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Prosper With Web 2.0

If you need a quick cash infusion the bank may not be the best place to go. Now you can borrow money via Prosper - a Web site which lets you make your case to a community of lenders.

The site runs a financial check on you but unlike a bank loan, you can also make a personal appeal to Prosper users. 

Here's the site's own take:

»Borrowers are Prosper members who want to borrow money from other people and get a better deal than the credit card or loan rates offered by banks. Rates are low because Prosper lenders are people—like you—who want a fair shake from honest borrowers without all the fees and hassles of doing business with big banks.«

If you're in a lending mood, the site offers you a chance to select the stories and credit risks that appeal to you and it's possible to spread your lending among lots of borrowers thus reducing your risk.

Peer-to-peer lending! Why not?.

Technorati: Web 2.0 | Money

Personal Surf Is Up

Do you ever visit a music site during work? Or check a listing for movies? Then you're not alone. A new survey finds that half of all employees would rather give up their morning coffee than lose the ability to surf for personal stuff while at work, writes Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

According to the survey a quarter of employees stream music or video at least once a week from work while 18 percent have downloaded and stored music, photos and video clips to their work computer.

The most popular sites visited contain maps, news and weather.

Please note that the survey of 500 people was conducted for Websense Inc. A company that makes software to help companies filter and monitor Internet use!

Technorati: Job | Internet

Allofmp3.com Closed By Authorities

This weekend immensely popular allofmp3.com closed its servers. The message users got was that the site was taken down for maintenance.

Today an anonymous source commenting a post on the blog Techcrunch claims that the site has been downed by the Russian government to comply with demands from American copyright organizations:
“Allof is being pressurized to shut down by the authorities. As Americans want Russia to enter WTO with a good int property protection record," writes Michael claiming to quote Allofmp3-employees.

Allofmp3.com won its reputation for selling popular music at very cheap rates claiming that it did so within the boundaries of Russian law. Whereas organizations like the RIAA has claimed that the site is in violation of international copyright laws.

So what's next in the story of the infamous music site? Well, Michael on Techcrunch has this quote to offer:
"We're just relocating the servers."

Technorati: Allofmp3.com

Tv Under Fire From New Media

While U.S. television networks are about to present their fall programs next week, the buzz isn't really about the next hit sitcom, drama or reality show. The center of attention is new media: cellphones, portable music players, video games and the Internet, writes Reuters.

When broadcast networks ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox on Monday start their annual event for advertisers to book commercial space for the 2006/2007 prime time broadcast season, the prediction is that new media will steal a fair share of the advertising money.

While TV remains the dominant outlet, viewership is nonetheless falling as everything from music downloads to video games compete for people's time.

"Upfront buying still makes sense, and TV is still a very powerful medium. But it's about strategic decisions, and because there are a lot more choices, because consumers are utilizing more and different kinds of media vehicles, we can't ignore them," says Charlie Rutman, Chief Executive Officer of Havas media buyer MPG North America to the news wire. 

Technorati: Advertising | Tv

Explorer Back In Business

So I've downloaded the Beta version of Microsoft Explorer 7.0 and I'm impressed. It's smoooooth.

I've been using Firefox for a while. Mainly because of the integrated RSS-functionality. But Explorer does an even better job of organizing feeds.

It will be interesting to see what's next from the Firefox developers.

Technorati: Explorer 7.0 | Firefox

Design 2.0 - Less Is More

Blue underlined links and large font types reminiscent of early Jakob Nielsen combined with very little text and minimal navigation. What are we looking at. Probably a web 2.0 site!

Web 2.0 seems to have found it's own distinct minimalistic style under the credo: Less is more. Interestingly the design often contrasts the complex and thoroughly interactive functionality of most web 2.0 sites (a task that must have cost more than a few headaches for the web designers involved).

But why minimalism in an age where Flash-plug-ins are widespread and DSL-connections keep getting faster. Shouldn't we be using a lot more graphics?

Well, aside from the obvious usability benefits of simplistic design, I think web 2.0 site owners also need to communicate that their sites are different from web 1.0 where the Internet is primarily seen as just another marketing channel, sites are graphically bloated and heavily remediate print media.

In other words version 1 of the web has an undesirable aura of "bursting bubble" that web 2.0 is trying to distance itself from both functionality- and design-wise.

The funny thing is that traditional web 1.0 sites have now seen where things are going. Thus more sites have started copying the minimalistic style - but with no real web 2.0 functionality under the hood! My guess is that this will happen more and more. And then web 3.0 enters the court with a need to distance itself from web 2.0...

Technorati: Web 2.0 | Design

Balmer Was Retroblogged

Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer visited the IT University in Copenhagen last week. The event was not blogger-friendly since computers and cameras weren't allowed in the auditorium (why on earth, I don't know).

But that's where retroblogging comes to the rescue. Assistent professor Lisbeth Klastrup took notes during the talk, then photographed the notes and uploaded them to the web as soon as the Microsoft boss had left the building.

"I ran up to my office [...] and took photos of my notes with my mobcamera and uploaded them to my moblog immediately. This is as close as you get to "real" blogging of a blogging-banned event, I think?!"

Very original solution. Immensely entertaining notes.

Technorati: Retroblogging | Steve Balmer