Mashable! |
- Augmented Wikipedia Reality Has Arrived on the iPhone
- POLL: Tumblr Edges Out Posterous in Reader Vote
- Can Social Media Take a CBS Anchor 3000 Miles?
- Video of Anne Frank Surfaces on YouTube
- Setster: Easy Appointment Scheduling for Your Website
- Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars?
- Twitter Co-Founder: We Started It for the Giggles [Video]
- Drew for Sale: First Ever Charity Twitter Name Auction
- YouTube Promoted Videos Get a Big Exposure Boost
- FINALLY: Apple and Eminem Settle 4 Year Dispute
- VIDEO: Google Wave Gets Explained
- Gandhi Google Logo: The Web Celebrates His Birthday
- LUNCHTIME POLL: What's Your Favorite Firefox Extension?
- Watch Out AT&T: iPhone Sales Could Double By Dropping Exclusivity
- Thanks to Mashable's Socially Savvy Supporters
- Print Publishers May Create a "Hulu for Magazines"
- A Posse Ad Esse: Facebook Now Supports Latin
- 3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From
- RUMOR: Apple to Launch New Touch-Sensitive Mighty Mouse
- 2016 Olympics Announcement: The Web's Abuzz [Live Video]
- LIVESTRONG Day: 5 Ways to Get Involved
- In Case You Forgot: IE6 Still Holds 25% of the Browser Market
- Twitter Labs Coming Soon?
| Augmented Wikipedia Reality Has Arrived on the iPhone Posted: 02 Oct 2009 09:33 PM PDT 
Wikitude's AR app combines Wikipedia and geotagged information from its users and places it in your hands. But while it's been on Android for some time, it hasn't been on the iPhone. That's because has Apple has only recently begun to accept AR on the iPhone, inadvertently starting with Yelp's easter egg. But now we've learned from ReadWriteWeb that Wikitude has made its debut on the iPhone. The free app is now available in the iTunes store [iTunes link]. The app, which only works on the iPhone 3GS model (since it has a compass), utilizes three layers of information and superimposes them on your iPhone: information from Wikipedia, local reviews from London-based Qype, and finally crowdsourced information from its Wikitude.me website. With it, you can tag any location with personal notes that others can see. You can't tell me that isn't awesome.
 Apple's been slowly opening the doors to more and more AR apps, but Wikitude is one we've specifically been waiting for. There are just so many possibilities with augmented reality that we can't help but be excited about this development and the future of AR. Reviews: Android, Wikipedia Tags: AR, Augmented Reality, iphone, wikipedia, wikitude
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| POLL: Tumblr Edges Out Posterous in Reader Vote Posted: 02 Oct 2009 08:38 PM PDT 
Earlier this week we kicked off a new Faceoff, this time pitting Tumblr against Posterous for the simple blogging service crown. We have the winner of this contest now, drumroll please…
Tumblr ended up taking the title in a relatively close race with 51% of the vote. Many of you cited the community surrounding Tumblr as a great reason to use the tool, and many in the Posterous camp said the simplicity of posting by email was unbeatable. Still, in the end Tumblr came out on top with 1809 votes to Posterous's 1496 (42%). The remainder of the voters couldn't decide, with 256 or 7% reporting being unable to choose a victor. Thanks for tuning in to the second in our Faceoff series. Be sure to check back on Monday for the next round of dueling web services!
 Web Faceoff: Overall ResultsWeek 1: - Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome - WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes) Week 2: Reviews: Chrome, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Posterous, Tumblr Tags: poll, posterous, simple blogging, tumblr, web faceoff
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| Can Social Media Take a CBS Anchor 3000 Miles? Posted: 02 Oct 2009 06:00 PM PDT 
CBS apparently put Dave up to the challenge, dropping him off yesterday on the Santa Monica Pier with the goal of returning to New York City within seven days. He is armed only with $50, his ID, and a handful of gadgets including Qik-enabled cell phones and a laptop.
He'll be doing broadcasts along the route, with the first embedded below in which he shows off some of the technology he'll use to try and meet the challenge. And of course the best place to follow him on the journey is through social media: his Twitter account, his Qik videos, and his No Way Home blog on CBS. Dave has already made quick use of Twitter to orchestrate rides, work exchanges, and meet new "friends" who are helping him get to the next destination. It's an interesting experiment — what do you think, will he be able to make it back to New York in a week armed only with social media and a few bucks?
Reviews: Twitter Tags: cbs news, qik, social media, travel, twitter
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| Video of Anne Frank Surfaces on YouTube Posted: 02 Oct 2009 05:37 PM PDT 
At the 9 second mark in the clip, you can see Anne Frank leaning out of a second-story window as she watches a bride and groom exit a neighboring address. The Guardian reports that the scene dates back to July 22, 1941 and was provided to the museum by the couple in the 1990s. The story also goes that in the 1950s, once Anne's diary became public, the couple recognized Anne in their wedding video. So they decided to contact her father, Otto Frank, to whom they gave a 5 second version of the clip.
Annemarie Bekker of the Anne Frank House is quoted as saying:
Though the footage predates Anne's very famous diaries, we find it to be a very captivating moment in time that highlights life prior to the Frank family going into hiding. We have to agree with Bekker, who says, "The footage is very moving and very unique because these are the only moving images of Anne Frank." Reviews: YouTube Tags: anne frank, anne frank house, youtube
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| Setster: Easy Appointment Scheduling for Your Website Posted: 02 Oct 2009 05:11 PM PDT 
Quick Pitch: Setster provides appointment scheduling and confirmation for your business via an easily embeddable widget on your website. Genius Idea: Having appointment scheduling available right on your website could be a huge boon for your small business, but it's not always cost effective to pay someone to code or install a working system. That's where Setster comes in, with an easy to embed widget for appointment and service scheduling you can quickly add to the sidebar or elsewhere on your site. You can set up a profile of your business including what types of services and appointments you provide (with prices listed, optionally). Once your appointment widget is ready to your satisfaction, you simply grab the embed code and add the appointment scheduling component to your own site wherever you like.
When a customer or client visits your site, they can then see available times and services to sign up for. After they submit their requested time, service, and basic contact information about themselves, they will receive a message requested confirmation of the email address. Once the email is confirmed, both the customer and your business get confirmation emails of the date, time and details of the appointment. Integration with iCal, Google Calendar or Outlook lets either party easily add the appointment to the calendar of their choosing. For small businesses who just need simple scheduling without the hassle and cost of rolling their own back end system, Setster looks like a solid and free option for third-party scheduling integration. Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the "new CloudApp()" contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." Reviews: PHP, Setster Tags: appointments, bizspark, setster, small business, webdev, widgets
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| Ford Fiesta Movement: Can Social Media Sell Cars? Posted: 02 Oct 2009 04:07 PM PDT 
While Ford has had several initiatives, by far their most ambitious one has been the Ford Fiesta Movement, a grassroots social media campaign to promote the new Fiesta model by placing Fiestas in the hands of 100 social "agents" and having them promote Ford's new vehicle through Twitter, blogs, video, and events, all without spending a dollar on traditional media. It's near the end of the six month campaign, so how has Ford's experiment fared? Well, Ford shared some stats on the Fiesta campaign today, so we'll let you decide. Here's some of what they relayed to us:
These are impressive numbers, although none are mind-blowing. A single viral video can alone gain over 4 million views, but those are incredibly rare. Having 8 million+ eyeballs see personalized advertising for the Fiesta is not shabby at all. All of these numbers clearly indicate interest. The most important number though is Ford's 50,000 "hand-raisers," or individuals that have expressed in the Fiesta. The fate of this campaign rests on these people and whether they are willing to dish out a five digit sum to purchase a Fiesta. Ford's Fiesta Movement has been impressive thus far – especially when you consider that it was all done with just 100 advocates nationwide – but in the end, Fiesta sales will tell us how powerful Ford's social media mojo really is. Do you think Ford's initiative will succeed? Or is traditional advertising the better route? Give us your arguments in the comments. Disclaimer: Ford and the Ford Fiesta Movement were a charitable sponsor of the Summer of Social Good campaign. Reviews: Flickr, Twitter, YouTube Tags: ford, ford fiesta, social media
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| Twitter Co-Founder: We Started It for the Giggles [Video] Posted: 02 Oct 2009 03:16 PM PDT 
The interview aired today and Silicon Alley Insider posted a clip from the show to YouTube. In the clip Stone describes his first experience with Twitter to Stewart, and says he knew "this is IT, because this is making me laugh…the world always needs humor." And that was it. Stone decided to "double down" efforts on Twitter in lieu of other projects, and the rest is history. Of course Twitter has gone on to become so much more than a platform for laughter, but to this day it does still make us laugh.
Reviews: Twitter, YouTube Tags: biz stone, Martha Stewart, twitter
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| Drew for Sale: First Ever Charity Twitter Name Auction Posted: 02 Oct 2009 02:13 PM PDT 
Drew happens to also be just Drew (@drew) on Twitter. With four letter Twitter names impossible to come by, and more than a few celebrity Drews on Twitter, Olanoff tells us that he saw an amazing opportunity to use his coveted Twitter name to raise funds for charity. With Twitter's blessing, Olanoff is auctioning off his Twitter name, followers not included, for a minimum of $10,000.
The auction starts now, and will take place on Twitter using the merit system. Anyone can place their bid on the @drew Twitter name using the #drewbid hashtag. Bidders have until 12am EST on November 9, 2009 to make an offer, at which time Olanoff will award the highest bidder with his Twitter name. All money will go directly to the LIVESTRONG foundation. Raising $10,000 or more for a Twitter name is an ambitious undertaking, but we've already seen Olanoff make an incredible impact with his #BlameDrewsCancer efforts that we think the auction could be a huge success. The average Drew may not have $10,000 to pony up, but there are plenty of celebrities that have that kind of cash and would greatly benefit by being the "Drew" on Twitter. Speaking of which, Drew Carey, we think your personal Twitter name, @DrewFromTV, could be much improved, don't you? Image from Drew Olanoff on Flickr Reviews: Flickr, Twitter Tags: auction, blamedrewscancer, Drew, drew olanoff, twitter
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| YouTube Promoted Videos Get a Big Exposure Boost Posted: 02 Oct 2009 01:44 PM PDT 
Because so many web publishers make use of AdSense, Promoted Videos now stand to reach a much wider audience. Previously they were limited to the YouTube site itself, so coming out of the silo and leveraging parent company Google's even larger reach should be good news to video sponsors.
Launching today, the new Promoted Video ads will only be available to U.S. publishers in English. Additional languages and regions will be added in the future. As a web publisher, the Promoted Video ads will be contextually related to your pages and pay out on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. Like Google's other ads, the Promoted Video spots compete in the standard ad auction, driving competition among advertisers wanting to appear on your site's pages. This move should be good for Google, who is still trying to wring more money from YouTube, and for video publishers willing to shell out a bit to get more exposure for their videos. As a web publisher or video producer, how do you feel about the new changes? Reviews: Google, YouTube Tags: adsense, advertising, Google, promoted videos, video, web publishing, youtube
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| FINALLY: Apple and Eminem Settle 4 Year Dispute Posted: 02 Oct 2009 01:12 PM PDT 
The case did proceed to trial in a Michigan federal court, and since has seen five days of heated and contradictory testimony from both sides. Apple's attorney, Glenn Pomerantz painted Eminem and Eight Mile Style LLC as greedy, with the opposition claiming that Apple profited by at least $2.5 million in wrongful downloads. Today, however, Yahoo News is reporting that Apple and Eight Mile have somehow managed to reach an agreement. Though the financial details have yet to be disclosed, the lawsuit has been "settled to the satisfaction of all parties," according to an Eight Mile attorney.
Given the four year delay, we have to wonder if there was a smoking gun in the case, or if Apple and Aftermath, the two accused parties, simply decided that it was better to cut their loses and pay up. Either way, we have to believe that the terms of the settlement are more favorable to Enimem and Eight Mile, with a pretty big payout for those 93 disputed tracks. We'll update this post should the financial terms of the deal be disclosed. But, what's your take on the case? Does the rushed settlement at trial indicate that Apple and Aftermath were in the wrong? Let us know your thoughts. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59. Reviews: iStockphoto Tags: aftermath, apple, copyright infringement, eight mile, eminem
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| VIDEO: Google Wave Gets Explained Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:28 PM PDT 
That's why we're big fans of this video from Epipheo Studios. It really explains, in a very straightforward and entertaining way, what Google Wave is and why it is worthy of all the hype it has received. Here's the YouTube video:
Excited? The next step, of course, is to procure an invite. There's even a website dedicated to the cause. Once you're in — be sure to follow Ben's excellent Getting Started guide. What do you think about the potential for Google Wave? If you've used Wave, what do you think? Let us know! Thanks to Ben Crawford for the heads-up! Reviews: Google Wave, YouTube Tags: Google, Google Wave, video
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| Gandhi Google Logo: The Web Celebrates His Birthday Posted: 02 Oct 2009 12:13 PM PDT 
Now another great figure has gotten the Google treatment: Mohandas Gandhi, the pre-eminant Indian independence movement leader who utilized non-violent tactics to spur independence and civil rights movements all across the world. Today, October 2nd, would have been his birthday. Google's apparent new penchant to honor the birthdays of great figures is welcomed by us. These are men and women that fundamentally changed the world for the better. And since Google is the world's largest web portal, its reach helps spread information and awareness to the masses. Finally, if you want to celebrate his birthday, we have a social media suggestion: tweet out some of his great quotes and teachings, as many other Twitter users are currently doing. We should never forget his lessons. Reviews: Google, Twitter Tags: Gandhi, Google, google logo
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| LUNCHTIME POLL: What's Your Favorite Firefox Extension? Posted: 02 Oct 2009 11:56 AM PDT 
We've had browsers on the brain a lot lately, with our favorite browser poll and the ultimate Firefox vs. Chrome faceoff. With Firefox winning your vote, we thought it might be a good idea to find out what all those indispensable add-ons are that keep Firefox users coming back.
First let's do a recap of last week's poll, where we asked your favorite internet memes. Keyboard Cat was the winner, with LOLcats a close second — a feline sweep of the top two slots. Honorable mentions go to Dramatic Prarie Dog, Crasher Squirrel, Fails, FMyLife, Shoop da Woop, Chuck Norris Facts, Kanye West interruptions, Yo Dawg, and I See What You Did There. Now, on to this week's question: What's your favorite Firefox extension? Mashable Faves
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotography Reviews: Firefox, Gmail, Google, Xmarks, iStockphoto Tags: Browsers, Firefox, firefox extensions, poll, Xmarks
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| Watch Out AT&T: iPhone Sales Could Double By Dropping Exclusivity Posted: 02 Oct 2009 11:30 AM PDT 
Both Vodafone and Orange announced this week that they will be carrying the iPhone in the UK (Orange later this year, Vodafone sometime next year), continuing Apple's 2009 trend of more carrier-agnostic distribution. Fortune's Brainstorm Tech blog discusses a new report from a Morgan Stanley analyst, which makes the argument that the expiration of these exclusivity agreements will be leading drivers in not only Apple's share price, but in iPhone adoption rates.
 Fortune quotes Morgan Stanley's Kathryn Huberty (the author of the report):
Huberty used France as the basis for her projections, noting that the iPhone's market share grew 136% after the government put an end to Apple's exclusive deal with Orange. Although Huberty doesn't expect increases in other markets to be quite as significant, the loss of these agreements is one reason she expects Apple to sell 41.7 million iPhones in the 2010 calendar year. Another 40 million iPhones could significantly shore-up Apple's percentage of the smart phone market (the real percentage, not the skewed sample some reports use). Fortune notes that US users shouldn't expect a deal with Verizon (presuming one is in the works) until the company rolls out its 4G technology in 2011, but AT&T sufferers can always hope for another option. iPhone owners and potential iPhone owners — do more carrier options make you more likely to buy an iPhone? Does carrier impact your general decision when purchasing a phone? Let us know! (Image Courtesy of Morgan Stanley via Fortune) Tags: analysts, iphone, mobile carriers, projected sales
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| Thanks to Mashable's Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:58 AM PDT 
Advertise with us and get noticed.Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers, and many more. You'll receive hundreds of thousands of views a day in addition to weekly recognition to thank you as our premium sponsors. Are you interested? Contact us for more information and to receive our media kit and rate card. This week, our valued sponsors are SynergyChat, PayPal X Innovate 2009, Atlantic.Net, FOWA London, Conduit, Clickatell, Influxis, EdgeCast, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, Sun Startup Essentials, and Eventbrite.  SynergyChat.com is a cloud based video chat, video email and video conference application. All services are browser based, no software required. You can video chat face to face, send video email messages, video conference with up to nine people simultaneously and much more. Service usage is unlimited. Installs on any website in minutes with a custom javascript button. Currently open for free beta signups.  PayPal X Innovate 2009 is PayPal's first dedicated developer conference. Here you'll have the absolute inside track on how to capitalize on all of PayPal's products. Learn from hands on tutorials about PayPal APIs and listen to keynote from industry luminaries including Tim O'Reilly and see showcase of cool developers. Get 50% off if you register with code MASH or join us at $50 if you are a student.  Atlantic.Net is a market-leading business data services provider known for exceptional service, simplifying complex technologies and building a brand that people trust. Atlantic.Net operates a World Class data center in Orlando Florida and helps businesses around the globe with their advanced online needs. Atlantic.Net provides Managed Server Hosting, Server Colocation and Dedicated Servers in a carrier neutral facility. The company's technological savvy and strategic acumen have been the foundation for the company's reputation and profitability since 1994. For more information please call 888.618.DATA (3282) or visit www.atlantic.net  |
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| Print Publishers May Create a "Hulu for Magazines" Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:53 AM PDT 
The core of the plan is to create an iTunes-like digital storefront where content can be bundled into subscriptions and delivered to customers on multiple devices. According to All Things Digital, the plan is being well-received, with Hearst and Conde Nast reportedly expected to sign on to the venture.
Lots of details have yet to be worked out, with one particularly huge question to be answered: what type of content, exactly, would the store be selling? A simple digital copy of the corresponding print magazine is in most cases already available on the web for free, with customers showing little interest in paying for that format. Will these old dog publishers be able to come up with new content tricks to attract a digital market? What will magazine content look in an interactive world, and how will it be tailored to work properly on a range of devices and sizes, from cell phones to eReaders like the Amazon Kindle to future form factors like the still-unannounced Apple Tablet or Microsoft Courier? Controlling Sales and DistributionThese questions and more the consortium of publishers will have to answer before a joint venture storefront can come together. They have a lot of incentive to figure it out and figure it out quickly though, because their own content store would keep publishers in control of their own sales and distribution. Other industries — particularly the music industry — are beholden to companies like Apple who control the distribution pipeline via iTunes. Time Inc. et al want to avoid allowing Amazon to strengthen its position as the corresponding gatekeeper in the publishing world, as it has begun to do with the Kindle platform. Though it's all still in the early stages, how do you think this transition will play out? Will publishers band together to create their own digital content storefront, or will Amazon make a play from books into the periodicals market? Some publishers have even contemplated making their own digital reading devices; will we see a fractured eReader market with many content silos, possibly publisher-specific? Or will Apple swoop in and bring sexy back to print in the digital world? Tags: conde nast, hearst, hulu, magazines, print publishers, Time Inc
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| A Posse Ad Esse: Facebook Now Supports Latin Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:30 AM PDT 
Facebook just announced that it has added an interesting language to its roster: Latin. Yes, the ancient Italic language has made its way onto the world's largest social network. You might be asking yourself: why is Facebook adding Latin support? Doesn't it seem like a waste of time to support a dead language? Facebook explains its rationale in its announcement:
Summary: A lot of today's update has to do with helping students of the old language. Using Latin every day to interact with your friends is actually an ideal way to pick up a new language. And while we may not use Latin anymore, so many historical documents were written in the language that we cannot afford to forget how to read and speak it. We like this update. A lot. Now I have a new reason to learn Latin. Reviews: Facebook
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| 3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From Posted: 02 Oct 2009 10:08 AM PDT 
As social media continues to become more mainstream, the chances that your employees will use these online tools for personal and professional purposes are high. Plus, if you encourage your staff to be brand representatives, using the social web to help grow your company and engage with your customers, then you have a potential fireball of a situation where lines could be unknowingly crossed. You need a social media policy that sets the foundation of your expectations, empowers your employees to tweet or blog without fear, rewards social media problem-solving, and educates staff on things to avoid in both personal and professional status updates. It's smart business to have a social media policy, and lucky for you some of the biggest brands have already paved the way and published policies that you can emulate. 1. Kodak on Transparency
The Kodak Social Media Tips document is available for download as a PDF and is a good read, especially for businesses just getting their feet wet. Their actual corporate policies start on page 10 and provide an educational, instructional, and digestible utility that employees can reference when in tricky situations. It reads like a guide book, making it much more approachable than a standard policy agreement. What to steal: Transparency guidelines 2. Intel on Moderation
They acknowledge their guidelines are dynamic in nature and will evolve as new trends and technologies are made available. They also clearly spell out what to think about when engaging in social forums and how to handle the sometimes sticky situation of content moderation. What to steal: Moderation guidelines 3. IBM on Social Media Value
The brand has tried and true social experiences, which makes their policies for IMBers read like best practices learned from real experience in the field. What to steal: Add Value section Disclosure: IBM is a sponsor of Mashable Image courtesy of iStockphoto, wakila Reviews: Mashable, iStockphoto Tags: business, Lists, policy, small business, social media, social media policy
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| RUMOR: Apple to Launch New Touch-Sensitive Mighty Mouse Posted: 02 Oct 2009 09:18 AM PDT 
According to a new report from AppleInsider though, Apple's looking to deal with this problem by completely redesigning the mighty mouse. Among the rumored changes: doing away with the track ball, utilizing touch-sensitive technology, and adding multipoint touch detection technology. Oh, and you might see this new Mighty Mouse before the end of this year. Adding fuel to the speculation fire, the current Mighty Mouse is on backorder across the country, meaning that Apple's not shipping out the new models at the moment. This is the biggest sign that this rumored mouse upgrade is going to be arriving before the end of the year. What do you think of this rumor: is it a good development? Would you want to use this mouse? Or are you a fan of the current Mighty Mouse? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of Andy Woo on Flickr Reviews: Flickr, iPhone Tags: Aple, Mighty Mouse, mouse
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| 2016 Olympics Announcement: The Web's Abuzz [Live Video] Posted: 02 Oct 2009 08:25 AM PDT  Update: Rio de Janeiro has won the IOC vote and will be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. They beat out Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid. - The web is abuzz with news regarding the IOC's announcement for the location of 2016 Olympic Games. Rio de Janeiro and Chicago, but we won't know the final decision until approximately 12:30 PM EDT. In true Web 2.0 fashion, you can watch the proceedings live via CBS News' UStream Channel. We have also embedded the stream below.
Spain leads Brazil, the United States and Japan in search volume — which might indicate that Madrid is a larger contender than we think — or it could just mean that Spain has savvy Internet searchers!
Live streaming video by Ustream Voting is open now! We'll keep you posted on the results!
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| LIVESTRONG Day: 5 Ways to Get Involved Posted: 02 Oct 2009 08:05 AM PDT 
The goal of the day is to make cancer a global priority, and to get everyone not just talking about change, but actually taking action towards cancer prevention, treatment, and care. Even if you can't make it out to one of the hundreds of events taking place across the globe, you can still be a part of LIVESTRONG Day. Show your support and help generate buzz for the event by taking any of the following actions. Declare your commitment, make a dedication to an inspirational friend or family member, get the word out on social sites, sport a little yellow virtually, and be tell everyone how you're celebrating LIVESTRONG Day in the comments below. 1. Attend An EventEvents are being held across the globe in order to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer. Use the LIVESTRONG interactive map and enter your zip code or postal code to locate an event in your neighborhood. Many of the local LIVESTRONG events require nothing more than patronizing a nearby business that will donate a portion of your purchase to cancer fighting initiatives. Some of the events, however, are interactive and involve indoor or outdoor physical activity. Think indoor cycling, a community walk/run, or nature hikes. Either way you can celebrate survivorship, and share the global day of action with others in your community. 2. Declare Your CommitmentWhether or not you can attend an offline event, you can still participate in creating awareness and showing your support for LIVESTRONG Day. Signing the LIVESTRONG World Cancer Declaration is simple way to show your support for the cause and raise awareness. By signing the declaration — a demand for resources to champion the cause — with your name, email address, and country, you're doing your part to make sure world leaders take the initiative seriously. Currently at 100,000 names and counting, the organization is hoping to increase signatures drastically by the end of the day. After LIVESTRONG day is over, the names will be delivered to world leaders in an effort to convince them to make new commitments and allocate more resources to help fight cancer. 3. Make a DedicationIs there someone who inspired you with their strength or courage in the face of cancer? Celebrate the day and show your love, support, and admiration for them with a LIVESTRONG dedication page. The page creation process is very simple. Just fill out the form to indicate who you're dedicating the page to, select a relationship type, optionally upload a photo, and then share why and how the person has influenced or inspired you. Should you need a little inspiration, we suggest that you browse the featured heartwarming dedication pages that highlight stories of truly inspirational people. 4. Spread the Word
After you sign the World Cancer Declaration, you should receive an email thanking you for your signature and support. The email comes with a sample message that you can send along to friends and family urging them to sign the Declaration as well. Of course, don't forget about the communication channels and opportunities made available via social media. Why not take your promotional efforts to Facebook, Twitter (you can help make it a trending topic!), Posterous, YouTube, your own blog, or even Google Wave. Start conversations about surviving cancer, pass along the video embedded above, retweet this post (or the tweets of @LIVESTRONG), share your story, or just announce your declaration of support for LIVESTRONG Day. Do it proudly in a social capacity, link back to the site, and you'll help create a social web chain reaction for raising awareness. 5. Wear Yellow … VirtuallyYellow is the color we've all come to associate with the LIVESTRONG movement and the fight against cancer, so there's really no better way to make a big visual impact and celebrate LIVESTRONG Day than to wear yellow in a virtual capacity. We're thinking simple things like changing the background of your blog or website to yellow for the day, creating a yellow-themed robo.to and sharing it across the web, updating your Twitter avatar with a official LIVESTRONG wristband or one of several unofficial Twibbons, or changing your Facebook photo. It's an opportunity to get creative with the color yellow, all the while making a distinct impression on your entire online network, and showing support for the LIVESTRONG cause. Of course you can always wear yellow in real life too. Reviews: Facebook, Google Wave, Posterous, Twitter, YouTube Tags: livestrong, LIVESTRONG Day
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| In Case You Forgot: IE6 Still Holds 25% of the Browser Market Posted: 02 Oct 2009 07:02 AM PDT 
All of this makes it easy to forget what browser is still dominating the market. According to Net Application's Market Share data, that browser is Internet Explorer 6, released in August 2001. How can this be? With all the recent campaigns against Internet Explorer, people should be ditching it fast, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. Compared to August, IE6 has lost only 0.8% of its market share, dropping to 24.4%, which still makes it by far the most popular web browser, in front of Internet Explorer 7.0 with 19.39%, Internet Explorer 8.0 with 16.84%, Firefox 3.5 with 12.65%, and Firefox 3.0 which holds 9.62% of the market. There's no two ways about it: by today's standards, IE6 is a nightmare. It's poorly supported, its security is lacking, it doesn't support PNG transparency, CSS v2, HTML5; in short, with all the free alternatives, no one should be browsing with IE6, period. Unfortunately, it seems that old habits die hard; when it comes to web browsers, many users simply don't want to switch to anything new, even if it's vastly better. The migration to the upcoming Windows 7 (which come with the latest version of IE) OS will help at least part of the user base switch to a better browser; let's hope the rest notices that the world has moved on, and it's time to let go of IE6. [Image credit: nexus404.com] Reviews: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 6.0 Tags: browser market, IE6
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| Posted: 02 Oct 2009 06:38 AM PDT 
According to Cnet's Natali DelConte, Twitter is planning a similar feature for the near future. At the FOWA conference in London, Twitter's user experience and front end engineering lead Britt Selvitelle said that it's coming "soon". The idea behind it seems to be a bit different from Google Labs; while Google is using it to test their own ideas, Twitter will let developers create add-ons for the site. Reviews: Google, Twitter
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