Posts Tagged ‘basic’
You might remember the products. You might remember the hype. Then, you are tooling down highway 41 years later and all of a sudden you think to yourself – “Hey, whatever happened to…”
Failed ideas. Maybe it was a great idea, but wasn’t made right, or design errors brought it down. Maybe it was just a bad product. Well, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and see if we cannot repeat these errors again.
Oh yeah, why 16? Well because we could.
The Computer Watch: Whether it was the Ruputer, the MSN Direct ‘Smart’ Watches, the Timex Data Link Watch or another gadget watch – BTW – I remember having a “Transformers watch”. It was awesome!
Still, the Dick Tracey style communication watches, the “Computer on a wrist”, never really hit it off. I even remember a watch that gave you directions. You would put in the paper tape and turn a little dial to indicate where you are and where you are going.
2 Comments »Digg grew to a powerhouse site in a very short time. The Popular News Aggregator service continues to be a great place for people to not only read news, but also contribute to what they think is news. Alexa reports that Digg has been fluctuating around the top 100 to 150 sites being viewed. 52.5% of those viewers are in the US.
The rumor mill is stirring up again that Google has put interest in buying Digg. TechCrunch reports that the “Rumor” is Digg will be selling for $200 million although CEO Jay Adelson denies it. Will this be a good deal for Digg, or can they grow and survive on their own?
Digg started in 2004 by Kevin Rose, Own Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky and Jay Adelson. The idea was to aggregate news items and put popularity to it. People would place a “Digg it” icon on their site in which you could easily send the article to Diggs news feed. If another person liked the site, they would Digg it. Others could just as easily Bury it. Some sites get Dugg so much so quickly, the flooding of viewers takes down the web page. It’s a very powerful medium, and definitely something that Google could use.
There are other sites like this. Fark is one of the oldest in which we talked about in a previous article on Geekazine. Yahoo has their “Buzz”, which is awfully similar to Digg. Reddit, Technorati, Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon all have similar popularity systems. However, Digg seems to be more popular in the US. According to Alexa Del.icio.us, for example, actually has a decent popularity in Germany.
Why would Google want Digg?
Two things here. First is the voting system. It’s not only very sound but also comes with a ton of analytical widgets that can spot trends and keywords. Even more, a large number of people actually have the “Digg” widget located on their sites, some of them have multiple widgets just on one page.
Second, it’s the community. Digg has a lot of members that contribute countless numbers of articles. When a new article is submitted, it must first be verified so it’s not a duplicate. After agreeing it’s not and a quick CAPTCHA verification, it gets put into the Queue. Of course that is where the members really shine. They can rise that article up to the top, or drop it like a mobster in Cement shoes off the East River.
Loading ...What does Google gain in this?
Like I said, Digg has some cool systems in place to view trends and keywords. Their “Digg Labs” shows statistics as they happen in cool little flash pages. Trends and Keywords are big for marketing. Specializing ads, pitching companies with almost picture perfect statistics – All can give Google a better advantage in the market today.
It also can be great to see in search results. Maybe an “Article Trends” chart could be called up to find out when that information was most popular. It could definitely be put to use in their Webmaster Tools, Adsense and DoubleClick ventures.
What would that mean to Digg?
One of two things. The Digg Staff would either be incorporated into operations at Google – basically be called Google Digg or DigGoogle: or Google would let Digg look like a separate being and cross platform with them. I would guess the latter is going to happen. Sometime full incorporation means job exodus and loss of creativity. Not to mention members jumping ship to other competitors.
On another front of this, Microsoft put in 11.3 Million in a 3 year advertising deal to Digg. If this acquisition happens, this contract could be axed overnight. If that happens, hey Microsoft – we at Geekazine have some ad spots you can purchase for considerably less. Give me a call.
Of course it won’t be the end of the world for Microsoft. Like I said before, there are other sites that are very similar. Digg will always have competition via Yahoo, Reddit, Technorati, Del.icio.us or on any of the other sites.
Bottom line, this merge would be great for both. Kevin Rose and the gang would get a boost for all the work put into Digg and maybe a shiny new title. Google would get a ranking system and analytical tools which in turn would also be bestowed upon the community of webmasters for their sites. It looks like a good Win Win situation for everyone.
That is, if it’s true…
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3 Comments »It would be interesting to see how much bandwidth I go through a month. Uploading shows, ustream channel, downloading software updates and media content. All of it legally.
There are some that decide to use their internet connection without abandon. They download movies, music and computer programs without legally paying for it. I have seen many downloading 4 to 5 items at a time, which at gigabytes at a pop, it’s a lot of data that passes through. And with programs like bittorrent, not only does it download the items, but it turns your computer into a “Seed” in which others can use to pull from.
Comcast is working on a model to cap bandwidth per month. For some it won’t be noticeable. For the internet Zealot, they might find it tougher to work and or play. Do we need bandwidth limits to control our data consumption, or are internet companies treading in areas they shouldn’t?
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No Comments »Hear the Radiocast
Drinking, Smoking, Alzheimer’s -
Facebook Privacy issue with Blockbuster
Feature:
What’s the big deal with Psystar?
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No Comments »The story of Exploding laptops is not a new one. The Lithium battery in your laptop expands to the point where it breaks the encasement. Dell, Sony and IBM ended up recalling a series of batteries to prevent computer loss.
Today scientists announced they had made a solid, non-flammable polymer to replace the liquid electrolyte that is used to make the batteries. The science is new, and wont see the light of the public eye for 3 to 5 years, mainly because the polymer needs work to hold a longer charge. However, will this help the laptop not explode?
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3 Comments »Web browsers are just as debated as Operating Systems and Political affiliations. The Web Browser is the program that allows you to browse the web, so you want the best experience possible. And Just like Operating Systems you can also choose the web browser that you use. So which one is it? IE or Firefox. Maybe Safari? Maybe even Opera?
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2 Comments »Today in the Gym I was watching a report that Apple iPhone was challenging Blackberry for market share in the corporate world. I agreed with the report – Apple has a better user interface than the Blackberry, Blackberry is too expensive in their messaging systems and an iPhone looks a lot better than a Blackberry device.
But then I got to thinking about it. Is this really news? I mean, yeah – we’ve got one company trying for a niche that another company has. However what company hasn’t tried to emulate or compete with another company’s corner-hold before?
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No Comments »Last years’ Consumer Electronic Show brought a bevy of new gadgets – some
really changed the way we use electronics. This year, CES is starting up and so
far it looks like we might have another winner. Like last week, I
polled the Techpodcasts panel to get their thoughts of what they expect from the
show.
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