Tag: web 2.0
Sussex University replicates itself in Second Life
It’s all been a bit quiet on Second Life news recently (you know how much we love Facebook these days). The rush of companies and organisations setting up shop in the virtual world may have died down, but Sussex University has decided to build a presence there.
The “island” looks like the real campus, and visitors can go to the library, attend online seminars, or visit the Students’ Union…
Google and Microsoft may be ready for fight over Digg sale
Digg, the user-generated news site, may be close to being sold off to the highest bidder. According to TechCrunch, a source very close to the alleged deal, four companies are interested in buying Digg, including Microsoft and Google.
Remember the face-off (ahem) between the two giants over Facebook? We could be set to see a similar battle — that is, if the other two “media/news companies” aren’t successful.
BBC TV comes to iTunes Store, for a price
It seems all the BBC is doing right now is pushing out its content into every Web 2.0 and online orifice going. The latest development is that it expects the good old British public (who already fund the BBC) to pay for content via the iTunes Store.
For just £1.89 per episode, users can download a range of popular Beeb fare including Torchwood, Life on Mars, Little Britain, Spooks, Robin Hood, and other BBC classics.
There’s now quite a bewildering choice of methods by which you can get your fix of Auntie, and depending on how organised you are, how much you care about quality, and the state of your bank balance / credit limit.
Shazam music discovery site launches Facebook application
Shazam, which we featured a couple of years back, has just announced the launch of an application for Facebook that will allow users to access recent songs identified via Shazam’s mobile service, and share that music with their friends.
BBC launches widgets for Radio Times, Good Food, and Top Gear web sites
The BBC is certainly keen to get their content out beyond the gogglebox in the living room. Last month, they put classic TV clips on MySpaceTV, they’ve put classic Parkinson and EastEnders on YouTube, and their iPlayer is booming, so it’s probably no surprise that they’ve now developed widgets which can be used on the desktop, on social networking sites, and popular blog platforms.
RadioTimes.com, BBCGoodFood.com, and TopGear.com, all now provide widgets which give regular feeds of the latest news and information.
Bebo $1bn acquisition "definitely happened", sources claim
Anyone interested more in the financial side of social networks, rather than simply adding tons of weird applications and spending hours turning down odd friend requests and notifications, may like to know that, according to “a high level source”, the social network Bebo has signed an acquisition deal thought to be worth $1bn.
Yes, that’s a whole lot of cash. Previosuly, Facebook had been “valued” at anywhere from $6bn to $15bn, though the rumoured Microsoft take-over never happened.
WooMe brings speed dating to the online masses
Speed dating was a sensible response to the problem of a generation of time-poor singletons who are too busy working to have time for slow, boring old traditional courting. And it worked. But now everyone spends their downtime on Facebook and YouTube, what to do? Easy: Web 2.0 speed dating.
MySpace Developer Platform coming 5th February
Presuming that you haven’t already deleted your MySpace account, you may be interested to learn that a development platform is launching for the garish, spammy service on 5th February.
Adam over at Mashable caught up with Amit Kapur, newly promoted COO of MySpace, who will be overseeing the new platform.
Though MySpace is rather behind the times when it comes to opening up to developers in this way, Kapur says that they’ve learned from the mistakes of others, and will be immediately addressing issues of privacy, monetisation, and data ownership.
Amusingly, they will be addressing the issue of spam on information feeds — prevalent indeed on Facebook, but hardly something MySpace is immune from.
Is your web site Hot or Not? New site lets you find out
Just when you thought there was no room for any more “Hot or Not” web sites, along comes one which lets you vote on how good a web site looks.
Yes, we know it’s all about the content, right? But, just as with most other things in life, some things look great, and some things look downright nasty.
So why not vote on them?
Dilettante gives classical music a Web 2.0 spin
Much of the hype around Music 2.0 focuses on rock, hip-hop and dance music over other genres. However, UK startup Dilettante aims to change that, providing a spangly Web 2.0 experience that (it hopes) will turn younger web surfers into fans of classical music.
