So how have you been using lists? What sort of names have you been giving your lists?It’s quite interesting to see what lists people have put you under and how you have been “categorized”.  With twitter lists, I can put people I am following into specific categories. So for example, I have created lists of “bloggers”, “social media”, “brands”, etc.

Twitter lists are going to change the way we network and socialize.  No longer are we going to have a list of journalists’ emails to send a press release to but rather we will have a twitter list of all these journalists with their twitter handles. Patrick Kitano writes in his post entitled Twitter Lists will Organize the social graph: “It takes an individual an hour to build a 200-person Twitter List in comparison to the days / weeks it takes to attain a 200-fan FB page. This will make Twitter Lists the prolific standard for organizing the social graph.”

Each of us is organizing his/her own “following” or rather social graph is basically  helping twitter organize its database for them. These lists will become invaluable to us both professionally and socially.  However, please note that one twitter account can only create 20 lists and each list can only contain 500 members, so choose your lists carefully and who’s in them even more carefully.  Robert Scoble wrote an excellent post describing the limitations, bugs, impact and brilliance of twitter lists.

The feature itself I think is revolutionary. The interface and usability? Well, not as great. So here is my top 10 list of  suggestions for improving twitter lists:

10)  Include a “Featured Lists’ section each day/week, based on the user’s interests/preferences

9) Ability to invite people to a private list

8 ) Ability to combine lists

7) Ability to search within specific lists

6) “Ability to build lists by search across following/followers and automatic list creation. For example, I could build an instant list of Berkeley real estate agents by searching “Berkeley real estate” across my following, and clicking a presumed button called “Automatic List”  (Credit: Patrick Kitano)

5) Allow special features for lists, for example: Being able to send a message to all the members of a particular list

4) Allow the ability to decide which lists will display on your sidebar

3) Allow to easily search for people while adding them to lists

2) Ability to add more than 20 lists (perhaps a premium feature?)

1) Ability to add more than 500 members to a list (another premium feature?)

As Scoble writes, what will be the impact of this brilliant feature? “You’ll follow a lot more people. Why? Because you’ll find someone who has done a really great list, say, of programmers, and you’ll add the whole list. I’ve already done this a LOT and found that Twitter has gotten way more interesting because of it.”  Barak Hachamov, founder of My6Sense, a startup that learns users’ behavior over time and prioritizes their information streams for them tells me: This feature is so simple and yet has the potential to have such a huge impact on how people consume and discover real-time information.

I tweeted this week: “It’s no longer about how many followers you have. Now its about how many twitter lists you’re on.” and I stand behind what I said. It doesn’t matter anymore if 100,000 people are following you if you’re not on any one’s list. LindsayT tweeted me saying: “why does this matter? why isn’t the question-how many friends you interact with through this social medium? quality over quantity”. So I answer LindsayT in the most personal of ways: The more lists you’re on, the more you interact with others. People put you on a list because you specifically interact and made yourself a name in that particular category.  Twitter lists are the new measurement these days. Twitter lists are awesome. We will soon enough ask ourselves how we ever lived without them.

When done properly, a branded iPhone app can achieve brand international exposure for relatively little investment. However, if not done properly, the brand will suffer from bad criticism and the money will go to waste. Take for example – the useless iPhone application made by Taco Bell. This application had the potential to be very cool, giving redeemable  coupons and a location-aware store finder; but instead, the app only calculates the various 79¢, 89¢, 99¢ items on their Value Menu that you can purchase with the spare change in your pocket. Definitely a missed opportunity.

Unlike Taco Bell, Beck’s has recently launched its new iPhone application - Gig Finder – and this app actually places giving value to users in top priority. Users can search for gigs in any location supported by the Last.FM database worldwide, allowing  music fans globally to stay connected to their local live music scene. This app is available for music lovers worldwide and has been localized for the English, German, Italian and Romanian languages. With quick access to information about upcoming gigs showing in the area, Beck’s Gig Finder makes it impossible for any music lover to miss a gig. This application allows users to always be on the know regarding where and when their favorite bands are playing.

The Gig Finder is an all-inclusive application locating local gigs but also providing helpful directions via Google Maps as well as giving the inside scoop on special guest appearances. The app also enables music fans to browse their favorite music artist’s information on the Web, tune-in to their YouTube videos and also share this information with family and friends.

When compared to its competitors, Beck’s is the only free iPhone application out there giving these specific capabilities. A cool feature included that I particularly like empowers music fans to tag gigs as ‘Favorites’ and receive push notifications/reminders about these upcoming shows.  The app is offered in multiple languages – including Italian, German and Romanian.

Below you’ll find a demo video showing exactly how helpful the Gig Finder really is. By creating such a useful app, Beck’s shows users that they care more about giving them value than just creating yet another useless branded app.

Download Gig Finder yourself here to explore the app.

Xsights is a new start-up company that has just come out with its Light iPhone app which enables its users to bring print to life. Xsights makes it possible to transform static printed items that can be captured through the cell phone’s camera into an interactive multimedia experience.

Xsights empowers its users and lets them add a creative, personal touch to their printed items. While using Xsights’ advanced technology, users have the ability to take any printed object and connect it with links of their choice. With Xsights Light app, these printed images become a door to endless opportunities of content. Users can “attach” a YouTube trailer, a 3D view of a specific street via Google Maps, a Wikipedia page, a Facebook or Twitter profile or any other link to invitations, greeting cards, photos, maps or business cards.

In addition, with Xsights, users can now also view movie trailers of the top 100 movies showing in US theaters currently by taking pictures of any of the digital images in the “More Things to Capture” section on Xsights website: http://xsights-services.com/Movies.aspx

All of the images that appear in Xsights’ “More Things to Capture” section are already uploaded to their servers, therefore users can take a picture of any of these movie posters, games or logos when they appear in magazines, wall posters, bus stops or anywhere else outside, take a picture and view their relevant clips moments later.

“See it. Capture it. Bring it to life!” is Xsights’ slogan. The Xsights solution enables users to take a picture of any pre-defined object and receive immediate relevant and interactive online data. Xsights inspires its users to imagine a future world where soon everything they see around them will be considered “clickable” from landmarks, wall posters, street signs, ads, theater listings in magazines to book covers or billboards. Clicking on the item with their mobile phone’s camera will allow users to receive additional layers of information and open up doors to endless interactive content. The technology that Xsights specializes in is known as Augmented Reality. Welcome to the world of tomorrow.

Key differentiators of Xsights when compared to its competitors: Only the Xsights application can identify minute objects – even a small icon or text. In addition, Xsights also works in any condition – even if the printed item is wet or crumpled.

Xsights has just launched its iPhone app and will soon launch its BlackBerry version. Other selected J2ME handsets will also get Xsights soon.

Download the Xsights Light application from the iTunes Apple Store here: http://appsto.re/xsightslight.

Want to create your own interactive message? Watch the video below to learn how:

In today’s world where we have an option of which search engine to use, we find ourselves perplexed regarding the question: Is Google the best that search can be? Even for those of us who consider ourselves to be Web savvy, finding the right search term can often be tricky. And once we get the search results, we must screen through an abundance of information in order to find one or two truly desired results.

To understand a little more about the world of search, let’s go through our time machine, and check back on how search started.

Excite was one of the most recognized brands on the net when the “dotcom portals” boomed in the 1990’s. Excite was founded as Architext in 1994 by six Stanford undergrad students who had the clever idea of using statistical analysis of word relationships to make searching more efficient. After years of signing exclusive distribution agreements with companies like Netscape, Microsoft and Apple, Excite went public in 1996. In 2003, Excite Italia (the operator of Excite Europe) took control of the Excite portals in most of Europe, and was later acquired by Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com). In October 2007, the GoAdv Group – a pan-European media company, announced the completion of its acquisition of the Excite Europe group of companies while IAC Search and Media acquired Excite in the US. Today, Excite offers a variety of services, including search, web-based email, instant messaging, stock quotes and customizable user homepage – with content that is collated from over 100 different sources.

Going back a few years in time, a small search engine named Google was started by a couple of Stanford University students in January 1996, who hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better ranking of results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page. The domain google.com was registered in September 1997,and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. in September 1998. Since 2001, Google has acquired several companies, mainly focusing on small start-ups. In 2006, Google bought the online video site, YouTube. The entry of Google marked a major milestone in the history of search engines, as it used a “page ranking” system on the basis of number of links to a particular site.  Google’s search engine became so popular that it led to origin of the term “Googling,” which means to search for information using Google.

In June 2009, Bing – formerly Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search – became Microsoft’s current web search engine development. Advertised as a “decision engine,” Bing has a catchy “Stop Searching. Start Deciding” slogan made that allows its users to feel in control of their searches. Bing categorizes searches allowing for improved image and video searches along with preview searches, and its “decision engine” associates information on the Web to help its users make better decisions about things like travel reservations, shopping online, your health and more. In August 2009, only two months after Bing became public online, it gained 9.3 percent of the United States Internet search market causing Google to become somewhat worried about its market share.

Jumping forward to present time, Meaningo, a recent a startup company specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) search applications. In simpler terms, Meaning is a semantic search engine, guiding users to find the exact products they are looking for in a more refined and efficient manner. Finding the right search term can be a time-consuming process, as many search results have little relevance with their goal findings. Meaningo was designed to increase the effectiveness of online searching, so users searching the Web can successfully find what they’re looking for without much name refining in the search engine.

Meaningo was specifically designed in hopes of overcoming common impediments Web users are faced with when searching for information online. Meaningo provides its users with an easier way of defining, refining and controlling the quality of the search while providing very accurate results even for complex inquiries. Watch my video below where I interview Meaningo’s Founder & CEO, Dr. Zach Solan, and find out the true meaning of Meaningo.

This blog post was inspired by an article I just read in Business Week titled “The Great Trust Offensive”.

As I personally delve deeper into the world of corporate branding, I find it very interesting to come across various insights and tactics to building a brand and maintaining the correct corporate image. Well established corporate brands like McDonalds, Ford and AmEx are all in the process of re-branding themselves and many are turning to social media to help them spread their message.

According to the tone in the article, gone are the days when corporations could depend solely on their history to invoke brand loyalty and credibility. The economy has been hit hard and customers are worried about the financial stability for brands that have been around for 40 or 50 years. Take Ford as an example. Ford no longer depends on its 150 year old image but is now “targeting consumers’ rational left brain, relentlessly pushing themes that inspire street cred : new technology, fuel economy, quality scores.” Customers are seeking out brands that are economically and socially responsible.

The days of standing behind the corporate image shouting at the consumer to “trust us” is long gone. According to the article, “consumers are telling companies in a thousand ways: “If you aren’t open with me, then I won’t trust you.” Consumers and corporations engaging online via social media tools open up direct lines for communication fostering a deeper level of trust from the consumer. If a consumer can talk to the “big bad corporation” directly and be heard, the consumer feels valued as an individual and will convey that feeling within their own communities.

The idea of combining celebrities, social media and corporate branding is even more fascinating to me. Corporations have always turned to so-called “trusted” celebrities to be their spokespeople but only expected them to be the face and voice of the brand in print, radio or on television and not in their personal lives. Now corporations are hiring celebrities to utilize their personal social media accounts to spread their messages and we must assume that some sort of engagement between the celebrity and their community will take place. Recently Ellen DeGeneres was hired by AmEx to promote their new brand image by utilizing her popular Twitter account.

It is interesting to see how now in order to create trusted brands, corporations are turning to social media now to spread the message, and more importantly hiring celebrities to promote brands via their personal online profiles. Obviously social media has the potential to reinforce brand awareness and corporate trust but it all depends on the consumer. Will the consumer trust the message being conveyed by a celebrity on a social media platform?

I think only time will tell.

(Flickr image courtesy of  insect54 )

(Disclosure: SimilarWeb is a Blonde2.0 client)

SimilarWeb the Firefox add-on that enables users to discover related websites similar to ones they are currently visiting has now made it simpler than ever to find similar content that relates to the user’s interests. The three new features include Similar Articles, Recent Buzz, and Mini-Mode, which allow the user to further research and organize finding websites and articles that appeal to their interest.
The Similar Articles feature allows users reading an article online, to instantly receive related articles without having to leave the page they are browsing. It’s extremely useful for finding different views about your topic as well in-depth information when doing research.
The Recent Buzz feature brings users the latest buzz on twitter that relates to the topic they’re reading about. When browsing a website or article the user can receive the twitter community’s reaction about that topic.
The third new feature mini-mode will move the sidebar to a minimized designated tab on the left side of the screen.  When users want to view similar sites, they simply click on the minimized tab and to expands it back to a normal size tab.
With the launching of these three new features, SimilarWeb has been able bring users all types of similar content relevant to their interests. SimilarWeb may actually substantially decrease users’ dependence on search engines in the future.

1) Misconception #1: Social Media is only right for certain brands – Often time people ask me: ” Is social media only right for web services or for “cool” products? The answer is no. Social media is right for every brand as long as the brand is able to find its target audience within a certain platform and converse/interact with it in an effective manner. Of course it may be exciting to do a marketing campaign for Apple than for Charles Schwab but for either one of those brands a targeted social media campaign within social networks and the blogosphere can bring amazing results as far as: Brand awareness, Overall buzz around the brand, traffic, customer loyalty and ultimately revenue.
In fact often time it is the “duller” brands that experience the most growth out of social media campaigns because they experience a more substantial change in popularity between their starting point A and their ending point B than the “cooler” brands. Take for example Mint which is an online personal finance service and was just bought by Intuit for $170 Million. Not the most exciting of startups perhaps and yet Mint is a fine example of a company that did a great job in using social media to maximize the buzz around its brand, making its blog magazine-like with articles about tips for young parents and other interesting content. Mint made their content so interesting in fact that users/blog readers promote the brand on their own.

2) Misconception #2: Social Media is all about getting traffic and quickly – Social media marketing is a long term process that takes time. Once a brand enters any network such as Facebook or MySpace, it takes time to build that brand’s community. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a community on Facebook. If you want to do social media marketing right and not just spam the hell out of people, you must use conversational marketing to engage them. Conversational marketing is all about conversing with your community. Learning more about their likes and dislikes, listening before speaking and reacting based upon the customers’ feedback.
Whoever thinks that he will open a Facebook page and reach tens of thousands of site visitors on the first day, is dead wrong. Brands that use social media to promote themselves will see a steady growth in traffic to their sites over time as their brand names become more and more viral within the networks – due to the increase in number of fans, number of tweets, exposure in blogs, etc.
Sure there are different ways which will increase the rate of a brand’s virality on the Web. For example, creating strong social incentives for people on your site which will increase their urge to promote your brand is definitely a factor which will heighten the public’s awareness. You can read more about social incentives in this post I had written last year. However, don’t expect to get thousands of visitors to your site before you’ve been able to build 1) A strong loyal online community 2) A strong incentives system to increase brand awareness. Both these goals take time to achieve. From my experience, it usually takes about three months to start seeing effective results when using social media tools.

3) Misconception #3: “By using social media we will lose control of our Brand’s Image” – Executives (especially in big companies) often think that their employees will go wild and start telling every horror story imaginable regarding their brand because the company will open a Facebook page. So here’s the scoop: People will talk about your brand whether you like it or not. Opening a Facebook page is not going to change it and not opening a Facebook page is not going to make it go away. The question is: Do you want to be a part of that conversation or not? By having a presence in social networks and blogs, you as a brand show your customers and employees that you care about their feedback and that you are there to listen and satisfy their needs.
I’ll give you a real time example: My hosting company is Network Solutions. For a few days my blog wasn’t uploading and I started to get very pissed off. I tweeted “Network Solutions Sucks” and specifically addressed @Shashib – the guy who handles Network Solutions’ social media efforts. A few moments later I received a tweet back from Shashib. He wanted to hear what’s wrong and help me resolve the problem. He promised a Network Solutions agent would call me soon. Within a few moments I received a phone call from an agent who helped me fix the situation and upload my site. At that moment, Network Solutions won my customer loyalty forever (or until the next time they screw up ). Real time customer care is something that brands can utilize social media tools for (specifically twitter) like no other marketing tools they have had till now. We’ve already seen amazing examples of customer care from Zappos and Dell. Brands should not be afraid of engaging in honest and transparent conversations with their clients online but rather they should be very afraid of ignoring their customers’ complaints and pretending that everything’s fine when it’s not.

4) Misconception #4: Social Media Is Just a Fad – I often hear people who say that social networks are just a passing fad. This is what I have to say to them: Social media is an inevitable digital evolution of our desire as humans to communicate with one another. It is a desire that we always had and will always continue to have as long as we are human. I had written about this topic in the past. To say that social media is just a fad is to say that communication is just a fad. Here are a few stats that might help to change the mind of those who are still apprehensive:

1) 2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks and time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for ~10% of all internet time.

2) Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email!

Care to change your mind?

5) Misconception #5: “I don’t need a professional to do social media for me” – Many executives think that they don’t need a professional to help them with their social media activities. They’ll just take a student who has a few hours a week and get him to sit on the social networks and play with their company’s branding. It’s inconceivable to me how on one hand companies can be so cautious regarding beginning to use social media and on the other hand they’ll give the work to a mere student who could ruin their branding in a few hours just to save a few bucks. In order to engage in social media campaigns that are effective and successful, companies should use social media expert services at least in the first few months just to understand the specific rules of each community. One must remember that Facebook, twitter, Mixx, Bebo are all communities with their own set of rules and it is crucial for brands to respect the community’s rules in order to survive. Just like a company wouldn’t take on its PR on its own without consulting with a PR expert first, a company should not delve into social media without consulting with a social media expert. After a few months of training, I believe brands can take the work upon themselves, but they must not forgo the training period as they could do more damage than good for their branding.

These are the top five misconceptions I’ve heard regarding social media although I’ve heard many more. I would be delighted if you guys shared in the comments section some of the misconceptions that you’ve heard.

Photo credit: Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth

(Disclosure WorldMate is a client of Blonde 2.0)

WorldMate has updated their travel iPhone app and now enables users to share their itinerary with family, friends and colleagues, plus get a 5-day weather forecast wherever they are in the world. The new version WorldMate 1.6 offers the new features for free and Gold subscribers.

This is a great update for Road Warriors (men and women who spend their lives traveling for work) to stay connected with their iPhone contacts. With one click – they can share their itinerary with any of their iPhone contacts.

Another fantastic update is the new 5-Day Weather Forecast with three new options:

• Current city: Get the 5-day weather forecast for the city you’re currently in. Don’t get caught in the rain without an umbrella, or in the cold without your coat. You’ll leave for work knowing exactly what to expect.

• Itinerary Cities: Get the 5-day weather forecast for the cities on your itinerary, so you know if you should pack an umbrella, sunscreen or both.

• All Cities: Select any of the cities listed for a 5-day weather forecast.

Get the upgrade now at the App Store and share it with your friends and colleagues!

WorldMate was generous enough to give us 10 iPhone Gold app invites for Blonde 2.0 readers. Who wants ‘em? First 10 to comment on our blog will get them!

Hope you enjoy ‘em!

I never get deeply upset or let emotions get the better of me when it comes to dealing with web services.

I mean I do expect them to deliver and  fulfill their added value but if the service doesn’t deliver, i don’t take it personally nor get angry (..at least I don’t get angry for longer than 2 minutes).  I remind you we are talking about web services and most of them do not cost us money.

So what about a web service where i am a paying customer? Should i take it to heart when the web service “hurts me” personally? Do I feel bad after I terminate our relationship?

Flickr is a web service where I am a paying costumer and I was a happy customer until a few months ago. I used Flickr for a few years and right from the start I knew I want to ’store’ my photos there (rather than just share them). In a sense it was a storage room for my pics.

Flickr has a great community, lots of social and sharing features and they had a great team leading their services .. they were on the golden path to becoming the nicest brand on the web. So what happened?

I can only tell you my personal opinion, but lately I’ve read some blog posts from mighty users such as Thomas Hawk, Yaniv Golan.  Thomas Hawk and Yaniv Golan are known figures in both the tech/internet world and the photography one. Thomas Hawk, who writes almost daily about Flickr and other photography related issues attempted to overthrow the flickr empire with zooomr (’nuff respect for him) I appreciate the way he uses the site – see what i mean?

Whether it’s Flickr’s censorship policy or technical hiccups, the service is not running smoothly. The site is not respecting the users feelings nor how they are behaving on the site.  Seeing new features is quite rare these days on Flickr. I remember when Flickr add the flic.kr service which allowed you to post photos directly to your twitter stream (check the short url service that came along – http://flic.kr) it was great news but apparently the hype faded real quick.

I knew Caterina Fake was one of the founders of Flickr. I used to follow her photo stream. I enjoyed seeing some Flickr HQ pics and all, but ever since she left for her new start-up called Hunch , I personally feel a little abandoned

I don’t consider myself a photographer. Most of the pictures I take and upload come from my cell phone camera (I use the Nokia N95) and in essence show my life stream.  I love to share my photos with outsiders and not only with the photography freaks on flickr (hence the flic.kr service).  I really can’t put the finger on what’s bothering me right now, yet coming across other blog posts and status updates of  how others feel exactly the same way I do about Flickr only solidifies the feeling. Perhaps Flickr will wake up soon and change things?

This is not a threat post, ‘Satisfy-me-before-I-am-leaving’ kinda post. I still have a pro account till October 21st, 2010 which I intend to use fully.  If you own a Flickr pro account – i’d love to hear your thoughts.

The lovely picture comes from: Peter Renshaw a.k.a. bootload

Trollim was chosen by TechCrunch as the Best International Startup at TC50! I would like to congratulate the entire Trollim team on a job well done!

Trollim is a competition platform for programmers unlike any other you’ve encountered so far. Trollim assesses the coding level and performance skill set of programmers via one to one or one to many coding Battles no matter where they are in the world. Think of Eminem’s rap battles in the movie 8 mile – but this time not for rappers but for programmers.

Once a user registers to Trollim, he must take a personalized skill test. Once that test is finished, he is allowed to compete in Battles with other programmers. Now he is ready to take his first coding test. Trollim’s testing engine will examine the details the programmer submitted and will show him a piece of broken code related to his skill set. The challenge is to fix the code in the fastest and most efficient manner possible without the use of programming shortcuts. His performance is rated not only against his challenger but other programmers who share a similar skill set.

Companies are able to sponsor the Battles, receive detailed statistics on the programmers and their level of skill. Enterprises will be able to license the platform for internal use thereby enabling these companies to gain a deeper insight into the skill set of their programmers and potential hires.

The rating of the programmer’s skill set is dependent on a set of tests that he takes and is compared to other programmers with the same skill set. Trollim warns cheaters that they “will be caught and locked away in the Trollim Dungeon.”

Just like on twitter, on Trollim the programmer can follow other programmers (Trolls) and they can follow him back. Users can search for other Trolls based upon criteria such as: Country, city, age-group,  coding languages, skills and more. The programmer can invite Trolls he follows into a Battle anytime he likes. Trolls can only compete against each other  if they share appropriate skill sets (i.e. language, years of experience, etc). Battles are found both on the Battle and Search pages. Users can also find battles using the Troll universe map . Users cannot participate in more than 10 Battles at any given moment.

There’s also something called a Rumble Battle.  This battle allows one Troll to fight many Trolls and the parameters for who can participate varies on the Rumble’s sponsor. Battles can be selected by geographical location, age and other parameters set by the sponsor. A Rumble can be created by the Trollim website or by a company sponsoring the Rumble. Trolls who win the Rumble or get high scores receive extra rating points. Some of the Rumbles will also include prizes. The value of the prizes is directly related to the Trolls skill level.

Every Battle is rated and each play receives a score. The score is not solely based upon the winners and losers of the Battle but on many different aspects.While wining could bring many points, losing could take points away. Winning against a higher rated Troll is always better then losing to a lower rated one. All the scores are taken into account when establishing a Troll’s rating in a Rumble Battle and the troll can see how each competition affected his rating. Every skill set is divided into 5 levels and each level has its own set of parameters. The system will move a Troll to a higher level only after he has roven himself worthy of it via the results from the Battles. A Troll has the ability to view their own rating as well as view other Trolls from the same country and age-group.

Trollim allows programmers to show companies their skill set and make themselves attractive candidates for positions in companies they are seeking to work at. Enterprises are able to use the data provided by Trollim to further understand the skills their inhouse programmers currently have and to find new programmers that may have the skill set they are looking for. No other current platform enables both programmers and enterprises to maximize on these programming skills as well as Trollim does.

I am a website collector. I don’t buy domain names; I save websites links. You could even call me a “website pack rat”. Every website I come across that has somewhat relevant information in my life is saved in my Delicious account and tagged with personalized keywords. I sleep better at night knowing that I have a personal database with all kinds of relevant information just ready for me when I need it. Or even better, ready for me to share with others.

I am the kind of website pack rat that likes to share useful links with others but I do not like leaving my personal “database of links” open to the general public. I keep most of my links private and share them only when I see a request be it on Twitter, Facebook, email or even (gasp) offline.

On the flip side I love sharing blogs and other sites that I save in my RSS reader. If a site is not in Delicious then it is in my Google Reader. I feel quite strongly that if I come across content that is relative to a specific online community of mine it is my responsibility to share it with the appropriate community. There is just so much new content published daily and not enough hours in the day to find it all.

I depend on my communities sharing relevant content with me and I like reciprocating. In my mind, sharing means caring. And I care.

Follow me on Twitter @ahoova

Save an Alien, previously a successful Facebook application with over 250,000 users despite no marketing, is an app that lets you save virtual aliens from destruction. Similar to the virtual pet fad of the 1990s but for the Web 2.0 age, SaveAnAlien lets users take care of aliens whose planet was destroyed in a meteor crash and now are sadly alone floating in space. Users can adopt virtual aliens and help save them from death. Until they do, the aliens will keep floating in space waiting to be adopted.

In an interesting move (I wonder, will this become a trend?), SaveAnAlien has recently moved off Facebook, and is now available as a standalone experience on the SaveAnAlien website. The founders say the move off Facebook was a strategic decision, which enabled them to provide a better experience for the adopters. In addition, the move opened the door to previously-untapped potential partnerships, like SAA’s recent integration with SkyRock, a leading French social network.

Red 2.0 and me in Paris having fun!

Three months after the launch of the new platform, with no marketing, and even before the SkyRock integration, there are already 40,000 users on the site. The monetization system built into the platform, based on virtual goods, is already outperforming what was possible for SaveAnAlien in the world of Facebook applications. So, it seems that the move off of Facebook was the right thing to do for the Alien guys. “This is just the beginning though, “ said Raz Friedman, CEO and founder. “We are continuously enhancing the experience and adding additional activities like a home and a garden with ‘Space Plants’ for the aliens, activities which have already proven to be very attractive and highly monetizable on other platforms. ”

Red 2.0, Scoble, Blodgett and Me in a London cab

SaveAnAlien is a “virtual pet” platform with a unique story line. The original Facebook application took its users on a journey to save the aliens before the meteor hits their planet. The new SaveAnAlien continues this story line after the meteor hits, and with 10 million aliens floating in space waiting to be rescued, users are finding endless opportunities to adopt new aliens, take care of them and fulfill their every need and whim.

Once you adopt an alien, you can let your friends interact with it by pasting the Alien Widget into your blog, Website, Facebook, and any other place that you can post HTML or Flash code.

Red 2.0, Aviv, Motti and me at a party

“Our users have turned out to be real do gooders,” says Friedman. “We are truly moved by the emotional connection we see between them and their adopted aliens. In fact, many of them take the time to feed tens and even hundreds of aliens or help them find a home. The current saving aliens record belongs to a 16 years old girl from Netherlands, who helped save 164 other aliens.”

Talking with the Save an Alien team is quite an experience. All these guys ever speak about is aliens, feeding, adopting, petting and dressing up. Clearly they are having fun, and it’s quite amazing when you realize they’re actually generating substantial revenues while doing that.

Hey, before you go, mind petting my alien a bit?

Advertising for television industry used to be formatted into 15/30/45 second spots but the internet has changed the industry drastically. The audience on the internet now makes up for more views than the number of views one can get through television advertisements (Tivo has a lot to do with this also).

Television advertisements have a longer viewing life when they are placed online. The advertising firms now air the ads on tv first and then upload them to the web with the hope that the video will turn viral.

Here in lies a change in the advertising world.  This shift of reach and distribution via the web is driving the creative agencies to come up with guerrilla-like advertisements.

Rather than just read the slogan or try to burn the corporate logo into the collective mind, the new approach allows the viewers to get more out of watching the advertisement. It has reached a point where the creative agencies try to create video advertisements with a more “user generated content” look and feel” for their highly expensive ad production.

The audience has become much more sophisticated and is aware of the advertising agencies tactics and will not view just any advertisement they put on air. The advertising firms must appeal to the sharpest of viewers and be extremely creative.

Here is an example of a great creative commercial:

Made by I&S BBDO Agency in Japan for their client – a chemical technology company called ThreeBond. The video targets the household maintenance & pet product market.   The  purpose of this video ad was to publicize their less known product (their super glue). The Tokyo based firm says: “The campaign is designed to reconnect the product with the sophisticated youth segment which demands perfection in enjoyment.” (extracted from Brand Republic post)

When comparing  the ThreeBond corporate and product web pages, it is amazing to see just how a creative advertisement can change potential customers’ perception and create brand appeal.