I owe a lot to the website craigslist.  It helped me find my current townhouse and housemates; it helped me find my current job; and it helped me find a great (and cheap!) dining room set.

The site began in 1995, with a very simple design.  Since that time, the design has not changed all that much.  "Keep it simple, stupid" is definitely the unspoken motto of the now-thriving entity.  There are very few graphics on the site, and the entire interface is very similar to newspaper classified ads.  Personally, I have always been a big fan of this design; I get very sick of watching flash intros to every other website on the market when I am foaming at the mouth to get to the actual content.

With an astounding 9 billion page views per month, yet only 25 employees, the website is well on its way to being the most used site on the web.  New cities and areas are added fairly frequently, with 450 being represented at the time of this post.  You can learn more about the wonder that is craigslist by visiting the "Fact Sheet" on their website.

Recently, and quietly, craigslist expanded its empire by introducing the first of several to come foreign language versions of the site.  Craigslist has never been one to make loud announcements about its new accomplishments and updates (just another reason to love it), and these new languages were implemented back in November of 2007.  Craigslist is now available in French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.  The individual areas of the site will continue to be community moderated.

The lack of multi-language support was the only thing stopping craigslist from being a bigger hit overseas, but with this welcomed foreign facelift, the site is poised to spread its influence even further.

Yesterday I sat in on an excellent Marketing Profs webinar titled "Advanced Tactics in SEO: Part Art, Part Science."  While the discussion focused on advanced topics, Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts and Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz briefly touched upon basic link building.

One of the tactics that they emphasized was collecting links from organizations that involve the site owners.  The great thing about such links is that since the target organizations are already acquainted with the site, they're much more likely to honor a link request than other site owners. (more…)

If you've got a computer, you know what YouTube is.  In fact, most people, including myself, have uploaded videos to YouTube at one point or another until our accounts have inevitably been suspended.  It's the circle of life on the Internet, and I am very pleased with it.  Without YouTube after all, I would be unable to watch my guilty pleasure, America's Next Top Model.

What's the bad news about YouTube?  Well, the videos that are uploaded are typically of lesser quality.  In fact, the most common complaint that you will see on the video comment sections is about the quality.  In reply, most users will explain that "something" happened to their video during the upload process.  There is a hack to be able to view high quality version of videos, but soon, that hack will hopefully be rendered useless.

YouTube has finally announced all users have the option of watching some videos in higher quality. A blog post on their site claims they're slowly integrating this new feature, and videos uploaded in the proper format will be the first to be available in high quality. The rest of the library will soon follow, with any luck.

Simply go into your user account and select the option: "always show me higher quality when available." High speed Internet is going to work best, because otherwise the videos may suffer from lag time.  Nobody likes lag time.

I have been waiting for this feature for a long time.  Finally, my prayers have been answered, and I will soon be able to watch YouTubeHD.  There are enough capital letters in that word to make anyone excited.

About a week ago, I wrote a blog entry on my newfound paranoia and fear of cell phone spam.  Fortunately, I have had time to relax, breathe, and find a totally new fear.  "Vishing" is a term that is the combination of the words "voice" and "phishing."  In case you are unfamiliar, phishing is basically an attempt to illegally and fraudulently acquire sensitive details, such as usernames, passwords and credit card information, by masquerading as an upright entity in an electronic communication.  Vishing takes this idea to the next level, an annoying and scary level.

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I’m originally from Texas and keep in touch with a lot of people that still call the state home. In the days leading up to the Texas Presidential primary, it seemed like everyone I knew reported receiving phone calls from Obama and Clinton supporters scrounging up votes for their candidate of choice. We’re talking three to four calls each. Everyone reported that the volume of calls was much higher than previous campaigns.

There are a lot of reasons for the increase in voter contacts I would think. The race was extremely competitive and Texas usually isn’t a primary player. Both campaigns are well funded. Overall interest is extremely high this year. But I think one key reason for the increase in contacts is the use of online call tools by both the Obama and Clinton campaigns. These tools allow the campaigns to crowd source voter contacts.

Essentially, both the Obama and Clinton websites allow registered users to make calls for the campaign to a state whose primary is approaching.   The first step in the process of making calls is to select the state you want to call.  After you select a state, you are assigned a voter (or list of voters) to call and given a script that includes some talking points and questions to ask such as “which candidate do you support?” and “what issues are most important to you?”.  After you finish talking to the voter, you report back to the campaign how the call went by filling out a simple form. This information is then stored in the campaign’s overall voter database (otherwise known as Customer Relationship Management database). The campaigns then use the information they collect via these tools to tailor get out the vote efforts, hone messages, customize donation appeals, etc.  These tools also provide the campaign with information about where they stand in each state.

These tools have been around since 2004, when both the Bush and Kerry campaigns had call systems built into their websites. The Fred Thompson (disclosure) and Mitt Romney campaigns had similar tools on their sites this cycle. However, I figured I’d take a closer look at the Obama and Clinton tools since they are still up and being used (look out Pennsylvania). Overall, I think both tools are excellent, although I found the Hillary tool a little easier to use.

Following are screen grabs of the call tools on both sites with my random notes. The phone numbers of the voters I was assigned have been blocked out to protect the innocent.

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Last Friday Salon.com and the Silicon Alley Insider reported that anyone can jump the Wall Street Journal website pay wall for free.

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Been a busy week, with more ideas for blog entries than time to write them. Here are some of the things I wanted to write about this week but didn’t get to:

Facebook Toast? Hot Today, Dead Tomorrow–Like AOL?

Article from Silicon Alley Insider on some of Facebook’s challenges. I “get” Facebook conceptually. I see the power. But on a personal level I’ve never truly enjoyed it. To me the whole idea of going to some closed destination site every day just seems kind of old fashioned and doesn’t fit the way I want to use technology. From the article, it sounds like at least a few others are with me.

A Sneak Peak at Wordpress 2.5

The Wordpress folks have put out their first release candidate for version 2.5. It looks promising. Hopefully they’ll have a final release ready in the next few months. (more…)

I currently own a fifth-generation iPod that is about to breathe its last breath.  After damaging the screen over a year ago, I have been waiting for the release of the next generation of iPods so that I could justify buying a new one.  Now that the iPod Touch is releasing a 32GB version, I figure the time is nigh.  But what to do with my old iPod?  It has given me many years of dedicated service in avoiding the awful remixes played at the gym, so it deserves a proper afterlife.

Unfortunately, according to Second Rotation, I would not receive a lot, if anything, for my poor MP3 player in resell.  I suppose that this hilarious parody from MadTV should have tipped me off sooner.

Fortunately for me, there will soon be another option for my dilemma.  According to the PR Newswire, The US Post Office is going to start a "Mail Back" program that will be featured in approximately 1500 post offices across the nation, including locations in San Diego, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC.  Consumers will be able to use free envelopes (postage-paid) to mail in inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players.  Postage for the envelopes is paid for by Clover Technologies Group, a company that recycles, remanufactures and remarkets inkjet cartridges, laser cartridges and small electronics. 

The Group refurbishes and tries to resell your mailed-in item.  If this cannot be done, its component parts are reused to refurbish other items, or the parts are broken down further and the materials are recycled. Clover Technologies Group has a policy that the company does everything it can to avoid contributing any materials to the nation's landfills.

Sounds good.  I know where my current iPod is going once I purchase the iPod Touch (which will be obsolete in two weeks, I estimate).  Next step, saving up $500 for the new one.

"Ideas worth spreading" is the motto of a growing annual convention that is held in Monterey, California.  The Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference covers a wide range of topics, from science to the arts, and nearly everything in between.  My fraternity brother, Chris, recently made me aware of this conference, which has been conducted since 1984.

There is an annual membership fee of $6000, however, this fee not only covers attendance to the events, but also attendance for other special gatherings and DVDs of the presentations.  Since not everyone can afford to be this enlightened, the official website was created in response, providing the highlights and best speeches from the conference.

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I was speaking with someone last night about how the 2008 presidential campaigns are using new media (blogging, web video, social networking, etc.), and the question about how to determine the success of these campaign came up.

One of the first things that came to my mind was media exposure.  I thought back to an article that awarding winning media critic Rory O'Connor wrote about a panel discuss he attended during Advertising Week back in 2006 in which Mark McKinnon, who has advised President Bush about media, and Democratic media strategist David Alexrod participated. (more…)

Combining aspects of things that people already enjoy is one of the best ways to make an impression on a market without having to be completely original or creative.  For the past couple of months, there has been a surge of such activity in the form of ‘angry' video game reviews.  These reviews combine aspects of life that many males (and some females) enjoy, including ranting, nostalgia, cheap Photo shopping, and dirty humor.  Taken together, these form a "review" of a classic video game.  The reviews have the taste level of an episode of Family Guy, but also have the marketability, as well.

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It finally happened to me; I was hit with my first spam message via my cell phone.  I was foolish enough to believe that spam stopped with email, but luckily I was prepared for this eventuality and deleted the message without opening it.  This is my first word of advice for anyone who receives one of these dastardly messages.  Merely opening the message may result in charges being sent to your cell phone.

Text message spam has grown to amounts of 1.1 billion last year, according to recent reports.  The cell phone spam problem has been something that has engulfed countries such as China and South Korea for years now (sigh…they are always ahead of us in technology!).  According to the CAN-SPAM Act passed in 2003, this should be illegal, but I have my doubts as to how many of these spammers are going to be caught.  However, after some exhaustive research, I have come up with a five-point plan for combating requests for purchases of fake stocks and penis pumps. (more…)

When I was young, I had a computer that displayed two colors, puke green and black, and I was happy with it.  I could type papers and play a second-rate version of Jeopardy.  It was all that I really needed.  Years later, I have a laptop that displays countless colors that I can bring with me wherever I feel like I need a computer.  Soon, as early as Spring 2008, I will be able to have a computer where I least need it:  my breakfast table.

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While there is plenty of discussion out their about how news organizations of all types are trying to handle the migration of eyeballs, ears, and advertising dollars to the Internet, there's another important issue — especially when considering news content distributors like NPR and their relationship with their affiliates.  Since similar organizations like the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Reuters also have news sites of their own, it is important to ask: How can distributing and producing content on the Internet help both the distributor and affiliate? 

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Last May I wrote a post about how offices on Capitol Hill deal with the barage of emails they constantly receive. Regulatory bodies and similar organizations also must handle similar flows of e-mails. Despite this, it is very important for our country's democratic nature that individuals' voices are heard. Further, some regulatory bodies are legally required to process public feedback during a comment and review period before a change is made. So what can a Congressional office (or a similar organization) do when it receives tens of thousands of e-mails from constituents the day before a key vote? (more…)