Archive for July, 2008
Just a quick note… The creators of the new search engine Cuil.com, as I reported earlier, said Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge.
That wasn’t so smart .
IT World is reporting many Irish users in an Irish language forum have revealed the word usually means corner or nook.
Heh.
This news is everywhere to those who love wordgames, Facebook and copyright infringement. Yes, I’m sure someone loves copyright infringement. Scrabulous, the incredibly popular Facebook game that played an awful lot like an online game of Scrabble, if off Facebook for North American users. Speculation runs rampant that it’s down because Hasbro (its IP owner since the ’80s) just debuted its own Scrabulous inspired Facebook Scrabble game, thanks to a partnership with EA Games.
Why is this news? The new marketplace is about “if you don’t build it, your fanbase will.” Scrabulous was huge on Facebook (approximately 2.3 million users) because it played well (once the bugs were sorted out). It’s success was built purely from word of mouth (or in this case, word of the Facebook wall). Seeing this potential of losing possible revenue, Scrabble’s IP owner Hasbro decided to sue in a New York court. This lawsuit started back in January 2008, but only now the hammer has been dropped because EA’s version is online and available to North American users.
This has given Hasbro a whole lot of bad press. So much bad press that someone hacked the Hasbro Scrabble game.
I used to play Scrabulous, so much so that I almost considered buying the Scrabble board game. I’m sure many other users gave money to Hasbro via Scrabulous. This will be interesting…
Two fellas formerly from Google launched a new search engine last night called Cuil. Pronounced “cool,” I wonder if it will become a verb as Google has. Somehow the phrase, “let me Cuil this” just isn’t as catchy.
While it is getting some negative reviews out of the gate, it does have a more visually appealing layout in two or three columns for its search findings. Although I’m not quite sure how the data is categorized. Since everyone Googles their own names, I thought I’d Cuiled (yeah, it doesn’t fit yet) mine. The first page of findings weren’t really as relevant as its competitor search engines. And looking up this site’s web guru wielded his blog about 10 or so entries after matching up his name with various social apps.
Well, it’s still early days. I’d like to hear what other people think.
I have nine more invites to the private alpha of 12seconds.tv. Send an email to kliannestewart at gmail with the subject “fyrp 12 seconds” and if you’re in the first nine, I’ll send you one. Woot!
It’s time for some links to help pass the day as you wait for the weekend to begin. Remember: when you’re reviewing this stuff, you’re still working because it’s all in the name of research.
Create a monster with Spore. This is the precursor to an EA game that’s expected to arrive shortly. The “create a spore” has been out for a while, but geez it’s fun and impressive. My monster’s name is Not-Lianimal and I’ve watched her dance, ask scared and even bite (bad monster).
Have a Flickr account? Now you can see your images full-screen without losing any resolution thanks to new site: BlowUp
And now there’s a Twitter for those who don’t write well. 12 Second TV records, well, 12 second videos. This might be a good way to practice your pitches. If you can’t encompass your idea in 12 seconds, you’re out! As the site says: “Why 12seconds? Because anything longer is boring.”
The service is still in private alpha, so you’ll need an invite to join for now. The creators have listed ways to get in on the alpha test.
I only call the math horrifying because I still panic when presented with simple math equations.
As I previously mentioned, Joss Whedon’s online experiment Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a hit.
Now someone has been nice enough to answer the age-old question “But how do we monetize this?”
Jeffrey McManus did some math on the distribution model for Whedon’s blog experiment, and while he admits it’s just an estimate, the video’s success “could signal the beginning of the end of television as the medium of the least-common-denominator and the beginning of the profitable niche market.”
I never said this blog would be pun-free.
Google launched its answer to Wikipedia on Wednesday, Knol. “Authoritative” sources write articles and names are included. But it’s not passive, as comments and feedback are encouraged.
It’s still very much in a beta stage, as most searches come up empty handed… unless you’re looking for medical advice. At the moment, Knol is chock full of details to instill horror for any hypochondriac.
Want more information? Here’s the Wikipedia entry on Knol. Heh.
Adobe Media Player just announced a deal with Sony, allowing those who download the player to watch full movies such as Ghostbusters and complete TV shows such as 90210. OK- it’s not all retro programming. There’s CBS programming, Food Network stuff and Daily Show with Jon Stewart. That’s a little exciting. Everything is ad supported, and that’s just fine by me if it keeps the cost to me at $0. What might be better is an option to pay for the programming to ensure no ads, but perhaps that will come.
No, wait. What might be better is if I was able to watch the programming view the television programming I selected in the player. Wanting to see a clip of the Daily Show, I watched an AT&T commercial and then received a message “this video is not available in your country.” (add: I can watch movies effortlessly, it seems – Hello Ghostbusters.
Coming from the business side, I know the digital rights issues are complicated for Canadians, but speaking from the consumer side, this is getting annoying. Our neighbours to the south are getting loads of opportunities to watch programming watch television programming on various screens, and while things are improving (in that I can pay for series on iTunes), it’s not fast enough. Fortunately, I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Even when things are available in this country, consumers sometimes still feel cheated. Read the comments on iTunes for Daily Show. It is now available in Canada. Yet the pricing structure is not the same as in the States. Subscribers in America can pay a flat rate for a season ($9.99 for 16 eps), Canadians aren’t offered a pass and pay $32 to watch the same stuff. All of the comments are begging for the same pricing structure.
What’s the solution? Is it too late? Will Canada keep playing catch up? Love to hear theories…
(speaking of iTunes, Dr. Horrible’s three episodes are the top three video purchased downloads in Canada, even when the series was free on the site for a limited time – next step? DVD.)
Lorne Michaels has decided to give Jimmy Fallon’s debut as the new Late Night talk show a testing ground – online. Even though he won’t debut on the traditional media until Fall ’09, he’ll start his web debut in the coming months.
It’s a clever way to kick some tires before committing to a traditional TV format. Michaels told the New York Times this web-exclusivity will allow Fallon to experiment more with content. Hopefully this means the online version will actually take advantage of the internet medium and engage its viewers rather than provide passive entertainment.
One format that should draw inspiration is the now defunct The Show with Ze Frank. Frank started the online video program as a one year experiment from March ’06 to March ’07 and I have yet to see anything like it since. Subscribers (named sportracers) dedicated themselves to help make this show even better than Ze Frank could have imagined. They directed a lot of the show content and were challenged to do things such as make the ugliest MySpace page (easy!) and create an Earth sandwich. Frank also created a social app for those fans who needed solace after The Show ended with TheOrg, which also only lasted one year.
Of course, I’d be OK with a Fallon-led passive experience if it were 5 to 10 minutes of the Barry Gibb Talk Show.
Short tidbits…
Amazon launched a VOD service last week, Amazon Unbox. It streams over 40,000 television and movie titles, but only for US subscribers. Sigh.
Does this mean TV and film fans will leave their cable companies en masse to download programming on Amazon? Maybe – but there’s a lot of speculation these same cablecos will stop this in its tracks with tiered broadband. We don’t even have this service yet in Canada and we might not soon, not only because of convoluted digital TV rights, but throttled broadband is already happening in this country.
Onto cooler news*, Radiohead filmed a new video for their House of Cards song without cameras, partnering with Google Code. It’s really coooool (*full disclosure, I’m a Radiohead nerd).
Finally, today I watched a woman who is technically a senior (by age only) seriously get into a game of Wii tennis. She’s part of a growing trend: Female gamers are making a mark… 40% of all gamers in the U.S. are ladies, and of that, 26% are over the age of 50. Is that only via the casual gaming market?
All I know is I’m playing as a team in Resident Evil, and I’d play better if my hand didn’t hurt from gripping the controller so tightly when I’m blasting away zombies. I don’t have that problem with casual games. I’m such a girl.
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