MSN Search Spoof!

Here's what MSN Search Spoof has to say about me. ;)

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!

(Via Matt Cutts.)

Ask.com Caters to Bad Rappers

Ask.com announced today the introduction of RhymeRank, an innovative search technology capable of producing related search results that rhyme with a searcher's original query....

"Web 3.0 is clearly upon us," noted John Battelle, author of The Search, and one of the world's leading experts on the search industry....

Aspiring rappers and poets are a huge, untapped market," said lead engineer Keith Hogan. "Someone will win a Grammy one day using this product. Or, at the very least, an Open Mic Night.

Considering how the big three search engines are trouncing on them with a combined 83.4% market share, Ask.com's April Fool's joke just fails to be funny. They should get Vanilla Ice to endorse this.

Philippine IT Cons in April

Hans A. Koch points out that the Philippines will be having three IT conventions on the same week in April:

1. iBlog2 on April 18, where I'll be a speaker;


2. Pinoy Web 2.0 Training on April 17-19, where Hans will be a trainer; and


3. Emerging Technologies for Philippines 2020 on April 17-18, at my sister's school.

When it rains clue, it pours.

Bayanihan and Social Media

Why are Filipinos such natural adopters of social media? Why are half of all Friendster users Filipino? Why is the Philippines among the top countries on BlogExplosion?



Here's what I think. One of the Filipino core values, passed down from our small-town islander ancestors, is bayanihan -- community collaboration. That's exactly why technologies that facilitate online community collaboration are such hits with Filipinos.

I should thank Chloebs de Asis and her Capcom Team for helping me see the link between bayanihan and social media adoption. Their bayanihan helped start Pinoy Cosplay. Thanks, guys! :)

Anonymous Amazons Flame Scoble

Interesting flame war erupting here, with anonymous wage-slave trolls ganging up on a blogging evangelist.

I can relate.

Basta

Now here's a surprise for all the Filipinos out there from Hugh Macleod.



Basta is Filipino for "no ifs or buts".

Scoble Rolls with the Flames

Like his boss, Robert Scoble can roll with the flames. Check out his new challenge: Who can write the best anti-Scoble flame?

Certainly not my trolls, Robert. "Brag at other people the traffic" is about the best they can dish out.

YouTube Puts Length Cap on Free Video Uploads

Scared by Hollywood's technophobic copyright goons, YouTube just put a ten-minute length cap on free video uploads.

Expect an exodus of original filmmakers to Google Video.

(Via Steve Rubel.)

LinkedIn Revamps UI with Update Aggregation

LinkedIn takes a hint from Friendster and now sports a user homepage of aggregated updates from your network.



It's about time -- their mostly-static old user homepage wasn't terribly useful. Ismael Ghalimi likes the new look, too.

Now if only they would allow pictures.

Filipinos Can Excel in SEM

Great geek dinner last night. Got asked about the girls in my blog pic. Thrice.

Marc Hil Macalua presented an introduction to search engine marketing (SEM). He also explained why the Philippines can grab a ten-year headstart on China in this booming industry.

Hey, Tezza, I notice your company Athena e-Services has a nice portfolio of higher-value BPO services. SEM is a pretty high-value service Filipinos can excel in providing; maybe Marc can help you build an SEM business practice.

Happy 12th Birthday, Philippine Internet!

Today is the 12th anniversary of the Internet in the Philippines (Hey, it's almost a teenager!), and the Philippine Internet Commerce Society is throwing a little birthday party tonight.

Joining us among other guests will be SEO Philippines' Marc HIl Macalua and PhilGaming's JC Cuneta. This will be an interesting geek dinner.

Kid in a Toy Machine!

I've heard of a kid in a toy store, but a kid in a toy machine?



Rescuers: When we got it open, he didn’t want to come out.

The gap he squeezed through was 7" x 9". This kid will go far in life.

(Via John C. Dvorak.)

Revive Fansites as Blogs!

Steve Rubel notes that company web sites are going all-blog. Another class of sites born before the dotcom crash, fansites, can do the same.



Asian Sirens, a fansite on beautiful Asian women created in the late '90's, has come back to my attention as a blog.

Hope this becomes a trend. Many great fansites from that era deserve a Web 2.0 facelift.

Anna Ohura Music Video

Anna Ohura is one of my all-time favorite AV idols, so I'm glad to see her cross over to music videos.



You're not seeing things, boys. That's the natural 34F-23-34.5 pretty herself. The character she plays here is refreshingly different from the bashful girls she portrays in most of her AVs.

Rent a Supercomputer!

Sun just launched the world's first on-demand supercomputer for $1 per CPU-hour, accessible with a browser and a credit card.

Filipinos love sachet marketing. The service is limited to the US for now, but I wonder if Filipino businesses will love sachet supercomputing.

DEN and YouTube

Blast-from-the-past pop quiz: what's the difference between legendary dotcom crasher Digital Entertainment Network and current social media darling YouTube?

Answer: user-generated content.

DEN tried to kill TV with the Web, without realizing TV wasn't like the Web. TV is few-to-many; the Web is many-to-many. Good to see more online businesses realizing that.

Sexy PR Blogger Teases to the Top

Andrea Weckerle dissects how Amanda Chapel is zooming to the top of the PR blogosphere with just one post.



A while back, I noted that A-list bloggers are losing their shirts. Good to see more of the right bloggers getting naked.

How Do Ninjas Kill TV?

It's rather rude to ask a ninja how to kill a ninja, but what the hey.

Ask a Ninja is the first series I ever subscribed to on YouTube, and this is one of the best episodes yet.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: TV is dead. Long live YouTube and Google Video.

Social Media Makes Newsweek Cover

The rise of social media, predicted seven years ago in the Cluetrain Manifesto, makes the cover of Newsweek.

It's about time. And this time, it's about you.

Philippine Business Needs Smarter Blogging

Hey, Ben, I know you're one of the few Philippine COOs who get this whole blogging thing, so you'd understand the need to encourage smarter employee blogging in Level Up. Look at this one bash your company, leak your campaigns, publish your talent fees, and backbite your consumer evangelists.

On the other hand, look at this gaming guru blogger. He works for one of your competitors.

Here's a whitepaper on employee blogging that'll help.

Update, 27 March 2006: After reading this post, the Level Up employee in question has acknowledged ownership of the blog cited and protected the entries cited. For your convenience, here are the screenshots of those entries.