insights from the digital future
where I discuss new technologies, “web 2.0,” and everything cool
Dearest readers/listeners,
It’s been 7 full years of broadcasting WOOZradio online and I STILL haven’t come up with a logo I’m happy with.
So, I’m offering $50 (and my undying, unconditional love — provided musically of course) to whomever creates the most awesomest logo for the WOOZ site, stickers, cards and g-strings, etc.
Submit any and all entries to contests@woozradio.netzoo.net
(Please hook it up by Nov. 24 if possible).
Click here to see the last dozen or so songs played.
I’ve been using Amazon’s beta “Omakase” ad banner in the sidebar of my blog for a couple months now. I became an “Amazon Associate” primarily to get an extra 4 or 5 percent off when I enter the store via the banner.
But no doubt these ads freak the SHIT out of some people (especially those who’ve been searching for KY and butt-plugs).
Amazon’s Omakase links (Omakase is Japanese for [roughly] “it’s totally up to you.”) “show an Associate’s visitors what they’re most likely to buy based on Amazon’s unique understanding of the site, the user, and the page itself.”
How well does this work? See for yourself and let me know in the comments below.
Check the sidebar here: http://netzoo.net/…
Most reviews of Omakase (and Dave Taylor has an extensive one here relate the product as Amazon’s answer to Google’s Adsense. But my understanding is that Adsense content is based on the context on a particular PAGE, where as Omakase links are unique to the USER. Gigantic difference, no?
Plus, only the Associate knows what’s going on since you have to BE an associate (anyone can, I believe) to read the FAQ.
—-
I did make my first Amazon Associate cent (yes – exactly $.01) recently off some blog visitor who apparently purchased A Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy — which, it turns out was purchased for only ONE PENNY (hardcover even). I mostly think it’s cool to post images of books / CDs of interest (and from my experience in the record industry — labels and artists often stand to make more money via an Amazon order than a direct-from-label’s site order).
Originally posted November 9 2006 at Set-Top Cop blog.
A formal announcement is forthcoming from Daylife — the news site that has popped up in conversation over the past year because of Craig Newmark, Jeff Jarvis and others’ involvement in the project.
The New York Times Company appears to be one of the top investors, which could foreshadow a bold move into user-generated news and reader-customizable content.
Staci Kramer at Paid Content writes:
The mission is to gather and organize news in ways that are most relevant to the user. That could be by event, topic, author, geography or other factors. Source pages that show what a journalist writes about or who is quoted are part of the mix. RSS plays an important role. In an interview, [Upendra] Shardanand [founder of Firefly] said the distributed platform—designed for use across multiple sites—will be open “to a degree” with options for revenue sharing and licensing for those doing a heavy volume. “Anyone can take what we’re building and add it to their own site … Obviously, we have to make some revenue.”
Nice to see the Times making a proactive move long after their relatively idiotic acquisition of About.com. Interested to see how — if at all — Jay Rosen‘s NewAssignment.Net is involved.
Google (motto: Do No Evil) is now suspected of colluding with the media giants along with YouTube in an effort to use it’s bubblicious valuation to ward off copyright litigation while simultaneously putting the little guys out of competition — all at the expense of both artist and audience.
Yes, this is the very definition of evil.
Mark Cuban posted a note from a “trusted digital media business veteran” alledging the above in disturbing, though not surprising, detail. read it here.
As Google has grown cozy as the powerhouse of Bubble 2.0 it seems to have cozied up with the early 21st century corporate-political philosophy of: Trust me, I’m [Google] [the president] [your local utility company]. Are they succumbing to the weak-ass corruption at the top of the service industry food chain?
What’s even more frightening is that a majority of the old money keeping Google afloat has about as much of a clue as to what it is or will be and the service it provides as they thought they knew when they put all their money into the iOmegas and Pets.coms of yesteryear.
Worse, the biggest consumers of Google and especially YouTube’s services, belong to a generation that has grown immune to the hypocrisy of corporate leadership, practically expecting scandals to be exposed as if they are just another element of democracy in action. How many of today’s youngest voters can actually name the presidents who preceded their existence (14 years ago, Clinton became president).
Last, will the public and media response to Google’s endeavors w/ YouTube and big media — essentially spending billions to ensure a monopoly on the market before they become stale and “so last year” to today’s youth (see Yuki Noguchi’s piece in the Sunday WaPo) — just as the public and media responds to all other corporo-political infringements on democracy (think the ongoing Iraq war)?
BONUS COV’G: MySpace now claims to be using GraceNote to flush it’s supposed tens of millions of users of copyright-infringing files.