Neomeme

Microsoft to Buy Yahoo

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on February 1, 2008 under Uncategorized

Check out Flix55

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on December 4, 2007 under Uncategorized

Disclosure: I do some consulting work for Flix55.

IF you want get something out of your compulsive video watching, check out Flix55. You win points for watching videos, uploading videos that get a lot of views, commenting etc. More points mean cash prizes.Basically, you can do everything you can on YouTube, only you have a chance(as the site is small, a pretty good chance) to get a few bucks in your PayPal account. I’ve promoted a couple of the videos on Digg, and I have about a jillion points, so it can’t be that hard.

Ummm, what else, what else. There are only two things in life worth doing:

1. Visiting Flix55.com right now and uploading a video

2. Getting a consulting gig of any kind

If you get a chance to do both, you’re doing very well indeed.

/sellout

Not Dead!

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on September 21, 2007 under Uncategorized

This blog is not dead, just…hibernating. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the feed to be notified of my erratic updates through your browser. I will probably shift to a more sporadic, longer essay format soon. Until then, what have we missed in the Web 2 ~~bubble~~ world since my last post? Read more »

Blogging is Tough

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on September 2, 2007 under Uncategorized

Apologies for the lack of posts recently-I’ve been busy working on a political blog project and have been rather neglecting this little personal blog. It truly makes you appreciate how much effort it takes to maintain multiple blogs. So, like all lazy bloggers, I’ll simply give you some links from my feeds in the Web marketing field:

The Next Big Thing is Already Here

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on August 21, 2007 under Uncategorized

The Next Big Thing is most likely already here. It’s just waiting for someone to come along and execute on it. By the Next Big Thing, I mean the next paradigm-shifting Web application, the digital revolution of evolution, the “2.0″, the next killer app for the Web. You know what I’m talking about- Web 2.0 is built upon such explosive applications. Social networking, Peer to Peer, participatory communities like Wikipedia, online video, all of these are Big Things. But they are not at all new. And the Next Big Thing that is undoubtedly right around the corner won’t be either. Read more »

We Need More Movies Based on Video Games

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on August 7, 2007 under Uncategorized

I just came across the brilliant fake trailer for Minesweeper: The Movie from CollegeHumor:

It’s only a small example of the wonderful storylines that lie dormant within our video games. Or, failing that, proof that a move trailer in that generic format (all movie trailers look fairly identical) can make anything look cool.

In-jokes in the trailer:

Beginner and Expert are difficulty levels in Minesweeper.
Minesweeper involves planting red flags on potential mine locations- so everyone is carrying red flags.
The sweepers are playing Hearts, another game bundled with Windows
An 8 represents mines all around the square
The yellow guy represents the smiley face on top of the Minesweeper window, which changes when the game ends- hence he says “Game Over”
As the screen goes black at the end of the trailer there is a sound of a mine exploding- he guessed wrong.

What would happen if Web 2.0 crashed tomorrow?

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on July 11, 2007 under Uncategorized

The satirical news outlet The Onion has a more-true-than funny video about all of the Internet crashing. Note how all of the sites mentioned- MySpace,Youtube,Flickr are all our Web 2.0 darlings. There is no mention of Web 1.0 classics like Yahoo or CNN. Which leads me to believe that, more and more, non-user generated content is getting left farther and farther behind and relegated to relic status, like a fax machine. And the concept of an entirely user-generated web is even scarier than a return to the old web. Just look at the comments on any Youtube or MySpace page.

Video after the jump. Read more »

Apologies for the lack of posts

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on June 13, 2007 under Uncategorized

Apologies for the lack of quality posts on this blog recently. Since the beginning of June, I’ve been working essentially nonstop on Avanoo . Once/if things quiet down, I’ll hopefully find some time to sit down and write.

Digg Needs a Ron Paul Category

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on May 21, 2007 under reddit, ron paul, fandom, digg, blogosphere, blog, Uncategorized

Since it is, after all, politics season, in the interest of fair coverage, I turn now to the other darling of the Internet long shot presidential candidate, Republican-but-really-a-libertarian Ron Paul. Despite polling under 2% in traditional polls, Ron Paul has won every major Internet poll. His supporters have dominated the Internet- they may not be the most numerous, but they sure scream the loudest. Ron Paul has a monstrous amount of blog mentions, dwarfing even Barack Obama on some days, and dominates all other “Web 2.0″ social media sites. And did I mention that he has the most YouTube subscribers in what may be becoming a surprisingly YouTube-centric election. Read more »

Avanoo, Bringing the Wisdom of Communities to You, Launches Private Beta

Published by Ilya Lichtenstein on May 14, 2007 under Uncategorized

For the past few months, I have been working with these guys on Avanoo. In a nutshell, Avanoo lets you get knowledge and information from communities that are important to you, instead of the whole crowd of everyone on the Internet.

The theory and practice of the Wisdom of Communities have already been well described, so I won’t give another description. Check out this review on DownloadSquad and this explanation of the theory behind Avanoo. Or read about the Wisdom of Communities in more detail.

We’re now officially in private beta. Leave a comment here or e-mail me if you would like an invite to try out Avanoo.