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The new social publishing site Izimi claims to be the future of Internet publishing and touts a superior way to share videos than the YouTube. The site, integrating two elements named a desktop application and a website, allows you to serve files, photos, music and videos straight from your PC to anyone with a browser.

Is Izimi really a YouTube competitor?

But, the biggest loophole with Izimi is that it requires a download and moreover, you computer must be turned on for the users to have access to the files. Do they think they could ever battle YouTube while they suffer from this downside? I don’t think so.

Anyway, the company is targeting to get its users first and they will look for some advertising revenue sooner or later. One of the things that I liked about the site is that it can share tons of file types and there are no limits to the size of files and above all, there is no loss of quality.

Despite being having some sound applications, I can never think of Izimi to outrun the video-sharing giant YouTube.

9rules can now calls itself the largest blogging network. 9rules has now crossed major blogging networks like Weblogs Inc. and Pajamas Media with the inclusion of 115 sites (latest update) in its Community. Scrivs and the team claims to have ‘doubled its base’.

Although this might have some moral and illegal implication in some countries but this new UK based website Gottabet lets you place a bet on anything either using there virtual money called ‘peanuts’ or the real cash. The transaction will be done through credit or debit cards.

With the peanuts bet there is nothing to gain or loose but when it comes to real cash Gottabet takes cool 5% from the winning pot as a commission.

The bets can be as unusual as like there is one on the site which refers to ‘whether a child will walk before its first B’day or not?’
Apart from this it is a also a social networking site were you can make friends and interact and have your own profile page. They are thinking of the mobile version of this site also just to widen there reach. As gambling can lead to lots of criticism so there is a limit on amount of bet that you can place.

Via: Techcrunch

Hyderabad is reported to be the new metblog along with three Indian with Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi to follow. Facts provide that India is the most metbloged country outside the US with Pakistan and Canada to follow with second and third positions.



This just shows that blogging is going global with India catching-up with the heat of the latest opinion tool.



Via: Metroblogging

Boo.com, European’s online clothing retailer that collapsed through lack of funds, just six months after it launched to a huge fanfare of publicity in 2000 has reverberated and this time, with an entirely new makeover. Although, the name is still the same but this time, but has splashed into the helm of internet networking as a social networking and travel-booking site, using user-generated content to help travelers decide which hotels to book.

Recently, we contacted them and had an email interview, which we now present before you, so here it goes,

1. What prompted the idea of boo.com? How many people are working behind the site? What sort of response are you getting?

Niamh Ni Mhir: Boo.com was born out of our frustration with online travel, you previously had to jump through too many hoops to get what you were looking for. Boo.com combines the best of travel search, social networking and reviews in an innovative new interface. You no longer have to engage in what we call “The Circle of Gloom” where you started off with a search engine, then compared prices and facilities on a travel aggregator site, then visited a reviews website and often ended up searching for a hotels own website to complete your booking.

The site was completed internally by a core team of about 20 people across development, design, content and marketing. WRI currently has 100 employees in WRI, based in Dublin (head office), Sydney, Shang Hai and San Mateo.

It is early days at the moment but so far the response has been very positive from the press, the public, hoteliers and the blog community. We are scheduled to kick off a substantial PPC campaign with Google and Yahoo next week and we expect traffic to grow considerably then.

2. As the web title of the page goes ‘boo.com - say what you like love what you find’, what exactly boo.com wants to achieve by this?

Niamh Ni Mhir: ‘Say what you like, love what you find’ is the basis of boo.
Essentially, boo is a site that’s “all about you”, what we mean by this is that boo harnesses the “collective wisdom” of all of it’s users. In a nutshell it combines the user reviews of thousands of people to help you to make the right travel decision. For example, if you say you want a hotel with wifi and a pool you can narrow down your search to only show those results and then you have the option to book with boo or click out and book direct with the hotel.

3. How is your site different than other travel affiliate programs?

Niamh Ni Mhir: Boo is the only site that combines all the elements you need to book your trip in one place. On one site you can find the right hotel, view prices and facilities, look at your friends reviews (or the views of the boo crew) and then book via boo or with the hotel directly.

4. Is there any such networking site which you want to outdo?

Niamh Ni Mhir: Boo is setting out to provide an alternative way to book and research a trip. It helps you through all the stages of organizing a trip - researching, planning, booking and then sharing your tips, photos, reviews and blogs when you get back. As such we are not competing directly with any of the social networking sites, but instead we are offering an alternative to the current process of booking travel online.

5. What modifications did you make from the previously designed boo.com?

Niamh Ni Mhir: The original boo was a completely separate company and was of it’s time. We just bought the domain name and the connection ends there. The reason we like the domain name is because it’s short, snappy and memorable and works across languages and borders.

6. How would you define the present day advancements in technology - just a bubble or a real boom?

Niamh Ni Mhir: It’s hard to say, like previously there are companies that will survive and companies that won’t. We have always operated from a very strong foundation and our other businesses are established and highly profitable. The proliferation of broadband means that there are new opportunities for companies to utilise more advanced technologies, however, common business sense must prevail and if something doesn’t have a solid business model behind it, it’s unlikely to last.

7. The whole Internet, of course, as a media, is moving towards Web 2.0. How far do you think the phenomenon has emerged successfully? And where do you find boo.com in this wide gambit?

Niamh Ni Mhir: A lot of companies say they are Web 2.0 - boo really is based on the principles of Web 2.0, where the user is empowered. We do not use the term Web 2.0 for the sake of it, we use it’s technology advances in terms of ajax and mash-ups to enhance the user experience where it makes sense to do so and we use the principles of collaboration and user generated content because they make sense for our customer experience.

8. What is the future of this networking? Any predictions on growth pattern?

Niamh Ni Mhir: Networking is here to stay as long as there is value in it for consumers. boo.com utilises social networking from a travel perspective, so the idea is that users will create a group of “trustees” as well as “friends” whose advice will be invaluable in planning their holidays. It’s really an extension of the offline world, where people consulted travel agents, friends and colleagues to help them make their holiday decisions. As long as there is a purpose to it, we believe it will continue to grow and develop. One of the important things we stress at boo is that you can build different levels in your network, you can have your real “friends” (people you know and trust), your trustees (people from the boo crew who you trust based on their previous reviews and experiences) and the boo crew at large (who are made up of anyone who has left a review on boo.com).

I feel, this time, the site is without flaw and will really soar to the expected heights. Before signing off, I’d like to thank Niamh Ni Mhir CMO of Boo.com and Aisling White for proving us with the answers.

The good fellows behind Wikipedia have now launched three new news and gossip sites (open-source magazines) that are based on the same user-driven publishing model. Rather than the original styled reporting, the articles are written in a blog like fashion. And the responsibility of truthful entries lies on the shoulders of the users themselves.

The just launched wikis are Politics, Entertainment and a US specific Local site that allows the users to submit news related to their cities. The working model is same as that of Wikipedia. Anyone can submit the news and edit them too. The ranking is done on the basis of number of votes done on a specific story.

The most interesting part of these new wikis is that they feature advertising too that is unquestionably not based on Wikipedia model. However, the contributors are not paid for their work. Dan Lewis, co-founder of ArmchairGM and vice-president of business development at Wikia commented:

Adding Entertainment, Local and Politics to the mix is just the first in a series of steps we will take to better enable people to come together online around common interests.

No doubt, Wikia has done the right thing by using Wikipedia’s model but will they be able to profit from the efforts of millions of people for free? It looks like they are somehow inspired by what Jason Calcanics said earlier.

Livio Joseph Kujur is a web designer, who started his career in the world of web in 1997. He started working as a designer when web designing was itself peeping at the horizon in India. Presently, he is working on his own created community website, Joharadivasi.

Over the course of an email interview, he elaborated on his beginnings in the arena of web and various intricacies of web technology very minutely, the conversation goes as...

1. Talking about your website, well, it’s really a cool networking site, now here I’d like to ask, when did the idea for launching such a site hit you? And how much traffic are you able to pull from it?

Livio: I started my career as a web designer back in October 1997. I wanted to create a web presence for our Adivasi Community from Assam (hailing from Jharkhand) but slowly it has changed to All Jharkhandi Adivasi Community Website.

I have started the site as a sub domain at a free hosting company. Since the free hosting company pushed lots of pop-up advertisements, I finally decided to purchase my own domain JOHARADIVASI.COM and launched it on 26 March, 2001. Now I have bought another domain and changed the website address to JOHARADIVASI.ORG as the site is of more of a non-profit nature.

Today Joharadivasi has become the most visited adivasi community website. This site provides Discussion Forum, Messages, News and Articles sent by our people and also Adivasi eFriends which is doing extremely well.

This is community service I am doing to bring our people under one umbrella to exchange views and share news, articles, messages etc.

2. What is innovation to you - design, technology or the creative processes itself?

Livio: I work as a web designer for an online directory Teleservices, and often I am asked to come up with innovative ideas for the website. Now how do we come out with innovative ideas... this is where creative process is used and then the technology which is followed by design according to the technology that is going to be implemented. That is what I understood of the question above.

3. How are new designs approaches, such as Rich Internet Applications and AJAX, changing, how we think about our sites’ visual design? Are there new challenges?

Livio: There are new challenges every day. Always when I design and develop website I do not forget ‘Never use technology for technology sake’. Before using any Internet application it is good to ask oneself, how is it going to help the site visitor? If Rich Internet Application and AJAX is a must for the website then we must use it with the explanation how the site functions.

A well designed website should be informative as well as a creative product without forgetting the common objective of the web - to provide universal accessibility.

4. Have we gotten any better at improving the usability of our sites for international users? And, is web 2.0 aiding or impeding site usability for international audiences?

Livio: User friendly is what every surfer look for. Though English is an International Business Language and if we are targeting the globe it is wise to provide with language tool to switch to different languages. The place where I work, people use the French language and always wish to have a website only in French and that’s how we lose 8/10 of the world population to visit the website. Or say for example if I visit a website which is only in Chinese language with important information, will it serve any value to me?

Web 2.0 is aiding site usability, as it has become open communication and freedom to share. Take for example blogs, where people share their views and receive comments from anyone, sharing pictures in Flickr uploading clips in Youtube etc.

5. You received Golden Web Award (2003- 2004), what was this for and how has this kind of recognition benefited your career?

Livio: Oh that was long back... I had received this award for my personal online profile which doesn’t exists today... am attaching an image to see it.

This award valued a lot. I got recognition at work as well for getting freelance web and graphic design work.

6. What would you prefer HTML or CSS? And why?

Livio: Today I prefer CSS as it’s the latest trend in web designing and it’s the Web Standard. Got freedom from writing those long code TABLE, TR, TD....If it’s not PHP or ASP and we need to change something, my gosh can you imagine if we have 100 pages to be changed... today CSS has made it easy just change at one place and there you go. Wow it’s done!

CSS has the power to minimize file size and makes it easy to download in greater speeds, we would never have imagined. CSS creates layout instead of table and the texts in the sites are designed in the way we want it and still we find our code file size so tiny. Moreover, all the latest browsers e.g. Firefox, Opera, Netscape and Internet Explorer support CSS.

7. What are the most common areas of Web design that you think learners have trouble with?

Livio: Image sizes, functionality, using technology for technology sake, cross platform browsers, do not care for proper coding, user friendly etc.

8. What are a few of your favorite development tools and why?

Livio: As for the web I use tools like Photoshop for designing and HTML-KIT for coding. And for Print and Graphic I use Photoshop and Illustrator. I have changed coding tools like from HOMESITE to HTML-KIT. But I can never change my designing tool Photoshop; it’s an ultimate powerful tool to create powerful graphics.

9. You chose a very dark background for your blog. This calls for some extra care in choosing text, link, and heading colors. What thought went into your choices?

Livio: Well I had a very simple site with off-white and blue as side bar previously but then I do freelance as Graphic artist as well. So I wanted to portray both WEB+GRAPHIC and that’s how I came up with this concept. Moreover I am trying to write something though I am not good writer.. lol. Yah, choosing the color combination for text was difficult as to not to hurt people’s eyes while reading.

The first version of my site was in grayscale and then with white background with color on top then off-white and blue bar and the latest outcome is what you see.

It is my personal playground so I keep changing and experimenting its web and graphic design and usability as well.

Previously, I was using my own custom coding but now I have changed to Wordpress.

10. What is your philosophy about web and graphics designing and in general digital art as an artist?

Livio: I am not an artist in black and white but maybe I am born with it to be more into it. Designing with concept to deliver a message is better than to have a meaningless attractive design.

While designing for web, target audience has to be kept in mind. Often, I suggest the clients to design website not for them or their company but for the people who are going to visit it. Every site has different purpose and accordingly design has to be prosecuted. For example, designing web graphic for a night club should be with attractive color and effective design while for an institute it should be simple with more information.

Before signing off, I’d like to thank Livio for sparing out time for this wonderful interview and would like to wish him luck for all his future endeavors.

The snobbish giant of the IT industry Microsoft has launched a social networking site in collaboration with TechNet team and Culminis defined as ‘MySpace for IT pros’ and named ‘Aggreg8.net‘.
IT pros live in a different world so they need a special social networking site. Why I am calling Microsoft a snob? Well read through.

The aim of this site is to give the IT professionals a platform for their discussions and networking. You can not just go on the site and sign-In but you will be required to produce a Microsoft.net passport but you can also use the password and ID of the hotmail account. Now that’s both snobbish and ridiculous.

Kevin Remde, a Microsoft IT Pro evangelist said “Aggreg8 is a site for IT Pros to mix-n-mingle. It’s like a ‘MySpace’ (or a Windows Live Spaces) for IT Pros, complete with working groups on various topics that IT Pros get excited about.”

So if you are not registered at any of the above Microsoft site you have no chance of getting into Aggreg8.net. I couldn’t use this site I have neither of the above accounts but from the reviews on net I get it that the style and the graphic are well designed but it lacks in certain features that the social networking site have today.

Aggreg8.com and Aggreg8.net are the recent acquisition of the Microsoft. How good a response this site will get time will tell and we will report back as soon as we get more details.

Via: Blogszdnet

Personal start page services have grabbed all the hype lately. Not only new websites, new personal page services are also getting launched. The newest one to see itself on the world of internet is FrostFireHive. Needless to mention, it would see some tough competition from already existing customized services like NetVibes, PageFlakes etc. moreover, the site offers less services than the older ones, which is a disadvantage after all.

Mainstream media giants are also understanding the importance of blogs a rage in present times.

After the BBC announced that it will soon launch its blog site now it’s the turn of the Philippines GMA TV networks to start its own blogging site ‘GMA Blog Network’, were many well known local personalities are blogging.

Apart from this the blog also carries regular new features and the investigative columns from the investigative journalism body PCIJ.
The questions that arise from this new found love for blogs by these media giants are that will they allow bloggers to be independent and work freely or editors will have powers to filter news.
Still this news augment well for the blogs and my guess is more mainstream media will foray into this medium.

Via: Blognetworkwatch