Comment on Caitlin's blog

After reading Caitlin's response to an article titled: Gaming is for Grown-ups, I decided to take a look at it myself. This statistic amazed me: "Adult gamers favor games on PCs rather than consoles and spend more time playing each week than do teenage gamers, according to the 2006 Gaming Technology Study released by the Consumer Electronics Association". I had no idea that adults had a larger fan-base than teenagers in the gaming world. I also found it interesting that teens were much more involved in multi-player games, while adults were more likely to play console games alone. You learn something new every day. I am not really into gaming as of now, but like Caitlin said, who knows what the future my hold for me.

Comment on Chris's blog

After reading Chris's blog about the potential takeover of NBC by Google, I decided to look into it more and see what other people had to say. Many people agreed with John Battelle and said that "it would be a monumental error" on Google's part if they attempted to do this. " Yet others just believe the whole thing to be a hoax so to speak. "As tempting as it might be, advertising businesses really need to leave media alone. Today an NBC purchase might alienate the other handful media bigwigs but what’s worse is that it will rattle the confidence of other media up and comers that might want to consider Google as an ad partner."Good thing Google is not considering buying the unit (despite that the unit is not actually for sale). Sort of like a rumor based on speculation of a hypothesis. I just call this sort of report a fantasy..." Overall, I agree with Chris though. I think that Google's possibilities are endless and that this could very well happen.

Class Discussion - "What I Learned From Wikipedia"

Throughout BUAD477: Information Technology Applications in Marketing, we edited four articles on Wikipedia that we chose in the beginning of the year. The four topics I chose to edit were Manchester United (The best soccer team in the world), the Mafia, Roger Federer, and Facebook. Prior to this class, I used Wikipedia for research papers and what not, but was not familiar with how it worked. I did not know that all the information that I read on each article was put there by people like you and me. Prior to this class, I took everything I read on Wikipedia as "FACT", when really the information was not necessarily correct. Some of the topics I chose, like Roger Federer and Manchester United were very popular and were constantly being edited. I saw with these articles that although I was putting up relevant and truthful information, it was constantly being "re-worded" or taken off completely. With the other two topics I chose, Facebook and Mafia, the majority of my additions remained in the article. I like the idea behind Wikipedia. I find it to be a very helpful and up-to-date reference tool. Although now I no longer take everything I read as definite truth and usually do some additional research to guarantee its validity. Overall, I enjoyed this project and believe the information I learned from it will be useful in the future.

Class Discussion - Social Media Sites

I recently examined the following social media sites: Digg, Memeorandum, Topix, Tailrank, and Techmeme. Digg was my favorite, because it had articles relating to everything and you could get a feel for if the article would be good or not based on how many "digs" it got. Not only that, but you can respond directly to the article you read by posting comments. Memeorandum focused primarily on politics and current affairs. Topix was interesting too, because you can type in your city and get the local news of many issues (anything from the next car show to political problems). I enjoyed Tailrank as well. This social media site discussed several things like technology, politics, entertainment, etc. You are able to comment directly on the articles as well and the site also informs you of how blogs were linked to each thread. Lastly, there was Techmeme which focused on technology like its name implies. This social media site had articles from Financial Times, Wallstreet Journal, Forbes, etc. If I'm not mistaken however, all these sites require membership and you must sign up in order to take part in the blogging/comment aspect of them.

Class Discussion - Search Engine Optimization and Marketing

In class, we discussed "Search Engine Optimization" and the key components involved with it. Prior to this class, I had no idea how web-sites scaled the ladder of popularity or how web-designers "helped" do this. Identifying relevant keywords, matching pages to keywords, and adding meta-tags are all ways to optimize a search engine. We also learned about "Search Engine Marketing" and the use of Adwords. It was amazing to me how Dupont, through the use of Adwords, was able to squash the rumors regarding Teflon and cancer. The Internet is definitely a powerful tool.

Twelfth Wikipedia Edit - Roger Federer

I recently updated the "Personal Life" portion of Roger Federer's Wikipedia article. In Federer's hometown of Basel, Switzerland, a one Swiss franc special stamp was issued. It was the quite an honor, because living persons are rarely featured on Swiss stamps. This was my addition: "On April 10, 2007, a one Swiss franc special stamp was released in Roger Federer's hometown of Basel. It is quite an honor, since living persons are not normally featured on stamps in Switzerland." Here is the link to the site: <Roger Federer>

Eleventh Wikipedia Edit - Manchester United

I recently updated the "After the Treble" portion of the Manchester United Wikipedia article. Manchester United recently won the semi-finals of the FA Premier against Watford with a 4-1 victory. They now will face Chelsea in the finals for the FA Cup. This is what I added to the article: "Staying on course to complete the Treble, Manchester United has set a date to meet Chelsea in the FA Cup Finals. In the semi-finals, Manchester United defeated Watford 4-1 with goals by Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and Kieran Richardson." Here is the link to the site: <Manchester United>