Posts filed under 'Web 2.0'
Posted May 8th, 2007 by Andre
Don’t have a 512Mb video card and 2gigs of RAM? Longing for old school RPGs where the characters were 2D sprites? Compulsive MySpace/Facebook checker? Do you like anything Anime style?
Gaia Online is for you.
Gaia Online is a cross between an old school RPG and a social networking site. You can build a member page, ala MySpace and Facebook, communicate with friends, and meet new people, but at the same time it offers things that other social networks don’t: continuous gameplay.
That’s right, you can do quests, buy, sell, or trade items, build up your avatar with the newest and most awesome items, armor, clothes, and weapons. You can interact with other people in a 2D world, you can fish, gamble, play slots, earn money and a multitude of other prizes to gear up your avatar.
Here’s what they have to say:
“Founded in 2003 by a few comic book fans in a garage, Gaia Online has become the fastest-growing hangout on the web. Millions of teens come to Gaia every month to play games, make friends, and participate in the world’s most active online community.”
Source
Gaia has millions of members and boasts that it has “nearly two million unique visitors… each month” and that “three hundred thousand members log in to Gaia every day, and those members spend an average of two hours on the site daily.”
Two hours, that’s a ton of time when you think about it in context of daily web surfing. How long do you usually spend on Facebook or MySpace once you have been using it for a few months? You check your friend requests, group requests, answer some messages and maybe a wall post or two. Total time? For me, that’s about 15 to 20 minutes a day, every other day, then I’m gone.
What does this graph say? Well, that Gaia Online’s usage by its members per day is growing at 3 times the rate of MySpace’s usage and 300 times that of Facebook.
So what’s the appeal? Well, there is just that much more to do in Gaia Online.
From the site’s about page:
- Online Hangout: Millions of teens spend hours a day on Gaia, exploring, chatting and just hanging out. Whether they’re posting on our forums, participating in special events, or playing our multiplayer mini-games, there’s always something fun to do.
- Endless Customization: Gaia revolves around creative customization. Every member can create their own virtual character and dress it up with over five thousand items: clothes, accessories, pets, masks and just about anything else imaginable.
- Thriving Community: Gaia Online boasts one of the most active forum communities in the world with over one billion posts to date. Members can chat in our online games, post messages on our forums, or send each other private messages.
- Gaia Gold Marketplace: Gaia Online is free to join, and members earn free Gaia Gold for everything they do on the site- posting, playing games, or just hanging out. Members can buy thousands of items in our virtual stores, or they can set up their own shops. Our virtual auction house lets members buy, sell and trade their items– over 50,000 auctions are completed every day!
- Fun and Games: Members can interact, have fun, and earn Gaia Gold with our quick and casual online games. They can also go head-to-head in our Avatar Arena to see who can make the coolest virtual outfit, or test their talents in the Art Arena, where thousands of members vote on the best original artwork.
With a thriving economy, endless items and engaging games, there’s always a reason to stay an extra 10 minutes on Gaia.
Here’s my avatar:
He likes to rock the Scythe, but he has a softer side, shown by his love for his “mimzy,” one of the collector items that were introduced to Gaia Online to promote “The Last Mimzy” movie.
A social network exploding in size is nothing new, but now that they are aging, keeping those same users interested and logging on will be the make-it or break-it for many fledgling networks.
Link to my original post
Posted April 17th, 2007 by admin
As information becomes more easily accessible on the web, the public and media are putting more pressure on companies like Microsoft and Google to be more transparent. However, true transparency can only happen when both sides communicate fully, meaning that the audience must be transparent too.
First it was Justin.TV and now Robert Scoble is broadcasting live while he is at the Web 2.0 conference. Robert admits that being “on” all the time is exhausting. and both Justin and Robert have turned off the cameras at times, to the disappointment of their audiences. Justin turned his camera off right before he got intimate with a girl on a date. Viewers complain that they are not getting the full transparency promised. But transparency is a two-way street–the public cannot expect to get to see and know everything, without investing or participating fully themselves.
Sure there are tons of people watching and they message the live broadcasts, but how much of themselves are they revealing? Not as much as Justin and Robert. Yes, the public demands transparency, but shouldn’t we have to participate fully and be totally transparent ourselves before we demand others to do so?
Posted April 13th, 2007 by Andre
When I needed to study for the SAT, I bought a book. Not to say I used it, but I at least had the thing. Kids these days have another choice: B4Class.
Launched and promoted by 18 year old Sofia Loginova, this new website has gotten a lot of publicity around Boston, unfortunately, some of it, as reported in Boston.com, has not been so great.
It is billed as a social network whose goal is to “provide a fun and interactive online community that is user-friendly and allows members to freely and safely meet other great people.”
What makes this site different is the way they are targeting the teen market: offering “something nobody is offering … free online tutoring for your GMATS, LSAT and SAT’s.”
Young entrepreneurs have always been a part of the social web. MySpace, Facebook, and many other very popular sites have all been created by young people with big dreams. The problem has become that these days, everyone is trying to capture the magic that the two social networks mentioned above excelled at generating.
There are many sites flooding the social network space that have no real distinguishing features, quality layouts, or most importantly of all, user appeal. As these “out-of-the-box” social networks become cheaper and cheaper, social networks are becoming the “must-haves” of the web2.0 for everyone, right in line with blogs.
The problem is that just having one is not the important thing here. It’s execution, execution, execution. Having the platform is not enough, you need the content, the users, and of course, the plan to make it all work.
Posted February 13th, 2007 by admin
Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing did a live podcast interview at Waxxi yesterday where listeners can phone in and participate. I called into the toll free number and logged in as a guest in Waxxi’s site and boom – I was part of the conversation.
I was able to interact with other listeners through the gabbly live chat feature and managed to get Cory’s thoughts regarding the growth of digital media. See below for my questions and a summary of his answers from my notes:
Why do you think BoingBoing is so popular?
• Boingboing editors have good taste and share only things that they truly think are neat, cool and interesting.
• We are very explicit with our headlines/summary. Readers will know right away what to expect when they read the headlines. (E.g.: don’t write “Interesting things”—not explicit enough.
• Power-link law (someone please correct me if I am wrong). Sites will grow in popularity as they link to more sites and in return receive more inbound links
• History: Boingboing has been around for a long time and has built a certain amount of credibility and that’s why people keep coming back.
Do you think online blogs and other digital media will take over traditional media outlets?
Cory does not think that digital media will totally take over the role of traditional outlets like print and television but the roles and importance will shift. People will start to realize that certain messages and topics can be better discussed because convenience and accessibility of the medium. (Example, trackbacks and comments allows people to discuss the topics, rather than just limited to only reading them)
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