SOMEWHAT FRANK

eBay Seller Boycott Could Give Startups A Shot

A movement that started as a thread in the eBay forums has turned into an all out eBay Seller Boycott from February 18 - 25. The sellers on eBay have united and are staging to lash out against eBay for recent seller fee raises and feedback changes. A similar eBay boycott was successful for sellers in 2005 so it appears they are looking for a repeat success. They have even created a YouTube video for the eBay boycott.

I am not a big eBay buyer or seller but I think this little boycott could give other startups in the space an opportunity. If you are looking to sell handmade goods you might give Esty a try. If you are looking to just get rid of something in your local area you could leverage craigslist or Kijiji. There are lots of other options as well, so if you have a startup that is an alternative to eBay share it with SOMEWHAT FRANK by dropping a comment with the information.

Hasbro Should Just Buy Scrabulous Already

Are you a Scrabble fan?  Scrabble, the popular word game trademarked by Hasbro, Inc. has been the topic of debate recently as an online alternative was created to operate as a Facebook application called Scrabulous. Scrabulous was created by Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla within the last six months already has over 600,000 active daily users. Amazing! According to an ABC News report, Hasbro is outraged about the creation of the copycat game and as AllFacebook reports they are trying to force Facebook to remove it. Am I missing something?

23andMe DNA Testing A Privacy Concern?

I think we would all rest more assured if we had a clearer picture of our health outlook. If we could better understand the makeup of our DNA we would be clearer on what hand we have been dealt by our ancestors. 23andMe, a Silicon Valley-based startup that launched in mid-November, looks to make it easy to get a clearer picture by offering at-home DNA tests kits.

The Mitchell (Steroids) Report Posted Online

I am an avid baseball fan and former collegiate baseball player. During my time growing up playing the game the professional baseball player pay scale increased dramatically, raising the stakes for anyone playing the game from tee-ball to the pros.  Watching Major League Baseball through the years, many players transformed in front of my eyes from lanky ballplayer of the 1980's to bulky players of the 1990's and beyond. With all the controversy swirling around steroids in baseball, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig appointed former a former Senate majority leader and federal prosecutor, George J. Mitchell to conduct an investigation on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.

With the investigation now completed the results creatively title, The Mitchell Report were released. The report calls out a number of respected and previously thought to be 'clean' baseball players as steroid users. It is now available online for you to read and cherish for yourself.

The Magic Touch Of Technology

Technology can make life so much easier. Where would we be without the advancements in technology? Computer and wireless technologies have taken off in the last few decades helping to facilitate a wave of innovation in the space. However, advancements in technology have a price many of us are not always aware of or paying attention to.

I came across this interesting video (above) titled "the magic touch" by Doron Wolf. The five minute, cleaverly, animated episode offers a symbolic representation of the products surrounding us and the fear that one day our dependence on technology might turn against us without any reason or warning. By pointing this video out, I am not saying we should all turn off the computers, return our iPhones and retreat to a cave somewhere to live in the dark ages. We should be aware that advances in the web and technology (i.e. the magic touch) often have a price associated with them which can be easily unknown, overlooked or underestimated as they fuse into everyday life.

Go Green Web 2.0 Style

As scientists recently drafted a report that describes a dire outlook for planet Earth, the effects of global warming on the planet have literally been a hot topic (no pun intended) and even made a recent stop at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. However, there are a number of environmental or "green" web sites focused on improving the situation. This article will showcase some of these movements that I have encountered recently.

18Seconds.org - Devoted to informing the world about the energy savings associated with switching from a normal light bulb to a compact fluorescent lamp. The campaign is based on the idea that is only takes 18 seconds to change a regular light bulb to an energy saving compact fluorescent light bulb.

EcoGeek - A site devoted to monitoring and exploring the current explosion in technology designed to mitigate our impact on the environment.

Greener - A search engine that could come in handy if you are looking for green products, services, organizations and information. Currently the green search engine boasts that it is search over 9 million sites and 50 million links.

greeninternet.org - As you surf the web, energy providers supplying power to your computer are burning fossil fuels and emitting harmful carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. By pairing web surfers with sponsors, greeninternet.org looks to offset the environmental effects of surfing the web.

Gigoit - With the tagline of "Choose to Reuse" Gigoit offers anyone a place to get rid of unwanted items without having to resort to filling up a landfill. If craigslist doesn't work I would give Gigoit a try.

Hugg - Taking some inspiration for the popular web 2.0 social news site, Digg , Hugg offers users the ability to recommend green news to be rated by the rest of the Hugg community.

TerraPass - Helps counter the carbon dioxide emissions created by your lifestyle… and you don’t even have to leave your computer!  Just plug in your car’s information, your flight plans, your energy bill, etc. and TerraPass crunches your carbon dioxide output.  No it’s not just to make you feel guilty; this site also enables you to donate an amount to alternative energy sources to offset your damage.

TreeHugger - There are number of green blogs but if I had to pick on to stay tuned to for the latest in environmental or "green" news, tips and updates it would be TreeHuggers. TreeHugger recently partnered with Daylife to create The TreeHugger GRNDX which is the first "green index". It works like the stock market index, except that instead of tracking stocks, it tracks mentions of certain key green phrases in the media as a way to gauge how much mind-share certain concepts have week over week. TreeHugger offers number of other resources some of which include a set of how to go green guides which range from how to green your car to how to green you sex life.

Are you doing anything online to help the environmental movement and "Go Green?" I'm sure I left a few organizations or green products, out so please add others you know of in the comments section.

Good: For People That Give A Damn

Good is a media company aimed at creating a platform for the ideas, people, and businesses that are driving change in the world. Good, an L.A.-based company founded by Ben Goldhirsh, offers up a print magazine, feature and documentary films, original multimedia content and local events.

The print publication is a work of art as the photos and compelling articles are extremely well done making is difficult to think there is only a month worth of prep time between issues. Good Magazine makes if feel good to become a subscriber as 100% of your subscription cost goes to help the participating charity of your choice. With a goal set of 50,000 subscribers and $1 million dollars given away by mid 2007, Good is about a quarter of the way to its goal.

On the web, Good covers a number of my favorite topics and makes it easy to filter to specific categories like Technology,  Art & Design, Business & Money and Media. Good employs an "It's Good" Digg-like rating system on each article in addition to offering RSS feeds by topic. In addition, Good has created close to a dozen video shorts on a number of different topics. The first video in the SplashCast below is titled, Paying for Your Attention points out how much advertisers are paying for your attention.

Good will be teaming up with Creative Commons, a Good supported organization, to host a party at South By Southwest Interactive on March 12, 2007. If you are headed to Austin for the event I recommend you check it out - judging by its NYC launch party I am sure it will be a GOOD time.

18Seconds.org Spotlights Energy Savings

18Seconds.org is campaign Yahoo recently launched in conjunction with Lawrence Bender, Oscar-winning producer of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth,"  devoted to informing the world about the energy savings associated with switching from a normal light bulb to a compact fluorescent lamp. The campaign is based on the idea that is only takes 18 seconds to change a regular light bulb to an energy saving compact fluorescent light bulb. Lawrence Bender authored a guest post on the Yahoo! corporate blog which stated:

"If every American swapped just one bulb, it would save more than $8 billion in energy costs, prevent the burning of 30 billion pounds of coal, and keep the equivalent of two million cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere."

Those are some pretty eye opening numbers. At the same time it is inspiring to hear that everyone can pitch in to help save energy and ultimately the planet. The 18Seconds.org web site offers a mashup which places the current compact florescent lamp purchase numbers by geographic location on a Yahoo map. Currently, Arkansas is the leading energy saving state and Bellingham, Washington is the leading energy saving city in the United States. For additional information about 18Seconds.org, check out the video below.

Find Cheap Gas Prices With MapQuest

Gasoline prices in the United States have been creeping up for a number years now. With little doubt that the prices will ever be under a dollar again, hybrid vehicles have become increasingly popular, with the Toyota Prius being a leading vehicle sold in the United States. If buying a new hybrid ride is not your thing, then you may want to find cheaper fuel. MapQuest, the online mapping service owned by AOL, recently launched a new mashup service called MapQuest Gas Prices aimed at helping users find the cheapest gasoline around.

MapQuest Gas Prices uses pricing data from Oil Pricing Information Service which is updated up to seven times per day to plot all of the gas prices in your area. Mashing up gas prices with a map is not a new concept as other sites like Map Gas Prices, GasBuddy.com and Record Gas Watch have been around for awhile now but MapQuest takes the idea a step further by also incorporating gas stations that sell diesel and alternative fuels in addition to links and information about alternative fueled vehicles. MapQuest also provides driving directions to any of the sites, which is also a key differentiator from other similar gas mapping sites. Below is a screen-shot showing a simple gas price mapping.

Interestingly, MapQuest has plans to ensure the site will be accessible on cell phones via MapQuest Mobile with a link to directions in the coming months, so users should always have the lowest gas prices at your fingertips whether on a computer or on a mobile device.

ReviewMe: Ethical Alternative To PayPerPost For Bloggers To Get Paid?

ReviewMe, a product recently launched by TextLinkAds, offers bloggers the opportunity to make money for writing product reviews. ReviewMe has a similar business model to PayPerPost.com which I questioned whether it was a potential splog generator last month. ReviewMe has improved upon the PayPerPost.com model by creating a ranked marketplace and currency for a blog post. ReviewMe does not promise a post will be positive and also has every paid review add a disclosure explaining the post is a paid write-up. This disclosure helps to maintain the credibility of both the blogger and the ReviewMe product. Also reviews need to be 200 words or more.

With ReviewMe bloggers can actually capitalize on the time they spend reviewing a product, which in many cases is a product they would have reviewed anyway regardless of whether or not they were being paid. As I receive similar review leads via the blogosphere underground.

Rev2.org recently reviewed the ReviewMe and explained that even though ReviewMe is better than PayPerPost.com in handling ethical concerns they would still never participate in the program. TechCrunch had similar feelings on the product. While others think getting paid for writing reviews might not be so bad after all. Understandably, there are also bloggers getting paid by ReviewMe to review the ReviewMe product.

I just signed up for the service to test it out and I noticed that a number of familiar blogs like Google Blogoscoped, PaulStamatiou.com and TechnologyEvangelist.com were already signed up for the program. Upon claiming my blog I found that a post on Somewhat Frank can be purchased for $250 based on a ranking system that ReviewMe has put in place to determine a blog's value. Blog value takes Alexa, Technorati and other blog details into account to determine a rank. If I were to agree to write a post via ReviewMe, I would walk away with $125.  However, this does not mean the review has to be positive in nature, it could totally tear the product to pieces and I would still get paid. So why wouldn't a blogger want to take part in this program. It is not asking you to lie about a product. It is just asking you to review it and be honest.

I am interested to see how many and what types of requests I receive for product reviews since I only write about things that I find interesting. In my opinion, this model is very similar to being paid to be in a focus group for a consumer product. The only difference in the case of ReviewMe is that the focus group data is being exposed for the public to see in the form of a blog post. So I am extremely confident my current editorial filtration system will keep Somewhat Frank true to its distinct voice. I just hope the rest of the bloggers participating can show the same level of discretion.

Bottom-line:  Most bloggers would not mind getting paid. While advertisers and marketers might not know how to reach out bloggers for an honest review of their latest product. ReviewMe helps to solve this by creating a legitimate marketplace to connect products with reviewers. Sounds good but let's just hope bloggers can stay true to how they feel about a particular product and not fill the blogosphere with splog posts.

Should Technology Change Sports?

The wonders of technology...  At work, it can make us more efficient and it can even make us seem smarter.  At home, it helps us navigate trips, stay in touch with friends, and opens up an unending mall right on the screen.  On the field, it makes us faster, more precise, or stronger.  Simply stated, technology helps us perform better.

But what happens when the line between man and machine gets blurry?  When does “supplement” become “synthetic”?  We hear often about steroids – and what are they but biotechnology?  And when does it all become obsolete?  A few years ago there were controversial second skin-like swimsuits at the Olympics.  But the Games came and went with the typical tight races and record breakers inherent in any athletic cycle.

An interesting article recently discussed the latest round of controversial sports equipment, training strategies and apparel, and how the incorporation of these new technologies may influence athletics for better or for worse.  There is also a slide-show showcasing what lies ahead or sports technology.

Should technology be allowed to change sports the way it changes business?

PayPerPost: Splog or Blog Post Creator?

PayPerPost, who recently announced $3 million of first round funding, is a web site that offers bloggers money for writing blog posts about a specific product. PayPerPost allows a blog post board which enables marketers and advertisers to request a blog post for a set price about a specific product or service. TechCrunch posted interesting write-ups (here and here) and a recent TalkCrunch podcast episode discussing the funding announcement, the unique business model and the ethical questions swarming around the product. PayPerPost is really walking the ethical line between good and evil. I think it was created to help connect marketers and advertisers with grassroots product reviews.

Splog Post Generator?
Is PayPerPost producing spam blog posts to optimize search engine ranking? Is it a human splog generator? That is a great question, and after much thought I have come to the conclusion, that it really depends on the blog, writer and the actual write-up. For example, if someone is getting paid to write a post and therefore is not objective in a review then of course PayPerPost is NOT a good thing at all. There are a number of blogs that produce high quality and very objective content, so could this destroy the purity of the blogosphere for everyone?

Blog Post Generator?
The flip-side of the debate, while bloggers get paid for their work the product offers leads to bloggers who may have run out of things to write about. Therefore, bloggers may find the leads from PayPerPost helpful in generating blog post ideas or leads. As long as bloggers remain objective and non-evil the service could be a win-win for marketers, advertisers and bloggers alike – and everyone lives happily ever after without fear of boogiemen, terrorist or natural disasters.

Maintaining Perspective / Keeping It Real
It is likely that just about every blogger that maintains a consistent flow of content has received emails from marketers and advertisers introducing them to products and services to preview as explained in my previous write-up exposing the blogosphere underground. When I do receive these emails previewing new products and services, I take a very close look at the product or service and I leave it up to my own discretion if the product or service is worthy of a write-up. Though it may sound similar to the PayPerPost.com model the major difference is that in receiving emails from marketers and advertisers I am NOT getting paid and therefore I can remain totally objective and only write about things I want to write about. Another example can be drawn from my recent move to join AOL. Since joining AOL I have written a few reviews about new AOL products and have been sure to keep my perspective legit. It I don't like them I would point out the things I don't like in my review. Maintaining my objective and frank perspective in my reviews is of utmost importance since it keeps Somewhat Frank, fresh and real – it also keeps my conscience clear.

Bottom-line: It is difficult to say at this point the impact PayPerPost will have on the blogosphere - it is a heated debated. It is obvious that PayPerPost has created a new business model which draws comparisons to Overture’s creation of the pay per click advertising model which was also debated but later perfected by Google with AdSense.