Archive for: tech
Well all know about the new lists feature that Twitter has released. Here at Crenk we thought we would add a few Twitter lists of our own and categories them so everyone can keep up to date with what is happening in the following areas:
Crenk Team – http://twitter.com/crenk/team
Top Technology News Sources – http://twitter.com/crenk/toptechnews
Tech Talk (Top Analysis from Leading Minds in Technology) – http://twitter.com/crenk/techtalk
Bittorrent News – http://twitter.com/crenk/bittorrent
I noticed this morning that in the Silicon Alley Insider RSS feed that they were not just promoting Techcrunch content, but linking directly to their articles!
Have these two key rival in the technology news space partnered to try to catch up to Mashable in terms of traffic numbers?
Today I came across a very interesting new video news site, which aims to provide news from not just one source but as many as possible. Newsy is the video news service that introduces a topic and then goes through relevant sources to find the best opinions from around the web.
Newsy covers topics such as world news, business news, technology, environment and more. The format of each show is simple, the introduce a basic topic and then search the web for the leading views on that specific topic for the day. Thus, it is kind of a news video aggregator, as it provides the leading sources in one simple place.
Im sure Newsy will become quite a popular site, simply because of how easy it is to see the latest news from multiple sources in one place. However, most users want to see a large number of headings in one simple place and normally the easiest way to do this is text, because there is still a limitation to how much you can fit into a view.
Techcrunch has changed their theme yet again. A few months ago the theme was changed for the 3rd time in a year and I thought it was really moving in the right direction. The navigation was clean, there were a lot more options to find the articles you are looking for, and the theme had some colour and character.
Techcrunch today have launched a new theme which keeps the same navigation principles but totally gets rid of all the character and colour on the page.
Let me know what you think!
Before:
After:
IDG Tech Network is moving away from Adify and Doubleclick will be their new ad serving and technology partner. IDG confirm that everything will be moved to Doubleclick between the 12-19th of February and that the transition will be a smooth one.
Adify have not really been making too much improvements since they were acquired back in April of 2008 for $300 million by Cox Enterprises. It is interesting that IDG have moved from Adify to Doubleclick. I know Doubleclick are quite an expensive ad serving solution compared to most on the market today, but this move has happened because Adify are even more expensive. Adify have been charging around 20% or net revenues from networks who have been using their platform. This is extremely high and no wonder they are losing business. IDG has to be one of Adify’s main customers so this is a heavy blow.
2008 has been a very interesting yer here at Crenk. Crenk was launched mainly as a hobby for me to review new startups. Since that time we have had several writers head over to Crenk and help us out with content, including Ades, Kenneth, Mike, Luis, and our newest writer Matt.
In 2008 we have written over 760 posts on various topics. Crenk has also been recognised by some of the biggest names in technology including Guy Kawasaki (who put us towards the top of alltop), Thomas Marban (placing Crenk on Popurls). Additionally, we have our articles syndicated by Reuters, Google News, Livestrong and Computer Shopper.
In terms of subscribers we have had a huge increase throughout the year, mainly because of our partnership with Blogrovr which now means we have over 20,ooo subscribers to Crenk.
In terms of advertisers who have pretty much kept this site in business we would like to thank Adphilia for their hard work in bring in at least some income for the site, as well as TribalFusion.
What can you expect from Crenk for 2009? Crenk in 2009 will be bringing you a lot more startups that are making splashes all around the web, as well as that we hope to offer startups so free advertising on the site. Crenk will also be featuring a lot more top tools posts that help our readers find startups in the same niche. Apart from that you will be able to find more helpful tips and analysis as well as more articles, more freebies and more cool stuff in general.
Thanks for reading Crenk in 2008 and stay tuned cause we will be bringing you even more in 2009.
It has finally happened! Crenk has been recognised by Popurls.com and added to their famous aggregator of everything great on the web.
Popurls was launched by Thomas Marban back in March of 2006 and since then has been dominating the world of “single page aggregators”. Other sites have been copying the structure of Popurls, such as Alltop and others, but nothing can really compete at the moment.
Of course our link isnt at the top of the Popurls site, but we have been featured in the “quickies” section, along side Techcrunch, Techmeme, Centernetworks and ReadWriteWeb. This is a great honour for our site and just goes to show that hard work and producing good content can actually get you somewhere.
Google Reader has for a long time been my RSS reader of choice. The design has been simple, easy to use, lots of customisation options, ability to group and more.
Last week Google released a new version of Google Reader and I thought I would take a little time and review it for everyone.
(old)
(new)
Key changes include collapsible navigation, updated look and feel, friends get promoted and more bundle feeds.
Friends get promoted
Shared items have grown up and gotten their own section in the navigation pane. You can collapse this entire section and use the title to see everything your friends have shared, or leave it open to track friends with shared items. (Don’t forget that you can add new friends in “Sharing settings“.)
More bundled feeds!
Previously Google has some default bundles that you could subscribe too, in a variety of areas. Previously this was very limited and there were only about 10 areas. Now they have added huge amounts of bundle feeds for pretty much every major niche. If you go to “Browse for stuff” then you can see bundles.
Collapsible Navigation
Each section of the navigation pane now has its own options menu and minimize/maximize controls. You can collapse each major section of navigation down to one line and focus on only the things you choose to use.
Updated look and feel
The look and feel has changed a lot in this new version of Google Reader. I personally would have liked it if there was an option to return to the old version or at least have a variety of versions. The new version is very neutral, with white and a very light blue being the main colours. However, I find post a lot harder to read in this new version. Recently Gmail received a variety of themes in which users could choose from, I really hope this isn’t too long in coming to Google Reader.
Overall
Overall the changes to Google Reader were needed, except in the case of changing the colour scheme. I think the colour scheme changes are definitely a step backwards, but this can be changed when hopefully they release a themes range to choose from.
I thought I would let everyone know what is still left for the remainder of 2008 in terms of Tech and Web 2.0 conferences.
NOVEMBER 2008
Future of Mobile
TBD, London, UK
Mobile devices and the mobile Web is still in its infant state and this conference explores the emerging technologies of the mobile space.
Defrag Conference 2008
November 3-4, Denver, CO
The Defrag conference focused solely on the tools and technologies that are leveraging the “social” aspect of software to accelerate the “aha” moment. Defrag is not a version number. Rather it’s a gathering place for the growing community of implementers, users, builders and thinkers that are working on the next wave of software innovation.
The New New Internet Conference
TBD ~ Reston, VA
Showcasing 60+ speakers from across the country, extensive networking and 26+ technology demos offered at the conference. Here are some details from last years event.
DECEMBER 2008
Search Engine Strategies Chicag0
December 8-11 ~ Chicago, IL
The industry converges for a week of spirited discussion, high-level learning and attendees leave with actionable battle plans to go forward with for their companies.
Le Web 3
December 11-12 ~ Paris, France
This event has to be the highlight of the European calendar. Showcasing some of the best startup companies within Europe it a must for all technology enthusiasts who are looking to network with the elite in the industry.
I came across some very interesting tech news yesterday, the Apple iPhone will be launching in India in September with Vodafone as the exclusive partner. There have been so many reports that huge amounts of people have iPhones already in India, but purchased at a premium price from all over the world. Thus, im sure that the iPhone will be a huge hit in India and I would even bet that they sell more units in India than they do in the UK over the same period.
Mashable is one of the worlds largest technology based blogs, and they are obviously in the same market as us but there is now way at the moment they are our competitors. Anyways, that all being said I have noticed some big changes over at Mashable. Pete now seems to have a lot of fulltime staff writing for him, and how does he pay their wages, advertising! Mashable at the moment seems to have more advertising than ever before and also more advertising an any other blog in the tech market.
In the left column on the Mashable front page there is currently 6 ad units and in the right 4, but they have just open up another section in the right column for another 6 units. Thus bringing the advertising space totally to 16 adveritsing spaces on the front page alone. Is this amount of advertising over the top? Do the readers actually care about the amount of advertising? Do they even notice?
I think advertising is ok if it doesnt actually seem like advertising. If the website had a right side that was sponsored, but only allowed companies to sponsor if they were actually tech products that are worth using. This is what im hoping to achieve with Crenk one day, well when I actually get a new theme done.
Back in early November of last year, I preempted the launch of Spottt. Spottt is a free link exchange between sites via a 125 x 125 widget. Spottt is developed by the guys over at Adbrite, so they have a product that needs to work and actually launch into something worthwhile. Since Adbrite has had a lot of VC Funding, they will be really expected to not just launch a product for the sake of it, and actually turn it into a commercial entity.
This brings me to the all important point, is Spottt actually going anywhere? Currently, the site is so simplistic and has a lot of competitors doing exactly the same thing. So where is it unique selling point? If I was the VC in Adbrite who put in a slice of the money, then I would expect an out strategy for Spottt and within a year or two at the most. Will this actually happen? and what features are really missing from Spottt or sites like Spottt?
