The (never ending) Battle of Status Updates!

MSN Messenger and other chat programs probably didn't know at the time they would initiate such a massive trend when letting people add a short personal message next to their nickname. Yes, I do believe they're at the origins of this.
And now, it just seems like every major website is releasing an "Update your Status" option! The battle for the What's on your mind? between Facebook and Twitter has been going for a while now, but it has now expanded to nearly every social/networking site. Although I have been using several of them for different purposes, the concept remains the same: Telling something to people around you. Wow, what a revolution! I don't want to be critical. Mostly because I have been using them myself for a long time and find them very useful. I use Facebook updates to tell my (real) friends what's going on in my life. I used to do the same on Twitter but now I mostly use it to share interesting links with people (that I know in real life or not) with the same interests.
But beyond Twitter and Facebook, are other status updates really useful?

Facebook Status Updates

Twitter Status updates

As far as I'm concerned, I rarely use the Linkedin updates service but I can still see why this could be a good thing. We're in 2009 and the way people approach each other, even professionally, has drastically changed. I see people update their status to tell their network they're looking for a job while others might be looking for someone. Yes, it does make it easier. (Linkedin also introduced the "Update Twitter at the same time" option as you can see on the screenshot below)

Linkedin Status updates

Another example, Google Latitude's status updates. There again, I can still see the concept of letting people around you know exactly where you are and what you are doing. But this is definitely too intrusive for me and I don't want people to know where I am all the time, especially if I forgot to switch off my Latitude automatic location updates. This definitely raises privacy and security issues. Moreover, I don't think I know A-N-Y-O-N-E who actually uses Latitude on a regular basis, if ever! If you are a regular user, let me know, I'd be interested!

Google Latitude Status updates

Some of you might not even have heard about Yahoo! meme. The difference with Twitter is that you can easily post not only text, but audio, video and photo files. As much as I like Yahoo! and the simple/easy-to-use aspect of this website, I still think it is nothing more than a copy of Twitter and sadly, I don't like copycats! I therefore ask the same question, does any of you actually use Twitter memes or know anyone who does? I have tried once, wrote two updates, and never signed in again! I just don't know anyone and don't feel like building a 3,819th network.

Yahoo! Meme Status updates

In conclusion, I think Facebook/Linkedin/Twitter might stay for a while as they are the most popular and bring the most value to the online users. But I personally think Yahoo memes have no space in the new online world and will never take off, a bit like friendfeed which, to my eyes, won't succeed in the medium/long term. As for Google Latitude, I think this service might work, but in a couple of years from now. It is too soon and even though more and more people have smartphones with GPS antennas, they still represent a minority in the population.

I have only showed you a few examples and I am certain there are many more out there. But honestly, who has the time to manage all these different channels?
Do you think this is just a trend that has been going on for a couple of years now, but that will end within that same date range from now? Read the full post

"Assassin's Creed Lineage" series

Tomorrow is the Australian release date of the Assassin's Creed sequel on Xbox 360. I have played the first game and absolutely loved it. The graphics were impressive and the gameplay/storyline clearly different from what I had seen before. I was slightly disappointed by the repetitiveness of the missions but this did not stop me from wanting the much anticipated Assassin's Creed II.

In order to promote the new game, Ubisoft released 3 high definition episodes entitled "Assassin's Creed Lineage", setting up a synopsis probably close to the game's storyline. Although it is happening during the Italian Renaissance and not during the Crusades like the first one was, the atmosphere remains very loyal to the game. I am quite certain that this sequel will be a total success and I cannot wait to get my hands on it! The episodes below are also available in HD on Youtube. Enjoy!

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Do you know the SEO rapper?

The SEO rapper has been posting videos on his Youtube channel talking about SEO/PPC and other related topics. He has definitely reached a niche audience but went viral via a several now-famous videos, some of which are over 2 years old. If you don't know him, have a look at some of the videos below. I actually did learn quite a few things from his SEO tips :)

Paid Search 101


Social Media Addiction


Page Rank


Design coding


Link Building 101

Bonus: MSN versus Google rap battle (without the SEO rapper)

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Grooveshark and Internet Music Streaming Sites

Internet radios and online music libraries have been at the center of my interests in the recent years. I have been using many services such as Pandora, Last.fm, We are Hunted and the French Deezer just to name a few. All with libraries containing millions of tracks, it is easy to find the streaming music you like and create your favorite playlists that you can listen to over and over again... Earlier this year, Spotify (which I sadly can't access from Australia yet) and moof have made a lot of buzz as the new trendy online radios.

However, I came across a new site several weeks ago called Grooveshark. Since then, I haven't been using any other online music streaming site. Their library of over 15 million songs gives you a wide variety of artists and styles to listen to. Although their service is probably not as complete as others (no smart radio per gender for example), I still find it to be one of the most easy to use and fastest ones out there. Moreover, building playlists has never been that simple with an easy drag and drop. Deezer already had this function but their site is rather slow. Then again, I'm talking from Australia, I know it is very fluid in France.

Another tool they offer are the widgets. They've set up an easy and very customisable way to display your playlists or one-off songs on your own site or blog. Below are two examples of what you can do with it.

Like several others, you will soon be able to download a Grooveshark app on the Android market (and probably on the iPhone too) as they've announced it on Twitter.

Two examples of widgets you can add to your site/blog.

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The Android Market gets a sister version for netbooks: Insyde

Android, the now famous mobile phone operating system (OS) developed by Google is becoming increasingly successful for many reasons: It is open source, free, and can easily be adapted to many devices, screen sizes and uses. Moreover, the Android Market (where anyone can download free or paid applications) has now exceeded the threshold of 10,000 apps. This is even more impressive knowing that only 4,900 were available just 5 months ago in late May. This clearly shows that developers are paying more and more attention to this OS.

Many phone manufacturers are launching new devices running on the Google Android platform: HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson and even many unexpected computer firms such as Lenovo, Dell, IBM, Archos and Acer. The next 12 months will be the time of revelation for Android, and as more people use these phones, the more interesting it gets for developers! For your information, the iPhone currently holds little over 100,000 applications in its appstore but I am quite certain Android will catch up within 12 months from now.

Early July (2009), Google announced a new operating system named Chrome OS which I have talked about already in this article. This new OS will be running on netbooks because of its speed and "light" size, making it an ideal platform for devices like small computers. Strangely, some netbooks will also run on the same Google Android platform as mobile devices already do. In fact, the Aspire One from Acer is already available with the Android OS.

The purpose of this article, however, is to introduce something which is the first of its kind although the concept is the same as the markets mentioned above. We have seen the Apple appstore and the Google Android Market offering a nearly unlimited choice of applications to download, but why not having a similar market designed specifically for those netbooks running on Android?

This is what a software company from Taiwan, Insyde Software Corp., has just done! Introducing the Insyde Market, the only known place that reviews and distributes netbook applications. Although only free applications are currently available, the site should open up to paid versions soon. If the netbook version of the Android OS encounters the same growing success as the mobile version (which I doubt at the moment), then perhaps this project will revolutionize the personal computer world.

Until more computers are released with Android, Insyde Market might remain a bit underground (developers are just beginning to focus on the mobile Android market).

If Chrome OS is meant to go on netbooks, why then having some using the Android platform?
I don't see the point of having two operating systems for the same type of devices.
Do you think the Insyde Market could work? Or it will have a difficult time to meet the same fate as its sister system?
Opinions are welcomed!
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Dunlop Volley Warehouse hilarious ads

It seems like some brands will do pretty much anything in order to attract the attention of the consumer and create some buzz around their product or service. The other day, I came across the brand Dunlop which decided to advertise their shoes in a very funky out-of-the-box strategy. It actually took me some time to understand they were selling shoes! Some people might not understand, others might not like it, but some like me on the other hand love this kind of advertising (Yes I am a victim of the buzz by sharing it!).

The videos below are quite funny and are placed as advertisements on websites in order to attract traffic to their own Dunlop Warehouse site. They even have a blog designed to interact with online visitors, who can submit their own WTF inventions. I won't describe you these videos so go ahead and have a look (and a laugh!).

Dish Jockey


The Gig Viewer


Close Call


All in one

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ICANN's decision to Internationalize Domain Names

The ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is currently meeting in Seoul, Korea in order to decide on whether or not the domain names should be opened to other alphabets. So far, websites could be in any language but their domain name (URL) would remain latin alphabet based. The only "internationalization" of the domain names remained in the extension (.cn for China or .jp for Japan for example) which is quite limited.

As more and more developping countries gain access to the Internet and because the majority of the 1.6 billion web users worldwide speak a native language that uses a different alphabet, it became urgent to take a decision and open a new era of the Internet. This decision is set to be made this Friday (30/10/2009) and will allow domain names in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Hindi, Hebrew and Cyrillic (Russian). This is a significant and crucial step forward as the World Wide Web will now be the WORLD Wide Web!

I couldn't agree more with the fact that there is no reason why one alphabet should remain the only one used in domain names. However, I am quite concerned about the consequences this could have for the following reasons:

• Adding new languages to the domain names might divide the Internet. For example, if someone does not speak Hindi, it is very likely they won't visit a website whose domain is in Hindi (in fact, they won't even be able to do a task as easy as typing the URL of the website!). Therefore, the Internet might be divided into different subcategories of Internet where people speaking one language might not interact as much as they used to with people speaking another language. This thought may seem a bit extreme but who knows how it will evolve.

• Most hacker attacks in the early 21st century are perpetrated from China and Russia, both at amateur and government levels. These two countries have been known to infiltrate other countries' military networks, governmental and embassy networks (Australia, Germany, India, UK, France, the list goes on...), national energy power systems, etc. With new domain names, it will become even more difficult to trace back to the origin of the attacks. I am certain thousands of new proxies sites will be created in the very first days. It is already a difficult task to trace them so imagine if the cyberpolice need to speak 7 new languages!

• Online scams will become even more popular than they already are. Internet has a lot to offer but it also hosts many ways to get ripped-off. If you are surfing the web, then you are at risk, as simple as that. For example, most international brands will open a new domain name in the language they are targeting locally. But what happens if someone with bad intentions buys a domain name which is the exact translation in Chinese of a world famous bank, builds an exact replica of the official site and attracts thousands of visitors onto a page that could be requesting customer information or logins? There again, confusion, mess.

Of course, these are just some very early thoughts on the topic and I may have dramatized it a bit too much! I am certain the ICANN has already thought about all this and if the decision to open the domain world is taken, that probably means they have also weighted the pros and the cons and came to the conclusion that it was still a good idea to proceed with this historic change.

I unfortunately speak only Latin based languages (I wasn't too successful with my Mandarin classes!) and therefore won't be able to take advantage of that very last point:

New domain names = Gold rush!

Many people, I am sure, will each buy dozens, if not hundreds of new domain names of popular brands in other languages in the hope of reselling them to the official brands at a higher price. Generic keywords with high search volumes will also be a goldmine, either to be placed as parked domains for advertising revenue, either to sell them in the same case as the brands.

One thing is for sure, no one really knows at this stage how this will go. Let's just hope it will all roll out smoothly.

[30/10/2009 UPDATE: The decision has been taken, ICANN Allows Non-Latin Domain Names set to be opened for sale on November 16th. On top of other alphabets being used in domain names, the ICANN is going one step further by authorizing new generic top level domains (gTLDs)... This means that anyone can create their own extension and not remain blocked to a .com .net .org etc or any other classic extension.

I wasn't too enthusiastic about the previous decision but this one is even worst. Imagine, soon I'll be able to buy domains such as www.구글.com or www.goo.gle! I hope the ICANN has reviewed this closely and will submit some sort of guideline because this could be an infinite source of confusion.

What do you think of this?]

Read also: "International Domain Names and its impact on Search" - Outrider blog

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