Author: Robin Speziale
Music Lovers Rejoice: Grooveshark Continues Napster’s Song
Media
Remember Napster? Napster is one of those things in life I remember fondly. Napster was that revolutionary online music tool launched in the late 90’s. I remember first hearing about Napster in Grade 7 from a buddy in school.
It was mind bending you could download music online! I think Napster defined how you use the internet today: sharing. Napster was only as successfull as the people sharing music online. Kind of sounds like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter with the “conecting and sharing” concept of social networks.
Napster’s song ended in early 2000, with Metallica initating the first major legal blow to Napster. Napster staggered for a bit then finally collapsed. Napster users swarmed to Kazaa, Limewire and Morpheus to feed their music addiction. But soon after, music downloaders realized these new music platforms were a haven for viruses.
Around 2004 the online music industry took a new shift. iTunes accompanied the hugely successfull iPod. But music wasn’t free. Apple charged around $1 per song. Around the same time, Napster restarted its music engine, adopting a platform similiar to iTunes with pay per download. Napster never recaptured its early success and on its last breath was acquired by Best Buy.
Enter Grooveshark. Grooveshark is the new Napster. When I launched Grooveshark, I started remembering the good ol’ days of Napster. And Grooveshark is incredibly easy to use. Search for a song, singer or album, load up a playlist and start listening to songs in seconds. It’s brilliant. No downloading.
Go to Grooveshark now and start listening to music. Get off iTunes, Limewire and Windows Media Player. So 90’s.
Launch of New Videogame Website Answers: So… Is It Good?
UncategorizedI’ll admit – I read videogame reviews before I buy a videogame. In this day and age, with new videogame releases priced at $50 and above, a videogame is a pretty big investment, especially if you are an avid gamer, purchasing 20+ games per year.
I’m sure many gamers get their reviews from IGN and Gamespot. And although I have followed both IGN and Gamespot since their inception, I can’t help to question the integrity of their most recent reviews. It seems a certain set of videogames are bullet proof. For example, the GTA series can’t seem to score under 9.0/10.
So, it’s nice to read a videogame review from a source that offers in depth analysis and that isn’t paid to advertise that same videogame on its website. Enter Edward Lau. Edward recently launched his videogame blog: So… Is It Good? As described in his first videogame review for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Of Fatalities and Heroic Brutalities, Edward “provides an in-depth look into a video game each review and basically answers the question that is the title of this blog”.
So before you invest your hard earned money in a videogame, check out So… Is It Good? and answer that age-old question all gamers face: So… Is It Good?
Black Friday for Canadians
Random
With the loonie almost at par with the U.S. dollar, Canadians will be invading the U.S. on Black Friday for outrageous shopping deals.
Search for Black Friday online and you’ll find plenty of sites devoted to Black Friday deals. 2009BlackFridaysads.com shows scans of Black Friday deals from 2008 to give you a good idea of how great the deals will be for 2009. Black Friday starts Friday, November 27, 2009.
If you want to stay up to date with Black Friday deals, check out BlackFriday.com for the best listing of 2009 Black Friday deals featuring Best Buy, Wal Mart, JC Penney, Victoria’s Secret and many more.
So Canadians, don’t miss the outrageously good Black Friday deals in the U.S. The loonie is too strong to pass up Black Friday in 2009.
How to Make Your Press Release Newsworthy
StartupsYou need to make your press release newsworthy for journalists to write about your company. Before you start a press release, scan over online news stories about companies, and identify what you consider an interesting news story. Journalists want the same interesting news story. Journalists are looking for press releases that:
– Are different
– Are interesting
– Are catchy
– Are impressive
So if you’re writing about your company, place the attention-grabber at the top. Journalists don’t read over each press release in whole. The press release title and opening summary should immediately grab the reporter into the news story.
A reporter recently gave me inside tips into how reporters judge a newsworthy press release: “As an editor, I’d suggest a brief intro, then break it out into bullet points, one for each of the projects you’re promoting. Keep it short – pare down the quotes unless they’re real zingers – and highlight what makes these products unique in a crowded market”
The reporter went on to explain that emotion in a press release pulls journalists in. So if you want to make your press release newsworthy, craft your press release like a Rocky movie – packed with emotion and passion.
“Journalists like a compelling life story, a backstory for the product. We’ll especially bite for people who achieve success very young, or come from interesting backgrounds, or whose life story influenced the product. Anything that makes a good yarn, really, and makes the product stand out”
And don’t get discouraged if you send your press release to 100 newspapers without a bite. It seems the news reporting business is changing in that reporters search more for press releases, new product launches etc. online instead of relying as heavily on mailed press releases. So work hard on building a strong online presence with SEO, so if the reporters don’t read your press release you send in the mail, they’ll surely find you on Google.
Making Money On Social Search Engines
RandomGoogle and Bing recently announced the first phase of the social search engine. Social search engines open up opportunity for monetization and new advertising formats. However, the rush to monetize social search engines may destroy Google’s and Bing’s core mission: delivering relevant, quality content.
Bing announced yesterday it will be integrating Twitter and Facebook into search results. A Bing spokesperson said “we are going to get access to all the public Twitter information in real time,”, “The other deal we have done will come with all the publically available data on Facebook, and services from that will come at a later date.”
Today, Google announced a new feature called social search that will be released into Google Labs soon. Google social search differs from Bing social search in that Google will deliver content from only your social networks. How does Google know what social networks to pull content from for search results? Users will have the option of connecting their social networks to their Google profile in order to opt into social search.
There will be much buzz surrounding advances in social search. However, one must ask if social search is good for search engines? I think social search will:
1) clutter search results
2) deliver poor quality content
3) produce spam
4) create monetization boom
I would like to stress the 4th point. The social search engines of Google and Bing will create a rush to monetize social search. I can see two core ways to monetize social search:
1) You get paid to post status advertisements on Facebook or Twitter
In this case, companies will start up to faciliate the relationship between advertiser and Facebook or Twitter user. Imagine a platform whereby Coca Cola submits pre-defined status updates filled with content and links to a social search advertising company. This social search advertising company then pays Facebook and Twitter users to post Coca Cola’s status advertisements as status updates. So when somebeody searches for Coca Cola in Google or Bing, they will see their friends status update advertisement in the search results. Once that status advertisment is clicked, Coca Cola gets charged and the Facebook or Twitter user who posted the status advertisment makes money.
2) Facebook and Twitter promise company ads will display in Google and Bing search results
In this case, Facebook and Twitter can easily post or add text links around your Facebook or Twitter profile like in the side bar. So again, once a user searches for something in Google or Bing, they will see advertisements attached to their friends social network activity.
Conclusion: Do you want to see ads in your search results? I don’t. I’ll predict that if Google is not able to filter out these possible status update advertisements from their social search engine, Google’s search engine popularity will fall. Searchers want relvant, quality content, not advertisements – even if the ads are coming from your friends… who want to make money from you.
Volunteer for Chum Christmas Wish
Random
This year marks the 43rd annual Chum Christmas Wish. I’ll be volunteering for Chum Christmas Wish 2009 and plan to volunteer each year thereafter.
The Chum Christmas Wish is an inspiring program. It was originally established in 1966 as a charitable foundation called CHUM’s Kid’s Crusade Foundation, for the purpose of assisting children in need, and children’s charities.
The CP24/CHUM Christmas Wish has become one of the largest distributors of toys to those in need in the GTA, supplying registered charitable organizations, social service agencies, churches, and community centres. In turn, they distribute the donations to those families, of many faiths and cultures, who require our support.
I’m sure if you live in the GTA – Oakville, Mississuaga, Toronto, Brampton, Scarborough, Toronto – you have heard about the Chum Christmas Wish and thought about volunteering – well you should this year!
The Chum Christmas Wish starts Monday, November 16th 2009 and continues until Noon, Thursday, December 24th 2009. The headquarters and toy distribution warehouse is located in Mississauga, at 3035 Wharton Way.
Apply to Chum Christmas Wish – You’ll be glad you did!
Volunteers are needed to help at the warehouse facility to sort donated toys and fill agency toy requests, during the holiday season. To apply, go to thewish.ca starting October 26th @ 9AM and apply. For more details about the Chum Christmas Wish contact 416-384-4199, or e-mail thewish@chumamfm.com.
Schedule for Chum Christmas Wish
2009 WAREHOUSE HOURS OF OPERATION for Volunteers:
Nov 10-Dec 3/09 – Weekday 9:30am-5pm, Saturday 10am-5pm.
Dec 4-Dec 23/09 – Mon-Thur 9:30am-5pm, Fri 9:30am-8pm, Saturday 10am-5pm.
Facebook Co-op Jobs for University of Waterloo Students
Jobs
The University of Waterloo is the only Canadian University Facebook hires co-op students from.
Yes, pretty awesome – Facebook is at Waterloo. During the University of Waterloo co-op application process in Summer 2009, Facebook co-op positions started appearing on Jobmine.
If you’re a University of Waterloo co-op student who wants to work at Facebook on co-op term, you can keep up do date with hiring on Facebook’s Waterloo page: Facebook is at Waterloo.
When Facebook started posting co-op positions on Jobmine, positions ranged from Marketing Analyst to Programmer. So it seems Arts, Business, Computer Science and Engineering UW students are all welcome to apply to Facebook.
Here’s Facebook’s official guide to the Facebook co-op interview process:
The First Interview
If you’re at one of the campuses we visit, we’ll see you in person (pssst…no need to dress up all fancy. Save the suit for the bankers.) However, if we don’t visit your school, we’ll probably talk to you on the phone.
The first interview is about 30-45 minutes long and usually with someone from the team. We’ll want to hear about your past experiences and current accomplishments, as well as any technical skills that we’ve said are a requirement for the job. At the end of the first interview, you’ll find out if you’ve made it to the next step in process, which are on-site interviews called University Days.
What happens next?
After the interviews, our team will meet to discuss all the candidates. These conversations are always full of tough decisions. We work very hard to get back to all of our candidates with a decision as quickly as possible. If you have any questions as you wait, please don’t hesitate to contact your recruiter.
And hey, once you have graduated from the University of Waterloo, check out Facebook’s entry level jobs
25 Sites to Submit Your Startup Website Free
Startups
You’ve developed a startup website. And now you ask: Where Can I Submit My Startup Website for free?
I submitted my website startup – buddingup.com – to hundreds of sites when I founded it back in April, 2009. However, only a select few websites I submitted to gave my startup a quality back link, search engine traffic and coverage in Google search results.
Below are my Top 25 sites to submit your startup website to for free:
- FeedMyApp
- CrunchBase
- Techvibes
- Killerstartups
- Tradevibes
- Venturedig
- TagEdge
- Younoodle
- Blippr
- Startup World
- Lovelypages
- Facebook Pages
- Venturebeat
- SimpleSpark
- WikidWeb
- Gen-Y Startup
- NetWebApp
- MoMB
- 2.0websites
- Startup Nation
- Appuseful
- Gravee
- Digg
Submit your startup website to me – r.speziale[at]gmail.com and I’ll profile your startup on my blog.
Inspirational Quotes for Entrepreneurs: Henry Ford
Startups
If you don’t already know, Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. Below are my favourite Henry Ford inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs.
- If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
- A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
- A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
- It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.
- A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.
- Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
- Don’t find fault, find a remedy.
- Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
- If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.
- It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.
- Money is like an arm or leg – use it or lose it.
- Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.
- Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
- One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.
- Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
- The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.
- The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
- There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.
- Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
- Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.
- When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
- You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Robin R. Speziale 
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