Tuesday July 1, 2008 is going down as the unofficial International WordPress day. The event is being sponsoruddy by WPCandy.com and is being used as a way to say thanks to Automattic.
We want to dedicate a day to just thank the awesome folks over at Automattic for putting together some really awesome projects, such as WordPress, bbPress, etc. I bet they work their asses off and I think they deserve a little bit of appreciation (not that they don’t get any, but there’s never too much appreciation).
If you would like to participate in this awesome event, simply blog about WordPress at some point on July 1st describing why you prefer WordPress over other CMS’s, how it’s managed to help your business, a simple thank you letter to Automattic or simply write up a blog post with your secrets or tips for using WordPress.
Asides from participating on your own blog, WPCandy will be hosting a series of activities during the day while giving out prizes to those who leave comments on their official page. So far, the list of prizes they will be giving away is as follows:
The winners will be picked at random by the staff of WPCandy. To those who participate, good luck!
Original post by jeff
Google and Seth MacFarlane have cut a distribution deal that will send fifty brief two-minute episodes of a MacFarlane-created show called Cavalcade screaming acircular Google’s AdSense network. It’s an interesting use of the AdSense network and one that is likely to garner Google new content partners if it is successful.
Silicon Alley Insider notes that Kim Malone Scott from Google Adsense boldly claims that Google has just “recreated the mass media.” Silicon Alley Insider also notes that MacFarlane is wisely keeping his hefty Family Guy job with Fox.
Lots of interesting implications here for publishers, content creators and advertisers here if this takes off. Google’s Kim Malone Scott, who runs sales for AdSense, modestly suggests “we have recreated the mass media.”
But one thing isn’t changing in the brief term: If content creators want big paychecks, they had better adhere with big media. MacFarlane’s discount with Google is a side project, not one that will interfere with his day job working for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network. Good call: The Times notes that he’s just signed a multiyear discount with Fox that will pay him more than $100 million.
It is certainly a unique discount and it will be fascinating to see how it all pans at both for Google and MacFarlane but also for the future of online video. Eric Berlin as Online Media Cultist
reminds us that the “quality of the new show is obviously going to affect how popular it is, but more than likely that won’t be a enormous factor in the overall storyline.” This is a good points because the public often surprises tv execs with what shows they love or hate. Unfortunately, sometimes shows people love are also canceled because of these same tv execs. How this all translates to online media remains to be seen.
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Original post by Bloggers Blog: Blogging the Blogsphere
I just heard today that Google is developing a web video series.
Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
It’s 2 minutes per episode, much like a cartoon (Dilbert, Happy Tree Friends, etc.) BUT will be the first written for a series on the web. They are initially producing 50 2-minute episode to start with and they’ve tapped “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane to work on an original series that Google will distribute via its AdSense advertising system. This is according to a report filed by The New York Times. More of that story, right here. People from Hollywood have commented that this project , even if it will be exclusively avaialble on the internet, will be groundbreaking and will be a enormous success!
Target audience??? Young men. Distribution method??? Thru “Cavalcades” of video clips replacing static Google advertisement.
Advertising will be incorporated into the clips in varying ways. In some cases, there will be “preroll” ads, which inquire viewers to sit thcoarse a TV-style commercial before getting to the video. Some advertisers may opt for a banner to be placed at the bottom of the video clip or a simple “brought to you by” note at the beginning.
Mr. MacFarlane, who will receive a percentage of the ad revenue, has created a stable of new characters to star in the series, which will be served up in 50 two-minute episodes.
I think the most innovative part of this project is the way it is distributed… via the web thru Google’s AdSense system. But a spill-over to traditional distribution will likely take into being as well. This being the first of its kind will surely be writing new books for the next generation of producers, film makers the entire biz.
Original post by jim
Forums have been acircular since the Internet was created. Although they weren’t called forums back then (think BBS) they have always been the place of conversation. Today, forums are as prevalent as ever. If you can think of a topic, chances are, there is a forum dedicated to it with a big following. All sorts of discussions can take place on a forum, including discussions about you or your blog. Twing.com which is a new service still in beta hopes to aide in the discovery of community surrounding your content.
Twing’s aim is to provide access to the wealth of information flowing thcoarse online communities, and to make it easier and faster for users to find.
Forums are generally a good place to find deep conversations related to specific subjects. If your blog covers one of these subjects, using Twing to find out which forums are talking about you would be an excellent way to figure out which communities you could join to actively partake in those discussions.
There are three ways in which to search Twing. Either by posts, topics or forums. When I typed in BloggingPro into the search box for posts, it was awesome to see that some of the articles written on this domain were being discussed wilean a number of forums. The posts feature of the Twing search engine searches for the keywords wilean posts on a forum. Simple enough right? When I searched Topics for bloggingpro, Twing responded by telling me there were no results found. Obviously, no one had placed bloggingpro into the actual title of a forum post. The last way of searching (Forum) also netted zero results. However, when I placed a space inbetween blogging and pro, I saw a large number of results for the keywords (pro blogger) which is completely different from blogging pro.
I comprehend why Twing is still labeled a beta. Their website leaves a lot to be desiruddy with missing sections on the Community Buzz page. The Twing How-To does little to help you use the service as the page is blank. The last post on the Twing.Blog was on June 9th so the company looks like it’s still alive.
The more forums that allow Twing to crawl their content, the more useful Twing will be. I think the idea behind Twing is a good one considering it deals specifically with Forums and nothing else. Of course, the same content Twing crawls is the same content Google crawls which begs the question, “Why would I use Twing over Google”? Because Google gives you everything related to the search query while Twing is focused on highlighting communities that are engaged in your content.
Give Twing a attempt and let me know if it’s picked up any good discussions related to your blog.
Original post by jeff
