According to to Yahoo News, Google Analytics has been in data blackout since Saturday.
This is a bit surprising to me since I’ve been able to log in and get my information, and it seems updated. But according to some users, Google Analytics hasn’t been the same since and upgrade in May.
Every good blogger knows that a sure fire way to drive traffic to your site is to make a list of some topic and get it into circulation on Digg or Del.ico.us, or any one of myriad social networking sites out there. As a web surfer, it is extremely tempting to click on one of these links. Most of us don’t like, or have time, to have to track things down. We would rather have something given to us in a nice package. Even if we aren’t looking for it, because it’s gonna be a fast read even if not useful.
Because there are so many of these lists though, it is starting to become a little less effective for clicks than it used to be. My eyes usually gloss over when I see one of these links these days. However I’ve really been finding Mashable’s lists to be pretty thought out and thorough. Although a little overwhelming with the amount of information offered, they are worth a read in my opinion. Check out their list of online music services. Pretty damn good job. Because their lists are long and time consuming, I recommend having a considerate amount of time to dedicate to each one.
Flagxo.com is an interesting user generated content site that allows users to read and rate airports. Although in need for more content, the site has potential to give great travel tips and transit advice for new visitors to airports around the world.
The site has a nice word cloud and links to Most Posts, Most Useful and User Find. The site allows users to rate airports on a scale of 1 to 10 in areas such as Power Plugs and Wi-Fi. Averages are then added and each airport gets an overall average.
Flagxo.com is somewhat useless until more users start using it. But like I said, it has a ton of potential.
I downloaded Songbird Media Player for my Mac the other day. It was the first time I used it in a few months. Let me tell you, it is awesome, and one of the first web apps I’ve been excited about in a while. For those who don’t know, Songbird which is still in beta, is a desktop Web player, jukebox and Web browser mash-up. From the makers of Winamp, it supports extensions and skins, or feathers as they say. And it’s like Firefox, built from Mozilla, cross-platform and open source.
Not only will it play the music on your computer, but you can surf to online music or mp3 blogs and listen to all of the music on those as well, with their built in browser. That means the engine will browse the site and load all of the mp3’s for you. You can then listen to them without having to click on each one. Very time consuming.
I recommend downloading the beta, which I didn’t have any problems with, so far.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Wired has written an article about how Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life. It seems that most people quickly abandon their avatars after creating them, because there simply isn’t anything to do. And that most users who were logging in on a regular basis were from Asia and Europe and that the big American advertising money was being spent on about 100,000 Americans.
Those that do log in are usually attracted to the free virtual sex or linden dollars. And then there are the griefer attacks. Which leads to my favorite part of the article.
Last winter, CNET’s in-world correspondent was conducting a live interview with Anshe Chung, an avatar said to have earned more than $1 million on virtual real estate deals, when Chung was assaulted by flying penises in a griefer attack.
So is the end of Second Life? Advertising is still there, and Electric Sheep is making out like bandits, but why log in? I would rather play WoW and go on some raids with friends.
Technorati Tags: second life, web 2.0