Second Life

It all starts with a BW article on a fast-growing massively multiplayer online games (MMORPG), and next thing you know an old boss is asking about it. Second Life is much more about Virtual Reality and socializing, but is a bit different than the other games.

Second Life hurls all this to the extreme end of the playing field. In fact, it’s a stretch to call it a game because the residents, as players prefer to be called, create everything. Unlike in other virtual worlds, Second Life’s technology lets people create objects like clothes or storefronts from scratch, LEGO-style, rather than simply pluck avatar outfits or ready-made buildings from a menu. That means residents can build anything they can imagine, from notary services to candles that burn down to pools of wax.

So there are no quests to achieve or battles to win, although players are creating their own games inside SL, which I am used to from Ultima Online. And what sets SL apart is “Second Life residents to retain full ownership of their virtual creations.” So there is now a healthy economy growing for the 170K residents.

SEO as Spam

Since companies and hawksters are getting better and better at optimizing for search, the question becomes when does it become too much? What happens when you can no longer find spamy content?

Stephen Baker at BW asked this question based on a Google Legacy book by Stephen Arnold as well as speeches on the topic by the author.

“Relevance” does take on new meaning and is not all that different than the paid directories that Google replaced. I would hope Google finds a way to maintain the integrity of their product, with of course at least some room for good content to get through… which is not an easy balance and up for debate.

Blog, Podcast and RSS Advertising

An interesting study by PQ Media and reported by eMarketer, talking about the alternatives to web advertising. A small but rapidly growing segment.

blog advertising totaled $16.6 million in 2005, 81% of the total spent on the three alternatives. Podcast advertising reached a total of $3.1 million in 2005, according to the report, with RSS advertising, non-existent until mid-2005, generating $650,000 during the year.

Podcasts are also expected to outpace Blog spending, with Video still pull in the most for the New Media options. I know RSS advertising is picking up steam and I can see Podcasting and Video being the easiest to just port over ads from Radio and TV. I am still waiting of a compelling Widget advertising option.

Thanks to Anand for the heads-up.

April Google Rank

The latest update, with the longer term tracking is on the About page.

April 2006: G remains at 6, and now have a Page Rank and Backlinks.

Keyword: adam karas URL Pattern: adamkaras.com
Google: Position: 6
Yahoo: Position: 2
MSN: Position: 1

Keyword: “adam karas” URL Pattern: adamkaras.com
Google: Position: 6
Yahoo: Position: 3
MSN: Position: 1

Google Page Rank: 4/10
Number of Backlinks: 2

Top 5 Google results: adam karas

1. College football junior in Texas on ESPN.com
2. Polish photographer on fotocommunity.com
3. His website
4. Obituaries page from Lebanon, PA regarding the wife of Adam Karas
5. My Feed on Feedburner

Top 5 Yahoo results: adam karas

1. College football junior in Texas stats on SI as a WR
2. My Web 2.0 Drinking Game post
3. My Best Sushi in Lower Manhattan post
4. Polish photographer website
5. College player game stats on Sam Houston vs. Baylor

Top 5 MSN results: adam karas

1. My About page
2. My Music page
3. My Amazon wish list
4. A porn site (”Kara’s” is why I will never be able to buy my lastname domain)
5. Blogger.com profile for Bryan Karas

On G, the #2 result (SI profile) dropped to #8. On Y, two of my posts broke the top 5, but none of my general pages did, with my Feed on Feedburner at #36.

Satellite Maps: Still No Home

Was reading up about the addition of satellite maps to Yahoo Maps, and a post from Jeremy Zawodny comparing Google and Yahoo maps in regards to piloting.

So I wanted to do my own comparison, to see which map came closest to finding my home. I live in a new development that was just completed about a year and a half ago, including a new street, so no map sites are able to find my address.

So here is Yahoo’s newly released version:

Click on image for a larger version.

And Google’s:

Click on image for a larger version.

A few observations:

• It took me a few tries to actually get the Yahoo images to load
• Yahoo gave me an error that it couldn’t find my address, which doesn’t surprise me, but put a marker pretty close to the real location, which did surprise me (and it’s not the center of the zip code)
• Google’s image is a lot smoother and sharper
• Love the Yahoo traffic information on the map

From comparing each version, one might think that Yahoo is newer since it looks more “built up” and even has some boats in the marina. But in reality, Yahoo is actually older and the marina and buildings were removed. In fact everything was removed and new dirt was brought in due to lovely Jersey industry. Google shows how the area looks after the demo. In fact, I can see the foundation of my place and I can date Google to early 2004 (2 years ago) and Yahoo should be a year or two before that (3-4 years ago).

Kiko and Google Calendar Oh My

Tis a big day for Calendar’s 2.0, with Google Calendar launching and Kiko kicking off some major upgrades. So I am playing around with both and am impressed… although they both are in need of some more work before they are ready for prime time.

Google Calendar

• (+) Tied into my Gmail account, so easy to setup/login
• (-) Not tied into Gmail Contacts
• (+) CSV import from Outlook was easy
• (+) Easy to share and discuss
• (-) No Plaxo-like Outlook integration
• (+) iCal look and feel

Kiko Calendar (Blog)

• (+)AIM reminders (add kikoreminder and kikoassistant if you block non-buddies like I do)
• (+)Feeds can be added to your calendar
• (+)Easy to share
• (-)Import only from iCal from CSV
• (-)No Plaxo-like Outlook integration

I have posted about Online Calendars before. I heard this news from Newsvine.

Lists

As a follow-up to a a few posts I have made regarding Lower Manhattan and Hoboken, I created a few Lisable list for each. sort of turns the post into a more community resource and you can add your own or vote each up or down.

• Best Sushi in Lower Manhattan (My post)
• Best Sushi in Hoboken (My post)
• Best coffee in Hoboken (My post)