Good use of Twitter?

News/Web 2.0/Website/Twitter
Found: twitter.com

Due to a power outage in San Francisco, many popular web 2.0 websites went down for several hours yesterday, sites like Craigstlist, Technorati, Yelp and Six Apart's VOX and Typepad. While most sites just waited patiently for the power to get restored, Six Apart was busy sending out updates via twitter.

Six Apart's twitter stream says it all:


An update on today's outage: http://tinyurl.com/2bebg4

TypePad blogs are back up; LiveJournal and Vox and the TypePad application are under way.

More at http://status.sixapart.com/ 04:50 PM July 24, 2007 from web

http://status.livejournal.com/ has LiveJournal status info, and we've got details back up on http://status.sixapart.com/ as well. 04:13 PM July 24, 2007 from web

http://status.sixapart.com/ is back up, and will be updated as we progress. 03:44 PM July 24, 2007 from web Power is being restored to our data center, and TypePad, LiveJournal, Vox are each bring brought back online carefully. 03:13 PM July 24, 2007 from web

TypePad, Vox, and LJ are unreachable for many due to a power problem @ hosting facility, also affecting Technorati and Craigslist.

Spinlets private beta program!

Web Culture/Web 2.0/Website
Found on: spinlets.com

I love getting invited to private betas, they make me feel important and well liked, well liked by other important people that are also well liked...uh okay, I'm totally being facetious, but I do get a lot of invites and not all of them are blog-worthy but this little guy, this little guy is pretty cool.

Spinlets post:

Spinlets are embeddable chunks of code that let you take content anywhere. Create your own "mash-ups" by bringing your favorite YouTube videos, Flickr photos or iMeem music to your blog or personal page. Spinlets work with MySpace, TypePad, WordPress, Blogger, as well as most other blogs, sidebars or webpages. No downloads or plug-ins are needed and they're free.

Twitter mashup spotlight of the week.

Social Networks/Website/Twitter
Found on: twittervision.com

This week's Twitter mashup spotlight is called Twittervision:

It's a real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter and boy is it ever addictive.

Like Twittervision? Follow David Troy the mastermind behind the mashup.

2000 Leon Beyer Riesling Comtes d'Eguishem

Social Networks/Corkd/Wine
Found on: corkd.com

The 2000 Leon Beyer Riesling sounds pretty serious and pretty amazing.

Desertvino's review:

If you've never tried a dry Alsatian Riesling, this may come as a shock. This is a serious, earthy white wine that will not only pair with traditianal foods for white wines, but will also stand up to just about any food you would pair with Pinot Noir. Not for sipping as an aperitif. Rich golden color, Nose of minerals, earth and white fruit. Taste is dry, rich and earthy. Little petrol, but minerals and earth dominate carried on a strong backbone of white fruit and crisp acidity. This wine was marvelous with mushrooms, carp ravioli with asparagus and even with blutwurst. Complex and just outstanding.

• Average Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• Winery: Leon Beyer
• Vintage: 2000
• Varietal: Riesling
• Country: France
  
• Region: Alsace
• Price: $40.00 USD
  
• Description: Dry,Grand Cru Alsatian Riesling from Eichberg vineyard
• Created by: desertvino

MySpace competition? The world is big enough

News/Social Networks/Website
Found on: latimes.com

MySpace continues to dominate in North America but overseas it's a different story - Social Networks like the Friendster, Bebo and Google's Orkut are thriving.

LA Times post:

The online social networking site was on track to become the Internet's next big phenomenon a few years ago until an upstart called MySpace eclipsed it in popularity and media attention. But being spurned by America's fickle teenagers doesn't mean the budding social networking site went into hibernation or shrank to cater to a few true believers. While MySpace may continue to dominate in North America (more than half of its 100-million-plus accounts come from the United States), Friendster, Google's Orkut and other general-use social networking sites are thriving overseas.

In the Philippines, for instance, Friendster is used by an estimated 87% of the country's 8 million Internet users. About 70% of Friendster's 40-million-person user base comes from Southeast Asia.

NEWS: LONELY PLANET AND CURRENT TV

Web Culture/Website/Videos/Travel
Found on: lonelyplanet.com



Professional travel documentaries with user-generated content, sounds like a new online video network to me.

Lonely Planet TV post:

Lonely Planet and Current TV have teamed up to launch a new travel television franchise, “The Bluelist,” based on Lonely Planet’s well-known brand of the same name. The series of 26 short-form, three-minute “pods” will be hosted by writers and staffers of Lonely Planet worldwide, and will debut on January 18 on Current TV.

Lonely Planet’s “Bluelist” (www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist) brand presents hip “top ten” lists of travelers’ favorite travel experiences, and the new program on Current follows the same format. The show will spotlight some of Lonely Planet’s writers’ and staffers’ “Top 3” travel recommendations, from the expected (big wilderness escapes; best places for 24-hour party people) to the more unexpected (best places to have an existential crisis; best places to get into a fight).

NEWS: Andreessen's Ning.com takes on MySpace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Ning
Found on: news.com

I had a dream the other night that I got a phone call from my Granny; she was bragging to me about how she just put together a new "Myspace" in a just few minutes and that I needed to step up my game and before I could say anything in my defense she abruptly ended the conversation by dropping a "holla back youngin!" and hung up on me.

Alright, so I made all of that up, but if Marc Andreessen has his way there would be millions of little mini Myspaces and "Ning.com" would be leading the way.

Ning is a web based company that Andreessen is backing, he and the other investors hope that the new set of tools that they just launched will make creating your very own Myspace so easy, you guessed it -- your Granny could do it - holla!



News.com post:

In Marc Andreessen's vision of the future, MySpace is going to face stiff competition from a million mini-MySpaces.

One of the cofounders of Netscape and a symbol of the technology revolution of a decade ago is now backing a company called Ning, which launched a set of new tools on Tuesday designed to help even the most tech-challenged person build a social-networking site.

"(Ning) is essentially MySpace version 2," Andreessen said last week, adding that he is placing a bet that social-networking sites will follow a similar development as that of Internet service providers of the 1990s.

NEWS: SXSW Web Awards Reveals this Year's Finalists

News/Web Culture/SXSW/Awards
Found on: sxsw.com

Hundreds and hundreds of developers and web designers from around the world submitted their work hoping to become a finalist in the 10th SXSW annual Web Awards.

Well, for a few of them the wait is over and for the rest there's always next year.

SXSW post:

We are pleased to reveal the 10th Annual Web Awards Finalists below -- all sites that have launched or been completely redesigned in 2006. Stay tuned for more in-depth information on each finalist.

Art
From traditional photography to untraditional performances, this category focuses on web-based collections of life, society and culture.

15x15

Craftzine

Ellipse Foundation

MyToons

Smithsonian Photography Initiative

Blog
Sites that revolutionize the power of publishing by providing regularly updated content of a personal or professional nature.

April Zero

BuzzFeed

Snook.ca

Superfluous Banter

Twitter

NEWS: BrowseGoods (Shopping Engine) Launches

News/Marketing/Brian Smith
Found on: comparisonengines.com

Did you know that 25% of all online purchases are unplanned and a result from undirected browsing? Well apparently the guys at Dotted Pair did and they developed a very innovating way to comparison shop using a Google-map-like engine called "BrowseGoods."



Comparison Engine post:

Last year at eTail, Rudy Patero from Fry talked about how Web 2.0 technologies could be used in the retail area. There was a lot of hype about everything Web 2.0, but not many etailers were taking advantage of this concept. A year later, a lot has changed. Many shopping search engines have implemented a newer look and feel taking advantage of AJAX, user generated content is everywhere in the form of text and video reviews, and there are a ton of social shopping experiments popping up.

Today, I’m excited to break the news that BrowseGoods has launched. BrowseGoods has developed a new interface for visual shopping. I hate to dumb it down, but the easiest way to describe it is Google maps for shopping; BrowseGoods allows a user to zoom in/out and pan around by clicking on a section and then dragging the catalog. I can’t do the service justice through words…you just have to go to BrowseGoods and start playing with it.

NEWS: YouTube for Hipsters

News/Web Culture/IPTV/Videos
Found on: vbs.tv

Hipsters all over the world rejoice -- you now have your very own internet TV channel. A joint venture between Vice Magazine and MTV has given birth to VBS.tv, a full fledged online broadcast network.

VBS.tv post:

VBS is an online broadcast network. We stream original content, free of charge and 24 hours a day. We carry a mix of domestic and international news, pop and underground culture coverage, and the best music in the world. People have used words like eclectic, smart, funny, shocking, and revolutionary to describe VBS, but we kind of just snapped our fingers in their faces and went, “Whatever. Tell us something we don’t know.”

Boedecker Cellars 2003 Stewart Pinot Noir

Social Networks/Corkd/Wine
Found on: corkd.com

I found this yummy Oregon Pinot Noir on Cork'd, I can't wait to try it out for myself.

Pinobob's review:

An elegant wine for lovers of classic Oregon Pinot Noir. This wine is full of vibrant cherry and raspberry, yet maintains a crisp backbone and a delicate, spicy finish.

• Average Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (1 Review)
• Winery: Boedecker Cellars
• Vintage: 2003
• Varietal: Pinot Noir
• Country: United States
• Region: Oregon: Willamette Valley
• Price: $28.00 USD · Buy this wine
• Description: Classic Dundee Hills Pinot from old-vine Pommard and Wadensweil from the Maresh and Murto vineyards in the Dundee Hills. Aged 19 months in French oak barrels
• Created by: pinotbob

NEWS: Disney to Launch MySpace Knockoff

Social Networks/Myspace/Disney/Laurie Sullivan
Found on: redherring.com

Looks like Mickey and the rest of the Mousketeers what to jump on the Myspace bandwagon.

Disney CEO, Robert Iger will unveil a new Disney web site on Jan. 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the new site will be full of web 2.0 standards like social networking, chat and video clips.



Red Herring post:

Similar to News Corp.’s MySpace, the site will feature social networking, chat and video clips, but will incorporate parental controls for web-crawling kids. The site also offers Disney Xtreme Digital, a broadband tool that allows web surfers to create custom profiles and personal pages and share them with others, as well as Mickey, Pluto and the gang.

Redesigning Disney.com with digital media has been a top priority for Iger, according to reports. Critics of the old Disney.com say the revamp couldn’t have come too soon. The old site was difficult to navigate and doesn’t live up to Disney’s standards.

Amazon's new Social Network webiste?

Social Networks/Website/Amazon/Askville
Found on: askville.com



Look who just launched a new website...I just received an email from our friends over at Amazon.com, inviting me to take a sneak peak at their new website "Askville.com".

Here's the email:

You're Invited!

As a valued Amazon customer, you've been specially picked to get an early look at a new website Amazon has just launched called Askville. Askville is a place where you can ask any question on any topic and get real answers from real people. It’s a fun place to meet others with similar interests to you and a place where you can share what you know. You can learn something new everyday or help and meet others using your knowledge. It's new, and best of all, it's free!

Checkout the site's blog: Askville Blog

How soon is MingleNow?

Social Networks/Website/MingleNow
Found on: minglenow.com

Putting back the "social" in social network is the ultimate goal of the founders of new upstart social network site MingleNow. The site was built to connect members with the places they hang out offline, with other people who hang out there.

MingleNow post:

MingleNow was born out of a simple observation.

The founding team, Krishna, Gurbaksh, Dave, Lindsey and Dakota, are all extremely social people. Krishna was a successful club promoter. The rest of us have all spent way too much time in places with loud music and no natural light. It occurred to us that we had one group of friends through the clubs, bars and restaurants where we hung out and a different group of friends through the social networks we belong to.

That didn't seem right.

We set out to build the first social network that would connect you with the places you hang out offline, and the other people who hang out there.

Think about it. The places you like to go define you. MingleNow lets you meet other people who are attracted to the same places. You can also use MingleNow to discover places in other cities and areas that attract the type of people and have the type of vibe you're looking for. Finally, you can use the social calendar to organize your weekend without having to wade through a dozen calls, emails and IMs.

NEWS: Wikipedia founder remakes Web publishing economics

News/Social Networks/Wikia/Eric Auchard
Found on: reuters.com

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is a freaking visionary!

He announced on Monday that his for-profit company, Wikia, would be giving away all the open source software, computing power, storage space and network access that website developers need to create community collaboration sites for absolutely free!

Here's the catch - he's asking that they link back to Wikia.

Reuters post:

Wales is betting the plunging cost of computers and networks can help Wikia support the free services offer. "It is becoming more and more practical and feasible to do," he said.

WISDOM TO PREVAIL

"We don't have all the business model answers, but we are confident -- as we always have been -- that the wisdom of our community will prevail," he said.

The move follows the announcement last week that Amazon.com had become Wikia's first corporate investor and is acting as the sole investor in Wikia's second round of funding. Terms were not disclosed.

Wikia took $4 million in funding in March from Bessemer Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, high-profile Silicon Valley "angel" backers including Marc Andreessen, Dan Gillmor, Reid Hoffman and Mitch Kapor and Joichi Ito of Japan.

What is Swivel?

Social Networks/Web Culture/Data/Swivel
Found on: swivel.com

If you've ever wondered what the subscriber growth rate of Second Life is compared to that of War of Warcraft, you have to checkout this new data crunching, web analytic, graphs and pie chart mecca.

It's a website called Swivel.com...read on.

Swivel.com post:

Swivel lets you explore data and share your insights with others. Swivel has data about politics, economics, weather, sports, business and more.

Swivel is full of good stuff. We think of it like this:

Explore popular data or obscure data. Search for it or have fun cruising all the colorful graphs, data sets and opinions.

Compare gas prices to presidential approval ratings or UFO sightings to iPod sales. You might find a crazy coincidence or something more.

Share your insights by posting a graph to your blog or emailing a link to your friends and coworkers.

Upload the information you care about, describe it, pick a color scheme and even pick a cool photo to bring it to life.

If you're curious about data, Swivel is the place for you.

Shout out to my boy sB! for turning me on to this site.

NEWS: Expedia founder in web property move

News/Social Networks/Web Culture/Daniel Pimlott
Found on FT.com

If Richard Barton the founder of Expedia has his way, Zillow.com could be the new Myspace... for Real Estate.

FT.com post:

Richard Barton, the founder of Expedia, wants to repeat the success of the online travel agency in the fast-growing market for US property websites, by opening up his Zillow.com to user-generated content similar to popular networking sites such as MySpace.

The move, to be announced today, will allow home-owners and estate agents to add properties’ photos, descriptions, improvements and selling price to Zillow – the company founded by Mr Barton in February.

The new service will be free but Mr Barton, who left Expedia shortly before Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp bought out the company for $3.3bn in 2003, said that Zillow wanted to tap into the estimated $6bn online advertising market for property and financial services.

FakeYourSpace Launches - Buy Sexy MySpace Friends

Social Networks/Web Culture/Peter Cashmore
Found on: Mashable.com

Peter is reporting the launch of a new service that allows unpopular people on certain social networks to buy "hot" friends -- could this be the beginning of the end?

Mashable.com post:

FakeYourSpace, which is edgy, and may not be completely worksafe, launches this week. The service has an extremely amusing aim: it allows unpopular people on MySpace, Facebook and Consumating to “buy” hot friends. For just $.99 per month, you can buy a good-looking friend who will leave 2 comments on your profile every week. You can choose from scores of semi-clad male or female friends, and “buy them” twice to double the number of comments they leave. Payments are made via Paypal, of course. Want to annoy your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend? Just ask your hot new friend to flirt with you in your MySpace comments. Alienated all your Facebook friends by being nasty to them? No problem - just buy some new ones! And there’s no risk of your real friends discovering the ruse, since all of FakeYourSpace’s profiles are set to private.