Pro-SEO

The popular video site stage6.com is planning to shut down in 3 days (28 Feb) forever which has caused outrage amongst it's members.

On visiting the website you are greeted with a message from Tom (aka Spinner) explaining that the reason for the closure is basically that stage6 was too successful and outgrew it's self and has become a very expensive and time consuming operation. Forgive me if i'm wrong, But this stinks of a cop-out. stage6 is owned and operated by DivX, The video software company. Surely they know a thing or two about raising funds and running an online enterprise. And even if the reasons given are true, Why not sell it! I'm sure there are countless companies (Google, Yahoo, MSN) who would love an online video site of this magnitude.

I’m Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the company behind the service. I’m writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you’ll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I’d like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision.

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it’s really as simple as that.

Now, why didn’t we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That’s a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren’t providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

It's very bad business to say "argh! My company got too big! I must shut it down!
Sure quick growth can cause problems, but it's a problem that i would be prepared to live with.

It has been suggested that the message if a hoax, Which is believable after the last fiasco where hackers obtained passwords of thousands of stage6 members.

Labels: stage6

After months and month of asking the digg community have finally got what they wanted. A pic section for them to put their funny little lolcats.

When one goes to submit a story now they are offered a selection of either "news story", "video" or "image".

When the image is submitted the image is then displayed on the digg page.

But is it legal?

While this may seem like a good idea i wonder if digg have thought about the legal implications of this. If the image submitted belongs to someone else digg has no right to copy that image and display it on their site. I am assuming digg doesn't track down the owners of each image and ask their permission before copying the image and displaying it on digg.

Digg should expect to recieve a lot of angry emails from people (especially flickrers) not wanting their images to be copied and displayed on someone elses site without permission.

Labels: digg, law

Yahoo has reached a deal to start running advertisements in Adobe's popular PDF document-reading format.

The service will allow publishers to make money by including adverts linked to the content of a PDF document in a panel at the side of the page.

It is Yahoo's latest way of expanding the places it can advertise online following deals with the auction site Ebay and the cable TV group Comcast.

The advertisements will not appear if the PDF document is printed.

It is the first time that Adobe has allowed dynamic adverts into its PDF (Portable Document Format) files.

Dynamic adverts can be changed for particular audiences or rotated to make sure that a particular user never sees the same advertisement twice.

Labels: Advertising, yahoo

If you spend any time around digg it soon becomes apparent that the community stance is "M$ sux0rz, Apple is teh l33t".

So after another one of my blogs got to the front page of digg i thought i would have a look at my visitor stats to see what operating systems are used by diggers, Surely it should be majority macs, Second Linux and only a few people using windows, Right? Well it should be if you go by what diggers say. But as it turns out most of them are frauds who either a) pretend to hate the operating system they use or b) pretend to be rich enough and cool enough to use macs.

Windows: 75%
Macs: 19%
Linux: 5%
Unknown: 1%

I don't mind people hating an operating system, But if you are going to hate it, Don't use it.

Labels: digg, operating systems, pic

When GMail began rolling out a new Gmail code architecture a few weeks ago, They also launched some new features to help improve the speed and convenience of managing email.

5. "Archive and next" shortcut
Gmail added a bunch of new shortcuts, but one that I've found to be a true time-saver is what I call the "archive and next" shortcut. When I have a lot of mail, it can be really annoying to have to open a message, click "Back to Inbox" and then select the next email I want to read. So once you enable shortcuts in Settings, you can simply press the left bracket key "[" while viewing a message to archive it, and then immediately open the next oldest one.


4. Share mail searches with friends
How many times do your friends tell you, "I can't find that email you sent me." Now you can prove that you did indeed send that message, despite the accusations. All you have to do is search for the message using your expert mail searching skills, and when you find it listed in the results, just copy and paste the URL and email it to your friend. When he or she goes to that link while in Gmail, your friend's Gmail will run the same search you ran and will be able to locate that "lost" email instantly.

3. Browser navigation and history
Your web browser is now a great way to navigate Gmail. Instead of having to find the right links on the page to move from inbox to messages to other Gmail views, you can use the browser navigation buttons (back and forward) to jump back and forth between emails. You can also open your browser history and click on specific emails that you've read to go right back to them. This allows you to quickly access certain emails without having to re-read your inbox.


2. Bookmark emails
I frequently need to save a single email for a period of time, such as a message that includes an important phone number. But I don't want to create a separate label for one message, and I also don't want to archive all the email that comes in after that message just to keep that thread near the top of my inbox--and hopefully the top of my mind. This problem is now easily solved by a new ability to bookmark specific emails. All emails now have dedicated URLs, so just by adding a browser bookmark while viewing a message, you can return to it whenever you want, just like a regular web page--although you will still have to log in to Gmail if you've signed out.

1. "Filter messages like this"
I find filters to be one of the most useful features in Gmail, but sometimes it can be hard to set them up quickly. So GMail added a new capability that makes a filter based on the message you are reading, so you can keep track of future similar emails. By clicking on the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner of every email (the upside-down triangle), you can now see the option to "Filter messages like this." Not only can you easily create a filter based on the sender, but this is especially handy if you are trying to filter emails sent to mailing lists.

Labels: GMail, google

Google is gearing up to make a serious bid for the wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in an FCC auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners. It is working out a plan to finance it's bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.

Google is already running a test version of an advanced wireless network at its Mountain View headquarters, gaining operating experience that could come in handy if it wins the spectrum and decides to run a full-scale national mobile carrier.

The behind-the-scenes moves illustrate just how serious the Internet giant is about trying to reshape the wireless world. It's push could potentially expand the availability and decrease the cost of high-speed mobile Internet access to consumers and broaden the wireless applications they can use.

Google's wireless projects could take it far from its core expertise of search and online advertising and in to the unfamiliar world of communications. Google have always said that their company is all about organising information, But are they now also about delivering the information they organise?

Labels: google, wireless

Google AdSense has made a change to the way content text ads are displayed in an attempt to decrease accidental clicks and therefor improving advertiser campaign value and keeping people on publishers sites until the users wants to click an advert.

The change is a small one and would probably go unnoticed by most people.
Where a visitor could previously click on any element of the AdSense ad to be taken to the advertisers page now they have to click on either the title text or the URL. Clicking the descriptive text will do nothing.If you are worried that you may see a reduction in clicks because of this, Don't be. While CTR may be reduced eventually we should see an increase in what each click pays.

Labels: adsense, Advertising

Quite controversially Google have never seen fit to honor veterans day, Until now. it took 10 years and a lot of criticism from veteran groups but there is finally a Google logo with army helmets commemorating veterans day.

Those logging on to the Google.com homepage today will be greeted with the abovr altered logo remembering the lives lost.

Labels: google Logo