add more than one account for the same site. At its core, Profilactic still does the same two things: it displays your personal lifestream, which consists of your social networking activity, and a group lifestream from your friends. What it does, it does well; however, we’d still like to see more options to interact with the items in your streams. There’s also the option to create clippings - bits and pieces of information from the web; but this option is not really connected to the rest of the features on the site.

Minggl

Minggl is a browser toolbar that works with Firefox, IE and Flock and promises to “put you in control of your social web universe”. Unfortunately, you’ll have a hard time testing this claim unless you have an invitation code, since Minggl is currently in invitation-only phase. The idea behind Minggl is to “attach” social networking profiles to Minggl and then control them all from one place. You can see an overview of the main features in this video tutorial.

iStalkr

Another application that’s based on the concept of group lifestreaming, iStalkr perhaps chooses the most logical route of all the applications on this list. It enables you to follow your own and your friends’ social networking activities on a timeline, and to act on it directly from iStalkr’s interface. Working with iStalkr, we’ve noticed that the updates aren’t coming that fast; but we’re not sure if this is due to the limitations of various APIs involved or iStalkr itself.

Correlate.us

Correlate.us doesn’t really give you the ability to do much with your social networks, it merely gives you a nice overview of your activities on them. While the application is quite simple, it’s done well, and we think that it could be a good basis for a bigger project.

Explode.us

Instead of aggregating social networking information, Explode.us lets you search all the social networks with one form. For each found user you can see tags, friends, comments, as well as the latest content this user posted. Explode.us supports, among others, LiveJournal, Flickr, Twitter, Jaiku and 43Things.

Spokeo

Spokeo is a social network tracker which enables you to track what your friends are doing on various social networks from Spokeo’s interface. In theory, that is, cause I was unable to add any of my social network profiles to Spokeo. This was actually in accordance with an overall feeling I had - the service seems to be abandoned. Perhaps the developers are just preparing a new version, but at its current state, I had no incentive whatsoever to use Spokeo.

Profilefly

Create a profile with your personal information, clippings from the web and your personal social networking lifestream. Profilefly works as a widget or as a Facebook application, and it supports a huge number of social networks, including MySpace, Digg, Hi5, Facebook, Last.FM, Second Life and many others. The actual profile is a bit bland, with the lifestream - which should be the center of such an application - offering very limited options; for example, time stamps and any kind of interactivity is lacking.

PeopleAggregator

PeopleAggregator aims to become a social identity hub. It works through a desktop software application which currently runs only on Linux, and although we applaud its reliance on OpenID and open standards in general, the decision to start a service that aims to connect social networking users and their profiles, on a Linux platform, seems like a suicide. The official FAQ which is at the moment a bunch of spam links doesn’t help. Look at the presentation of the service in HTML form here.

SocialURL

SocialURL helps you organize your online identity and get back in touch with all of your friends and classmates. It’s a unified profile with support for photo galleries and videos, as well as a central portal with links pointing out to all your other social network profiles. It’s all spiced up with lots of additional features, like on-site email, reminders and bookmarks.

Socialstream

We’ve already said quite a lot about Social Stream considering that it’s not even in beta stage yet - all that’s available at this point is a vidcast presentation of what Social Stream can do. However, the huge amount of attention that Social Stream got is a clear indicator that some pieces of the puzzle are still missing in the social network aggregator space.

Tabber

Tabber is a personal profile page, which displays some information about you together with your latest activity on Digg, del.icio.us, your blog, Twitter, or any RSS feed. It’s very similar in concept to ProfileFly, and just like it, it lacks any possibility to interact with your lifestream.

Naymz

Naymz is another personal profile site, which goes a step further than services like Tabber or ProfileFly by giving you the possibility to actively monitor certain sites for mention of your name. Naymz also actively promotes your profile by trying to make it more visible on Google.

8hands

In contrast to the majority of the other services described here, 8hands is a desktop application which currently works on Windows XP and Vista. It allows you to access your profiles on social networks (currently supported are Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and many more) from a single IM-like interface. The idea is to have an overview of what’s happening on your social networks, and send instant messages to other users. 8hands software is currently in alpha (I guess we’re lucky alpha is the first letter of Greek alphabet, otherwise we’d have even more unstable software dubbed with a name that signifies even earlier stages of development), so expect some instability.

Second Brain

Second Brain takes a radically different approach to aggregation than other apps on this list. You organize your data - this includes data from your social network profiles, like Flickr photos or YouTube videos - into collections. A collection is basically a bunch of links, photos, or other bits and pieces of data thrown onto a dashboard; you can create your own collections or explore what others have collected. While the concept seems powerful, I’ve found myself trying to find something to do with it all. In any case, Second Brain is currently in invite-only beta stage and there will probably be some changes in the service until it goes public.

UpScoop

UpScoop lets you upload the contacts from your address book (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail and AOL are supported) and it lets you discover which of your friends are active on social networks like Hi5, MySpace and others. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing UpScoop didn’t work with my perfectly valid Gmail address, so I couldn’t properly test it out. Hopefully, it’s just a temporary glitch.

ProfileOMat

ProfileOMat advertises itself as the last profile we’ll ever need - if only things were that simple! ProfileOMat doesn’t really aggregate your social networking profiles; it merely creates a profile from which you can reach all of your other profiles on social network. It does have a couple of nifty features, for example, you can set up your geographical location with the help of Google Maps.

MyLifeBrand

MyLifeBrand tries to go a step further by really integrating various social network sites within a MyLifeBrand frame. While this approach brings a far more streamlined experience, it’s unlikely that social network users will want to open their favorite website within some other website; also, there’s always the possibility of unexpected errors with this approach. At this time MyLifeBrand is in invite-only beta, so if you don’t have an invitation code, you won’t be able to try it out.

ProfileLinker

Amongst the rounded corners and reflections that have become the usual visual identity for Web 2.0 ProfileLinker stands out by looking very Web 1.0-ish. After registration, you can add your various social network profiles and your contacts, and all this activity will be shown on your ProfileLinker profile. The look and feel of the interface leaves a lot to be desired; for one thing, I’d like to be able to remove random information about ProfileLinker’s history that shows up on my profile; in general, the options for personalization are quite limited.

Snag

Snag takes a no-nonsense approach: no registration required; just enter some of your social network credentials (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and LinkedIn are supported) and you get a group lifestream of your activity on these networks. The application needs much polishing, though; for example, entering the wrong credentials won’t result in an error; instead, your lifestream will consist of login errors retrieved from that particular network. At this point, Snag looks more like proof-of-concept than a full-fledged app.

Socialnetwork.in

Besides aggregating your social network profiles, Socialnetwork.in spices things up with ratings. Perhaps I’m just unlucky, but testing the service resulted in numerous errors which pretty much prevented me to do any serious analysis. To see some basic features check out the screencast here.

MyMashable

OK, a free bonus for the 21st: Mashable also aggregates your social networking links in one place, with video, photo sharing, Flickr import and other features. It’s worth disclosing at least.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Businessweek *)

There's a land grab under way in Silicon Valley. Not in real land (even in Tech Town, home sales are sagging), but on the Web. What's fueling the frenzy is something that couldn't sound more prosaic: widgets.

In the Web world, widgets are modules of software that people can drag and drop onto the personal page of their social network or onto a blog. There, widgets typically look like a little window or box, packing a bit of the functionality that you would get with a stand-alone Web site or software package. The result can be as mundane as the WeatherBug, or a YouTube clip of your favoritevideo of a bulldog riding a skateboard, or your wish list from online jewelry retailer Blue Nile (NILE ).

 More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Stan Schroeder *)

See also: World’s First Review of Streamy - The AJAX-based Digg Rival

–

Tags - for some, one of the best ideas on the web, for others, merely a visual distraction. Yes, we’re talking about those loosely defined categories which are usually organized into cute little clouds. Looking for tag-related resources can be tough, so we’ve dug up 30 tools and resources that every seasoned tagger should check out.

Tools

Tag2find - organize the content on your hard disk through tags; ideal for Web 2.0 fanatics.
TagMyCloud - a tool that creates a tag cloud from a text you provide.
Tagfacts - organize your notes into tags.
Tagcrowd - visualize a chunk of text into tags, based on keyword density.
Tagcloud maker - create a simple tag cloud for your web site.
Taglocity - need more clutter in your Microsoft Outlook? Here’s the perfect thing for you: a tag cloud plugin that lets you add tags to your email, tasks, calendar, and contacts.
30 Day Tags - a big directory of sites organized into categorized tags.
Cloudalicious - a very interesting tool that shows you the popularity of tags over time for any website. Great for blog SEO research.
extispicious - get a random scattery image of any del.icio.us user’s tags.
Googlecloud - Google’s results too straightforward for you? Convert them into a tag cloud.
Zoomclouds - a tool that lets you create a tag cloud based on an RSS feed and embed it to your web site.
Keyword Density Checker - A tool that checks the keyword density for any site and displays it in a tag cloud.
Suprcilious - social tagging site with a very basic interface.
Tag The Net - feed this service a link or some text and it will generate tags based on the text you provided.
Tag Cloud Creator - a simple but functional tool that creates tags based on a URL you provide.
Google TagCloud Maker - a Greasemonkey script that adds a tag cloud to Google search results.
Clusty Cloud Creator - a tool that generates a tag cloud based on your parameters and a single term your provide.

Plugins

Category Cloud Widget - display categories in the sidebar of your blog with this widget.
TechTags - add tags to your posts with a single line, without ever having to touch HTML or PHP.
SimpleTags - a WordPress plugin that allows you to easily generate Technorati tags at the bottom of your blog entries.
Terms2Tags - a plugin that uses the extract terms plugin for creating Technorati tags.
Ultimate Tag Warrior - one of the best tag-related plugins for Wordpress with a huge amount of options.
Taggerati - easy tag creation and maintenance, customizable tag cloud.
Taga.licio.us - a plugin that fetches all links from del.icio.us for a given set of tags.
My Tags - create URLs for directories with “tag” in them, Technorati style.
Movable Type Tags - a plugin for displaying tags in Movable Type blogs.

Miscellaneous

Semapedia - tagging meets real world.
Mytago - a tool for decoding offline tags with your mobile phone.
Snapshirts - Wanna show the world how geeky you are? Create a t-shirt with a tag cloud.
97tags - Buy tags, get traffic to your site. At least that’s the idea, we don’t know if it works

Posted by brian tiong at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: N4G.com *)

An internet start-up backed by Sir Richard Branson, that promises to transform the global computer games industry, is set to list in London with a €1bn (£670m) valuation.

Game Domain International, a start-up based in Germany, has created an online virtual world, similar to Second Life, that also allows subscribers to download the latest computer games.

Technology in the company's 3D computer-generated reality, called A World of My Own (AWOMO), allows PC users to buy, download and play the latest game titles without the need to visit a shop. GDI claims that games can be downloaded to a PC using a broadband connection at a much faster rate than has previously been possible...

AWOMO

Check AWOMO

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(* Source: IMedia Connection *)

The Little Deviant campaign uses an array of innovative elements to underscore the xD's non-conformist personality. These facets include a cinema spot that debuted in key markets on June 15, the Little Deviants interactive website that launched the same day, a pop-up spectacular print ad, a banner campaign and other guerilla activities that kicked off earlier this month.

In the storyline, the xD's virtual accomplices -- a number of uniquely monstrous little Deviant characters -- torment "Sheeple," the conformist clones who paint the world and its inhabitants a dull gray. The xD itself unleashes Deviants from underground, and through the campaign's website, visitors can join the mischievous gremlins in customization... all in the spirit of replacing dreary compliance with vibrant creativity.

More here 

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(* Source: Dennis Bouchand *)

RealNetworks, Inc. announced today an agreement with Mattel, Inc. to develop, publish and distribute Scrabble, UNO and several Mattel game titles for downloadable PC and online play throughout the world (excluding the U.S. and Canada for Scrabble).

Mattel selected Real for its strong casual games development team and distribution channel. Real has developed some of the industry’s most popular casual game titles, including award-winners like Super Collapse and South Park 10: The Game, and develops major brand titles on a global level via its design studios GameHouse and Zylom.

According to the Casual Games Association, more than 200 million people worldwide play casual games via the Internet - with the casual gaming industry expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2008. With this growing market and demand, there is great opportunity for both Real and Mattel to bring the fun and enjoyment of classic board games online.

The first game titles of this partnership are expected to come out in mid- 2008.

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(* Dennis Bouchand *)

SaySwap, the first video game social network that allows users to trade for new games at a small fraction of the retail or used cost, has announced a major expansion of potential members with the launch of its white label partnership with Cheat Code Central, the largest video game cheat code site in the world with well over 5 million monthly unique visitors.

Cheat Code Central will leverage the SaySwap platform to facilitate video game trades for its members through a combination of trading tokens and purchase points (a virtual currency for each game).

SaySwap reduces costs of new games to the user, facilitating trades, through a combination of trading tokens and purchase points. Through the deal, SaySwap will provide a completely customized platform that enables CheatCC.com users to create their own profile pages with the ability to create game trading lists (including all PS3, Xbox 360 and Way titles). In addition, the SaySwap solution allows CheatCC.com members to bypass the negotiation phase, since all games have a predefined value.

Dave Allison, CEO of CheatCC.com said, “We are excited to allow our millions of users the ability get games like Guitar Hero 2 and Super Paper Mario for under $5 in our new social video game shopping platform.”

Posted by brian tiong at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Cristina Ledesma *)

Paltalk, a real-time, video-based community with over 4 million users, today solidifies its leadership position in socialcasting with the launch of Screening Rooms. Socialcasting brings together high quality programming and video content with social networking and live interactive community. This launch also coincides with the release of Paltalk’s latest video community service called PaltalkScene. Screening Rooms, PaltalkScene and all of its features support an active and participatory, rather than a passive, online video experience, where users not only watch content, but can interact with it and each other in real-time.

Screening Rooms allow anyone to watch shows and pre-recorded video content, either licensed or user-generated, in a public or private video chat room with up to 5,000 other Paltalk members. In the Screening Room, viewers can watch synchronized video content together while interacting with each other in the room through voice, video and text chat as the video plays. Screening Rooms are available in beta starting today and will be offered in general availability later this year.

Screening Rooms are debuting with programming from many leading online video content providers including ManiaTV!, Heavy.com, Rip.tv. Starting today Paltalk users will have access to original video content ranging from extreme sports, professional mixed martial arts, entertainment news, comedy and serialized programs. Paltalk members will also be able to upload and play their own video content and home movies to share and comment about it with their friends and family.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Emarketer *)

With 40 million active Internet users, Germany is home to Europe's largest online population, and two out of three German Internet users are online buyers. Not surprisingly, the country is Europe's largest retail e-commerce market, with online sales of $23.9 billion in 2006.

Germany: Online Overview examines all aspects of this powerhouse of the European Internet.

Germans are experienced online users—and buyers. Nearly two-thirds of Germany's Internet population has been online for three or more years.

Most importantly, however, the German Internet population continues to grow.

Key questions the Germany: Online Overview answers:

• How big is Europe's biggest online retail market?
• How much does the average German online buyer spend a year?
• How fast is the German online population growing?
• How old—or young—are German Internet users?
• How much do German advertisers spend online?
• How does the German online advertising market compare to the rest of Europe?
• What other digital channels are growing in Germany?
• And many others….

Posted by brian tiong at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Vivian Salama *)

A South Korean version of MySpace is emerging as a potent political force. How Cyworld is reshaping the country’s presidential campaign.

Cyworld, says its creators at SK Communications—South Korea's top Internet provider—was designed to appeal to Koreans with its two-dimensional bubbly cartoon characters and bold graphics. Users exchange real money for the Cyworld currency of dotori, which translates as “acorns.” With it they can accessorize their own pages or buy gifts for others. The virtual currency has become so popular that it spills over into real life, too. Jung-Eun Lee, a 33-year-old Seoul-based reporter, for example, says her birthday gifts included dotori from her husband and Cyworld gifts from friends.

According to company officials, about a third of Cyworld users are between the ages of 30 and 50. But it’s among younger users that the site has hit the mother lode: corporate spokesmen say that a whopping 90 percent of South Koreans in their 20s are registered users of Cyworld. That’s especially important given that the government lowered the country’s voting age to 19 last year, making an additional 4.2 million South Koreans eligible to vote since the last presidential election in 2002.

Not surprisingly, the politicians' Cyworld homepages—known as “minihompys”—blend right in with those of their young constituents. The candidates design their characters—complete with virtual wardrobe; fix up their Cyworld homes; they even have Cyworld buddies who generally consist of their supporters. The candidates reach out to their buddies via messages, articles or save-the-date memos for campaign-related events. Another key feature: in order to register, Cyworld users must have a Korean national ID number, so candidates can be sure they’re connecting with genuine voters.

More than 90 percent of South Korean households have high-speed broadband at home, making it one of the world’s most connected countries. During the 2002 election, South Korea’s current President Roh Moo Hyun’s core supporters consisted of the younger, Internet-savvy generation, as opposed to the conservatives who backed his opponent, Lee Hoi Chang. On the morning of the election, Roh supporters launched a massive campaign, sending e-mails and text messages to more than 800,000 people, urging them to vote. The use of both technologies is attributed by many as one of the main reasons Roh came out on top.

More here 

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(* Source: Livia Lacolare *)

Wikis, sites that can be collaboratively edited, are among the most popular tools for groups working together online. We’ve rounded up 30 of the best sites and resources - most of them free or low priced.

Hosted Wikis

PBwiki - create your personal wiki in less than 30 seconds with this easy online service. Special solutions for educational, business and personal use.

OttoWiki - build up your personal wiki to track projects or collaborate on documents online.

WikiSpaces - create simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit together.

WetPaint - build up public and private wikis and join one of the largest wiki communities.

ServerSideWiki - create a web-hosted wiki specifically designed for extremely fast load times.

StikiPad - a hosted wiki solution that gives you an easy way to organize your information and share it with others.

Netcipia - create free private wikis and blogs and invite your coworkers, familiy and friends.

Ziwiki - build up a free wiki site and collaborate with a large community of users.

Near-Time - create and customize collaborative wikis for your business, customers and friends.

LittleWiki - set up free public and private wiki pages that anyone can edit.

TiddlySpot - get your wiki with no installation required and make it private or public.

ProjectForum - create hosted wikis to share, discuss and review ideas collaboratively (self hosted version available too)

Socialtext - build up a wiki in a few seconds. Different plans available for enterprises and smaller groups.

WikiBios - create a wiki page and edit your own biography. You will become part of a large social network.

Wiki - create free wikispaces of up to 5 members each with 25MB storage.

Wikidot - free and professional wiki publishing, collaboration and communication solutions.

Zoho Wiki - create free hosted group wikis and edit them collaboratively.

Wik.is - create public or private wikis and easily integrate them with your existing website.

JotSpot - popular wiki creation service that is momentarily suspended after having been acquired by Google.

Wikia - a community of users that create, share and discover topics they are passionate about through wikis.

EditMe - wiki hosting service that helps non-technical users to quickly and easily build editable web sites.

Versionate - create collaborative spaces where you can share information and review it with other people.

Self-Hosted/Open Source Wikis

ProjectForum - software to create wikis to share, discuss and review ideas collaboratively (hosted version available too).

Kwiki - wiki software with over 200 plugins that let you customize the look of your wiki.

XWiki - open source wiki released under the LGPL license

Twiki - enterprise collaboration platform and knowledge management system based on wikis.

OpenWiki - software that lets you create workspaces that can be collaboratively edited by anyone or by selected users.

MediaWiki - free software wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. It’s available for everyone to use.

Confluence - enterprise wiki software that makes it easy for your team to collaborate and share knowledge.

Wiki Search / Browsing Tools

Gollum - a fast and user friendly tool that lets you browse through Wikipedia.

Qwika - search articles in Wikipedia with this tool that bridges the language gaps.

Wikiseek - another interesting service that lets you search items within Wikipedia.

WikiWix - search engine specialized in searching content within Wikipedia.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

Mattel’s virtual world Barbie Girls hit the 3million user mark in its first 60 days and is growing at the rate of 50,000 new users a day, according to a report from the Scientific American.

To put that in perspective, Second Life took 3 years to get to 1 million registered users. At its current growth rate, Barbie Girls should pass the number of Second Life registered users between November and January based on Second Life’s existing growth rate. Barbie Girls would also pass World of Warcraft around the same time as well*.

Barbie Girls allows users to customize Barbie dolls, dress them up, create virtual homes, adopt pets and chat with other users. The service is free to play with a revenue model focused on the purchase of virtual goods.

Saying this is a crowded space is probably now an understatement. Competitors include Cyworld, Zwinktopia, Stardoll, Haboo Hotel, Web Kinz, Club Penguin, Gaia Online, Neopets and others.

It would be easy to dismiss an offering like Barbie Girls (feminists are probably going to roll their eyes at the whole concept) and yet 3 million registered users in 60 days does say one very, very clear thing: virtual worlds are going mainstream and the user base is dramatically shifting from being predominantly male to majority female. That shift isn’t quite as important now as it will be in the next 5-10 years as those playing Barbie Girls grow into adults; simply the next generation of online gaming and virtual world users will not be dominated by men.

*WOW figures of 8.5million users are paying, regular users where as the Barbie Girls figure would be registered users as opposed to regular players. Barbie may have a much lower regular player figure as Second Life does.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Cristina Ledesma *)

Manpower Inc. announced the launch of the Manpower Island in Second Life, the online virtual community. Manpower Island is a place where job seekers, employers and entrepreneurs can come together in an interactive forum to learn about and explore the World of Virtual Work, share ideas and identify new opportunities in traditional and non-traditional meeting spaces ranging from an amphitheater to a relaxing spot on the virtual beach. Built as a learning community, Manpower Island features a variety of virtual work resources, including an orientation trail to teach “newbies” how to move around, interact and teleport around Second Life; and a series of work-related stations offering advice on creating a virtual resume, preparing for both Real Life and Second Life job interviews, obtaining appropriate attire and finding a job in the virtual world.

Manpower has developed a short informational video about the World of Virtual Work. The video examines how, in an environment of global competition, virtual work has become a powerful way to connect skills and demand, regardless of the distance between them.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

( * Source: Minic Rivera *)

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced new games and services for its Playstation Network, an entertainment network aimed at delivering innovative content and community to a worldwide audience. SCEA unveiled new features for the highly-anticipated PlayStation Home, a 3D community-based service set to revolutionize the broadband entertainment world, and announced new content for its Playstation Network.

“Our goal is to deliver the most compelling entertainment experience to our PlayStation fans through Playstation Network,” said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. “The interactive content sharing features of PlayStation Home, combined with the library of innovative downloadable games and entertainment, truly push the boundaries of our customer’s imaginations and deliver on the promise of an integrated content and community service.”

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 (* Source: Mark Baard *)

That hipster you always see talking into his Bluetooth headset might soon be able to use a similar device to leap into Second Life without even stepping out of line at Trader Joe's.

Researchers at a recent virtual worlds conference at MIT said that special eyewear, display "badges," and speakers worn about the neck will allow us to live more fully through our avatars -- those idealized versions of ourselves that typically boast better proportions than the saggy originals.

Second Lifers wearing the gadgets will be able to attend "in-world" parties and gallery openings, whether they are sucking down beers at Cornwall's or stuck in Fenway traffic. Motion detectors and other sensors in the devices will also show your virtual mates what you are up to in the real world.

It might sound like public safety officers will need to shift focus away from the risks associated with driving while chatting on cellphones to the inherent dangers of operating in two realities at the same time. But conference participants said such concerns are premature.

"It's like you're not going to be allowed to be in a virtual world while driving in the real world," said Robert Sutor, vice president of open source and standards at IBM.

Linden Lab vice president Joe Miller described one of the early products that will bridge the two worlds as a wearable box that creates a "3D sound field" that allows the wearer to hear voices from his virtual world without completely shutting out the real people around him.

The prototype speaker device presented to Linden recently by a developer "is not ready for prime time yet but it's working pretty well," said Miller, speaking at "Virtual Worlds: Where Business, Society, Technology & Policy Converge," sponsored by MIT and IBM.

Linden is encouraging open source developers to create client software for mobile devices. And Blizzard Entertainment, creator of the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft, is hiring developers with experience in Symbian and Adobe Flash Lite for its mobile interface initiative.

Conference participants said cellphones are likely to be the first mobile devices to create two-way connections between real and virtual reality.

More here:

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(* Source: Businesswire.com *)

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MySpace today announced that it is outperforming all other social networking sites according to multiple metrics. America’s leading and most trafficked website has crossed the 70 million active monthly unique user mark in the United States, meaning that nearly one in four Americans used MySpace last month, according to newly released data from comScore MediaMetrix.

comScore MediaMetrix’s new data shows that users are more engaged on MySpace than on any other social network; the site gained two billion page views from May to June. Total time spent on MySpace by users is three times its closest competitor and the site continues to lead in average minutes spent per person per month with more than 200 minutes on average, according to comScore. Additionally, among teen Internet users MySpace ranks as the brand with the highest overall Differentiation and Brand Stature, according to Young and Rubicam’s industry standard BrandAsset® Valuator.

A report issued yesterday by Forrester shows that nearly 80% of 12-17(a) year olds use MySpace at least weekly which is four times more than any other social network.(b)

“This is just the beginning of MySpace’s evolution and we’re excited to see the continued growth and engagement among our users,” said Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace.

“Whether uploading a video, registering to vote, or catching up with friends, MySpace continues to be a central part of people’s lives.”

“MySpace is clearly leading the social networking category with the largest, most engaged audience as compared to all other social networks,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Our data also shows that MySpace continues to grow at a strong pace.”

“MySpace is in a unique position as one of the strongest, most valued brands in the highly coveted teen audience,” said Ed Lebar, managing director of BAV Consulting. “Our BrandAsset® Valuator showed MySpace as outpacing all other social networks and portals in terms of brand Differentiation and Energy.”

comScore MediaMetrix Data Overview

The latest data from comScore MediaMetrix shows that across four different user engagement metrics users are more engaged on MySpace than on any other social network:

Average Visits per Visitor

• MySpace users visit the site 20% more often than the closet competitor in the social networking category

Average Minutes Per Visitor

• MySpace users spend about 10 minutes more each month on the site than the closest competitor in the social networking category

Total Monthly Minutes Spent

• MySpace has 3 times more minutes on the site than its closet competitor in the social networking category

Average Daily Visitors

• MySpace gets 3 times more visitors on the average day than its closet competitor in the category

In addition to domestic growth, MySpace is experiencing strong international growth and has plans to expand into 10 additional countries in the next year. MySpace currently has localized communities in 18 countries and 7 languages including France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Austria, Latin America and the United Kingdom. By visiting MySpace’s online global map, users are empowered to log on and view their profile through the lens of any of country or language http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=InternationalMap.

More here

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(* Source: Mashable *)

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(* Source: Mashable *)

Podcasting may not have lived up to the early hype, but with iPods and other MP3 players still selling like crazy, the potential audience for these audio shows is huge. We’ve compiled a monster list of 70+ tools and resources for podcasters and wannabes.

Podcast Creation Guides

How To Create a Podcast - About.com’s step-by-step tutorial for podcast beginners.
iLounge Guide to Podcast Creation - another guide for creating your own podcast for absolute beginners.
Podcasting Legal Guide - find about legal issues relevant to podcasting in this Creative Commons guide.

Podcast Hosting, Sharing and Networking (Free)

Pickstation - A Digg for podcasts and music.
Collectik - “Mixtapes for podcasts”: find, share and organize podcasts.
Podbean - Free podcast hosting and publishing.
Castpost - Free hosting for audio and video clips.
HeyCast - A tool to create video podcasts. Essentially, HeyCast creates RSS feeds from any existing video files on the web. It doesn’t provide hosting or sharing features.
Blubrry - A podcast network that lets you create a podcast and browse the podcasts of others.
Evoca - “YouTube for voice recordings”: create audio recordings from your computer mic, your phone or Skype, share them with others and embed them on websites.
ThePodcastNetwork - A network of podcasts on a range of topics including business, entertainment and comedy.
MyPodcast - podcast hosting solution offering unlimited storage, bandwidth, and free templates for your podcasts.
PodServe - this service is still in alpha stage, but everyone’s invited to try it out. It offers a hosting space for your podcast and a directory of user-created podcasts.
PodcastPeople - a service that enables you to post text, audio and video materials to your own customized show, and even earn some income from it through sponsors.
PCastBaby - free podcast hosting service offering 10MB of storage space and unlimited bandwidth.
Podomatic - create, find and share podcasts with this free service.
Blubrry - create your podcast on Blubrry; browse through other podcasts and create your personal playlist.

Podcast Advertising

Podango - get free unlimited hosting for your podcast and share ad revenue with Podango 50/50.
Podbridge - Provides podcast metrics and advertising.
Podtrac - a service that connects podcasters with advertisers.

Audio Tours

TourCaster - Find audio tours of your favorite cities and download them to your iPod.
iAudioGuide - Find audio guides for major world cities and download them to portable devices.

Video Podcasting

Veodia - Create live TV shows and convert them to video podcasts.
Blip.tv - A “video podcasting” service. Broadly similar to YouTube, but the focus is on independent creators, who get a share of revenue.

Mobile Podcasting

Podlinez - a simple service to listen to podcasts on your phone.
Gabcast - Record podcasts straight from your phone.
Yodio - Record audio from your phone, add photos and captions.

Text to Podcasts

BlueGrind - Converts text (especially blogs) into podcasts.
Feed2Podcast - Convert any RSS feed into a podcast.
Talkr - Convert blogs to audio podcasts.
Odiogo - convert RSS feeds, text articles and blog posts to podcasts.

Podcasts to Text

CastingWords - a podcast transcription service that converts podcasts to text for $0.75 minute. It employs human transcribers.

Podcast Directories

Grepr Podcasts - A directory that makes recommendations by finding patterns in your interests and comparing the interests of others.
Yahoo Podcasts - Explore podcasts, listen to them, subscribe to them and even create your own.
MobilCast - directory of podcasts and radio shows, complete with playlists.
PodcastAlley - a podcast directory with over 30,000 podcasts. Maintains a monthly top list.
DigitalPodcast - a simple, categorized podcast directory
Podcast.net - a very comprehensive podcast directory; contains tens of thousands of podcasts.
PodcastDirectory.com - a directory of podcasts with a top list, a list of featured podcasts, and categorization.
PodcastDirectory.org- a simple directory with a very clean layout.
Podfeed.net - on Podfeed you can host and share your podcast, find podcasts, as well as read and write podcast reviews.
iAmplify - A premium directory where you pay to download self-help podcasts.
Earkive - Directory that lets you listen to podcasts on your phone (mobile or landline)

Live Podcasting

Talkshoe - Create your own live talkshow or interactive podcast.
Waxxi - Audio shows streamed live, mainly with notable technologists. Once recorded, the live shows are available as podcasts.
NowLive - A social network that lets anyone create a live, interactive talk show. Stickam for audio, in some ways.

Podcast Hosting (Premium)

PodcastSpot - Offers both free and premium podcast hosting.
SwitchPod - a podcast hosting service, with unmetered bandwidth, statistics and even some promotional opportunities.
Hipcast - create audio, video materials and podcasts and post them to your blog.
Libsyn - Liberated Syndication will host your podcasts for a modest monthly fee.

Podcast Search

Everyzing - Audio and video search engine.
Podscope - an audio and video search engine that searches the words spoken in podcasts.
Pluggd - Discover and share podcasts, and search for specific parts of podcasts using advanced search technology called HearHere.
PodNova - Podcast search and community.

Podcast Forums

Podcast Alley Forum - a well visited forum on everything related to podcasting.
DigitalPodcast Forum - a good forum for promoting your podcast.
World Podcast Forum - a fresh forum about podcasting.

Podcast Creation Software (Offline)

Propaganda - Create professional podcasts including background music, jingles, crossfading and more. Windows only. Free trial, $49.95 to buy.
Audacity - Free, open source software for recording and editing audio. Versions for Mac OS X, Windows, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
Adobe Soundbooth - Advanced audio editing from Adobe. Windows and Mac. Free trial, $199 to buy.
Wildvoice Podcast Studio - Record audio, add music and sound effects and upload to Wildvoice.com or other sites. Windows only.
SnapKast - Podcast creation for Windows. $79.99.

Podcast Creation Software (Online)

Odeo - Perhaps the most popular podcasting platform. It allows you to record audio within your browser, embed it anywhere and create your own audio channels.
Hipcast - Record high-quality audio right through the web browser or your phone. No additional software needed.
Gcast - Record, mix and broadcast your podcasts. You can record messages by phone and upload MP3 files from your computer.
Podomatic - This site lets you record video and audio online directly from your browser. You can also receive in line calls from listeners wanting to leave voice comments.
ClickCaster - create, broadcast and sell your very own radio shows and podcasts. You can record audio right from your browser or upload an existing MP3.
Wild Voice Shout Recorder - Online service that lets you record audio files through an intuitive interface but doesn’t let you edit them or add special effects.

Miscellaneous Podcast Tools

Enablr - make your podcasts indexed and searchable.
PodShow - a network that brings audio, video, podcasts, and music to your computer, iPod, mobile device, or television.
Divicast - enhance your podcast with images and text and share it with everyone.
Divvycast - where podcasting and music meet. Helps bands to create podcasts.
Podbop - Find bands in your city and download free MP3s to your iPod to preview their music ahead of the show.
Noisely - Enter a subject you’re interested in, and Noisely serves up a selection of podcasts you’ll like. Press play, and all the ‘casts stream continuously until you stop them.

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(* Source: Del.icio.us *)

More related articles

Posted by brian tiong at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable.com *)

Online music has always been popular, and now social networks, peer recommendations and personalized radio stations are helping fans find bands faster than ever before. Here are more than 90 sites for musicians, fans, and everyone who enjoys music.

Internet Radio

Last.FM - one of the most popular music communities around, with personalized radio stations, a stunning array of social networking features, RSS support and lots more.
Slacker - personalized Internet radio which offers a desktop version of the application and a hardware portable music player. Available only in the United States.
ShoutCast - A large directory of Internet radio stations, categorized by genre. Streams work in Winamp.
Live365 - A directory of web-based Internet radio stations - expect popups.
Yahoo! Music - listen to Internet radio and watch music videos on Yahoo’s music portal.
AOL Music - AOL’s take on internet radio. Offers music from XM as well.
Pandora - a very popular Internet radio/community which brings you new music based on stuff you like. Works only in the US & Canada at the moment.
Yottamusic - a huge music library boasting over 3.4 million songs, accessible from your web browser.

Music Discovery Tools

MusicMesh - browse through artists based on their similarities; find tracklists and reviews for albums.
Blogmusik - browse through top lists and listen to popular artists for free.
Musicovery - discover new music with this cool take on Internet radio.

Social Networks

See also: 12 of the Best Music Social Networks

iLike - a community that lets you discover new music based on you and your friends’ tastes.
PureVolume - a “MySpace for music”, albeit with a classier design.
ProjectPlaylist - popular site for sharing playlists and posting them to other social networks.
Imeem - another playlist-sharing community for artists and fans that also supports embedding of tracks on other social sites and blogs.
MP3.com - the famous music site is now a social network similar to MySpace Music.
iJigg - a place for indie bands and artists to post their music, which the users can download for free.
MOG - a place to share your music and video library and exchange thoughts on music with others.
Fuzz - discover new music; artists can sell their music, but there are also free songs to be found on the site.
eListeningPost - convert your tracks into preview files, then sell them and keep 94% of the profits.
ProjectOpus - Music community for indie bands, complete with widgets to post on MySpace and blogs.
Rapspace.tv - social networking for rap and hiphop.
Musocity - a music community with profiles for fans, artists, retailers and music venues.
Haystack - social networking, playlist sharing and band profiles.
Bandbuzz - find and rate music playlists in a Digg-like interface.
Midomi - find songs by humming or singing the tune. Then explore profile pages and network with others.
Buzznet - large pop culture community with news, videos, photos and member profiles.
JukeboxAlive - Upload music and share tracks with friends. Bands can sell their CDs, write a blog and post events to a calendar.
MusicHawk - track bands and see band-related news and reviews, as well as information on gigs and new releases.
ReverbNation - social network connecting bands, fans and venues.
MusicNation - find new music, watch music videos; if you’re an indie/unsigned artist, join for a chance to get exposure or even a record contract.
Grooveshark - an online service that rewards you for sharing, reviewing, and discovering new music (currently in private testing - enter you email address on the homepage to be notified of the launch).
Dopetracks - upload and share your tracks and beats, and record music online.
Funk Player - a music sharing community where authors can upload songs, while everyone can bookmark, select, listen and comment on them.
FIQL - social playlist sharing.
Soundflavor - create playlists and share them with other users; meet people with similar taste and discover new music.
FineTune - pick an artist and receive a custom playlist featuring music by that artists and other related artists.
MusicMobs - browse through playlists and create your own in a simple interface.

Music Sharing Applications and Widgets

uPlayMe - a downloadable application that lets you meet people with similar music tastes.
DotTunes - share your iTunes collection with friends through your web browser.
Audiozue - A Mac OSX application that posts your recently-played iTunes tracks to your MySpace page or blog.
Sonific - a music network where you can store the music you hold the rights to, and syndicate it to other sites with SongSpot widgets.
Mediamaster - upload your entire music collection and access it from anywhere in the world. You can also publish this music via widgets to any website.
BooMP3 - upload and share your MP3s; unlimited hosting.
Goombah - an application that scans your iTunes library and connects you with like minded users.
Maestro - upload your entire music library and access it from anywhere.

Music Marketplaces

iTunes - Apple’s overwhelmingly popular music download store is a service that requires little in the way of introduction.
Amie Street - music market where music starts with free price, and the price increases as a track becomes more popular (the price never goes above 1 dollar).
Emusic - one of the most successful “indie” music stores, with over 100 million DRM-free tracks sold.
Bleep - high-quality MP3s with prices that are a bit high, but offering a great assortment of quality music.
MP3 Tunes - an online music store offering 30,000 albums and some 360,000 songs in its catalog.
Amazon - a soon-to-come music store which should have a huge assortment of music from big and indie labels alike.
PayPlay.FM - choose between over 1.4 million indie music tracks, and buy them in either MP3 or WMA format.
Beatport - a Flash-based music store with an embeddable player.
Audio Lunchbox - choose between 2 million DRM-free songs in MP3 or OGG format.
Indiepad - buy music from indie artists; if you’re an artist, sell music to people directly on the site.
Indistr - another audio marketplace that connects indie artists with the listeners.
Mtraks - an indie music marketplace with a very interesting and quite strong music collection in store.
MagnaTune - here you’ll find an assortment of music from various genres, ranging from electronica, rock and chillout to metal & punk.
Jamendo - an online music repository offering thousands of albums for free while still protecting the artists’ intellectual rights.
Musicane - buy and sell audio, video and ringtones.
Musiclovr - music search, recommendations and a store. Purchases are made via Amazon and iTunes.
MySpace Music / Snocap - through Snocap’s embedded music stores, bands on MySpace sell tunes to the social network’s huge audience. Bands can also sign up for Snocap independently and sell music elsewhere.

Jamming

Ejamming - jam with other musicians and record music online.
Kompoz - compose music with other musicians. Record a track, then invite other musicians to add their own instruments.
Jamnow - a musical collaboration site where you can jam with other musicians. Jam sessions can be broadcast live.
Indaba - listen to completed music or works in progress and give your feedback; join in the music-making sessions or start your own.
JamJunky - have a song that’s not quite finished yet? Or, better yet, have a dozen? Organize them with JamJunky.

Karaoke

Singshot - the “YouTube of Karaoke”: record yourself singing along to popular music and listen to others doing the same.
kSolo - sing along to backing tracks, and rate the recordings of others.

Remixing

Jamglue - remix your music online and listen to other users’ mixes.
Splice - upload samples, remix them and post them for others to hear.
YourSpins - mix your own version of your favorite track, share it and post it to your blog or MySpace page.

Mobile Music Services

Flotones - a mobile social network which allows indie bands and artists to sell their content for use on mobiles.
Entertonement - a large directory of ringtones, with top lists and categorization for easier browsing.
Mercora - a social radio network that enables you to search and listen to over 3.5 million songs; offers an application for listening to music on your smartphone.

Music Charts

Billboard - home of the Billboard charts, with music videos and reviews.
MTV’s music charts - MTV charts and videos. Videos playable only in the US.
ChartU - a “Digg for music”: vote on tracks to boost them up the chart.

Artist Databases

Allmusic - probably the most comprehensive music database on the Internet. If your favorite artists aren’t there, well, then you’re listening to some pretty unknown artists.
Pandora Backstage - artist profiles and discographies from the personalized streaming service. You can create a custom radio station straight from an artist’s page.

Lyric Databases

AbsoluteLyrics - Lyrics for all major artists.
Hot Lyrics - huge alphabetized lyrics database. Hard to navigate, but lots of content.

Music Search Engines

Qloud - Music search meets social networking. Currently back in private testing once, but Mashable has a review here. The service that launches next may be substantially different, however.
FindSounds - a search engine for sound effects and music instrument samples.
Musipedia - find and listen to songs based on keywords you provide.

Audio Conversion Tools

Zamzar - converts all sorts of file formats, including several audio formats.
Media Convert - a media converter with a huge amount of options.
MediaConverter - a media converter that can be slow and needs polishing, but can sometimes yield really good results.

Miscellaneous Music and Audio Tools

Bluegrind - converts text to audio.
BePopular - find gigs in UK and Ireland and get your tickets.
Getabuz - create voicemail and audio e-cards online.
iden.tify.us - can’t figure out where a certain melody comes from? Identify it with the help of this service.
Houndbite - share funny audio clips from your life with other users, with the possibility to earn prizes.

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(* Source: Emarketer *)

And they consider PCs more important than TV.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* source: Matthew G. Nelson *)

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Posted by brian tiong at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source:Nick Wingfield *)

Let the games begin.

New videogame consoles from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. made a splash when they went on sale during the last two holiday seasons, but many consumers sat on the sidelines waiting for prices to come down and better games to show up.

Game makers hope to fix at least part of the problem next week, when they show off their new lineup at the annual E3 games conference in Los Angeles, where game companies pound the drums for products that will go on sale to the public by the holidays.

Guitar Hero III leads a pack of music-themed games.

The high-profile titles to be unveiled there may finally prod more gamers to buy the two most-expensive game consoles on the market, Sony's $599 PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which starts at $299. Among them: new versions of the blockbuster Halo and Grand Theft Auto franchises, the first to exploit the graphics horsepower of the Sony and Microsoft consoles that enable heightened levels of realism.

The conference will also feature updated versions of familiar hits aimed at the most "hardcore" gamers, like Electronic Arts Inc.'s Madden NFL football game and Activision Inc.'s Call of Duty. But there will also be a special emphasis this year on easy-to-play games aimed at "casual" players, a market that Nintendo Co. has been courting with great success with its Wii console. One big new category publishers are rushing to exploit: music-themed games that allow users to play, dance and sing along.

 • Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Activision Inc./RedOctane)

(Top to bottom) A cityscape from Grand Theft Auto IV.; The protagonist from Assassin's Creed.; A guitar controller for Rock Band.

One unexpected development in the games industry has been the explosive popularity of games centered on music, a number of which feature clever game controllers shaped liked musical instruments. Guitar Hero kicked off the craze a few years ago by allowing non-musicians to play along with popular tunes by tapping colored buttons on the neck of a plastic guitar as matching colors flew by on screen.

Guitar Hero III will feature songs by the Rolling Stones, the Beastie Boys and Pearl Jam, with an added bonus for people who buy the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions: a wireless guitar controller that will free up players from cords connected to their consoles.

The product will face stiff competition from the original creators of Guitar Hero, who now work for MTV and are debuting a game called Rock Band, a title that will come with a guitar controller, drum-set controller and microphone.

For players that want a simpler musical experience on the go, Jam Sessions turns Nintendo's handheld DS game player into a portable guitar. Players will strum their virtual guitars by scratching a pick across the DS's touch-sensing screen. SingStar, meanwhile, will allow PlayStation 3 users to do karaoke in the comfort of their living rooms, capturing their performances using a videocamera that attaches to the console. Users will be able to upload the clips to the Internet.

There's even a new wave of dance games coming that take advantage of Nintendo's Wii, with a motion-sensing controller that lets users manipulate on-screen action by swinging their arms around in the air. Konami is coming out with a Wii version of its popular Dance Dance Revolution franchise that will allow users to engage in dance contests by moving their bodies around. EA is getting into the dance act with Boogie, in which players make customizable game characters called Boogs shimmy on screen.

More here 

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(* Source:Mack Collier *)

Over the last year or so, 'event-blogging' has become more popular. But the Asheville Citizen-Times is upping the ante as The Smashing Pumpkins roll into the North Carolina town for a 9-show gig.

Susan Ihne explains:

Music is not my forte. I had no idea who the Smashing Pumpkins were when they announced a nine-day play date in Asheville.

Thank goodness for Entertainment Editor Tony Kiss, who quickly put it in perspective: This is a BIG deal.

When the 8,478 tickets sold within minutes, I knew he was right.

And then with $20 opening night tickets scalping for $950 or more, I decided I’d never doubt him again — at least when it comes to music....So, when Kiss puts his seal on a big deal, we start planning.

Smashville.com

A couple of weeks ago, we launched a social networking site called smashville.com to connect band fans from around the world.

It’s where you’ll find our coverage — photos, video, audio and stories — of the band’s time in Asheville.

Fans are invited to share their thoughts in blogs, photos and video at the site throughout the band’s stay. About 60 have signed up so far.

Before each show, we’ll have a video of the smashing of something pumpkin. A ceramic pumpkin, a can of pumpkin filling, a frozen pumpkin pie, and a plastic pumpkin — whatever we can find.

The paper ran an article yesterday claiming there were 'about 60' members signed up at the time. I just checked and the site says there's 182 now. Members have already added numerous pictures and videos of the band, mostly concert shots.

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(* Source: Nextgreatthing.com *)

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(* Source: Tom Ivan *)

According to a Vancouver Sun report, the city’s police department is establishing a presence in the virtual world, staffed by officers in custom VPD uniforms and set to go live this Thursday.

Kevin McQuiggin, head of the department’s tech crimes unit, said that the vast majority of all major crimes are technology related in one form or another, hence the department’s drive to recruit web and technology friendly candidates.

"It's important for us, as an organization, to keep abreast of modern technology -- both from an educational standpoint and an outreach standpoint, and from an investigative standpoint," he said.

"As we move into the future, we're going to need people who understand technology -- that are conversant with it, that understand the impact of it and understand how to use it.”

While McQuiggin feels it is imperative to keep up with changing working conditions and embrace technology, he acknowledges that new realms of police operation will inherently come with new challenges.

“It’s going to be interesting when we start to receive crime reports - you know, harassment cases or things like that - in the virtual world… How are we going to deal with them? Where does the crime occur? Where is the suspect? Where is the victim?

"There are jurisdictional issues. Where does the crime occur? Where is the suspect? Where is the victim? We want accountability but if it's spread all over the world like that it makes it very difficult for us."

Posted by brian tiong at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Tom Yvan *)

Yahoo has announced the launch of Yahoo SmartAds, a new advertising platform that delivers tailored display ads to highly targeted audiences.

The new service automatically converts creative campaign elements and offerings into highly customized and relevant display ads by delivering ads according to the Web surfer’s age, gender, location and online activities.

An example given by Yahoo of the new service:

“If a user is browsing for hybrid cars in Yahoo! Autos and has selected San Francisco as their default location in Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo’s SmartAds platform can assemble and deliver a display ad in real time that showcases a hybrid vehicle from a major auto brand, as well as local dealer information and current lease rates….providing a relevant experience to the user and allows the marketer to reach a user who is likely to become a customer.”

Yahoo Smart Ads is the natural next step forward in contextual advertising delivery. The new service will drive new business to Yahoo, however improved targeting alone does not create a market leader; it’s only one part of the contextual advertising jigsaw puzzle. Scope is still Google’s key selling point; as long as Google offers a superior inventory, Google will continue to lead the field. Yahoo Smart Ads will drive further innovation in the space; Google is bound to offer a similar service in response, and ultimately this is good for all advertisers.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Reuters *)

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(* Source: Neil Perkin *)

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(* Source: Emarketer *)

And social networking is biggest in... South Korea!

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Getting the word out.

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(* Source: Pete Cashmore *)

Facebook is announcing that it has hit 30 million active users today. Unlike MySpace, Facebook doesn’t pad its numbers with dead accounts: these people log in at least once a month. As you can see by extending the graph below, the number of active users has doubled since the start of the year.

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

Treemo, the media-sharing service with mobile phone optimization, announced its Libertad contest in conjunction with the release of the “Libertad” album by the band Velvet Revolver. See here for entry details.

This mobile contest lets you submit content from your cell phone, share ideas and comments about the new Libertad album, and telling Velvet Revolver what the new album means to you. Upload videos, photos and stories. Winners are voted by the Treemo community, and get a trip to see the band in concert on August 18 in New York City, as sponsored by Treemo, Velvet Revolver and Sony BMG. Airfair is provided by Farecast. Among the first contests to occur simultaneously on the web and the mobile phone, for a user-generated social network, Treemo is garnering attention as a marketing platform in the right way.

Going.com took a similar approach for the promotion of its launching in various San Francisco and New York, providing airfare and concert tickets as a prize for a few lucky winners.

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

217 million people worldwide play online games, according to new figures released by comScore.

The study took into account all sites that provide online or downloadable games but excluded gambling sites. The 217million users account for 28 percent of all people online.

Yahoo! Games led the pack, attracting 53 million unique visitors. The fastest-growing Top 10 gaming property was the WildTangent Network.

The report appears to count visits to the actual gaming sites as opposed to actual user numbers. Under this methodology, online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft attract a smaller share of the market as many users would not regularly visit a central page (such as with Yahoo Games) but play directly via a desktop client. Notably though, traffic to secondlife.com is surprisingly close to the visitor numbers for worldofwarcraft.com. 

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(* Source: Nextgreatthing.com *)

The “Next Great Things” on the web are popping up faster than pimples at puberty. But teens don’t fear change, they embrace it. This is what Michael Wood from TRU, the teen research firm, calls “Obsolessence” (= obsolete + essence??). Teens want a new cell every year, new kicks every 3 – 6 months, and a new gaming console or jeans whenever. Nowadays, “brands are born to die,” he says. The upside is, they can be resurrected—just look at Keds. But odds are they’ll be over again as fast as Misha’s Barton’s 15 minutes, which was so 30 seconds ago.

With this in mind, here’s a round up of some sites and services that have caught on with youth. Yes, some may be over by the time this is posted. But others are indicative of major trends that are shaping the web as a whole.

1. Boys have long dominated the online gaming arena, but online doll sites like Stardoll and Cartoon Doll Emporium have changed all that. Girls of all ages, even their moms, are logging on to dress everyone from Barack to Britney (guess someone has to make sure she’s covered). Mattel has since launched its version, BarbieGirls.

2. Hypemachine, NonStopRiot, and Critical Metrics are hyperaggregators that make it a lot easier to discover and stream niche music that’s getting buzz. Never heard of The Loose Salute by The Mutineer? Listen now. While lots of blogs feed into the sites, Flavorpill music editor Colin Nagy tipped us off to a couple that stand on their own: Paper Thin Walls and Stylus Magazine.

3. Video sharing sites keep surging in popularity—they are a place where high school loners, prom queens, and drama dorks unite. Vimeo, created by the college humor guys, has truly developed into a more intimate, youth-focused alternative to YouTube. Kyte.tv, Stickam, and Splashcast all have video chat rooms that let youth connect in real time. With Kyte you can even embed your own channel in your SNS page.

4. Black20, a young-blooded start-up based in Brooklyn, produces online comedy shorts to rival anything on cable. Check out their first YouTube hit, The Easter Bunny Hates You, and their new virals like Star Wars PSAs and Sheffield Quigley, the official MySpace photographer.

5. Mashups are a creative outlet for anyone on the web–tech developers, new media artists, time-killing teens. Create psychedelic API Mashups on We Feel Fine and Tagnautica or star in a documentary for your Girl Talk Remix on Eyespot.

6. Second Life, Kaneva, Entropia, HiPiHi … yes, avatar-based games are all the rage, but 3B.net takes these virtual worlds and brings them back to reality. The site lets you turn your 2D social network page into a 3-dimensional space where your profile, pictures and friends are rendered into a gallery setting. The web will be 3D in 5 years, will you be ready?

7. The web provides lots of easy ways to monetize your personal content–or just personal opinion. With MyNuMo you create and sell your own ringtones, wallpapers and videos while FavoriteThingz lets you cash in on your own WOM. Sure beats babysitting.

8. MySpace’s music star Lily Allen turned into a YouTube success with this Simlish Smile video. Other artists that have recorded in the language of the Sims game: Depeche Mode, Black-Eyed Peas, Barenaked Ladies, the Flaming Lips and the Pussycat Dolls. Is Simlish the one true universal language?

9. Eventful harnesses the “crowd clout” of fans; their demands can bring a band, a politician, a comic to their city. (So hot right now on college campuses: Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul.)

10. While teens are becoming champion texters (literally), they still love to talk. Jaxtr lets them link their phones to their SNS pages by adding a click-to-call option. Given the popularity of Skype in Asia and their deal with Bebo, look for VoIP apps in the future.

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(* Source: The Associated Press *)

NASHVILLE, July 4 (AP) — Album sales have continued their downward slide this year, but sales of digital tracks are up almost 50 percent over this time last year.

A total of 229.8 million albums were sold in the United States from Jan. 1 to July 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released Wednesday. That is a 15 percent decrease over the same period last year. Sales of digital tracks increased 49 percent, to 417.3 million this year.

The decrease in album sales becomes only 9.2 percent, however, if digital singles are bundled together and counted as albums.

The trend away from albums and toward digital tracks has been going on for a few years, and industry insiders attribute it to pop music’s emphasis on hit singles. Consumers simply buy the songs they want and skip the albums.

One of the most consistent album chart-toppers is the blockbuster “Now That’s What I Call Music!” series, which features a compilation of the hottest tracks of the season and routinely makes its debut at No. 1. “Now 24” is the ninth-best-selling album so far this year.

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(* Source: Bob Tedeschi *)

A Reebok store in the game Second Life, where avatars can design their shoes.

THE seven million or so inhabitants of Second Life, the three-dimensional online world, have spent millions of dollars on digital makeovers, clothing and other goods and services for their avatars.

But will the game’s players buy anything for themselves?

Retailers and manufacturers like Reebok, Adidas, American Apparel and 1-800Flowers.com are setting up shop in Second Life, hoping that users will steer their avatars to these stores and buy goods to deliver to their real world addresses. So far, retailers say they have low expectations for their efforts, but some believe that the experiments could yield important lessons on how people might operate in the online realm.

“What we’re doing reminds me of the early days of the online world,” said Christopher G. McCann, president of 1-800-Flowers.com. “The first site we launched in 1995 was in 3-D, because I said people wouldn’t want just two-dimensional photos. Here we are, 12 years later, back into this virtual world.”

The company’s Second Life initiative, which rolled out last week, is in a brick greenhouse bearing the company logo. There, users may browse various plants and cut flowers, including a collection of “Happy Hour” bouquets arranged to resemble cocktails. Avatars may take a free floral arrangement, or users may also click from the game’s 1-800-Flowers.com store to the company’s Web site to buy one directly.

Mr. McCann said that he expected to distribute more virtual bouquets than real ones. “This is more about relationship building for us right now, and exposing our brand,” he said.

The opening of virtual stores in Second Life raises interesting questions as virtual worlds mesh elements of both e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar retailing. How, for instance, does a company market itself?

As with many companies that opened stores in Second Life, 1-800-Flowers.com contracted an outside vendor. That developer, This Second Marketing, which is based in San Francisco, created avatars wearing 1-800-Flowers.com T-shirts. The team trolled popular areas of Second Life handing out virtual fliers about the greenhouse.

More here

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(* Source: Christopher Healy *)

FIRST THINGS FIRST Tom Faulkner, 31, outfits his fighter for a wrestling match.

AFTER a long shift at the television station where he works as master control operator, Tom Faulkner of Clarksville, Ind., can often be found at his Xbox 360, engaged in his favorite wrestling game, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw. It will be an hour or two, though, before Mr. Faulkner, a 31-year-old father of two, plays a match — if he decides to do so at all.

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VIRTUAL CLOSET The character-creation mode of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground includes a Nixon jacket, an Adio shoe and pants by Quiksilver.

Flicking the thumb stick of his controller, he quickly bypasses the built-in roster of World Wrestling Entertainment professionals and heads straight for his favorite feature of the game, the “Create-A-Superstar” mode, where Mr. Faulkner excels as a virtual fashion designer.

Will Mr. Faulkner attire his brawler in a classic spandex unitard or a Brooks Brothers-style button-down shirt and blazer? If he opts for one of the menu’s 20 styles of tights, which of the 45 patterns will he choose? And which if any of the 346 graphical add-ons — from Gothic crosses to butterflies — will he use to adorn his wrestler’s costume? And what kinds of tops, socks, shoes, gloves, hats, jackets and jewelry should his grappler wear? Should Mr. Faulkner design a separate outfit for him to don backstage?

While men like Mr. Faulkner are more likely to be found reading Electronic Gaming Monthly than the latest issue of Men’s Vogue, customizable fashion is playing an increasingly large role in the video games they play. Female-friendly games like the Sims and online virtual worlds like Second Life are already well known for offering an almost infinite wardrobe from which users can choose their characters’ couture.

But playing dress-up in a digital world is not just for the girls. Testosterone-heavy male-targeted games now feature costuming elements, allowing young men to express themselves through clothing in a way no traditional male pastime has allowed before.

More here 

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(* Source: Nick Gonzalez *) 

It may seem weird, but I’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when I see ads in my viral video. eMarketer expects online video advertising to nearly double in 2008 to $1.3 billion, but no one’s really nailed a scalable ad platform for video. However, Google’s been quietly testing their own system and there are a bunch of other startups tackling it as well.

There are a couple key issues they’re all struggling with as they try and generate the greatest amount of ad revenue. There’s still some uncertainty about where to put the ads (pre/post/interstitial?). Even the type or length of the ad is up for debate. A recent study found longer ads were more effective at branding, while conventional wisdom has cast doubt on users sitting through the longer plugs.

After deciding on the format, determining the content of the video in order to generate relevant ads is yet another tough problem. It’s also a dire matter for big brands that don’t want to risk being associated with inflammatory content. Finally, these ad platforms will need publishers, advertisers and a marketplace to trade in.

Here’s a look at what people are doing in video advertising:

Definitely the team to watch, YouTube is treading carefully, experimenting with text ads running along the bottom of the video that users can click on for a full video ad. They’re going to be testing the system with some of their top content producers and word on the street is that the terms are pretty good.

Revver splits ad revenue 50/50 with publishers. They run ads at the end of viral videos, which might mean that people are still paying close attention after watching the main content. However, this also means they lose some precious real estate to help drive traffic to other videos on their network like YouTube does. Revver filters the content themselves, tying in the appropriate ads.

 

Similar to Revver, VideoEgg helps publishers deliver and monetize their video inventory. It’s a very hands on approach suitable for larger brands that have tight control over the quality and context of their content. They serve up over 20 million videos daily across their EggNetwork. Ads show up alongside lead ins to other videos as well.

 

ScanScout’s technology scans each video and determines content, with ads delivered contextually to match each scene. They run text ads along the bottom of the videos based on context derived from audio analysis and user behavior.

 

They’re like adsense for video, tying contextual text ads based on the content of a video. It looks similar to what YouTube is aiming for. When videos play, Adap.tv digs up relevant Amazon products and Looksmart ads to populate an ad bar on the bottom of the video at key moments. They use tags and other meta data, as well as speech to text translations to find out what the video is about.

 

AdBrite was one of the first to overlay ads on videos with their InVideo platform. Adbrite has created an embeddable video player similar to YouTube. If we choose to show a video on TechCrunch, we can use this embeddable player, and at our option it will include Adbrite ads and our logo as a watermark. Anyone who takes the content and embeds it on their own site will show the same video, with the same ads and watermark. And all click backs on the video go to the original site.

 

The most interesting ad play, BroadRamp wants to make everything you see on your video a possible point of sale. See a t-shirt you like? Just click the video to buy it now. Tagging or programmatically generating the links to products from the video may not scale or prove too difficult. Their core business is still video content delivery systems, however.

 

Formerly Podzinger, Everzing searches audio and video. Since they don’t own the content they can’t insert ads on the video content, but their speech-to-text transcription means they can help solve the problem of finding out the subject of a video.

 

 

A video search engine like Everyzing, Blinkx analyzes videos speech and meta data to tease out the content of the video. They also claim to use visual recognition as well. However, Blinkx has also leveraged their technology to launch adHoc, contextual advertising based on the content of the video.

 

Another video search engine currently running in private beta, Cast.TV looks at a video’s meta data and surrounding links to determine more context around the video. We’ve been impressed with how well it works. They haven’t discussed plans to incorporate advertising, however.

 

Coming up with a kick ass, scalable ad platform solution for social video that satisfies the needs of publishers, advertisers, and viewers is only a piece of the problem. While finding the most effective format will take a lot of testing until consumers reveal the most effective methods, the platforms will also need video content to monetize. Since well defined video properties with targeted content can work with sponsors on established video ad networks, the ideal market for these platforms remains effectively monetizing the jumble of amateur viral video floating around on social networks and YouTube. However, YouTube, which currently owns the lion’s share of video on the net, seems to be taking their time developing the solution in house.

That leaves becoming a destination, partnerships, or acquisition as possible outs. Video search sites like Blinkx and Everyzing are currently monetizing their search pages, but can’t take full advantage of their platforms by embedding ads into the content they link to. While these sites offer deeper video search, existing as a destination site is also a tough path that goes up against established web properties like Google, Yahoo, and AOL. In a slightly different way of going it alone, AdBrite has been going directly to publishers with their InVideo player. Adap.tv has been testing out partnerships, trying their platform out on MetaCafe.

As with most ad platforms, advertisers and publishers will be trying them out for effectiveness. In the end, the startups that can deliver the most return to these two will win out.

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(*Source: Nextgreatthing.com *)

According to a new study by Grunwald, 71% of youth between the ages of 9 and 17 visit social networking sites on a weekly basis. But the big news is that they are not only going there to socialize with friends, but also to interact with their favorite brands. The study found that in the past month 55% of teens have participated in some kind of advertiser-brand activity such as visiting company profile pages, taking company-sponsored quizzes, and entering sponsored contests.

Here are some fashion brands we’ve noticed doing a great job engaging youth on Facebook, now up to 26.6 million members according Comscore:

• Victoria Secret’s youthful PINK line has a profile with 334,393 members offering free downloads for PINK-themed wallpapers and buddy icons, party invitations, featured video contests, and more.

• With 16,287 members, global retailer H&M offers their Facebook group members free wallpaper and buddy icon downloads. The trendy brand takes it a step further by providing a virtual dressing room where members can create an avatar to try clothes on their virtual body before going into the store to make a purchase.

• American Eagle’s new dormwear and intimates brand, aerie, has group with a following of 48,357 members. Their profile page features the latest aerie fashions and features a daily poll featuring issues that are top-of-mind for their consumers, like “where are you going for spring break?”

According to the study, of the 60% of youth who have created profiles or have personal sites, 20% of them update their profiles or sites at least once a day. This being said, staying current and up-to-date is a major factor in these tweens/teens lives. The challenge for brands will be keeping up with them. They’ll need to make frequent updates and constant innovations to keep their audience coming back for more.

More related articles 

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *) 

A new data release from The Face of the Web, Ipsos Insight’s annual study of Internet and Technology trends, shows (probably quite obviously) an increasing use of video and social networking sites.

According to Ipsos, the evolution of Internet users’ digital media and online habits appears to be transitioning “to the digital video age”. At the end of 2006, online video activities had taken over from audio as the fastest growing sector in digital media.

Thes study found that one in five adults worlwide had visited a social networking website. South Korea was the leading social networking market with two thirds of all adults having visited at least one social networking site. In comparison, only 32% of Americans had ever visited a social networking website.

here

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(* Source: Michael Arrington *) 

On Monday, MTV, Taco Bell and Gizmoz will jointly announce a new website and promotion: users will go to tacobell.gizmoz.com and create a fifteen second audition of themselves doing anything they like. Taco Bell will select three winners and create a new thirty second spot with Gizmoz technology that will be played at the MTV music awards in September. The site is live now, but all content will be cleared or the Monday announcement (so wait until then to create an audition).

All auditions will be publicly available and viewers can rate them. The three winners will be paid and given a years worth of Taco Bell food (hopefully not all at once).

Gizmoz is an impressive and fun widget platform - and it’s something MySpacers in particular are likely to crowd to over time. This kind of exposure is great for the company…and we hear that Taco Bell is actually paying them for this, not the other way around.

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(* Source: Nextgreatthing.com *)

 
Music in video games has come far since the days when Tetris would speed up “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” until you had a seizure. (We still get sweaty palms during the Nutcracker.) Now, video games soundtracks are the new launching pad for artists and composers.

It all started with "Guitar Hero", itself a surprise hit that sold over 1 million units since its launch in November 2005. This exposed the in-game songs-17 of which were by indie bands from Boston–to a huge audience. People liked the new songs and wanted to listen to them–independent of the game. It was all very low budget. In fact, many of the tracks were played by members of the Harmonix development team including “All of This” by Shaimus, which wound up garnering over 150,000 plays on MySpace and 6,000 iTunes downloads.

Games are wasting no time capitalizing on the trend. Already, gamers can purchase bundles of new songs for the Xbox 360 version of “Guitar Hero II.” The PS3 version of “SingStar Pop,” which will launch this fall, has an online library of hundreds of tracks called the SingStore, where users can buy and download music. The platform represents a new opportunity for unsigned bands to get a boost. “Guitar Hero” was launched with a contest called “Be a Guitar Hero,” which invited people to submit songs for inclusion in the game. Expanding on this idea, Harmonix recently announced that they will be taking requests for possible tracks and bands to be included in their new game, “Rock Band,” scheduled for release Holiday 2007. Fans may go to the game’s official site and nominate up to four songs to be in the game.

More here 

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(* Source: Joel Horowitz*)

Video game sales are gaining and will globally exceed music sales by the end of 2007 reports PricewaterhouseCoopers. The growth can be contributed to the fact that more and more devices like mobile phones, PDAs and laptops support broadband services, being able to download games.

The information not only reflects the gaming industry’s strong trajectory but also serves as a painful reminder that the music industry continues to suffer. EMI recently reported, however, that sales of its DRM-free songs and albums have been good since the launch of iTunes Plus, with CD sales of those same albums dropping during that time.

The comments below the article on Consumerist bring up a few very interesting arguments…

More at Arstechnica

Thanks, Consumerist!

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

WeeWar is an online game that lets players battle each other to win the war, of course. WeeWar is currently in private beta.

The game is simplistic in design, but fun to play. You can practice your strategy, join existing games, start your own, or observe games that are currently in action. The homepage features a live ticker of everything that’s going on with live games on the site. You can stay abreast of which users are taking which actions in their respective games. Unfortunately, the ticker updates so fast, it’s hard to click on a game for more details. There is a community involved with WeeWar as well. You can make friends, check out their WeeWar ranking, view their recent opponents and invite them to your games.

What’s more, one of the WeeWar users has recently made a video of the game being played on the iPhone. Watch it here on the WeeWar blog. Who wouldn’t want to play a battle game using a touch screen?

Other sites for gamers include The Great Games Experiment and Kongregate.

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(*Source: Maha Atal *)

Emerging data suggest the two may not be direct competitors after all. Businesses that want to reach these audiences have more to learn

The blogosphere is buzzing about a provocative June 24 essay by U.C. Berkeley researcher Danah Boyd suggesting that MySpace and Facebook users are dividing along race and class lines. Even as her timely ethnographic observations touch off debate among users and Web developers, they underscore a question businesses have been asking since MySpace first launched: Who really uses these sites and what are they doing there? What can businesses learn from the emerging information about growing audiences on MySpace and Facebook, the largest of the online social-networking sites? We took a look at current data to ascertain who's doing what, where, and how.

One thing's for sure: These networks—and questions—are big. According to comScore, 68 million unique users logged on to MySpace in the last month; 26 million to Facebook. On both networks, adults predominate, but on MySpace, half of the users are age 35 and older, while users age 18-24 make up only 17%. On Facebook, older users make up 40%, with college students (29%) being the next biggest group. MySpace users tilt toward the lower middle classes, Boyd says. ComScore reports that the three lowest income brackets are overrepresented there, whereas on Facebook, the opposite is true: There, the three highest income groups dominate.

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(* Source: Bernhard Warner *)

Web personalisation has given life to a whole ecosystem of bolt-on applications. 

Proclaiming “the end of search” has become the hot prediction of 2007. The blank canvas that is the search engine is no longer sufficiently intuitive in our information-overloaded lives, the thinking goes.

Instead, we need a host of applications that bring us ticker-style newsflashes, personalised information feeds, weather forecasts, our friends’ whereabouts, our holiday snaps and a communal calendar in a single location. Hence, the rise of the “widget economy”.

Net measurement firm ComScore earlier this month took a stab at measuring the use of widgets – programs that pull information from one site to another. It claims that one in five net users, or 177 million people, used a widget in April, giving us the first measurable glimpse that these tiny pieces of code are much more mainstream than previously thought. It’s the rise of user-generated content – from photo-sharing to map-building applications – that is fuelling the growth.

In fact, the ComScore data would suggest the rise of widgets owes its ascendance to little more than our desire to share photos and peek through those of strangers. The nearly identical photo-sharing, slideshow-generating sites – Slide, RockYou, PictureTrail and PhotoBucket – each drew staggering, search-engine sized traffic numbers in April, ComScore reports. Video and music referrals are big too, as is anything that has to do with geo-tagging, an activity that will explode once everyone gets back from their summer holidays and posts their photos online.

More here 

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 (* Source: Informationarchitects.jp *)

We have done it before: The 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective. We have done it again – and better. Upon popular demand – here is iA’s next Web Trend Map:

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 (* Source: Mashable.com *)

As promised, MySpace has just launched its YouTube-inspired video sharing site MySpaceTV. It’s a faithful YouTube clone: videos appear at the top left and the tabs, upload button and related videos all mimic the appearance of the more popular video sharing site. There’s no doubt that the developers were given a link to YouTube and told “clone this”.

But being inspired may be no bad thing: MySpace has enough users to make this a big success, and the copying of features from YouTube makes MySpaceTV 100 times more compelling than MySpace Videos, the previous version of the site. What’s more, there’s lots of content to keep you clicking, and the social filters seem to be delivering some interesting (although frequently imbecilic) clips.

And so to the integration: users have channel pages that aggregate their videos, and a link to their MySpace profiles. The site will eventually be linked from the navigation on MySpace.com and profile pages (right now we’re getting errors when clicking through from MySpace to MySpaceTV, which is pretty common with MySpace).

Bottom line: geeks are going to continue bashing MySpace, but MySpaceTV makes them the number one rival to YouTube’s dominance, and a potential market leader if they can refer enough MySpace traffic over.

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(* Source: Patrick Foster *)

For those who have no hope of making it on to Centre Court, it is a chance to see what it’s like to face a high-speed serve.

Second Life, the online virtual world, has started broadcasting Wimbledon matches to its six million members.

The games, played on a virtual Centre Court, are streamed using real-time data from HawkEye, the ball-tracking software used by players to challenge line calls.

They can be viewed from any angle, making it possible to watch an entire match through the eyes of the players.

Ian Hughes, a “metaverse [online universe] evangelist” for IBM, who worked on the project, said: “There’s a representation of the tennis court and two figures that represent the players. You’ll see the ball move and the players move to hit it. At the back of the court the scoreboard will up-date itself.

“In Second Life you can move your camera view wherever you want to. As the action is played out you have full rein. You can attach yourself to the player and have a player-eye view. You can have a bird’s eye view.”

This year HawkEye has been used as an official arbitration system at Wimbledon for the first time. Five high-speed cameras track the progress of the ball, feeding data back to a computer that renders it into three dimensions.

At the conclusion of every rally, the same data is then broadcast in Second Life. Mr Hughes said: “It’s really a case of rearranging stuff we already have, rather than changing the whole flow of the system. We’re taking the HawkEye coordinate data and putting it into a 3D environment.”

More here 

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(*Source: John Gaudiosi *)

Having experimented in Second Life, MTV Networks releases a standalone branded virtual world for its popular car show

Santa Monica-based developer Trilogy Studios (formed in late 2005 by ex EA and VU Games execs) has found a new niche to explore while developing next generation video games like Daybreakers. First out of the gate for the new virtual world software development studio is a fully realized virtual world for MTV Network's Music Group's popular IP, Pimp My Ride. While the popular TV show has already been turned into a console video game by Activision Value, Trilogy Studios has designed Virtual Pimp My Ride as a free downloadable game that allows fans to enter Van Nuys, California and build custom cars, engage in competitions like drag races and interact with other fans.

"Trilogy takes virtual worlds beyond basic 3D chat rooms, turning them into living, breathing worlds where people come together to share their entertainment passions," said Michael Pole, chairman and CEO of Trilogy Studios. "We've developed a business model that enables media companies to successfully monetize their franchises through virtual world networks including micro-transactions, in-game advertising and sponsorships, premium subscriptions and e-commerce.

More here 

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e from friends

I tried it and... '

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