Categorie: social

The Avengers: A True Tale Of Bad Customer Service

Controllers, Gadgets, Gaming, social, TC, WTF

ekIs3With all this talk of 360-degree customer service and Zappos ninjas who help babies out of burning buildings while taking orders for clogs, it’s nice to remember that for every heartwarming tale of customer satisfaction there is a dude like Paul Christoforo.

The tale begins with a controller accessory. It’s called the Avonger en-kontrol (my misspelling) and it’s some kind of octopus that helps you press more buttons on your game controller. We wrote it up in February 2011 so you can check it out there. A quick web search will bring up the actual product. I’m not about to give them any Google Juice.

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Streamonomy: Radionomy Opens Platform To Online, Traditional Radio Stations Alike

Adionomy, radionomy, social, Startups, Streamonomy, TC

radioRadionomy, which enables people to create and listen to radio stations online, is preparing the launch of a new service dubbed Streamonomy, which will essentially open up its platform to external radio stations, whether they broadcast online or the traditional, simulcast FM way.

Streamonomy will also be available to online radio stations not produced with Radionomy, although the option to do so will of course remain available, free of charge.

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Gratitude Scales. Take A Few Seconds To Say “I Love You”

Opinion, social, TC

Say I Love You OnlineTell someone they’re special, remind them you care, share a memory, say “I love you” — it’s easier than ever. Thanks to mobile devices and social networks, love is becoming more scalable. Tweet or status update how you’re thankful for their friendship. Text, Skype, message, or email how their support has meant the world to you. Wall post, @reply, +1, upvote the people who make your life more fun. In just a few seconds, you’ve strengthened your relationships and made someone’s day. Today, everyday, take a moment and tell them.

We stand above a bottomless well of gratitude…

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How To Use Anyone’s Face As A Facebook Chat Emoticon

social, TC, WTF

Facebook Custom EmoticonsEmoticons no longer have to be anonymous smiley faces representing simple emotions. Facebook Chat now lets you use the profile picture of any user, official Page, or event on the service as an emoticon. That means you can make one out of your best friend, Chuck Norris, Justin Bieber, Barack Obama or anyone else. This opens up a whole new way to express complex emotions. Here’s how to do it:

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Shaker Is Going To Have A Rockin’ New Year’s Eve

social, TC

Shaker New Year's eveTechCrunch Disrupt winner Shaker is already getting ready for New Year’s Eve. The Facebook app creates 3D virtual rooms where you can party with your friends and meet new people. The startup is partnering with Dick Clark Productions to create a virtual loft where a pre-party will take place right before the “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012” show begins.

The New Year’s Eve loft will be a place where people can virtually hang out between 4PM and 8PM ET on New Year’s Eve before the live show begins. You will be able to dance, mingle, buy virtual drinks and watch exclusive interviews with some of the performers who will be on the ABC television show, including Will.i.am, Taio Cruz, LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes, Fergie, Blink 182, and The Band Perry. (RSVP for the event here, or just show up on New Year’s Eve).

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Facebook Subscriber # > Twitter Follower # ?

Opinion, social, TC

Twitter Extinct doneWhere do you publish first if you have more Facebook subscribers than Twitter followers?  That’s a question more and more journalists are going to be asking themselves. Just 3.5 months after the launch of Facebook’s late entry into asymmetrical following, many individual content producers including TechCrunch / CrunchFund’s MG Siegler, The New York Times’ Nick Bilton, and myself have have seen our subscriber counts surpass our follower tally. How? Because Facebook’s larger user count makes it easier to amass subscribers.

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UpTo Lands Seed Funding To Go “Beyond Status Updates And Check-ins”

apps, Detroit Venture Partners, Fundings & Exits, Ludlow Ventures, mobile, Rock City Apps, social, Startups, TC, UpTo

uptoA new, relatively stealth startup called Rock City Apps is gearing up for the launch of a mobile application called UpTo, and has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Detroit Venture Partners and Ludlow Ventures to finance the development of the product.

The company, which is based in Detroit, Michigan, plans to launch its first iPhone app ‘soon’ and lets you indicate your interest by inviting you to sign up to receive an invitation to the private beta.

You can do that here.

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Tencent vs. Sina: The Fight for China’s Social Graph

China, Opinion, sina weibo, social, TC

Tencent vs. SinaIn the West, the battle for the social graph is over for now. Facebook is the undisputed champion. All my Western friends use Facebook, and many are addicted.

“If Facebook is the world’s social graph, then QQ (Tencent’s instant messenger) is China’s social graph,” says Hong Bo (a.k.a Keso), China’s most famous tech blogger. In China, Tencent is the longstanding champ, but its title is being disputed by Sina, one of China’s earliest portal sites.

Sina Weibo is the biggest story in the Chinese Internet over the past year, reaching 250 million registered users, and about 25 million daily active users as of Q3 2011. The coverage of China’s state-directed media leaves a lot to be desired, so Sina Weibo had become a prime source for breaking news events and commentary. It’s also a prime source of celebrity sightings and cultural memes—actress Yao Chen has more than 15 million followers. And instead of exchanging name cards at dinner, it’s now common practice to instead ex

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Facebook Opens Mobile News Feed As Viral Channel For Games

apps, facebook, Games, Gaming, html5, mobile, social, TC

Mobile News Feed GamesOnce upon a time, Facebook game companies like Zynga fattened up their user counts thanks to viral distribution to non-gamers through the news feed. Facebook later curtailed this channel, forcing developers to concentrate on paid marketing and true word of mouth to grow. A new boom period could be coming, this time for mobile developers, as Facebook announced today that it is testing game stories in the mobile news feed. This could attract devs to its recently launched HTML5 mobile gaming platform with bait of reaching hundreds of millions of daily active Facebook mobile users.

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ComScore: Google+ Grows Worldwide Users From 65 Million In October To 67 Million In November

google +1, social, TC

oasis.12.21.11There are lots of third-party guesstimates floating around about Google+ traffic. Are users losing interest like search trends seem to show? Has the service grown to 150 million active users like this research firm thinks? I’ve gotten new numbers from comScore, which arguably the best third-party measurement firm for web traffic in the world.

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