Britney Spears’ new compelling song titles

Posted on October 25, 2007 by marc meyer

Taking branding to the next level and the fact that her name was searched on a cumulative 14 million times last month. Britney has released her new album art. A quick note. a) albums don’t exist anymore and b) CD jewel case art is almost non-existent as well. So having said that, we can always steer towards a crotch shot if need be. So without further ado, here are the titles of her new songs. Beware the spelling and the emotional depth of these tracks amazing. In parentheses are the authors comments.

1. Gimme More (Of what? )

2. Piece of Me ( which part, we’ve seen most of it already)

3. Radar ( Something she could use for her camera friendly friends)

4. Break The Ice ( Something needed when she sees her kids)

5. Heaven On Earth ( The current state of her affairs?)

6. Get Naked (Enough already)

7. Freakshow ( Any time she leaves the house)

8. Toy Soldier ( Her perception of the war)

9. Hot As Ice (Seemed like a good idea for a song title)

10.Ooh Ooh Baby ( Seemed like a really cool title for a song, dontcha think?)

11.Perfect Lover (KFed?)

12. Why Should I Be Sad (Let us count the ways)

Social Networks continue to evolve with myfamily.com

Posted on October 23, 2007 by marc meyer

If you’re thinking of creating your own social network, you better hurry. Myfamily.com, today announced a new release of myfamily.com 2.0 beta available at http://www.myfamily.com. The new release lets families connect online to share news, recipes, family history, photos and video in a safe, private and media-rich environment. Myfamily.com 2.0 beta offers several new features and services, including the ability to leave voice messages directly on the site or narrate photo slideshows using a phone.

Since its launch in 1998, myfamily.com has enjoyed a subscriberbase of nearly two million members. Originally a free service, myfamily.com moved to a subscription-only service in 2001, and now with the new 2.0 beta is introducing a free option once again. Families are using myfamily.com to build private spaces where invited members and guests can participate in sharing photos, news, videos, slideshows, recipes, files, family-trees and events. Many are also creating sites reflecting the social groups their family interacts with, including sports teams, schools, hobbies, or other groups. The new 2.0 site is currently available at http://www.myfamily.com andis in open beta for anyone to try out. One feature called‘SnapGenie’ allows members to select and sort photos into a slideshow andthen add voice narration by calling a toll-free number and clicking throughthe photos on their computer screen. These multimedia stories are viewable by family members on the site and can also be shared via email invitation to others, or embedded in web pages or on a blog. For times when you want to contact the family and just can’t get to acomputer, the new myfamily.com site provides a phone number and PIN that you can call from anywhere to leave an instant voice message on your site. Any member of a myfamily.com 2.0 site can create additional password protected sites and invite the people they want to share in the new experience. So you can have a ‘cousins-only’ site, or a ‘Family ReunionPlanning’ site, or a ‘Mrs. Johnson’s 5th Grade Class’ site to communicate,share photos, art, and upcoming events with other families at your child’sschool. Individuals can be a part of as many family or group sites as theywant and easily switch between them. Myfamily.com 2.0 can also deliver reminders to your extended family forall the important events in life including birthdays, anniversaries,reunions, or other special events. And, if you need a unique gift forsomeone, the integrated shopping features let you order prints, t-shirts,mugs and other photo creations using the photos shared on the site. Myfamily.com 2.0 free sites will be supported by advertising andcommerce. Members who prefer an ad-free environment will be able topurchase a reasonably priced annual subscription, much like the originalservice. Details of the subscription service have not yet been announced. As myfamily.com transitions to the new 2.0 version, members of theoriginal 1.0 version will still be able to use their existing family sitesduring the beta period. Many of these loyal members are also contributingto the development of the beta site by participating in member surveys,advisory groups, and the 2.0 blog at http://blog.myfamily.com.

Rockies to share postseason payout with Coolbaugh’s widow

Posted on October 5, 2007 by marc meyer

I know that this blog is mostly about Tech issues, but since it’s Friday and this story speaks to the fact that we all think that professional athletes are overpaid, spoiled, and insincere, read the following story…it’s a good read and you might think twice when you assume that all athletes are as I mentioned above. Many thanks to one of my best friends Tim Kaye for turning me on to it. It made my day.

Besides their surprising 14-1 finish to the season, the Colorado Rockies are giving baseball fans another reason to cheer for them this postseason.

The widow of Rockies minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh, who died after getting hit by a line drive this season, will be granted a full share of the team’s playoff winnings after a team vote.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said the gesture spoke volumes about the quality of the character in their locker room.

“I was passed on the information that they voted Amanda Coolbaugh a share, a full share, which I found speaks to their awareness, speaks to their passion, speaks to every good thing about them,” Hurdle said.

Coolbaugh, who is 32 and pregnant, won’t attend Saturday’s Game 3 of the NLDS between the Phillies and Rockies at Coors Field. But her two sons, Joseph, 5, and Jacob, 3, will be in attendance and will throw out the first pitch.

“When I heard about what the players did, I almost cried,” Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said. “This was the players’ idea. I think it’s remarkable.”

Mike Coolbaugh was a first base coach for the Tulsa Drillers. The former major leaguer was killed July 22.

Shaken by Coolbaugh’s death, Rockies first base coach Glenallen Hill now wears a helmet.

Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said awarding the family a share was the right thing to do.

“We’re obviously happy with the decision,” Tulowitzki said on Thursday. “I hope they are, too, and I’m sure they will be.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Web Sites Worth Sharing

Posted on September 28, 2007 by marc meyer

It’s Friday and I really don’t wanna get too deep about technology or internet marketing, instead lets look at some fun websites or websites that might be of interest. In ivillage there is one site I’m sure some of us will want to forward to uh.. our friends. It’s called the perfect position selector. I will let you use your imagination as to what it might be in reference to.

This interactive company HiFade, in Pittsburgh, PA has a killer website and a friend of mine did the design work on it, check out the portfolio Brilliant stuff. Pittsburgh by the way, is this country’s hidden little secret.

Have you ever been curious as to what people are into search wize from day to day and week to week? Well the Yahoo Buzz Index, willl give you a glimpse into that. My take is there is way too much testosterone flowing in today’s young males. Jessica Alba, can you hear me? Can you say Brazillian Models?

Speaking of Brazil, Has anyone seen the fallout stemming from The US Women’s Soccer Team loss to Brazil? If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, type in Hope Solo in a search or just click her name since she may be venting more, soon.

Lastly..

Quantcast is an internet ratings service. Advertisers can find reports on the audiences of millions of web sites. Publishers can ensure their sites are represented accurately by tagging them for direct measurement. The service is free to everyone. It’s pretty cool.

Ok having said, it’s pretty cool, reminded me of this site that everone might enjoy playing around with, it’s called The Wayback Machine, and what it does, is it will show you archived versions of websites from years gone by, just type in the URL and check it out, it’s pretty accurate.

That’s all I got Mr. Peabody! Thanks Sherman.

Have any sites that are cool? Let me know.

Readwriteweb.com

Posted on September 21, 2007 by marc meyer

I totally dig this site Read/WriteWeb It is a popular weblog that provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis. But for some reason, the way they present this info and analysis, is fresh. Maybe it’s because it speaks to the things that I think are more relevant to my space, and our space for that matter, but I think it’s worthy of my readers to check it out. Trust me. They write about where we are going with our technology. How’s that?

Sites worth a look at

Posted on September 5, 2007 by marc meyer

In our quest to find sites that actually bring something to the table other than an offer to increase our PR and drive traffic to our site we submit to you 4 websites that are worth a deeper look.

First up is Blurtit.com BlurtIt.Com is a British web site that started as a way to draw attention to people’s blogs, or web logs, in one central location. As an innovation, BlurtIt tried a new “Questions and Answers” page, and it caught on like wildfire. Now there are thousands of visitors from abroad, the US and elsewhere, asking and answering questions for free. It’s pretty cool to see what people need answers to. We suggest you bookmark it.

Next up is Feedmap To quote their site, “That’s right – feedmap is about mapping your blog! Using FeedMap you can tell the world where you are blogging from! Or you can simply search for bloggers right around where you live! Or even better let other local bloggers to discover your blog. And, of course, don’t you want to display a nifty blogmap on your blog too?….

Ok so maybe you don’t want people to know where you are blogging from especially if your name is Ann Coulter. Strike that, maybe you do, if your name is Ann Coulter (we’re balancing the left and the right) But nevertheless, we thought that feedmap had a pretty nifty widget.

A site that we haven’t had enough time to test drive yet is called Rateitall

RateItAll is an online community and social network built upon one of the most extensive and diverse online databases of opinions, ratings, and reviews in the world. Participating members of RateItAll can earn cash for various activities on the site.

We have also seen some complaints about it as well, so just because it looks good on the surface, make sure it’s all together under the hood. This isn’t an opinion but…

Next up is BlogPulse which is really cool. BlogPulse is a service of Nielson BuzzMetrics and is an automated trend discovery system for blogs. BlogPulse applies machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques to discover trends in the highly dynamic world of blogs. So it’s essentially a blog trend tracker. Check it out.

What is Retargeting?

Posted on August 30, 2007 by marc meyer

Here is a cool website that seems to have a clue about shopping cart abandonement.

Retargeting

How it works:

Step 1: Driving traffic to your website

As a web-based business you are already driving consumers to your website in numerous ways with the hope of ultimately selling them the products they are looking for. The vast majority of marketing budgets are spent with the intent of driving users to their website so a purchase can happen. This is done with either all or some of the following:

Search Engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN

Email Marketing programs

Banner Ads

Direct Mail

Television Ads

Radio Ads

Newspaper Ads

And many more…

50% of the Retargeting process is completed at this point.

Step 2: Identifying visitors for Retargeting

With the placement of 1 simple code on each page of your website that receives incoming visitors (similar to web analytics codes you probably already have in place); Retargeting.com’s powerful technology begins identifying your visitors for you the instant it’s live on your page.

75% of the Retargeting process is completed at this point.

Step 3: Identifying your past visitors as they surf the web

Retargeting.com will start locating your past visitors among the 75,000,000 consumers we serve ads to within minutes of when they left your site and will begin ‘Retargeting’ them for you within 24 hours! You only pay $19.95 per month for all the users we deliver back to your site. What this means for you is that you are now making your marketing dollars more efficient than you were before you started this valuable addition to your Marketing Mix!

95% of the Retargeting process is completed at this point.

Step 4: The consumer returns to your site to complete the sale.

Now you have the ability to send visitors directly to your “here is where we close the sale” page by doing some or all of the following:

Send them directly to the ordering page of the product they looked at before leaving.

Offer them a ‘special incentive’ to purchase now, such as; Free Shipping, 10% OFF, or any other incentive you have going.

Step 5: Retargeting your past website visitors all over again!

Once a consumer has made a purchase with you and had an impeccable experience, don’t be shy to keep in contact with them again. The trust is already there, they are familiar with your brand and service, and more than likely they have an interest in another one of your products… Up-Sell, Cross-Sell, and just plain old make your website Sell, Sell, Sell!