ObamaIn30Seconds

User generated content is continuing to make an impact in the political world.  ObamaIn30Seconds is holding a competition for amateurs to develop their own political ad for Presidential candidate Barack Obama.  If you are interested, here is a great way to voice your opinion via the internet.

Youtube Crash

A few weeks ago the Pakistani government decided to block Youtube for its citizens due to content on the site that they did not agree with.  Unfortunately the block mistakenly affects more than just Pakistan.  Although this occurred a few weeks ago, it is interesting to read they are not the first country to block Youtube.  Many other countries including Turkey and Thailand also placed a block on Youtube.

Video Dating

Dating through a webcam? According to this article, WooMe is a one of the new generations of online dating websites, similar to match.com, however its users are not only meeting online, but they are dating online as well, via webcams. I think the funniest part is if you are “on a date,” and decide you are the other person are just not hitting it off, there is an option to click to quickly end your date, only to wait a few minutes before your next “date” for the night appears on your computer screen.

Going to class on Second Life?

As I was browsing through TechCrunch, I found an article explaining how a Sussex University, in England, is now fully on Second Life.  There is a link to the official Sussex University’s website outlining how they intend to utilize their presence on Second Life.   Although the school is developing exactly what students may do while on Second Life Sussex, it seems as though online lectures and seminars for students is going to be one of the main uses.  It also explains they want to use it as an outlet for students to show off their talent in the arts.  It sounds fun, but I wonder if it will catch on with students?  I think I would rather attend a seminar in person.  But maybe that is just me.

Blogging Tips

I have to say, I am not a fan of writing. I think I might stick out even more because this IMS class is full of journalism majors, while I am one of the few business majors in the class. So blogging has definitely been difficult for me. I came across this article specifically giving 24 tips on how to come up with blog content that is appealing to readers and how to get readers to want to read your blog. I found them interesting and I wanted to share them with everyone else, whether you are a beginner or a pro.

Yahoo Launches Open Search Platform

A few weeks ago, Yahoo announced the introduction of a new open search platform, known as SearchMonkey.  I came across this article a few weeks ago, but it seems fitting to bring it up after spending all of last week going over search tactics in class.  Of all the benefits of an open search platform allowing third party users to modify the search results, I was glad to read that users will definitely not be able to change the order of the search results.  As we learned in class, search engines such as google and yahoo determine the order of websites that show up based on how many users are going on these sites.  If users were able to change the order of websites in this open search format, I for one would question credibility.

Second Brain?

Today in class someone commented about how many websites Aaron belongs to and questioned how he is able to manage all of the accounts he has on those sites.  I started to think that I’m sure many people have are in a similar siutation, when I remembered I came across this TechCrunch article explaining a new content aggregator called Second Brain, which essentially allows a person to manage all of the UGC they have in one place on the web.  You may have content on Flickr and Youtube that you would like to share with others.  Through Second Brain, it appears that if you want to share your content with others, instead of making those people go to both sites, they can view your Youtube and Flickr content on one social networking page.  With that, will Second Brain prove to be a success?

Xiaonai v. Facebook

This summer I will be spending 5 weeks studying abroad in Asia.  One of my assigments before I leave is to get to know a student at Peking University in Beijing, China over the next few months via email.  In my first email I explained to her my life in the United States, including my hobbies and what I do in my free time, one of those activities is getting on facebook. With facebook’s popularity in the social networking world, I guess I always thought it really was popular around the world. Xuemin, my email partner, quickly responded with the same excitement for social networking sites, except she explained she is a member of Xiaonai.com, which she said is very similar to facebook.com.  I was curious about this website so I navigated to it on my free time and found outhow much it really IS similar to facebook.  The homepage is almost identical.  I also found an article on facebookobserver.com comparing how similar the two sites are.  Take a look!

Online Videos Taking Over In Light of Writer’s Strike

I was shocked at the number of people on the internet who have been utilizing YouTube and other online video sources in the recent months.  I found this article on Mashable.com, which explained that 10,156,199,000 videos were watch online in December, from nearly 141 million users.  The article also speculates that perhaps the shift from television to online viewing is increasing due to the Hollywood Writer’s Strike.  I know that I personally have been spending more time online using social networking  sites such as Facebook.com, or UGC sites such as YouTube.com, since my favorite shows are either not shown or on reruns currently.  I bet there are many students in our class who can say the same thing.  And now with IMS 201, I am learning about more websites to visit in my free time!

Super Tuesday and The Web

So far, the presidential candidacy race has been unlike any other.  With the first female and the first minority running for candidacy,  we are experiencing an extremely historical race.  I found it this article on Mashable.com very interesting.  It explains that based on web traffic on Nielson Online, Obama/McCain are expected to win on Super Tuesday.  However, as I continued reading through my RSS feed, I discovered a similar article on TechCrunch.com.  Who knows which is correct, the important thing is that the World Wide Web is really making a historical impact on the Presidential Race.  Perhaps in the future we will be casting our votes through the web?