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Metacafe adds user channels

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metacafe.jpgMetacafe, a large scale video Web site with a reported 25 million people who visit it each month, has branched out into letting users program their own online channels. This new feature is live now.

The Metacafe user channel offering lets individuals subscribe to channels that suit their tastes and interests, knowing they’ll receive daily e-mail notification if one or more of their selected channels have been updated. Users can visit established channels through a variety of criteria, with advanced search functionality and additional subscription tools be introduced in the coming months.

“Metacafe has always empowered our audience to decide what videos appear and are featured on the site,” said Erick Hachenburg, CEO of Metacafe. “Introducing personalized channels is a natural next step in advancing audience-driven programming and fostering an environment where people know they’ll be entertained. We expect these channels to prove especially popular among our producers who can now showcase their videos more easily to a large and diverse audience.”

Originally posted on July 30, 2007 @ 3:42 pm

Wikia acquires distributed search project Grub

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grub.jpgWikia co-founder Jimmy Wales waded deeper into open source territory today as his company announced it had acquired Grub, a distributed search project. Financial terms of the acquisition were not revealed.

Grub, acquired from LookSmart, works under a model of users donating their personal computing resources towards a common goal. The application has been released under open source license by Wales and company for download and is “designed with modularity so that developers can quickly and easily extend and add functionality, improving the quality and performance of the entire system.”

Grub, described as “a massive, distributed user-contributed processing network,” is being combined with the open source Search Wikia project and is seen as a large step “towards a future where search is open and transparent.”

“We’ve had a tremendous response from very interesting commercial players in the search space,” said Wales. “The desire to collaborate and support a transparent and open platform for search is clearly deeply exciting to both open source and businesses. Look for other exciting announcements in the coming months as we collectively work to free the judgment of information from invisible rules inside an algorithmic black box.”

Originally posted on July 27, 2007 @ 6:12 pm

Hakia toolbar eliminates double Web searching

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hakia-scoopbar.jpgHakia, a meaning-based search engine, unveiled today a toolbar for Internet Explorer users. The new Hakia ScoopBar is designed to eliminate what Hakia calls “double searching.”

“Double searching” occurs when you first find a Web page for a specific term and than have to search through that page to find exactly what you were looking for. The toolbar automatically highlights the relevant text in response to your search and locates the text by scrolling directly to that portion of the Web page. An additional feature lets you save the relevant section of a Web page for later use offline.

“When most people search, they have to search and search again through a results page to find the relevant text,” said Dr. Riza C. Berkan, founder and CEO of hakia.com. “The automated sequence of highlighting, positioning, and scooping saves researchers a great deal of time. We are cutting the work of search in half.”

Originally posted on July 27, 2007 @ 5:23 pm

LogicBuy.com users vote on best tech deals

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logic-buy1.jpgLogic Media has launched what it is a calling a hybrid tech deal Web site for using community members to find and rate shopping deals online. LogicBuy.com is designed to help shoppers find the lowest prices on electronics, video games and computers.

LogicBuy.com uses its community and a team of editors to rate submitted deals offered by popular online merchants. Editors look for the latest deals to post on the Web site while community members also shares potential great deals they have found in their Web explorations.

Deals, once posted, are voted upon in a “Hot” or “Not” style format. Those deals which get more positive feedback appear higher in the listings, while deals considered to be “Not” get buried because they are not considered as compelling.

Originally posted on July 26, 2007 @ 5:22 pm

MySpace, Dark Horse debut online comics

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myspace-dark-horse1.jpgMySpace and Dark Horse Comics have teamed up to bring online life to a comic anthology by launching MySpace Dark Horse Presents. It will be exclusively on MySpace and free of charge to users.

The inaugural August issue of MySpace Dark Horse Presents includes contributions from Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) & Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance). Future issues, which will be available on MySpace the first week of every month, will include a mix from both established, successful, comic creators as well as talented amateurs. Site editors from both MySpace and Dark Horse Comics will search MySpace profiles for new talent to feature in every upcoming issue.

“Just over 20 years ago, we published our first comic, Dark Horse Presents #1. Our goal was to bring new and talented creators to the forefront of comics culture, and also to give industry luminaries a chance to retain the rights to their work” said Mike Richardson, president and founder of Dark Horse Comics. “Years later, with that same goal in mind, we are reviving this title online, with the help of MySpace.com, whom we feel may be the most culturally relevant website on the net. With their broad cultural significance, and incredibly wide reach, we felt they would be the perfect partner to lead our charge into original online content. Our hope is to both reach new readers, and to give longtime Dark Horse devotees a new and exciting comics experience.”

Originally posted on July 27, 2007 @ 6:26 pm