startups

MTV prepares for (iterative) home page redesign

MTV.com announced a new homepage design Tuesday that focuses more on content, rather than aesthetic changes. It will launch Wednesday morning.

MTV.com's basic color scheme will remain the same. The navigation at the top of the site will also remain unchanged. Even the prominent promotional box toward the top of the page, which MTV calls "The Marquee," will maintain its position on the new home page.

The biggest change made to MTV.com comes in the form of a new module, called The Daily Fresh. Placed just below The Marquee, The Daily Fresh will feature content MTV grabs from both its own pages and third-party sites.

The Daily Fresh is basically a news feed. As MTV.com's editorial staff creates more content, the best stories will be hand-picked by MTV editors and placed in the feed. Those same editors will also place user-generated content that relates to one of the company's television shows, music videos, or news stories into the module. To accommodate those site visitors who want content outside of what MTV provides, The Daily Fresh will feature articles or videos its editors find from other sites across the Web. Eventually, MTV.com plans to feature a "submit" link to give site owners the opportunity to have their content featured on the music site.

The Daily Fresh underscores what is a slightly modified strategy for MTV. Instead of being a place for visitors to check out music news and the latest music videos, MTV wants to make MTV.com a hub for all the other online content MTV Networks offers on sites like VH1.com and MTVU.com. To do so, MTV.com will now syndicate some of the better content from its sister sites to the home page.

MTV also wants to give users a voice. To do so, it has partnered with a video technology firm called Innovid. Through its partnership with Innovid, MTV is allowing users to tag specific moments in videos, write a comment about the moment, and share that with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Those comments are also featured in the video's timeline. So far, the feature has been rolled out in a few videos on the site, but the company hopes to make it available on every video the site offers in the near future.

Although MTV wouldn't divulge exactly how it plans to "create more innovative ads"--a key component in its strategy for quite some time--it did say that it plans to hold a special advertising event on September 9 to celebrate the release of The Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii.

When visitors get to MTV.com on September 9 at either 9 a.m. EDT or 9 p.m. EDT, they will see an ad that will display exclusive, unreleased content from the game. MTV said that the ad will feature seven "touch points" that visitors can click on. When they do, they will see in-game videos, sneak peeks of gameplay elements, and other features it wouldn't disclose.

MTV plans to offer Facebook Connect support at some point in the future, but it wouldn't say exactly when. Based on how the company's executives were talking, though, I'd expect to see it sooner rather than later.

Although I didn't have the chance to demo the new home page, it looks like an iterative update. The top half of the site has barely changed, while the bottom half features a few new modules that some users might find useful. If they don't find them useful, MTV said that it's willing to change. According to the company's execs, the update is experimental and it plans to modify the site's design based on usage patterns.

With its new home page, MTV wants to become one of the many sites Web surfers visit every day. It wants to be a media hub for entertainment. It's certainly possible. But whether visitors will respond well to the site's few changes when it launches Wednesday morning remains to be seen.

Federal Judge Promotes Civics Education on Twitter

We see Twitter being used for many different purposes, some of them less frivolous and actively positive. Enter another positive development, this time from federal judge and current First Lady of Pennsylvania, Marjorie O. Rendell.

She’s launched the @CivicsFirst account on Twitter expressly for the purpose of creating community around civics education. She explained the initiative to Reuters:

“Social networking sites like Twitter bring people together from all over the world to discuss problems, formulate solutions, and generate powerful action. We are reaching out to teachers to create an online community around the topic of civics education, inspire students to connect with their elected officials, and persuade superintendents to incorporate model programs into their curriculum.”

Judge Rendell plans to share free online resources for teachers and start a dialogue about how educators can achieve the goal of better including civics curricula into the classroom. It marks a unique commitment on behalf of the state to proactively use Twitter to explicitly promote education and create a community of teachers.

What do you think: does Twitter have an inevitable place in pedagogy? Is civic discourse possible in 140 characters or less?

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Reviews: Twitter

Tags: civics, education, legal, pennsylvania, twitter

Yahoo Launches Microblogging Platform Yahoo Meme In English

A few weeks ago , we reported that Yahoo quietly launched its microblogging product Yahoo Meme, in Spanish. Yahoo had previously launched a Portuguese language micro-blogging product, Yahoo Meme, that drew similarities to Twitter and Tumblr. And on second glance, it seemed to be a mediocre competitor to Twitter, Tumblr and other micro-sharing services in terms of its offerings and features.

It looks like Yahoo definitely has lofty ambitions for Yahoo Meme, as it has stealthily rolled the micro-blogging service out in Spanish and now in English to appeal to the masses. Here`s how Yahoo Meme works: you create an account and it starts you off with an empty blog that you can fill with text, images, videos, music or a mixture of those things. All you can add to your blog - apart from the content - is a title, a 100-character description and an avatar. You can also create a comment thread underneath the content you post, which was a feature that was missing when we reviewed Yahoo Meme previously.

Like Twitter and Tumblr, you can search other people`s public accounts and follow them, with updates from these users appearing in your stream. You can also `Repost` anyone’s entry, similar to the `Reblog` feature that`s integrated into Tumblr. But the micro-blogging service seems lacking in its features and its potential to surpass its competitors.

Yahoo also recently launched Yahoo Know Your Mojo, a site that claims to tell you what kind of "social mojo" you possess by analyzing your Tweets, but actually appears to do basically nothing. Yahoo hasn’t had the greatest luck with social networks recently, with its Indian social network, SpotM, shutting its doors less than a year after its launch.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Brizzly Adds Photo Uploads. 500 Invites For TC Readers.

Brizzly, the new web-based Twitter client that was first unveiled at our Real-Time Stream CrunchUp in July, has today added a new feature: photo uploads. Users can now upload images to Brizzly’s servers and they will tweet out along with any message you enter. This is a nice addition for Brizzly because one of its key features is the inline display of images.

Alongside the new feature, Brizzly is also announcing a wider roll-out of its beta today. As such, they’re giving us 500 invites to hand out to TechCrunch readers. Simply go to brizzly.com and use the code: ‘multiplylibrary‘ to sign up.

Aside from in-stream images, Brizzly also shows videos right from users’ tweet streams. While co-founder Jason Shellen tells us that they have nothing to announce for video today, it is in the works. Right now, the images will be hosted on the Amazon servers Brizzly users, we’re told.

When they are sent out to other Twitter services, the photos use brizzly.com URLs, and direct users to a special Brizzly photo page. On this page you can see how many time the photo has been viewed, when it was upload, and who uploaded it, pretty standard stuff, but it has a nicer interface than some of the other Twitter photo-sharing services.

There is also a new area in the left-side menu of Brizzly just to view photos that have been uploaded through the service.

We’ve been trying out Brizzly for a few weeks now, it’s a really nice interface to interact with Twitter from. On top of inline images and videos, it also offers a nice way to see and reply to Direct Messages as they come in, and explains to you why certain items on Twitter are trending topics. Most importantly, you can group the people you follow together to cut through a lot of Twitter clutter if you follow a lot of people. There is also support for multiple Twitter accounts.

Brizzly has put together a reviewer’s guide for how to use it here. You can also learn more in the video below (note that the interface has been updated slightly since this video).

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Skyfire raises $5M more for better mobile browsing

Skyfire, make web browsing on your mobile phone as fast and easy as it is on your desktop computer, has raised $5 million in new funding.

The Mountain View, Calif. company said it had more than 1 million users when it lest beta testing a few months ago. The browser’s main strength is its ability to load and help you navigate complex or media-heavy websites — like, say, social network Facebook. Skyfire recently announced a new chief executive — Jeffrey Glueck, formerly chief marketing officer at Travelocity. Glueck told me his goals include improving the product, bringing the browser to more smartphones, and partnering with other companies to develop mobile versions of their websites.

Skyfire confirmed the news, which was first reported in peHub based on a regulatory filing. The funding comes from the company’s existing investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Matrix Partners. Skyfire has now raised $22.8 million.

Windows apps coming to Nokia`s Ovi store

Thanks to Nokia’s Windows-powered netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, the Finnish company that sells more mobile phones than its next three competitors combined will soon host Windows apps in its recently launched Ovi app store. It’s Complicated, the relationship between Microsoft and Nokia. Two weeks ago, the two companies announced a partnership to port Microsoft Office to Nokia’s Symbian operating system. But Nokia won’t be rolling out any Windows Mobile phones next week alongside HTC and Samsung. For now, Nokia is firmly committed to the Symbian platform.

Jaycee's alleged kidnapper on Google Street View?

Few could imagine a more chilling tale of depravity than the story that has emerged over the last few days concerning the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard.

While her alleged kidnapper, Phillip Garrido, has now been revealed to have penned a disturbing blog, some commenters on Boing Boing have uncovered visuals from Google Street View that they believe show him in pursuit of a Google car.

Boing Boing co-editor Xeni Jardin has posted a series of Street View shots in which a van is seen progressing from Garrido's address in Antioch, Calif., toward a Street View car.

At Boing Boing, Jardin gives precise directions on how to follow the van on Street View and believes that its driver may have been suspicious of a Google Volkswagen that was filming for the Street View site. Jardin describes it as "the creepiest thing I've ever seen on Google Street View."

No one viewing this footage when it first went live would ever have considered it suspicious. However, some have pointed out that had police viewed this overhead shot from Google Maps, perhaps it might have made them search Garrido's home with a little more vigor.

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Psychologiczne pułapki 3

Rozpoczęliśmy dość obszerną dyskusję na temat psychologicznych pułapek, głownie z udziałem Max-a. Osoby, które nie śledziły naszych komentarzy, zapraszam do odwiedzin wpisów dotyczących pułapek psychologicznych. Mi jednak przypomniała się jeszcze jedna bardzo ważna pułapka. Rozpamiętywanie wykonanej transakcji. Jest to bardzo zawiły problem, ponieważ z jednej strony, trzeba analizować swoje transakcje, aby móc znaleźć powtarzające się schematy, [...] Podobne wpisy:

1. Psychologiczne pułapki 2
2. Psychologiczne pułapki
3. CFD - tani sposób na cenne doświadczenie
4. Najczęściej popełniane błędy w tradingu
5. Rynek to gra psychologiczna

Google Calendar gets "Add any gadget by URL"

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Forum and PDF search engine Zhift relaunches

Zhift is happy to announce that Zhift has completed its first relaunch, and has come out as a beta. In this relaunch we have focused on making it more user-friendly; we have made some changes in our algorithm so that the user will get more relevant results. We have also tried to get the users a more personal experience. We have also improved the index method so that we index sites faster than ever.

We have launched a new service Zhift Latest that searches the latest forums, so you don`t get a 10 year old thread in you search results. Zhift Latest can also been used to gather fresh info about a topics, and give it more than one view on it. Although Zhift Latest is not a Real time search engine, but it simply search on all the newest content forums within 14 days.

Absinthe Gummi Bears | The Mirth Canal | Cracked.com Forums
Home > Forums > The Mirth Canal > Absinthe Gummi Bears … Absinthe Gummi Bear, the final word in alcoholic confectionary bears. Genius. Logged …
www.cracked.com/forums/index.php?topic=34606.msg878952

We have not only improved the Forums search engine, but we have also improved our PDF search, so that it now searches over 5 millions PDF files, and covers 300.000 sites. We made the PDF search more relevant and more accurate.

We at Zhift hope that the users will use Zhift and all its services.

Our best wishes,

Shubinthan
CEO of Zhift

Zhift the world!

Canon EOS 7D - 18 megapikseli dla fotoreporterów

Autor wpisu: Krzysztof Basel, tekst pochodzi ze strony: Fotoblogia.pl

Japoński producent zaprezentował właśnie nową lustrzankę Canon EOS 7D. Potwierdziły się wszelkie wcześniejsze doniesienia odnośnie aparatu. Matryca APS-C o rozdzielczości 18 megapikseli, szybkość 8 klatek na sekundę i tryb nagrywania video Full HD - to główne cechy aparatu, który może przypaść do gustu szczególnie fotoreporterom.

Pokrewne tematy

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• Canon EOS 7D - czekamy tylko na oficjalne potwierdzenie
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Wszelkie prawa autorskie zastrzeżone - nie wyrażamy zgody na kopiowanie całości lub fragmentów treści ze stron należących do sieci blomedia.pl

STUDY: Women and Wikipedia Don`t Mix

Women are consummate content creators online. From technology mavens like Google’s Marissa Mayer to influential mommy bloggers, and even YouTube stars like iJustine, females have played a significant role in shaping web trends.

That’s why we’re slightly surprised by a revealing study conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Their research found that only 13% of Wikipedia contributors are women.

According to the The Wall Street Journal, the survey took place in November of last year, with results being presented last week at a conference in Buenos Aires. A total of 53,888 respondents indicated that they were Wikipedia contributors, but only 6,814 of them were women.

The research also showed that women are less likely to read articles as well, with 31% of women and 69% of men reading entries, but not writing or editing them.

Some other interesting findings point to why respondents contribute to Wikipedia, and their educational background:

- 69% of respondents were motivated to contribute to Wikipedia to fix an error

- Nearly 73% contribute because they “like the idea of sharing knowledge”

- 19% of Wikipedia contributors hold Masters degrees

We’re pretty shocked that the equilibrium between male and female contributors to Wikipedia is so off balance, and not exactly sure why it seems to be the case. Share your thoughts on the study in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, spxChrome

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Reviews: Wikipedia, YouTube, iStockphoto

Tags: study, wikipedia, women