Why is it that some of the bravest people in this world are the ones who have such little time left? John Challis I would like to introduce you to Adrian Sudbury. BTW Adrians blog has been so popular and such an inspiration that it won an award back in November.
Wow, it finally it might be warming up in the Northeast. And we’re only mid way through April! With that being said, you’re still going to have some down time here and there since you might be bumming a little that Kristy Lee Cook finally got the ax on American Idol. So as you peruse all the info that you can get your hands on regarding American Idol, here are 10 other websites you might want to check out that may deliver more a bit more than Idol updates.
Shout Out to Google
First off let me throw some major props out to Google. If there is one thing that I will not stand for, it is the exploitation of children in any way, shape, and form, and child pornography would have to be #1 on my list. The fight against child pornography is getting an assist from technology designed by Google to help identify copyright-protected clips on its YouTube video-sharing site.
Four Google employees used their “20% time” — during which the company encourages them to pursue unofficial, out-of-the-box projects — to customize the copyright software for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s program for identifying children in sexually explicit photos and video.
Software already has been used to match known images, but when new ones are submitted by law enforcement and service providers, analysts generally make identifications manually, often based on recollections. The center has recently employed facial-recognition technology to make those IDs easier, but with limited success.With the new Google tools, analysts can also seek matches based on other attributes, such as the color and shape of a couch or the wallpaper pattern in the background of a photo.
Anything to stop this in it’s tracks, I’m all for, so right on Google.
Next up is an Ad agency in Pittsburgh Called Smith Brothers I personally know these guys and they are a good bunch. They just received some major recognition out at the Adtech 11th Annual Awards Ceremony in San Francisco, The Brothers received top honors for Best Integrated Campaign for the Heinz Top This TV Challenge campaign – beating out hundreds of entrants from top advertising and interactive agencies worldwide Smith Brothers’ campaign featured the innovative use of messaging on the labels of millions of Heinz ketchup bottles and ketchup packets – combined with integrated support from print, TV and interactive advertising. The campaign invited consumers to visit TopThisTv where they could create, upload, view and vote on the best consumer-generated Heinz TV commercial. To further promote and facilitate consumer participation, Smith Brothers formed a strategic partnership with Google and YouTube – and the response was unprecedented. The campaign received over 10 million views, 8,000 consumer-generated commercials and visitors to the site spent over 127,000 hours interacting with the brand while viewing and voting on the consumer-submitted videos Good job fellas.
On a side note that has nothing to do with Heinz or Smith Brothers, but plenty to do with branding, check out John Mayer and his ever evolving sleeve!
I came across this site the other day, though I’m not sure how. It’s called the experience project It seems rather cool and unlike “most” social network sites. Here’s the description”
Experience Project is the first social experience website where you can anonymously share the experiences and personal stories that matter most to you. Quickly build a network of supportive new friends who understand your life, while exploring over one million life experiences told first-hand by people just like you. You can be yourself here.
Awhile back, I had thrown a question out my Linkedin Network which asked whether social media sites were doing enough for the poor and underprivledged. The responses were interesting, but one of the sites that I was made privy to was a site called Kiva whose tag line is,”loans that change lives”. Essentially it is a social networking site that helps to put donors of cash in touch with 3rd world or developing nation entrepreneurs. A cool concept if you ask me. And it’s a way to give back through the power of a social network!
Another site that caught my eye is called Friendfeed FriendFeed enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends. Hey anyway that I can keep the chaos that takes place on my desktop in some sort of order works for me, check it out and let me know what you think.
Ok, the spring time means lots of things in lots of places. In New Orleans, where I grew up it means 2 things to me. One is the Jazz Fest and the other is Crawfish. If you have never been to NO then you need to go to the JazzFest, generally the weather is awsome though there might be the occasional sprinkle, and the combination of music and food over a 2 week period is ridiculously fun. Check out this small snapshot of a line-up:The Neville Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Santana, Maze feat. Frankie Beverly, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic, Dr. John, Al Green, Diana Krall, Keyshia Cole, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss….Woooowheeee… Ok.. So if you can’t make it, then the next best thing might be a few pounds of crawfish. The above link will ship them right to your door. Live. You do know how to prepare them right?
I saw this sight Rollyo and all I could think of…well never mind what I thought, but it has a pretty cool app when it comes to search. And remember folks, just because Google is the big dog, doesn’t mean that the other breeds of dogs are bad…So Check out Rollyo
This last site you will def have to bookmark. It’s called Workhappy. Hey, any website titled “work happy” is going to grab my attention. It’s sorta entrepreneurial based but I’m sure you know someone who could benefit from it.
I came across this other day to and it seemed sorta interesting, let me know if you had any opinion of it, good or bad. It’s called Loladex and the tag line is, “Local picks from people you trust…” What if you trust no one?
So you’re sitting at home and the weather is finally starting to break and you’re thinking, “Maybe I should just move to LA and become a movie star.” Seems like a solid plan. With that being said you might want to go to Hollywood Profiles “We are the absolute best resource on the internet for talent and casting agents alike. Post your profile and get noticed! Or search our extensive database for the perfect talent for your project.” And no they are not paying me. Actually they were getting some major play and were mentioned as a site on the rise.
LocalPages Seems to be pretty cool. It has a nice clean interface but looks like it might be heavy on ad driven content. I played around with it a little bit and it has a nice LBS feature as well.
Moli was an interesting site. Picture a website for Sybil. Sybil was a book and movie that told the story of a woman who was treated for multiple personality disorder in which she had up to 16 co-existing personalities. Moli allows you to create multiple profiles that you can use depending on who you interact with and what you want them to know about you. The name is a bit odd though.
SpiralFrog is another music site but for now it’s offering free songs. Though they do force you to load a “download manager”. Which always makes me nervous. But hey… Free music right?
Vlaze hot original content…hmmmmm, that was the pitch. Vlaze delivers original video content while connecting artists and entertainers to a global audience. Vlaze features a 24/7 live television stream with a full-lineup of daily programming, a Vlaze On Demand content library, and an interactive social network. It appears to be an interactive, streaming media, social networking content driven site.
Well I hope you make it till the weekend with these and we’ll see you on the flipside. If there is a site worth mentioning let me know and we’ll check it out. If it’s worthy. You’re in!
I was watching American Idol last night with the kids and we saw according to the girls, dreamy dread guy, Jason Castro. One of the kids asked how are dreads made, and I said, “Uhhh… you don’t bathe for a really long time and with mud, right?” Apparently I was way off base. For those of you just like me, here is a good site telling us all how Dreadlocks are created. For those times when you are randomly asked how dreads are made.
Driving down the street the other day, one of the kids asked about why gold and silver are so valuable. I proceeded to tell them about all the gold in Fort Knox. I figured it would be a good moment to reflect on it being the place that Goldfinger wanted to rob in one of the more memorable James Bond Movies. They didn’t really like that part of the answer. Although, It might have been because of my descriptive story of how Oddjob threw his hat to cut off the statues head. Huh? What’s dad talking about?
However, upon further research, This site that I came upon might be a good one for the kids. It not only explains the US government in a very engaging fashion, but also the U.S. Treasury It’s a fun and very interactive site as well.
Speaking of cool kid sites; and in an effort to enrich their lives beyond killer graphics in Call To Duty IV, check out this site for the New York Philharmonic for Kids. Want to keep children engaged in music, any music? classical music? Then, here is one that will captivate.
So you just hit a town, you got some free time that night and you wanna keep it clean. So you decide to see some live music. You grab the “local” local paper or you checked out Flavorpill
and now you just have to figure out how to get there since you have zero clue. Check out Gruvr,
It’s a map based live music locator that shows you where all the live music is, in a radius that you can control. LBS for you live music junkies out there. Very cool, easy to use and it’s quick.
And you thought I could go this long without mentioning something about another interesting social media site? Hah! Well…You know how everyone sometimes sits around and someone will offer up their two cents on why not do this, this way, and that maybe they should do this, that way? Did that make sense? Well anywho, now there is a site called, lo and behold, “WhyNot?” It’s a social site that allows you to communicate, submit and exchange your ideas with others. Based on a popular book, of the same name, the site is an extension of the book that simply provides solutions to problems big and small. That should at least get you to Sunday.
Am I missing a site that would compliment the topics above? Shoot it on over and I will add it to the next list.
So every once in awhile I will go through my bookmarks and try and prune stuff that I bookmarked for a reason that might escape me when I actually revisited it. In this case I’m going to share some sites that have some value or bring some value to what I do. Or at least they did at the time… Some of you, actually I suspect a good portion of you have never heard of Vivisimo a little tech company out of Pittsburgh. Besides the fact that Pittsburgh is a jewel in the rough, this company is too. You will do the same as I did and ultimately bookmark them.
Next up, a friend once told me the way to go in regards to investing was to look at Vanguard, so I bookmarked it. Though when I look at the site, I blink and keep it and then I move on. I suspect that a lot of people besides myself do the exact same thing with some of their bookmarks. Made sense at the time. Though, I’m not sure Vanguard is hip to the payment plan.
So I have this one, The Sand Trap bookmarked and I never go to it but hey, that’s 75% of my bookmarks. If you have zero interest in golf, then don’t bother going here. But if you want a mortgage calculator then go here. Seems to be a timely site.
I think thats the great thing about what you save and why, it’s a total glimpse into what you do and what you like etc etc. I would say that the majority of my bookmarks are marketing, internet and social media marketing type sites and the rest are just what I’ve shown you above. Though, I do love a good Stone IPA brew.
Lastly I came across the Big Idea site hosted by Donny Deutsch It’s kind of a cool site for all of us dreamers out there. On the site they mention a product called the Body Buddy, I decided to check it out and the website looks great and the product has some genuine potential. Except… As I’m clicking thu the site, I wanted to check out some of the press they were getting and lo and behold I was transported to PDF land which I cannot stand. Nothing annoys me more then when a site feels the need to run with PDF’s instead of converting pages to html, xml or php. I can understand white papers and case studies, and in that case I will print them out. But nothing is more of a deal killer for me then to have to put up with PDF”s. I know it’s one person’s opinion and we’ll leave it at that. But every machine I’ve ever had handles PDF’s differently and it’s just an uneccessary step for a very, in this case, slick site.Though I do hope the fine folks from Oklahoma do succeed with the “Body Buddy”; it does seem to fill a need/niche.
Here is your last 2 killer sites that all of you should actually bookmark and then go back to: Gruvr and Liferemix
I know, I know, you can thank me later.
I’ve preached for the past 6 months about how social networks need to become more focused in order for them to sustain any type of growth and visibility, let alone profits. It’s at this point that I must point you in the direction of a website called Disaboom. I’m going to quote from their site a bit so here goes:
I came across this site the other day and I just had to share it with our readers. LifeRemix. Here is a quote from the about page:
LifeRemix is basically a band of bloggers who enrich people’s lives through blogging. The blogs are hand-selected, and each one is incredible. They have excellent writers, and their content is quite unique.
With the constant swelling of the blogosphere, good writing can be hard to find. We’re trying to act as a filter so only the best writing is showcased, while at the same time learning a thing or two
Bookmark and visit it from time to time and see what you think.
Lets see, lets pay people to use our site. What a novel idea! Thus is the premise of Boomvote.Boomvote awards cash and prizes to the most frequent voters and vote recipients. They also award cash for random reasons like the best video, most viewed, lowest votes, and best picture of BoomVote wear.
According to the site, all you have to do is register. Once you are registered and your profile is approved, you can start getting credit for votes and voting for other members. They claim to offer variety of contests each month as well, to keep you coming back of course.
Every month BoomVote awards $500 to $1,000 in cash and prizes through many fun and random contests. Past contests include: “Most Interesting Essay,” “Cool CollegeGuy/Girl,” “Best Sporty Photo,” “Hip High School Guy/Girl,” “Hot Young Professional” and “Best Newcomer.” Coming soon, BoomVote will reward a $1,000 cash prize to the member with the most Boom Votes on January 31st.
The more you vote, the more you increase your chances of winning. They award cash based on votes given and votes received. In order to win, you have to check the site each day and look for their Win/Win day promotion in which they give you a vote for each vote you give to another member.
BoomVote is quickly growing, and estimates active membership to reach 1 million by the end of 2008.
Here is what we as a society care about, according to the Lycos 50.
Thats great, Poker, Paris Hilton, Golf Clubs, Project Runway, Britney, MySpace, and Clay Aiken (wtf?). Interestingly enough, stretching beyond the top 15 and looking at the next 10, there is absolutely nothing in there about, global warming, world hunger, the Iraq war, the presidential election or the oil spill in S.F., Though in the 20 spot we do have something about pink ribbons and breast cancer awareness-finally a web search about something with meaning and substance. Without going any further, I can assure you that all we care about are things that stimulate us one way or the other.
I came across this site this morning and thought it was cool, but….
SearchQuotient.com looks at a URL and key words then instantly reports a composite score reflecting a website’s ranking on major search engines. The higher the “SQ”, the higher the ranking on search engines. SearchQuotient’s staff then offers a customized plan for increasing the site’s position on major search engines.
Only one problem: The site’s “free” tool didn’t work. Talk about a bad first impression! Which begs the question, Who should be at fault? Transmedia Group, who released a Press release this morning or Search Quotient for not testing to make sure their tool was ready before releasing the tool?
Either way, though there are lots of free tools out there that do virtually the same thing. I’m sure they would like another shot at proving that what they have to offer works.
Direct Marketing Observations 
