Archive for November, 2006

by Brion Lau

Ms. Dewey adds a fresh new look to the typical search engines. Introduced by Microsoft, Ms. Dewey, played by actress Janina Gavankar, brings beauty and sass to the world of search. Dewey is not your typical digital librarian (and yes the name is a play off the Dewey decimal system).

Dewey jokes, mocks and threatens to call the police on Web searchers, depending on the query. Here’s a few queries that seemed to get a funny rise out of her: “cars,” “Bill Gates” and “Google.” She’ll also put you in your place if you try to get fresh with her online. Let me know if you can track down some others.

The engine works through Flash software and is powered by Microsoft Live. Thank goodness for Dewey–just another way to help get through the day!

by Mike Fennelly

So, we here at PopDigerati have written a bunch about virtual celebrities, or people and things that are only famous because of the internet. What happens, though, when the real world celebrities cross over into the virtual world and start interacting with the fans?

Meet Billy West. You may know him a little bit better as Ren, or Stimpy, or Fry, Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, or Professor Farnsworth from Futurama. Or maybe as the red M&M, or Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig. You get the picture. You may not know him as one of the most accessible celebrities out there today, via his messageboard at http://www.billywest.com.

Now the question for the readership (hello everyone from mybloglog.com, thanks for checking us out!) is (as you may have guessed, since it’s the title of this post) Who is your favorite “real” celebrity that’s out there online interacting with their fans? As you can see, we’re using the term “celebrity” a little loosely. They don’t have to be Paris Hilton, but they should be Someone We Would Have Heard Of. They should also be actually out there, via messageboard, chatroom or blog, actually interacting with their fans. Let us know, so we can steal your ideas run features on them here on PopDigerati!

This post has been truncated here because Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless But Might Possibly Be Mike’s Girlfriend told him his last post was “too long”. Pshaw.

by Brion Lau

Can a $10 investment really amass $1 million?  Ask Anshe Chung (aka Ailin Graef), real estate tycoon of the virtual world, Second Life.  According to the official press release,  Chung’s virtual real estate empire totaling approximately 36 square kilometers is now roughly valued at $1 million.

The Valleywag blog seems to think this is BS.  Normally I’d agree except other articles clearly show a real business model for making real money in the virtual world.  Case in point, Businessweek wrote an article, “My Virtual Life”, highlighting a few examples of virtual riches including Chung’s example.  If you still think this is just hype, then I recommend reading Kim Roach’s article, “Second Life Marketing”, as further evidence that PopDigerati may be writing about even more virtual celebrities in the future.

by Mike Fennelly

Now that I’ve recovered from the trip to Las Vegas, and mugged enough old ladies to pay my rent for yet another month, it’s time to write again. Now, I was originally excited when I came back here and saw that we had *gasp* FIFTY SIX comments awaiting moderation! I got considerably less excited when I noticed that 47 of these comments were offering mortgage refinancing, three were offering herbal viagra, and the remaining six were offering… well… “hot slut” was the term used. Enough said about that, at least in a public forum.
Now, Mr. Spammer, you may have noticed the words “awaiting moderation” up there in that first paragraph, nestled somewhere betweek “pay my rent” and “considerably less excited”. Look hard, I know you’ll find them. What that means to you is that nobody but Brion or myself is ever going to see your salacious come-ons, and it’s going to have to be one hell of a hot slut offering me a refinanced mortgage to get me to click on that link.

So, Mr. Demonstrative, or Miss Lumbar Q. Jellyfish, or Mme. Umber N. Corpulent, if you would like to offer PopDigerati wads of small, unmarked, non-sequential bills, we may ponder putting your ads up on the site, but we’re more likely to take your money back to Vegas with us, and laugh at you while we drop it all on Red.

Anyway, I was going somewhere with this, and that somewhere was the Nigerian 419 scam, which I’ll add to our “Posers” category. I’m sure we’ve all received at least 50 or 60 of these over the years, but if you haven’t, here’s a sample : (keep reading after the jump)
Read the rest of this entry »

by Brion Lau

Well, we’re back from the ritual pilgrimage to Sin City. Sadly, we didn’t find any new talent to write about during that trip. However, Mike did manage to get a picture with magicians Penn & Teller. Since this isn’t really about our trip, I’m going to dig into my reserve of backlogged articles I’ve been meaning to write.

If you’re like me then you’ve probably missed the hoopla about Jessica Rose (aka Lonely Girl 15 or Bree). A few months ago, Lonely Girl 15 took Youtube by storm by posting her video diary online of relatively mundane details of her teenage life. These video blogs so enthralled viewers that millions followed the saga of this online American “teenage celebrity”.

Well, the story gets better. In Sept., Lonely Girl 15 was exposed and, yes, she’s a fake. Lonely Girl 15 is actually nineteen year old aspiring actress, Jessica Rose, a New Zealander now living in Los Angeles. Check out the full news story as it was aired a few months ago:

Since being exposed, the creators have moved the fleeting popularity to a dedicated site called Lonelygirl15.com. In addition, Rose was recently hired by the United Nations to fight poverty through an online anti-poverty video. Rose will be playing her infamous lonelyGirl15 role as she sits by herself in her bedroom talking to the camera. This time, however, she will be talking about the antipoverty cause rather than her boyfriend troubles.

Note: If you spend time on the new Lonelygirl15 website, you might want to read their recent announcement about Operation Aphid, the official alternate reality game (ARG) of Lonelygirl.

In my opinion, this only rates as a one hit wonder–not truly pop digerati caliber but definitely entertaining enough to help get through the day.

by Mike Fennelly

…which, as we all know, is Las Vegas. While Brion and Mike will be gone blowing PopDigerati’s ad bucks on loose slot action, cheap booze and cheaper hookers, we leave you with a few things that should keep you occupied while we’re gone.

First of all, is The Lame Game – I got hooked on this one while sitting and waiting for the elusive BOC to show up during the last Woot! Off. If you’re a fan of puzzles that leave you banging your head onto the nearest hard object until the answer suddenly materializes in a concussion-inspired vision, this one’s for you. If you like a little storyline with your puzzles, there’s always the “Escape from (color) room” series to keep you entertained. Last but not least, my personal favorite : MOTAS. This one should keep you occupied for the time we’re gone.

I guess if those can’t keep you occupied, you could always learn how to win an eating contest, or be a true ninja, or how to do anything else at the occasionally entertaining, frequently dubious wikihow.

If you’re still feeling bored and lonely, go watch Eric convey some emotions, and tell us if you want us to feature him in the near future.

Beyond that, I don’t know what to tell you – maybe you should just go brave Black Friday or something.

by Brion Lau

With all the press coverage over the past few days, you’ve probably already realized the Playstation 3 has hit the shelves of retail stores across the United States. Nintendo’s Wii is going to be on the market tomorrow. With all the hoopla, it’s a bit ironic that I spotted an article entitled, “Young pro vid games gross six-figures” by Kelli Kennedy of the Associated Press.

Sounds intriguing huh? According to Kennedy, Tom Taylor (aka Tsquared) is one such pro video gamer who raked over $450,000 since 2004 and he’s only a teenager! But you’re probably thinking this sounds too good to be true right? Well, the video gaming industry is already a multi-billion dollar industry with no signs of letting up. It’s not to hard to envision professional video gaming as the next big sport – or cybersport however you look at it. In fact, there’s even a professional league for gamers called Major League Gaming!
So rev up your gaming machines and start your gaming exercises. Will YOU be the next Tsquared or Lil’ Poison? If you think you’ve got what it takes to become a pro gamer, you should also check out “Professional video gamer says it’s not all fun” to be a balanced perspective. Also, if you’re interested in reading more about Tsquared, check out his blog over at MLG.

by Mike Fennelly

Okay – leave this site RIGHT NOW, and go to woot.com – Normally their method of selling is one day, one deal, and when the product’s gone, it’s gone, but today (and with luck, the rest of the weekend) is special. They’re having a semi random event called the Woot!Off, where as soon as one product sells out, the next in line appears. If you enjoy insanely good deals, and don’t believe in that annoying “necessity” of sleep – today is the day to introduce yourself to woot.com!

example:

by Brion Lau

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch the live broadcast announcing the Oakland Athletics move to Cisco Field in Fremont, California.  Rather than rehashing old news, I’d like to focus on John Chambers.  Let’s stir the pot a bit.

Should we consider including him in the PopDigerati Hall of Fame?  No one would dispute Chambers as being a deft politician and a savvy businessman.  However, let’s see what Chambers is doing to change the world through Cisco:

1. Expanding the Cisco Networking Academy program in the Middle East region to bridge IT skill gaps and shortage of networking professionals
2. Cisco claims it is empowering the human network with “solutions that connect, secure and empower people”.
3. New forms of communication such as Voice over IP (part of their Unified Communications Solution) and TelePresence (really cool stuff)

Read more about John’s vision here.

On the other hand, some may argue that Cisco is a more established company that is not really leading the way with the latest Web 2.0 technologies on its own corporate website or keeping up with cutting edge e-commerce capabilities.

So what’s your opinion PopDigerati fans?

by Brion Lau

What about a sports fan? Car buff? Fashion? Why am I asking?

Tonight I attended an event featuring entrepreneurs who have made the transition from employees to starting their own business. One of the panel speakers was Dave Lu, founder of FanPop.

The FanPop concept is simple: as a fan you can create a ’spot’ which collects together links to news stories, video clips, blogs, photos, forums and other online resources. All these links are submitted by Fanpop users, who can vote on each other’s links to highlight the best.

Lu had already been experimenting with blogs, affiliate marketing, and contextual advertising (Google adsense). In fact, he was running a blog called EOSrebels prior to launching FanPop. He soon realized there was an opportunity to create a platform where fans of all niches could come together to swap links and pool information.

According to TechDigest’s article on FanPop, Lu states, “Why not multiply that site by a thousand and give people an easy way to share their links and videoclips for all kinds of niche subjects?” he says. “You can search on Google or Yahoo, but there’s no context around what the results are, to tell you if they’re good. Social bookmarking sites do that kind of thing, but they’re disorganised and tag-based, and don’t build a community around those tags.”

For now, the site is still in beta, focused on growing its fans, and driving revenue through contextual advertisements (Google Adsense). Also, I can’t help but mention Dave Lu sounds just like David Liu from my previous article on Faqqly.com!

[Note to Mike: go create your fanpop page on the Red Sox. Lu says there's not enough sports enthusiasts yet.]