Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Running out of Gmail space already? How would you like some additional storage space so that you never, ever have to erase anything ever again? Well, everyone's wishes have been answered!
Google has just announced standard Gmail accounts will get a storage increase as part of the Infinity+1 plan. Standard users will get a rough increase of about 1GB of space, plus creeping increases over time. While businesses and schools that are part of the Google Apps program will see storage increase to an unspecified amount (likely a few extra GB). Premier Edition users will notice a change from 10GB to 25GB, for the same fees they currently pay. ($50/user, per year)
With storage costs constantly decreasing and Google opening new datacenters all over the US, we're sure we will see changes in other areas as well, including Picasa, the rumored rebuild of Orkut 2.0, and among their numerous other acquisitions.
What do you get when you mix user-submitted video, the news judgement of NPR, and user-community of seemingly all single, unmarried, childless democrats? Well, in a word: Current.tv. This cable channel wasn't so much news as reality video, and it was created to compete for mind share with XBox and YouTube, not with CNN and Fox News. Developed by Al Gore, the TV network was ridiculed early on for airing user-submitted video, but the idea turned out to be a profitable one, if only to a painfully tiny TV audience. Airing a ton of essentially unknown, royalty-free content has a way of doing exactly those things--lowering costs and viewership at the same time.
The problem Current ran into was that people who watch cable don't generally get too excited about user-submitted video (unless it's reruns of AFV). That's the domain of YouTube, and the young, liberal audience targeted by Current probably spends more time online than they do parked on the couch. Gore's development specialists noticed this shortcoming quickly and redeveloped Current.tv into Current.com, which launches October 16.
The new site doesn't prop up the Current TV network as much as the old one does, though that's not the biggest change: Current is now a sort of Digg-for-social-media, with an obvious emphasis on video and video commentary threads, a la YouTube or Vlip. The new Current has wisely hidden the raw number of up or down Digg-style votes a particular item receives, instead opting to show percentages and hide the actual trends.
If Al Gore wants to transform the typically-cynical, MySpacing, twenty-something demographic into a group that actually cares about politics and social issues, the new Current might be the ticket. But enabling discourse through what is basically indy film-making? The notion of mixing art and issues is great for entertainment, but will it service Al Gore's mission? It will be interesting to see if Current sits in the happy median.
Yes, Madonna, who recently took some guitar lessons and strapped on a Les Paul, is going down the road of Radiohead and Oasis, as reported earlier in the week. Apparently the leading female pop vocalist over the last twenty or so years is dropping her record label about as hard as she dropped her Motown pride when she hit the bigtime with 'Like a Virgin'.
Apparently, she's going to distribute upcoming records through the auspices of one of the largest concert promoters, Live Nation. Whether or not this means downloadable music will be available for free, for tips, or at all remains to be seen. We're also not sure if this is a case of a bunch of rich has-been musicians taking up a fad cause, or if this really is a turning point in the digital distribution revolution (though Live Nation has no Net-based music distribution apparatus that we're aware of). Either way, it's nice to see people with Grammies finally using their pull to fight the power. How far is Madonna willing to go? Internet-only? DRM-free?
Interestingly, the Eagles also dumped Hollywood in favor of selling their most recent studio effort directly to Wal-Mart of all places, so we're seeing this backlash touch all genres. Like Madonna, the Eagles have not pledged DRM-free tracks. So one wonders if these noteworthy (but certainly non-earth-shattering) shifts in distribution stem from the artists' personal beliefs about media art, or if they're just ticked at folks who run the Old School.
This begs the question--if it was Hollywood that got these mega-musicians to where they are today, is it even possible to get that big as an unapologetic, unassisted indy? That is, can MySpace pave your road to stardom with its online-only SNOCAP distribution scheme? Thus far, it hasn't been the case. In order to ditch the record industry and call your own shots, it seems you already need to be a star.
Google offers AdSense customers a chance to provide exclusive content by placing ads over the top of online videos. But these flash ads can be distracting if you're watching a video. Blinkx takes a different approach by putting ads at the top of the video window so that there's never an ad covering the video display.
Blinkx is a video search engine with over 14 million hours of video online. Their technology uses both speech recognition and video analysis software to accurately find videos online from all major sources and now they are integrating this into targeted ad placement.
The Blinkx text ads will get placed together with embedded videos from such popular video sharing sites as YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Veoh, CollegeHumor and Daily Motion. This will work with any video, be it copyrighted or not. It works by simply dropping the embed code from a video site into a form that will spit out the new Blinkx embed code complete with additional ad codes. This will then allow users to place the videos on social networks, websites and blogs to earn revenue per click. Users must have an account on Blinkx Adhoc as well as a PayPal account which they will get paid through when the ads are clicked on.
Blinkx pays you for embedding videos from YouTube, Daily Motion and other sites on your website. It doesn't matter if you created the original video or not. And it doesn't look like there's anything to prevent you from making money on copyrighted content like clips from movies and TV shows.
We assume that copyright holders might get a little uptight about that. But since Blinkx inserts an ad above the video window and not inside of it, you could argue that this is kind of the same as adding a Google AdSense unit to a webpage above content.
Radiohead shocked the world when they announced they were allowing fans to set the price for their latest album as a digital download. Then Nine Inch Nails let us all know they have dropped their record label and would also be distributing their new album with no help at all from industry bigwigs. Now a few more music giants that have stepped up to the plate.
Sticking it to the record label industry that has taken a huge chunk of the pie for so long, UK based Oasis and Jamiroquai are the latest bands to announce they are thinking about offering their music free online. Both bands do not have record label backing and are seriously considering following Radioheads lead. Other bands that are contemplating a change in how they do business with fans are The Charlatans and Madness, who are offering albums for free and singles as downloads for 99 pence. How will the major labels react to this? We can only wait and see, but we can be sure they are tucked away in their battle bunkers this week strategizing.
Radiohead has so far refused to reveal how many have pre-ordered their album online. Nonetheless, they have launched their website to top spot on the UK music websites list and are starting to lead a new music revolution.
Not so fast, jack. The offending copyright infringements totaled just 24--that's right, twenty-four copyright protected files on the user's drive. Breaking down to nearly 10 large per infringement; the defendant Jammie Thomas was hit square in the face with the book the court threw, wiping out her finances and sending her out of the courthouse literally in tears.
As an aside, we're left to wonder if the artists infringed upon could have generated the kind of revenue which would make such an enormous judgment possible if it weren't for the enthusiasm demonstrated by fans like Jammie. After all, a business needs its customers and, like it or not, rabid filesharers are also some of music's biggest fans, and the recording industry's bread and butter.
Nevertheless, Jammie, a MySpace user, has apparently raised nearly a thousand bucks to fund her appeal of the case, courtesy of her MySpace friends. She's also receiving funds from her Native American tribe, but not nearly enough to match the might of the RIAA, whose pockets have grown deep through record sales and insanely lopsided settlement agreements.
Declan McCullough of CNET wrote that the jury instructions given before deliberation may have been slanted in favor of a heavy statutory damage claim, as high as a hundred grand per incident. Is it just us, or does this kind of onesie-twosie infringement seem like it should be covered by a different set of fines? You can get a DUI with children in the car and still get off cheaper than Jammie Thomas did.
Dibs is a website designed to help you buys and sell stuff in your local area. The site works as an online bulletin board similar to Craigslist. The difference between Craigslist and Dibs however is that items you put up for sale are ONLY available for people registered in your area to purchase rather than people around the country. That way you don't end up with some guy 3,000 miles away trying to get you to ship your coffee table to him.
If you've ever tried to sell something on Craiglist you've probably gotten a bunch of emails with different offers for your items. Dibs keeps all of the contact about the sale of your item on the site itself so you're inbox doesn't get flooded with emails. Users can ask questions about an item, and make an offer on the site. You can look at all of the offers that have been made for your item and accept the best one as well as make arrangements to hand off the item on Dibs without ever giving out your personal information. Once your item is sold Dibs takes care of taking the item off the web and making sure you don't get questions about things you've already gotten rid of.
Once neat thing about Dibs is that every seller gets their own unique URL, that way if you're selling a crapload of stuff at once you can advertise elsewhere and point users to a single domain that will list all of your items, and only the items you're selling.
Dibs launched in July of this year. The site is free to use but doesn't have very many items up for sale yet even in larger cities, a definite drawback if you're looking to shop.
Whether you are a homeowner trying to best squeeze all of your new furniture into your new space, a student experimenting with different furniture placements, or just thinking about knocking out a few walls and creating a new space, FloorPlanner could be your space-planning answer.
This free application takes the pencil, drafting table, and the $150/hr architect out of the equation and lets everyday people create and play around with floor plans online. Floor plans are simple to create with a feature rich toolset of drawing tools and household items to place on plans. Users start off by creating living space walls, choosing flooring material, adding doors and windows, and dropping in furniture and electrical outlets. Walls can be moved, colors changed and furniture moved all with a simple click until the perfect plan is set. Floor Plans can then be saved, printed, shared with friends and eventually turned into a 3d space. (In testing mode and only available in Plus and Pro accounts.)
This free online floor plan creation tool is a joy to use. Its simple controls and clean layout make it easy to create rough layouts for all kinds of living spaces quickly. Users can get as creative as they wish, and quite possibly use this as a base design for architects, interior designers and construction trades.
If you have an opinion about the next open source master of the universe software company(ies) for 2008, you can vote for them and make your voice heard at Linux Magazine's annual top 20 companies to watch edition. Last year, Zimbra, (recently acquired by Yahoo for $350 million) XenSource (enterprise virtualization bought by Citrix for $500 million) and Canonical (think Ubuntu on Dells) made huge breakthroughs.
Nominate your favorites by October 30 and the finalists will be revealed in January.
Have you ever walked into a restaurant to find only one person occupying each table? Why don't lonely people just sit together? Wouldn't a nice chat with a another warm blooded human be preferable to reading the newspaper over your slice of pizza?
Yeah, Brian Dorsey's friends didn't think it would work either. But he went ahead and launched Noonhat.com anyway.
With Noonhat.com you find your city on the map, enter your email address, and select the date you want to do lunch with someone. The application matches you with up to four other people who want to do lunch that day. It's that simple.
The jury is still out on whether or not this is a good idea. One thing is certain though, if only a very few people use Noonhat then that still means more empty tables so the rest of us can sit and read our newspapers in peace.
Remember when the United States army offered a first-person shooter to boost recruitment? If Toyota's new foray into video games in any indication, it was a move that worked. Toyota wants to recruit you to buy their Yaris, a car designed by, of all people, a video game company. Incidentally, the projectile-shooting revver depicted in the game doesn't shoot in real life; nor does it have that interesting tentacle as standard equipment.
Starting today, XBox Live users can download the game for free and play it on their Microsoft consoles. Time will tell whether the advertising scheme is effective, but we suspect most gamers will be more interested in discovering whether or not this game is actually fun.
McDonald's, effervescing with beefy, trans-fat-free goodness in every bite, has just given British iPhone users one more reason to mack a double-cheese: free WiFi. The move is designed to take a chomp out of rival chains which offer WiFi for a fee throughout the kingdom and is timed to coincide with the UK release of Apple's tremendously successful iPhone, a move somewhat contradictory to Apple's recent Starbucks/iTunes maneuver.
Of course, with revision 2 iPhone firmware now able to purchase and download music via any WiFi hotspot, it seems you'll be able to rock those downloads over a basket of greasy fries and not just a latte. It all seems to point to ubiquitous WiFi's impetus living in the realm of companies pushing content, whether it be Apple or Google, and not in the realm of the taxpayer. Just don't get your multi-touch display greasy, OK?
In an age where the Internet is fast enough and ubiquitous enough to be used as a first-resort for voice calling, it's surprising that eBay has taken such a Neanderthal stance towards the use of voice calling apps on its web site. It seem that eBay was never able to realize how great it would be for all mutual users of Skype and eBay to have click-to-call functionality in the world's biggest auction house. Want to ask the seller a question with only four minutes left to bid? Sure is easier with something like Skype than with old-fashioned e-mail.
Yet the capitalization of Skype on behalf of the eBay user community never-really happened, and the widespread use of Skype among eBay sellers never really took off. By some estimates, eBay could've doubled the size of the Skype user community had they fully integrated the tool into their auction system. In June of 2006, eBay announced a limited trial of 'Skype Me' buttons for eBay sellers, and the selling public took to it like fish to dry land, probably because it only covered item categories in which the vast majority of items on eBay aren't listed. The rest, as they say, is history.
So over the weekend it became clear that eBay wants nothing to do with this voice business, despite having purchased (for an absurd sum) the world's most pervasive desktop calling tool. Jajah, a VoIP competitor and Skype-clone-gone-mobile-tool, jumped in to fill the void, offering an easy way for sellers and buyers to get in touch vis a vis eBay auctions. The auction giant's response? Ban Jajah.
It really makes you wonder just how much garden is still growing inside eBay's strong walls.
Yahoo! has added content from Yahoo! Answers and Wikipedia into mobile search platform, oneSearch. When searching for information on mobile devices, users don't have time to fool around. This new mobile step will add a lot more functionality to oneSearch, delivering additional relevant answers and information that searchers are trying to grab quickly.
Yahoo! Answers and Wikipedia is available to oneSearch users in 18 countries including all of North America, Latin America, the UK as well as other European and Asian countries. Also available at oneSearch now, some handy information when traveling, flight statuses. Search your flight information and you get a quick look at flight status, gates and time.
Tioti This online social media aggregator pulls in TV shows and lets users edit and add to the show content. Tioti lists out the online sources that the TV shows come from, their download sources, and makes it possible for people to rate and discuss the shows.
Electric Checkbook A way to manage your checking, savings and credit card accounts online. All payments, deposits and transfers can be tracked, and checkbooks can be shared with friends or whomever you wish. (Do you normally show your friends your account balances credit card bills?) Although questionable whether people would want an external service to get an inside look at your net worth, this app is user friendly and cleanly layed out.
BatchBook Have a small business? BatchBook might be able to help out with contact management. They have built a simple system that can be customized depending on the needs of the business. BatchBook lets users keep track of contacts, customers, vendors and anyone that you might do business with online through a drag and drop interface. Reminders can be set for dates, and all communications can be logged.
Zuzzid An online community for insurance customers. This is the place for people to go and communicate with other customers to advise others on the best deals around, check out reviews, and gossip about good and bad experiences. At present, the service is only available to users in the UK.
EmailTwitter Send and receive updates to Twitter via email, whether it's a mobile device or desktop computer. Fill out the registration and send a brief email with your Twitter username and password in the subject line to begin the connection. The body of the email is your twitter update, remember to stay within 140 characters. Just another way to let people know what you are up to quickly.
Running out of Gmail space already? How would you like some additional storage space so that you never, ever have to erase anything ever again? Well, everyone's wishes have been answered!
Dibs
