things that i've learned

Friday, January 04, 2008

Web2.0 Applications I Couldn't Live Without

I love Michael Arrington's 2008 Web2.0 Companies I Couldn't Live Without list, so here's mine in response. With the exception of Kayak, which is a lifesaver for trip planning but I only use it a few times a year, I use all of the items on this list daily. Some thoughts:

- Without Google, I'd basically be incapable of functioning
- And it's really close to the same with SeamlessWeb, too
- I love Twitter even despite my failed efforts to get my friends to adopt it
- Speaking of one trick ponies, SimpleWeather is indispensible for its effortlessness
- As my regular readers know (hi sam!), my avid delicious use is far greater than my propensity for blogging
- Blogger, Picnik and Flickr are the backbone of this blog, although that will likely change in 2008
- At times, woot! is as much responsible for my lack of sleep as business school applications

Labels: blakestuchin, internet

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

things i would ask people if i had a blog community

MySpace is ugly. All of it. Have you ever seen a single MySpace page that isn't hideously unattractive? I know that that's sort of the idea, but for some reason it's the one social networking site that I just never latched on to (as if my empty profile) wasn't an obvious sign. Someone please point me in the direction of a well-designed MySpace page and I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Labels: internet, myspace

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Saturday, February 17, 2007

When is Everything Free?

TechCrunch is reporting that AllFreeCalls.net, has been shut down at least temporarily. AllFreeCalls is a service that takes advantage of a bizarre loophole in the telephony laws that provides a kickback to local telecos for routing long distance calls through their circuits. Currently, Iowa is the only state that allows local carriers to take advantage of such a law. AllFreeCalls has been in operation since mid-January, and it looks like they met get buried in enough lawsuits to put them out of business, but their very existence raises what I think is an interesting question about how we look at internet services.

It's well known that the Sean Fanning-era Napster was not the first or the last way to get music for free online, but its popularity was so great that it triggered a behavioral shift in the music industry that was further legitimized by the launch of iTunes a few years later. YouTube did the same for video that Scour Exchange and its predecessors started. With services like Skype and AllFreeCalls out there, I wonder if we'll reach a point where we expect all calls to be free as well.

Labels: free, internet

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