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i’ve written a guest post at read/writeweb on alternate reality games (args) and how to properly use them as a viral marketing tool.

even though i enjoyed participating in them, until recently i hadn’t really thought about what makes them compelling - beyond their premise (i.e. the product they are based around).

read the entire article for 4 things to do and 6 things to avoid when making alternate reality games.

Technorati Tags: alternate reality game, arg, viral marketing, readwriteweb

i wrote a guest post at read/writeweb a couple days ago on how a couple of nerds with the help of some friends, were able to take over youtube.

to help shed some light on the project and how the nerdfighters took over the 4th most popular destination on the web and the number one site for video hosting and sharing, I had a chat with hank, one of the orchestrators of the coup.

check out the complete interview.

Technorati Tags: nerds, nerdfighters, youtube, brotherhood 2.0, ecogeek, readwriteweb

i wrote a guest post at read/writeweb yesterday, taking a look at the new features we may soon see on digg.

with all the things that we can expect in the next few months, I can really say I haven’t been this excited to see the next phase of digg in a long-time. especially considering that they are reaching out to the community at large to get feedback (usually they get feedback from limited focus groups).

have a look at all the features in detail.

Technorati Tags: digg, features, readwriteweb

i’ve written a guest post at last100 on a way to get around hulu’s closed private beta.

so there you have it. if you’ve been unsuccessfully hunting for a hulu invite for a while, look no further than to openhulu.

please check out the interview with the creator of openhulu.

Technorati Tags: hulu, openhulu, last100

i have to admit, in the past 2 years i’ve tried almost every greasemonkey script, firefox extention, and api-based digg tool, and there are only three tools that i continue to use regularly, one of which is digg alerter. digg alerter has been at version 1.2 for a while now (and with good reason, the release is really great) but now adam is opening up the forum to the users to request new features they would like to see implemented in the next release of the software.

here are some of the things that i would like to see implemented:

1. enable comment threading and the ability to see the comments’ current ratings (sort by most dugg comments).
2. have the option to list more than 100 people that dugg a particular post. this is especially useful for top diggers whose stories often require 150+ diggs before they are promoted.
3. the ability to double-click a link from digg alerter and go to that story’s digg page. and the ability to double-click a comment to go and respond to that comment.
4. front the personal file: the ability to record when a story hits front page. sometimes my submissions are promoted overnight and i would like to know how many diggs it took.

if you have ideas on how to improve digg alerter please leave adam a comment or send him an email.

p.s. the other two tools that i still use are the digg this! firefox extension and the add mirrors greasemonkey script.

Technorati Tags: digg, digg alerter

update: that was short-lived.

andy, reg, and i had requested that a fan make a wikipedia page for our weekly tech podcast, the drill down, and a fan and a good friend has done so. be the first to check out the just-created wikipedia page for the drill down, special thanks to mike.

mike is also known as mikeontv (on digg) and as promised, will be featured in an upcoming episode of the drill down for his help.

Technorati Tags: the drill down, podcast, tech, wikipedia, digg

update: chris mcgill has responded to some confusion caused by the initial press release. check out what he has to say.

this is a response to marshall kirkpatrick’s recent look at mixx.

when i first read that mixx had been busy making deals with mainstream news outlets such as usa today, reuters, la times, and the weather channel, i naturally assumed that the deals were similar to the one digg recently made with the wall street journal. but when dave cohn, my friend and co-worker at propeller, pointed out that the mixx deal went far beyond that, that’s when i had to take a look at the fine print.

what does the mixx deal entail?

matt marshall has broken down the details of the deal and one particular point is especially worrisome:

…times’ content will be “optimized” for searches from within the mixx site, suggesting results will be biased toward returning la times stories.

what this means is that when you search for content from within mixx, you won’t be getting the best possible results, or the socially driven or personally relevant results, but paid results from la times.

why is this bad?

this is problematic because this goes against the fundamental principle of socially driven news and the main purpose of mixx. mixx is supposed to be a response to editorially driven news, but is supposed to be better than other social news sites because of the power of it’s individual user based recommendation engine. i understand that thus far the editorially sponsored results are only in the search results, but i do feel that dave is right in pointing out that this could be a slippery slope for mixx.

for comparison purposes

in addition, i also wanted to examine some of the other points that marshall raises because i feel that people are unfairly comparing mixx to digg while they should be comparing it specifically to propeller, reddit, and stumbleupon, since realistically speaking they should be aiming for a top 5 spot (#1 not included). that said, here’s a comparison with propeller (the one that i know best out of the bunch):

1. openid login system: already implemented by propeller
2. off-site submission bookmarklets: these bookmarklets already exist for digg, propeller, and reddit. in the case of digg it’s not a first-party bookmarklet but the community has created one. there is also a right-click contextual menu submission plugin for firefox users (70% of digg audience).
3. personal start-page: was implemented at my.netscape.com but subsequently removed because not many people were using it. upcoming site upgrade will make it redundant anyway.
4. photos and videos sections: n/a
5. tagging: already implemented by propeller.
6. groups: coming in future propeller release.
7. point-of-submission checks: propeller checks story urls and story titles at point of submission without even requiring an action from the user. furthermore, once you click check story, it shows potentially related or similar stories to compare your submission with.
8. bury accountability: propeller has had bury accountability for a long time now.
9. changing votes: propeller allows you to vote and un-vote as many times as you want.

mixx certainly has a good set of features, but they should really be careful in the what kinds of deals they make. if they start killing off their social aspects in favor of sponsored results, then they’re playing a completely different game. and even with the features, the community has a long way to go.

Technorati Tags: social media, social news, digg, propeller, reddit, stumbleupon, mixx

i’ve written a guest post at read/writeweb on an unofficial digg recommendation engine called digg filter.

while we wait for the digg recommendation engine, which is perpetually ‘coming soon’, one enterprising digg user has taken the initiative and built one himself. sfter putting in 200 hours of his own time, dmytro mulyava has come up with digg filter, an api based digg story recommender.

check out the interview with the founder of digg filter.

Technorati Tags: digg, digg filter, recommendation engine, readwriteweb