blending the mix

Vic Keegan of the guardian reports that for all its pomp and fuss, blogging just isn’t breaking into the mainstream as expected (or as much as facebook or myspace have for example).

I’d written about this a while ago arriving at the conclusion that this was because the growth of the blogoshpere was being powered by the technologists behind and associated with the tech industries themselves.

One such case in question is techmeme. Look at the sister sites section…I’ve seen more content in a blank email. Where is comedy meme, car meme, soccer meme? At least digg has got the right idea - opening up channels to non-tech topics.

The very people pushing the growth of the blogosphere are the people who have designed and contributed to its conception, with several notable "non-tech" leaders carving out a niches for themselves (Steve Rubel springs to mind).

I strongly believe that the reason the blogosphere’s growth is slowing is more to do with the perception that it is run by techies FOR techies.

As a newbie, what do you choose…feedburner, newsgator, google reader? With posts, do you sphere it, delicious it, add to technorati favourites (what’s technorati most will ask?), stumble it, digg it…how about "fuck it" I can’t be bothered.

Yes, the barriers to entry are short and sweet, but isn’t it about time, it all stopped getting so damn confusing.

Tags: blogging, digg, guardian, internet, micropersuasion, rss, technorati

The BBC reports on how an ENTIRELY unheard of group, Koopa have managed to get a Top 40 hit, with no recording contract!

Recent changes to the way the UK Top 40 Music chart is compiled (now taking into account ANY music downloads) have meant that on download sales alone, Koopa have managed to enter the charts at Number 31.

All around the world, there are A&R men and women crying into their champagne. The people have spoke. They don’t need a record company telling them what band they should be listening to next.

myspace, flickr tour tags, WOM, forums have replaced conventional music marketing and put it in the hands of the people.

I find it fascinating to see how the music industry has been able to demonstrate such a responsiveness to these new techniques and wonder what other industries can/could so publicly demonstrate such. success

Vive La Revolution!

Tags: koopa, bbc, itunes, music, myspace, flickr

p.s. don’t think I’m mocking redundancy…been there, done that…on the cusp of it again!

16th January update: Music Zone the once popular music retailer is now in liquidation.

On the back of the Thresher voucher launched by Hugh last week, the story has now made the BBC website.

Blogging is just a fad? Don’t think so!

Hugh…rock on!

Tags: gapingvoid, stormhoek, threshers, blogging, advertising

Tags: secondlife, web 2.0, internet, micropersuasion, myspace, community, integration

Looking for a prospect today on Google called Ajax Property Developments, I was unable to find anything of relevance - but by god, did I find plenty about Ajax developer tools and language.

I got the same rubbish from msn and yahoo which led me to think that this is now a geek-led world, and we didn’t know it!

When you look at search terms now, just what proportion of Google results comes back as blog posts? Too many for my liking.

Don’t get me wrong, I love blogging (despite having been off it for a while!) but I am coming round to the fact that blogging has been led by the technology crowd who talk about online marketing, Ajax, purely online companies, the whole web 2.0 thing etc., etc.

And the increased proportion of this content on the overall web ensures that there is just too much entirely irrelevant results coming back form the search engines - and who is to blame? If I put the term "ice-cream" into Google, you can be assured that if Steve Rubel has mentioned the words ice-cream in relation to anything, then it will crop up top of the list! (No criticism of Steve there!)

The Internet grew most when we could find what we wanted when we wanted it - and quickly. Cool. Now there is so much more to look through (and some of it utter junk!), that the speed with which we can find the same searches has gone.

Some of it is genuine crap (affiliate junk) but some of it is interesting, when called for (blogging), but is it not yet possible to filter these out?

Should Google begin to think about adding a Technorati-type blog search to its main page rather than guiding people to blog search through reader (for much the same reason that news and images are separated?) or do they get cleverer and try to increase their sensitivity to relevant (or irrelevant) blog posts?

Is the increase in growth of the Internet down to the fact that the techies are still posting so much tech-related (and tech-marketing) content or are we still in the very early days of social media growth where the amount of tech-related content still outweighs the amount of new, social, non tech-related UGC?

Tags: blogging, Google, Internet, tech, Steve Rubel, UGC, social media

A word of warning to all those wiki owners who are doing for free what other copmanies charge for…you are being hunted down!

Yellowiki, is a twist on the craig’s list theme where people create their own directories and business links. Yell.com, the directory people who charge companies for doing the same things are now suing yellowiki, claiming infringement of copyright.

But, all is not what it seems. The main basis for the claim is the use of the yellow logo, and NOT the content that it is creating.

So here is my question. Why aren’t they just asking the “owners” of the wiki to change the logo instead of trying to close the site down?

Is this turning into another David & Goliath “negative publicity for the big brand, driving people away from the big brand” story or what?!

Technorati Tags: yellowiki

Those lovely people at paypal are so kind.

Within 2 days of me launching my new blog, PayPal sent me an email asking me to verify my personal details because they thought there had been a security breach. How nice. Shame it landed in my spam filter!

What other multinational company would take sure care of its customers so as to ensure their customers’ safety on an almost 10-minutely basis?

What other multinational company would allow such continual and widespread abuse of their integrity that they do absolutely NOTHING about it until they have to?

What other multinational company whose business is handling other people’s money do absolutely NOTHING to keep its fraud-concerned customer up to date with the latest scams and tricks?

What other multinational company whose business is based on trust and security only say something abut a scam until IT becomes worried about ITSELF?

What other multinational company whose business is as widely known for scams as its business does nothing about it?

What…OK, you get the point!

How can a company whose customers are attacked every minute of every day NOT have anything other than a developers blog? And even HIDE their phone number from you, whose money they are holding.

It defies belief

The ability of Paypal to allow secure transactions easily is probably its most important asset yet it does NOTHING to alert/warn/advise its customers on what to do in ANY sort of daily/weekly conversation.

How long does it take you to find out about the latest threats to YOUR security on the Symantec website? Seconds.

And that is only your computer.

Imagine how much more you would trust PayPal with YOUR money if you felt that they at least had a handle on the problems and commuinicated them to you.

PayPal….blogging can be as cheap or as expensive as you want but the value is indeterminable.

Tags: paypal, blogging, blog, pinko marketing, symantec, security

My Sony laptop is on the verge of packing in, after years and years of (ab)use it is at death’s door.

The CD drive does not allow me to burn back-up discs anymore and it is pot luck as to whether or not it will work from one day to the next.

So, I am offering a unique opportunity to sponsor ME.

Apple, Microsoft, Dell, or indeed any company willing to provide me with a half-decent laptop will have their name mentioned as part of my email signature.

In ALL communications in which I participate and which requires me to use the laptop (pretty much all the time!), I will apply the following signature text for a full 12 months (and I WILL provide weekly evidence of this):

Paul Fabretti

Director

Written on an Apple Macbook Pro by Company X.

Or

"Written using the latest Dell Precision M90"

or whatever suits the company providing it! You get the picture!

I may even think about something that sounds good too!

I am a minimum 3-times a day, 3-blog blogger with a (growing) average 800 unique visitors per month (ok, not a lot but growing all the time!). I am an active member of linked-in, openbc, ecademy as well as the pinkomarketing wiki and google group.

I am also an eBay (UK) Gold Power seller. A link to the company providing my laptop will also be included in ALL my eBay auctions.

Some will no doubt snigger at the visitor numbers (and advertisers may balk at the numbers!) but I am an extremely active member of the communities in which I mix, and present you with an opportunity to touch business professionals deeper than any banner ad would.

If this is of interest to you and you would be able to provide me with a laptop, I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Tags: ebay, Dell, Apple, Macbook Pro, laptop, pinko marketing

Weather reports, flights, take-away food, and price checks.

All things that we were all soooo excited about using in WAP (but didn’t) are now being touted as the major reasons for using mobile internet with t-mobile.

How about mobile blogging, video blogging, internet search, maps, google earth, podcasting…now surely THESE are all things which are going to make mobile internet more attractive.

Nobody used WAP for a reason - the services were largely irrelevant.Why would we pay more to use the same service only do it quicker?

T-mobile - use your bloody imaginations. Find out what people use their PC’s for and tell them they can do it on a phone too.

Is it so difficult?

Tags: t-mobile, wap, 3g, internet