Social networks die due to quick-fixing boredom
Written on 29th May 2009
9 COMMENTS 
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
On a drawing book, Internet could be described as the flower of knowledge exploration, a place to explore mankind’s knowledge virtually, and contributing to that. What a useful contribution to our lives! However, our Internet is a lot less boring. After merely 36 years of development, Internet became the quick-fix for boredom at the office. Forget about knowledge, who doesn’t want to see a cute kitty or discuss breakup words to end your relationship?
In my opinion, there has been an staggering trend going on with the social media sites. While Slashdot is still (and probably always will be) moving along with it’s core crowd discussing tech, Digg grew from being a tech site, to… a tech site – adding images of cute little kitties and latest Failblog in the process. For quite some time, Twitter has been THE place to discuss, well… Twitter, a topic that merely expanded to ‘fail wales’ along the way. More recently, interesting contributions came along, which made the platform interesting, but in the post-Oprah Twitter-era, the network seems to have evolved to a place to discuss “lies girls tell” and “breakup words”.
Perhaps this observation is just me, but doesn’t it suck that these social networks are being ridiculed to pointless time wasters? Don’t even get me started on Facebooks “quiz” revolution (have you noticed that), or the amazing amount of useless content that Yahoo Answers is producing. I wonder if social networks lose a lot of their value due to deteriorating content that is published on them. Social Networks should (and Digg failed in this) facilitate new ways to present their data to their audience to keep the network interesting, otherwise, it is doomed to lose their audience on the long run.
Let me draw up the ‘evolution of topics’ for you, as I have experienced it:
Shapeways just got a whole lot easier
Written on 25th March 2009
2 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
Remember Shapeways, the awesome Dutch company that introduced us to fabricate 3D items really easy? They improved their service last week.
Since our last post, Shapeways made their services amazingly easier. Check out their latest service called “photoshaper”, a tool that prints your photo’s in 3d. 3d modelling skills are not required anymore.
Also, one can make nifty napking ring poems, with the ringpoem maker. Choose a font and Shapeways will do the rest. Excellent for that special event (marriage, conference whatever), these rings are about $50.
Granted, creating custom mousepads, tshirts or photoalbums can be fun for the family, but Shapeways offers an online service to create your own objects, how cool is that?!
Naver.com to release Opencast this Sunday
Written on 25th February 2009
5 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
South Korean search engine Naver.com announced the release of Opencast this Sunday March 1st. I had a brief introduction by an Naver employee about the new feature. In short, Opencast can be best described as a widget showing random blogposts with a Twitter-like subscription function. (get it?) Ah, well… Perhaps you should see the video for an impression, or at least to see how slick the admin panel looks.
Naver.com has over 150 million views per day, the fact that they are tapping user generated content and displaying it on their frontpage is an interesting development.
How it works for publisher a ‘Opencaster’:
- ‘Opencasters’ post their content on their blog/site/etc.
- They visit an admin panel on naver.com to login
- Add text (excerpt) and/or pictures with their link
- Their post get displayed in random during an X amount of time on the website
How it works for reader:
- People visiting the site see the headlines on the page
- Click through or subscribe (after login) to certain posts
- Get displayed same or simular headlines in the future
I like the idea because it’s like integrating a meaningful public timeline into a page as popular as Google, and I am a firm believer that a western equilavent would be a big hit.
The video is narrorated in Korean but should offer some idea of the service.
Naver.com
According to the December ‘08 issue of KoreanClick, South Korean search engine Naver accounts for 75% of the total Internet searching activity in Korea, leaving Google with a mere 3%. Perhaps because the search engine company defines search in this country. Read more about Naver…
Web ventures on sale; RTL Interactive completes takeover of German social network
Written on 3rd February 2009
2 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
RTL Interactive, the Internet brance of the RTL Group (German) announced their 100% takeover of Wer Kennt Wen.
Marc Schröder, the CEO of RTL Interactive responded to the takeover in a interview with a German newspaper that RTL wants to become less dependent of tv advertisements, instead they want to focus more towards Internet and e-commerce. Wer Kennt Wen currently has 5.5 million members, the transaction is estimated at 10 million Euros. RTL Interactive is not new in the Internet brance, they booked a turnover of 200 million euro’s in 2007.
Moral of the story, the memory of StudiVZ (holding 5 times less users at the time) being bought for 85 million Euros in 2007 is still fresh. Was StudiVZ worth the money? While Business Angels are utterly scared getting their hands dirty, media giants realize that Internet startups are on sale these days.
Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion in Dec. 08
Written on 23rd January 2009
6 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
The Internet audience has quietly surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008, based on data from ComScore. Asia-Pacific Region Accounts for 41 Percent of Internet users and China Ranks as Largest Internet Population in the World. These rankings are estimations of home and work locations and are excluding PDA and Internet cafe’s.
“Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet,” said Magid Abraham, President and Chief Executive Officer, comScore, Inc. “It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat. The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.”
You can reach a billion people per month over the Internet, truly an amazing thought. In the top 10 online countries, we find Brazil as the first Latin America country. Africa is no where to be found. There are heaps of opportunities for local and foreign investors in this field. And I am not referring to the $100 computer. People in these developing countries should get inspired by the Bangladesh and Mongolian WiMax projects, providing cheap wireless Internet to the masses. To realize that Africa (One of the biggest continents on our planet) makeup only 5% of the total worldwide Internet audience is a thrilling thought. When those people are online, the Internet is truly a global network.
Are we still before the corporate blogging revolution?
Written on 23rd January 2009
7 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
Just out of curiosity; how many corporate blogs do you read? Actually, the number of corporate blogs in my feed is rather limited. While blogging seemed an exciting alternative to the one-way advertising through print and radio – allowing a dialogue with customers perhaps a community of people interested in the activities, the amount of success stories seem to be pretty small. Why would that be? Isn’t blogging just awesome, and shouldn’t every company start doing it to get in touch with their customers? Granted, blogging is not always peaches and cream, actually the chance of a blog backfiring is pretty big, especially if a company doesn’t understand the fundamentals behind blogging. A school example of this is the failed Walmart blog.
How wallmart did it wrong
Wallmart lacked transparency when they launched their blog called “Wal-Marting across America”. The problem was that it looked like a consumer operation at first, a cross county adventure of two anonymous wallmart shoppers. Instead, they were professionals hired by Wallmart, creating a flow of angry customers that realized that the blog was manufactured. Instead, they should have communicated that the blog was operated by themselves, perhaps aiming for a community that actually generates new idea’s for the corporations!
Successful blogs
I believe Microsoft Yahoo and Google have done a great deal in creating a engaging blog, take Microsoft for example:
Microsoft’s port 25 blog
The port 25 blog maintained by Microsoft is actually pretty successful. When they launched the blog – aimed for opensource developers in 2007, their aim was to improve the relationship. The open-source software developers had a environment to discuss their frustrations with the software giant. Microsoft took their blog, monitored criticism and proactively searched for solutions to the issues. opensource
Other blogs?
Do you read company blogs? What companies know how to engage their readers and create a community? Do you read the blog of Twones or Wakoopa? I actually wonder if there are accountants, design offices, government institutions or banks that are blogging their hearts out. Or could it be to early for a real corporate blogging revolution?
LG: Let’s combine a 3G phone and a watch
Written on 14th January 2009
4 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
During the last few years, technology has merged many devices. Some combinations are insanely genius, like the nifty packed smartphone on your desk for example, and the fellow who invented the microwave-oven combination should get an award too! But other product mergers are just ridiculous, some need time. What do you think about the following:
A week after CES, *after the Palm PRE storm*, I’m still receiving new gadgets and innovations in my mail and RSS feeds from this event. Not particular suited for a story but the following made me interested for a very particular reason, I’d like to explain to you why. No longer should mankind have to look in two separate places to look at a watch and a 3G phone! This is a LG Watch Phone G-GD910. It’s a phone and a watch at the same time! This thing comes complete with a 1.43-inch LCD touch-screen, Bluetooth, 3G connectivity, and a built in camera.
I hear you think: This is just another product demo of a product we will continue to see demonstrated at fairs over the years but NEVER see in the store. And you are probably right. The phone watch is also not exactly a Breitling. The device is über geeky, it reminds me of those calculator watches from the 90s. Style tip: Leave this device in the store. (If it gets there)
However, my geeky heart started pounding when I realized that this device serves a multimedia device at all times. The watch is excellent to use for sports, esp. for the runners out there! The 3g functionality makes it a great tracing device as well! After all, there is a little Bond in all of us!
Google has a new Favicon, do you like it?
Written on 10th January 2009
28 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
In other shocking news, Google changed their favicon again! As you might remember, Google updated their favicon to a rather *fugly* one last June. A few days later Google challenged its audience to come up with a better Favicon. – Chapeau Google, good strategy to get people sending in submissions.
We have a winner!
Google was “impressed by the volume of submissions”, and managed to make a decision – almost one year later, Google launched their new favicon today! 
This colorful icon is based on the design by André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil. “His placement of a white ‘g’ on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google.”
We would like to congratulate André with his winning submission, and please tell us… You did get something from Google right? Something besides the eternal honor? A trip to the Googleplex, or a bag of money? Tell us!
Edit: André tells us that he didn’t get anything from submitting the winning piece. I’d say, Marissa Mayer, Micheal Lopez do something about that! He deserves some sort of prize! Right?
[poll id="22"]
Loopia offers .SE domain names for less then an Euro
Written on 11th December 2008
7 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
Loopia, a Swedish domain-registrar is running a Christmas Special on .se domains, for only 9 SEK or €0.85 for a domain name. A ridiculous low price so I thought it would be worth mentioning here! Just make sure that you choose to purchase the domain name only – “Endast beställning av domännamn”, and that the discount only works for .se domains. Note that the control panel will be in Swedish but this shouldn’t be a big problem. Anyway, might be a nice Christmas present for your tech-savvy friends! The action will run for December, and I didn’t got paid from Loopia for posting this message. (I think I should)
Some domain names I could think of:
- analy.se
- legali.se
- noi.se
- unwi.se
- apologi.se
- applau.se
Let us know when you find other great christmas deals!
<
Why embracing mobile VoIP is vital for carriers
Written on 31st October 2008
8 COMMENTS
Joop Dorresteijn, East Asia correspondent
How and why mobile carriers focus on their current revenue model too much and why this will lead to missing out on the emerging global VoIP market.
As you might remember, VoIP technology was initially used on desktop computers only. When these PC-to-phone applications like Skype came out, there were devastating problems for established telecom businesses. The uprising of Wi-Fi and 3G bundled mobile phones are creating a market that did not exist before. Actually, mobile VoIP created a need of which the late majority of customers are not aware of yet today. (Philosophical, I know)
Mobile carriers should embrace VoIP solutions to avoid competition on this emerging market. In practice, they have to alter their income streams from operating calls to data plans. Embracing mobile VOIP would avoid entrepreneurs to take over the market in the future. Instead, mobile carriers are suppressing the use of VOIP on mobile phones. However, mobile VoIP users are emerging quickly, “analyst firm Disruptive Analysis suggested ‘VoIP-over-3G’ would grow from zero to 250 million users worldwide within five years.” The reason why mobile operators are still neglecting this market are general for many cases of disruptive innovation. (more…)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Add your button here too.
Only €99 a week (100.000+ pageviews = less than € 1 CPM!)
Upload your button now.
Recent Visitors:
Events
We're live blogging it
A Gathering for DevelopersPartners
The Next Web Conference
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 2009.thenextweb.com)
Make it official
We love you, dear reader, and hope you love us too. Make it official by adding us to one of these services:
