Category: Web 2.0
Find out how annoying your Twitter friends are with follow cost
Ladies and Gentlemen, I can exclusively reveal that following Tech Digest on Twitter is officially not annoying. Using the *science* perfected by the chaps at Follow Cost, it turns out that we issue just 0.44 updates per day, though that’s slightly higher if you’re just looking at the last hundred days…
Britney Spears is now following me on Twitter
That’s right, the pop princess now has her own Twitter account, or at least ‘her people’ do. At twitter.com/therealbritney, Brit’s “taking you where no paparazzi lens ever could with pics, vids and news from Britney herself”…
FOWA Expo Day One: I Can Has Cheez Burger
Ben Huh talks about the whole LOL Cats, I Can Has Cheez Burger phenomenon at FOWA Expo
Google still trying to monetise YouTube, adds "click to buy" links on videos
Google has long admitted that it’s having trouble making any money from its purchase of YouTube. The latest wheeze is to add clickable “Buy this now!” links on videos of buyable stuff. I’d love to show you you a less-grainy picture, but it only works in the USA so far. Check out the Amazon and iTunes links below the video.
The Goog is promising to expand the program internationally, as well as expanding the range of things it advertises next to. This scheme might also placate content owners, who will be happier to learn that there are now “Buy this” links next to the content that they own, but didn’t upload themselves…
Tokoni – sharing stories with a friendly community
A husband and wife team of former executives at Skype and eBay have banded together to create Tokoni – a site which lets you tell your story in the form of notes, photos and video. Tokoni has been in beta for a year, but launches today. It differs from a blog network because it’s more community-focused. Co-founder Alex Kazim explains:
UPDATE: Stroppy Apple threatens to close iTunes in MASSIVE SULK over royalty payments
There are two very important financial rulings being voted on today. One is something to do with banks and mortgages and the world not ending, which we couldn’t care less about and certainly don’t intend trying to understand.
The other is to do with Apple and the amount of royalties it pays to record labels in return for selling their music on iTunes. Three Copyright Royalty Board judges are meeting in Washington today, to decide if Apple should be forced to boost its royalty payments from 9 cents a song to 15 cents a song for each track sold via iTunes – a 66% increase.
Apple has, incredibly, threatened to CLOSE iTunes…
UPDATE: Oasis teasing new album 'Dig Out Your Soul' for free via MySpace today
Guess what, everyone? MySpace is still going!
And guess what, everyone? Oasis is still going! The two dinosaurs of social networking and 1990s pub rock have teamed up, with the Manchester band dumping the entire content of its new album “Dig Up Your Soul” for listening to on MySpace right now. I am, at this very minute, listening to a turgid reinterpretation of some Beatles songs, much to the anger of everyone within earshot.
The new album’s not officially released for traditional “buying” until next Monday…
New Facebook homepage – I can hear the sound of protest groups forming…
Facebook have suddenly, without warning, updated their homepage. It’s nice, too. Gone are the bullet points on why you should sign up, and in their place is a nice map emphasizing the global nature of the social “utility”.
BT launching new Phorm trials – users can join in (or opt out in HORROR) tomorrow
BT has announced some official-this-time new trials of Phorm’s controversial Webwise monitoring software – starting from tomorrow.
A select few BT users will be invited to join the latest and above-board trial of the ad-serving, browsing-monitoring software, with the pleasing result of seeing better targeted ads for Viagra as they mess about online…
O'Malley's Mashup: Save time by syncing calendars
Hello, this is my new column about one of the most important aspects of our increasingly digital lives: making our tech talk to our other tech. In the past, both applications on the web and your desktop and tangible consumer gadgets were all rather solitary and lonely beasts, doing their own thing and not really talking to each other – but thankfully, times are changing. Thanks to the magic of Web 2.0, people are creating things that talk to other things – and this can make our lives infinitely more efficient. For this week’s example, I’m going to be looking at calendars…
