Crazy Guide to the Internet

Some Digg users have managed to find ways to get paid for “digging” stories, and such behavior was always considered to be questionable. Now, we have a new network called BuzzShed that could appeal, on some level, to these diggers. BuzzShed is actually a video-bookmarking service that’s set up like a pyramid scheme, wrapped in the guise of a Digg-clone for videos.

This video-sharing network pays for its market research, giving you three membership options: a full-fledged member, a regular member, and an advertiser. As a full-fledged member, you’ll have the option of earning money from your participation on the site. What BuzzFeed will do in this case is give you a 2-page questionnaire in order to determine your tastes, and then emails you “every so often” with clips that fit your personality. Give BuzzFeed some feedback on this particular clip, and you get 30 cents for your time. In addition, every member that joins the site as a result of your referral earns you $1.00.

Other than this particular paying portion of the site, BuzzShed operates as a pretty regular video-bookmarking network, where you can add clips from YouTube or elsewhere, and vote them up or down. The only feedback mechanism for the regular aspect of the network is this voting system and any comments users leave in regards to a specific clip.

As we’ve seen with Revver, it’s difficult enough to maintain a paying video network that offers some sort of monetary reward to its users, but will BuzzShed’s lure of paying users to watch clips and refer users be enough to gain the type of metadata that the site is likely seeking in order to bolster its ad network, or the ad network of any other site? Even in the web-based environment, cultivating a community based on the offering of cash in exchange for activity doesn’t always warrant the quality findings that researchers would in fact need.

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A suicide car bomber killed 38 Afghans at a crowded market Monday, pushing the death toll from two days of militant bombings to about 140

In the coming months Mozilla will be shipping the Firefox 3 browser, and with that comes a redesigned add-ons site. A preview of the new add-ons site is currently available, and I have to say that it is head over heels better than the current site. Things like the search box really stand out, and search results are laid out in a more friendly format.

The thing that I find impressive with the new site is the fluid integration of the sandboxed add-ons. On the current site you have to login before you can see results from any extensions in the sandbox, but now they are shown side-by-side with the rest of the search results. On the revised site you’ll still need to login to your account before being able to download a sandboxed add-on, but merging the two types of results together is a nice touch. When browsing through the categories, however, there will be a checkbox in the upper-right corner of results which needs to be checked before seeing any of the sandboxed extensions.

One thing that I’m still disappointed with is that you can’t choose how you want your search results sorted. If you’re browsing a category you can sort by name, date, downloads, or rating, but search results have no such options. The current site doesn’t even allow that, but I was hoping with the next revision that they would throw this in.

Mozilla Add-ons Preview [via Mozilla Links]

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A few ISPs in the US have begun to look into behavioral advertising in order to extend their own ad networks and better monetize the data they’re collecting on you, and now, some ISPs outside of the states have been looking into taking a similarly direct approach for serving up targeted advertisements and leveraging their ISPs for communicating with customers. BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media are all UK ISPs looking to monetize their consumer data, according to a Techdirt report.

Very much like the model we’ve seen in the US, these ISPs are working with a new ad network called Phorm in order to use your clickstream data to insert relevant ads across the web, as you surf. ISPs happen to know a lot of information about you, and the manner in which ISPs are wiggling their way into your lives, whether it be through targeted ads or the regulation of your Internet connection, the issue of net neutrality is one that’s likely to be discussed in regards to this growing initiative.

Do our ISPs really need to get even deeper in the game of serving up targeted ads?

Behavioral advertising is all the rage, and it seems particularly applicable for social media, though this is a concept that’s still bing fleshed out. What we will likely see is more consolidation of data and advertising networks for the sole purpose of offering targeted ads, regardless of where you are, across the web, your mobile devices and our television screen.

And as far as ISPs are concerned, most of them are attempting services that reach your PC, your hand-helds, and your home theater, so getting more involved in targeted, behavioral ads only makes sense, as the space becomes increasingly competitive.

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An investigation of alleged German tax evaders has fueled angst not only among wealthy Germans, but also among politicians facing an angry public

Initial reports appear to show Musharraf’s opponents ahead but it’s a nerve-wracking path before anything is official