Thursday, October 19, 2006

Wal-Mart's defunt social media

Okay, I thought Wal-Mart's idea of social networking site for teens, the Hub, was crazy (first of all how could they compete with MySpace and second when I was a teen being associated with discount stores was not the image one wanted in highschool). Poor idea as it may have been, I can't believe how fast it was shut down.

Will Recent Online Flubs Hurt Wal-Mart's Brand?

In Wal-Mart's defence their Toyland website sounds useful for kids and has a sense of humour. But then my daughter isn't old enough to start agressive nagging...

Friday, October 06, 2006

Web 2.0 nirvana?

My wife asked me yesterday what Web2.0 is. The link below goes to a good overview on the topic.

Pew Zeroes in on 'Web 2.0,' Sort Of

The term hasn't even been around that long, but already I'm sick of hearing it. The media really latch onto these catchphrase concepts.

There were sites like this long before the catchphrase mania. IMDB.com, classmates.com even Writing.com.

But there really have been some cool sites trumpeted as Web2.0 darlings. I was going to list some of my favourites, but this site has an excellent list of Web2.0 leaders.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Snake eyes for online gambling

Noticed this item below about online gambling finally being halted in the US by curtailing use of credit cards, cheques and money transfers.

U.S. legislation hits online gaming industry hard

Not sure of the online gambling laws in Canada today (though here's a good backgrounder ) . But I hope this isn't the case of another party being ruined before it began for me.

Now I'm determined to gamble online soon!

I searched federal government site and the Net to find out if it is strictly legal in Canada. Couldn't find the answer, though in earlier cases it appeared okay to bet in Canada but not okay to operate a casino in Canada. It is okay though to make software for casinos in Canada.

However, this is something of a moot point now that CryptoLogic announced last week it is moving to Ireland. (Side point - do we have any cool Canadian tech companies left other than RIM? Lavalife has long been history and I won't even mention the great Nortel debacle).

Anyway, if anyone knows of a great online casino or cool betting game let me know!

Monday, October 02, 2006

HyperLinkedIn

I'll admit I'm crazyily addicted to LinkedIn.com.

It's not that I love social networking as mySpace didn't do much for me and my page there is languishing greatly. I've been on classmates.com since at least 2001. Classmates could have been really cool but they didn't expand beyond their school focus fast enough - plus they charged for basic functionality.

I think LinkedIn is a great way to keep in contact with people from various facets of life (eg. work, school, friends, others). I've gotten back in touch with so many cool people as a result of LinkedIn. Now, if my LinkedIn contacts maintain their profiles I won't end up loosing track of people again.

I have been like a relentless pusher getting everyone I know and people I barely know (2 years ago) on it. But I really think this site is great.

The potential for recruiting and finding vendors is pretty cool. As a Website Producer, I often need to find service providers and freelancers and it's much easier to find and be assured of quality when working with people that have worked for people I know. This site facilitates this process. (I don't like it though when people add contacts that they don't know though - this undermines this feature of the site.)

Great site for people looking for jobs too. Before considering a job you can check with your contacts and your contacts' contacts and it's possible you'll be conected to someone already at the company, so you can do some background checks before making a big jump.

There's more on the site too. I''m still spending way too much time on the site figuring it out.

I have joined the Linked Innovators group. I'm trying to figure out how to do some cool things on and with the site. I'm dying to figure out what the Forbes group is.

Just when I was really getting to love the site I read an article (I don't have the link right now - if I find it I'll edit this and put it in - but let's be honest I'm the only one reading this) about how nefarious people are stealing indenties, phishing and targetting viruses to users of these sites.

Way to put a damper on a party just getting going strong.