Yemnia Airbus A310 crashes off near the Indian Ocean off the island of Comoros carring 154 passenger.

The mounth june ends with much bad news.
YemA310 crashes early Tuesday as it tried to land during heavy wind on
the island nation of Comoros, a Yemeni aviation official said. Bodies
were spotted floating off the coast and a Comoros police official said
three had been recovered so far. There was no word on survivors.
The reason of crashing yet not found . The plane carrying total of 154
passengers when it went down. The flight was en route to Moroni, and
had departed from the Yemen captal Sanaa for its four and a half hour
flight.

The official site of the airline has not given any additional
information.ena Airbus A310 crashed befor one hour of its landing near
the Indian Ocean off the island of Comoros.Yemnia Airbus

Michael Jackson causes of death

LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson was emaciated, bald and riddled with
needle wounds when he died, a leaked autopsy reportedly reveals.

A post mortem examination done on Jackson following his death last
week found the 1.78-metre tall pop superstar weighed just 51
kilograms, Britain's The Sun newspaper reported.

The 50-year-old's stomach was reportedly empty except for some
partially-dissolved pills and his hips, thighs and shoulders were
pockmarked with needle wounds – believed to be the legacy of injected
narcotic painkillers.

Jackson was also almost completely bald, with just a covering of
"peach fuzz" left on his scalp, the pathologist noted in the alleged
report. He died wearing a wig.

The report stated Jackson several broken ribs caused by rescuers
pumping his chest to try to resuscitate him after he went into cardiac
arrest.

Four injection marks on his chest revealed attempts to pump adrenaline
directly into his heart, The Sun reported.

The description of the dead star came as his former in-house doctor,
Conrad Murray, denied having injected Jackson with a powerful
painkiller before his death.

"There was no Demerol. No OxyContin," Dr Murray's lawyer, Edward
Chernoff, told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

"He checked for a pulse. There was a weak pulse in his femoral artery.
He started administering CPR."

Mr Chernoff said his client was stunned by Jackson's death.

"He was the one who suggested the autopsy to the family while they
were still in the hospital. He didn't understand why Michael Jackson
had died," he said.

Brazil Win Confederations Cup

Defending champions Brazil fought back in the second half of the final
to retain the Confederations Cup title.

They beat the United States 3-2 to win the Cup for the third time running.

United States shocked the European champions Spain in the semi-finals,
who looked all set to upset defending champions Brazil when goals by
Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan put them 2-0 ahead at half-time.

The US goalkeeper Tim Howard produced several good saves before
striker Luis Fabiano took his tournament tally to five in five games
when he scored just after the restart and equalised in the 74th
minute.

Brazil's captain Lucio clinched the final goal when he rose superbly
to head home an Elano corner six minutes from time.

"That defeat really hurt. I'm extremely proud of my players, but it
still feels pretty lousy to let this one get away. I hope though that
people around the world see we have good team and great players and it
is a big step forward," said USA coach Bob Bradley after the match.

A jubilant Brazil coach Dunga said: "Even after we went 2-0 down the
team was still sure of itself. We told them at half-time to play down
the wings, keep patient. We did that, we have been together for 29
days and we were determined to win it. We showed a high level of
professionalism."

Michael Jackson death live photos

Michael Jackson death photos, taken at the time of death elusive on uptomark.com
No other photo on net for Michael Jackson death. So why all searching this one .

FriendFeed, Syphilis And The Perfection Of Online Mobs

People have always been inclined to join mobs - most people have at
least one story to tell about a time that they got swept up in or had
to face a crowd demanding justice for one thing or another (both of my
experiences were in college). The Internet has proven to be a
frighteningly efficient tool to create virtual mobs. But we note two
trends that suggest a bleak future: the increase in non-anonymous mob
participation and the evolution of online services towards ever more
efficient and real time communication platforms that facilitate mob
creation and growth like never before. Things are changing online way
too fast for society and culture to adapt. Something will eventually
break.

I'm going to pick on FriendFeed in this post because I believe it is
the nearest thing to Shangri-La for mob justice enthusiasts. I explain
why below. But first I want to compare FriendFeed to Syphilis, which
may have been the "perfect" disease when it first hit Europe in the
15th century. Today Syphilis takes years to kill its victims and is
easily treated with antibiotics. But back in the early 1500's it led
to certain death within months.

The web is still inundated with Michael Jackson news, but just in case you haven’t had your fill, I highly recommend the site Billie Tweets. The concept is simple: Take Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and pull in tweets that sync words to the music.

The web is still inundated with Michael Jackson news, but just in case
you haven't had your fill, I highly recommend the site Billie Tweets.
The concept is simple: Take Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and pull
in tweets that sync words to the music.

The site was made by 9Astronauts, the development house that also made
the Blame Drew's Cancer site a few weeks back. Another solid creation
by them.

NYTimes and Wikipedia Save Reporter’s Life By NOT Reporting On His Capture

Earlier this week, New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped from a
Taliban prison. He had been a Taliban hostage for the last seven
months, but the general public had absolutely no clue. In a joint
effort by The New York Times and Wikipedia, the story was kept quiet
until his daring escape.

In November 2008, Rohde was captured and held hostage by the Taliban,
along with a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, and their driver, Asadullah
Mangal. But until he managed to escape, most of the general public had
absolutely no clue. To prevent Rohde's value in the eyes of his
captors from rising, the New York Times kept more than 35 major news
organizations from reporting on the story. They believed that the
publicity from reporting his capture would inflate the value of
Rohde's life, increasing the difficulty of negotiating for Rohde's
release. Keeping 35 news organizations quiet was actually not the hard
part - but staving off Wikipedia users from publishing the news? That
was a bit trickier.

The $99 iPhone Is James Bond. The Other $99 Phones Are Joe Schmoe.

While it's not being talked about too much, the $99 iPhone 3G is a
very interesting play by Apple. It takes what was previously a just
out-of-reach device for many, and puts it at a magical price-point.
Sure, it still won't sell everyone, like the people who only care
about getting the phone that their carrier is offering for free, or
those looking for the cheapest possible monthly plans. But just look
at the iPhone compared to the other $99 phones out there.

That's what we did. And originally we set out to compare the various
specs. But looking them over, it's really a joke. And you can
basically see all you need to see simply by looking at the devices
being offering by the major carriers in the U.S. at this price point.

It’s Kill Feature Time Again At Twitter To Stay Afloat

Twitter has a history of killing off features in order to stay up. And
it looks like it had to do that again today, in the wake the avalanche
of tweets that are flowing in following Michael Jackson's death. Gone
are Search and Trending Topics from logged-in Twitter account main
pages.

It's probably not that tweets that are so bad for Twitter right now,
it's the searching for tweets to get information about not just
Michael Jackson's passing, but also Farah Fawcett's and Ed McMahon's.
Plus there's a whole trend of celebrity deaths being erroneously
reported that probably isn't helping Twitter too much either.

It’s Kill Feature Time Again At Twitter To Stay Afloat

Personalise your homescreenarrow

Add more content and fully customise your layout with your favourite
live feeds, mini views and services.

Connect quickly with the touch and QWERTY arrow

Browse the web, navigate with touch and message your friends faster.

Indulge in videos, music and pictures arrow

Enjoy 32 GB of your media on the brilliant 3.5" widescreen.

Get more from Ovi Store arrow

Download applications, games, videos and widgets direct to your device.

In terms of well-known celebrities, few are bigger than Michael Jackson. Love him or hate him, pretty much everyone on the planet knows him. And that caused big problems for a lot of huge websites today with the news of his passing. It was probably t

In terms of well-known celebrities, few are bigger than Michael
Jackson. Love him or hate him, pretty much everyone on the planet
knows him. And that caused big problems for a lot of huge websites
today with the news of his passing.

It was probably to be expected that Twitter would struggle as
reportedly hundreds of thousands of tweets came in about Jackson in a
very short amount of time. While I only got a couple actual Fail
Whales, the site was really sucking wind for much of the hour that
people were trying to get information about him. But Twitter was
hardly the only site that was struggling.

Various reports had the AOL-owned TMZ, which broke the story, being
down at multiple points throughout the ordeal. As a result, Perez
Hilton's hugely popular blog may have failed as people rushed there to
try and confirm the news. Then it was the LATimes which had a report
saying Jackson was only in a coma rather than dead, so people rushed
there, and that site went down. (The LATimes eventually confirmed his
passing.)

National Handshake Day? More Like National Barricade Yourself In Your House And Don’t Go Outside Day

Yuck! Today, I'm told, is National Handshake Day. It's also Take Your
Dog To Work Day & National Chocolate Pudding Day, apparently. And,
err, it's National Watermelon Seed Spitting Week.

But back to the handshaking thing. It's disgusting and we need to put
a stop to this medieval practice. Most people agree with me. Those
that don't are the people that don't wash their hands after they use
the bathroom. You have to decide which side you're on.

I urge people to follow OpenCandy's lead - no more hand shakes. A good
place to start is at board meetings.

tittle

Michael Jackson Fans Mourn And Celebrate The King Of Pop

The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has died at the age of 50. His fans
are gathering around the country, indeed around the world, to mourn
for him and celebrate his legacy as one of the greatest musicians and
entertainers of all time.

One large crowd gathered in front of the Apollo Theater in NY, the
place where Jackson was unveiled to the world four decades ago. One of
the mourners was the Reverend Al Sharpton, who spoke about his
relationship with Jackson and his hope that the King of Pop would be
respected in death.

Check out his legions of fans gathering below. View a slideshow of his
life in pictures here. Watch all his best music videos here.

Miss Out On Your Facebook Vanity URL? Here’s Your Consolation Prize.

When Facebook's Vanity URL landrush kicked off nearly two weeks ago,
over 500,000 people registered their new names in a matter of 15
minutes. Over the following weekend, nearly 6 million users staked
their claims. The most desirable names, like 'Jason' or 'Mike', were
snapped up in a matter of seconds (if they weren't already registered
by a Facebook employee before the landrush even began). Needless to
say, a lot of people were left in the dust, forced to settle for
something other than the vanity URL they'd been dreaming of for weeks.

Well, if you're a member of the unlucky masses, here's your chance to
get the name you've always wanted. Sort of.

Developer Alex Gonzalez of Branch Interactive has put together an
application that will allow you to to generate a Facebook application
in your name, giving you the URL apps.facebook.com/NAME. So instead of
Facebook.com/jasonkincaid, I would be apps.Facebook.com/jasonkincaid.
Sure, it has the four extra letters designating it as a Facebook
application, but it's hardly an eyesore.

Google Dips Its Toe Into Travel Space With City Tours

Google has just debuted the latest entry to its fleet of Labs
products, introducing the search giant to the travel space. Dubbed
City Tours, the new site can build itineraries for brief trips to
locations around the globe in a matter of seconds. At this point
details on the new product are fairly sparse — it looks like Google
hasn't written its customary blog post yet, but given how basic the
product is it's pretty easy to figure out how it works.

Getting started is incredibly easy — just type in where you're
visiting (say, San Francisco or London), and Google will present a
suggested itinerary spanning a three day trip, with around a dozen
attractions per day depending on the city. From there you can change
the number of days you'll be staying (Google will show more
attractions the longer you stay), and you can also manually adjust the
list of places you'd like to visit. You can add a new attraction by
entering its name in a text field, and Google will try to find it in
its database. All attractions include a star rating, along with its
hours operation and location.

Yep, iPorn Is Here For The iPhone

Just as we were speculating a couple nights ago, Apple has apparently
decided that with the new parental controls now built into the iPhone
3.0 SDK, nudity is now okay in iPhone apps. The first such app,
Hottest Girls, has actually been around for a little while. But an
update today "upgraded" the pictures from girls in bikinis and
lingerie, to topless and completely naked girls.

"We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have
nudity," Hottest Girls' developer Allen Leung tells Macenstein. Quite
an accomplishment.

While some will undoubtedly see this as a bad thing, I think this is
actually a good thing. First of all, allowing mature content like this
should free up the App Store screeners to be able to focused on
finding apps that are actually malicious or out of line, rather than
being prude-police.

Like TweetDeck? Like TechCrunch? Then You’ll Love This.

You might not think that we here at TechCrunch have a lot in common
with the band Blink 182. But actually, we do. We both now have our own
branded TweetDeck applications. You can find ours here.

TechCrunch TweetDeck users will get all the features of the normal
version of TweetDeck (Twitter, Facebook, 12seconds, etc, integration),
with the added bonus of the TechCrunch Column, as an option. This
column features tweets from TechCrunch's writing staff. It's seriously
riveting stuff. Why just last night, our own Robin Wauters tweeted
out, "Cleaning up disks, creating backups etc. Necessary evil."

Fincher Signs On for Facebook: The Movie

You know how everyone is always all "Dude, Hollywood has totally run
out of ideas. Pass the Doritos"? Now that "The Social Network," a
movie about Facebook, has attracted a totally legit director, David
Fincher, and a totally legit screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, it seems
everyone is totally right. Of course, with Fincher and Sorkin on
board, maybe a movie about Facebook could be awesome. But probably
not.

outlook is broken,Microsoft, Outlook Is Broken, Says 6,000 Tweets,solve it,

While it is pretty much the standard email client, Microsoft Outlook has long had problems rendering HTML correctly in emails. And the latest version, Outlook 2010, due sometime in the next several months, not only isn't going to fix that — it's going to make it worse. And a lot of users aren't happy about it at all.

One such user has created a site called Outlook's broken — Let's fix it. The site is simple, it's a constantly updating stream of users tweeting out their desire for Microsoft to fix this problem with Outlook. Right now, it's just about 6,000 tweets, but it's growing about a tweet every second (even at this hour of the night here in the U.S.). When a new tweet comes in, that user's icon appears on the screen next to hundreds of other icons that had previously tweeted about it. And as the stream updates, random tweets about fixing Outlook are flashed on the screen.

Gmail Makes Its iPhone Web Version More App-Like With Swipe Gestures

A lot of people complain about Gmail not having a native application on the iPhone. While it's not clear if Apple will even allow that yet with the new iPhone 3.0 SDK, one thing that is becoming more clear: Soon it won't need one.

The reason is that its iPhone-optimized mobile version continues to get some killer features. The latest is the ability to use the swipe gesture to archive messages — yes, within the browser. Users of the iPhone's native mail app will recognize and appreciate this functionality (though in that app it's used to delete messages, not archive them)

R.I.P. Neda Agha-Soltan

The woman who has become a symbol of Iran's ongoing protests after her death was caught on video has been identified as Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, a student in Tehran. A tidbit from the compelling Los Angeles Times profile:

She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish-language courses, friends said, hoping to someday lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad. Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand.

Vizio Releasing Twitter-, Flickr-, Netflix-enabled TV

Widgets and gadgets are the latest trend to hit HDTVs. Vizio is upping the game by equipping its soon-to-be-released HDTVs with an impressive suite of Internet applications and support for video streaming sites. So much so, that this portfolio will place them on top of many wish lists as these TVs will be better equipped than a TiVo or even Windows Media Server.

Forget about Vizio being a mid-tier, Wal-mart brand. These features might make some people question why they pay a monthly fee for a TiVo. Owners will be able to stream content from Revision3, Showtime and Pandora for free, while also able to subscribe to Vudu, Netflix, Blockbuster OnDemand, Amazon Video On Demand and Rhapsody. Plus, the sets are able to work with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and the Yahoo Widgets Engine.

MySpace Loses Its CyberSecurity Superman. Who’s Left To Fight The Bad Guys?

MySpace had a serious secret weapon when it came to fighting the bad guys - Director of Security Enforcement E.J. Hilbert. Hilbert, a former Cyber and Counterterrorism Special Agent for the FBI, defended MySpace against spammers, scammers, hackers, virus spreaders and other lowlife from 2007 until earlier this month when he left the company.

He may have been part of the mass layoffs last week (trying to confirm this), but if he was it was a huge mistake to let him go. His name was brought up repeatedly by MySpace staffers over the years with a sort of awe - he was the defender of the castle, their FBI agent in the back room watching over everyone.

And right now, with Hilbert gone, the MySpace castle is in desperate need of a defender.

Hilbert never claimed to be able to get rid of all the spam on MySpace - but his team was able to cut 98% of it. Spam king Scott Richter/Media Breakaway was one of his favorite targets and the subject of a MySpace lawsuit in 2007/2008 ($ 4.8 million in damages and $ 1.2 million in attorney's fees was awarded to MySpace). His team also fought phishing experts Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, and MySpace won a $230 million judgement in that case (I don't believe that was ever paid though).

The rumor around MySpace is that the real value of Hilbert and his team was fighting the even darker stuff that a site of MySpace's size had to deal with. Little of that ever made it to a press release.

Hilbert has started a new yet-to-launch company called Online Intelligence to help clean up the online advertising world (which desperately needs it). If I were Facebook, I'd just make Hilbert an offer he couldn't refuse. Spam, phishing and advertising fraud are all common on the site. My guess is Hilbert could tackle those problems better than anyone else in the world

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is accusing Black Eyey

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is accusing Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.Am of assault -- but we've learned cops have targeted someone else.

After last night's MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto, Perez posted to his Twitter: "I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke."

But cops in Toronto tell us it was the general manager of the Black Eyed Peas -- Polo Molina -- who is under investigation and he turned himself in to police early this morning.

Here's the string of tweets Perez left on his Twitter page during the alleged beatdown early this morning:

-- I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.about 5 hours ago from Sidekick

-- I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke. -- about 5 hours ago from Sidekick

-- Still waiting for the police. The bleeding has stopped. I need to document this. Please, can the police come to the SoHo Met Hotel. -- about 5 hours ago from Sidekick

-- I spoke to my lawyer. I really need to talk to the authorities. Please come to the SoHo Met Hotel. Have called the police. Need them here. -- about 5 hours ago from Sidekick

-- The Toronto police are here now. Thank you. Please stop calling them. -- about 5 hours ago from Sidekick

-- Thank u all from the bottom of my heart for ur concern. The police are investigating the assault now. I did the right thing by reporting it. -- about 3 hours ago from web

How To Increase More money Through Goold AdSense

Google AdSense is a Pay-Per Click (PPC) service. Webmasters are paid a
portion of the revenue which Google collects from advertisers each
time a web site visitor clicks on an AdSense advertisement.

Each click may pay anywhere from a few cents to several dollars. The
average click seems to be worth about $.20. The more clicks AdSense
advertisers receive from your web pages, the more money you make.

The basic formula for thinking about revenue from Google AdSense is:

Revenue = (Impressions * CTR * CPC)

The methods of increasing your revenue from Google AdSense are:

* Increase Impressions
* Increase Click-Through-Ratio (CTR)
* Increase Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

Increase Impressions

The most basic method of increasing your number of impressions is to
increase the traffic to your web site.

The topic of increasing traffic to your web site is beyond the scope
of this article, and most likely something you are already working on.

One technique for increasing the number of Google AdSense impressions
without an increase in traffic to your web site is to motivate your
users to enable JavaScript. Google AdSense ads require JavaScript.
Visitors to your website who do not have JavaScript enabled in their
browsers will not see your Google AdSense ads.

To encourage your users to enable JavaScript, create content for your
web page which is only available via JavaScript. Implement browser
JavaScript detection in your HTML to notify visitors without
JavaScript enabled that they are only receiving a portion of your
available content.

Increase Click-Through-Ratio (CTR)

A small increase in Click-Through-Ratio can mean a large increase in
revenue. A rise from a CTR of 1.0 to a CTR of 1.1 should mean an
increase in revenue of 10%.

Several on-page factors can influence your Click-Through-Ratio. These
factors include:

* Ad placement
* Ad color
* Ad unit style
* Total number of links

Facebook Click Fraud Enraging Advertisers

Facebook has a big revenue target this year - $550 million, according
to investors who were pitched in the last round of funding. That's
nearly twice 2008 revenues of $280 million.

A big part of that revenue comes from cost-per-click advertising from
small self serve advertisers. And right now those advertisers aren't
very happy. They've been complaining about click fraud of up to 100%
for weeks, and the situation doesn't seem to be getting any better.

Scores of complaints can be found at WickedFire, where advertisers are
complaining of massive click fraud and an indifferent Facebook. A few
of the recent posts (excuse the language):

Tracking 202 is telling me 11 clicks….Facebook is telling me 145.
That's way off the 15-20%, is there a different margin for tracking
202 than there is prosper 202 or did I suffer from one of those click
bots?

Sucks how high the numbers are today. Its clear the problem is
getting worse daily. I've moved most of my shit off facebook for the
time being and magically my shit is all positive again. Crazy how that
works. There are lots of places to buy traffic, some that will even
actually give you the traffic you are paying for. Facebook is never
going to admit to whats going on. I can almost guarantee you that.

Facebook is still reporting 20% more clicks than I actually get.
This is bullshit. If I were at least getting bot traffic or something
that would be one thing, but right now Facebook is simply stealing 20%
of clicks that I paid for, which adds up to thousands of dollars.
Someone should threaten legal action, this is straight up fraud on
Facebook's part.

FB click fraud update: ratio is now EXACTLY 10:1. 10 clicks
reported on FB, 1 click on prosper. No, this wasnt on a small scale
either. Were talking 1000's of clicks. Have fun facebook. Im checking
out till you can fix this shit.

I'm targeting small, specific demos, Facebook reports exactly
twice as many clicks as hit my LP. Facebook is stealing our money,
fuck this shit.

This is experienced by not just those that use 202. When in doubt,
look at your raw apache logs - which I did. The result: 15% - 20%
clicks never make it to my LP. Clearly a case of click-fraud going on.
Tested on 3 different servers at 3 different DCs (not a network
issue).

These aren't the standard click fraud complaints that advertisers have
leveled against search engines for years. In those cases, bots are
racking up the fake clicks, which obviously never convert to any sort
of purchase or other action. But at least the advertisers see the
clicks.

In this case advertisers are saying that Facebook is recording and
charging for clicks that don't exist at all, even from bots. Their
tracking software (many use Prosper202, but others are using raw
Apache logs) shows one set of numbers, which is 20% - 100% lower than
what Facebook is recording.

According to the WickedFire posts Facebook isn't officially
acknowledging the problem or giving any refunds so far. But they are
asking some advertisers to send in logs to show the discrepancy. So
far, advertisers who go to the trouble to do this aren't getting the
response they wanted: "I was asked to send in my logs so I spent over
an hour compiling logs over the time period in question, and they
replied with their fucking scripted bullshit. I was sooo fucking
pissed, since I took the time to do that and they churn out a 2 second
response."

We have an email in to Facebook for comment. Image is from a 2006
BusinessWeek report on click fraud.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it's time for you to find a new Job2.0

Midsummer fire festival started from June 21

The amusing flame desecration game and the amazingly frustrating torch
are making a comeback from the previous years events in the Midsummer
Fire Festival. One notable inclusion this year will be the Ahune, the
Frost Lord. Death is again getting interesting with StarCraft II, as
Blizzard is again gearing up for the StarCraft II Beta. For StarCraft
players, they will just have to wait patiently. Burning Blossoms are
the currency used for the Midsummer Fire Festival used for purchasing
seasonal rewards. Dancing around the ribbon pole, tossing the torch,
catching the torch and honoring the fire are some of the events. The
festival is about merriment and the hottest season of the year is made
significant by lighting bonfires all over. Be open to the fact that
you would all be sweating when you return from the festival. So be
prepared to pick the festival mug and get ready to toast for the start
of the festival.The ending of the event is also remarkable as the sky
is set alight.

On the other hand the summer solstice day is marked in Scandinavian
culture as a day for celebrations and festivals. In Norway too the day
is marked with families visiting each other and gathering to listen to
music, tell stories, eat, drink, dance and celebrate the longest day
of the year.

Get A Job With Reddit Jobs. Or At Least Vote On One

There are no shortage of job listing sites out there, especially in
this economy. But how do you know if the jobs listed on any of them
are actually any good? Why not vote on them?

Not surprisingly, that's a key selling point of Reddit Jobs, a new job
listing site branded by the popular social voting site. Just with the
regular Reddit site, on the main page you'll see a list of content —
in this case, jobs — and you can give any of them an "up" or "down"
vote depending on if you like them or not. "We think this is a pretty
sweet opportunity for employers to find great tech-savvy folks and
learn more about how they're perceived by potential employees," Luke
Groesbeck, the co-founder of JobAlchemist (which created the site for
Reddit), tells us.

Clicking on any of these job listings will take you to a page with
more information about the job. This information is presented in a
standardized way that is easy to follow with headers for the position
including: "Overview," "Who You Are," "What You'll Do," "What We
Offer," and "How to Apply." This page also features a nice drop-down
Google Map of where the company is located and has elements such as
ways to share job postings over other social networks.

On Twitter, Most People Are Sheep: 80 Percent Of Accounts Have Fewer Than 10 Followers

Let’s face it, most people are sheep. It is much easier to follow than to lead, and on Twitter it is no different. A full 80 percent of Twitter accounts have fewer than 10 followers, according to an analysis of seven million Twitter accounts provided to TechCrunch by Web security firm Purewire (which operates TweetGrade). What’s more, 30 percent have zero followers.

Does this mean nobody is using Twitter? Or that they are using it more as a one-way information consumption service?

The fact that an estimated 32 million people around the world visited Twitter.com alone in April certainly indicates that there is something going on there. It just may be that Twitter really isn’t as much about two-way micro-conversations as it is about one-way micro-broadcasting. Indeed, a recent Harvard Business School study suggested that the top 10 percent of Twitter users produce more than 90 percent of all Tweets.

Here is how Purewire breaks down activity on Twitter by number of followers, followings, and Tweets:

Followers
Accounts with 0 followers: 29.4%
Accounts with 1 to 9 followers: 50.9%
Accounts with 10 or more followers: 19.7%

Followings
Accounts following 0 people: 24.4%
Accounts following 1 to 9 people: 43.4%
Accounts following 10 or more people: 32.2%

Tweets
Accounts with 0 Tweets: 37.1%
Accounts with 1 to 9 Tweets: 41.0%
Accounts with more 10 or more Tweets: 21.9%

What stands out from this data is that about a quarter of all accounts are not following anybody, nearly 30 percent have zero followers, and more than a third have not posted a single Tweet. The problem with all of this data, however, is that it includes abandoned accounts (as most likely does the Harvard data as well).

Like any popular Web service, millions of people create a Twitter account, try it once, and never come back again. The Purewire data shows that about 40 percent of users have not sent out a Tweet since the day they created their accounts. You can compare this with the 60 percent abandonment rate claimed by Nielsen. But even these may not be the true abandonment rates. Just because you are not Tweeting does not mean you are not listening.

After getting rid of the dead accounts and spam accounts (24 percent of accounts follow nobody), what do we have left? All the activity on Twitter is coming from the remaining people who stick around—that 20 percent with more than ten followers and the 32 percent following more than ten people. If you look at active accounts—which Purewire defined as those with at least 10 followers, 10 followings, and 10 tweets—it shows that Twitter is still filled with sheep. Of those active accounts, 63.6 percent follow more people than they have followers (2.8 percent have the same number of followers as followings).

But that is what you’d expect. When only 22 percent of accounts have more than 10 Tweets, people who bother to Tweet on a regular basis will attract more followers than people who prefer to sit back and read. Twitter is no different than any other form of participatory media. A small fraction of users produce the overwhelming amount of content, even if it is just 140 characters at a time. Everyone else just drinks from the stream. Baaaa!

Jolicloud is still in alpha mode

Founder and former CEO of Netvibes Tariq Krim is moving forward with his ambitious Jolicloud project, looking to build a better operating system for web workers with netbooks (or smartbooks or cloud computers, whichever term you prefer). A couple of days ago, we got a couple of exclusive screenshots from the team, and just a day after the startup started sending out a handful of invite codes for early adopters who wanted to get a peak at the alpha developer release. I also got hold of one and have been using Jolicloud on my Acer Aspire ONE for about four days now. These are my initial findings.

Installation

Jolicloud is still in alpha mode, and there’s no denying that there are a lot of kinks left to iron out before it’s ready for public use. For instance, the process of installing it on my Windows XP-powered netbook was frankly a pain in the butt. You need to download an IMG file from the Jolicloud website, ‘burn’ it to a USB key and boot your computer from that drive. But, not only did mine not boot automatically from the key (I had to dive into the BIOS and change the order manually), it also completely froze at the first installation screen.

I only got it to start up once out of perhaps 30 attempts, which was frustrating. And the one time I got into the OS (I didn’t install it, just ran it on test mode) I wasn’t even able to install any applications, which is supposed the main USP for the system. After the first day of not being able to effectively try Jolicloud, Krim advised me to try using another USB key, and lo and behold everything went fine from there. The speed of booting up and shutting down have been impressive ever since I finally installed the full system on my computer.

The Trunk Club For Men: Now Start

Most men hate to shop. It takes way too much time, we are out of our
element, and we end up getting really dorky clothes because we feel
like not buying something is an admission of failure. Online shopping

is better, but most of us would rather browse through cameras, Web
phones, and computers than shirts and chinos (at least I would). Enter
the Trunk Club, a new way to shop online.

The Trunk Club gives men their own personal shopper via Skype video
sessions who try to figure out what kind of clothes they wear, what is
lacking in their wardrobe, and what kind of clothes they might be
willing to try. (These are real people, not virtual personal shoppers
like Covet). Then they put together about nine different pieces of
apparel and send it to the customer in a FedEx box. Once a man (the
service is only for men) gets his "trunk" of clothes, he tries them on
via another Skype session (he is supposed to change off camera, but I
am sure some perv customers will "forget"), give his feedback to his
personal shopper, and then decide which ones to keep. He can return
any or all of the clothes at no expense to him. He only pays for what
he keeps.

The business model is the same as a retail store. The Trunk Club buys
clothing at wholesale and sells it at a normal retail markup. Except
that the company has deals with clothing manufacturers which doesn't
require it to buy any minimum inventory. In fact, there is no
inventory. Clothes only gets shipped when there is a customer who
needs a particular item. It is not a discount service. But the
personal shoppers come for free (thanks to Skype and the Internet).
Customers don't pay anything extra for them as they would in a fancy
department store. The personal shoppers get a commission based on how
much clothes they sell. And the men who are its customers never have
to step foot in a store again.

I went through a mock session with one personal shopper from the Trunk
Club, Lisa Bruckner. She was very personable and it was fun talking to
her. I told her what kind of clothes I wear (jeans or suits, depending
on where I am going), what is missing in my closet (polo shirts for
summer), my measurements, and other details. Normally, she would then
have a box of clothes sent to me and then we would have more back and
forth on Skype to fine tune the selection process. But since I was on
deadline, I asked her just to send me pictures of what she would have
sent (see below). Of the nine items she sent, maybe of three of them
are things I would actually buy. I'm not really a $48 T-Shirt kind of
guy. The Hugo Boss dress shirt looks decent, the Penguin Polo, and the
pants. But that orange Polo just wouldn't fly in New York. I was
hoping for better results, but then I am really picky. Also, my wife
(who has final say in what I am allowed to wear out the door) was not
a fan of the selection, and didn't like the idea of another woman
picking out clothes for me. But she likes shopping, so she doesn't see
the appeal of the service. I am sure that with a little back and forth
Lisa would soon be able to hone into my quirky style.

The part I don't like about the service is that you don't get to see
what your personal shopper picked for you until it arrives in the
mail. I guess there is an element of surprise akin to opening up a
present, but you really have to trust your personal shopper to know
what you want. At least initially, it would make more sense for there
to be some back and forth digitally between the customer and the
personal shopper (with the personal shopper presenting a few ideas and
then narrowing them down quickly).

The other problem the Trunk Club is going to have to deal with is men
who sign up not because they want to spend $572 for a box of clothes,
but just because they are lonely and want to talk to a woman over
video Skype. (All the personal shoppers are attractive women). There
is a whole perv element that these personal shoppers are going to have
to learn to deal with, but all they need to do is hang up and block
those men from Skype.

The Trunk Club was started by Joanna Van Vleck, a personal stylist who
opened up a showroom for her clients in Bend, Oregon. She was planning
to open up retail outlets across teh country where men could come in
for their personal shopping sessions, but her angel investor backed
out after the economy tanked. By necessity, she turned to the Skype
model and only needed $50,000 in angel capital to get going. She has
been in private beta with about 600 customers for the past six months.
She now has 21 shopping experst working on commission, and is adding 5
to 6 every month. The Trunk Club's hybrid approach is both high touch
and scalable at the same time. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more
retail concepts like this spring up in different categories, with real
people helping you make a buying decision over Web video.

EBay Starts Skype Voice And Chat Buttons

In the past we've written about eBay's Skype conundrum, or the trouble
the former has had to successfully integrate the latter's
communication capabilities into the e-commerce giant's web services.
In the recent press release announcing that eBay plans to spin off
Skype as a separate company and file for an IPO in 2010, eBay
President & CEO John Donahoe admitted as much when he was quoting
stating that it's "clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay
and PayPal."

And now Skype is being downright disintegrated from eBay's services,
starting with the UK website. This is what the dry announcement
message reads (emphasis ours):

eBay is discontinuing Skype voice and chat buttons in listings as
of 10th June 2009 in an effort to remove features with limited buyer
and seller usage.

This change does not require any action on your part. We are just
notifying you that as of June 10, you will no longer see the Skype
voice and chat options when you list new items, they will not be
included on the new item page, and they will no longer appear in your
existing listings.

We appreciate your continued commitment to good communications
with your customers.

Regards,
The eBay Team

This comes as little of a surprise now, but I couldn't help looking up
former eBay CEO Meg Whitman's words when the acquisition news - the
company acquired Skype for roughly $2.6 billion ($1.3 billion in cash
and the value of 32.4 million shares of eBay stock) back in September
2005 - hit the wire:

"Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community. By
combining the two leading e-commerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with
the leader in internet voice communications, we will create an
extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the net."

Pyaar Impossible story of Abhay and Alisha

After the success of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi last year, Yash Raj Films
want to start year 2009 with a bang.
Jugal Hansraj directs Priyanka Chopra and Uday Chopra in this Yash Raj
Films romantic comedy which went on floors this April.

Pyaar Impossible is the story of Abhay and Alisha – Abhay who is a
nerdy, awkward, socially challenged and bespectacled geek and Alisha
who is the epitome of beauty that any man would willingly rip his
heart out for!

And when these two worlds collide you get: 1 Beauty + 1 Geek = Pyaar Impossible!

Bing search engine auto-plays videos

This is just too good. One of the features of Microsoft's just
launched Bing search engine is that it auto-plays videos in results
when you hover over them. Naturally, the first thing a number of
people, like Loic Le Meur, did was search for "sex" or "porn." The
results are majestic — if you're a teenager looking for a way around
porn filters on your computer. And this isn't artful porn or something
like it, it's straight-up, hardcore pornography.

Now, to be fair, to see these results, you do have to manually
override the adult filter on the video search, but that's a whole 2
clicks and doesn't require that you actually verify your age or
anything. The Bing team on Twitter is already warning users about this
following Loic and other's tweets about the issue. But the results
literally speak for themselves. If you're so inclined, go ahead and
try, it's one hell of a way to browse porn. Straight porn, gay porn,
you name it. It's all there, ready to auto-play.

I had one hell of a time just finding a result that would be easy
enough for me to edit with you still being able to tell what it is.
Obviously, this stuff is not safe for work — unless perhaps you work
on the Bing team

Edocr Aims To Be A DocStoc For Corporates - Is That Enough?

Edocr, a smaller competitor to other document sharing startups like
DocStoc and Scribd, re-launches today with new features and an API,
after a long time off-radar.

Eschewing the publisher focus of Issuu, or the broad business focus of
DocStoc, the boot-strapped Edocr focuses on corporates and
organisations. So for instance, companies can upload all their
public-facing documents, whether they be company reports, press
releases, guidance documents, you name it. Admittedly the slightly
dull-but-necessary focus is not going to set the world alight, but
with plenty of enterprises still getting their heads around the basics
of blogging, RSS and even social networks like Twitter, edocr is a
simple way for companies to share their PDFs without being lumped
alongside a pirated copy of a Harry Potter novel.

New features include an improved design, bulk uploading of documents,
an API, document categories, better search and the ability to
auto-tweet to a Twitter account when new documents get uploaded. The
question is, will that be enough to set it

Twitter Goes Down, Spymaster Makes Fun Of Them

Yes, Twitter is down. Yes, again. Yes, they’re looking into it. Yes, this is another Twitter post. But, I come bearing gifts. Spymaster, the somewhat controversial and addictive Twitter-based game obviously doesn’t work nearly as well when Twitter is down. In fact, it doesn’t work at all. The creators have made a fun little Fail Whale graphic of their own, indicating the the game will be down until Twitter comes back up.

“The Directorate can’t assassinate the failwhale,” the message on the site reads. Funny, but this is a serious problem for a growing number of services that are built using Twitter as their backbone. Even FriendFeed looks like a ghost-town right now with no Twitter messages coming in.

Update: And after about an hour of downtime, they’re back.

Update 2: Twitter has blamed the downtime on a “fatal software error.” Despite saying it’s now fixed, the service is down again.

Update 3: It’s kind of up again, sort of, maybe. Might I suggest a list of alternative things to do once again?

Twitter Goes Down, Spymaster Makes Fun Of Them

Yes, Twitter is down. Yes, again. Yes, they’re looking into it. Yes, this is another Twitter post. But, I come bearing gifts. Spymaster, the somewhat controversial and addictive Twitter-based game obviously doesn’t work nearly as well when Twitter is down. In fact, it doesn’t work at all. The creators have made a fun little Fail Whale graphic of their own, indicating the the game will be down until Twitter comes back up.

“The Directorate can’t assassinate the failwhale,” the message on the site reads. Funny, but this is a serious problem for a growing number of services that are built using Twitter as their backbone. Even FriendFeed looks like a ghost-town right now with no Twitter messages coming in.

Update: And after about an hour of downtime, they’re back.

Update 2: Twitter has blamed the downtime on a “fatal software error.” Despite saying it’s now fixed, the service is down again.

Update 3: It’s kind of up again, sort of, maybe. Might I suggest a list of alternative things to do once again?

first truly mobile bookmarking

Smub is the first truly mobile bookmarking, link-sharing tool. Smub lets you share and save any link easily from your iPhone, Mac, or PC without a plugin or application.

Type smub.it/ to the left of http:// on any link to save or share, and Smub will automatically take you through the process. Make the link public to share with others, or keep it private just for yourself. Smub has built-in sharing to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and more.