You can always follow my recommended stories in real-time through theRecommended Reading page or through my Lifestream.

Select Technologies Stories From the Week

• 35 Excellent Ecommerce User Interface Designs

  Published: November 16, 2009

  Source: Vandelay Design Blog

  While user experience is important on all types of websites, it is especially critical for ecommerce websites where visitors will be making purchases. A poor user experience will result in visitors having difficulty finding what they want, frustration during shopping, and many lost sales. In this post we will showcase the design of 35 e-commerce websites for your own UI design inspiration. The sites that are showcased in this post have also been…

• Best WordPress Themes Websites Every Blogger Should Bookmark | Smashing Share

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: www.smashingshare.com

  A blogger always need a professional WordPress Theme. When started Smashing Share as a Blogger three months back, I went through all wordpress themes website. There are a lot of paid and free wordpress themes available.

• Marketing more important than quality, says analyst

  Published: November 17, 2009

  Source: Develop

  EEDAR reveals higher marketing spend more influential than review scores

• Zynga secures $15 million in VC funding

  Published: November 18, 2009

  Source: Develop

  Socially networked games studio bolstered in spite of recent controversy

• Please Join Us – PerkettPR’s Virtual Clothing Drive to Benefit Rosie’s Place

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: PerkettPRsuasion – The PerkettPR Blog

  2009 has unarguably been a year of many ups and downs, not only here in New England, but across the globe.  In Massachusetts alone, we have witnessed the unemployment rate rise as high as 9.3% (October 2009) and my guess is that we all know at least one person who has been laid off this past year or been adversely affected by the struggling economy.  As the holidays approach this year, I asked myself and my employees “What can we do as an org…

• America’s Army Most Effective Recruitment Tool for U.S. Army

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: Serious Games Source News

  The Washington Examiner reports that America’s Army is a more effective U.S. Army recruitment tool than "any other method of contact," according to recent Army testimony to Congress. America’s Army is a series of first-person shooter titles developed in cooperation with the U.S. Army. The PC version of America’s Army is available as a free download from the U.S. Army’s website, and commercial versions are sold for the Xbox and Xbox 360. The artic…

• Four New Approaches to Mobile Payment

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: ReadWriteWeb

  It’s official, money transfer and mobile payment are among the most popular and lucrative mobile applications. In a report released earlier this week, Gartner identified the top 10 consumer mobile applications based on revenue, loyalty, consumer value and market penetration. At today’s Under The Radar Mobility Conference four mobile payment players battled for the title of best in show. Sponsor Bling Nation:This service allows users to pay usin…

• Facebook’s Valuation Skyrockets to $9.5 Billion

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  While Facebook’s userbase has been consistently growing for years, its monetary value has been less than consistent. Facebook stunned the world in October 2007 when a Microsoft investment valued the company at $15 Billion. The recession hit Facebook’s value hard though, dropping it all the way to $3.7 Billion in February of this year. Facebook’s value has been fighting back ever since. In July, its value reached $6.5 Billion after a fre…

• SOLD: Skype Now Worth $2.75 Billion

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  Last week, after months of bickering and lawsuits, the Skype saga finally ended. eBay, which bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, settled outstanding litigation with Skype’s founders. The result: Skype now owns all of its technology, the founders received 14% of Skype and two seats on the Board of Directors, eBay keeps 30% of Skype, and the rest is owned by outside investors. That was last week. Today, Skype CEO Josh Silverman announced th…

• Inside Virtual Goods: What Portion of Social Gaming Revenues Come From Offers?

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: Inside Social Games

  This is a post by both Justin Smith and Charles Hudson When we set out to write the Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2009-2010 research report earlier this year, we wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the payments ecosystem throughout all popular virtual goods markets in the US, especially the booming world of social games. Given the explosion of payment companies focused on the social gaming market – from mobile payments…

• Cats for Gold: turn your glitter to litter!

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: Boing Boing

  catsforgold.com: Sell your old gold and jewels and get cats delivered right to your front door. An internet riff on the troubled online pawn shop Cash for Gold. (via Calpernia Addams)

• 3DVIA Takes Best Use of Video Category at the MITX Awards

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: 93South – Thoughts on New England Web 2.0

  A bit of self promotion, but I was impressed with this years 14th annual MITX Interactive Awards but I was even more excited to also walk away with an award.  3DVIA took the Best Use of Video category for a lead generation site we released with the talented folks at Genuine Interactive who conceived and produced the concept. In addition to being a MITX Technology Award judge, this is actual the second MITX Award that I have been connected with b…

• Nearly 40% of marketers plan to boost budgets :: BtoB Magazine

  Published: November 19, 2009

  Source: www.btobonline.com

  Yeah…who are these marketers, I want names!

  Find information on B2B Marketing strategies and tactics. BtoB Magazine offers information on email marketing solutions, search engine marketing strategy as well as valuable business to business directories and BtoB lead generation articles.

• Designing Social Interfaces: Overview and Practical Techniques

  Published: November 17, 2009

  Source: Smashing Magazine

    The standard approach to interface design is to craft a channel that allows you to easily and efficiently control hardware or software; it’s all about the interaction between people and computers. But today, the two entities on each side of the user interface are changing: it’s no longer about people interacting with computers, but rather about people interacting with people through computers.This is the nature of the social Web. Social…

• 10 Absolutely New & Stunning Portfolio WordPress Themes for Non-Designers

  Published: November 17, 2009

  Source: Inspired Magazine

  Nevermind you’re not a designer. These days just about any kind of freelancer needs a porftolio as much as he needs a blog. And why would you use another platform than WordPress, our beloved free incredibly popular weapon of choice? Here are some of the newest and most eye catching themes released in the last few days. And be sure to check 10 Cool Photo Portfolio and Gallery Themes and 15 FreshThemes To Get The Coolest Portfolio For You Or Yo…

• CSS Box Model: The Foundation For Improving Your CSS

  Published: November 16, 2009

  Source: instantShift

  The CSS box model lies behind everything you do in CSS. Every element is defined by a rectangular box that encloses that element. Understanding how the box model works is a key to understanding CSS and having greater control over your layout and presentation. Let’s dive right in and talk about what the CSS box model is, how one box affects the boxes around it, and some common browser issues when displaying CSS boxes. In nutshell, the box model…

• $875K for Swipely

  Published: November 16, 2009

  Source: Xconomy

  startups, deals, IT Ryan McBride wrote: Swipely, a Providence, RI-based startup that was quietly launched earlier this year, has raised $875,000 of a planned $1 million equity financing, according to an SEC document filed last week. Angus Davis—a co-founder of the voice-based Internet search and services provider Tellme Networks, which was sold to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and became a subsidiary of the Redmond, WA-based software giant in…

• News: Microsoft launches social networking tools on 360

  Published: November 17, 2009

  Source: GamesIndustry.biz – News

  Microsoft has launched a host of new community features for the Xbox 360 platform, with Facebook, Twitter, last.fm and Zune functionality all now added to the consoles services. The new functionality, previewed at a London event last night – at which Taio Cruz and Paloma Faith both performed – will enable users to post to Facebook and Twitter feeds, as well as listen to music via Last….

• Adam Smith Video On The Story Of Xobni

  Published: November 16, 2009

  Source: OnStartups

  As noted in my previous article on startup marketing, I had the opportunity to speak at the MIT Startup bootcamp recently.  My friend, and an all-around great guy, Adam Smith (founder of Xobni) spoke earlier that day.  Adam did a great job capturing the experience of starting a company and watching a company grow.  Adams both brilliant and articulate.  Well worth watching the video.  Here are some quick notes from the video (to help entice…

• Chrome’s Sample Extensions Add Gmail Checking, Feed Subscribing [Google Chrome]

  Published: November 17, 2009

  Source: Lifehacker

  If you’re running Google Chrome’s development version, or a Mac or Linux nightly build of Chromium, you can already install three sample extensions from Google developers. Two of them add some pretty nifty Gmail and feed conveniences to your browser. They’re the same kind of sample extensions we’d featured back in May, but re-implemented in the fashion of Chrome’s new extension system. If you’re running an up-to-date developer’s version of Chrome…

• Augmented Reality App Provides Virtual Fitting Room for Shoppers – ClickZ

  Published: November 16, 2009

  Source: www.clickz.com

  Augmented Reality App Provides Virtual Fitting Room for Shoppers

• Brightcove Debuts “Express” Video Hosting

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: Xconomy

  IT, video, Media Wade Roush wrote: To make it easier for small Web publishers to host videos on their sites, Cambridge, MA-based Brightcove will announce today that it is rolling out an “Express Edition” service starting at $99 per month. The company’s previous lowest-end offering cost several hundred dollars per month. At the new $99 monthly level—which doesn’t require a monthly contract, as previous Brightcove packages did—u…

• Thanks Microsoft, Hello Google

  Published: November 16, 2009

  Source: Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

  Thanks to all the fine people at Microsoft. It was an interesting ride. Four years, 11 months, and 20 days, and I enjoyed every one of them. Well, except for the last few days, that was not fun at all. I hope I played a small part in making Microsoft more approachable, friendly to startups, and easier to work with. Microsoft is a different company, a better company, than when I joined 5 years ago. There are more new people who joined Microsoft in…

• Amazing Star Wars Tauntaun costume

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: MAKE Magazine

  Check out the amazing build log of this Star Wars Tauntaun costume, Scott (the maker writes)… TaunTaun costume, 2009 for the Exotic Zone ball in Sacramento. I’m wearing the Luke Skywalker outfit for this shoot. On Halloween my buddy Brian wore the Luke outfit, and I was his spotter dressed as Han Solo. Sorry bout the shaky camera, my wife was walking and holding our daughter in the other arm. Read more | Permalink | Com…

• Web Design Trends: Testimonials Design

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: Noupe

  Testimonials from happy clients are an important part of any service business’s website, lending trustworthiness and experience to a business. Showing those testimonials in their best light is important, as you want visitors to see them without allowing them to dominate your site’s design. One great way to figure out how to design the testimonials on your own projects is to look at how others are doing it. There are five predominant trends in…

• Growing Pains at Hulu

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: www.adweek.com

  Advertising industry information from Adweek. Read inside stories on advertising, creative, and client – agency relationships.

• Social Gaming Roundup: Tencent, Xbox, Billboards, and More

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: Inside Social Games

  Twitter and Facebook coming to Xbox 360 this week — Microsoft’s console is getting more social on November 17, when the two social services launch as a software download. You’ll be able to do things like access Facebook and Twitter from within the machine. Sony’s Playstation 3 is also getting Facebook integration, it appears. Xbox 360 console game Assassin’s Creed gets virtual goods — You can now buy outfits from the game in the Xbox…

• ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 14 November 2009

  Published: November 14, 2009

  Source: ReadWriteWeb

  We’ve added a couple of more events to this week’s events guide. You can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans. Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in…

• List of the biggest launches in video game history

  Published: November 14, 2009

  Source: VentureBeat

  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is by all accounts likely to be the best-selling video game of all time. It could top 7 million units worldwide on its first day alone, an incredible achievement despite the fact that the economy is still in a pretty weak state. Here are the biggest sales records in the game industry for opening day sales. At the bottom, we’ve also included a list of the biggest first-week sales for games in a chart from VGchartz….

• The Top 5 Social Media Stories This Week

  Published: November 14, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  From a Twitter TV deal to a new Google programming language, it’s been a surprising week on the web. Here’s our pick of the top 5 stories this week, from the serious to the bizarre. 1. From Twitter to TV: Sh*t My Dad Says Gets CBS Deal – A Twitter account got a TV deal…has the social media and mainstream media fusion gone too far? 2. Google’s Plan to Make the Web Twice as Fast – The web is about to get SPDY, writes Barb Dybwad. 3. GO:…

• Mockingbird: Wireframes on the Fly

  Published: November 14, 2009

  Source: Emily Chang – Designer

  As a UI/UX designer, I’m constantly looking for new tools and methods to allow me to more rapidly create initial user flows and to prototype an application. Mockingbird is a new online tool that let’s you create and share wireframes quickly and with interactivity.  It uses a simple drag and drop UI library, gives you the ability to link multiple pages together by making elements clickable, and makes it easy to share your wireframes with cli…

• Playfire: A Social Community For The Addicted Gamer

  Published: November 14, 2009

  Source: ZePy

  Playfire is the global community for gamers.In the site you can get a killer profile, track news and discussion for your favorite games, and follow your friends’ progress in games. Playfire was founded in 2007 by Kieran O’Neill, Seb Hayes Ben Phillips, has a kickass team, and is backed by a number of world-class investors. According to Playfire’s official site the service is in beta and tallies 245,000 users and 40,000 games. As all free o…

• Google: Social Search Down Till Monday or Tuesday

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  Sometimes there’s an advantage to calling something “experimental”. Google Social Search, the much heralded new way to combine Google results with data from your social networks, went down today, we reported earlier. Now Google has responded to our inquiry, explaining that the service will be inaccessible until Monday or Tuesday. No reason has been given for the downtime. Google wrote to Mashable via email: The Google Social Search ex…

• The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

  Published: November 15, 2009

  Source: Six Revisions

  If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start? Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet real…

• 40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

  Published: November 12, 2009

  Source: Smashing Magazine

    High quality free WordPress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). However, the quality of freely available themes has improved as well; in fact, some themes are very advanced and professional and can serve as a solid foundation for your next designs.There are a lot of choices out there…

The Find Your Fast website that took the award was the central site for a larger integrated program I had designed to introduce a new game engine for 3DVIA and position it alongside the companies existing social 3D publishing suite.  It also took the Best in Show at the W3 this year as well.  I could describe it but this one is better experienced by clicking on the image above.

As I mentioned earlier, they spared no expense this year and put on quite a show.  Congratulation to Kiki Mills and everyone at MITX for putting on a first-class event.  I was only sad to see that no one was actually Kanye’d this year!

The 2 pictures above were taken with my iPhone and I only wish I had the NIKON.  The picture on the left is me with the crack team at Genuine Interactive.  Check out their augmented reality application that was connected with their print ad in the this years event program.  Can you find Chris (on the right of the pic) do his best Lord of the Dance impression?

See you next year!

You can always follow my recommended stories in real-time through theRecommended Reading page or through my Lifestream.

Select Technologies Stories From the Week

• Embedding Social Media Channels in Modern Web Design

  Published: November 13, 2009

  Source: Inspired Magazine

  Well the Twitter stream integration is almost a standard these days when designing a portfolio website, but there are some brands with a more complex view when it comes to social media integration. Here are four brands with entire websites built over Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Enjoy and leave your suggestion in the comments. Skittles Campbell Ewald Krispin Porter Almost At Modernista

• iPhone augmented reality game sets the world on fire

  Published: November 12, 2009

  Source: Joystiq

  The new Firefighter 360 for the iPhone 3GS lets you experience the thrill of seeing everything around you burst into flames, without all that pesky heat and death. The augmented reality game, developed by Presselite, superimposes fires — and virtual victims — over the iPhone camera’s view of the world, with flames generated in every direction, spreading and multiplying. And it’s up to you, as an inexplicably cel-shaded fireman, to douse the fla…

• Sites of the Week #77

  Published: November 13, 2009

  Source: Abduzeedo | Graphic Design Inspiration and Photoshop Tutorials

  For this Sites of the Week we have selected some great sites such as the new PocketSmith and Gowalla. Also we’re featuring a great portfolio by Diego Morales, and much, much more! As usual we would love to hear from you, keep sending your suggestions to us and we will be more than happy to feature your site. !–break– You can send me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe or twitter.com/abduzeedo, and include #abdz_sites in the messa…

• Hey, Google! There’s Another Programming Language Called Go!

  Published: November 13, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  Just because you are big does not mean that you do everything correctly. I wonder if the team at Google new about this but just decided it wasn’t an issue?

  When you’re a huge web company, and you choose a name for something as important as a new programming language, you should take great care to investigate whether the name is already taken. Apparently, Google didn’t do that. Frank McCabe, a developer working at San Jose, Calif.-based Starview Technologies, has created a programming language and named it Go years ago. In fact, he published a research paper about it in 2004, and devoted an ent…

• 40 Beautifully-Designed Navigation Menus

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: Vandelay Design Blog

  Navigation menus are, of course, important for usability purposes and creating a user-friendly website, but they also provide opportunities to add some visual appeal to the design. In this post we’ll showcase 40 examples of attractive navigation menus, including a variety of different types and styles. For more on navigation menus please see: 50+ Gorgeous Navigation Menus 50 Gorgeous Navigation Menus – Part II Utah Travel Lift Interactive…

• 40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

  Published: November 12, 2009

  Source: Smashing Magazine

    High quality free WordPress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). However, the quality of freely available themes has improved as well; in fact, some themes are very advanced and professional and can serve as a solid foundation for your next designs.There are a lot of choices out there…

• 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: Dosh Dosh

  Influence can be defined as the power exerted over the minds and behavior of others. A power that can affect, persuade and cause changes to someone or something. In order to influence people, you first need to discover what is already influencing them. What makes them tick? What do they care about? We need some leverage to work with when we’re trying to change how people think and behave. But there’s a problem. You won’t be able to m…

• Why Didn’t Pownce Trounce Twitter? – with Leah Culver

  Published: November 12, 2009

  Source: mixergy.com

  Always great to see success and failure…

  We talked about more than Pownce and Twitter in this interview. Leah Culver is a developer who launched many projects. …

• The Crunchies Are Coming, The Crunchies Are Coming!

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: TechCrunch

  Let the trumpets sound and the games begin. It’s not the Oscars or the Olympics, but it is the commencement of the 3rd annual Crunchies Awards that we’re pleased to co-host with GigaOm and VentureBeat (click for their coverage today). Yes, this is the time of year that we stop bickering among ourselves as bloggers, and come together to honor the startups, products and entrepreneurs who make our lives so much fun. The Crunchies Awards celebrat…

• 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: Technosailor.com

  Gentlemen, start your engines! WordPress 2.9 is just around the corner. Unlike WordPress 2.8, which Mark Jaquith describes as the Snow Leopard of WordPress since most of the basis of the WordPress 2.8 upgrade was complete rewrites and optimization of the infrastructure that ran WordPress instead of providing lots of new features in the same way Apple’s new OS X release is a focus on improved performance instead of features, WordPress 2.9 brings…

• 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging

  Published: November 12, 2009

  Source: Freelance Advice and Resources – Freelancer Magazine

  Guest blogger Jimi Olaghere is a young business owner who runs Broke Tycoon, a blog and forum with advice for business and marketing techniques. Seems like everyone is a blogger these days, publishing articles on personal or freelance business blogs, updating statuses on twitter – even commenting on previously written articles. Face it, we’re blogging. But how can we stand out in a sea of keyboard happy drones? Repent from these sins and may…

• Clicker.com

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: ZePy

  Clicker.com s a  video search engine, which aims to index all of the movies, TV shows and other video content available online and arrange it by network, genre and show name. Clicker.com launches with an index of 300,000 episodes from over 5,200 shows on 1,200 networks, in addition to 1,200 movies and 50,000 music videos. The company has a deal with Boxee, and said it will soon also index Netflix’s 14,000 available movie titles. Roughly 30,000…

• Younger Women Step to Social Beat – eMarketer

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: www.emarketer.com

  Generation Y females have redefined the idea of “peer group” to encompass online friends, bloggers and anonymous reviewers, according to the “Why Y Women?” report from PopSugar and Radar Research. Lo

• Vivaty Takes Social Games Back-end Platform Live

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: Virtual Worlds News

  With social games development reaching an inflection point, third parties which base their business model on providing the tech components of social games may be in for a windfall. One such company, Vivaty, today announced a back-end tech solution for social game creators, its Social Gaming Platform.Writing on the company blog, Vivaty co-founder and CEO Keith McCurdy calls the launch of the platform an important evolution for the company. The…

• Social Dev Playdom Raises $43 Million

  Published: November 11, 2009

  Source: Gamasutra News

  Social game developer Playdom, which focuses on MySpace- and Facebook-hosted games including Mobsters and Sorority Life, has raised $43 million in a venture capital funding round. According to a TechCrunch report, the studio’s Series A financing pulled in investors including New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners. Playdom co-founder and chairman Rick Thompson also further invested into the company. Pl…

• 13 Tools for Building Your Own iPhone App

  Published: November 10, 2009

  Source: www.readwriteweb.com

  These days, everyone wants to build their own iPhone applications, but not everyone knows how write the code necessary in order to create them. Fortunately, there are now …

• Find the 15-Minute Competitive Advantage

  Published: November 9, 2009

  Source: HarvardBusiness.org

  Just because this is a time of transformation doesn’t mean that it’s easy to sell transformational ideas. Economic uncertainty has reduced the audience for bold, grand rhetoric. Besides, even in boom times innovation is risky. Innovators often have to ease anxieties by sounding conservative while doing something radical. We all want breakthroughs; it’s just that we can’t know exactly which of the bold new ideas will break through. For every Must…

• We’re combining forces with EA!

  Published: November 9, 2009

  Source: Life at Playfish

  We at Playfish are proud to announce that we are joining the Electronic Arts family, one of the most successful games companies in the world. Read the full press release in our press section for the official announcement. Needless to say we’re very excited about the increased resources and scale that this brings to Playfish and ultimately to our players. We can’t wait to start exploring social versions of some of the well-loved franchises th…

• 25 Outstanding Lighting Effect Tutorials for Photoshop

  Published: November 9, 2009

  Source: Vandelay Design Blog

  Lighting effects are a great way to make an impact with a design, and there are plenty of options for creating these effects with Photoshop. In the past we have published collections of Photoshop tutorials for lighting effects and they drawn a lot of interest from readers, so here is a collection of newer tutorials. For more, see: 40 Photoshop Tutorials for Lighting and Abstract Effects 40 Photoshop Tutorials for Amazing Lighting Effects – Par…

• EA trims its 2010 lineup, focuses on high-profit games

  Published: November 10, 2009

  Source: Joystiq

  As the mushroom cloud still hangs in the air after Electronic Art’s devastating quarterly report, which also brought with it 1,500 layoffs, the publisher plans to focus on games that are sure bets. MCV notes EA CEO John Riccitiello’s statement, made during an investor conference call yesterday, that the company will release approximately 30 titles in its 2010 fiscal year, a 50 percent cut from fiscal year 2008. Develop picked up on the executive…

• Bloggers and (Personal) Brand-Building

  Published: November 5, 2009

  Source: eMarketer Articles

  Gaining visibility as thought leaders

• Ad:tech Panel Urges Deliberate Approach to Social Media

  Published: November 10, 2009

  Source: ClickZ News

  Participating in social media can help a brand in many ways, but to be successful, the brand’s strategy needs to tie social media into business objectives.

• Social Media Users Tout Brands

  Published: November 5, 2009

  Source: Adweek.com – Top News

  Almost half of Facebookers, Tweeters use networks to talk about products and brands.

• Fox News Makes ‘Room’ for Web Video Strategy

  Published: November 9, 2009

  Source: Adweek.com – Top News

  Born as a wall-to-wall political channel about a year ago during the peak of the heated 2008 presidential race, Strategy Room was a short-term experiment — that clicked. Now, it’s at the forefront of an expanding amount of live news programming on the Internet. And it is also helping to elevate the digital reputation of Fox News — a group that just a few years ago was an also-ran on the Web, despite utterly dominating news ratings on cable TV.

• Marketing Spending Pays Off for Small Biz

  Published: November 8, 2009

  Source: eMarketer Articles

  Spending money to make money

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You can always follow my recommended stories in real-time through the Recommended Reading page or through my Lifestream.

Select Technologies Stories From the Week

• US Cyworld Will No Longer Be Able To Service

  Published: November 5, 2009

  Source: TechCrunch

  Ah, Engrish. There’s a whole world of funny translations out there to laugh at. Cyworld, the massive Korean based virtual world, is shutting down its U.S. site, which draws all of 112,000 monthly visitors according to Comscore. And while the shutdown is sort of sad, the message they sent to users more than makes up for it. The translation is bad. Not Matrix DVD cover in Korean bad, but bad. Yes, I know Americans and others butcher other langua…

• Founder Institute On Track To Graduate 300 Startups Per Year, Expands To New York

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: TechCrunch

  More expansion news from Adeo Ressi’s Founder Institute. The startup incubator is steadily expanding. It recently opened up an outpost in Seattle, and now is expanding to New York. “New York City needs a kick in the pants,” says Ressi. The Winter New York City Semester will be led by Razorfish co-founder Craig Kanarick. Mentors for the program will include Munjal Shah, Patrick Keane, Max Hoat and others. You can apply here. The Founder I…

• MYTH BUSTED: Internet Use Doesn’t Lead to Isolation

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  Imagine this: once a happy child with a lot of friends, little Jack has started spending many hours per day on social networking sites such as Facebook, which has turned him into a pale asocial freak. Oh, if only he’d never touched that cursed box we call the computer, he’d be a healthy young man now! This is the picture we’ve been fed a lot by the media (did you see the movie Gamer? I rest my case), but according to a study conducted by th…

• Playing Games with Media Usage

  Published: November 3, 2009

  Source: eMarketer Articles

  The third screen?

• Gen Y Holds Tight to E-Mail and Texting

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: eMarketer Articles

  My Note: Don’t give up on email yet!

  Critical for communication

• DMCA: Is It a Muzzle or Security?

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: FreelanceSwitch

  Since the advent of the Internet as a wide-open information conduit there has been a lot of worry amongst legislators, media corporations, and others with a stake in preventing content piracy to create a law that would add teeth to copyright for electronic communications. The long discussions, lobbying, and heated arguments between interested parties were loud and public. The end result was the passing of a complex law called The Digital Millenn…

• 30 Photo Effect Photoshop Tutorials Every Designer Will Love

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Graphic and Web Design Blog -Resources And Tutorials

  Few days ago I created this article 105 People Photo Manipulation Works You Will Really Marvel with amazing photo manipulation works. This time I went step further and actually tried to find tutorials teaching you how to achieve such effects! Of course, I didn’t find the same effects there, but if you look closer and really study these tutorials I showcased here, you will understand you’ll have all the skills to create such artworks! More or…

• Essential CSS/HTML Lists Styling Techniques

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Noupe

  By Justin Johnson Certain elements in HTML lend themselves to many situations when marking up a website, one of the more useful of these elements is the HTML list. Using lists, a developer can markup horizontal navigation, dropdown navigation, a list of links, and even scrolling content panels (with the help of Javascript). These features can help developers build new sites and applications as well as integrate new content into existing applicati…

• Google aims to "connect" users with shared interests

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Ars Technica

  Google is improving its service aimed at providing websites with social networking features by making it easier for users with shared interests to connect with one another. The company has announced a number of new features for its Google Friend Connect that center on collecting and utilizing information about a site users’ interests. The new features start off with a several ways to poll use…

• Domain Industry Rocked By Shill Auction Bidding Admission

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: TechCrunch

  Anyone who doesn’t know how dirty the domain name business is just doesn’t know the domain name business. People pay exorbitant sums to acquire domain names, put Google or Yahoo ads on the parked pages, and collect the advertising fees. They often buy and sell individual domains and portfolios with other domain squatters. But the real feeding frenzy is around deleting domains – the domain names that people let expire and that go back into g…

• After onstage spat, Offerpal replaces CEO

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: The Social

  Departing CEO Anu Shukla says the offers-and-surveys company has been hunting for a new chief exec for "many months," but the timing is a little suspect considering recent media scrutiny of its business model.

• Second Life Goes Behind The Firewall

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: ReadWriteWeb

  Second Life is introducing a behind the firewall service for enterprise customers, another sign that the very definition of collaboration is changing as more companies seek ways to do their work in virtual environments. In addition, Second Life will unveil a marketplace in the first quarter of 2010 where people may purchase templates and other 3D environments for their Second Life Enterprise world. Sponsor We hear so much about how "people," ar…

• PayPal woos developers with $150K challenge

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: VentureBeat

  PayPal has been making a big deal about convincing developers to build cool applications using its global payments platform. Today it added a little more incentive, by announcing the PayPal X Developer challenge, where the creators of the most innovative payments apps will receive a total of $150,000 in cash and waived PayPal transaction fees. Basically, the PayPal platform is supposed to give companies and developers more flexibility about how t…

• Goodbye Microsoft, the next chapter

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

  Microsoft announced more layoffs today, and I was one of them. This was a total surprise to me, and management offered no explanation. This is pretty standard procedure, mostly for legal reasons, but none the less left me with a cold feeling…but only for a minute or two. Today I start thinking about the next chapter in my life. It is always exciting to look beyond your normal boundaries and think about new possibilities. Being totally consumed…

• Microsoft Dumps Don Dodge

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Xconomy

  Layoffs, Microsoft, IT Wade Roush wrote: Don Dodge, admired by many technology entrepreneurs as Microsoft’s enthusiastic ambassador to the startup world, is one of those swept up in today’s big round of layoffs at the software giant. Dodge was director of business development for the Emerging Business Team, working from Microsoft’s offices in Cambridge, MA. Dodge revealed the news in a post on his own blog today. He said the termi…

• Google Boston growing

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Daily Business Update

  Steve Vinter, engineering director of Google Boston, said today that the company’s local operation will be "growing very rapidly in the next few months." Vinter made his comments while introducing Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who was at the company’s Cambridge office to speak to about two dozen journalists. Vinter said there are now 200 employees working at Google’s Kendall Square location. He did not specify how many jobs might be added…

• The future of schooling may lie with video games

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: www.economist.com

  SINCE the beginning of mass education, schools have relied on what is known in educational circles as “chalk and talk”. Chalk and blackboard may sometimes be replaced by felt-tip pens and a whiteboard, and electronics in the form of computers may sometimes be bolted on, but the idea of a pedagogue leading his pupils more or less willingly through a day based on periods of study of recognisable academic disciplines, such as mathematics, physic

• 101+1 Small Business Marketing Questions For People Who Don’t Speak Marketing

  Published: November 3, 2009

  Source: Starting a Home Business | Home Business Ideas | Work From Home

  How To Use This List: Pick 25-50 questions. Answer them as honestly and expansively as you can. Follow your intuition. Trust the answers to lead you to make the right decisions. Come back in three months and do it again, with the same or different questions. Do that and you’ll have a better marketing plan than anybody I know. Including me. 1. What do I love to do so much that it doesn’t feel like work? 2. What parts of that activity are my fa…

• “Too Smart For Your Own Good?”

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: PR-Squared

  I’ve written more than once in the past about the need for marketers to avoid Shiny Object Syndrome and, more recently, to Think Organically when it comes to Social Media. Guess what?  Not everybody reads my blog. As we have found ourselves increasingly competing not just against PR firms but against different types of marketing agencies, e.g., advertising, marcomm, branding, we have on occassion lost the bid because the Other Guys wowed the u…

• Steve Smith on HTML5 and CSS3

  Published: November 4, 2009

  Source: Carsonified » Blog

  Next up in our series of web deisgn interviews is Steve Smith from Ordered List. Steve is a recognised authority on front-end development, interface design and is also the co-founder of Sidebar Creative. As an author, public speaker, and University of Notre Dame professor, he is passionate about sharing his knowledge with others. Editor’s Note: Steve will be hosting a workshop on “How to build a HTML5/CSS3 Website Today” at The Future of We…

Cheers!

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If you are interested in the ever expanding Virtual Goods market, here is an excellent presentation chuck full of stats and figures for both the Asian and US markets.

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You can always follow my recommended stories in real-time through the Recommended Reading page or through my Lifestream.

Select Technologies Stories From the Week

• 30 Jaw Dropping 3D Character Creations | Tutorial9

  Published: October 29, 2009

  Source: www.tutorial9.net

  From Toy Story to Bolt, animation has brought us an array of wonderful characters to cherish and enjoy. This roundup highlights a selection of simply awe inspiring 3D characters.

• 5 Fresh & Innovative Collaboration Platforms For The Creative Community

  Published: October 28, 2009

  Source: Inspired Magazine

  OK, we had 10 Niche Social Networks to Get Your Design Creativity On but now we have more! Here are five of the newest and most effective social outlets that help designers, web artists and other creative ppl to find new collaborations. What’s your favorite creative network for collabs? Talenthouse Talenthouse is a global creative platform for artists, providing opportunities for recognition, collaboration, and compensation Haystack With Ha…

• Creating a Timeless User Experience

  Published: October 27, 2009

  Source: Six Revisions

  If we could tear into the fabric of time and look a decade into the future, what kind of experience might we find? It’s easy to imagine the technology would be much more advanced. Something out of a film like Minority Report with holographic touchscreens, or so advanced of an A.I. (artificial intelligence) that the application anticipates solutions without the user having to do much else. In reality the kinds of products, websites, and…

• HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI

  Published: October 27, 2009

  Source: mashable.com

  Measuring ROI on social media is difficult, and recent surveys have found that most people don’t do it. Use our guide to learn how to measure ROI the right way.

• WOW: iPhone Reaches 100,000 Approved Apps

  Published: October 27, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  It hasn’t been publicly announced by Apple, who like pointing out milestones that make them look great, but if you look at the stats over at unofficial iPhone App directory App Shopper, there are currently 101,751 approved apps available for the iPhone. In August, we reported that there were 65,000 iPhone apps available. It took about 2 and a half months for that number to reach 100,000 – truly a remarkable feat. Have in mind that this is th…

• Do you have what it takes to be a founder?

  Published: October 27, 2009

  Source: VentureBeat

  (Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.) When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves the following series of questions: Are you comfortable with chaos? (Startups are disorganized) Are you comfortable with uncertainty? (Startups neve…

• The Next App Store: Google Wave

  Published: October 27, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  Google Wave may still be in its infancy, but it’s already looking towards the future – a future that includes monetization. And part of that monetization will apparently come from an iPhone (or Android)-like app store, where developers can market Wave apps and consumers can buy them, with Google presumably taking a cut. According to The Next Web, Google confirmed an app store is in the works at an event in London on Monday. The blog specula…

• Google Custom Search Rolls Out Themes, Improved Support For Structured Data, And More

  Published: October 26, 2009

  Source: TechCrunch

  Google has just announced the release of a handful of major new features for its Google Custom Search products, including a new set of themes, improved use of rich snippets in custom search, and a new Wikipedia search. The announcements aren’t especially related, but they’ll be welcome news to the millions of sites that have deployed Custom Search. For those that don’t know it, Wikipedia’s search is powered by Google Custom Search behind…

• Modern CSS Layouts: The Essential Characteristics

  Published: October 26, 2009

  Source: Smashing Magazine

     Now is an exciting time to be creating CSS layouts. After years of what felt like the same old techniques for the same old browsers, we’re finally seeing browsers implement CSS 3, HTML 5 and other technologies that give us cool new tools and tricks for our designs. But all of this change can be stressful, too. How do you keep up with all of the new techniques and make sure your Web pages look great on the increasi…

• Web Tools To Help Run Your Online Business

  Published: October 26, 2009

  Source: John Jonas Blog

  There are a lot of online tools I use in running my business. Tools which at one point I didn’t know existed, and when I found out about them, I said “HOLY COW!!! THAT SAVES ME HOURS OF TIME AND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!!” I attempted to create this list somewhat here, but it was just too much content creation for me (I just don’t like creating ongoing content…that’s why I only blog once a month!). So, here’s a big laundry list of too…

• Super-Clean and Minimal Web Designs: 70+ Stunning Examples and Resources

  Published: October 26, 2009

  Source: instantShift

  The web industry nowadays is very productive. During these years there have been many trends followed and every day the designers experiment new techniques creating new tendencies in the art of making website. Recently is evident the necessity of a direct communication with customers and a website is the first place where a company can make know their cool stuff and services. A well-designed website is important for the growth of a business and o…

• 5 Plugins To Make Your WordPress Blog Blazing Fast

  Published: October 22, 2009

  Source: ProBlogger Blog Tips

  This is a guest post by Sid Savara, whose main passion is personal development and personal productivity. Follow Sid on twitter @sidsavara for motivation, inspiration and just chatting If a tree falls in a forest, I don’t know if anyone hears it – but when your blog crashes or takes forever to load, I guarantee you nobody is reading. When you work hard on your content, but aren’t able to capitalize on the attention because your blog takes…

• GeoCities Closes Tomorrow: Goodbye, Old Friend

  Published: October 25, 2009

  Source: Mashable!

  My Note: WOW…pour a 40z for this one!

  So, we’ve come to the end of the road. The service that hosted the first website for a generation is set to close down tomorrow. If you’re a GeoCities user, you’ve been given plenty of warning, but you can still hop over there and get your data out today before current owner Yahoo turns out the lights. Meanwhile, the Archive Team’s Geocities Project is doing its best to archive as many GeoCities pages as possible, meaning that select…

• Highland Capital Partners: Great Firm, Real Value Beyond the Money

  Published: October 25, 2009

  Source: TheFunded.com

  | Posted by Seth Priebatsch – CEO – SCVNGR | Fund Rated 2.7Background: Most reviews (on this site especially) have huge biases, so hopefully I’ll be able to give my review some credibility with a bit of background and lack of anonymity. My name is Seth Priebatsch and I’m the CEO (and Chief Ninja) of SCVNGR (www.scvngr.com). We are funded by Highland and have been working with them for over a year now and have had a fantastic experience. Highlan…

• Google Sketchup: 3D For The Rest Of Us

  Published: October 20, 2009

  Source: 3dvia – Twingly Blog Search

  3D modeling applications are notoriously complex and can take years to learn. Complicated modeling tools, infinite material setting variables, lighting radiance adjustments, multiple cameras, UVs, etc…

• Anyone Still Using Friendfeed?

  Published: October 13, 2009

  Source: CenterNetworks

  Remember Friendfeed? The ultimate sharing service that was going to beat Twitter and reach the mainstream in a big way? Web trending service Compete shows Friendfeed down nearly 30% in September with 750,000 U.S. unique visitors.  This is down from just over 1 million unique visitors in August 2009. Former Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang noted this past weekend, “To be honest, Friendfeed doesn’t have the same appeal it used to post-FB acqu…

• Entrepreneur Corner Roundup: Must haves vs. nice to haves and a particularly harsh lesson learned

  Published: October 17, 2009

  Source: VentureBeat

  Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner: How to make friends and influence people (and convert them) – Social media can be a good marketing tool for your company, but if you’re able to become a trusted resource for people via Facebook or Twitter, then you’re really on to something special, notes YoungEntrepreneur.com co-founder Adam Toren. Is your product a “must have” or “nice to have”? – Many entrepreneurs…

• Google Enterprise Campaign Shifts Into High Gear on Eve of Sharepoint Conference

  Published: October 19, 2009

  Source: ReadWriteWeb

  On the eve of Microsoft’s Sharepoint conference in Las Vegas, Google is launching the international phase of an advertising campaign that is the largest ever for its push into the enterprise and one of the most extensive in the company’s history. The "Gone Google" campaign is significant in a number of ways. Sharepoint is one of Microsoft’s crown jewels. It’s a huge business. The technology generates a cool $1 billion in revenues. The technolog…

• With 3 million fans, Fantage formally launches virtual world for kids

  Published: October 18, 2009

  Source: VentureBeat

  While many kids virtual worlds have come and gone, Fantage has quietly built an audience of 3 million registered users. Today, it is formally launching its web site. The company has managed to do what lots of other kids sites have failed to do: get an audience by offering fun games and social activities in a safe, parent-friendly setting. And they did so just by observing kids, building what they like, and starting over when things didn’t work,…

• Feature: State of the Blogosphere 2009 – Technorati

  Published: October 19, 2009

  Source: technorati.com

Enjoy!