Dirty sexy gossip blogs

Here's a thought for the day. Online communities or blogs such as thedirty.com bring people together to trash talk and attack innocent people. Interesting thing you notice on these sites, people usually attack women leaving crude snarky comments about their physical looks and sexual behavior... hating on how fat this girl looks, how slutty they look, or how she will sleep with anybody. Whether or not these comments deem true, most of these women unknowingly have their pictures stolen by the attacker from either a myspace or facebook account, and you can only imagine how terribly embarrassing it would be to have a posting forwarded to you via email. 

These websites not only invade privacy, they also damage a person's reputation. Women who have seen themselves on these websites will face difficulties landing a job. Spreading gossip seems so easy to do over a click of a mouse, while victims of these websites go through extensive efforts to have the posting removed. Yet, will the defamation ever really be replaced?

Sadly, people still find these online gossip columns to be entertaining, guilty indulgence. Likewise, there are temptations to gossip about people you hate, since it's less confrontational and your identity is concealed.  It's an encouragement to those web attackers. No wonder web bullies still exist. 

Still, victims today are fighting hard to shut down these websites and find their trash talker. While commenters can be sued, they don't have the power to take down posts. On the other hand, websites are not liable for commenters' behaviors or actions. This is because they are protected by the terms and conditions of their online communities. All the power lies in the hands of the web owner, since he/she has rights to all content within the community. 

Most memorable from reading...

So how do we battle against these websites? Stop giving hate-spewers an audience.

How to protect yourself from online gossips?

1. Don’t post Girls Gone Wild-worthy shots of yourself on My Space, Facebook or anywhere they can be copied. On photo-sharing sites, use privacy settings.

2. Is someone saying malicious things about you online? E-mail a polite request to the site’s webmaster, asking that the offensive material be deleted.

3. You might consider calling in the pros, like ReputationDefender for about $15 a month. But, be aware: Web gossip is so hard to control that there are no guarantees.

Reference: Why are nice, normal girls getting bullied online?

Goldstar events

Thank goodness to Goldstar! Last year, when I moved to the east coast due to my job, I learned about Goldstar. Being in a new city, apart from friends and family, it is quite difficult to keep yourself busy. My roommates and I decided to sign up for Goldstar to seek out events going on around the city to keep ourselves occupied. This is an awesome tool that allows for customization based on location and special interests. I have been a member of Ticket Master in the past; however, it lacks the personalization that Goldstar allows for. While Ticketmaster is a useful tool to find special events that you have been predisposed to, it's difficult to learn about events nearby. Although, Ticketmaster has a more expansive category for sporting events, Goldstar promotes independent and small events to users. On the other hand, Ticketmaster may only reveal more mainstream events.

While Ticketmaster is able to recognize events similar to your interests and recommend them to you, Goldstar focuses more on the location and the type of events you are interested in. Ticketmaster bases search on category types while Goldstar focus its searches on location, date.

Users of both communities are able to purchase tickets for events, but they focus on different aspects. Ticketmaster enables its users to purchase pre-tickets, while Goldstar offers users advantages in purchasing discounted tickets. What's more useful to you?

Comparative Shopping Made Easier

oMoby is a new app on the iPhone that enables you to do comparative shopping in real-time, anywhere you go. This application uses Google technology to search for items similar to what you are looking for. Rather by searching for your desired object, simply take a snap shot of the item. oMoby will search for visual objects similar and spit back results based on the visual identification.

I cannot remember the number of times I've gone shopping at Fry's or Best Buy, hoping to buy something. I usually end up standing around wasting time searching for similar products on Woot and all over the web. In the end, I usually end up going home deciding that perhaps I should do some more research. Problems solved. I will test this application out..



In addition to this functionality, oMoby allows you to save your visual searches as well as share visual searches with your friends via Facebook, Twitter and email.

See demo video here

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edit: this is a free application. Unfortunately, it's only available for the 3GS.  booo...


Reference: Omoby: Visual Serach for the iPhone

Driving offline traffic via mobile technology

On the web, eCommerce sites are trying to reach higher rankings based on keyword search to drive as much traffic to their sites as possible. This trend is catching on offline as well. Retail businesses want to join in on driving traffic to their stores. How will they achieve this?


A new technology called ShopAlerts, powered by a location based startup Placecast are launching a new marketing service for retailers. ShopAlerts allows users to opt-in on receiving text messages in a variety of ways - at the store, online, text-message, mobile websites or on Facebook. When ShopAlerts has been activated, users will receive alerts via mobile on nearby businesses. Using virtual boundaries, targeted consumers within proximity will be able to see sales and special offers at the brand stores. Companies that join ShopAlerts will be able to customize their messaging and alerts to consumers. Some of the current major retailers include: American Eagle Outfitters, REI, and North Face..


ShopAlerts works on both smartphone and non-smartphones, so this comes real handy for fashionistas and shopoholics! Note that ShopAlerts cannot send more than 3 text messages from a retailer in a given week. This said, I assume that a consumer will receive individual texts from each retail store. However, don't worry, if you feel you will be overwhelmed by all the text messages. You may opt-out of ShopAlerts at any time.


We will see how well this mobile marketing service works out. Love the idea! However, one flaw that I see foreshadowing is the age range of people using mobile and how easily accessible it is to opt-in. Once retail brand stores opt-in, I'm sure restaurants and diners will be jumping on the band wagon or demand for a service similar to ShopAlerts for the entertainment, food, and hospitality industry. This will be followed by clubs and bars joining in. Do we really want to market bars/clubs to underage children?


My thoughts are as different lines of businesses join in on ShopAlerts, we will receive separate texts based on different business categories. Either by a difference service provider, or by ShopAlerts (if they expand and customize functionalities for other types of businesses).

Reference: Placecast debuts Location-based Mobile Marketing Technology ShopAlerts

Wordpress

I'm using blogspot currently, but I have been examining Wordpress. Wordpress has recently added so many new additions and enhancements to its platform; ie. integration of Google Buzz, proofreads in multiple languages, and new line in mobile apps. These functionalities all have a common goal. Expand audience base and readers via world wide web.

The new Google Buzz plug-in capability enables users to reach out to their google users. It just seems that all the information we share these days is everywhere. It's spreading virally, whether we like it or not, and also through different applications available for us to sync and link content in multiple communities.

Proofreading functionality shows that communication has become more glocalized, which requires for the demand for multiple languages in Wordpress. I'm sure this enhancement will make people around the world happy. I know I often make mistakes when I'm blogging, and thanks to spell checks, I am able to easily spot my mistakes and correct them.

Mobile apps is something we can't forget about today, especially when everyone these days has a small gadget that allows for internet surfing. Mobile devices have only made our addictions to social media and blogging worse. I can't even count with my two hands the number of times I secretly take a peek at my facebook to see if people have interacted on my profile or get updates on what's happening to my friends. Wordpress' mobile application enables users to view daily stats on traffick to their website.

I think it's a good thing that we can easily access information between different websites, but now I am just getting a little overwhelmed by all the information that's coming to me left and right...

Google Buzz lesson learned..

If you have been observing Google Buzz over the past week or so, you should know that it hasn't received many compliments. I'm sure Google knows that they messed up. There was much pressure to launch Google Buzz early this year, so it seems that the product was not tested out properly. However, aside from the rash decision, I think the main issue here is force-feeding users with Google Buzz.



We've had many discussions in class about the success of applications and/or online communities based on its user functionality and wireframe. This incident with Google Buzz and changes to Facebook design in the past few weeks have made me realized the struggles that providers face to balance amongst user functionality, usability, and flexibility...

In the last fifteen years, we have been comfortable purchasing PCs and MACs that come with basic programs; but as the owner, we have the freedom to install additional softwares/applications. Another example is the iPod, which comes with the essentials: Phone list and call functions, calendar, notes, clock/alarm, weather forecast, google maps, and iTunes (which allows you to install new/delete applications). People like the option and flexibility, but not so when it's forced upon us. Even when it's social-media related. With Google Buzz, people find it to be a clutter and it's a non-essential forced into Gmail. At the same time, people are struggling to figure out how to use it, especially since Google hasn't done the best in teaching users how to use the application. I just searched for Google Buzz on Howcast, nada. Facebook and Twitter have uploaded many how-tos on here in the past and have had millions of viewers.
Note to Google: Upload a video on Howcast!

Reference: Google Buzz Warning: Force Feeding Users can Result in Vomiting

Learn to speak English in 8D World

Currently in China, English training schools is a vast growing market. Aside from English classes required in the public education, parents are also sending their children to training schools around the country, which costs about $700. English is the hottest subject, and everyone wants to play part in it. 


In order to meet demands, a startup called 8D World, based in Massachusetts came up with the idea of a virtual world, Wiz World Online for Chinese-speaking kids who want to learn English. This platform will be used by CCTV's English competition for training and the competition and be promoted to millions of Chinese viewers.




so where's the catch? 8D World integrates education with the gaming industry. This is basically an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), except that 8D's model allows you to learn English in this virtual world. Each player or student has an avatar and may interact w/ each other in English. In order to level up and earn more points, players will need to be able to pronounce words properly through a microphone. The software is subscription based at about $20/month and $160/year, which is alot less compared to the tuition at training schools. 8D has also created partnerships with about 1,500 of the training schools who will help resell Wiz World subscriptions and get a rev-share. What a great revenue model! 


Since the game players in this virtual world is exclusive to the Chinese only -- now the Chinese government has one less thing to worry about their people getting corrupted by foreign ideas/thoughts. I wonder if conversations and content within this game will be censored as well, either by the government or the creators.. haha.. 


SIMS - couldn't you have thought of this idea earlier??!?!??!