YouTube Awards

YouTube created its first awards voted for by fans for one week. Winners include OK Go for most creative video and Ask a Ninja for best series, which beat out the well-known Lonelygirl15. YouTube is making celebrities out of these ordinary people who put videos on their site. OK Go's video was played on television stations such as MTV and VH1, but through YouTube the video was seen by tons more people and was accredited with the best video award when on television they owe their fame to their music. I think it is extremely interesting and exciting that the internet is creating stars through the choice of the popular public.

MySpace Restrictions

MySpace has been placing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, including music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions. This is because MySpace, owned by the News Corporation, whats to make sure that they are the only ones capitalizing from the 90 million visitors each month. Users complain that these restrictions prevent them from designing their pages and promoting new projects.

Text Message Assisted Shopping

Technology companies in California and New York have introduced mobile Internet applications that allow shoppers to use their cellphones and PDAs to search the inventory and prices at the local mall. This service is already in place at 13 malls and is expected to be available at 100 malls by November. The major problem with this service is that retailers usually don't have the sophisticated technology t o track their stores' inventories and transfer that information to their website. If this service does become widely used across the United States, there will be more competition for lower prices, as the price of each item in each store will be available for review by the shopper effortlessly. Another result of this service could be stampedes in certain stores because special offers and promotions will be available to the shopper whenever desired.