Archive for April, 2008

As I've pointed out many times before, many Web 2.0 "apps" are merely features that could be added to existing products on the market. There seems to be a tendency to build these small extensions since they have a lower entry point, cost less money, and have a more obvious exit plan: get bought by the company whose app you are enhancing.
So when Xobni's near-imminent purchase by Microsoft seemed all but signed on the dotted line, it all made perfect [...]

Anyone who has sold items using eBay (or even Craigslist) knows how much more potential an item has to sell when a photo is provided. And 'actual' images are better than the 'stock' photos that some sellers download from the manufacturer's website. Prospective buyers don't just want to read a description, they want to see exactly what they would be spending their money on since some sellers can be very vague with their words.
For this reason, several services such as [...]

There are an abundance of music store sites around, from giants like iTunes and Amazon Unboxed to indie sites like eMusic. Calabash is a site that offers music connoisseurs a way to get the best in music from around the world on one site. Billing itself as "easy access to hard to find music", Calabash may have found the one niche in music that no one had taken time to truly tap into yet for online sales, and they [...]

Strands has several offerings under its belt for a variety of applications: the Strands Social Player, Business Solutions Strands, Party Strands and Money Strands. It has now announced MyStrands Social Player, a new addition to the mix.
MyStrands takes social players to the next level by dropping them into your mobile device. It works with Symbian S60 3rd Edition and J2ME, and is optimized for Nokia devices, though it works on a variety of others as well. MyStrands lets you [...]

Almost a year and a half ago, Colbert Low posted here on Profy that the future of the Web would be 3D applications, or virtual worlds, with Second Life leading the pack. It's amazing to me that so much could have changed in such a short amount of time.
Today it was announced EA Land, which was formerly called The Sims Online and rebranded only a short time ago, will be shuttering before the end of summer. The Sims Online was [...]

Streamzy is a newly launched service, founded by 21-year olds Jesse Chemtob and Brian Krantz, which is best described as a streaming media search engine. It gives users the ability to search for music (video will be added soon) which can be streamed live on the web and, for registered users, saved among a playlist to be accessed from any computer via the internet.
Streamzy is powered by the Seeqpod media search engine and, therefore, all of its features are [...]

Yesterday, I covered Disney Fairies, the social network for children as young as 6, as it was discussed during the Rich Internet Experiences and the Social Graph with the Disney Touch at Web 2.0 Expo last week by Jason Vasquez, Director of Technology, Family Group - Disney Online, but Disney doesn't stop at the kids. They know that in order to really ensure complete brand adoption, they have to get the entire family involved, and Vasquez covered the division he [...]

It may sound strange, but the single session I most wanted to attend at last week's Web 2.0 Expo was Rich Internet Experiences and the Social Graph with the Disney Touch, which ended up being presented by Jason Vasquez, Director of Technology, Family Group - Disney Online. Sponsored sessions tend to be sparsely populated with people who have a full conference pass, but as a parent, the Disney social media machine is in full swing in my house on a [...]

I'm back in New York now after my week in San Francisco last week and am still adjusting to the cultural shift. Not only am I back in the suburbs where I have to drive everywhere, but how I use Web 2.0 apps is in stark contrast to how I used them last week, and it isn't just the difference between being at a conference and being back home and my regular work schedule.
The first thing I noticed in San [...]