SOMEWHAT FRANK

Happy Blog Day 2006

Today is Blog Day or (3108) a yearly day of blogospheric celebration where you share some of your favorite blogs. Last year, I highlighted the following: TechCrunch, Napsterization Blog, Syntagma, Online Marketing Blog and Fighting Splog.

It is amazing that TechCrunch was only a few months old when I highlighted it last year. Look how far it has come - 100K feed subscribers and counting. If history repeats itself, one of the blogs I mention below could have 100K feed subscribers by Blog Day 2007.

In addition, Lee Odden's Online Marketing Blog or Top Rank Blog has grown its reach and made significant changes as it moved onto WordPress as the site was redesigned.

In observance of BlogDay 2006 here are my five nine recommended blogs to check out:            

CrunchNotes - Mike Arrington's inner most thoughts.

Go2Web2 - Orli Yakuel covers web 2.0 from Israel.

Hyku blog - Josh Hallett on blogging strategy and new media.

Like It Matters - Brian Oberkirch on social media.

Mashable! - Pete Cashmore covers web 2.0 in pure TechCrunch fashion.

Newsome.org - Kent Newsome on technology, music and life.

Read/Write Web - Richard MacManus focuses on Next Generation Web Technology.

VentureWeek Blog - Eric Olson talks technology, vc funding and business 2.0.

Web Strategy by Jeremiah - Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools interact with consumers.

Happy Blog Day 2006!

Minti Parenting Social Network Adds Features as Traffic Grows

Minti, the social networking site powered by parents and owned by Vibe Capital, has come out of beta as it continues to grow. Minti offers a place for parents to meet other parents in addition to finding and sharing parenting advice.

According to a recent Alexa report, Minti has been increasing the number of page a parent is viewing every month and has now exceeded its competition as shown by the graph below. Of course, it will take a little more time for Minti to catch up in rank and reach as it is such a young site.

Not only is Minti growing, it has also added the following new features for its new found visitors:

• Claim your external parenting blog on Minti (similar to Technorati)
• Member blogs
• Flexible RSS feeds
• Intelligent Search
• Tagging and Tag-cloud generation
• User generated content management
• Friends links between members
• Extensive tracking/watch-lists
• Discussion forums
• Member ranking technology
• Content ranking by members
• Group creation and management
• Private messaging
• Member rank rewards
• Administrator functions

It is hard to say which new feature is the most valuable. If I had to pick I would say the ability to allow users to maintain their own blog outside of Minti and claim them within Minti, similar to how Technorati handles blogs in the blogosphere, is a win-win for both user and Minti alike. It is an open and free approach which enables anyone with a blog to participate in the Minti social network without having it play within the Minti blogging system therefore I think it is the most valuable added feature.

Clay Cook, Minti founder and CEO, recently told me that Vibe Capital, the parent company of Minti, is eyeing other online social community verticals to target. I wonder what will be next?  I'll be interested to find out.   

The RSS Blimp & Hollywood New Media Fun

What better way to to promote an RSS feed than going big with a blimp? If it works for Goodyear why not RSS? It makes ... sense. You probably are wondering what the heck I am talking about so please let me explain. I recently spotted (thanks to Eric Olson) an RSS blimp floating back and forth on the blog of Zach Braff, the star of Scrubs and the new movie of The Last Kiss. I digg the creativity - it takes RSS to new heights. 

Zach Braff is not the only one in Hollywood up to speed on the new media space. Kevin Smith directed and starred in Clerks 2 and leveraged MySpace to promote the movie. He even used it to place his first 10,000 new MySpace friends into the credits of the movie. In addition, Kevin released a podcast of the directors commentary so that moviegoers could download and listen to it while watching the movie in the theater.

Snakes on a plane, the recent online marketing dream, leveraged people in true web 2.0 fashion to contributed lines to the movie. What would Samuel L. Jackson have said about snakes on the plane without the Internets help? In addition, Snakes on a Plane created an online messaging site to help push the viral message, as I highlighted here.

Bottomline: It is great to see some of Hollywood ahead of the curve and using innovative ways to promote movies using new media technology.

Flickr Photos Now Plottable on Map

Flickr has added geo tagging which allows images to be plotted and searched via a map. This new feature was something that was rumored a few weeks ago. Originally, I was not so moved by the potential new feature but after seeing the implementation I am impressed. The new map features offers you a way to easily drag and drop photos to a location on the map. It adds yet another way to explore Flickr photos.
I was in Arlington, Virginia this past weekend and tried a Harry's Tap Room Ale at none other than Harry's Tap Room. Harry's is on Clarendon Boulevard so I decided to plot this photo on a map by going to the Map tab under Organize. After dragged an image from my brew tasting experience to the map the image displayed as shown above.

Some other interesting features were also released as follows:

"...first, you can now get a "detailed" view for sets which shows larger images and titles, in the style of your photostream or archives (example, compare to the "traditional" view). And you can now add a special tag for photos taken at Upcoming.org events and the photos will show up on the event page and a link to the event will also show on the photo on Flickr..."

Overall, Flickr's new features are pretty sweet. I may even go as far as to say it is one of the slickest mapping mashups currently available. For another perspective check out reports on the Flickr Blog and TechCrunch.

What is a Chumby?

Chumby was all the buzz at Foo Camp this weekend in San Francisco but what the heck is a Chumby?

Chumby is a new device that was created by and for hackers and artists. Chumby was started as a device to replace the humble clock radio. So Chumby can be used to wake you up in the morning as well as to bring the web and other technology to you at your bedside, kitchen or anywhere else you take the device. The device was kept "open and hackable" so artists and hackers can take the device and come up with new innovate devices using it as a base. The device is not yet available  for purchase but is said to be priced at $150.

Chumby takes shape as a soft and squishy, rounded rectangle with a flat screen on one side. It offers no keyboard or other input devices other than its squishy surface. The device can also be personalized by added beads, stickers or other flair to make it your own.

Chumby's "open and hackable" strategy could spark the creation of several unique products and uses (similar to duct tape's infinite uses). It is already positioning itself to be a cult classic. Let the innovation roll!

Does Ajax Affect Site Metrics?

A report by Business2blog recently brought to a light a potential negative affect of the use of Ajax. Ajax, the adored and arguably web 2.0 staple technology, which enables sites to not have to reload a page to make slight updates to its contents.

Leveraging Ajax technology has enabled site developers to create very slick user interfaces on the web. These interfaces enable a smooth user experience but limits the number of page loads thus metrics could be somewhat inaccurate when measuring the traffic to a site. Traffic inaccuracies could affect the way advertisers perceive a site and could directly affect the amount of advertising sold.

The jury is still out as to how metric reporting companies handle sites that are using Ajax. I would assume sites with Ajax produce metrics that are light on page views. However, I would love to hear from someone from  comScore, Nielsen/Netratings, Alexa or other large metric reporting companies to verify my assumption.

Find Music Artist Info With MusicPortl

MusicPortl, a Hamburg, Germany-based mashup application created by Christoph Olszowka, aggregates information about music artists. The site leverages the API’s of Amazon, Lastfm, Flickr, MusicBrainz, Ontok, Technorati, Wikipedia and YouTube to produce a comprehensive music resource for the artist research.

In searching for artist information on Dave Matthews Band (quite possibly one of the greatest bands ever assembled) MusicPortl returns every possible biography via Wikipedia, links to recent blog posts from Technorati, photos from Flickr, videos from YouTube, recent albums on Amazon.com as well as suggested artist that are similar in genre among other things. See the screen-shot above to see how information is displayed.

Functionally, MusicPortl performs very well and maintains swift page load times by leveraging ajax and a number of other web 2.0 JavaScript libraries.

Bottomline: MusicPortl offers a great one stop shop for researching a music artist.

Internet Addicts Can Now Get Help

It's official, the Internet can be an addictive force. It can be so addictive that a clinic has been opened in Shanghai to give Internet and gaming addicts a place to seek help. The clinic is geared at helping teens in China who are hooked on playing games and the Internet by providing a place to stay, counseling and books to curb the habit.

The clinic was a created as a result of a number of computer related deaths most notably a 13 year old who killed himself after playing a game for 36 hours straight. I expect to see similar clinics popping up in the United States soon.

With everything we do getting more tied to the Internet it is important to remember to take breaks. Get outside. Take a walk or go for a bike ride. Throw a football. Watch a ballgame. Celebrate your real life on Earth just as much as your virtual one because life is too short and sweet not to.

Related Article: Are you addicted to technology?

Blogger Job Board Launched

Looking for bloggers? Or looking for a blogging gig? Problogger recently launched The Problogger Job Board to help connect bloggers and employers. Postings are $100 for 30 days. Darren Rowse explained recently that he was sick of getting emails asking:

1. "I’m looking for a blogger/coblogger for my blog but I’m just not sure where to find one - do you know of anyone?"
2. "I’ve been hearing about people getting blog jobs - where do I find one? Do you know of anyone looking for a blogger?"

Makes sense to me and it's nice to see a niche job board for bloggers come out of it. Congrats on the launch!

Washington Post Blogrolling Link Ads

The WashingtonPost.com, under the direction of Jeff Burkett, is offering an interesting blog link ad unit on its homepage by rolling out Blogroll. Jeff talks about the Blogroll program on his blog.

Blogroll offers bloggers an opportunity to have their blog linked to on the WashingtonPost.com homepage without offering a nofollow attribute. This means that sites that are linked to should see search engine optimization benefits. According to coverage on TechCrunch:

"The advertising system seems most like Blogads, where blogs are grouped by topic and advertisers can purchase space on the blogs in bulk. The revenue split appears to be 50/50."

As a blogger this could be an extremely attractive offering. However, some search engine companies many not like the fact WPost.com is basically participating in link swapping operation. Barry Schwartz explains in more detail here.

Interestingly, I shared a limo ride and a conversation with Jeff Burkett a few months ago on the way to Laguardia airport following a conference in New York. Jeff explained how he had started his blog Media Landscaping and he was urging his staff get involved. Citing Somewhat Frank as an example, I explained how blogging is a great educational tool. He agreed and explained how he was pushing his team to really embrace blogging so that they could better understand the industry landscape they are doing sales in. I am happy to see his blog is still going strong and his team at WashingtonPost.com is trying some new blog related ideas out. It would appear the blogging experience is paying off.

Making Fun with/of Web 2.0

There have been a number of sites that have popped up lately to poke fun at or have fun with web 2.0 and the blogosphere. The Blog Herald recently highlighted the following:

Bubblr
bullshitr
Web Two Point Oh!
Web 2.0 Logo Creator

What would our lives be like without our favorite online comics:

Gaping Void
bLaugh

Who would we be talking about without these fine gossip sites:

Valley Wag
Blogebrity

You can make it officially web 2.0 certified with:

Certifyr

Finally, check out these two solid web 2.0 joke/humor lists I just stumbled upon here and here.

Yahoo: You Can Say You "Yahooed" It!

Last week there was a buzz about the reintroduction of the report that Google has been sending out letters to the media asking them to not use Google as verb. Now Yahoo's Tara Kirchner has come out on the Yahoo Search blog to explain that Yahoo wants people to use Yahoo as a verb. She explained it is part of Yahoo's strategy to make Yahoo "a household name." She even went as far as to change a song to use the word "yahoo."

I feel the "googling" story has exhausted itself over the course of last week so I apologize in advance for posting about it again. However, I do find the Yahoo Search blog post interesting as Matt Cutts and others from Google came out and posted comments.

Adidas Reebok To Leverage Second Life

Adidas Reebok appears to be looking to popular virtual video game environment, Second Life, to promote and receive feedback on its latest shoes. According to this article:

"The company plans to reach out to SL residents with products in the virtual world, and by getting feedback on what the Adidas and Reebok brands mean to them. The deal sounds like a long-term commitment of 18 months or more, and from what 3pointD hears is one of the biggest virtual world services contracts to date (in dollar terms, that is)."

So it sounds like the virtual world will be used as a sandbox to measure new product interest and further push the envelope on create sweet new kicks.

Socialmeter: Do a Quick Link Count

Socialmeter aggregates how many links are being counted in several of the social search web sites. Currently, Socialmeter is tracking del.icio.us, Digg, furl, Google, Jots, Linkroll, Reddit, Shadows, Spurl, Technorati and Yahoo MyWeb.

Socialmeter could be a decent tool to get a quick idea of how many people are linking to a site. The number that is returned could be considered a measure of the popularity of a site. However, a link count as a measure of popularity can be slightly misleading since newer sites may be very popular but since they are new may not have as many links as older sites.

Backfence Citizen Media Sites To Expand

Backfence.com, a citizen or neighborhood journalism effort based in McLean, Virginia, has recently expanded to a total of eight sites with more sites scheduled to be coming soon. The current sites are in the communities surrounding Washington, DC and San Francisco.

Backfence has been around since 2004, and I recall visiting the site just a few months ago to find it a far cry from a designer's masterpiece. However, it appears Backfence redesigned with big growth in mind. Frank Barnako recently explaining the plans based on an interview with Susan DeFife, president and CEO, Backfence. According to Frank she said:

"...the east and west coast operations of Backfence will each add a site a month through the end of the year.  A Chicago site will launch after Labor Day, and it, too, will grow monthly."

Backfence made more headlines yesterday (August 16, 2006) by partnering with Alarm.com to launch a crime blog for the local communities which reports on the crimes in the area. I wonder how this effort will pan out. Will Backfence be able to find consistent users to contribute solid content to sustain user interest and keep these sites afloat? In true web 2.0 fashion, we will find out.