THE BOSTON GLOBE — Sep 5 — Sam Yagan, founder of SparkNotes and eDonkey and only 8 years out of Harvard, already is trying his hand at another Internet endeavor. OkCupid, the free dating site he created with his SparkNotes’ partners, was designed to be a social environment where users (currently 420,000) can create their own quizzes. FULL ARTICLE @ THE BOSTON GLOBE
Category: Outlets – Boston Globe
Online Video Shakeout
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — July 17 — While YouTube dominates Web of today, about 240 sites have dreams of success — or getting gobbled up for big bucks.
You've heard of YouTube. You might have also heard of iFilm, Revver or Grouper. But have you heard of Frozen Hippo? Blennus? Eefoof? By one count, about 240 sites now dabble in online video…setting the stage for a shakeout. On any given day, people watch more than 100 million videos on YouTube. "People lump us in with YouTube, but we have the technology to be much more than that," said Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of Veoh. Veoh hopes the computer will become the future set-top box for television. Guba, meanwhile, sells movie and TV downloads from Warner Bros. and Sony. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE
Mark Brooks: As users warm up to watching TV on their computer, the online personals industry should warm up more to video dating. And don't forget video dating on your cell phone. That's next.
‘Follow your gut,’ Study Advises on big Decisions
BOSTON GLOBE — Feb 17 — Scientists have some remarkable new advice for anyone who is struggling to make a difficult decision: Stop thinking about it. Researchers found that people who face a decision with many considerations, such as what house to buy, often do not choose wisely if they spend a lot of time consciously weighing the pros and cons. Instead, the scientists conclude, the best strategy is to gather all of the relevant information — such as the price, the number of bathrooms, the age of the roof — and then put the decision out of mind for a while. Then go with what feels right. FULL ARTICLE @ THE BOSTON GLOBE
Mark Brooks: Big decision: deciding who to spend a year or a lifetime with. Solution: online profiling + chemistry and a gut decision?
You Can’t buy Friends Like These, Well, Actually, Now You Can
BOSTON GLOBE — Feb 21 — Catch27 was created last year by E. Jean Carroll, an Elle advice columnist and former 'Saturday Night Live' writer. Carroll specializes in riffing off established social norms. Her last site was GreatBoyfriends.com, where women can recommend ex-lovers. "I was watching all these kids on MySpace, spending all their time saying, 'Add me. Add me,' and I thought: Why not buy people? So you understand? The whole thing started as a joke." Members join, upload a profile, and site staff would assign the newbie a monetary quantity based on their overall attractiveness. Members who wanted to be friends with other members would either have to beg or trade their way to the top. FULL ARTICLE @ THE BOSTON GLOBE
Mark Brooks: The site peaked last year at around 40k Alexa rank. Alexa rank is 78k average now.
MeetUp; Virtual and Real Worlds Unite
BOSTON GLOBE — Jan 30 — Enabled by the New York technology company Meetup.com, they are this year’s Friendster for the networking set. More than 2 million people have registered for meetups somewhere in the world. It makes its money primarily by charging $5 a month for ”premium accounts" that let meetup members e-mail each other, view enhanced profiles, and upload photos of meetup events. The only categories banned from organizing with the meetup technology are hate groups and so-called ”adult" groups.
Mark Brooks: Pierre Omidyar of eBay also invested in this company. MeetUp is a great community service. They have no real direct competition as yet, besides the likes of Yahoo Groups.