Archive for the ‘Social Potato Chips’ Category
Jumping on the Vlogging Bandwagon
So here’s a thought when thinking about a blog entry describing a different use of streaming media (not emulating a television or radio show): Utilizing streaming media as a blog platform, also known as “vlogging”.
With the popularity of reality shows rising, it’s not a surprise that we (society) also flock to user generated sites that contain video content, like YouTube. But if you try to think about another way of using streaming media, why not a blog entry in video form? Here are some different ideas for streaming media blogging and reasons why it wouldn’t be so shabby…
Top 5 Digital Trends in 2010
New Year’s Resolutions aside, there are exciting trends to look forward to in 2010.
…totally late, but better late than never 
OTA Holiday Shopping
I purchased my first airline ticket, a round trip ticket to Seattle to attend college, and used my return flight for the holidays. I remember going to a travel agency where an actual agent used her database to search for the best deals she could find across various airlines. It was a big hassle—because I had to physically go to the travel agent, and repeat my trip if deals or desired fares were unavailable.
You can say goodbye to the days of relying on travel agents. In recent days, the power of searching and purchasing a plane ticket has been turned to consumers. The travel industry has taken popularity online, through OTAs (aka Online Travel Agencies) where consumers can search and coordinate their own flights and vacation packages. Kayak.com and Expedia.com are both popular OTAs in the Internet world. While Expedia has been around longer, Kayak.com is a new face that is making ground and paving a new path. The matrix at the bottom shows the pros and cons of the two websites.
Taking A Risk, Checking It Twice
Image from Seattle Times
When it comes to social media marketing, you have to be willing to take a risk or two. You have to anticipate rolling with the punches, because not every grand idea may drive it to critical mass.
As a long time Seattle resident, I consider myself a coffee snob. So I find it a bit ironic that I’m sitting at a (decent) coffee shop, writing about the latest social media campaign by Starbucks. I’ll do my best to stay impartial and keep my tastebuds separate from my marketing judgment.
There Is Such A Thing As A Free Lunch
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been trying to save some cash during this economic crisis, downturn, whatever you call it. In fact, my friend and I were recently talking about how we need to take on window shopping as a new hobby. Well, here’s a cheap (free) way to cure our shopping blues since being broke is the new black.
Meet Kashless. If Craigslist and Twitter had a love child, this site would be it. It is the first online marketplace to solely offer postings of free items in the Seattle area. You can either post directly with Kashless or via third party listings from sites such as Craigslist or Freecycle. Using their microblogging design, you can search by categories, by neighborhood, or by distance. They make the process seamless from bookmarking options to e-mail notifications, but the unique aspect of Kashless is their ability to narrow down your product and save your search preferences. That’s target advertising (without really being advertising) at its best!
Click to Pray
How do you even begin blogging about a tech-savvy priest? Like this.
Catholics get a bad rep for being old school in their ways. The traditional and conservative rituals of Catholicism, Mormonism, and other old religions are perceived to be too broken down for the modern lifestyle. But there’s nothing old school about this priest.
To Twitter or not to Twitter, Part Deux
If you have heard about #AmazonFail, #Oprah, #HudsonRiverCrash in the past few months, you probably fall into one of these categories:
- Taking the leap onto the Twitter bandwagon
- On the cusp of joining Twitter but don’t want to manage another social networking site
- Maybe considering it, but still too much effort to tell if I’ll be onboard
- Twitter still sucks
Haters, don’t say I didn’t warn you. But thanks for keep me motivated.
Virtual Tea Party
I’m not one to talk politics online, and I won’t start today. But what I will share is that Americans are doing a pretty good job utilizing social media to create another digital political movement. Read the rest of this entry »
Own Your Online Identity
Image by Bizzia.com
I can’t emphasize the value of creating your online identity. I totally respect those who want to keep things private, but there is a way to balance privacy and making sure that your identity is kosher. Especially in this digital age, it is important to develop your identity first, then control what is being shared. Luckily, we have so many resources to make this possible.
On the other hand, there are way too many sites to manage. LinkedIn. Facebook. Twitter. MySpace… you name it. I can’t even keep track anymore. But I do know that if I don’t take ownership of my identity, chances are someone else will do it for me, whether they do it deliberately or not. How many times have you found pictures of yourself on social networking sites that others posted? Or how about information about you that is shared because you were “just part of the story”? Whether you like it or not, social networks are successful because of their transparency, and there’s no changing the truth behind that reality. The irony of not being (somewhat) transparent about yourself is that you actually end up losing control of your privacy.
Food for Bored Thinkers
Bored? Hard to imagine that there are still people who are hungry for content in this day and age, but I know better than to underestimate the power and potential of Internet users.
Well, here’s some more food (content) for your thoughts (and entertainment). You never know when you need extra entertainment for your daily commute. I’ve been following a podcast and blog for the past few weeks, and it’s been a hit and miss process to find one the suits my lifestyle. I need content that is current, stimulating, and candid. Did I mention brief? Yes, I need snack sized content that I can consume on the go.
So off to the summary and review of my latest pots of gold…
Do Take It Personally
When Microsoft first entered the tech marketplace with their first version of Windows, who would have thought that one day they would segue into the gaming arena? No one would have guessed that the night before the launch of a Microsoft gaming device would create a trend of waiting overnight in front of gadget stores.
Let’s just say Microsoft has come a long way. Despite the infamous Mac vs. PC ad campaign led by Apple
Napster That.
Hmmm, here are my thoughts on Digital Rights Management.
I remember back when Napster was the ‘cool’ and ‘underground’ segue into ripped CD black markets. It was no doubt a criminal offense, but the abuse was too white collar of a crime for people to feel any remorse. Come on, everyone has either accepted, given, or made mixed CDs that were full of free downloaded music from sites like Napster. But the reality is, how realistic is it to police digital rights management?
Studious > Sexy
Let’s just get the cat out of the bag: Windows Media Player (WMP) is old school. It’s a grandfathered media player that needs to be phased out or revamped. And, it’s definitely not sexy.
Sexy aside, everything has a purpose–and WMP gets the job done. It doesn’t use as much bandwidth as Quicktime, because most websites that need to stream at high quality do not rely on WMP. Forbes.com doesn’t seem to mind Windows Media Player’s simplistic nature, because it gets the job done. News, compared to websites that use plenty of rich media graphics, does not need much bandwidth to stream their content. In the news industry, speed trumps quality to help break the news–but not to say quality is completely neglected.
Walk the QuickTime Line
Who doesn’t love Johnny Cash?
More importantly, who doesn’t love QuickTime?
The movie, ‘Walk the Line’ has an official website to promote their DVDs. As you enter the site, QuickTime is immediately integrated into the homepage using various clips from the movie. I enjoy this particular feature because it is visually appealing–and websites that promote media such as movies, televison shows, and concerts are best delivered with smooth, uninterrupted, and flashy streaming media rather than extremely detailed text. If I could change one feature, I would not use an unlimited loop for the background video– it’s efficient to catch the user’s initial attention, but it becomes distracting after one or two loops.
