The days of the wild, wild west are over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be quick to draw on your urban weapon of choice these days - the iPhone 3G and its predecessor, the iPhone. Speck has created this niche with its QwickDraw holster-style case that features the super secure Speck “Qwick Latch” technology that keeps your phone locked in place so it wont fall out no matter what rigorous activity you’re involved in at the moment. Featuring a sleek, unassuming design, QwickDraw’s soft, lined snug-fit cradle securely holds your phone without scratching or scuffing. The versatile rotating...
Saturn’s slogan is now “Rethink”, but it’s beginning to look like the GM-owned automaker is taking that sentiment in a completely different direction. After making an effort to rebrand the Saturn line and produce a variety of attractive vehicles, General Motors might pull the plug on the 23-year-old auto line. With rumors of bankruptcies and dealers going out of business (none of which were true), Saturn’s reputation has been taking some serious hits lately. It’s also no help that the US automotive industry is suffering and relying on the government for a bailout, so GM is going to strongly...
There may be over 10,000 applications now available on the iTunes App Store, but we know that roughly half of those are flashlight applications (the other half is made up of tip calculators). There is no shortage of hardware flashlights for the iPhone, either. Heck, one of them even has a built-in laser. A new widget from Schosche, however, takes this already small niche and makes it so specilized that it might actually have some appeal. The reviveLITE is a combination iPod charger and nightlight. The light comes on automatically when the room gets dark, and can thankfully also...
An interesting article on the Valley Advocate website based out of Massachusetts caught my interest today. The article highlights an individual who had reached the peak of their blogging output. This individual got together with another local blogger to discuss the prospects of working together rather than working alone. An informal network developed and after reaching out to even more local bloggers, a collaborative website was created which became a clearinghouse of writing by local bloggers. The article was interesting for a few reasons. The first is that, it reminded me that if you don't have a unique voice or...
The second law of thermodynamics has always bothered me. Energy keeps getting more disorganized, and there’s nothing we can do about it. All we get, at bottom, comes from the sun, and the best we can do is become more and more efficient at using it without messing the planet up in the process. Granted, green search engines do what they can to encourage efficiency, and as we reported before, GreenPlanetSearch is entirely solar-powered. Encourage efficiency it does, but they’re also advertising-efficiency buffs. What does this mean for those interested in investing? Take Google, of course, as the Goog...
Two years ago, when social networking was all the rage, a lot of dedicated community websites for specific (and often very small) groups of people were launched by entrepreneurs trying to cash in on the hype by carving out a certain niche. The strategy proved successful for some, but for others … not so much. And now that the economic crisis is weighing down on the entire industry, with advertisers cutting their overall budgets and the online spend decreasing rapidly, the wheat is getting separated from the chaff faster than expected. One niche social network shutting down is Sneakerplay,...
Last week we did a post on 5 CPA (cost per action) alternatives to Adsense for website monetization. The networks reviewed can potentially make website owners lots of revenue. However they do require much hand-selection and niche targeting. If your website or blog goes over a much broader subject and user base, then “contextual advertisements” are most likely the best option. For the sake of this article we will define “contextual” as you simply enter a single snip of code in your site and the ad network does the rest, displaying ads that will more or less match up with...
One of the things that drives me nuts are people that create web strategies without any thought of how it helps a company. (Brand reinforcement on its own is not a successful goal.) credit I go crazy when I see people still citing digg as a viable social media strategy, or when I see people state that more traffic equals more money. I can send you loads of crap traffic, please tell me if it makes you any real money. Social media is not all about digg traffic, or sending people from facebook to your site. Sure, it can be...
or “How To Be Creative In 4 Steps” Ever pay attention to the affiliate network ads that pervade the blogs-on-blogging-and-marketing blogosphere? If you have, then you know that they’re all interchangeable. Every network promises you “better payouts and unique offers.” The web is awash in generics, and so is the economy. Everyone understands the concept of a “unique value proposition” - because generic writing has repeated it ad nauseam - yet only a tiny minority apply it. One of the ironies of this is that a slew of images depicting a single red character amongst acres of grey characters have...
Chris Snyder is an online journalist specializing in new media. He writes about the tech biz for Wired.com’s Epicenter blog. It’s a long road to a victory in the browser wars. Just ask Firefox. The open source browser which launched in 2004 just cracked the 20 percent threshold of the market share for November, according to Net Applications, pushing it a step closer but still miles away from IE. Recently a few new players have also thrown their hats in the ring, including Google with its much-hyped Chrome and the lesser known, Mozilla-based social web browser Flock, which released its...
There’s much discussion in the tech blogosphere about the request from Silicon Valley’s favorite electric car make Tesla for a $400 million bailout…sorry “loan” from the US Government. There’s points on either side, so as best I can I’ll explore both cases, and conclude in the positive. Against Tesla makes niche expensive sports cars, and even then has struggled at doing that. The company may have high ideals, but they are not well equipped for mass market products. They also make vehicles for the rich. As much as I respect and admire Jason Calacanis, his suggestion that a new...
The ABA is running its annual law blog popularity contest, and Patently-O again made the cut of top 100 legal blogs. Apparently, Patently-O is being voted on for the award of best "niche" blog. Unfortunately, I tend to avoid that word (niche) because I don't want to sound too French (neesh) or too rural (nitch). Follow the link to Vote for Patently-O (towards the bottom of the ballet) http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/blawg100_2008/niche. (Only one vote per computer)....
Microblogging service Pownce is closing its doors on December 15th, and the team is joining Six Apart, along with the Pownce technology. This from a blog post: We’re very happy that Six Apart wants to invest in growing the vision that we the founders of Pownce believe so strongly in and we’re very excited to take our vision to all of Six Apart’s products. Mike and I have joined Six Apart as part of their engineering team and we’re looking forward to being a part of the talented group that has created amazing tools for blogging and publishing. Pro users...
Searching the Internet for relevant information can be frustrating at times. More advanced researchers know tons of little tricks of the trade, getting them the desired results fast. But for the rest of the population, it isn't always easy to nail down information they are looking for.If you find yourself amongst the second group, you might like the following tips and hints on how to find information fast. These can be considered Google tips for beginners. The next time you do a Google search, try it with some of these weapons.Define searchIf you are unsure of a word's meaning, you...
Power.com, the latest company that wants to bring you Nirvana by letting you update all your social network profiles from a single place, launches this evening. However, it needs a bit of work before it’s truly convincing. It has some bugs, and has the air of being rushed. But it’s goal is noble. For a while now, the problem of having multiple profiles has plagued users. You may use Facebook regularly, but you may also have a MySpace account where you interact with certain friends, and you may use Gtalk to IM with still others. What do you do when...
