Prostitution on the Internet is hardly a new phenomenon, and shocking as it might be, child prostitution isn’t particularly a new problem in general, either. We’ve been doing the social media crime blotter series for a while now and I really haven’t touched on the prostitution angle in a big way up until this point because when you look at crime related stories in connection with social media, that is the noise you filter around.
So it isn’t particularly unexpected that CNN recently ran a fairly high profile “special investigation” into Craigslist and it’s role in the online sex trade. Generally, it’s very difficult to get brand new Craigslist CEO to comment on their erotic services section and the role it plays in the illegal business of paying for sex (underage or not), but he weighed in for the piece with a few choice words this time around:
Craigslist executives said they abhor the fact that their site is being used for child prostitution but believe that the problem could be harder to track if they removed the category. “It would be a bigger problem if we removed that category and had those ads spread throughout the site,” said Jim Buckmaster, chief executive officer of Craigslist.
In his response to CNN, Jim Buckland says that if the “erotic services” section remains in place, it makes it all the more easy to track illicit activity; if it’s all centralized, you can spot the illegal stuff more easily. He also made mention that Craigslist voluntarily works with authorities in tracking sexual crimes that have connection to the usage of their system.
If you look online into the places for responses to this assertion, two bloggers that cover this type of story regularly immediately spring to mind: ValleyWag’s Melissa Gira Grant and CraigsCrimeList’s Trench. Both bloggers provide two very disparate views of the continual onslaught of these types of incidents. In the case of CraigsCrimeList, Trench responds with:
“If you shut down the erotic services section of craigslist where would these ads go? Used cars? Furniture? Pets? Real Estate? You mean the places where people who don’t use hookers would actually see the ads and actually flag them?”
On the other hand, Melissa Gira Grant attempts to deflect the criticism to the site:
“Buckmaster certainly gives the role of concerned small businessman the appropriate gravitas, but it comes off as a little wooden. Personally, I would have pointed at Dave Elms, jailed proprietor of TheEroticReview and been all, “Why are we the focus of a scary CNN feature? Where’s the salacious magazine piece about that guy, Ms. De La Cruz?”
Taken in context of Melissa’s entire body of work, though, it’s clear that while she doesn’t support underage prostitution, she’s highly sympathetic and supportive to online sex workers. Meanwhile, Trench has traditionally taken the role of the critic, frequently citing cases that support his position that prostitution truly isn’t a victimless crime, and that it’s the responsibility of all social networks to take a more active role in clamping down, though Trench doesn’t give a free ride to the parents of delinquent children either.
The truth, as usual, is somewhere near the middle. A drum I continually beat here is that parents are responsible for their children (not only legally, but morally). If your child is selling herself as a prostitute online, then you as the parent bear far more responsibility for that than Craig or his list.
While I agree with Trench that if Craigslist were to take down the erotic services section, online sex trade on the site would likely halt instantly, there is nothing to prevent that same culture from migrating over to MySpace, Facebook, or any other number of very popular social networks that have dark corners that are difficult to police. It is a game of whack-a-mole, and just as it was pointless to take down all of the ALT.* hierarchy in USENET to eliminate a few child porn pictures, eliminating erotic services from Craigslist will do little to end online sex trade.
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Europe’s new Internet conference, TWS2008, is an exciting conference that takes place today (July 1st) in Tel Aviv, Israel. The conference is organized by the Israeli popular blog the.co.ils and aims to find and present the 10 most promising Internet startups in Israel.
Ten startups were chosen out of 100 that applied. The startups were selected by an impressive list of judges. Amongst them were Guy Kawasaki, our very own Pete Cashmore, Om Malik, Deborah Schultz, Brian Solis, Allen Stern, Chris Brogan, Yair Goldfinger, and Emily Chang. Today, the spotlight is on these 10 startups that were able to convince our judges that they have a unique offering to the world.
Here are the 10 winners:
Wix is an authoring platform that allows users to create striking and easy-to-build web content in flash (web sites, widgets, blogs etc), and publish it anywhere they want online. Users can create content without coding in flash/html or being constrained by templates. At the heart of the product is the drag & drop editor that allows users to pull in any content from the web or from their own media files (video, audio, animation, text etc) and create web content.
WorkLight develops and markets a line of server products that allow organizations to do more business securely using popular consumer Web 2.0 tools and technologies, like iGoogle, Windows Live, Netvibes, Facebook, and others. Through WorkLight, employees, channels, partners, and consumers connect to protected enterprise data (and to each other) using Web 2.0 services.
HiveSight helps marketers discover new facts about consumers. The technology sifts through and analyzes millions of social media profiles and blogs to construct consumer profiles. HiveSight’s customers use the online application to write simple queries that define consumer panels, and get instant reports on demographics, consumer interests, trends and more. It’s the fastest, easiest and most affordable way to explore consumer markets and discover new insights.
Qoof is the video commerce platform that bridges the world of Online Shopping, Internet Video, and Direct Response TV to create a distributed, targeted, and ersonalized video commerce network. Think QVC for the internet. The most powerful way to sell a product online is with video and as more merchants are looking for video solutions, the Qoof Platform is their answer.
WikiAnswers gives you useful answers about anything by harnessing people's collective knowledge, but with a wiki-twist. The mission is to grow a collaborative answers resource; anyone can ask, answer or edit questions, building a global Q&A database covering all topics.
Dapper’s vision is to allow people to consume the web where, when and in whatever format they choose. Dapper users point and click on the content they want from a website, and Dapper turns this content into a live semantic feed that can be used in a variety of formats (RSS, widget, XML). Dapper is leveraging its core technology to create live content-based ads (MashupAds) that combine publisher and advertiser content within an interactive ad — creating the world’s first content ad network.
Mo’Minis is a revolutionary platform for the development and publishing of mobile games. The platform allows advanced as well as non-skilled developers to rapidly create original games from scratch and have them seamlessly supported on a wide range of handsets. Furthermore, developers can collaborate and share game assets on Mo’Minis developers’ community and enjoy distribution and monetization services through various on\off-deck channels.
Kaltura provides the first open-source video management platform, empowering any site with online video. With Kaltura, web publishers can seamlessly and cost-effectively integrate interactive and collaborative rich-media functionalities, including uploading, importing, editing, remixing, and sharing. Kaltura also offers its global network of publishers content hosting, transcoding, advertising, merchandising, and syndication.
MocoSpace is a mobile social network that allows anybody with a web-enabled phone to have a full social networking experience on their most trusted device, the mobile phone, whenever and wherever they want. Members Users enjoy expressing themselves and staying connected to friends by setting up a profile page, sharing photos and video, chatting, inboxing, instant messaging, blogging, debating in forums, sending mobile cards and playing games.
Nuconomy’s Studio is the world's first "performance insight platform," built from the ground up to provide completely new ways to measure today's interactive Web. Go beyond the old page view model and start to measure the new metrics of the web – your users and site engagement and contribution metrics.
TWS2008 is honored to give the stage today to these promising startups and show the world how much Israeli technology has to offer.
In 2009, the conference plans to open the event to all European startups and to become the official European launch pad for Internet startups in the region.
For all those of you who are not in the area or haven't registered to TWS2008, all videos wil be published the following day.
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Downloading illegal music has become a hot topic on the Web. So much so that it’s easy to forget about the plethora of sites dedicated to free, legal music. We’ve put together a list of 30+ sites that will keep your MP3 player playing until your batteries are completely drained.
Whether you’re into pop, jazz, metal or classical, there’s something here for everyone. Let us know which are your favorites.
Amazon MP3 Store - The vast majority of the music at Amazon is for sale, but they do have a rotation of free tracks available for download.
AmieStreet.com - Focused on promoting new and independent music, their downloads range from free to $0.98 as they grow in popularity.
Archive.org - An enormous collection of public domain music, expired copyright tracks, as well as some free contemporary music.
ArtistServer.com - It started off as a resource for independent electronic musicians, but is now open to all. All tracks can be downloaded for free.
BeSonic.com - Offers over 13,000 free tracks from mostly European acts.
BetterPropaganda.com - A music webzine covering hundreds of music labels, and offering thousands of free & legal songs for you to download.
CCMixter.org - a site dedicated to music that you can download to remix and post your results, all under the Creative Commons license.
Download.com - Most people think CNet’s Download.com is just about software, but they also have tens of thousands of free MP3s you can download from new as well as up and coming bands.
Epitonic.com - A large selection of free tracks from smaller record companies that are free to download with larger releases available for purchase.
EZ-Tracks.com - Offers over 30,000 legal downloads that are managed through a partnership with the labels. Starts you off with credit for 101 free upon registering.
FreeAlbums.blogsome.com - A blog that posts reviews of complete albums that are available for free downloads from numerous sources.
GarageBand.com - Independent bands can upload their music, then have it rated by users, as well as downloaded for free.
Imeem.com - Features streaming music from all of the major labels as well as numerous smaller companies, with numerous free downloadable tracks.
ItsFreeDownloads.com - Finding the free downloads on iTunes can be a chore, this site does the work for you and lets you know what’s free each week.
Jamendo.com - Artists upload their albums under Creative Commons, allowing new listeners to discover their work. Although free, there is the opportunity to donate to the performers of your choice.
Last.fm - While most people know Last.fm for its streaming and social aspects, they offer a weekly chart of downloadable free mp3s.
LegalTorrents.com - Proving that not all BitTorrent activity is illegal, LegalTorrents is filled with completely legal material.
Live Music Archive - Part of Archive.org, features thousands of live performances by smaller bands as well as the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jason Mraz.
MetalHordes.com - A band promotion site focusing on various forms of heavy metal, and allowing bands to upload mp3s users can download for free.
MP3.com - Besides their paid section, MP3.com does offer a large selection of free tracks from acts small and large alike.
MP3.com.au - Focusing on Australian bands, mp3.com.au offers a repository for bands to upload their music for people to download and try for free.
MP34U - Works in conjunction with Muzic.com, this site finds sources of free music & legal music from all over the Web.
MP3Raid.com - Searches multiple sources to bring you approximately a million free song downloads.
Muzic.com - A sister site to MP34U, wherein the artists upload their tracks themselves, and muzic.com helps them promote their work.
Purevolume.com - Allows independent musicians to set up profiles for themselves, stream their music and gives them the option of enabling their work for free downloads.
Ruckus.com - Ruckus provides free music to people with .edu email addresses, and requires you to renew your licenses for DRM once a year.
SoundClick.com - Offering a mixture of signed and unsigned artists the opportunity to set up profile pages and either stream their music or offer it up for free downloads.
SpiralFrog.com - Major release albums and tracks available for the price of just watching some advertisements.
Stereogum.com - Daily free mp3s from various artists, as well as rotating free albums.
TuneShout.com - A site for independent artists to promote themselves. Artists can upload tracks either for free or at a user cost of $0.89.
We7.com - We7 offers mp3 downloads for free, but they do have advertisements attached to them. If you want them without the ads, they do offer a paid alternative.
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The feature that Mashable’s Stan Schroeder has been “waiting for his whole life” launches today: it’s an iPhone version of FriendFeed. The announcement was made earlier today on FriendFeed’s blog, and there isn’t much difference noticable from the regular web version - just a specialized interface, a few more gradients, and more readable type for the smaller screen size.
For those of you who don’t like pretty things, there’s also an easy way to revert back to the default view.
It’s definitely a wise strategic move with the impending release of the iPhone 3G, a much sought after set of eyeballs for communication and community. There are a number of developers working on Twitter clients and clones to capitalize on the new influx of iPhone users in the hopes to capture some early adopter evangelism, but the biggest competitor to FriendFeed might just be … FriendFeed.
No news from Shane Vitarana has been heard lately on it, but back in April he announced he was working on a FriendFeed native application, but subsequently clamped up on things due to a restrictive non-disclosure agreement with Apple.
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Last night Google announced that they would be distributing webisodes from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane via their AdSense publisher network, but as a news item it didn’t strike a particular chord with me at the time. Then I read a post this morning by Eric Berlin over at Online Media Cultist.
As I read Eric’s piece bells started going off in my head; and no I was not suffering from auditory hallucinations, but if you have read the same post then you should have been hearing the same thing. The idea that Google would be making available content that is unique and something that people will want to watch — after all who doesn’t like watching cartoons — via their AdSense network, is in my opinion something of a game changer for the ad business. These 30 second spots are supposed to come with pre-roll ads and given who is creating them, you almost have to be assured they will be popular, even if only because they are something new.
Yes, other companies have tried the route of video ads but the problem with them is that that is exactly what they are, ads. For most folks video ads are no different than the banner and text ads that came before them and most likely readers are tuning them out in the exact same way. What Google is doing is totally different in that they are giving us something of value, if only a laugh in exchange for an ad being displayed just prior to the cartoon. This is truly unique and I believe could take off just as AdSense did when it was introduced.
I would have preferred that some company other than Google had introduced the concept, if only because Google already controls too much of ad space on the Internet. Unfortunately though for something like this to work you would need a distribution network already in place and Google has that in spades. Other companies also would have had a hard time attracting a talent like MacFarlane and would have needed time to build up a distribution network. In that case, the path to profitability would have been delayed. With Google it will just be a matter of offering another option for their AdSense members and they will be away to the bank.
Did this latest move by Google just change the whole ad landscape? I think so. Is it a good thing? On that I am not so sure, but I don’t think so. Will it succeed? Probably.
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The folks over at Royal Pingdom have discovered an interesting trend: Google Trends shows that the number of searches for both “web hosting” and “hosting” has decreased quite rapidly in the past few years.
This could be for any number of reasons, as they’ve noticed in the post: change of terminology, or people using sources other than Google to find about web hosting.
My guess, though, is that web hosting is just no longer an issue for most users. Remember the Internet 5 or 10 years ago? If you wanted to start any kind of project on the Internet, no matter how small, the first thing everyone told you was to find a good web host. Now, you can do a whole lot of stuff without ever having to worry about web hosting. Want to create a gallery? Flickr. Blog? Wordpress. Post videos? Youtube. Web hosting is there, somewhere underneath it all, but you don’t need to worry about it - just like you don’t have to worry about having electricity.
It’s a logical course of events. The end users don’t have to worry about the sheer foundations of the Internet any more; they can focus on a specific service they need and let the provider worry about the hosting and other “unimportant” details.
In fact, I’ve checked out what Google Trends says about some other services that once seemed to be growing unstoppably. “Web design,” for example, is on an even sharper decline. “Photo sharing” and “video sharing,” however, are doing better than ever, and “social networking“, you guessed it, is on an even steeper incline.
This doesn’t mean that these services are no longer needed; it merely means that the majority of users don’t need to know about them, just like they don’t need to know about the intricacies of the way their 16 valve car engine burns fuel. On the Internet, however, these large scale changes are happening faster than in other industries; if you’re building an Internet business, you better be willing to adapt fast.
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Slide’s SuperPoke! seems to be the marketing tool of choice, especially for MTV Networks. After the success of the Juno Pregnancy SuperPoke!, MTV Network’s VH1 is now teaming up with Slide for the “I Love Money SuperPoke!Fest.” This is a gap-bridging promotion between online and on-air mediums, where a SuperPoke! on Facebook or MySpace has a chance of appearing on television. The promo will run here on VH1’s website.
Starting Wednesday July 2nd, a day before the marathons of “Rock of Love,” “I Love New York,” and “Flavor of Love” on VH1, randomly selected super pokes will appear on the related television programs. The selection for pokes are pretty wide; there are 30 different VH1-branded actions like “get romantic with” someone for the Flavor of Love show, or “throw some tongue” at someone for the “Rock of Love” show.
The online-to-on-air process won’t leave you completely in the dark — the lottery method will be used to pick SuperPoke! users to appear on-air, and you’ll be notified of your upcoming television “appearance.” Just your name and the name of your SuperPoke! recipient will appear along the bottom of the screen, accompanied by an animation of the SuperPoke! action that’s taking place.
This is an interesting method for getting users to not only become more interactive around a particular television program, but it enables VH1 to use a tactic that could actually result in more television viewers. If you know your SuperPoke! is going to appear soon on VH1, you’ll probably tune in, and tell your friends to tune in as well. I doubt I’ll be watching much of the marathon programs myself, but I am interested to find out how will this will work towards combining marketing on a cross-platform basis.
20 word description: Qponix offers retailers and manufacturers the opportunity to engage consumers during purchase planning and extend brand engagement through a portable widget.
CEO’s 100 word description: Qponix provides retailers and consumer goods manufacturers the opportunity to engage with consumers during the purchase decision through a widget-based advertising network. Qponix seamlessly integrates promotion tools and coupons into an expanded lifestyle-related and organizational environment for consumers, placing the brand prominently and powerfully within the buying process.
Mashable’s Take: Qponix is a new widget advertising company with a very specific targeting method and client base. Going after retailers, the Qponix widget aims to further engage consumers more than most other widgets, by giving them an interactive search, shop cart and coupon tool that simplifies the overall shopping experience.
The example given is of a Qponix-powered widget for grocer Meijer’s MealBox service. The MealBox service helps you plan your week’s meals by offering a recipe search feature that is automatically converted into a shopping list. With the Qponix widget, a customer can search for recipes, select the day on which the recipe will be used, and print the automated shopping list, which is complete with coupons.
The shopping list can be customized–if you already have parsley but you need Rosemary for a particular recipe, you can remove parsley from the shopping list. And if you think some Basil will make the recipe complete but it’s not part of the recipe given through this widget, you can add that item to the list yourself.
Marketing is important for retailers, so on this widget you’ll also see a section for their specials. If a customer doesn’t care to plan an entire week’s meals but would like to save some cash on groceries, they can check out this section. There are some pretty basic filtering options for search results, but for widgets used for recipe planning such as MealBox’s, I’d like to see search and filter options for the Specials section, which can be cumbersome to navigate otherwise.
As Qponix appears to use Widgetbox for its widget offerings, there’s very easy ways in which end users can post their widgets across the Web and on their own start pages. For a customer base such as the one used for Mealbox, however, I imagine a more direct approach for providing a desktop version of the widget would be useful.
UPDATE: see the comments section for a template you can use to create your own extended Twitter profile!
While simplicity and a 140 character limit on messages is a big reason for Twitter's success, the limitation of 160 characters on your profile biography is a constraint for some people, especially those with a lot to say about themselves or several URLs to direct people towards.
Enter a few creative Twitter users, who have come up with a somewhat standardized background design for creating a more robust profile. As pictured below, the idea is to add additional information about yourself, display a bigger picture, and link up to all of your social networking profiles and web sites. The trend was started by @rickmahn, and then followed by fellow social media gurus @problogger and @waynesutton.
While hardly ground-breaking, I think this mini-movement highlights something that at least some Twitter users are currently clamoring for – more ways to discover new people on the Web site. That was evident when we recently reviewed Twellow – the impressive new people search tool for Twitter – and quickly saw it become the most talked about item on the microblogging service according to Summize's "trending topics."
In this case, the "extended profiles" are simply background images, but it gets my head spinning thinking about the other possibilities for enhancing your Twitter profile. For example, if Twitter was to open up the user profiles and allow you to insert your own HTML and CSS, you could potentially begin pulling in your activity streams from services like FriendFeed, blog posts, or widgets (think Jaxtr, Meebo, etc.) to let other Twitter users learn more about you or contact you in different ways.
Of course, those that argue that Twitter is just a messaging platform like e-mail or IM would disagree with this direction, as it moves it much more into the realm of becoming a profile-centric social network. On the other hand, there are dozens of other ways to experience Twitter – via phone, via desktop app, or simply via the Web and your friend timeline. Hence, if Twitter moved in this direction, those that prefer less clutter or couldn't care less about checking out your dozen different social networking profiles wouldn't notice a thing.
Meanwhile, both us and Twitter probably shouldn't put the cart before the horse. We'll just be happy if @mashable, @adamostrow, @kristennicole2, @seanpaune, @rizzn, and @paulglazowski replies keep working through this week and ask kindly for more features sometime down the road
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Social network hi5 has just announced its acquisition of application creator PixVerse for an undisclosed amount. PixVerse, the Flash-based virtual world chat platform, has branched out into social networking applications such as Pix Chat and Pix Wall, both of which have gained some traction on hi5’s social network platform, among other places across the Web. Founded last year, PixVerse was funded by Venrock for an undisclosed amount.
The purpose of PixVerse’s cross-platform approach to its virtual presence is to allow users to chat across the Web. Given the success of both virtual world chat environments such as IMVU and the continued uptake of application creators — from Photobucket to Crushes — it’s not entirely surprising that hi5 is looking to a more integrated application approach for remaining competitive in this market.
As Facebook has gone on to include chat as one of its native applications, and the Open Social movement continues to help level the playing field in terms of platforms that support the developer community, hi5 could use a semi-drastic move that will hopefully make it easier for its users to keep in contact with their friends across networks online.
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As ingrained as Digg has become with certain social media and bookmarking crowds, there are still some underlying issues that particular users have had with Digg’s loss of emphatic promotion as Digg spreads its influence across more and more topics. If you’ve ever found it difficult to sift through Digg content to find something of interest to you and would like something far more connected to your Digg account than other third party apps, then you may be pleased to hear about the new Digg recommendation engine.
As the number of stories increases throughout Digg, it’s increasingly hard to push a story through to the front page and get it in front of the people that will care about it the most. So in order to provide more useful stories to its user base, and a format for getting the right stories to the right people (which could be just as influential as making it to the front page–in theory), the recommendation engine essentially matches you up with the stuff you’re likely to enjoy. This is based on your Digg activity as well as your Digg network.
And as Digg strives to enhance its community features, the Digg recommendation engine is heavily tied into your network on Digg. Recommendations can come indirectly from another user with whom you’re compatible, based on your activity in comparison to theirs. There are also a few filtering options that allow you to see recommendations based on such compatibility, amongst other things. Will this help Digg to retain its supreme power as a promotional tool for certain Web content, or is this inverse leveraging of its existing network going to sour the faces of some users?
While the Digg recommendation engine is currently in beta testing for some Digg users, I imagine a great point of power for the recommendation engine will eventually spill out of the network completely and stamp its influence on several other manifestations of filtering options for the consumption of online media. For now, however, it’s a step in a direction that could effect Digg’s community to a certain extent, or barely make a splash in the water. See below for a video from Anton Kast, Digg’s Lead Scientist.
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meOwns is a new wish list creation site that lets you add items you own or would like to own. As with most other wish list sites such as Wishpot, you can add items you’re interested in, and use this expression of your taste in order to find like-minded people.
The site itself is basic, but there is a Facebook application so you’ll be able to tap into that existing social network in order to find even more like-minded people based on your preferences. I was surprised to find that meOwns doesn’t have a Web bookmarking tool, or even a mechanism to help others purchase wish list items on your behalf. Just about everything on meOwns can be shared via RSS, however, making it easy to keep up with friends’ owned and wish lists if you subscribe to their activity streams.
The space happens to be quite crowded for this particular type of application, so I was hoping to find some differentiating factors with meOwns that could help it stand out. The most I could come up with is the customization options for items you add to your owned and wish list collections. You can rate items, add your own images and descriptions.
However, this feature is also a hindrance for meOwns, as it allows users to add items from their computer and not from the Web. This means that the usefulness of meOwns is limited, in that it can’t provide any further steps towards connecting you with those particular items. As meOwns activity can be broadcast via RSS, I can see that there’s potential for a third party application to turn that streaming data into direct links connecting to retailers, as well as recommendations for other users.
meOwns is essentially collecting purchase data, and if put into a more comprehensive format that’s combined with other data from across the Web, meOwns could lend itself to some easily distributed recommendations that other developers could leverage. Before that happens, however, I think an easier process for users to create that data (i.e. browser bookmarking tool) is necessary.
Company Name: HooQs Founded in: 2007 Location: Tel Aviv
HooQs, an Israeli startup launched in 2007, brings personalized mobile content to users with a unique mobile media recommendation system. Based in Tel Aviv, HooQs was co-founded by Aner Ravon and Itay Gissin. HooQs’ partners and distributors are spread globally and as a result the founders plan to open European and North American headquarters in 2009 in order to grow their business and become more easily accessible to partners. However for the creators, there was no better place to start than Israel.
HooQs’ concept came about when its creators noticed a lack of personalized mobile media and decided to make it easier for users to find music and videos that interest them by incorporating a prediction engine for recommendations into their site. When searching for video and music from a mobile device it can be difficult to find content that interests you quickly. There is so much content to choose from that you sometimes don’t even know what you’re looking for. HooQs created a way to make mobile content find you instead.
Once a user watches a video, HooQs gives them a personalized homepage with 5 to 30 recommended clips based on what other users with similar tastes are watching and listening to. Each time that the user watches, downloads or shares a video on HooQs, they are, in essence, creating recommendation statistics for users with similar interests. HooQs creates recommendations based purely on user behavior. Recommendations take into account how long a user views a clip, as well as whether he downloaded or shared the clip. Users are not required to answer any questions or give any information in order to receive recommendations. In fact, anyone can receive recommendations based on his behavior on the site without even registering.
According to Aner, the service picked up quickly, with over 300,000 mobile downloads a month in the beginning. The first version did not include the recommendation system and was intended purely for learning purposes to create a better model. The second version of HooQs, which was released a few weeks ago, has much more functionality, including the recommendation system which allows for collaborative media filtering, making it much easier for users to find desirable mobile content quickly and efficiently. This recommendation engine was developed by Nimrod Steinbock, CTO of the company.
The addition of this unique recommendation engine has aided in the growth of HooQs. The service currently has over 250,000 users that account for over 500,000 mobile downloads a month. HooQs distributes video content on virtually every subject—users are downloading niche content from pizza recipes to kite boarding lessons and everything in between.
HooQs channels cover a range of subject matter including music, animation, animals, TV, tech, sports, games, politics and “hotties.” The site even has a “whatever” category which features channels such as Best UFO Clips. “How to” videos are also popular, as well as videos about the iPhone and, of course, videos made by gorgeous women (surprise, surprise).
The improvement of mobile devices, with the introduction of mobile handsets such as the iPhone, has only served to raise the consumption of mobile media and HooQs' mission is to serve this increased need. HooQs can be used on any mobile device that is media enabled and has an Internet connection. Additionally, the company is currently working on an iPhone application.
Itay tells me that unlike other mobile media distributors, HooQs has decided to remain an independent service, managing and developing everything on their own. Mobile operators may partner with them to incorporate the HooQs recommendation engine into their own portals. In fact, two operators already signed agreements with them for distribution and integration of their recommendation engine.
HooQs’ revenue model is based on the distribution of their mobile media and on partnerships with mobile operators that are incorporating their service. The company recently raised over $1 million from Zohar Gilon, Eilon Tirosh of GingerBit, Yigal Ahuvi of Partam, and Yaron Gissin on behalf of BEC. Hooqs is still on the lookout for further investments.
Disclosure: HooQs is a past sponsor of Mashable events
Ayelet Noff, also known as blogger Blonde 2.0, is a social marketing strategist and consultant who has been an influential force in the Israeli tech scene for many years. Noff specializes in helping companies strategically market their brands online on all relevant platforms and enhance their product/site to its maximum capability.
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AOL is upping the ante in an effort to get more application developers on Facebook and Bebo using its WIDGNET advertising network. The company has announced that it will be offering developers a "guaranteed CPM" on ads served across their applications.
While on the surface this sounds like a great thing for developers that will allow them to accurately forecast their revenue, the devil is in the details. According to AOL, "The guaranteed CPM rates will apply to the first three impressions for each unique U.S. visitor who visits an approved developer's application."
In other words, if a user loads 15 different pages from within your app, AOL is only guaranteeing that 3 of them will be paid at the pre-established ad rate. What will the rest be paid at? Most likely at the low rates that remnant advertising on social networks are typically paid at – often times pennies per thousand ads.
Of course, it's not all just a marketing gimmick from AOL. Since they now own Bebo and have massive advertiser reach with Platform-A, they are in a position to both push application usage on one hand and sell inventory on the other. And while there are dozens of ad networks for application developers already in operation, few if any have the scale of AOL.
The advent of the Internet and social media have spawned a number of how-to sites, which has made finding tips and resources easier than ever before. We’ve put together a list of 10 essential sites where you can find or in some cases contribute tips and how-to’s on a wide range of topics.
No matter what your interest, these sites will connect you with the information that you’re looking for. What are your favorites?
instructables
instructables, “the world’s biggest show and tell,” is a how-to tips and video sharing site that is quite popular, judging from its 3.5 million visitors a month. The instructables community shares projects, recipes, and hacks among one another. There are groups, forums, and scores of contests you can participate in to win prizes. You can share your instructables in slideshows or videos.
About
About, owned by the New York Times Company, is one of the most popular and credible resource sites today with more than 53 million visitors a month. The site has around 2 million articles, videos, and tutorials on subjects including health care, parenting issues, advice on travel, cooking, technology, and hobbies, among others. We did a simple search on the site with the keyword ‘how to’, and saw more than 597,000 search results. That is more than any how-to site on this list.
About is fueled by more than 650 About.com Guides who mass-produce around 6,000 pieces of new content every week. You can apply to become an About.com Guide if you have the expertise to write in a particular area and the time to share.
eHow
eHow has more than 100,000 articles and claims to have over 8 million people visiting the site every month. From a quick Alexa check, it is seemingly the most popular site among this lot, besides About. There are how-to videos and articles on a variety of topics ranging from cars to business, career, travel and pets, wedding and parenting. You can create your profile in eHow and contribute articles. There are forums where you can request specific tips to be written by other members.
WikiHow
Wikihow is the Wikipedia of how-to articles with more than 37,000 pieces written by volunteers. Like eHow, its range of article categories are vast and include everything from arts & entertainment, health, and relationships, to cars, hobbies, sports , computers, and more. Active WikiHow members take on the task of patrolling recent changes on the site, participate in various projects, keep contact through chat, forums and conference calls, and meet in person once or twice a year. Anybody can contribute to Wikihow.
HowStuffWorks
HowStuffWorks features articles, videos, and product reviews on a variety of topics including animals, auto, business & money, communications, computers, electronics, entertainment, food & recipes, geography, health, history, home & garden, people, science, and travel. Members can upload short how-to videos on the site. HowStuffWorks is owned by Discovery Communications.
ExpertVillage
ExpertVillage calls itself the world’s largest how-to video site and has thousands of them recorded by experts. These are all available free of cost to watch or download. Becoming a member allows you to rate the articles, bookmark your favorite entries, and make comments on the site. Some of the top rated videos we checked out were on how to do a snap kick for a martial arts fitness workout, how to sandpaper decorative picture frames to use for home decor, and how to iron under the buttons of a dress shirt.
You can contribute to the site if you have a license from a legitimate authority or extensive experience in your field. This is one site that has this particular differentiator from the rest in this lot, as the rest accept tips from one and all. You can also apply as a filmmaker if you are good at photography, and send your pre-recorded videos.
VideoJug
VideoJug was launched in 2006 and in the last two years has scored well above many of its competitors. It provides videos in formats like ‘How To’ and ‘Ask The Expert’ on a variety of subjects like food & drink, love & sex, beauty & style, sports & fitness, health, leisure & hobbies, technology, home, pets, parenting, cars, jobs, career, travel, cars, and many more. You can upload your videos on VideoJug. There is also a forum on VideoJug where you can post questions.
5Min
5Min describes itself as the life videopedia where people share tips and how-to’s in videos that are no longer than 5 minutes. Videos are available in categories like arts, business, extreme, fashion, fitness, food, games, health, home, music, parenting, people, pets, spiritual, sports, tech, travel, wheels, life tips, and knowledge.
You can register at the site as a member and create your studio, which is your personal space to save your favorite videos. You can share your own videos at 5Min and even smarten them up with tools from the site.
5Min has a Smart Player that allows the community to watch these videos in slow motion, or frame by frame, zoom in and out, etc. There is also a Speedbit Video Accelerator to speed up the buffering for any video at 5Min.
Sclipo
Sclipo describes itself as a social learning network for teaching through video and webcam, and meeting people of common interests. Here not only can you upload your educational and how-to videos, but also choose to teach other people through webcams. You can charge for such webcam lessons, which is one aspect of Sclipo that distinguishes it from the rest on this list.
Your videos on Sclipo can be on a variety of topics like business and finance, cars, hobbies, fashion, beauty, food, home, music, technology, and more. Tipstrs
Tipstrs is another tip-sharing site with articles on a variety of subjects including tips/cheats for video games, stock picks, household cleaning tips, specials at bars and restaurants in your hometown, ebay tips, coupon codes for online retailers,upcoming band gigs, contests and sweepstakes, fantasy sports leagues, and gardening, among others. Users can write their own tips or bookmark a site on Tipster. Every week, a random tipster is chosen and awarded $15.
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Most people are surprised to find out that Israel is a small country with only seven million people (less than the population of NJ), that has become a major player in the global Internet industry and has the second-largest concentration of startups per capita after Silicon Valley. More than 400 Israeli startups are launched each year. That’s more than any European country. In addition, next to the US, Israel has more publicly traded stocks on the NASDAQ than any other country.
After finishing the DLD, Le Web and The Next Web conferences, Europe has a new Internet conference – TWS2008. This exciting conference will take place on July 1st in Tel Aviv, Israel. The TWS2008 is organized by Yaron Orenstein and his Israeli popular blog the.co.ils and aims to find and present the 10 most promising Internet startups in Israel. In 2009, the organizers plan to open the event to all European startups and become the official European launch pad for Internet startups in the region.
In order to choose the 10 most promising startups, the organizers have assembled an impressive list of judges. Amongst them: Guy Kawasaki, Pete Cashmore, Om Malik, Deborah Schultz, Brian Solis, Allen Stern, Chris Brogan, Yair Goldfinger and Emily Chang. Please note that some of these judges will not be physically located in Israel but will vote from where they are situated.
If you’re in the Tel Aviv area, make sure to attend. If not, stay tuned for updates!
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Here’s Mashable’s latest round-up of upcoming Web 2.0 events, parties, and conferences. Not on this list? Contact us and let’s establish a media sponsorship.
July 2, 2008: We’re right smack in the middle of summer in San Francisco. It’s the perfect time for an old-fashioned Big Summer Geek Out! Come on down and grab a drink, meet cool people, see live 5-minute tech demos, ask questions, grab the mic, have fun… and geek out! Demos on tap: SnappyStuff, MyDogSpace, Govit, Lefora, Spongecell, and BackBlaze. Free Haamonii Smooth, the world’s smoothest shochufor all. Mashable readers receive a 20% discount with the code: “mashabletwenty” by registering here.
July 2-4, 2008: IIR’s Mobile Social Networks & UGC has been specifically designed for mobile operators, mobile community platform firms, software & technology providers and content/media companies to share ideas, discuss future trends and establish a common view of getting the most value out of mobile communities and User Generated Content strategies. Delegates will benefit from best-practice perspectives over a three day period offering a programme packed with case studies, roundtable discussions, an interactive pre-summit workshop as well as numerous networking and information-sharing opportunities. Save 10% if you use the information provided in Mashable’s IIR Mobile Social Networks & UGC announcement post.
July 9, 2008: SF New Tech “Belly Up” is shaken, not Stirred. It’s more SF Alpha than SF Beta; more TechCream than TechCrunch. Some Valleywags think it’s Bub.blicio.us! Instantly find yourself in a bar, right smack in the center of the SF tech scene. It’s true — just RSVP and show up. No MC. No name tags. No presentations. No pressure. (And no real help for those who have trouble introducing themselves to strangers. Sorry!) Just belly up to the bar, hangin’, talkin’, drinkin’, and maybe playing pool. And no ticket price — it’s free to RSVP!
July 10, 2008Social Networking Conference is the largest event for the business, enterprise and mobile Social Networking Industry. The event will discuss: business strategies, mobile technologies, business social networking, venture capital, the Asian social networking market, the European mobile social media market, software, partnerships, enterprise social networking, legal issues, background search and mobile payment systems. Steve Wozniak of Apple will speak, so hop on over to our post and get the details on how to register.
July 12, 2008: Mashable arrives in Seattle to kick off the U.S. Summer Tour. If you didn't know, Pete Cashmore, Sean Aune and Karen Hartline all love coffee, which is why we'll be ready to keep the party going all night long in Seattle where the coffee flows like water. It's our first time in Seattle and we need to be shown how it's done. Join us at Showbox where we'll have food and drink, and DJ El Toro mixing things up. And don't worry, we have a few surprises in store too. Get more information at Mashable’s official SummerMash Seattle page.
July 15, 2008: Plans are in full swing for Mashable's second stop on the U.S. Summer Tour in San Francisco. Mashable's Pete Cashmore will probably take a cab to the event, but will be there ready to meet you. The rest of the San Francisco Mashable team will be in full force too, including Kristen Nicole, Alicia Lin and Karen Hartline. Surprises and fun are on the agenda and your name is at the top of the guest list. There are just a few tickets remaining, so get yours now. The official announcement for SummerMash SF is here.
July 17, 2008: SWAT Summit is the premier conference focused on advertising and marketing on social networks.
The conference looks at how agencies and brands can harness the power of social networks. This conference ideal for anyone who wants to be a leader in the next generation of marketing and advertising — and for the publishers, developers, and ad networks who will work with them hand in hand. More information can be found in the SWAT Summit announcement post — especially with how to save $100 off the ticket price!
July 17, 2008: At Twiistup, connect with the LA tech & media communities, check out some hot start-ups, and enjoy this huge summer evening event. Tickets are now on sale! The Twiistup event will be held on the evening of July 17th in Santa Monica. It’s expected to have a huge turnout, so sign up today!
July 18, 2008: Mashable takes the show on the road for our third stop on the U.S. Summer Tour in Los Angeles. This is Mashable's third time in L.A. so you've got some big shoes to fill as the past times have produced great stories. Paparazzi be warned that celebrities will be on hand, including Mashable's Pete Cashmore, Adam Hirsch and Karen Hartline and many more. Food, drinks and good times are on the agenda and your name is on the guest list. We're partying outdoors in the Rubicon Project's HQ Courtyard.
July 30, 2008: Mashable is ready to rock out at our fourth stop on the U.S. Summer Tour, as well as our first time in Austin, TX. With finger-lickin' food, cold drinks and Mashable's Pete Cashmore, Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins and Karen Hartline, it's the event you won't want to miss. We promise not to mess with Texas while we're in town and guarantee to accept any challenge to Billiards, Rock Band, Wii, or Shuffleboard. Yee haw!
August 2, 2008: Mashable makes our first trip to Miami for the forth stop on the U.S. Summer Tour. Party the night away at The Opium Garden, where we may forget we're in Miami with the amazing Asian outdoor architecture. Everyone is a VIP as we have a private room just for the Summer MashBash. The temperature will rise when Mashable's Pete Cashmore and Karen Hartline arrive, but we need you there to keep the roof blazing. We'll provide drink tickets, appetizers and music if you bring the moves. Miami is extra special as we're partying with DailyMe and celebrating their launch!
August 5, 2008: Mashable makes it's first trip to Boston, MA for the sixth stop on the U.S. Summer Tour. You won't see Paul Revere, but you will have the chance to hang out with Mashable's Pete Cashmore, Brett Petersel and Karen Hartline. Join us for food (no Boston baked beans, sorry), drinks and a DJ. We want to see the "Mashable Nation" in full force! We're partying at The Roxy Nightclub, which has many areas for you to see and be seen. Get more information and RSVP here.
August 7, 2008: Mashable finish's the U.S. Summer Tour in the only city big enough to handle it, New York City! Mashable's back for our second time in NYC and will have a repeat performance at Touch with the Mashable All-Stars, including Pete Cashmore, Adam Hirsch, Adam Ostrow, Brett Petersel, Tamar Weinberg, and Karen Hartline. Frank Sinatra did it his way, but we're ready to rock out our final stop with the city that never sleeps. We're going out with a bang and have a big surprise in store for the big finale. You won't want to miss out on this!
August 10-12, 2008: Mashable is pleased to announce that we are a sponsor of Affiliate Summit 2008 East, which is taking place August 10-12 in Boston and expects about 2,500 attendees. The keynote speaker will be Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ. Affiliate Summit Inc. is the premier affiliate marketing conference and was founded in 2003 by affiliate marketing industry veterans, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward to serves the affiliate marketing professional community. Affiliate marketers know not to miss this event. Find out how to save 15% off.
August 14-16, 2008: The New Media Expo is the world’s most popular convention for online audio and video creators and will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Expo is a hands-on, exciting, “how-to” event with practical conference sessions about how to produce high-quality online audio and video content, grow a loyal audience, and market or monetize that content in creative ways. Want to win a ticket? A contest is being held right now, but if you don’t answer our question soon, the ticket will go to another lucky reader!
October 6-8, 2008: Back for the second year, Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008 (VWF) isproduced by the Virtual Economic Forum, Europe’s leading virtual worlds media company. Three days of congress, expo and workshops covering entertainment, enterprise, community, education, marketing, regulation, and finance… plus lots more. VWF is the place to make connections, be inspired and have fun.
November 11-14, 2008: For anyone involved in the production, marketing, or management of an Internet web site - this is a must attend event to be held in Las Vegas, NV. PubCon covers search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), web hosting issues, domains & the domaining business, Internet video, podcasting, multimedia, and special sessions of interactive attendee site reviews. In addition, there are tracks on new marketing techniques, linking strategies, social media, and online advertising.
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When most people think online project management and collaboration tools, they automatically think of Basecamp from 37signals. As a company they have helped define online project management as a serious contender in what has traditionally been an offline, software driven enterprise utility. But markets are always richer with choice, and the Copper Project from Melbourne based Element Software, offers worthy competition.
Copper Project is an online project management and collaboration tool used to share projects, tasks, files, contacts and events anywhere and at anytime. Teams create detailed project plans, then review progress while staff, clients, and subcontractors can log in and actively contribute. Other features include the ability to drag and drop timelines, send out email alerts and even import an MS Project MFL file.
The interface is visually pleasing and surprisingly easy to pick up, even for those with only a basic understanding of project management.
You may not have heard of Copper Project previously, but Element has been quietly growing an impressive list of enterprise customers. Names on the client list you may recognize: Coca Cola, Pennsylvania State University, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Ignition Interactive and the Royal Surf Lifesaving Association. Copper Project is offered as a hosted service or as a client hosted download, with plans ranging from $9/mo for personal use through to $199/mo for an enterprise license. Downloads range from $499 to $2999.
Copper Project will never be able to compete with Basecamp for the hearts of first adopters who may have used the free version of Basecamp in the past, but as an enterprise project management solution it offers a strong alternative.
Duncan Riley edits The Inquisitr, a daily dose of tech, pop and penguins, and will be contributing occasional posts on Australian startups for Mashable in the coming months.
There’s a new company called Apture launching a new product today with one major objective in mind: make content-sharing easier on the Web. I spoke at length with Apture co-founder Tristan Harris, who found that the Web in its current state is still a reflection of our mental projection of communicative content. It still operates as a collection of sheets of paper that happen to be in an environment that supports the ability to link to each other and embed content.
That may sound pretty rich to a lot of you–it’s way more than you can do with a sheet of paper already. But Apture really wants to make it even easier to have an enhanced experience online, which is the only place you can take advantage of rich media available on the Web. So how do you tackle such a feat?
Apture’s product is targeted at bloggers and content publishers with a Web presence. By embedding content onto your website, you’re already improving the experience for the end user. But what about your experience as a content producer and publisher? What if the process of finding supplementary content for your blog were simplified and made far more efficient, so that it could be done with just one click?
There are a few blogging platform plugins that let you do media search and insert content into your blog, and others that operate as a bookmarking tool which aggregates content for you but doesn’t make it easy to share in a well-formatted manner (at least not for online publications). What Apture does is allow you to perform a search from your live website and immediately insert content from across the Web, similar to Magnify’s blogging search tool from a theoretical perspective.
This is mostly embeddable content coming from sources like YouTube, Google Maps, Flickr, Imeem, Scribd, and more. There’s also support for some sites’ content that’s not directly embeddable, such as Wikipedia, but becomes so with Apture’s application. What’s more is that you can reference specific portions of some supported media, such as Vimeo videos that can be referenced at specific times in the clip, or particular pages in a Scribd document. Thanks to the imeem platform, Apture can also enable you to provide embedded songs from the 4 major record labels.
What impressed me the most about Apture was its search tool, which opens from a tiny dashboard on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Provide your search term and you’ll get a wealth of media that’s related to the topic. Build from there and continue your search in order to find related content across a host of other supported sites. The result is a screen full of tiny windows, each providing a bit of media that contributes to your story–a scene right out of Minority Report, as Harris noted during the demo of Apture. Pick and choose which media you’d like to include in your publication, and it will become immediately available for your readers.
As search was a major factor for my particular interest with Apture, I asked about recommendation tools that Apture could offer as a result. Apture will be working towards a more direct approach to recommendations in the future, but already there’s a cross-link feature to Apture that provides suggested links for you based on your previous behavior and the pages others have linked to as well.
So far you can only use Apture with a live (published) site. This isn’t a plugin that needs to be installed, and this is part of the simplicity that’s involved with Apture as a product. It works with live sites, which is good from a business perspective, as it doesn’t need to create custom versions for various blogging platforms and other content management systems that larger publications, such as existing client The Washington Post, already use. This may be a downfall for some users, but I don’t think it will hinder the overall ability for Apture to appeal to a number of content publishers that have chosen to use the Web as their medium for “enhanced” communication.
Personalized start page Netvibes has added an often sought feature: Google Search. If it doesn’t show for you yet, close Netvibes and reopen it. This is how it looks:
The settings for Google Search can be found in the Settings - General dialog, accessible from the upper right corner in your Netvibes page. You can hide the search or move it above/below the title, and you can have the search results open in a new tab or the same one you’re currently in.
As for the search itself, it’s a slightly customized version of the standard Google Search, with Video, Blog, News, Images, Books searches available as tabs. Although it opens within Netvibes, it’s blazing fast, which is a pleasant surprise. If you set searches to open in a new tab, they’ll stay open in that tab, which means you can use this feature to always have a couple of often conducted searches handy.
Soceeo is one of those interesting Web 2.0 startup projects that is easy to stereotype, but is hard to describe succinctly (or at least to accurately describe succinctly). If you take a step back and look at others that it most closely competes with, you could say it’d be services like Ning or Canter’s Broadband Mechanics in the whitelabel social networking space, but to do so would sell short the vision behind what the service tries to offer.
In their present form, though, that’s exactly what they are. I had a chance to sit down with one of the site founders, Emile Cambry, and talk about where they see things going and what their vision is for the future. Given all the competition presently in the whitelabel socnet world, they have an amazingly solid userbase from the non-conventional sources (no early typical adopter types here), but they themselves are particularly grounded in the Web 2.0 world, and want to bring their seasoned userbase back some of the better parts of what they see the social media world offering.
What sorts of things? Data portability, RSS and APIs, for a few. They’re particularly enamoured with the idea behind services like Twitter and FriendFeed, and have taken not only their service models to heart, but their philosophy of user-driven feature development as well.
Beyond that, they’re centrally focused on making this a site so simple that their grandmothers can use it - a laudable goal for a site with advanced social-network generating capabilities.
For the full story (in more detail), sit in on my conversation with Emile.
As the pressure builds for useful mobile applications on both the device manufacturer and wireless provider ends, the need for platforms that publish content across a wide array of mobile phones also increases. Cascada Mobile, a mobile application publishing service, has just launched its new development platform called Breeze. This platform supports a variety of programming languages and automates a good portion of the application-creation process so there’s a minimized amount of knowledge for such languages that’s necessary for the publisher.
There are three main aspects to the Breeze platform, which include the application creation process, testing, and distribution. Cascada handles all of these attributes, with a simplified application editor, a mobile application simulator, and the distribution tools that will make it easier for your end users to get your application on their phone. The simulator lets you see how well your phone will work across a variety of handset models, enabling you to make the necessary tweaks in a more efficient manner.
In terms of distribution, Cascada gives you a link that can be placed on your site that allows end users to download your mobile application by providing their phone number (no extra registration necessary). This process seems to work best for gaming and other casual applications, and those that aren’t heavily integrated into your existing content. Cascada’s Breeze applications are also ad-supported, which allows the company to provide the application-creation program to publishers for free.
Combine casual mobile apps with advertising on mobile distribution, and Cascada has a decent set of demographics to work with. I imagine that building this aspect of its service alongside the Breeze publishing platform could grow in a number of directions, given the delivery and reporting options that are also included with Breeze. See here for a handful of applications that have been built with Breeze.
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Earlier this year we caught wind of Rhapsody’s plans to extend its reach as far as it can go wen it comes to digital music. From wifi-enabled devices to online social networks, it became quie clear that Rhapsody was really beginning to tap into its newly established relationship with RealNetworks. Now, Rhapsody is taking that relationship even further, with more partnerships across more companies in order to become more accessible to a wide range of consumers. The new initiative is called “Music Without Limits,” and encompasses Rhapsody’s relationship with RealNetworks and MTV Networks.
The foundation of this new initiative seems to be the fact that Rhapsody is taking the big leap into DRM-free music sales, converting its entire catalog to DRM-free music. The prices are pretty much what you’d expect– 99 cents for a song and about $10 for an album. If you catch one of the new accounts for Rhapsody’s online store, you’ll even get credits for a free album.
But in true Rhapsody form, the end goal here is to make music available to everyone, everywhere. So if you head over to Yahoo Music, you’ll find that it’s powered by the new Rhapsody store. Last year, Yahoo Music underwent some major changes that were reflective of Yahoo’s underlying problems as a company. However, a partnership with RealNetworks earlier this year gave us some insight as to Yahoo’s plans for its music portal, and it’s now come to fruition.
Another feature you’ll appreciate from Rhapsody is the full-length music previews for non-members, which you’ll begin to find in many online that already have working deals with Rhapsody, and others, such as iLike, that are forging new relationships with the music company.
Lastly, there’s a new deal that Rhapsody has worked out with Verizon VCast’s mobile service. As Verizon has become rather media-centric with its newer devices and extra subscription services, the wireless provider has teamed up with broadcast networks like NBC and others in order to offer a variety of media through handhelds.
So some Verizon customers out there may be happy to learn that a partnership with Rhapsody includes a synced account and the ability to purchase items through your phone. You’ll get two songs for the price of one–a version that lives on your phone, and another that’s found in your associated Rhapsody account. Even the billing has been synced so any Verizon customers (even those with existing Rhapsody accounts) can just pay for their Rhapsody subscription as an included option on their Verizon phone bill. Handy.
The biggest downfall so far, however, is that the songs on yur mobile phones can’t be used for ringtones. Bummer. Hopefully that will change soon. Now that mp3s and their usable devices are becoming freed from incompatibility constraints, hopefully this attitude will carry over into the ways in which more of these devices can celebrate the fact that they’re multi-functional capabilities can help us more effectively personalize with the presence of music.
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Alexis is a big-titted hooker. She is a really good hooker. She is like the Bruce Lee of hookers. The kind of ho that you know really loves her job. The kind of ho that gives it her all. She is the kind of hooker who will blow you, fuck you, let you stick some of your body parts in her ass and then she will eat your cum. Alexis is the kind of hooker all hookers should aspire to be. Watch her be all that she can be on this guy's rod. She picks him up in the street and then takes his meat to go, leading him to the Jacuzzi room in a rent-by-the-hour hotel. Here, in the comfort of this seedy hotel room, she works his junk like a seasoned pro, and she works her crisp British accent, too, which is very fucking hot! So you're probably wondering where all the big-titted, British cock-rockers are hanging out in your area, right? You'll just have to find the right corner, buddy. Check it out!!!
My good friend Kayla and i went shopping at a local sports apparel store for our sons. After we bought our kids what they needed we got a little something for ourselves. Kayla looked so sexy with her boobs pressed against in her extra tight jersey that i just had to invite her back to my place. Let me just say that it wasnt the first time Kayla licked pussy but it was the first time i had a pussy taste so sweet.
Sensual. Playful. Inspiring. Jana Cova exposes her inner-most desires, leaving a trail of women trembling in her wake. Explore the feminine mystique in 5 lust inducing scenes captured on film by Michael Ninn himself.
Julia and I had been playing phonetag for a few days trying to iron out these reports. Standard numbers crunching. When we finally spoke, we set up a meeting at her house, which I found weird but no biggie. I get there and we discuss work for about 2 minutes before getting down to REAL business. She starts to show off her huge round boobs and bubble butt ass that she is hiding in that business suit of hers. Her long blonde hair begging to get pulled. She unleashes her boobs and it was all she wrote after that. She gave me a masterful blowjob before letting me eat her juicy pussy. I could not take it anymore and started to fuck her something serious. Amazing. We had a great time. We should have more business meetings like this in the future. http://www.linkbank.eu/show.php?show=50785 __._,_.___
Tugjobs - She is MY Dominatriqszzzz Added: June 23, 2008
Paola Ray is so sexy and sensual; she knows how to move the right way to warm things up. She talks dirty, and she moans while she is jerking the cock; but she also likes to add a lot of lubrication when she rubs the cock on her pussy. The cock took a pleasurable beating, as Paola slapped it on her tongue, and just slapped it period. Through out the jerk session she was begging for the cock. Although she didn't get fucked, she got her clit rubbed, and she came loud. After jerking the cock and rubbing the balls, she finally got the man chowder out of Joey's cock.
Our most delicious cream pie is ready to be made again. Of course dressed with a pair of nice big tits as usual. In fact, today it's also gonna have a nice big round enormous ass on top of it. Why? because today we got none other than Lacey Duvalle. She just recently came from LA. Man, what a nice pair of tits? She has an ass too. I called my boy C-Lo or whatever his name is to come and help me out with cooking this pie. Once he heard who he was gonna be working with, he got here faster than a bullet. Well I don't think that I should go in detail describing everything that happened there, just wanna say that it was super hot, especially seeing her when she was picking up cum from her pussy and tasting it. Check it out!!!
Downloading 
Qponix is a new widget advertising company with a very specific targeting method and client base. Going after retailers, the Qponix widget aims to further engage consumers more than most other widgets, by giving them an interactive search, shop cart and coupon tool that simplifies the overall shopping experience. 
In other words, if a user loads 15 different pages from within your app, AOL is only guaranteeing that 3 of them will be paid at the pre-established ad rate. What will the rest be paid at? Most likely at the low rates that remnant advertising on social networks are typically paid at – often times pennies per thousand ads. 
The advent of the Internet and social media have spawned a number of how-to sites, which has made finding tips and resources easier than ever before. We’ve put together a list of 10 essential sites where you can find or in some cases contribute tips and how-to’s on a wide range of topics. 
There are three main aspects to the Breeze platform, which include the application creation process, testing, and distribution. Cascada handles all of these attributes, with a simplified application editor, a mobile application simulator, and the distribution tools that will make it easier for your end users to get your application on their phone. The simulator lets you see how well your phone will work across a variety of handset models, enabling you to make the necessary tweaks in a more efficient manner. 
So some Verizon customers out there may be happy to learn that a partnership with Rhapsody includes a synced account and the ability to purchase items through your phone. You’ll get two songs for the price of one–a version that lives on your phone, and another that’s found in your associated Rhapsody account. Even the billing has been synced so any Verizon customers (even those with existing Rhapsody accounts) can just pay for their Rhapsody subscription as an included option on their Verizon phone bill. Handy. 
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