YouTube Bubble Map
December 14, 2007
Internet DIY broadcast kings YouTube have rolled out a new feature for finding related videos in the form of a bubble style visualisation. To use it you have to be watching a video in full screen mode, to the bottom left of the screen is a new icon next to the play/pause button, on pressing this icon a bubble map appears with the current video and related videos surrounding it in a pretty circle. Hover over another video bubble and that too will sprout more video bubbles leading off into other related videos. It’s quite fun to use but the results do seem to be a bit hit and miss bizarre. When testing this I was watching a Matt Cutts video discussing snippets, after bringing up the bubble map the related videos shown were a song by pop starlet JoJo, a tutorial on how to perform a gymnastic backflip and a skateboarding video…
I was unaware that Matt possibly spends his weekends grinding some sweet rails and catching air. Seriously though, when I tested this new toy on some other Matt Cutts videos the results were more relevant with bubbles leading off to videos discussing GMail etc. While not innovative this feature is interesting and one I will certainly be playing about with from now on.
The Top Five Internet Memes of 2007
December 11, 2007
5. Tay Zonday/Chocolate Rain
On the 22nd April 2007, Tay Zonday posted on YouTube a video of himself performing a song he had written entitled ‘Chocolate Rain‘. Little did Tay know that his video would soon become one of most viewed on the site ever and that he would become a celebrity. The song has been parodied by music stars like John Mayer and Tre Cool of Green Day and was performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live by Tay himself. It is ranked as the second most viral video ever by utalkmarketing.com and the video has been aired on TV and Radio around the world including Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and the BBC Radio 1 Chris Moyles Show.
4. Lolcats
Thought to have originated from the multitude of image chans, Lolcats exploded (not literally, there’s nothing funny about an exploding feline) onto the meme scene in early 2007 with the website I Can Has Cheezburger [sic]. A Lolcat is generally any image of an animal featuring a caption that is almost always written with odd spelling, syntax and strangely conjugated verbs. Lolcats sometimes refer to other well known Internet memes like ‘All your base are belong to us’. Lolcats has since diversified into other areas including Lolgeeks, featuring images of I.T. professionals alongside amusing captions such as ‘Im in ur RSS pushin Atom’.
3. Chris Crocker/Leave Britney Alone!
‘Leave Britney Alone!’ Was the anguished plea of celeb obsessed Chris Crocker, referring of course to going-off-the-rails pop star Britney Spears, when he posted videos to both MySpace and YouTube in September of 2007. By design or not his emotional piece to camera went viral and has so far received over 13 million views and is the second most discussed video on YouTube. The funny and yet at the same time disturbing video has been parodied both on and off the Internet by bloggers and celebrities alike.
2. Dramatic Prairie Dog
The Dramatic Prairie Dog started life as a clip taken from a Japanese TV show in which the aforementioned rodent turns to camera with a Bond villain-esque expression of evil intent spread across it’s furry little face. Posted on YouTube it wasn’t long before this tiny ball of malcontented fluff was popping up all over the Internet in various remixes of the original, including a Dr. Evil of Austin Powers fame version. The Dramatic Prairie Dog is often mistakenly called Chipmunk, Beaver and even Hamster.
And finally…
1. 300/This Is Sparta!
Without a doubt the most popular meme of 2007, and I say just meme dropping the ‘Internet’, as this particular lulzy example of memery crossed the boundary from the Internets and into the real world with the fury of, well… 300 Spartans. The Zack Snyder sword and sandal epic will be remembered in years to come not for it’s retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae but for the wonderfully over the top delivery of lines such as ‘This is Sparta!’ and ‘Tonight we dine in hell!’ The actor Gerard Butler’s toothy screaming face has burned itself into the psyche of movie goers the world over. On the net this meme has taken the form of thousands of photo manipulations that range from the flawless to the hilariously amateur, videos and animations including remixes and home made interpretations, songs and a rash of clubs and groups on sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, it has even replaced the long running ‘LEEERRROOOYYY JENKINS!’ as the de rigeur call to arms. In the real world the anthemic battle-cry of ‘This is Sparta!’ can be heard screamed with gusto everywhere from drunken revellers in bars to students on college campuses. It’s sprawled in graffiti on city walls and adorns t-shirts, mugs and anywhere else its fantastically amusing quotes can be placed. This meme is a monster.
PM Queries Google On Poverty Fight
December 10, 2007
British PM Gordon Brown has issued a rallying call to a rash of multi-national corporations including Internet giant Google in a bid to tackle the massive problem of global poverty. Brown, plans to hold a series of meetings across the world with some 20 business leaders, after a UN report pointed to a “development emergency” in the Third World. The PM commented:
“We are half way to the target date of 2015, but a long way off track to our goals and face a development emergency. 2008 should be a development year and mark a call to action from everyone - not just rich and poor governments but civil society, faith groups, trade unions and even the private sector.
“There are 72 million children not going to primary school, in some countries one woman in six dies in childbirth, over a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. The international community needs to face up to this development emergency. We know what to do - we need to keep our promises and act. I am therefore calling for an millennium development goals action meeting during the UN general assembly in September to re-examine and galvanise our efforts.”
This initiative will surely give Google a chance to repair a damaged track record on social and environmental accountability as highlighted in a recent report by One World Trust.
Cutts Caught Doing The Dirty At Google
December 7, 2007
Picture the scene. Dinnertime at the Googleplex and the following conversation ensues:
“Hey Matt, you jumpin online for a game of World of Warcraft”?
“Er no, i have to, erm….pop out for a second, got a few errands to run”
“Hey no problem man, keep fighting the fight”
“Erm… yeah I will, gotta go”
When Matt returns he is looking sheepish and a bit disgusted with himself. The disgust soon fades when he reaches into his pocket and feels the fibre of the advertising payment check nestled deep within it.
Hey, he has bills to pay like the rest of us right?
He gives a smile, a wry smile…… those bloggers that sell paid links won’t think bad of him for taking the payday, for saying one thing and doing another….. will they?
Facebook Saving Its Beacon?
December 6, 2007
Well they have gone and done it haven’t they? The big brass at Facebook have got around the table, drank gallons of coffee, agreed, disagreed and then agreed again and big decisions have been made. In what amounts to a huge great whopping turn around Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday announced Facebook users will be able to completely switch off the much maligned ‘Beacon’ widget. Posting on the Facebook blog Zuckerberg offered an apology and an explanation:
‘We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.’
‘Facebook has succeeded so far in part because it gives people control over what and how they share information. This is what makes Facebook a good utility, and in order to be a good feature, Beacon also needs to do the same. People need to be able to explicitly choose what they share, and they need to be able to turn Beacon off completely if they don’t want to use it.’
This is a big leap from the ‘opt-in’ tweak to Beacon offered by Facebook last week after users voiced concern over privacy issues over the widget. A widget that would, basically put, send a user’s friends information on web purchases made by that user.
So there you have it.
Will this move be enough to help save Facebook, a shining star teetering on the brink of a supernova-esque implosion? Or has too much damage been done already in the Beacon fiasco? Only time will tell.
Matt Cutts Lands Lead Role In Movie Sequel
December 5, 2007
Matt Cutts has made a huge impact with his war on spam, so much so that movie moguls have snapped up the heroic Googlebod for a starring role in 300 part 2. Details are sketchy but the above screenshot was leaked by an undisclosed source.
It’s a true story - we made it up ourselves. 
Google About As Transparent As A Brick Wall
December 4, 2007
One World Trust’s 2007 Global Accountability Report, an assessment of thirty different organisation’s from around the world, was made publicly available today (after registering of course *rolls eyes*) for us all to ponder over.
The various corporations, foundations and groups including Interpol, Coca-Cola and every one’s favourite search engine Google were judged on their transparency and cooperation amongst other things and then positioned on a league table of overall accountability ranging from most accountable at the top to least at the bottom. And guess which certain search engine finished dead last? Yes that’s right, Google.
Google, who refused to take part in any of the research, not only finished bottom of the pile but also scored dreadfully (as in nothing, zip, nada) on transparency and even such things as environmental impact. Google, often criticised for collecting user’s personal information, have developed a privacy policy in response to such criticism but it wasn’t enough to impress the researchers:
“While it is good practice that Google have such a policy, the policy itself meets no good practice principles and in a recent study by Privacy International it was rated last among other popular Internet based companies’ privacy policies for its quality”
Will the internet behemoth that is Google take any notice of this report’s findings? Considering they apparently showed no interest in offering information to the researchers in the first place, probably not. And even if they did it would surely be buried deep somewhere in the hive of official Google blogs.
UK Web Consumers Picky Habits
December 3, 2007
With Christmas fast approaching and consumers using the web to shop more than ever, retail site search box gurus, SLI Systems, have revealed some interesting research results on the picky browsing habits of
91 per cent of online shoppers find their sites through ‘the Google’ and other major search engines and most visit the highest ranked sites even if the shopper has never heard of them purely and simply because they are at the top of the page.