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What I read and how I feel about it...

The international war over exit signs.

Very cool story over the debate about America's use of the classic red exit sign vs. the universal exit pictogram/symbol adopted by the rest of the world. URL:  www.slate.com

1000 Yr. Old Baltic Shipwrecks Uncovered

“…experts believe more than 100,000 whole and partial wrecks litter the sea bottom.” Wow, that is amazing.

Amplifyd from news.yahoo.com

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A dozen previously unknown shipwrecks, some of them believed to be up to 1,000 years old, were discovered in the Baltic Sea during a probe of the sea bed to prepare for the installation of a large gas pipeline, the Swedish National Heritage Board said Monday.

“We think many of the ships are from the 17th and 18th centuries and we think some could even be from the Middle Ages,” he said, stressing that “this discovery offers enormous culture-historical value.

Due to its low temperatures and oxygen levels, the Baltic Sea is known as an ideal environment for conserving shipwrecks, which can remain virtually unblemished for hundreds and even thousands of year.
According to Norman, some 3,000 shipwrecks have been discovered and mapped in the Baltic, but experts believe more than 100,000 whole and partial wrecks litter the sea bottomRead more at news.yahoo.com
 

Google’s Social Media strategy successful?

So far? Not so much, but as the story notes Buzz may just be the one that makes the difference.

"There’s no reason to believe Google will succeed with Buzz, given Google’s social media track record. However, Buzz is the most complete product Google has put out yet and has some strong engagement numbers. It’s riskier than Yahoo’s strategy, but the payo... read more

Amplifyd from mashable.com

Like Yahoo, Google doesn’t have a good record in social media. Google Friend Connect (google friend connect) isn’t even close to Facebook Connect in terms of adoption, Orkut (Orkut) never made inroads in the U.S., Blogger (blogger) has nowhere near the traction of WordPress, and other acquisitions such as Jaiku and Dodgeball haven’t panned out.

You’d have a very good argument if you said that Google’s only social media hit has been YouTube (YouTube), and that “only” cost the company $1.65 billion. Google has a lot more social properties than many people realize, but it’s a hodgepodge of acquisitions (Blogger, YouTube, Picasa (Picasa)) and internally-created services (Orkut, Google Knol, Friend Connect). The company’s batting average, though, has been pretty poor, especially by Google’s standards.

Read more at mashable.com
 

Thought Update:  Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that I'll be at SXSW. Would love to say hello in person. @dgrossman or dave(at)amplify.com

John Stewart: Chatroulette over before it started…LOL

Just saw another report this morning on the Today Show…nuff’ said. Well, one more thing…Jon Stewart slays me.

Chatroulette has made The Daily Show, thereby becoming so mainstream that — hear that? Yup, that’s the sad, sad death knell of an expired Internet sensation.
Jon Stewart expertly depicted the current state of infamous video chat site, Chatroulette. As we all know by now, the majority of users are men, and many of those men are, well, super proud of their joysticks.
Yup, everyone from The New York Times to CNN has jumped on the Chatroulette bandwagon, each news outlet sending a brave, hapless Gonzo-wannabe into the fray to experience the site for him or herself. And, as Stewart points out so astutely, it’s getting kind of old
See more at mashable.com
 

There were many Facebooks, this one just did it better.

Found this nugget in a blog post that Fred Wilson recently wrote about Facebook's newsfeed patent. This may be well known but it was news to me, you never hear about competitors in the early days. Would love to know more about that. I guess I'll have to wait for the Facebook movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake (http://bit.ly/e7dtU)...I'm sure it ... read more

I was chatting this past week with a tech journalist who was in college when Facebook launched. She was not at Harvard but at another ivy league school. She told me that there were “facebooks” launching all over the ivy league that year. Facebook out executed everyone and took the market. That’s how it is done. But they did not come up with the idea that “we should take a facebook and put it online”. They simply did it better.Read more at www.avc.com
 

LeBron’s M.J. tribute all about money.

Sorry, this is a bad job by LeBron. Announcing that he was losing his #23 jersey in reverence to Jordan (and that everyone in the NBA should, he is just the first) is a sham. This author brings up an awesome point or should I say person. Bill Russell for goodness sake! James doesn't want anyone to wear the great Michael Jordan's jersey but its cool to wear Russel... read more

Amplifyd from sports.yahoo.com
LeBron James(notes) isn’t honoring the greatness of No. 23, but manipulating Michael Jordan’s marketing savvy. The changing of his jersey number as a nod to M.J.’s basketball career is a purely fictional cover story.
What about Bill Russell and his 11 NBA championships? Jordan, the greatest ever, cleared a path for the worldly basketball star. But Russell was a black star in turbulent Boston in the 1960s. He anchored the greatest dynasty in the sport’s history, and they’ll remember him as the most dominant defensive player to ever live. In the end, James and everyone else understand this has nothing to do with Jordan or Russell, with No. 23 or No. 6. This is business, and he’s insulting everyone’s intelligence suggesting it’s something else.Read more at sports.yahoo.com
 

Vimeo’s new analytics suite.

Very nice job by Vimeo, looks really great. The story notes that its only available for "plus" users for now. I suppose its possible that it remains as a premium feature, which leads me to this question: do you think that other services will begin to lump analytics features into the freemium model? Will people pay to have more robust analytics and/or more graphic... read more

Amplifyd from mashable.com
Vimeo has just rolled out a suite of advanced analytics features dubbed Vimeo Plus Stats. It’s only available to Vimeo Plus users at present.
With Plus Stats you can track plays, loads, finishes, comments and likes for all of the videos uploaded on your account over any time period you define. You can break down plays and loads by country, and you can see how many embed loads and plays occur at each domain — Tumblr or Facebook, for example. You can even break it down by high definition and standard definition to see what quality your viewers are choosing to watch.
See more at mashable.com
 

Thought Update:  Someone mentioned Tiger Woods today which got me thinking...do you think team Tiger is bidding out the chance to get him for his first tournament since his implosion? Is it possible that either the specific tournament or broadcast network would pen a deal with him since the ratings will be through the roof? Think about how much additional media $ could be generated if given the opportunity to pre-sell the event. Am I being too cynical? It could happen...

Olympic Pictograms Through the Ages - Great NYT video

Great short video if you are interested in graphic design. My favorite is definitely the 1968 summer games from Mexico City...enjoy. URL:  www.nytimes.com