Category Archives: Internet

Consumers have spoken: Facebook is worse than the IRS

By web gangsta | Published: July 21, 2010

With all the hype surrounding using social websites like Facebook or Twitter, and traditional websites trying to become more timely by jumping onto the social bandwagon, it appears that this may be one of those times when people are going social for the wrong reasons.

According to the 2010 AMERICAN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX (done by ACSI with ForeSee Results), consumers ranked social networking website FACEBOOK as being worse than the IRS. When ranked on a 100-point scale, Facebook was ranked at a 64.

64. Where Web Watch went to school, this would be a D… if we were lucky. Some teachers would have given that score an F.

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Also posted in 10 Things, News | Tagged 10 Things, facebook, Internet, News, survey, twitter | Leave a comment

Not succeeding at online dating? Maybe you’re doing it wrong…

By web gangsta | Published: July 9, 2010

Sex, Lies, and Online Dating

Since WEB WATCH WROTE ABOUT WRITING THE PERFECT ONLINE DATING MESSAGE, Web Watch has spoken with many people who have tried the online dating game.

Some we have spoken with are quite pleased with the results, having married their online hookup just like they show you in those advertisements and infomercials.

Others use online matchmaking services as a supplemental pool to their traditional dating environs. Their philosophy is that they will have a better chance of finding a compatible mate if they cast their dating net out far and wide and utilize all potential avenues. Sure, there have been plenty of misses along the way in their online dating experiences, but there have been some good times as well.

And there’s the third group that hasn’t had much luck with their online dating experience for whatever reason.

(An amusing side note: one friend of Web Watch who had registered for an online dating service in the past continues to receive emails from that service, encouraging them to sign back up for another go-around. One recent email happend to contain the dating profile of another one of Web Watch’s friends. This seems like the perfect time to remind our Web Watch readers to always remember to check your dating profile privacy settings if you don’t want your profile emailed out to strangers that aren’t officially signed up to receive your profile from the service.)

If you fall into that last group of unsuccessful online daters, perhaps this is a case of “it’s not me, it’s you”, and you should take the time to REVIEW YOUR ONLINE DATING PROFILE FOR THESE “DON’T DO THIS” ONLINE DATING TIPS:

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Also posted in 10 Things, How To | Tagged 10 Things, How To, Internet, Relationships | Leave a comment

10 Epic Pop Culture Fails

By web gangsta | Published: July 8, 2010

How to write link bait
How to Write Linkbait

10 Epic Pop Culture Fails is an example of a linkbait headline.

LINK BAIT IS A TERM USED BY INTERNET MARKETERS to indicate a type of writing that is used to generate interest in your subject matter. Basically, anything that you write that can get people blogging about what you’ve written, discussing it on forums, watching it on TV, buying your magazine, posting on social websites like del.icio.us — all can be categorized as “link bait”.

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Also posted in Funny, How To, Websites | Tagged Blog, How To, Internet, website | 1 Comment

How much money can a Youtube video earn when it goes viral? Let’s start at $150,000

By web gangsta | Published: July 2, 2010

Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack, with Steve Martin as “The Dentist”

One thing about YouTube that bothers Web Watch is the number of videos that parents film over their shoulder while driving their car down the road. Especially now as MORE AND MORE STATES — up to 29 as of this writing — ARE PASSING BANS ON TEXTING WHILE DRIVING more and more states are passing bans on texting while driving. For those Web Watch readers who were wondering, based on that link it looks like Ohio and Hawaii are the only two states with absolutely no laws on their books relating to driving while using a cell phone or texting.

It’s only a matter of time before DWV (driving while videoing) joins DWI and DWT as acronyms to avoid getting a ticket for.

But the threat of receiving a DWV violation may not deter enterprising, money-hungry folks from filming everything that happens to them and posting it on YouTube in the hopes that their video goes viral.

Today’s example is DAVID AFTER DENTIST.

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“Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price” from NYTimes is #oldnews

By web gangsta | Published: June 8, 2010

Time Magazine: Wired Kids

This week, the NEW YORK TIMES finally wrote an article about a study that WEB WATCH wrote about in a September 2009 piece entitled “MULTITASKING SUCKS”. Glad to see that the NY Times is on top of today’s news…

In the NYTimes article called “Your Brain on Computers – Attached to Technology and Paying a Price” (or, depending on which version you’re reading, also titled as “Your Brain on Computers – Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price”, take your pick), the NYTimes examines the impact that computers and portable gadgets have on people today, and whether being so surrounded by information and multitasking our way through the Internet marsh is worth it.

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Also posted in Gadgets, News | Tagged Internet, iPhone, medical, News, nytimes, science, survey | Leave a comment

According to the AP Stylebook, they are spelled “website” and “e-mail”

By web gangsta | Published: June 2, 2010

The Elements of Style

Proper spelling and pronounciation is a long-standing debate amongst techno-nerds. For example, is a GIF image pronounced “JIF” (like the peanut butter) or “GIF” (rhymes with “gift”)? We usually settle it by saying it both ways in the course of a graphic-related conversation so that nobody feels superior to another.

Spelling, however, can be dictated by a central authority. Most of us are familiar with Merriam Webster, or at least the Scrabble Players Dictionary (where you may not get the definition you’re looking for, but at least you’ll have the word spelled correctly for that triple-word score).

So when the new AP STYLEGUIDE was announced with new words and spellings, you can imagine how excited wordsmiths must feel, as if they received a new toy at Christmastime.

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Also posted in 10 Things, Book, Websites | Tagged 10 Things, Book, Internet, website | Leave a comment

Video Fun: “TWITTER, The Criterion Collection” asks users to recreate their favorite tweets, visually

By web gangsta | Published: March 17, 2010

This is what happens when you take creative people and ask them to create a short video piece based on some other person’s recent Twitter posting.

Presenting: TWITTER: THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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Update to our Discovery Channel “Boom de ya da” Post

By web gangsta | Published: February 24, 2010

Earlier this month, Web Watch posted about parodies of the Discovery Channel’s BOOM DE YA DA commercial.

How could we not include THIS TRIBUTE TO WEB COMIC xkcd featuring online favs like Cory Doctorow and Wil Wheaton, which was based on THIS xkcd cartoon, based on the Discovery Channel commercial (shown below). Whew!

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Also posted in TV, Video | Tagged Internet, reality tv, TV, Video | Leave a comment

What is the key of YOUR favorite songs?

By web gangsta | Published: February 17, 2010

Remember back when Web Watch told you about how THERE SHE GOES by SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER was called THE MOST PERFECT SONG EVER RECORDED? It was called that, in part due to its ideal song length, and for other reasons as well.

While it may not be a way to tell if what you’re listening to is THE perfect song or not, if you’re a LAST.FM user than we can at least identify if the key of your favorite songs all fall into the same ballpark or not.

In other words, do you favor listening to songs that are in the same key or not?

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