Top Items:
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Earn Cellphone Minutes by Watching Ads — With the cost of mobile phone calls already dropping sharply, Virgin Mobile USA plans to announce a way that people can talk for no money at all. They will, however, have to pay with a chunk of their attention. — The program, called SugarMama …
Mike / CrunchNotes:
On Conflicts of Interest and TechCrunch — On a recent Gillmor Gang, at around minute 21:30, Jason Calacanis innocently says something like "I heard you could buy a review at TechCrunch". A discussion begins about conflicts of interest, at one point Jason says "just the appearance of impropriety is impropriety."
Dan Fost / The Technology Chronicles:
Survivor: Winecamp — Chris Messina has been hosting barcamps for nearly a year now, but the facilities usually just involve bringing a sleeping bag to some cubicle farm and crashing for the night. — Winecamp, however, was real camping. — About 30 people pitched tents on Coyote Ridge above …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
CNET's AllYouCanUpload Is Disruptive — CNET very quietly launched a simple new photo uploading site called AllYouCanUpload last week. At first glance it doesn't appear to be very special or disruptive. But it is. — By launching AllYouCanUpload, CNET just pulled the rug out from under …
Discussion:
CyberNet Technology News
John Markoff / New York Times:
Software to Look for Experts Among Your Friends — PALO ALTO, Calif., May 27 — For anyone who has hesitated before making a purchase on a Web site, uncertain which brand is preferable, Tacit Software is preparing to introduce an online service that will make it simple to pick the brains …
Martin Fackler / New York Times:
Cutting Sony, a Corporate Octopus, Back to a Rational Size — WAKO, Japan — When Kumiko Ishioka bought car insurance last year, she chose the company that offered the cheapest rate. It also helped that the company bore the same brand name as that on her life insurance policy, her favorite skin lotion and her television set — Sony.
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Bob Tedeschi / New York Times:
Pay Bills With a Click? More Americans Are Doing It and Banks Are Loving It — FROM the annals of Online Economics 101 comes this shocker: free is good, especially when it comes to paying bills. — Big billers like Verizon Wireless and ConEd learned this bit of wisdom years ago …
Red Herring:
Bazaarvoice — EMPLOYEES 40 — FUNDING Approximately $4 million, 1 round — KEY INVESTORS Austin Ventures, Josh Kopelman/First Round Capital, Jamie Crouthamel, Eric Simone, David Reibstein, Julie Constantin/Constantin Partners — Word-of-mouth is one of the most effective ways to market on the Internet.
Discussion:
Digital Micro-Markets
Read/WriteWeb:
Worldwide Internet Penetration is just 15% — According to the Miniwatts Marketing Group's Internet Usage and World Population Statistics (last updated March 31, 2006), worldwide Internet penetration is only 15.7%! So much for the World Wide Web... this is indeed sobering stuff for those of us obsessed with 'web 2.0' technology.
Who da'Punk / Mini-Microsoft:
All Good Things... All good things come to an end. Or to a long pause, or to a ride off into the sunset, or to at least a substantial hibernation (preferably on a holiday weekend, to make the least amount of noise). — I don't often talk or write to other people about what I do here.
Chris Pirillo:
65 More Windows Vista Mistakes — I just couldn't leave well enough alone. Even after my problems with Outlook 2007, and my original feedback on Windows Vista, I went deeper into Windows Vista's second beta. This time, I didn't concentrate so much on the font issues (so that I couldn't be accused of being such a nitpicker).
thinkvitamin.com:
RESPONSIBLE ASYNCHRONOUS SCRIPTING — AJAX and its kin are empowering developers, but with great power comes great responsibility. — Asynchronous or remote scripting has been lurking in the background of web app development for quite some time now. Originally dependent on proprietary technology …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Meet New (Random) Friends at Fo.rtuito.us — Fo.rtuito.us is a brand new site, complete with last minute bugs, that is soft launching this week. — When you register at Fo.rtuito.us it randomly introduces you to another member. You have four days to interact with that member via anonymous email to see if you can become friends.
Read/WriteWeb:
Mini apps - Bitty Browser and Wampad — I've come across two nifty apps recently that demonstrate a couple of neat things: 1) mobile web utility, and 2) integration with other web services. Both of those things are becoming increasingly important on the Web.
Discussion:
Download Squad
Jason Clarke / Download Squad:
Send a Smile utility for Office 2007 beta testers — Last week Microsoft released Office 2007 Beta 2 to the world, and had somewhere over 500,000 downloads in the first two days. The primary reason for releasing this test version of the software so early is to get as much feedback …
