Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Bringo: Phone Tree Killer. This Is A Genuinely Useful Service

Augustine: this is what I call useful innovation

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

Bringo solves one of the most frustrating problems that we encounter daily: phone trees. Call a customer service phone number and end up in automated operator hell.

I've memorized the keys you have to hit for United Airlines to get to an operator as fast as possible. With other companies I just keep saying "operator" while hitting # over and over again. Sometimes it works. With Bringo, none of that matters any more. You don't even need to dial your phone. Just find the company you want to talk to in their directory, type in your phone number, and a couple of minutes later Bringo calls you and connects you to an operator at that company. I tried it with Air Canada and it worked absolutely perfectly.

They need to create a stripped down mobile version of this as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the tip Narendra (Biz Stone also mentioned them recently).

MULTIMEDIA 2.0 - Update

from EVERYTHING 2.0 by Bob

It's a typically generic, copycat segment, where everybody is in peace with doing nothing original. The basic proposition "let's share media" must do it. Since the fall of 2006 I only add sites with distinctive features.This is one of the most crowded categories in EVERYTHING 2.0. Many more media samples in AUDIO 2.0, IMAGES 2.0 and VIDEO 2.0. 3voor12~** - Tag cloud based affiliate network Addictingclips - Post & get matches for classified ads thru cell & email Allpeers - Profile yourself & share media Audiri - Upload, watch & share multimedia Avidbeauty - Upload & share your media (Czech) Bigcontact - Recommend & share your media Bix* - Share photos & sounds Bofunk - Publish your videos & mp3s Broadsnatch - Create & vote for content, and win Bubbleshare - Pick up content for your blog Buzznet - Share multimedia Castpost - Phlog, share, add audio captions Colib - Share videos & photos Crowdrules - Upload your media, ask questions & get unbiased results Cruxy - Upload & share your av clips Douban - Tag, share & sort your media Eefoof - Sell, promote, buy your content Everybit - Catalog, rate, review & share books & music Fireant - Publish & share media Flukiest - Share your media Fluxiom - Upload & share multimedia Genwi - Publish & share videos & photos Glance - Share your screen (7 day free trial) Glide - Capture, manage, access & deliver content Grouper - Upload, share & promote all your media Hackoff*** - Upload & share multimedia Ibloks - Upload, create & share media Insolitus* - Book published as blog & podcast Izimi - Share everything, from your pc Jamglue - Mix, share, play your media Junklog - Upload & share all your files & docs Kaneva - Upload, edit, publish & share remixes Kaywa - Rate, review & share media Latengo* - Upload or publish & share all your digital things (German) Lemonzoo - Digital entertainment marketplace (3D) Lifelogger - Publish & share multimedia on web & cell, using sema code Listal - Upload, rate & share funny media Livedigital - Share audio, video & photos Loomia - List & share all your media Lphanr - Store, share, produce, distribute your content Lulu - Folksonomied media search Magnoto - Multi compatible P2P file sharing Mediamashup - Publish & sell your content Mediamatrix - Phlog & blog MediaMax* - Create, mix & share media Mediatuner - Isolate, segment & annotate media Mirpod - Store, manage & share media Mobango - Manage text & rich media feeds Moblr - Tuner, radio & tv to play RSS feeds or xspf Mochilla - Discover & share mobile media; ; marketplace for syndicated content Mogopop - View or upload & share mobile content Moqvo - Publish & share iPod content Mosaicglobe - Upload & share your media Multiply - Aggregate & share all your online personal data Mycoogee - Store, share & discuss multimedia Mygads - Compile info, access, update & share it thru phone, im, web, etc Mynumo - Access, store & share your cell's contents (client) Mytube - Create, share or sell mobile content Myvideokaraoke - Upload & share photos, video, music Nayio - Sing & share your song on video Onetruemedia - Record your music, add video & share Openmedianetwork - Mix & share videos, photos & music Orb - Multimedia epg Panjea - Stream your media, wherever Phanfare - Upload & share content, and get paid for it Pickle - Upload & share photos & videos Picpix - Share videos & photos Picturepush~ - Upload & share photos & videos Pixilis - Store & share videos & photos Pixpulse - Upload & share or sell media Podcastfm - Upload & share photos and videos on your mobile Podcastpickle - Publish pod & vod casts Poperti - Share podcasts & vidcasts Putfile - Enjoy music (and more) from your Gmail inbox Qnext* - Share all media & chat about them Quizilla - Upload, rate, share & discuss multimedia Radar - Create & share content Redswoosh - Upload & share photos & videos from your cam phone Sevenload*** - Upload & share video, audio & other big files Snapjot - Upload & share photos & videos Songbird - Organize & share photos, videos, text & communications Sonr - Media player & web browser Splashcast - Track media & media users Streamdrive - Create, mix & publish any media anywhere Streamload* - Upload & share multimedia Strmz - Store & share your media Suggestica - Clip & share tv & video Swagroll - Get media suggestions from experts Tagworld - List & share all your media Twango - Share music & photos Ubiplanet - Upload & share your media Ulinkx - Explore, share, discuss & manage your content Umundo - Search, bookmark & share media Upwarded - Upload & share mobile videos and pics Uspot - Upload, rank & share multimedia Veotag - Upload & share media Vidilife - Enrich media files with meta data & share Vidivodo - Upload & share media Virb - Profile yourself & share media Vox - Upload & share multimedia Winksite - Blog & share content Woomp - Create & share mobile content Yiibu - Upload & share art, photos & video Zannel - Publish & share videos & photos on your mobile Zshare - Remix, adapt, expand, share & sell content

MARKETING 2.0 - Update

from EVERYTHING 2.0 by Bob

Some mind candy for innovative marketers in this category: 1millionsentencesxista - Buy a sentence and increase traffic9minutesoffame - Submit your blog & get 9 minutes exposureAdahead - Marketplace for advertisers & affiliatesAdgridnetwork - Ad exchangeAdmob - Buy or sell mobile advertisingAgloco - Subscribe to portal & get paid for itAlexscoupons - Find coupon dealsAmigo - Matches advertisers with email newslettersAttentiontrust - Advertising based on mutual understanding Beetagg - Scan branded sema code with your cell to get access to websiteBlast - Promote your site for freeBoo-box - Add shopping links to your postings & make money on themCafespot - Social guide to cafes, restaurants, etcCampaignmonitor - Email marketing toolCitypixel - Claim your space in 3D citiesCoastr - List & share your beers and beer placesCreamaid - Spread the word thru your blog & get paidDaem* - Take pics with your phone cam, have them recognized & win prizes Dropcash - Create & manage online fundraiserEcityxista - Buy internet real estate to increase trafficEdgeio - Find classified listings, publish your ownFeedvertising - Put advertising in your feedsFruitcast - Podcast advertising networkHeyamigo - Matches advertisers up with newsletters Hittail - Search optimization softwareIgnoreme - Meta brandInvideo - Make money on free, customizable, brandable video playerItlinkz - Network of social networking sitesJaduka - Call-us-now features for all online mediaJigsaw - Subscribe, buy, sell sales contactsJoga - Nike + Google communityKanoodle - Sponsored links servicesKramkoob - Submit your online properties for 1 second fameKramkoob - Submit & share your site, blog, auction, news, vidcast or podcastLinklike - Link exchangeMailchimp - Design & code your newsletter, and have it distributedMarktd - Digg marketing storiesMemetrics* - Optimize your marketing across mediaMillennialmedia - Mobile marketing solutionsMmmzr - Buy space on this page now, or your price doublesMoola - Win millions with sponsored game (stealth)Movoxx - Get localized & personalized alerts & coupons on your cell phoneMsgme - Communicate or advertise thru sms keyword serviceMy-brand - Manage online advertising onlineMylongtail - Optimize search engine findabilityNumarketing~ (formerly: Keepaddit) - Digg on marketingOffermatica - Test & optimize your online marketingPayperpost - Buy a buzz in the bloggospherePipeline - Track your deals & organize your teamPixelotto - Click ads & win $ 1,000,000Ploud - Build subscriber lists for RSS marketingPodbridge - Metrics for usage of podcastsPodtrac - Advertise in podcastsPrimomailer - CMS for email newslettersPSFK - Share trends watchedRbloc - Sell, buy & meet auction market placeReferralmonitor - Manage word-of-mouth marketingRentxista - Rent a pageRmxdirect - Auction your ad inventoryRocketbux* - RocketEngine: deliver targeted offer to credit card holders' cell.Root* - RocketLaunch: sms couponing.Salesgenius - RocketPower: local closed loops for mobile marketing.Shotcode~ - Trading platform for realtime consumer dataShycast - Track your prospect's behaviour onlineSmackshopping - Scan branded sema code with your cell to get access to websiteSpotrunner - Participate in sponsored video contestSpringspotters~* - Jellyfish' web shopping gameshowTagacloud - Recycle, recreate & air tv adsTagdirectory - Watch & share trendsTenhunt - Add your domain to cloud & promote bothText2store - Tagged business directoryTheadcloud* - 10 questions, 10 sites, best & fastest winsThisplaceiknow - Get best offers & coupons on your mobileTitlez - Create & tag classified listingsTurn - Share placesVflyer - Get publishing market data from AmazonWebmarketing20 - Automate your online campaignsWikicompany - Compose classified ads and multi-post themWordofblog - Wiki on marketing 2.0Yawords - Social business directoryYellowikis - Spread the word for good causesYumenetworks - Video ad networkZookoda - Buy a search term, eternallyZoomtags - Social business directoryZypsy - Promote your blog with email marketing

Spam Hunters Become a Digg Spammers Best Friend

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

New service Collactive comes to the world courtesy of the team behind the failed Israeli outfit Blue Security, best known for running the anti-spam service Blue Frog. Wildly popular at first, the denial of service attacks from BlueFrog (be it a DOS from a moral high ground) rubbed spammers the wrong way and in May last year all hell broke lose, taking down SixApart amongst others. They subsequently gave in and shut the service.

What we didn’t know then was that having lost the battle in the war against spam, they’d actually manufacture arms for the opposing side.

Collactive works as a distribution service for what they call an All Points Bulletin (APB). You add, social bookmarking style a page on Digg or any where else to the APB system, then others are notified of the page. At this point the service differs. Users are directed to Collactive itself as opposed directly to the marked page. The page is presented with a Collactive frame to the left of screen that includes notes on the action required, for example “vote for this”. Traffic for your submitted pages comes from other collactive users plus there is support for emailing friends, a browser extension and a blog widget for displaying your APBs.

There are non-controversial uses for the site, any sort of page can be listed. However the real intent in terms of use is clearly promoted through out the site. The top listed APB when I visited the site was a request to vote on a story at Digg and other social networks were also listed amongst APB’s and social networking site logos were used in promotional material.

Alarm:Clock quotes Digg CEO Jay Adelson who puts it in perspective: “For sure, Digg is always being jacked around by people who are manipulating it, but Collactive is taking it to another level”.

Collactive is funded by Sequoia. Yes, that Sequoia.

Maybe there is something more to the service than spamming Digg? Of course there is aside from a name that sounds like medication; it works for spamming Reddit and Netscape as well!

Veotag’s Deep Tagging Gets $750K

from TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

Veotag just got an angel investment of $750K. As we've covered before, deep tagging is an important feature in lengthier online media. Who hasn't wanted to skip the boring parts of a keynote address? A host of startups are incorporating deep tagging into their services, such as Pluggd, Viddler, Motionbox, and JumpCut, among others.

Veotag allows you to add this functionality to any of your video or audio from within their embeddable player. You can upload content (WMV, FLV, mp3) from your computer or via URL. Anyone can sign up for an account, upload content, publish, and start tagging points in the programming. The Veotag player wraps around the content, displaying time stamped comments along the right hand side that link to interesting segments, as chosen by the publisher. You can see an example of the player on a speech by Guy Kawasaki here.

Veotag has a search engine for the tags, which is also indexed by the major search engines. This index can then be transmitted to an ad serving engine for targeted advertising around the audio or video.

Readers interested in incorporating deep tagging into their own media should also check out Click.tv's video deep tagging widget with comments.

Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, May 17, 2007