Niche social-networking sites, and some not-so-niche ones, continue to open. The latest big-brand one is MTV's "Flux." As with MySpace, users will be able to customize their pages and upload video and other media, but more along the lines of Cyworld (which plans to open an English-language version in the US), they can have avatars, or online personas, represent them. "They can select a basic … [Read more...] about New social networks
Risk & Safety
Kazaa legalizes
There was a time (about 2.5 years ago) when you could've called it the MySpace of file-sharing, when 60 million file-sharers and millions of downloads a week seemed like mind-numbing figures. Kazaa was the king of 2nd-generation file-sharing (after Napster of the 1st generation), then was overtaken by 3rd-gen BitTorrent. But enough background! The news is, the Sydney-based company registered in … [Read more...] about Kazaa legalizes
Candy + Coke = hot Web video
Well, Diet Coke, anyway. This is a perfect example of the kind of subject that drives the people's Web these days, and you don't have to be an Einstein to conduct and record this scientific experiment. In other words, you can try this at home (tho' maybe not indoors): add Mentos mints to a bottle of Diet Coke and film the resulting geyser (e.g., in this video). Online law expert Michael Geist … [Read more...] about Candy + Coke = hot Web video
What’s happened to music?
Actually, the question is, what's happened to hit songs and albums and box-office blockbusters? Mass-audience hits turned into hits, then "pageviews" and "unique visitors" on (now uploads to) user-aggregating Web sites in zillions of niche interest communities. Consumers are aggregated by interest not geography, and the offerings are a la carte and all about exploration and sampling and – to the … [Read more...] about What’s happened to music?
New video site pays users
You'll probably be hearing this from young videocam wielders you know before you read it here: Just-launched eefoof.com plans to give YouTube.com a run for its money by "offering videographers a share of the advertising dollars that their movies generate," CNET reports. "Video sharing on the Internet is one of the hottest sensations in media. Every day, people from all over the world are posting … [Read more...] about New video site pays users