Me and the other 2

Can The New Pirate Bay Succeed?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:08:37 GMT

Hans Pandeya, the CEO of Global Gaming Factory (the Swedish company that had recently acquired The Pirate Bay for $7.8 million) has an ambitious plan for the new Pirate Bay. It seems bold, perhaps even too bold at first, but Hans thinks he has a plan that will make everyone – the file sharers, the ISPs, the content providers – happy.

Talking to the BBC, Pandeya said that he plans to make legal file sharing (which is what The Pirate Bay will be focused on from now on) more attractive than illegal file sharing by paying the users for sharing files. He also plans to pay the content providers that provide the files, and he plans to raise money from the ISPs by reducing their traffic overload.

“Let’s say a popular song comes out. Rather than a million downloads from a site – which would cause a considerable strain on that ISP – we can take that song and put it out on P2P,” he says.

Unfortunately, when you try to put all of the pieces of this puzzle together, you’ll find out that one piece is always missing. Yes, The Pirate Bay is a huge source of traffic. But this traffic comes from file sharers who will not appreciate the fact that one day, The Pirate Bay will get a “temporarily closed” sign while they work out the deals with all the content providers out there. They’ll quickly move on to other torrent sites; yes, The Pirate Bay was much loved for their activism, but when your goal is to download a new Kanye West video, you’ll just take it from whoever offers it. Need examples? One word: Napster.

The file sharers might be inclined to stay on The Pirate Bay because they’d receive money for their troubles. But I’ve long held the theory that piracy is not only about money; it’s also about choice and availability. A torrent tracker needs to have a lot of content; if it doesn’t, getting paid a small amount to use it won’t help.

Now, about those content providers. There are a lot of them, and many of them hate The Pirate Bay with a passion. They probably don’t even like the name. Working out deals with all of them will be nearly impossible; especially since The Pirate Bay is surrounded by legal problems, recently losing a lawsuit from the same companies they should be doing deals with now. The content providers aren’t as passive as they used to be; they’ve got Hulu and Epix, and I’m afraid that few of them feel the need to deal with The Pirate Bay.

Finally, we’ve got the ISPs. Whether they would be willing to work with the Pirate Bay at all is questionable. Whether The Pirate Bay will remain such a huge traffic source to be interesting to the ISPs after the “true” pirates move on to other torrent trackers and after they’ve cut the deals with content providers is also uncertain. BusinessWeek raises several technical and legal issues surrounding such a deal.

Yes, the entire idea sounds nice on paper – after all, everybody wins, right? But transitions such as the one proposed by Pandeya are tough even when you’re not talking about one of the most notorious torrent trackers out there. In the end, The Pirate Bay might end up trying to sell traffic they don’t have, harnessed from content they also don’t have, to ISPs that are reluctant to buy it. It’s not a very promising future for the pirates, I’m afraid.

Reviews: Hulu

Tags: piracy, the pirate bay, torrent, TPB

RSS Management

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:11:54 GMT

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Understanding Luxury Brands and Social Media

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:27:01 GMT

Samir Balwani is a social media marketer who helps businesses create effective web strategies. You can follow him on Twitter and get his newsletter.

One of the biggest misconceptions by brand managers is that the web is not a luxury market. The truth is that people are spending more money online and it’s a place luxury brands must build a presence. However, most have a nagging fear of ruining their brand reputation.

So, how can luxury brands engage in social media?

The Luxury Market Online

Before we answer the previous question, let’s define the luxury market. According to The Journal of Brand Management, Luxury as a concept is defined:

“…within the scope of socio-psychology as a result of its connection to a culture, state of being and lifestyle, whether it is personal or collective. When linked to brands, it is characterized by a recognizable style, strong identity, high awareness, and enhanced emotional and symbolic associations. It evokes uniqueness and exclusivity, and is interpreted in products through high quality, controlled distribution and premium pricing.“

So, brands with scarce products and high prices must find a way to find consumers online. The questions we haven’t answered yet are, “are premium, affluent consumers online?” and “does making a product available online hurt controlled distribution?”

In November 2007, eMarketer published a report titled “Affluent Internet Users: How the Rich Live Online.” In the report they concluded that the number of affluent Internet users will grow from 43.7 million in 2006 to 57.1 million in 2011.

Now that we know that there are luxury consumers on the Internet, and that the demographic is growing steadily, we need to determine how a brand can engage these consumers.

Problems With Luxury Brands Online

The unique luxury brand must overcome a number of obstacles upon entering the online space. Here are some of the challenges:

1. Luxury implies a sense of exclusivity; that it isn’t for everyone. It’s difficult for a brand to selectively choose who to interact with and, unless done properly, this segmentation could cause a major backlash.

2. Most luxury brands are extremely hesitant to experiment with new marketing strategies. They feel that trying new things is too risky for their brand image. Instead, this hesitation can actually limit online opportunities, hurting the brand in the long run.

3. Because of a luxury brand’s need to maintain the appropriate aesthetics, social media can be a more expensive proposition for them. Building an application or web page is an expensive, arduous task for any major brand. It’s important to remember that social media for brands is not free.

Finding Solutions

The first and most obvious solution is to simply trust your consumers. If your internal perspective of the brand aligns with the customers’ view of the brand, everything will be fine. If not, you’ll finally learn who your core demographic really is and what they are looking for.

Just as a product can be exclusive, so can sites on the web. Creating an exclusive social network, an invite only site, or a suggestion site for actual customers are ways to limit the demographic.

If you decide you must engage on a public site like Twitter or Facebook, throw out any hopes of being exclusive. Selectively following or befriending users can quickly cause a backlash as customers complain about being left out. One way to engage on public sites is to target those sites with the closest demographic to the brand’s consumers. This limits the number of “outsiders” engaging with the brand.

Lastly, if the brand finds a mention that they aren’t comfortable with, it may be better not to respond. The web is huge; not everything will be seen by the masses (especially as we move towards real-time conversations). Responding or seeking removal of a message may legitimize and simply bring attention to any negative sentiment.

Examples of Luxury Campaigns

Case studies analyzing social campaigns are a great way to determine how to position a brand online. However, too closely emulating a campaign can have a negative affect. Social media success requires implementation of something new and exciting; some kind of added value.

Use the following case studies to see what they did right and as a means to understand the fundamentals for a luxury brand in social media.

Gucci On Facebook

Gucci has built an amazing following on Facebook, with over 404,000 fans on their official Page. By continually updating the page, and introducing new content such as photos and videos the brand is keeping its consumers engaged. Each update receives over 200 interactions in the form of “likes” and “comments.”

By opening Gucci to everyone, and not selectively deciding who gets to join, or inviting only specific people, Gucci has built a community. Even though many of the Gucci fans may not be able to afford actual products, the Facebook fan page builds “lust for the product.” This idea of “one day I’ll be able to afford that,” is part of the luxury appeal.

Not only does the Facebook Fan Page build consumers’ desire for Gucci products, but also enables the community to offer free feedback, publish images, and share Gucci content.

Mercedes Benz Social Network

Scarcity online is only achieved in a closed system. Usually this is against the accepted best practices of a social campaign, but for a luxury brand it can work. Mercedes highlighted this idea by creating a closed social network for Gen Y’ers.

GenerationBenz.com, is an invite only social network where consumers can give feedback on vehicles, as well as give Mercedes Benz insight into their younger customers.

By creating a network that includes only those that are either previous buyers, Mercedes members, and potential consumers, the brand has targeted exactly the demographic they want. Mercedes is able to engage users without fear that the brand reputation will be tarnished.

Creating a successful private social network can be costly, but the return on consumer loyalty may be great. Allowing brand customers to connect with each other while connecting with the brand, as well as creating a place to introduce new products to a brand’s core demographic, can be an invaluable asset.

Summary

Social media can be a powerful tool for a luxury brand. With a growing affluent market, the online world is a place high-end brands need to be. The question is, how are you going to maintain guardianship of your brand identity, keep your product premium-priced and exclusive, or engage your customer?

Knowing that releasing your brand to your consumers doesn’t necessarily hurt brand reputation is the first step.

More social media resources for brands:

- 10 Twitter Best Practices for Brands

- 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them

- 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Page

- 8 Essential Apps for Your Brand’s Facebook Page

- The Importance of Focus: A Guide for Social Media Brands

- A Control Freak’s Guide to Social Media Influence

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Erdosain

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: brands, business, gucci, luxury, mercedes, social media

Spam In Twitter Trends, Again (Update: Not Really Spam)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:41:52 GMT

Twitter’s trending topics are a great way to find out what’s hot in the Twitterverse, but they’re also a haven for malicious hackers and spammers who are constantly finding new ways on how to abuse them.

This time, an odd, vulgar hashtag has appeared in the trending topics, as you can see in the image below. It obviously doesn’t belong there, and it doesn’t lead to any actual Twitter conversations, but someone, somehow, managed to put it there.

*Update: this time, it’s a legitimate trending topic. Commenter Mark Nagurski explains: “British actress Mollie Sugden died yesterday. She played Mrs Slocombe in UK comedy Are You Being Served and ‘Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy’ was a running joke. This is a tribute from fans.” However, Twitter is not showing any results for it, probably because its anti-spam filters have activated.

We’ve seen this done before via an onslaught of spammy or malware-infected messages send through dozens of bogus accounts, but this time the spammer seems to have reached trending topics with other methods. In any case, the topic will probably soon be removed, but Twitter definitely needs to work on better spam prevention methods.

The sentence above still stands, but in a completely different context which we haven’t encountered before. It’s possible that Twitter’s anti-spam detection has worked all too well, removing the results for a legitimate trending topic. You can’t really blame it: joke or not, at first glance the hash tag seems vulgar, but it can also be completely innocent, depending on semantics.

Again, Twitter needs to work on spam detection; not only to prevent spammy topics from entering the trends, but also to prevent legitimate topics to be labeled as spam.

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: spam, twitter

Jammie Thomas To Appeal Her $1.92 Million RIAA Verdict

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:49:36 GMT

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the woman who was charged with copyright infringement through online file sharing, tried to fight, and subsequently lost, will appeal the verdict in her case, which ordered her to pay $1.92 million in damages to the recording industry that sued her.

As we’ve noted, her case was always on shaky legs, and it was probably taken into account by the jury which set a very harsh penalty. However, it’s questionable whether the verdict is constitutional, and Jammie Thomas-Rasset will appeal on that grounds.

“She’s not interested in settling. She wants to take the issue up on appeal on the constitutionality of the damages. That’s one of the main arguments–that the damages are disproportionate to any actual harm,” her attorney Joe Sibley told CNET.

And disproportionate they are. 80,000 dollars for sharing a song – one song – on an online network? However you look at it, it’s an arbitrary number. If you tried to apply the same standards in other cases, you’d get ridiculous results. Together with the fact that Thomas-Rasset doesn’t have that kind of money, trying to appeal the verdict is a logical choice.

No one can tell whether she will succeed or not, but in a case as important as this one, it’s good that she’s putting up a fight. Awarding such huge damages for online file sharing is a dangerous legal precedent that might result in further pressure on ISPs and governments to implement draconian measures to stop it, as well as give them more rights to monitor online activities not only of file sharers, but all of us.

Tags: Jammie Thomas-Rasset, lawsuit, riaa

Official Claims: Green Dam Was Not Dropped, Only Postponed

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:14:54 GMT

I guess the celebrations were premature. According to a China government official, Chinese authorities haven’t given up on web filtering program Green Dam; they’ve just postponed it.

The controversial program was supposed to be installed on all new PCs sold in China from July 1st onwards, but after strong protests from both the Chinese people and the PC sellers its launch was postponed indefinitely.

However, it’s bound to come back, according to an unnamed government official. Speaking to China Daily, he said:

“The government will definitely carry on the directive on Green Dam. It’s just a matter of time. What will happen is that some PC manufacturers will have it included with their PC packages sooner than the others. But there is no definite deadline at the moment.“

This was always a possibility. The implementation of this entire initiative was sloppy, and just as we’ve noted earlier, this was probably the cause for postponement, and not some sudden change in China’s policies with regard to censorship and the Internet.

*Update: AP reports that more companies have taken after Sony, including Green Dam bundled with new PCs sold in China. The list includes Benq, Acer, and Haier, with other companies, such as Asus, claiming they’re planning to start bundling Green Dam with their PCs. HP, Dell and Toshiba still haven’t decided how to proceed, but overall it seems that, regardless of its postponement, Green Dam has already won.

Tags: censorship, china, Green Dam

HOW TO: Get Retweeted on Twitter

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:01:16 GMT

Retweeting, as we explained in our article How To Retweet on Twitter, has evolved as the main way to reshare content you like on the social media service. There’s also a great deal of data we can glean from retweeting behavior, as we outlined in the article The Science of Retweets.

But apart from the obvious, what makes a retweet different from a tweet? What makes some types of tweets get shared more than others? And what can you learn from that data if you’d like to get retweeted more?

This week viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella dug into the data on retweets and published some interesting stats about retweet behavior. These help us understand why people retweet things, and might help you too.

1. Retweets Contain More Links

Retweets tend to contain a link, Zarrella explains – 56.69% of retweets contain a link versus 18.96% of normal tweets. So retweets are being used to share content from around the web.

Key point: If you’d like to get retweeted, include links in your tweets more often.

2. Longer Words / More Syllables

Retweets also appear to have more syllables per word than ordinary Tweets – tweets have an average of 1.58 syllables/word, versus retweets at 1.62 syllables/word. This isn’t necessarily what you’d expect, since the most viral ideas are often said to be the simplest ones.

Key point: Using long words is not a barrier to getting retweeted – in fact it seems to help.

3. Higher Reading Grade / More Complex

Another unexpected finding, perhaps: Zarrella found that retweets require a “higher level of education to understand” – 6.47 years of education versus 6.04 years according to the Flesch-Kincaid test. The graph also shows the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook test, which found similar results: 6.13 years of education for retweets versus 5.88 years for tweets.

Key point: Tweets don’t have to be stupid-simple to get retweeted.

4. More New Words and Concepts

Perhaps unsurprisingly, retweets tend to add new information. By creating a “novelty” score that counted how many times a word appeared in the entire sample versus in the retweets, it was found that retweets tend to contain more unique words.

Using a sample size of over 10 million tweets, Zarrella discovered that “in the random Tweet sample, each word was found an average of 89.19 other times, while in the ReTweet sample each word was only found 16.37 other times. This shows us that while simplicity may not be very important to ReTweetability, novelty certainly is.”

Key point: If you want more retweets, try adding new information.

5. Less Self-Referential

Also unsurprising: retweets tend to be less self-referential than ordinary tweets. In other words: talking about what you had for breakfast is less likely to get retweeted than talking about what Obama had for lunch. This was found using the LIWC (?Luke?) method, which is a little complex to explain here but you can learn more on the site. Another LIWC finding: people tend not to retweet swear words.

Key point: Don’t talk about yourself too much if you’d like to be retweeted.

So there you have it: if you want to get retweeted, don’t talk about what you had for breakfast, don’t swear, and throw in a useful link from time to time.

Mashable’s Best Retweeting Resources

If you’re looking to continue your education in the art of retweeting, then we encourage you to read some of our most popular Twitter and retweeting posts:

- How To Retweet on Twitter – Ben Parr offers a primer on how retweeting works, plus tools to retweet more efficiently and track the most popular retweets.

- The Science of ReTweets – Dan Zarrella explains which factors make certain tweets more viral than others.

- Retweet iPhone App for Twitter – Our review of the Retweet iPhone App.

- 15 Fascinating Ways to Track Twitter Trends – Covers some of the best tools for tracking trends on Twitter.

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: retweet, twitter

Twitter Increases API Limit

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:42:29 GMT

Tweetdeck users have noticed tonight that their hourly API call limit has been increased from 100 to 150 per hour, essentially meaning you can get more frequent Twitter updates if you require them. Twitter, however, has made no announcement, and the API Wiki still states 100 as the limit.

It’s not just TweetDeck that saw the change: we’re seeing rate limit increases in Twhirl: this would suggest a rate limit increase across the board, although that’s yet to be confirmed. The blog SocialGeist also spotted the change, and sent us the news.

If the change applies beyond TweetDeck, it’s great news for developers and those who use Twitter with remote applications.

Have the rates increased for your app? Let us know in the comments.

Reviews: TweetDeck, Twhirl, Twitter

Tags: api, twitter

iPhone 3GS Used to Film Music Video: Technologic Overkill

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:56:01 GMT

Not to be confused with the first music video about the iPhone 3GS (”Got My Mac on With iPhone 3GS“), the first video purportedly shot using the camera on the new device is making its way around the web.

The video – ?Technologic Overkill? ? is directed by filmmaker Steve Ellington, and shows ?the plight of a little blue robot and his attempt to be relevant in an increasingly technological world,? set to a song by the band XFYA. Check it out below:

As we recently noted, mobile video certainly seems to be at a tipping point, with dozens of services offering apps to get your video from your phone to the Web, and YouTube seeing a huge upswing in mobile uploads since the iPhone 3GS launched. Technologic Overkill is perhaps a small symbol of this movement, in what will likely be just one of many firsts that we see as people get their hands on the new Apple phone.

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: iphone, iphone 3Gs, music videos, video

RunPee: iPhone App Tells Moviegoers When it?s Safe to Pee

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:25:33 GMT

It’s a rare find: an iPhone app that’s both useful and hilarious. RunPee, an existing website that launched its iPhone app today, checks both those boxes.

Here’s the idea: you’re watching a movie in the theater and need to take a restroom break, but you don’t want to miss the best part. The RunPee iPhone app has a timer letting you know when it’s safe to take a break, and gives you a summary of what you missed upon your return.

It also lets you know whether you should stay till the end of the credits, since movies like Iron Man include bonus footage afterwards. You start the timer when the movie begins, and safe break-times are scheduled throughout. The app costs $0.99 [iTunes link].

In an amusing press release for the iPhone app, creator Dan Florio explains:

Our iPhone app gives movie goers “immunity” from the effects of mega-sized sodas and flushes away those grueling post-movie restroom lines where you have to wait your turn in pain and avoid awkward eye contact with the 30 other people in the restroom with you….a bladder is a terrible thing to hold.

Staggering #IranElection Stats: 2 Million+ Total Tweets

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:07:17 GMT

In mid-May we published stats that measured the scale of the #iranelection coverage on Twitter, as tracked by social media tracking service Trendrr. Mashable’s Ben Parr remarked that we were “approaching one million tweets on the situation”, although this only counted tweets mentioning the exact term #iranelection.

Now the Web Ecology Project has gone a step further and published a thorough report entitled “The Iranian Election on Twitter: The First Eighteen Days”. Rather than just looking at specific terms like “#iranelection” or “iran”, the study includes 12 terms related to the Iran situation, giving a more complete overview of events.

We’ve highlighted the key findings here, but stat heads may wish to dig into the methodology noted on the report itself, embedded in full below.

Iran Election on Twitter: Key Stats

- From June 7th till June 26th, the study recorded 2,024,166 tweets about Iran

- An estimated 480,000 Twitter users contributed to the conversation

- Of those that Tweeted about Iran, 59.3% tweeted once – this accounted for 14.1% of the Tweets

- The top 10% of Iran Twitterers accounted for 65.5% of the Tweets

– 1 in 4 Tweets about Iran were retweets

Iran Election Stats by Keyword

- ahmadinejad: 1,765 Tweets

- basij: 3,295 Tweets

- gr88:151,038 Tweets

- iran: 903,193 Tweets

- iranelection:: 857,401 Tweets

- iranian:- 9,929 Tweets

- khameni: 1,409 Tweets

- mousavi: 16,970 Tweets

- mousavi1388: – 325 Tweets

- neda: 97,872 Tweets

- rafsanjani: 77 Tweets

- tehran:- 85,019 Tweets

Full Report – The Iranian Election on Twitter: The First Eighteen Days

This is an embedded version of the Web Ecology Project report, available for download at their site [warning: PDF link].

Reviews: Mashable, Twitter

Tags: iran, iranelection, twitter

Links for 2009-06-18 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Bing Includes Tweets With Search Results (For Famous People)

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:29:21 GMT

There?s a growing fascination with the so called ?real-time Web,? with Google, Facebook, and Twitter all reportedly working on major changes to their search tools that leverage status updates and tweets to do a better job of indexing the Web. But Microsoft?s Bing has beaten them all to the punch ? at least in being able to say they include Tweets side-by-side with Web search results.

The implementation actually isn?t very exciting. Essentially, all Bing is doing is showing recent tweets from well-known people, and only when you search for that person?s name and Twitter in the same query. And it?s all just done via Twitter?s API, making it not a whole lot different than simple widgets that show someone?s most recent tweets.

The Bing team explains on their blog:

“Today we?re unveiling an initial foray into integrating more real time data into our search results, starting with some of the more prominent and prolific Twitterers from a variety of spheres. This includes Tweets from folks from our own search technology and business sphere like Danny Sullivan or Kara Swisher as well as those from spheres of more general consumer appeal like Al Gore or Ryan Seacrest.

Starting later today, when you search for these folks names in association with Twitter, you?ll see their latest Tweets come up in real time on Bing?s search results. For example, if you type ?Kara Swisher Twitter? or ?Kara Swisher Tweets? or even ?@karaswisher? as your search query, you?ll see something like the below. (Note this feature will be rolling out gradually over the course of the next few hours so you may not see it right away.)”

This feature would seem to have fairly limited appeal ? after all, most famous people simply use their own name as their Twitter handle, or you can quickly find it using Twitter?s existing search tools (or, Google). Nonetheless, it?s the first in what will likely be many big announcements concerning search engines and the indexing of real-time data from Twitter and other sources.

Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, bing

Tags: bing, Search, search engines, twitter

Links for 2009-06-19 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Michael Jackson?s Thriller: 28 Million Views Since His Death

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:12:23 GMT

Michael Jackson’s online popularity continues to soar: we reported previously that 2.6 million Michael Jackson songs were downloaded this week; Nielsen SoundScan says that no artist has ever sold more than 1 million downloads in a single week.

But Jackson is dominating in online video, too. Visible Measures, which goes beyond YouTube views and instead aggregates views from 150+ video sites, reports today that videos of Thriller have been viewed almost 28 million times since Thursday. The count includes tributes to the original, like the prison inmates’ performance below.

What’s more, the viewership has been accelerating, with 8.5 million total views this weekend and more than 19 million additional views on Monday and Tuesday. Jackson, it seems, is getting more popular by the day.

Above: Prison inmates in the Philippines perform Thriller

Reviews: YouTube

Tags: michael jackson, thriller, video

Links for 2009-06-21 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Agenda For Real Time Stream CrunchUp (And Third Wave of August Capital Party Tickets)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:48:05 GMT

Our Real Time Stream Crunchup is only a week and half away (get tickets here). We've been working hard to pull together the best startups, investors, engineers, and marketers developing products and platforms which take advantage of real-time data and communications in new ways. The real time stream is fast becoming a dominant metaphor for consuming information, increasingly displacing or at least transforming the traditional Web page. It has implications for startups, venture investors, media, search, and business, in general. We'll explore all of these facets in panels, on-stage interviews, demos, and a roundtable. Twitter to Facebook have already embraced the stream, but they are only the beginning. An whole new ecosystem of real time stream platforms and apps is emerging before our eyes. In fact, so many companies wanted to demo their product launches at the CrunchUp that we had to turn some away. But we still managed to fit in about a dozen demos, many of them will be seen for the first time. The speakers lineup includes founders and executives from Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, FriendFeed, TweetDeck, Meebo, WordPress, Seesmic, Virgin America, Tweetmeme, Qik, and more. Individual panels will do deep dives into the market opportunity, the real time platforms, real time search (something I am very excited about), and real time business. By real time business, I mean how businesses are adapting to the stream as a tool for marketing, brand management, customer engagement tool, internal communications, and even resource allocation. Putting together this conference has opened my eyes as to how far-reaching the real time stream is already, and these are early days. I hope you can join us to see for yourself. Below is the (almost final) agenda:

Links for 2009-06-22 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

YouTube Increases File Size Limit To 2GB, Now Allows Direct HD Embeds And Links

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:30:37 GMT

While not every tweak to YouTube's system deserves a post, this one is pretty significant, though very straightforward as well. First, the 1GB file limit for YouTube videos has been doubled to 2GB; this is a boon to many users who have been uploading high definition content more than a few minutes long. Ten minutes of 1080p footage can easily exceed a gig, especially if you've been editing it and weren't careful about re-encoding. A 2GB limit should soothe that particular pain. Next, the update now allows for direct linking to HD streams, as well as easy embedding of same. While it wasn't impossible before now to get an HD video by default on your page, or to link right to one, it required a little work. But now YouTube has apparently decided that they are ready for the bandwidth shock as thousands and thousands of users default to HD instead of SD — increasing the average amount of bits being sent by a huge amount.

Roundup : TweetTabs, Twicsy, Twitcaps, Tweetmic, Tweetree Update

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:49:43 GMT

TweetTabs - multiple Twitter streams on a page, also see ConvoMonitor, TweetGrid, peoplebrowsr, Monittor [via TC] Twicsy - there are many ways to share images on Twitter, but if you share them using yfog or Twitpic, these are harvested and shown at Twicsy, here are some from the Iranian protests. Twitmatic does the same for video. [...]

Microsoft Starts Officially Tweeting

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:59:03 GMT

It's Twitter day at Microsoft, apparently. Not only did the software giant announce that it would start adding tweets to its Bing search results, the company actually started officially using Twitter today. To be clear, Microsoft had a rather large presence on Twitter before through its various departments/products/services, but now it's using the main /microsoft account to tweet. The account is being run by its corporate communications team, consisting of four people. So far there have been only 2 tweets and the account only has about 1,000 people following it. That should change, fast.

Links for 2009-06-23 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Bing Keeps Its Foot On The Gas, Adds Tweets To Results

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:30:54 GMT

Bing is something of a rarity for Microsoft these days: It's a product that actually has good natural buzz. And for good reason too, it's a solid product. For certain queries, it seems more useful than even, yes, Google. (And not just porn queries.) And Microsoft isn't squandering away this opportunity, it's keeping its foot on the gas, today attacking what is perceived to be Google's weakness: Real-time search results. While that's a little misleading ? Google actually does have plenty of data that gets into its system almost immediately ? what everyone seems to mean by real-time results these days is Twitter results. And that's exactly what Bing is adding. Kind of. As it notes on its blog:

Links for 2009-06-24 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Joost, Meet The Competition. Magnify.Net Sees Growth In White Label Video Platform

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:56:37 GMT

With the news surrounding the implosion of Joost and the startup's move towards providing white label video platforms for companies, we thought it would be a good idea to check in with one of Joost's new competitors. As we wrote in our post about Joost's prospects as a white label video community provider, there is already plenty of competition, including Brightcove, Magnify, and Ooyala. Brightcove is perhaps the best-known player in the space. But another one which has been relatively successful in creating interactive video sites for brands is Magnify.net. The video hosting and sharing platform, which launched in 2007, is rapidly growing its white label service and is expected to be cash-flow positive by the end of the year, according to co-founder Steve Rosenbaum.

Bing Wants To Feature Your Best Summer Photo ? No Keg Stands, Please

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:59:21 GMT

It may sound kind of silly, but when I talk to people outside of the tech world about Bing, the first thing brought up is usually how they like the pictures. And now Microsoft has created a contest on Facebook to let one user get their own picture featured on Bing. The Bing Summer Travel Photo Contest is asking Facebook users to submit their best summer vacation photos. The community will then vote on them, and the winner will get its day in the sun, so to speak, on Monday, August 3 ? appearing to the millions who visit Bing on that day. Naturally, there are some rules for these photos as Microsoft probably doesn't want kickass keg party pictures on the Bing homepage. Obviously, no alcohol, smoking, guns, violence or nudity will be allowed. But Microsoft also doesn't want any pictures with recognizable people or any third party trademarked images, so they don't get sued.

Learning in fragments to help alleviate attention scarcity

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:12:09 GMT

I got a follow-up email the other day from our vendor to see if I have used a new reporting package, and for some feedback. I really don’t have time now as I’m facilitating at the moment, but I will get round to metrics at some stage. To tell you the truth, this reporting thing is [...]

CrunchGear Raises ~$5000 for Child?s Play Charity

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:50:58 GMT

Wiimbledon 2009 has come and gone and I?m happy to report that it was a great success! We had 98 tournament participants and everything went off without a hitch. With the help of generous eBayers, tournament attendees and Barcade, we?ve raised somewhere in the vicinity of $5,000 for the Child?s Play Charity. On behalf of CrunchGear, Wiimbledon and Child?s Play, I?d like to thank the following sponsors for hooking us up.

Links for 2009-06-25 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Details On The Upcoming New Facebook iPhone App. Now With Events!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:04:52 GMT

It's been a big day for Facebook, with news earlier this morning that the social network will soon be totally revamping its privacy settings and making it easier to share with the entire web. Now developer Joe Hewitt, who is responsible for Facebook's massively popular iPhone application, has posted a note to the site describing some of the new features we can expect from the latest iteration of the app, which he says is "98% done". Hewitt doesn't give an exact release date, but we can likely expect it very soon.

Links for 2009-06-29 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT

The Looming Facebook Privacy Fiasco

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:22:09 GMT

Facebook's privacy conference call just ended, and it's clear some major changes are going to be coming to the social network soon. Some of these, like a totally revamped privacy control page, are both long overdue and very welcome. But others, like the Transition Tool, seem ripe for disaster. Facebook clearly wants its users to become more comfortable sharing their content across the web, because that's what needs to happen if the site is going to take Twitter head-on with real-time search capabilities. Unfortunately that's far easier said than done for the social network, which has for years trumpeted its granular privacy settings as one of its greatest assets. Now, those settings are turning into problematic obstacles.

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Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Twitter To Developers: ?Tweet? Your Heart Out, But Don?t ?Twitter? It

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:34:54 GMT

There's been quite a bit of controversy over the past several hours over words and images related to Twitter being used by third-party developers. Yesterday, Twitter seemed to threaten one party over the use of the word "tweet" and some UI elements that were similar to Twitter's own. This morning, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone clarified Twitter's position on this a bit for us, stating that, "As part of this support, we encourage developers of new applications and services built using Twitter APIs to invent original branding for their projects rather than use our marks, logos, or look and feel." But there was still some confusion about what Twitter was actually saying, and more importantly, what it was planning to do with violators of this. So now Stone has written a blog post further clarifying things.

Roundup : Twitterslurp, Tweetboard, Twitlogo, Dial2Do, Tweexchange

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:53:02 GMT

Twitterslurp - a drop.io API app that creates a keyword Twitter stream, with a list of users and stats for your website, see an example at the Personal Democracy Forum created by the Bivings group. Tweetboard - showcase a Twitter stream in your blog. The owner and visitors to your site populate this stream by tweeting [...]

GDGT Launches For Non Stop Gadget Action

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:50:52 GMT

Last summer we broke the news that Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block would team with former editor-in-chief Peter Rojas to create a new gadget startup. Today that new startup, GDGT, launches. Gadget lovers rejoice - this is a social site where you can obsess over those tiny bundles of tech joy among others just as geeky as you. GDGT (pronounced "g-d-g-t," but I like to just say "gadget") is a highly structured wiki that centers on tech gadgets. Like our own Crunchbase, anyone can edit any information on the site, but everything is structured which allows for lots of slicing and dicing of the data. Users select gadgets that they own, used to own, or want, and can add reviews and ratings. Blog reviews are threaded into the discussion as well:

Links for 2009-07-01 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Live Blog: The Facebook Privacy Conference Call

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:56:41 GMT

This morning Facebook is holding a conference call/web share for press outlining changes the site is making to its privacy options. Facebook hasn't given us much of a heads up as to exactly what they'll be changing, but there's a good chance it will have something to do with the 'Everyone' sharing settings the site has recently been toying around with, which takes the social network one step closer to mimicking Twitter's functionality. There's also a chance Facebook will be overhauling its convoluted privacy control pages. The call begins at 10 AM PST.

Firefox 3.5 Hits Five Million Downloads in 24 Hours. Respectable, But Not A Record.

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:48:52 GMT

In the first 24 hours since its release yesterday, Firefox 3.5 has been downloaded more than 5 million times. (It took only a few hours to pass a million). That is certainly respectable, but doesn't quite measure up to the mania that Firefox 3.0 set off last summer, when it achieved a "world record" 8.3 million downloads in a single day. Maybe we'll have to wait for Firefox 4.0 to beat that record. But Firefox 3.5 might still beat the 11 million downloads Safari 4 got over its first three days of availability.