A folksonomy of casual games

Millions of games is the del.icio.us of casual games. Those of you unfamiliar with social bookmarking sites, they allow you to create and classify bookmarks of websites over the web and share them with others. Users can accomplish this by tagging with keywords. For example, I have tagged Billwildered using keywords like Internet, music, websites, God's gift... er, umm, you get the picture.

In any case, Millions of games or MOG is a social bookmarking site just for online casual games (see previous Addicting Casual Game post).

"When you 'MOG' a game it gets added to your list of games (your MOG) and you get to see how many others have MOGGED it too and as such, how popular it is."

Check it out and have fun MOGGING!

Are you LinkedIn?

I was invited about six months ago to join a colleague's LinkedIn network, and I just finally joined a few weeks ago. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with LinkedIn, it is an online professional networking service. Similar to social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace, LinkedIn enables you to build your network of professional contacts, which will include your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals. After only a few weeks of inviting former classmates, past colleagues, clients and partners and finding some old contacts through the site's search tool, my network (friend of a friend of a friend) is over 28,400.

Once you join, you create a profile much like a watered down resume and can invite your contacts to join your network. Since there's over 4.2 million people on it already, it's also fairly easy to reconnect with people you may have lost touch with. I was able to find a bunch of old classmates from graduate school and invite them to join my network.

Most people are using the site to find mentors, subject experts, and business partners who come recommended, be found for business opportunities, search for jobs, or just get introduced to other professionals through the people they know.

So, take a look. Once you're on, find me, and we can join each other's networks.

Check out Barakus

My best friend's brother's band, Barakus, is well worth a listen. They have a unique, edgy sound and some really good range. They play mostly in the DC area but have been adding more NY shows. I got to see them at Continental, and they're a blast to see live. They have an upcoming show at Blaggards in NYC (38th & 5th) on Dec 3rd.

Check out their site or their MySpace page. They have songs available for download. My favorites are Love and Money, London Said, and Ticket To My Soul.

If you really like their stuff, you can buy their EP at CDBaby.

Enjoy.

Online video-sharing services

Saw this blog on Lifehacker - Online video-sharing service roundup - Lifehacker. It references a recent NY Times article that gives a rundown of video-sharing websites.

I've created accounts on Blip.tv, ClipShack, Vimeo, and YouTube which can each integrate directly with Billwildered. Each seems to be modeled after folksonomy sites like Flickr (photo-sharing) and del.icio.us (website favorites sharing), both of which use tags for easy searching. I'll re-post or add a comment to give you the lowdown on my opinion. So, keep your eyes peeled for video on Billwildered (I just have to get around to editing and uploading all the video we have of the kids).

BTW - Google Video is not really a video-sharing service -- at least for the masses. It has been getting some press lately as many of the networks are making videos and clips of TV shows available there.

Lastly, if you're looking to make a little money off your creations, another site called Revver is worth looking into. The way it works is that Revver attaches an advertisement (you control the type) to your video. They call it a RevTag and that tells you how often your video is played, which dictates how much money you can make.

Anyone looking to share video should check these out. And please comment if you've run across other video-sharing sites.

10 things I'm thankful for

To all my loyal readers (yeah, I'm talking to you three), Happy Thanksgiving! Just thought I'd share 10 things I'm thankful for this year:

1. my family - they make it all worth it
2. my friends - they keep me young, give me perspective, and remind me what matters
3. my health - a little creakier in the joints, but I can still run the court with the 20-somethings
4. my new job - a great team, excellent organization, fun and creative colleagues, and a position filled with opportunity to be innovative that puts me in the heart of the Internet
5. my old job - also a great team of supportive friends where I had the opportunity to spread my wings and learn a lot
6. my Xbox - yeah, I'm a gamer geek - it's such a great escape though
7. my Tivo - surely, you don't expect me to watch infomercials during those 3am bottle feedings
8. my car - the mere fact that the Jetta hasn't died yet deserves my gratitude
9. my gut - no, not the one formerly around my waist (Thin Bill's been back for years!). Just my clumsy intuition - so far, it's done me well.
10. my ambition - not so much professional, but just to be a better person, a better husband, father, brother, friend, co-worker, etc.

I'd be remiss to not mention you, my surprisingly silent, lurking readers.

What are you thankful for? You are out there, right? Hello? Helllloooo?

Shoposphere & Pick Lists beta

As a follow up to yesterday's blog, here's one for the shopper who needs gift ideas and doesn't have a Baggle Bag to guide them. It's a new offering from Yahoo! that's still in beta called the Shoposphere.


Shoposphere

Taking a page from the growth of social networking sites (like Friendster and MySpace), Yahoo! characterizes the Shoposphere as "social commerce."

We believe the community of shoppers is one of the best sources for product information and advice. The Shoposphere is a place to discover interesting and cool products thematically arranged into Pick Lists by other shoppers. It’s always changing. It includes new lists in a “product stream” and highest rated lists which are a fun way to explore new products and trends. The Shoposphere will continue to evolve as a hub for other types of user-generated content.

The idea is that all users can create Pick Lists of products and post them. Pick List titles can be anything -- from "Top 10 Must Have DVDs" to "Best gifts for getting out of the doghouse" and even "I wanna be like Napolean Dynamite." But then the user community weighs in by grading how helpful different lists are -- thus the social aspect.

Anyways, trying to find gift ideas for that hard to shop for loved one, check out Shoposphere.

Link