Technically Speaking

In fact unless you are physically standing over your server and counting the hits, page views, uniques to your server - I don’t believe you. Seriously, the statistics game is a big scam. It’s about where you live and who you know.

Isn’t it about time that Comscore and other supposed “stat keeping giants” who determine how much money you receive just go away. There needs to be a new system. This one is seriously broken. When it comes down to “who you know“, we just gave in to the old world ways in the new web 2.0 world we live in.

Technically Speaking, there is no place for this in web 2.0 or web 2.1 and on. This falsifying of critical ad money information needs to be taken care of. It should have been taken care of yesterday.

Of course, nothing will happen and the big advertisers will keep dumping money into sites from the SV like everything is so “cool” coming out of there. I hate to say it, but the SV is not all paved in gold start up companies.

Look at where MyBlogLog came from, look at Planypus. Look at SplashCast. Tampa, Chicago, and Portland may not be STL. At least it’s not the SV.

This site had zero ads at one point in time. This site also made zero dollars at one point in time. I also use to bust my a$$ getting content here. I still bust my a$$ getting content here.

Yes, it is overkill, but until I am able to clearly see what makes someone go “click” on one of the ads; I have to run them for a test period. Now the one thing that I’m sure you are glad about, you read English from left to right. If you are here to read the posts, then the ads are only a colorful distraction off to the right to keep you awake.

Technically Speaking, at least I am not running the ads in the actual post. I know that works better, but I also think color ads (banner picture type) are proving to be better overall so far. The experiment continues and don’t sweat the small stuff Maynard, if you are not interested in clicking any of them, you won’t hurt my feelings. I have to conduct a meaningful blitz of an ad experiment.

Oh — the ads I DO CARE about and hope you are still clicking and visiting — Collarity, HTPBG, Planypus, askitonline, yourminis, DigitalRon — please give those a click or three every few days! They deserve the look and you can never tell if they have something NEW going on!

The sponsors to your immediate right - Collarity, Planypus, HTPBG, yourminis, askitonline, and DigitalRon. I know they will appreciate a visit, and I also know that they may have updated things since your last visit.

Technically Speaking, more regular posts in a little while.

I like the name. I think if NBC and News Corp really wants to make this what it is, then say “screw it”, balls up to the table. If you really want to be the peakcock of the walk, then don’t back down now. Come out today, or by Tuesday (you know, everyone is off on Friday and Monday’s!) — and state that the new company is called just that - Clown Company, Inc. - The future of videos and advertising on the internet.

Here is why I say that. It’s all just a freakin’ name. You can brand anything. You can sell anything. I go of course rely on my own experience here. Every band I have been in, usually was some really stupid name. My band mates always would fight over it; the damn name of the band. Why? A name is a name until you make it big. Simple. This blog for instance, is a common phrase that anyone can say. TechCrunch is just a name.

I do agree with what Mike is stating in his very detailed post and breakdown.

But for now, Google/Youtube, who have been referring to the project as Clown Co. privately, doesn’t look to be in any trouble. Without a name, a lot of the press today was wasted. My recommendation to interim head George Kliavkoff: name this thing fast, before “Clown Co.” becomes more than just an inside joke at Google.

Technically Speaking, if you brand it, sell it, and shine it up - Clown Company, Inc. will sell just as much as Google, Joost, YouTube, Scobleizer, Microsoft, Collarity, Planypus, askitonline, Business Golf, DigitalRon, yourminis, etc.. etc… Bring in the Clowns, and get it on!

That is what Scot is telling me these days. You have to remember, that a lot of people buy the eBook versus a hard copy. It seems that many people prefer that. Personally speaking, I would rather have the book itself sometimes. Where is this going?

If you haven’t figured out yet, it’s time for a sponsor round up. I just updated Scot’s logo for his book - How To Play Business Golf. So, with all that being said —- readers let’s start showing some interest in these companies sites. There could be new features that you haven’t seen, or you may be visiting for the first time. Whatever the case may be, just give them a visit please!

Collarity - DigitalRon - Planypus - askitonline - HTPBG - *now an internet best seller - and of course the mainstay, the first ad ever placed on this site - our long time supporter - yourminis

I do apologize for the lack of posts here. I have been writing my a$$ off lately, and there should be some more articles coming out on VentureBeat very soon. I have not abandoned this site. I am updating the Link Blog still at least once every 24 hours, sometimes twice. I am trying to present a better product here, and that means more concentrated efforts in the writing.

I did add a twitter feed on the right, for my twitter as well as people I have on my follow list. It can be interesting I guess. twitter has slowed down quite a bit since SXSW started to break camp on Wednesday. I think there is a good to it, but there sure was a lot of fun hype during the SXSW week!

Technically Speaking, I need to get to bed now - 5am comes way early!

That’s the latest news from the guys with one of the better event planning sites I’ve seen. What do I like about Planypus? I told you many times, or at least once here officially, it’s clean. You get to see what you are getting (a preview more or less) into before you sign up. Dedication by a dedicated team of guys. I have continued to watch Planypus, and they are evolving rather nicely. I just received this from Yan over there.

I just wanted to give you a heads up that we recently added some cool
features to Planypus. You can now take any Planypus activity and
export it to your profile in Facebook, or use our ‘blog widget’ tool
to add it to your blog. A great way to share plans you’re making on
Planypus with more friends.

What are you waiting for planners? I know that there has to be a lot of plans going on as far as Facebook is concerned right? I mean the demographics alone show that the crowd that favors Facebook is the crowd that loves to plan events. Command your fast typing or mouse clicking fingers to head on over to Planypus today, so you can sign up, and start making plans on the coolest event planning site around.

Technically Speaking, they have a cool mascot and cool shirts too. Just check out the T-Shirt that I have.

Yes, it appears that this is for real this time. The buyers? Cisco! I’m happy that the ending for Tribe.net is at least a good one. I was hoping and pulling for them to finally get a deal such as the one they are reportedly receiving early next week.

[DigitalRon - need a great web host?]

When I first saw this posting about the deal, I was skeptical. How many times have we heard about Tribe.net getting sold or merging or something? The buzz has died way way down for Tribe, and I think other social networks need to look at some of the reasons why. I personally believe that Tribe never left the San Francisco area. They were more like a small local social network. Now others may disagree, but the fact remains, a large percentage of the people that are on there (or were still even checking their page) was a San Franciscan.

[HTPBG - a great book that you need to read]

Other social networks need to be wary of getting stuck in the “we are world wide” and only to be local. I was on a business networking site for awhile. They are growing from the news I hear through the grapevine, but they are also growing locally. They started out trying to be world wide live, but unfortunately they are more a local strong business site. I’m happy for them, and I’m glad they have worked on building up that local following there in Seattle.

[yourminis - not using them yet? why not?]

Technically Speaking, social networks as pointed out in a recent comment by Yan of Planypus is a hard business. So unless you are ready to go to work to be world wide live, you may want to keep your social network to local first. World Wide Live and attracting millions is not an easy thing to do. Also please note, the fun we poke at Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame is suppose to be funny and enlightening all at the same time. I mean come on, you do have to admit, no matter how “cool” you think you are - the picture shows how really stupid he looked that day. Trust me, I like to dress cool, but if I’m suited up for some business meeting, I’ll leave the open toe $14.99 Target sandals at home!

Renkoo social network - I thought Renkoo was going to be an event planning site? Now they are a social network also? I guess, if you really need good event planning, get on Planypus. Maybe that is why Renkoo received $3 million? To create another social network. Great, we needed another one.

Viacom stomps the life out of YouTube - They just signed that deal with Joost. This should prove to be interesting to see if YouTube can re-corner a market they had easily.

zpeech.com - Now this sounds like a very useful tool. Comments on your web site, any web site just by putting the zpeech.com in front of the URL.

SplashCast announces improvements - These guys are working hard to get your business. If you haven’t checked them out, you really need to do so if you are moving media across the internet.

Yaplet - Kind of like zpeech.com above, this site puts chat on any site.

Mike Arrington Live! - This should be a very interesting interview that Mike Arrington is going to conduct live on stage at Mix07.

Odeo - If you have the money, you have yourself a very high traffic generating site. Yes, Odeo is now up for sale.

I sound like a SplashCast shill now don’t I? Well I am not shilling. There is no money involved here. Full Disclosure - SplashCast does NOT pay me to tell everyone about how great their service is. I do this freely, without reservation.

Why am I saying this? Well I just got done uploading the first episode of the Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1 - up to SplashCast, YouTube, and Revver. Well as soon as the video went up, Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1 was live and world wide. YouTube said - Processing. Revver, I don’t even bother there until I get an e-mail.

What am I saying? If you want your video online, today, now and in the moment you create them - use SplashCast. The service is fast, and guess what? Every episode is in it’s own little player. It’s like basically a TV with different shows, all back to back. You can see an example of the player on the right side bar. Both shows are there, the Technically Speaking Episode #3 (just uploaded that) and the Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1 right below that.

Oh, and you don’t have to do just videos either! Another thing - the player is SIZED to fit in my side bar. You can actually make it huge if you want too. I just know that the wmv file I upload would look even more crappy if it was any bigger then a normal size video you see online. Just the facts of video compression!

Let’s say you are really creative and artistic, but take pictures or do poetry set to music. Yes, you can put that there. Henry Rollins would probably love this service. I mean seriously, there is one dude that is super intelligent that also makes some aggressive music. Whatever your shidig is, you can put it up on SplashCast. Great service, and I will probably keep talking about them in the near future.

Now for some show notes:

Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1

Mae Oakmont talks about this unique product found on OverStock dot com.

Knife Holder that you may want to warn your guests about. “I’m not a slasher freak, really, no.. it’s just my knife holder.. honest.. “

Technically Speaking Live Episode #3

Mae discusses her new show - Friggin’ Break Report

Give Me A Friggin’ Break

Break It!

Planypus

Well week one is now going into week #2 for the site - Give Me A Friggin’ Break - is now heading into week #2. The design is something I sort of like at this point. Two great templates that one of our big supporters pointed me too.

In fact if you get the chance, you really need to do your next event planning at Planypus. They totally ROCK! Not only did they help me out this past week with great advice, but they have a great company that really needs to receive some looking at from financial types. I am not planning an event currently, but believe me you, if I do plan one, it’s going to be utilizing their service.

Now, back to the GMAFB for a second. I set the thing to a star look (vote and rank) instead of the digg vote look. I also set it to needing 4 votes and an average 3 star rating to move from the unpublished status. I think this is a fair way of doing things. It keeps the front page uncluttered from having a ton of GMAFB stuff that Scot and I will be posting.

The way I look at it is - even though I may think the post I have put on there - Flippin’ Chicken - was one of the more funny pictures that sort of grabs you right away, other people may think differently. It is like this, “Why should some that only 2 people think is funny, deserve front page status?” Yes, it is kind of digg like, but in the same token as I said above it keeps the front page uncluttered. The ones out there out on the main page are the ones that have at least 4 votes and a 3 rating. I am now totally understanding why digg does what it does.

The only difference is we are not in anyway going to be pushing things up because we want too. The PEOPLE will decide that. I already have some feedback on the star rank thing vs the straight vote thing. One person loves it, another person hates it. With that being said, I will be looking for more feedback and will be setting up a voting poll very very soon! Look for it. I want this to be a decision of the people - Vote look like digg — or — Star Rank look.

I already did post something there now this morning, since it goes unpublished. It was even (in the person’s blog post) rated as WTF. I was like,”Hmm.. yup.. it is a WTF“, and with my bookmarklet I easily posted it there. You can drag and drop the small graphic or the word bookmarklet to your browser bar now (FireFox!).

Technically Speaking, it is Sunday, but there a few interesting items coming up.