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PetPop.com presents new panel of experts

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petpop.pngPetPop.com, a social networking site designed specifically for pet owners, announced its newly created panel of pet experts. Ranging in expertise from veterinary science to organic diets, PetPop.com’s Pet Panel will answer the wide spectrum of questions members of the site submit each month.

Users submit questions to the panel and depending on the nature of the inquiry, the appropriate expert will respond, with other panel members providing additional advice when necessary. Already becoming one of the most visited pages on the site, PetPop hopes to introduce more specialists to deal with any questions pet owners might have.

The PetPop Panel of Experts include:

• Christie Shaver, a licensed pet nutrition expert and founder of The Healthy Pet Gourmet.

• Andrea Arden, the author of five pet training books including Dog Friendly Dog Training, Train Your Dog the Lazy Way, and The Little Book of Dog Tricks.

• Christine Agro, an expert in organic diets for pets and is a graduate of the School of Natural Medicine in Boulder, Colorado where she received degrees in Naturopathy, Herbs and Iridology.

• Brent Hinton, the former director of the Kentucky Humane Society and is now CEO of a pet health insurance company, PetFirst Healthcare.

• Michelle Tilghman, D.V.M, a graduate from the University of Georgia Veterinary School. She is on the faculty of IVAS and has taught across North America and Europe.

Originally posted on December 22, 2007 @ 9:14 pm

hi5 Launches New Music Applications By iLike and Qloud

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hi5.pnghi5 Networks announced the launch of two new music services on its social network through collaborations with iLike and Qloud. iLike and Qloud each launched an application on hi5 by leveraging the common set of OpenSocial APIs to deliver new music services to hi5’s more than 70 million registered members– making these the first applications using OpenSocial to go live on hi5.

The iLike application will enable hi5 users to post songs and videos on their profiles. Artists who previously had to maintain a separate presence on hi5 can now reach their fans on hi5 via the iLike Universal Artist Dashboard, which will also syndicate their content on other channels across the Web.

The Qloud My Music application will also now be available to the international hi5 population. By installing the My Music application, users can immediately see and legally play entire songs and videos from their complete iTunes libraries within their hi5 profile. My Music also allows users to see and play online the iTunes libraries of their friends, view and exchange playlists with their friends, browse and play the most popular songs among their social groups, and add their hi5 friends’ songs to their own hi5 profile libraries.

Originally posted on December 27, 2007 @ 6:54 am

Amazon.com wraps up 13th holiday with best season ever

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Amazon.com announced the 2007 holiday season finished as its best ever, with its busiest day being December 10. On that day, Amazon customers ordered more than 5.4 million items, which is 62.5 items per second. In addition, the company wrapped up its second year of Amazon Customers Vote, with more than 4.6 million votes cast during the promotion.

Here are some Amazon.com 2007 Holiday Facts:

• Amazon.com sold Nintendo Wii systems at approximately 17 per second when they were in stock.

• Amazon.com sold enough high-def DVD players to cover seven football fields.

• If you lined up all of the GPS units Amazon.com sold this holiday, they would make a trail from New York to Philadelphia; however, a new trail wouldn’t be necessary with the use of a GPS.

• Amazon.com sold enough auto wrenches to stretch all the way around the Daytona 500 track.

• Amazon.com sold enough Hannah Montana wigs to outfit the entire audience at her December 20th show in Providence, RI.

• Amazon.com’s One-Day Shipping was extended an extra day through Sunday, December 23rd for Prime members this holiday season.

• The last Prime order placed on December 23 in time for Christmas delivery contained “Futurama, Vol. 1” DVD, “Lost in Translation” DVD, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” CD, “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand paperback, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” CD, and “Pulp Fiction” (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition) DVD delivered to Herndon, VA on December 24th.

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Originally posted on December 27, 2007 @ 5:38 am

Amazon MP3 adds DRM-free music download from Warner Music Group

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wmg.pngAmazon.com and Warner Music Group announced that DRM-free music audio downloads are now available to customers on Amazon MP3, Amazon’s a la carte MP3 digital music store where every song and album is playable on virtually any personal digital music capable device. Beginning today, songs from WMG’s digital audio catalog will be available for purchase and download from Amazon MP3. In addition, Amazon and WMG will make available to consumers digital music products such as album bundles containing exclusive tracks.

Originally posted on December 27, 2007 @ 10:09 am

AOL launches Hot Seat, a syndicated political widget

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AOL has launched Hot Seat, a syndicated online political widget on AOL News. Hot Seat features daily political poll questions from some of the biggest political bloggers on the Internet, including The Huffington Post, Time’s Swampland, Slate, The Politico, Crooks & Liars, Power Line and Captain’s Quarters. The questions address current political issues and events as a way to stimulate a dialogue between voters, pundits and politicians. “Hot Seat” also features responses from major presidential candidates to specific questions posed to them by bloggers and pundits.

Hot Seat will be displayed on all AOL News, Elections and Political Machine pages as well as participating sites outside the AOL network. The Hot Seat widget showcases real-time poll question results on both a national and state-by-state level, while letting users share and discuss their views with users of various sites. Through “Hot Seat,” candidates will be given an opportunity to respond to questions and comment on the results of the various polls while providing an outlet that allows the public to become deeply engaged and integrated in the political blogosphere.

In addition to Hot Seat, AOL will provide comprehensive coverage of the campaigns. AOL’s Political Machine blog provides political coverage that combines blog posts from academics, journalists and the voting public. In the coming months, election coverage will also feature a Straw Poll that will house weekly candidate polls with real-time results and track the races for both parties. General election results will include additional local information, including county data, interactive maps and mobile distributions.

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Originally posted on December 19, 2007 @ 11:11 am