New Authors Added to Soshable
Posted on June 27, 2008
Filed Under Blogs | 1 Comment
It’s been forever since we posted. For that, I am sorry, but I assure you, it was for a good reason.
Soshable has picked up corporate sponsorship and will be adding some authors. The usual suspects are still on board, but there will also be an infusion of fresh perspectives added to this blog. Rather than welcome them here, I will let them post directly themselves so as to not “spoil the fun”.
With corporate sponsorship comes room for added talent as well. If you have an understanding of social media, social networking, marketing, or anything on the Internet in general, please feel free to drop us a line. We are excited to get as much quality content as possible to fill our hallowed pages.
I will be posting my first formal post in almost a month this weekend, so keep watching! You will also be able to find us on popFAIL, Noozeez, and Social News Watch.
Web 3.0 is (probably) being built as we speak
Posted on May 27, 2008
Filed Under Digg, Facebook, Featured, Social Freshness, Social Media, Social Networks | 2 Comments
Is consolidation the road to Web 3.0?
I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that I believe the “Web 3.0″ revolution will be ushered in by Social Hybrids. We are starting to see large Web 2.0 companies getting eaten up by the larger Internet powerhouses — AOL/Bebo, eBay/StumbleUpon, Yahoo/del.icio.us, etc — but there hasn’t been a true consolidation of web properties that combines social media with social networking.
Are we seeing the Genesis of it now? Read more
10 Great URLs with Bad Websites
Posted on May 16, 2008
Filed Under Social Freshness | 1 Comment
Sometimes, a URL leads you to exactly what you expect. Other times, it takes you to blank pages, advertising link pages, or just plain dumb stuff.
This list of 10 (plus 4 dishonorable mentions) includes excellent domain names with great type-in traffic (at least they did back in the day when people still relied on type-in traffic) that just don’t give you anything that you can use.
Our personal favorite: Hot.com takes you to a campaign video for Dennis Kucinich. Not all that hot anymore, if he ever was hot.
If Digg Won’t Listen to its Users, We Will
Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under Digg, Facebook, Featured, Social Freshness, Social Media, Social Networks | 11 Comments
The Digg Town Hall Meetings so far have been like bad sex in a bad relationship. There’s too much time in between causing a buildup that has to be released. When the climax finally comes, it’s too short and completely disappointing.
Mashable.com, who hosted a live blog with the help of The Drill Down crew, put it very eloquently when they summarized the event:
If you were to sum up what we learned from Digg Townhall #02, I would have to say it was… er… well… Jay Adelson really, REALLY loves Vernors Ginger Soda.
They keep saying it’s coming. The changes are coming. Listening to the community is coming. In the meantime, the promotion algorithm seems to be in a regular state of flux — sometimes active members can’t hit the homepage with 200 diggs, other times they’re hitting 10+ times in a day.
Microsoft Buying Facebook would be like Exxon Buying Greenpeace
Posted on May 8, 2008
Filed Under Facebook, Social Freshness | 2 Comments
I’m late on chiming in on this one, but with a reason. I had to pinch myself first, then wait to see if I was getting punk’d.
As many blogs have stated, the rumor that Microsoft is pursuing Facebook is, well, just a rumor. Still, things like these don’t just pop up randomly (very often) without some credibility, especially when it makes sense as a ploy to pressure Yahoo. With that said, I still feel the need to point out why this won’t work. Call it abuse of the hypothetical, but blogs are made to explore the possibilities.
Many, perhaps most, Facebook users do not want Microsoft. They were a little upset when they purchased under 3% of the company. If that becomes 50+%, we will likely see a large-scale exodus. Sadly, it would happen right after Facebook passed MySpace on Alexa. Read more
Dating in 140 Characters or Less
Posted on April 27, 2008
Filed Under Social Freshness, Twitter | 8 Comments
I was talking to a friend the other day who was telling me about this girl he met at a coffee shop. She noticed that he had the same laptop as she did and sparked a conversation. They talked for an hour before she had to go.
“Did you get her number?” I asked.
“No, but I got her Twitter. That’s even better!” he replied.
Wow. What a world we live in.
Digg is no longer a Social “News” Site
Posted on April 21, 2008
Filed Under Digg, Social Media | 5 Comments
As much as I have enjoyed Digg over the years, it is officially no longer relevant as a social news site. The concept that social “media” can be pictures, videos, podcasts, or articles is great, but what I witnessed tonight was both enjoyable and sad.
Being a Good Social Media Friend and Finding Other Good Ones
Posted on March 30, 2008
Filed Under Digg, Mixx, Propeller, Reddit, Social Media, StumbleUpon | 10 Comments
In the real world, we pick our friends based upon certain traits and conditions. We want people we can like who have shared interests and who have a certain proximity to us. The Internet has changed the proximity aspect of friendship, but we still need to be able to interact with our friends in some way to truly be friends.
In social media, “friendship” is more of a way to get votes for your submissions than to interact with others. There are certainly those who make real friends through social media. Some of the people I interact with on a daily basis were people I met on social media sites. Still, the bottom line in social media friendship is “vote for my submissions and I’ll vote for yours.”
There is something skewed about this concept, but we’ll ignore it for this article. Instead, we’ll accept the fact that most social media friends aren’t really friends and focus on how to be a good one, as well as finding other good ones. Read more
How Digg is Dropping the Ball (limited to 3 issues, begrudgingly)
Posted on March 24, 2008
Filed Under Digg, Social Freshness, Social Media | 5 Comments
It’s been nearly a year now, but when Kevin Rose boldly announced that “you’ve made it clear” and “If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying,” in regards to the the HD-DVD key that was published everywhere, Digg was on top of the social media world with a true opportunity to be the site “for the people.” While the move to ignore a cease and desist declaration was a bit less bold than most understood at the time (it was everywhere at that point), it was still a public relations goldmine that Digg could have very easily parlayed into perpetual success. They just had to do one thing…
Listen to your people and deliver what they want.
Over the last year, Digg has focused on several issues. While all of these have importance, Digg has paid these issues more than enough attention. In most cases, they’ve paid too much attention them. Read more
Startups End Down - Bring Sexy back to Geeky
Posted on March 20, 2008
Filed Under Featured, Social Freshness | 2 Comments
Read Mashable. Techcrunch. Any of the websites that follow startups. Trends emerge. Hopes are high. Hope is lost. Startup rises. Startup ends down. The question is, “why?”
Instead of going into any of the dozens of high-potential startups that we looked at from 2007 that aren’t going to make it through 2008, let’s explore one general theme. Startups aren’t as sexy as they once were. I’m not talking about sexy, as in porn or meeting “friends” online. The sexy that I’m referring to is the kind of website that you read about, try out, and say:
“Wow. I really need to use this.” Read more
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