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23 Dec 2011 20:12

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Tech: GoDaddy’s calling departing major customers, begging them to stay

  • I think that the backlash against their support was a lot more swift and severe than they’d anticipated. Their initially glib ‘lol, whatever’ response was replaced by ‘oh god, please stop punching us in the quarterly financial report!’ real fast.
  • Mashable chief architect Chris Heald • Discussing how he received a call from GoDaddy regarding his decision to move 50+ domains to a different service in a boycott of their now-reversed stance on SOPA. Apparently he wasn’t alone. So the real question, then, is whether it’s too late for GoDaddy to get all those customers back. Based on the fact that Heald isn’t budging, and the fact that they called two days before Christmas, signs aren’t looking good for the company. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Aug 2011 21:48

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Tech: An iPhone prototype walked into a bar and … poof. (Yes, again)

  • 2 iPhone prototypes lost at bars; Apple workers probably shouldn’t drink source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Aug 2011 22:46

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Politics: More evidence that Newt Gingrich has lots of fake Twitter followers

  • At first, we actually thought it might have been a bug. We have seen some pretty low consumer ratios in our testing, but Newt’s was the lowest we had ever seen.
  • PeekYou CEO and founder Michael Hussey • Discussing (and possibly confirming) the rumor that Newt Gingrich has a lot of fake followers on Twitter. Here’s the thing, though — PeekYou noticed this on their own, weeks before it became a story on Gawker. The number — 8 percent real people — was so low that PeekYou actually thought it was a glitch. And here’s the interesting thing — according to PeekYou, if you take Newt’s fake followers out, Sarah Palin has more followers than he does. That’s kinda crazy, and PeekYou is doing some more research on the phenomenon for Mashable to figure out if the alibi we’ve heard about Newt’s follower count (that his follower count perked up once he was added to Twitter’s “suggested users” list) is plausible. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Mar 2010 21:20

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Culture: Bad idea for school play: Scarface. Al Pacino fudgin’ proud

  • Next semester: Showgirls. Perhaps this wasn’t the kind of material that was begging for 8-year-olds to perform it, but hey, if there’s anything the Internet knows, it’s tasteless. Mashable overreacted to the impact of this video, calling it the greatest viral video ever, only to get a number of criticisms in their comments (poor Brenna Ehrlich gets that a lot). We’re calling shenanigans on this one. It’s too bad of an idea to be real. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Mar 2010 20:15

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Culture: Merton, the Chatroulette piano guy, is a genuinely cool dude

  • Mashable did an awesome interview with him. Skype is quickly becoming the blogger’s interview tool of choice. And in the case of Merton, the lovable, not-Ben-Foldsy guy behind Chatroulette’s biggest phenomenon, it drew out some pretty great details.
  • one The original video
    was forced offline
    after two chatters
    felt their privacy
    had been violated
    by the coolest
    guy ever.
  • two That same video
    was also the
    highest-rated
    video YouTube
    has ever hosted,
    which is pretty
    crazy to consider.
  • three Merton, who
    chooses to (for
    now) remain
    anonymous, is
    way more inspired
    by Tori Amos than
    Ben Folds.
  • four That doesn’t
    mean he doesn’t
    find Ben Folds’
    rendition hilarious,
    though, especially
    with the crowd
    interactions.
  • five He says that the
    clips allow him to
    mix his sense of
    humor with his
    often-maudlin
    piano playing.
    Neat. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Mar 2010 22:39

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Tech: Mashable’s Pete Cashmore unveils more details on the new Digg

  • Curation, personalization, centralization – Digg wants to be your hub again. For a couple of years, Digg was THE place to go to hear what’s hot, as well as a solid way to drive traffic to your site. Nowadays, it’s a total niche and it’s hard to get your articles noticed in the abyss. Facebook (especially) and Twitter work way better. Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, in his column for CNN, talks a little more about Digg, whose new social buttons his site is testing. It sounds like Digg’s at least trying to get their mojo back. But will it work? Let’s just say we’re excited to see it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jan 2010 20:42

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Tech: Mashable’s redesign sucks. Yeah, we said it. What what?

  • They look like the establishment now. Mashable’s always had a lot of clutter in its design, due to the fact that they tended to try a lot of things and throw them on the wall and see if they worked. It’s what the site’s always been about. They did need a redesign, and we’re glad they’re trying. But we’d rather have the old design back than this slick hodgepodge that feels like absolutely nothing at all.
  • Why does it suck? The colors of this design are so quiet, so muted, so similar to Yahoo!’s longstanding mid-decade quiet tones, that it doesn’t make us feel anything. Also worth noting: The headshots, which emphasized that this was a personality-driven site, have been de-emphasized too much, creating an anonymous, generic feel.
  • Changes worth considering Mashable’s a popular site, but it could stand to be hipper (like Engadget, which just got a great redesign) or more playful (like Twitter, which drives much of the site’s traffic). It should have as much personality as the words of its jetsetting founder, Pete Cashmore. Cleaner doesn’t mean lifeless. Never forget that, kids.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 9 Comments • Permalink
 

23 Oct 2009 14:37

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About: Not saying you have to, just suggesting you should.

We kind of have a favor to ask. See, our friends at Mashable have this contest going on. And we were hoping you might vote for us in the "Best News Source to Follow" category. We would pay you back in cheap beer. We swear.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Oct 2009 20:14

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Tech: If star bloggers leave their sites, the brand suffers significantly

  • 94% of perezhilton.com’s value is gone without Perez Hilton source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Jun 2009 18:51

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Tech, World: Why did #cnnfail trend last night? Because CNN buried Iran.

  • While Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and other social media sites are both a source of unfiltered information and a venue for public discussion, we still look to CNN, the BBC and their ilk to add context and meaning to this flood of data. And when they fail us, we demand more of them.
  • Mashable blogger Pete Cashmore • Reading the lay of the land for social networking – CNN played back their coverage of Iran and Twitter, which has championed CNN in the past (unless you’re Ashton Kutcher), turned their backs on them. Just because everyone can post news doesn’t mean we don’t want that news edited. Which is why CNN is (and heck, we are) useful as resources. Keep that in mind kids. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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