Yahoo Photos, the popular free photo-sharing website has finally shut down as of Thursday September 20, 2007. Users have already received notice well in advance to switch gears to other services such as Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Photobucket. Unfortunately, those who have waited too long to switch platforms or at the least, download their photos from the site, will lose all their photos as yahoo will have them deleted by that time.

To recap what happened, on March 2005, yahoo had purchased Flickr (Vancouver, British Columbia), the award-winning photo-sharing site that time magazine had called “completely addictive”. Flickr, launched in February of 2004 by Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, lets users upload digital photos from computers and camera phones, put together photo albums, and post photos to blogs, among other things. Yahoo had decided to ditch its service in favor of Flickr, which exceeds yahoo photos in traffic according to comscore and at a faster pace.

Yahoo deserves credit for recognizing the potential in technology and talent when they seized flickr with a million dollar purchase. However, from a business point of view, it is surprising that they actually give users a choice to export photos to competing sites. I am puzzled as to why they do not simply transfer the photos to flickr. Another issue is that yahoo photos offered unlimited photo capacity as a purely photo sharing site. Flickr on the other hand offers, through its free account, a capacity to upload up to 100 MB per month with a viewing limitation of 200 of its most recent photos. However, with a Flickr pro account the photos will always be available for viewing. Nevertheless, we must be willing and able to adapt, as users of new and established platforms, when sites evolve to compete globally.

Click here for Flickr

Fuser a site dedicated to making your social lifestyle easier is launching today. Fuser allows you to collect all your messages from different social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace into one inbox at Fuser. So basically a one stop shop to pick up your messages. Fuser also allows you to add other POP and IMAP email accounts to the Fuser account.

While it is still in it’s beta release, Fuser has the potential to do well. It does not only allow you to view your emails and messages from other networks, it also allow you to reply to those messages. In other words, you don’t have to go back to other sites if you have to check for messages.

Fuser doesn’t have any other functionalities added to their site yet. It seems like they display the friends in order of number of messages you receive from those friends. I am still testing it and I hope to find this site useful. It should be useful but still a long way to go.

Facebook has recently released their developer platform to the public so they can develop their own applications and market it to Facebook’s 35 million strong users. I am very sure this is one of many ideas and site that are about to be launched in the social network arena.

Fuser is currently free of charge and they are hoping to make money through advertising.

Check out Fuser here.

The New York Times just released news that, Pudding Media (San Jose, California), a startup internet phone company is set to push the boundary between what is considered to be an acceptable form of target marketing and what is quite possibly considered to be a threat to personal privacy. Pudding Media is similar to any other phone-service company out there, much like Skype, but offers a unique twist to the usual formula.

Internet phone users are accustomed to receiving toll charges for the duration of conversation on their phone. Pudding Media, in contrast, provides a free service for those who are willing to let the internet phone company eavesdrop on their conversation for information to target advertisements directly to their computer. So, for instance, if you have a conversation about visiting the Great Wall of China, then you might receive advertisements that are relevant to that theme. However, whether you might find it to be a distraction or an effective means of targeted communications depends on the person and the information provided. 

Obviously, there are tradeoffs to this form of marketing, but those looking for means to a free phone service may be willing to take the plunge. It all depends on the person, but there definitely is a market out there. The real question is whether people will feel a sense of invasion that is very direct and calls into question the essence of personal space.

On another level, target marketing already has a dominant presence in our information age in many shapes that are more subtle than obvious. For instance, point cards target advertisements based on individual purchases and certain websites offer marketing material relevant to user surf patterns on their site. Similarly, the popular Google analyzes content on emails in order to provide target marketing. Well, marketing is definitely here to stay and it is an inevitable business tactic in our consumer driven world.

However, one fact remains, users will have to decide if they consider the service to be beneficial and informative, a nuisance, or just plain invasive. Only time will tell if people are willing to put their personal feelings aside and adapt or stand behind the notion that technology has its boundaries. All in all, new discoveries like this brings to mind the reality that an average consumer has a tremendous impact in the marketing industry. Lets not bellittle ourselves. We definitely drive the industry.

Click here for Pudding Media

CrowdFound.com (Australia, Queensland, Brisbane) is essentially a social-bookmarking website, but with a unique vision in mind. The concept here is to bring content together that is relevant through a collaborative tool much like Wikipedia, where content is created with a specific sense of purpose that rings true to detail and relevancy. The site also utilizes a unique “add content” feature that permits users to add the tool to their browser so that they can add relevant content with ease. The link is then transmitted directly to the CrowdFound site. However, CrowdFound is quite particular about content being appropriate and relevant, which is indeed admirable. Often sites concentrate on attracting users to add something to their site as apposed to focusing enough on the actual content that are driven through social collaboration. In fact, we must weigh and balance both the quality content as well as traffic focus to achieve a winning duo. 

I had a chance to interview the founders (Joe Olejnik, Gareth Saunders, and Steve Olejnik) of CrowdFound.com and this is what they all had to say:

Why is your site different from your competitors?

We are essentially a social bookmarking website. However, our vision is to build category pages that represent the best content (videos, pictures, pages, news items, blog articles, how-to guides) on the web for a very diverse range of topics (such a Electronic Music). This is in contrast to other social bookmarking sites that tend to have more of a focus on ultra-current, ‘hyped-up’ content.

What is your business plan or model?

Although we have many ideas for how we can monetize the site, our primary revenue stream will be advertising. As a result of the ultra-focused nature of the categories that will develop on CrowdFound, there will be a significant opportunity for advertisers to target-market to very specific types of people, resulting in higher click-through rates and as a result higher CPM rates.

Why did you start this website?

We started CrowdFound because we got sick of having to trawl through page after page of results on most of the popular search engines to find content that was highly relevant to what we were seeking. We found the search engines to be great for presenting (on the first page of results) a small amount of content that represented the most popular for that particular topic. However, to really find a significant quantity of in-depth content on any particular topic required going through page after page of results, only finding relevant content every so often.

How are you planning to market it?

Our initial marketing involves becoming active in online communities focused on many of the topics we cover on CrowdFound. We will be adding significant social networking functionality as well, and this will promote users to get their network of contacts involved in CrowdFound.

Launched on August 24, 2007, CrowdFound has a site that displays a very polished appearance with a well though out focus on quality content. As time passes, I am sure that people will follow through with the quality content trend that the founders have revealed on their site. The important aspect of social bookmarking sites is the content and driving people to participate respecting the theme of the content. Personally, navigating through the various categories, found the site to reflect quality content that was specific. As apposed to creating content that is a direct lift from content available on the web, the founders of CrowdFound have made an innovative approach to differ with specific quality content.

Click here to visit CrowdFound

LinkDoozer.com (Carson City, Nevada, USA) is an interactive website portal for people to search, store, and share and compare much loved websites on the internet. The site permits users to add existing bookmarks or favorite sites to their own homepage without the hassle of installing software or upgrades. On top of that, the site offers an extensive and valuable set of features that further demonstrate a willingness to explore the realm of social networking.

I had a chance to conduct a comprehensive interview with David Mercer, founder of LinkDoozer.com, and this is what he had to say:

Why is your site different than your competitors?

I think that we can be differentiated from other so-called bookmaking sites, in that our fundamental goal is first and foremost to be a homepage. We don’t particularly want people to tag 40 000 links and add it to their account – although we place no restriction on what can be tagged (provided it is not illegal etc). We want them to tag and organize their “most useful” sites because these are sites that are likely to be useful to other members. The reason we are differentiated here is because we have our own AJAX browsers that allow these links to be viewed in draggable browsers from “within the main account page” so people never even have to leave their homepage to use any site on the web. We also provide recommendations for similarly tagged links within these browsers so people can use these browsers as a form of discovery tool.

The site also caters for webmasters and bloggers in that it has this social networking element that means that sites that are stored on one member’s homepage are available to other members via a number of features (clouds, feeds, lists, recommendations, note sharing and so on). For bloggers, simply adding their own sites to their linkdoozer homepage provides a persistent but non-intrusive form of promotion and increases their sites footprint for little to no work.

We also encourage people to rate and review their links to further help the community at large make choices about what they want their internet to look like. We have a number of features that you would expect, such as one click bookmaking, RSS feeds for reviews, drag and drop features for organizing links, we even utilize third party widgets so that members can access email from multiple accounts, perform AJAX enabled Google searching, import their current bookmarks or favorites at the click of a button and so on.

What is your business plan or model?

We do not advertise at all, and are not involved in cross-marketing or emailing or anything like that. We do have plans to monetize the site in a completely passive and un-noticeable way, and one which our members will be completely unaware of, but the implementation of that is some time off. For now and at least for the foreseeable future we are effectively non-commercial. Think of it as a commercial-free project (in every sense)…

Why did you start this website?

The site was initially begun as a “better” method of exploring the Web. So much emphasis is placed on SEO that companies that can afford to employ experts to increase their sites visibility can overshadow sites that might be better by climbing up search rankings. This is obviously a step away from a perfectly democratic way of doing things and in the long run is not healthy. With LinkDoozer, only those sites that people consider to be part of their favorites are more prominent. In other words, SEO plays no part in deciding how popular a site is – only the community itself, by their natural use of the Internet decides passively which sites are good and which are not.

How are you planning to market it?

We really want to build a community of people as opposed to having customers. We think the best way to find community members is by going through blogs (who themselves should become members in order to promote their sites) and getting on forums etc. We have and will continue to send out the odd press release whenever something new comes along…

Suprisingly, LinkDoozer, launched this August in Beta mode, seems to have exceeded expectations with a genuine attempt to create a site that is purposeful. As apposed to  just jumping on the bandwagon to create something for the sole purpose of earning an online income. In that respect, I applaud David for his efforts. In fact, I found the site reflecting a simplicity in appearance, but yet user friendly features and content do not distract from the main theme of the site. Hopefully, this sets a standard for others to follow suit in putting forth as much effort in their reputation and purpose as they do in monetizing for the purpose of maximizing revenue.

Click here to vist LinkDoozer.com

Digg.com, rated by the site Alexa as one of the top 100 most trafficked sites on the internet, is all set to push its frontiers into other areas. Digg, for those who are unfamiliar, is a social content site that permits registered users to submit content on a wide array of topics ranging from technology to science. The users then rate and comment on the submitted content and if the story receives enough “diggs” then it could possibly boost the content ultimately onto the front page. Well, considering the amount of traffic it received on any given day; this is one of the best marketing tools out there to receive massive publicity.

The popular news portal, launched by Kevin Rose in 2004, is all set to upload social networking capabilities onto their site, which translates to users receiving their very own profile page to interact with one another with greater efficiency. Previously, users interacted by commenting on content. As of today, eager users can contact one another through their personal profile as well as leave messages.

The world is definitely more open to Digg users now than ever before and this can definitely have both positive and negative implications to users and the site. On one side, users can collaborate together to rank their content up with more diggs or they can bring down content as well. However, that action will probably get their account banned. On the flip side, users can connect more effectively with one another and create a community that drives more traffic to Digg much like Facebook, the popular social networking site.

Click here to visit the new newly renovated Digg.com and see for yourself

We all know that Microsoft is quite proficient in its domain of desktop services with Microsoft Office and its ever so popular Outlook. However, Google’s latest addition is all set to confront Microsoft in its own domain.

According to a popular source, Hindustani Times, Gmail is planning on releasing a so called offline desktop version of outlook for its popular Gmail. Previously, Google Docs, an online documents processing platform had tremendous impact on Microsoft’s own office software. The company is said to have provided Microsoft Office to U.S. students at a huge 91% discount.

Fears are reasonable as Google could possibly launch offline versions of Google Docs along with offline gmail. The rumoured offline gmail would be a direct replicate of gmail online, but with the twist of offering its services offline. Just when people thought that Google with its trademark online presence is set to revolutionize the internet industry; Google surprises us with an offline product. On the other end, we have powerhouse Microsoft moving towards the competing online market.

We will just have to wait and see how this reversal of roles will prove to benefit the companies and ultimately the users.

Click here for the article on Hindustani Times

Today John Reese, well known internet marketer launched BlogRush, a widget that syndicates blogs across the net. It allows users to place their blog title on similar blogs - driving users to their blog.

Users can earn credit based on number of visitors they receive to their blog - in return BlogRush will show the user’s blog post on other blogs that many times.

This seems to be a great way for websites to share visitors. Here is how it looks like:

Since BlogRush is new, you should join now and refer new users to BlogRush so you can earn more credits and drive traffic to your blog.

You can join by following this link: Join Now

We will keep an eye on this and post a follow up story in the future.

FashDesigns.com (Mumbai, India) is a three-month old website solely dedicated to fashion design. Here, you can find in depth fashion write-ups that are quite useful. Fash sketch, one of the categories featured, showcases a series of design sketches that can be rated and commented on. Fashion tops is an interesting category in which users can customize and order their own shirts according to a particular design or fabric. This would appeal to individuals who wish to personalize their clothing and set themselves apart from the crowd. Furthermore, the fashion directory features a listing of categories along with subcategories in which fashion websites are listed. Users have the option of submitting their own site to the directory, making it more relevant and user friendly.

I had a chance to interview Shweta A.and Pratik Bagaria, owners of FashDesigns.com and this is what they had to say:

Why is your site different than your competitors?

We cater to a specific design need, i.e., T shirt designs. Also, we make custom designs as per the clients need.

What is your business plan or model?

To make t shirt designs for corporate and website owners

Why did did you start this website?

To target online customers like webmasters, website owners, etc.

How are you planning to market it?

Through design channels, directories, etc

FashDesigns will definitely appeal to those interested in an informative insider on fashion and the latest trends. Also, the site’s less invasive approach to marketing is admirable; simple, straight-forward and comprehensive. FashDesigns has a great concept and if they make an effort to tie in their fashion content and products with user interests; they will have a winning fashion portal. A site to watch out for!

Click here to visit FashDesigns.com

YouMagix.com (Karnataka, India) is a user-generated information portal that permits access to user generated data through a simple and easy to use search tool. The search tool allows users to choose relevant content according to a specific country, city and category including movies, outings, restaurant, sports, colleges, schools, tourism and so on. However, unlike traditional search engines, users can add information to the search results, alter existing information on display as well as review existing content. The content created on site is specifically from users as apposed to the staff at YouMagix.com. This definitely adds a certain relevancy to the content provided on site. Ultimately, if users play an active role in the information generation process, the site will definitely drive traffic as content becomes more relevant.

I had a chance to interview Subodh Vinchurkar, founder of YouMagix.com and this is what he had to say:

How does your site differ from your competitors?

Every one has an admin authority at YouMagix.com and any one can add, edit, comment or write a review on any item that is out there. Content creation and updates are as easy as clicking a button and hitting save. One does not even need an account to contribute to content at youMagix.com

What is your business plan or model?

Presently, paid advertising at various places on the website supports the site. The primary focus is on creating a useful place on the Internet where everyone can contribute to help others and take advantage of contributions by others to make everyday decisions. We strongly believe that if we are able to create a very useful place on the Internet, monetization is not an issue.

Why did you start this website?

Even though there is a lot of content available on the Internet. There are specific gaps in content structure and availability that prevents it from being useful to people especially is countries such as India.

How are you planning to market it?

Predominantly via word of mouth. We request that you help us pass the product information to interested audience.

For a site that was released just a month ago, it appears to be moving quite well. The user-generated platform has great potential to create relevant content within a social collaboration medium. Personally, I found the site to be quite easy to navigate through. Frankly, I am quite confident that founder Subodh, with experience of eleven years in business and technology, will surely be capable of enhancing the site into a great platform that evolves over time along with its users. The most important point of advice is to listen to the users that ultimately dictate the relevancy of the content generated.

Click here to visit YouMagix.com