the Web Chef's e-Bytes

New Column in Wisconsin Technology Network - Widgets

I've written a new column in the monthly series of articles, Buzz Networks, recently published in Wisconsin Technology Network.  The article "Widgets - web components for plug, play and pay" reviews the evolving and expanding world of widgets or gadgets and the benefits they can provide companies looking to connect and distribute their messages widely. 

With Facebook, Microsoft and the major blog platforms endorsing these portable applications, they will only be growing in the future.

If you'd like me to come and speak to your group on the latest developments in e-marketing, I'd be happy to discuss your budget, needs and schedule.  Please contact me in the United States at 608 255 4092 or via e-mail.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Paul J Gibler

Web Tidbits - Social Networks, Wikis

One year old Citizendium is hunting for a piece of the content pie seeking to be a reliable alternative to Wikipedia through the use of expert contributors.  According to the Financial Times they still have a ways to go given that the site only has 3,300 articles (compared to Wikipedias 2 million in English alone) and is growing at 14 new ones a day.  With the viral and network effects of the Internet the projections for the site are positive according to the founder Larry Sanger.

In the social networking space, Google announced the launch of OpenSocial, a consortium described by the Financial Times as "The technology that Google unveiled will let developers spread applications across any of the social networks that adopt it, removing the need to rewrite them for each one".  CNet is reporting that there are 26 companies that have joined the consortium including Google's Orkut (popular in Latin America), Hi5, LinkedIn, Friendster, Plaxo, Ning, Beebo, Oracle, Salesforce.com, etc.

For more on social networks see my article "The expanding world of social networks" on Wisconsin Technology Network.

Web Tidbits - Social Networks, Dell

Breaking news - Microsoft and Facebook
Microsoft has acquired 1.6% of Facebook for $240 million.  The deal values the social networking king at $15 billion, far more than the $1 billion offer that Yahoo! made for the site earlier according to CNNMoney and The New York Times.  Microsoft will be the exclusive advertising platform and will gain rights to sell adverrtising around the world.

For more on social networks see my article "The expanding world of Social Networking" at Wisconsin Technology Networks.

Dell Strategy Changes - Social Media, Retail Channel Expansion
In a continuing evolution of their business strategies Dell is learning how to listen and join the conversation with a range of web 2.0 technologies according to Michael Jarvis in a recent Business Week article.  Jarvis is a blogger who infamously had taken Dell to task in the past.

In other Dell strategy changes, Dell has expanded beyond their direct sales model overseas according to Business Week and in the U.S. signed a deal with Staples to sell select small business equipment starting November 11th according to eWeek.  This retail expansion follows their earlier agreements with Wal-Mart to sell consumer models in their stores.  

New Column in Wisconsin Technology Network - The expanding world of social networks

I've written another article in the series of Buzz Networks columns that I contribute to Wisconsin Technology Network every month.  This article "The Expanding world of social networks" looks at the continuing evolution of social networks for consumers of every age and interest, for businesses to improve internal operations and for other marketing purposes.

I encourage your feedback and comments on the article, either here on the Web Chef's e-Bytes or at Wisconsing Technology Network. 

Interestingly one of the social networks that I referenced in the article last week, Sermo, was in the news today for its agreement with Pfizer described in the Financial Times - " Sermo and Pfizer will work together to establish how drugmakers can best communicate with physicians online, and provide drug and disease information to them on-demand".  The site reportedly has 30,000 members and is adding 2,000 a week.  It will not be supported by advertising accoring to the article.

Update
One group of demographic social network sites that I did not cover are those created and managed by Community Connect, a developer of niche demographic social networking sites - MiGente (hispanics), GLEE (gays and lesbians), AsianAve (Asian Americans) and BlackPlanet (African Americans).

Web Tidbits - UGM and Viral Content (Updated)

User Generated Contest - jetBlue
In an interesting example of User Generated Marketing or Content, JetBlue created a photography contest that ran from June 5th to September 5th to launch their new real time flight tracking with Google Maps.  As part of the entry the photographs needed to be taken on a JetBlue flight and the location of the photo needed to be mapped using the real time Google Map that was available on the seatback monitor in front of them. 

The number of contest entrants (1700) exceeded their expectations.  They also reflect some very interesting images.  You can vote for your favorite at the site through September 28th.
Hat tip to AdFreak.

UPDATE
User Generated Content Research Results
McKinsey reports (registration required) on research they conducted in Germany to determine why people contribute video to video sharing sites.  The results found that 65% reported they were seeking fame, 50% reported it was fun, 41% wanted to share videos with friends, 29% wanted others to benefit from the information in their video.  In the same report

Online Viral Game - General Mills EatBetterAmerica.com Food Fight
Meanwhile halfway across the country, General Mills has launched a fun online game the Good Food Fight that allows you to select a healthy recipe, a character and start an online food fight.  I had fun with the hot dog vendor and the spaghetti recipe.
Hat tip to AdRants

Online Viral Promotion - Dylan's New Album
Getting on our plane and flying across the Atlantic we come to the Ten4 produced viral site to create pre-launch buzz for Bob Dylan's compilation of greatest hits to be released on October 1.  The site (Dylan Messaging) allows you to compose a message that is in turn displayed in a "video", along with a Dylan song and sent to a friend or friends.
Hat tip to AdverBlog

Web Tidbits - Video, Music

It has been a big week in the web content world with announcements all week about new services and agreements impacting video, music, mobile content and other web areas.

Video - French YouTube competitor, Dailymotion has received $34 million in venture capital funding according to PC World. The Wall Street Journal reports that they have 37 million visitors a month.

Meanwhile YouTube has reached an agreement to license 10 million pieces of music for a flat fee from the UK-based MCPS-PRS Alliance according to Forbes.

Fox and NBC Universal announced the name for their new video sharing service - Hulu according to Digital Trends.  The site is scheduled to go into private Beta in October.

Music & Beyond - Not to be left behind, Nokia has launched a new web brand, Ovi (or door in Finnish) that will provide music downloading and other services in direct competition with Apple's iTune and other web service providers according to VNUNet.  The service is expected to go live in the fourth quarter of 2007 with music, games and maps according to the Nokia Press Release (PDF).

Customer Reviews on Retail Sites = Better Results

Church of the Customer blogger Ben McConnell references e-Marketer compiled data on social commerce showing that sites with customer review mechanisms demonstrated higher traffic (77%), conversion (56%) and order sizes (42%). 

For more on this topic see my June article in Wisconsin Technology Network "Online Retailing Tango is Adding Some Steps",

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

Pew Internet on Online Video Trends

Pew Internet has released their latest research findings on the use of online video.  According to the research report (PDF), 57% of Americans have downloaded online video with 19% doing so on a daily basis.  Not too surprisingly, the numbers are even higher among those using broadband Internet access at home or work where 74% of users watch or download online video.

In terms of content types that were being watched news video was number 1, followed by comedy, music and education.  The research also found that more than half of users watching video were sharing the video clips with others showcasing the viral or word of mouth marketing aspect of this medium.  In addition it was found that few users were paying for online video and preferred professionally produced video to user generated content.

With the CNN Youtube Democratic presidential debates that were recently held we can see how even in politics online video is taking off.

Web Tidbits - Clorox Microsite & UGC Contests

Clorox has a new microsite Mealstogether about families spending their meals together according to AdFreak.  Although I'm not in the target audience, I suspect that this one won't do much for the family of brands.  The site has a bunch of tips with little connection to the food-related Clorox brands it is designed to support.  I found the user interface of the smiling family a bit creepy.

YouTube has "packaged" User Generated Content contests in a community section of their site.  Right now they have Heinz, TLC and Samsung to name but a few.  Meanwhile the New York Times reports on the less than stellar results being experienced in these contests, accompanied by high costs for reviewing entries and the potential for brand attacks as companies open their doors to consumer generated content.  One campaign referenced in the article is Heinz's Top This TV challenge where the top 15 campaigns will be placed on the website for votes and winnowing down to 5 to generate one winning campaign.  Here's an example of one of the ads.

Web 2.0 Cooking Tips from the Web Chef

As the Web Chef, it is only fitting that I love to cook.  I've long enjoyed print subscriptions to Bon Appetit and Cooking Light.  From the newspaper world, I keep my eyes on the weekly recipes printed in The Milwaukee Journal and The Wall Street Journal.  While I'm not much of a TV watcher, I do occasionally catch Emeril or some other celebrity chef on The Food Network.  One of my favorite online cooking sites is Epicurious, a Conde Nast site with recipes from Bon Appetit, Better Homes and Gardens and Gourmet or Recipezaar or AllRecipes or Cooks.com.  Now I guess it is time to take my interests in Web 2.0 and cooking and combine them with newer community and video  resources to continue my evolution as a chef.

This month's Bon Appetit profiles the growth of social networks sites for the foodie.  The sites referenced include FoodCandy - "where foodies meet", ExtraTasty - perfect drink recipes and BakeSpace - "a place for cookers and bakers".  While I haven't explored these yet, they all look like interesting community sites for sharing and exploring new food and beverage options.

Today's Wall Street Journal suggests that another place for foodies to go is online video sites to view new celebrity stars like Ms. Sher or Bubbe and her Feed Me Bubbe clips (see the clip below about chicken soup).

Click To Play

Episode Summary :

Part 2 of this 3 part series that is all about chicken soup!

Show Notes:

To check out what happened last time on Feed Me Bubbe click here.

After the recap we move on to the meat and potatoes. We take it from the last part of the last episode where the microwave goes off. DING!

Bubbe takes out the piping hot bowl of soup and mentions that we now have a batch of homemade chicken soup along with four chicken legs.

We now interrupt this scheduled programming for a brief announcement..
It seems that we FORGOT THE ONION last episode. OOOPS!

After our moment of silence..

Time to make some matzah balls. It is all about following the directions in the back of the box while making it with the special Bubbe tips to make it light and fluffy. Get the basic recipe.

And the yiddish word of the day is short but sweet. That's right folks it's TAM or TAAM which means TASTE. Bubbe's chicken soup has a good TAAM.

Bubbe reminds us the importance of washing your hands. She also gives the secret to making a lot of soup for a party and make it taste good. The way to do it is to combine the homemade with package soup, who would have thought.

So at your next crowd you are ready to make the soup that will warm the soul. Add luchen, matzah balls, and rice.

Oh No! We forgot the soup chicken! Oh well 2 part chicken soup series is now a 3 part so check it out next time.

Featured Music:

Provided By Garage Band

Odessa Bulgar Live
@ Le Bar Bat
8-13-03

BY: KLEZSKA

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Do you have a recipe site to share?  Pass it along and I'll add it to the list.