SiteRapture Blog

SiteRapture Promo Commercial: Finding a Social Networking Website

Below is a little video commercial we put together for our social networking category.  It shows the clutter that Internet users have to navigate through with all of the social networking sites in the marketplace.  Check it out the video and our social networking websites category at SiteRapture.com

SiteRapture.com - Website Reviews, Ratings, Recommendations

SiteRapture Adds MSN's Bing.com to Search Engines List

We have just added Bing, Microsoft's new search service, to our list of search engines.  

Check out reviews of Bing and other search engines at SiteRapture.com - Website Reviews, Ratings, Lists

SiteRapture Adds African-American Video Sites List

SiteRapture has added a Black / African-American video content sub-category to our Video Sharing category.  The following sites are currently listed:

BET OnBlast

Black Coffee Channel

Black Voices Video

BlackBottom.com

BlackTreeTV

BlackTVOnline

CBeanMediaTV

CodeBlackTV

IzognMovies

TotalBlackTV

Click here for more information on these services and others at SiteRapture.com.

SiteRapture.com - Website Reviews, Ratings, and Lists

SiteRapture Launches Micro-blog Syndication Services List

We have just launched a micro-blogging syndication services list.  Micro-blog syndication / aggregator services allow users to post short messages / status updates (micro-blogs) to multiple services with one post. These services help users organize their micro-blogs in place and update multiple services at one time.  The services listed include:

CitySpeek
HelloTxt
Ping.fm
Tarpipe
TwitterFeed
Updating.Me

We will be adding reviews for these services in the coming weeks.  Click here for more information on these services as well as other micro-blogging related services.

Similar Categories:
Micro-blogging Services (Twitter-like services)
Social Network Aggregation Services (manage all of your social networks in one place)

SiteRapture - Online Services / Website Reviews and Ratings

SiteRapture Adds Adult Live Webcam Websites / List

We have just added a list of Adult Live Webcam Websites to the Video Sharing Websites Category / List.  The services added include:

CamClub
CamContacts
CamGirls
Cams.com
Camz.com
EpicCams
Flirt4Free
icucams
ImLive
JoyYourself.com
LiveCamNetwork
LiveJasmin.com
MyCams.com
SecretFriends.com
Streamate
WebCams.com

We will be adding reviews for these services in the coming weeks.  Click here for information on these sites as well as other video related websites.

Similar Categories:
Video Search Websites
Social Networking Websites

SiteRapture - Online Services / Website Reviews and Ratings

SiteRapture Launches Reputation / Buzz Monitoring Tools Category / List

We have launched a reputation / buzz monitoring tools category / list with 13 services.  Online Reputation / Buzz Monitoring Services provide companies with analytics and tools that help measure activity around their brand and / or social media campaigns. These tools monitor social media touch points such as social networks, micro-blogging services, blogs and other areas and try to quantify activity.

BuzzGain
Buzzgain Inc
BuzzNumbers
Cymfony
Filtrbox
Google Alerts
New Media Strategies
Nielsen Buzzmetrics
PitchEngine
Radian6
Techrigy
TrackUR
Visible Technologies

Click here for more information on reputation / buzz monitoring services

Similar Categories / Lists on SiteRapture:
Web Analytics Services
Web Traffic Stat Services

SiteRapture - Online Services and Website Reviews / Ratings

New Website Added: Dataopedia (owned by KillerStart-ups.com)

SiteRapture has just added a new service / website today called Dataopedia (added to our Directories Category in the Website Directories Sub-category).  Dataopedia just announced it's launch (TechCrunch article) and is a directory that helps users find information on websites including traffic data, domain whois information, contact information, etc.  It's definitely worth checking out if you are a professional and need very technical, specific info about a website / online service.  The data is very useful for technofiles and Internet professionals but not as useful for general consumers as you need to not only know what you are looking for, but have an appreciation for data that most consumers don't really care about like Whois info, Traffic Reach or PageRank.  

That said, the service is new and I am sure they will be launching a lot more in terms of features and content.   

Stay tuned for our official review after we have spent a little more time using the service. 

New Website / Service Added: CreateSpace (Musician Services)

CreateSpace provides inventory-free, physical distribution of books, CD and DVDs on Demand, as well as video downloads through Amazon Video On Demand™.  Check out the CreateSpace profile / overview here. 

Best Buy Acquires Napster

Everyone saw this coming.  Napster, the infamous digital music service known as the founder of illegal music downloading, was acquired by Best Buy.  This was definitely a distress acquisition as Napster has been struggling to get to that magical number of subscribers so that it can turn a profit.  Best Buy, although aggressive in the digital music, can now claim a few hundred thousand digital music subscribers to up-sell other products including MP3 players and accessories. 

 

However, I don’t really see any big upside for either group other than the fact that Napster will not go out of business with the deep pockets of Best Buy to absorb its losses.   Napster may see an uptick in subscribers because they will definitely start pushing Napster advertisements in all Best Buy stores and offering discounts on the service when purchasing certain products.  Even if this ends up providing Napster with a boost in brand name and users, the digital music industry continues to experience massive disruption with low margins across the board for digital music companies, including Apple’s iTunes. 

 

I will keep saying this, until there is real differentiation between these digital music services and someone figures out the killer app that music buyers need or want, digital music companies will continue to be acquired for next to nothing or simply go out of business.  Catalogs / songs are all the same across the various services with the only real differentiator being which file format the songs are in, the MP3 player they are compatible with, or whether you can burn the songs to CD.  With the proliferation of the MP3 format, which will eventually be the only format, all of these differentiators will go away.  Then what?

 

The one true killer app in digital music will be recommendations i.e. is filtering through the millions of songs in the marketplace and providing users with the songs they like or may like.  iLike is on the brink of figuring this out.  iTunes is now providing recommendations. Will the Myspace music service (launching soon) figure it out?  Who will solve the puzzle on how to really make money in the digital music business, other than Apple / iTunes?  We will see.  The company that does (or gets close to it) will be rewarded in a big way!

New Feature: YouTube Adds Closed Captions Option for Videos

Today, YouTube announced a new feature which allows users to add closed captions to videos.  This is a great new feature as it opens up an entirely new experience for viewing foreign videos and for those users that have hearing impairments.

The closed captions are supposed to work for embedded videos and those found on directly on YouTube but I can only get the videos watched directly from YouTube to display the captions properly.  This is probably an early bug.

Currently, only certain caption file formats will be accepted.  The big problem is, most users have no clue how closed caption file creation works and where they can go to get closed caption files.  So, we have listed the following services for help with creating subtitle / closed caption files (more to come):

SubPly (http://www.subply.com)

Subtitle Horse (http://www.subtitle-horse.com)

Overstream (http://www.overstream.net)