Web Analytics: Not Just For Webmasters Anymore
Mar 27, 2008 Blogging, Geeky, Tech News
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YouTube has rolled out a feature that empowers video creators in understanding the traffic their videos receive. Web Analytics have often been associated with Webmasters or at most Web site owners, but this gives people some real-world insight into what Web sites know about the, all from the kind folks at Google.
16 Storm Trooper Dancing Videos
Dec 1, 2007 Blogging, Funny, Geeky
What do you do with your Storm Trooper costume besides wear it on Halloween? Dance, of course!
These storm trooper dancing videos were hunted down by me. Of course, I am still waiting for a Storm Trooper to so the Soulja Boy.
Tags: funny videos, videos
Internet Stars are Viral
Nov 2, 2007 Blogging, Bragging Rights, Funny, Geeky, Social Networking
Hm. I posted this on Facebook and didn’t get the response I was hoping. I love this video, it’s a montage of the all the internet memes and stars that we all know and love. We don’t know a damn thing about them, except that we’ve seen them at one time or another.
I admit, I haven’t seen the anime one, but I feel special knowing that I’ve seen these. An Internet Junkie, I am. 
Leveraging Piracy for Viral Marketing
If it weren’t for IRC, FTPs and our favorite — KaZaA, would we know about how great Adobe Photoshop is? The $700 professional photo-editing application was (and is) widely available on piracy networks. Same for the beta copies of Windows Vista and formerly XP. What if software companies embraced early adopters instead of fighting them?
I know I used Photoshop when I was younger, and I assure you I couldn’t afford it at the time. Since I became “hooked” on the Adobe and Macromedia series of software applications, I used it all the time and recommend it to friends and family. In turn, my momentary loss of a sale turned into prospects and sales simply because I used the software.
What if a software company released their software to the seeders on a pirate network? No cracks or keygens needed, just a private release for that network. For example, a special copy of that favorite graphics program just for The Pirate Bay. Allow the folks to spread it, use it will in turn recommend it. This can potentially spread the buzz about that product by enabling the influencers to use it, without them paying a dime.
The business folk might ask how to monetize it. This can be a tough choice, but you can limit certain features of the software and prompt them to upgrade to a full license. This can lead to potential sales as people require more heavy duty uses of the program. Another option is embedding an optional advertisement window into the software. Nothing intrusive or would upset a user, but something balance the “free” user out so you can churn some dough.
This might not be feasible for large software corporations like Microsoft or Adobe, but perhaps the lower-tiered ones have a chance to get their software out there, in front of the people to spread the word. I know that I’d try a program that was meant to be free versus one that isn’t.
A very timely blog entry from CrunchGear explains the history and the aspects of piracy in simple terms. Is this something that the “elite” lost their domination of? Are simple users (aka, n00bs) getting into it? This is probably the biggest fear the RIAA and MPAA have is when the average person is ripping, seeding, and burning seamlessly. Oh, wait — that was years ago.
That said, I discourage software piracy, but I do support companies embracing their “threats” and finding innovative solutions for them. This can happen with software, music, games or even movies. Just think if that hot new movie you downloaded was sponsored by Verizon?
What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
[tags]warez, software, appz, gamez, movies, solutions, business, piracy, consumers[/tags]
