Online Media Cultist

If you’ve never checked out Flickrvision (or its cousin, Twittervision), take a second. Or an hour: it’s simply mesmerizing. People posting pictures all over the world, displayed on a global map in real time. It’s fun to take a step back and think about what a truly revolutionary time we’re living in. It’s good to be an [...]

We’ve entered a mad phase of acquisitions, and there’s no sign that it will abate anytime soon. Consider today: Fox Interactive Media has announced the acquisition of Photobucket (which has been in the works for a while) and Flektor, a nifty little video- and audio-editing service. The big picture: MySpace (which is owned by Fox) is beginning [...]

One of my main questions about Facebook’s newly announced “Platform,” an API that allows outside companies to build services within Facebook for its millions of users – is how these news bells and whistles will actually attract the attention of Facebook’s social networking masses. TechCrunch provides a little more detail on how this is proposed to [...]

Earlier this week, news leaked about Facebook’s plans to build a platform on which companies can provide “special services” to its members. An invitation to the Facebook party in other words and its many millions of ad-clicking, discretionary cash-rich kids. At a “massive press/developer event” today in San Francisco, the Facebook Platform was officially announced. Over on [...]

One of my main criticisms of MyBlogLog – a site that I’m very fond of overall – is that there’s not enough to do on the site itself, particularly in the Communities section. Well, that’s starting to change as MyBlogLog is leveraging some of its new Yahoo-connections (MBL was purchased by Yahoo earlier this year) in [...]

Blog search engine Technorati has rolled out a new front page design in an attempt to further align itself as a multi-functional blog and media portal. The new design has cleaned up what was a somewhat chaotic-looking homepage, creating a more eyeball-pleasing experience. It includes a news ticker that runs across the top of the [...]

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch offers a surprisingly personal and wistful piece this morning about how Silicon Valley was more fun when it was less venture capital-fueled and PR-drenched. The good old days are now in the rear view, circa 2005. And then, he writes, “Somewhere in there the money started rolling in.” Arrington’s legitimate fear is [...]

Almost everyone who has ever touched a computer has heard of MySpace. My suspicion is that Facebook, by all accounts now the second most popular social networking site on the planet, is somewhat lesser known. But this may not be the case in a few years’ time. A Wall Street Journal piece profiles Facebook’s ambitious plans [...]

A gentleman who goes by the handle Spincycle interviewed me over at Blogcritics. Lots of Blogcritics-related stuff for anyone interested!

Check out this really smart and comprehensive look at “the wisdom of crowds” and how it applies to popular social news sites such as Digg, Reddit, and Netscape, written by my man over at Blogcritics, Technical Director Phillip Winn. If you’re into social news, or websites where the community (in theory!) controls the front page by [...]