dict.cc needs English Speakers to Pronounce Stuff

dict.cc, which I’ve used just this week when checking some translations, emailed me today to ask for my help pronouncing English words. I’ve blogged about them previously - really like their idea of a dictionary-wiki, where users contribute vocabulary and translations. The audio is currently in beta, and the email I got read:
The reason [...]

Web 2.0 Peaked in 2007

I’m going to say something controversial today. The goldrush of web 2.0 is over. 2007 was the year of Facebook, and of brands latching on to social media, desperate to get a slice of the action.
Now, everyone seems to have sobered up a bit. Facebook is seeing a decline in its users, while YouTube have [...]

Why (Continental) Europeans don’t Like Facebook (Apparently)

Interesting article today (Observer Online) about Facebook trends compared across (some of) Europe:

I refuse to be peed on, poked, set on fire and hugged. I’m not interested in collecting ‘friends’ or creating my profile. ‘It’s your Continental side coming out,’ my British friends say, despairing of me.
It’s true. The obsession with Facebook, MySpace, Friends Reunited [...]

Why Fan-sumerism May Work

Facebook pages have been around for a wee while now (since the beginning of November, I think). I noticed recently that they’ve started pushing this feature a bit more on FB itself: When logging on today, I noticed the following message:

I promply searched for one of my favourite bands and to my delight discovered they [...]

Google planning Facebook competitor?

Well, not quite. But it looks like Google is a bit peeved that Facebook rules the world (at least according to its discourse).
I am on Google’s social networking site, orkut, but it’s rubbish and apparently more popular than MySpace in Brazil (w00t). orkut is invit-only BTW - let me know if you want one.
Either way, [...]

Arsebook - Anti-Social Networking

I think this is a joke, but quite a funny one. They wouldn’t be able to get away with it as it’s bound to attract thousands of slanderous comments and incite hatred.
Arsebook - connect with the people you hate

Edit: on the subject of Facebook, note the article on the F-word problem (a Facebook [...]

William Gibson Interview

Just wanted to point everyone to an interview of William Gibson on The Observer website. It was actually published on Sunday, but I haven’t had time to read it yet (w00t).
The best quote is right at the beginning:
‘The future is already here,’ he is fond of suggesting. ‘It is just not evenly distributed.’
It’s simple, but [...]

Facebook Apps

There are a couple of blog posts discussing the best Facebook apps out there. I’m still not a big fan of FB, but I do enjoy playing around with it, thus passing time.
Yesterday I installed iRead and today iLike, and both are pretty neat. Seeing that there are plenty of Facebook apps, here are two [...]

Facebook: No one from my Uni on it!

When reccying out Facebook the other day, I also used their classmate search to find anyone from my former Uni. And guess what: there were no results, zero, zilch! At first I thought it might be a technical problem with the search function, but then I tried some other Universities, and results were returned.
Curious!
Some of [...]

Facebook Groups Are Fucking Useless

Excuse the rather ranty and imprecise title there. I’ve been playing around with Facebook (andraco - join up!) a bit more today - I joined a few months ago but hadn’t really used it much.
Today I updated my profile and stuff, as I had some spare time to actually use the Internet socially, for entertainment, [...]