Saturday, January 07, 2006

Newsvine Seeds Private Beta Invitations. Contributor Emily Chang writes about two Web 2.0 applications that challenge the status quo - one of them is Newsvine, currently in private beta. Emily has some details on the new service: "Newsvine highlights three key interactions with the site: reading, writing, and seeding. Readers are able to comment on articles and engage in discussions. Writers are able to create columns and blog posts, tag articles and have them appear in the relevant public Newsvine section to drive readership. Seeding Newsvine is the same as quick post or bookmarking using a Newsvine bookmarklet, although Newsvine emphasizes a comment beyond merely posting. What’s the incentive? “Newsvine users are financially rewarded in direct proportion to the value they add to the community by way of creating and submitting articles.� For more on Newsvine - including a handful of screenshots - go check out Brian Benzinger's very detailed review. update: Hypergene MediaBlog from the Corante Media Hub, also has great coverage on the Newsvine launch. So does Stowe Boyd. [Corante Web Hub - Editorial Section] 3:51:22 PM

Google Pack and new Google Video service. Information Week has info on the Google Pack software. The bundle is to include: "..Adobe Reader, Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, RealNetworks' RealPlayer, Symantec anti-virus software and instant messaging software from Trillian. The package will likely include Google's search software and its Picasa image management application, Google Talk IM, and Google mapping software." The other major Google news is a new video download service. Peter O'Kelly links over to a Yahoo! News article: "The [Wall Street Journal] said Google will announce its plans to allow consumers to buy television shows or other videos that can be downloaded onto their computers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday." O'Kelly also points to some analysis by Nicholas Carr: "Early last year, when Google launched Google Video, it announced that it would, at some point in the future, allow videos to be sold or rented through its service. According to the terms it posted, video owners would be able to set their own prices and Google would take a 30% commission on any revenue... But how 'open' will this 'open digital content marketplace' really be? The FT says that 'access to the store will be through an iTunes-like interface that will require users to download a new Google 'player' onto their PCs.' According to the Wall Street Journal, 'Google has developed its own digital-rights-management software to protect downloaded videos from piracy.' If these reports pan out, then this sounds like yet another closed system and yet more headaches for consumers. So much for media convergence." [Corante Web Hub - Editorial Section] 3:30:41 PM

© Copyright 2006 Anita S. Coleman.