Today I’m introducing a project that I began 3 months ago. It’s a bookmarking site that I think has made me and its beta testers the laziest group of Internet surfers in the world. It’s called GO: Anywhere You Want.
The idea of it is quite simple — You type in your favorite links, organize them into folders in a clutter-free interface, set the page as your homepage, voila — you never have to type anything ever again. There are also options to include common search engines on the left sidebar such as Google and Yahoo (yes, I am that lazy).
Want to give it a run? If you do register, please use it and see why I can’t live without it! It’s a completely free service, however, there is a nice little link back to Alleba.com.
Got suggestions, reactions, comments? Post them here.
I ran into an interesting post by the Sassy Lawyer on how the Associated Press had refused to credit a blog from which they copied a story. The blog article in question, titled “US quietly tightens access to classified information”, was prepared by Larisa Alexandrovna and John Byrne of The Raw Story, an alternative news site focusing on injustices happening in the world that would have been typically ignored by the mainstream media.
As Ms. Alexadrovna puts it, an enormous amount of research and cross checking had been poured into that article. But the Associated Press thought that it would be fine to lift portions of Alexadrovna’s and Byrne’s work and make it their own. The authors had contacted the AP demanding proper attribution, but the respectable news organization brushed them off saying that there was no need for such because “they viewed them as a blog”. What the heck is that supposed to mean? That bloggers are not credible enough sources to deserve credit for their hard work? The AP, or, more aptly, Associated Plagiarists, was caught red-handed and too ashamed to admit fault, a fault that is usually seen as very much taboo in the industry of professional media.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer isn’t exactly the poster child for proper attribution either. In a Lifestyle section article featuring a winning recipe for yema by James Ceniza, highly-photoshopped images were also shown, that, apparently, were swiped from two Filipino food blogs, Market Manila and The Pilgrim’s Pots and Pans. The PDI had removed the pictures and issued an erratum to properly credit the owners. What really irks me is how they failed to even bother knowing where Ceniza got his photos. In fact, Ceniza, judging from his comments, doesn’t seem that computer-savvy (or intelligent) to have been able to edit the images on his own. He even claims that he doesn’t have a computer and is not able to read blogs. So who took those images? Did he have the gall or instinct to ask another fellow to do it for him? I doubt.
Incidentally, Leo Magno of the PDI views bloggers and podcasters as ‘disruptive’. He labels them as gatecrashers who “tear the pinata” at a party that is traditional media. Do I sense a little sour graping here? We ain’t going anywhere Mr. Magno, so watch your back!
Bloggers should be more vigilant in protecting their work from copycats, no matter how big they are or small. The AP should be slapped around with a trout until they realize that plagiarizing other’s ideas isn’t cool — and that bloggers should be given utmost respect.
The buzz surrounding the upcoming “Transformers the Movie” is heating up!
I admit that I’m a Transformers junkie. I practically grew up watching the darned cartoon (and G.I. Joe).
Here’s a clip of Optimus Prime transforming to his robot self:
Another one that looks that of the Autobot Jazz, but as a beetle:
Cool huh? But they’re not officially from the movie, which is still in its pre-production stage. Michael Bay directs with Steven Spielberg in tow as producer. Shia LaBeouf (of Even Stevens, Charlie’s Angels) is rumored to play Spike Witwicky. This is already a blockbuster right from the beginning.
My mom was visiting me in New York one summer for my graduation. So we had the usual catching up to do and her fussing me to clean my apartment more often, find a job and basically get a life. After a few weeks she left and we went on with our lives. To my horror, I discovered that my $250 mint condition Optimus Prime (that I bought on Ebay) was missing!! I practically lost half of my hair looking for it until she called to say that she made it safe back to Manila. Being the mother that she is, she sensed in the tone of my voice that something was wrong. I said that I lost my very expensive Optimus Prime robot. She asked, albeit nonchalantly, “Oh, is that the toy truck I found in your closet?” I said “Yeah!??” “I brought it along with me. I’m going to give it to your baby cousin Marc.” To make the story short, I went nuts. And I did get it back.
In an article published in the Christian Science Monitor, my name popped up somewhere in the 10th paragraph. Yes, that’s me, Andrew de la Serna, of Davao City.
Just to clarify a few things. I did buy a Nokia 6600 with my earnings and I had since sold that to buy another one, a Sony Ericsson W800i. My friends were giving me a hard time while we were reading the article because, of all things, the cellphone had to be mentioned first before the part that said that I was develop(ing) new websites. I guess a cellphone is thought to be such a novelty that only a privileged few in a third world country like ours are perceived to own it? Probably.
For me, Adsense is just the icing on the cake. For the majority, it is the cake. But don’t get me wrong … either way Adsense is a good thing. Because suddenly struggling webmasters are finding themselves in a very profitable position — a position that makes it possible for them to think of new ideas and pursue them without much monetary barriers. It may be pure conjecture, but just looking at the sheer number of blogs that spring up every minute (about 12), it could not be further from the truth. In a matter of hours, these sites are already carrying ads served by Google. Voila… a new cash calf is born.
I can’t really give an official stance on how the Philippines is gaining ground in the blogosphere. But looking at Pinoy Top Blogs, there are just over 1,100 blogs registered. That represents only .0013% of the 8 million Internet users in the country. I suppose that these bloggers are actively updating their content regularly, so that figure could be much higher. That means that there are more who have blogs but don’t update them at all — case in point: Friendster and Myspace members. By the numbers, Filipinos have yet to get out of their comfort zones and do something out of the ordinary: blog.
Andrew dela Serna’s journal on SEO, Internet Trends, Web Applications, Adsense, Wordpress Programming and Blogging. He has two other blogs: a personal weblog called "Yeah, Drew" and Numbrd, a news blog.
