Apparently the iTunes service would not download a listing of songs that you have purchased, but that problem has recently been taken care of.  More disconcerng though is the fact that if you choose to eject your iPod through the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon, there have been users reportedly experiencing some corruption to the iPod.

Microsoft has recently released patches to fix the above mentioned item pertaining to the iTunes service not functioning properly.  At this point though, Apple is asking users not to upgrade to Windows Vista until a newer version of iTunes is released in a couple weeks.  Microsoft is taking the approach that the iPod should be fine.  The end all, be all question is, will this hurt Microsoft sales in the interim and long run?  Will Microsoft Windows Vista lose sales and will the iPod users hold back and cause a major drop in Vista sales?  Or, are users going to continue to upgrade and install Windows Vista either way?

But, that isn’t all they did, they also released a search plugin for Firefox and an extension as well for firefox.  The extension adds a search button to wikipedia which allows you to search using wikiseek.

All in all, I find it a pretty good product, with monetization through sponsored links, tag cloud for common tags related to searches and highly reliable links.  SearchMe did a pretty good job with this one, with the official announcement coming on Wednesday, I’d like to see the traction and reaction they get!

My Top 10:

1. Digg – In my opinion, the new leader in news on the web and in general!
2. Google – In general and overall…due to continuous improvements in search technologies, gmail, google calendar, blogger and much more…all is well (just need to monetize in places other than adsense)
3. Facebook – Yes, my official favorite in social networking…Facebook’s product really brings together social features and the “stickiness” that really makes social networking.
4. Craigslist – Still making improvements and still the best in community sites on the web, especially in the form of Classifieds.
5. Del.icio.us – Social Bookmarking at it’s best, ’nuff said!
6. Technorati – Connect with others blogging and spread the word about your blog…find out “Whose saying what, Right Now”
7. YouTube – Hands down, no questions asked, best video site and possibly one of the best social sites on the web…monetization is a huge question, but still awesome…give some credit to “Lazy Sunday”…
8. Wikipedia – Information at the drop of a dime…
9. Myspace – They have created the most social of the social networks, they are monetizing on it somewhat, but the spam and lack of cool new product features really makes me question where it leaves Myspace down the road.
10. Ebay/Paypal – The greatest online auction/payment experience on the web.

Some notables that didn’t make the list were Amazon, MSN, Orkut and Friendster…Amazon is the best e-commerce solution, msn the #2 visited site on the web and with the unsure branding of live and vista’s release it could remain strongly, orkut the #2 social network in regards to members, and the only reason i mention Friendster is that it has lost practically all traction and will lose rank by the month, and finally, Yahoo. Although Yahoo is the #1 community on the web and is the most visited site on the web, the only reason I don’t fit them in my top 10 is that they have released multiple products that have tanked including Yahoo! 360 and flawed search performance and experience…Semel must go and with the current restructuring, they could possibly get back to their winning ways.

My top 10 was really focused on the insurgence of Web 2.0 and “sticky” websites (sticky meaning lots of user interaction, i love the word sticky!). Should be some interesting things around the corner in 2007 and should be some great new products and great additions to current products on the web!

So there it is! Hope you enjoyed and Happy Holidays!

http://www.seopedia.org/seo-news/google/the-google-effect-the-red-campaign/

I realized then, the same thing that it mentions in the blog, “WHY WOULD GOOGLE SEND TRAFFIC SOMEWHERE IT CAN’T BE HANDLED!”  Just an interesting tidbit I wanted to pass on.

(Okay, side note, for those of you that are already blogging up a storm, post some comments and tips for others!!  I’m sure they’ll appreciate it and plus, you might get another reader! …)
So, I have noticed that a lot of people want to “get into blogging,” but are saying, “I missed the blogging ship” or things like that.  Truthfully, I was one of those people.  But, there are tons of reasons why we should be blogging and that is why I am taking a minute to write this.

• Why do I Blog? – First, and obviously foremost, I’m a geek at heart and I love the internet and technology.  Knowing that and ensuring that I have a place to write about my findings and even document what I have learned is HIGHLY important to me.  Being able to write about things that I love means a lot to me.  Also, having the opportunity to pass that information on or even knowing that I might have connected with someone out there, that is huge!
• Blogging for Bucks… – We all want to make money, get rich, or just ensure we are able to make it day-to-day.  In the case of blogging though, I would say before focusing on “Blogging for Bucks,” I would really focus on Blogging for love.  Write about things you care about, get some interactivity with your users, feedback, and create a social environment.  Once you get to that point, then you can change your focus to monetizing your blog, trust me, at that point it won’t be difficult.
• Finding topics to write about… – I have been trying to write about things that I know best, things that I want to get some interactivity on, discussion starters and what-not.  But, lately I haven’t really had anything in the realm of SEO/SEM to talk about, sometimes it is hard to find things to write about, trust me I know.

So, I hope I have slightly helped you if you are wondering if you should be blogging or whether you missed this ship that everyone was on.  Just relax, enjoy, research and write about the things you love and are most passionate about.  Things like monetizing on traffic are good problems to have.

For the rest of you that are already cracking on your blogs…awesome…I hope I haven’t bored ya!?  Maybe next time I can pass out drinks and be a better host?!

HAPPY BLOGGING EVERYONE!

• “Visual Look and Feel” is much nicer and does have a new and cool feel to it.
  
• Search – The Search box by the address bar will recommend searches for you as you start typing, this is pretty cool in my opinion…I am always looking for things that make life easier!
  
• Tabs – Tabs are sooooo much better now, as links will open new tabs instead of new windows and each tab has a “close” button.
  
• Recovering lost browser sesssions
• Feed handling
• Increased Security through extensions and phishing protection that is built in.

That is all I have for now. Unlike the major differences between IE 6 and IE 7 (Microsoft was WAAAAY behind) there wasn’t really a MAJOR UI change that you could notice other than the tabs. Firefox is in my opinion at this point, light-years ahead of IE7. Sorry Microsoft, you fell short again!

Now, I never used Google Reader because it sucked a while back and I heard Matt Cutts make the same mention about this and that it is much better now.  So, do I take this lightly seeing as he is a Google employee and pushing Google Products…eh…maybe.  But, be that as it may I decided to give it a test run, and to be honest, I really like it.  I think my favorite part is the fact that it isn’t a “FAT Client” on my computer that I have to worry about.  I am a huge FAN BOY of web based apps and this is now one of my favs now.  I will still have to work with it for a while and get all my feeds entered in, but, I think this will probably be replacing Newsfire for me in the near future!

So, check it out (http://www.google.com/reader/)and let me know what you guys think or if you know of any other web based readers that are much better, i’m all for trying new toys!

So, a while ago I was told by a friend (James Payne) that I should pick up Newsfire and it is worth the $20 it costs. Well, back then I wasn’t really that intrigued by it, until I realized how much time I was spending going from site to site just to check out my subscriptions, whether its MSDN, Search Engine Watch, etc. I decided it was time to give it a shot and I am pretty amped about it now. I figured it was time to blog about how much I love it!

Why do I love it you ask? Well, first and foremost, I am a sucker for sexy looking apps and just like the site says, its the “Angelina Jolie of applications,” now people, THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING! Also, the ability to have groups is amazingly cool. I love group my technology, sports, etc. RSS feeds into the appropriate group so I know what I am looking at. Finally, podcasting, Newsfire brings podcasting ability to the reader and is fully integrated with iTunes, just a click away.

There is a ton of other functionality like searching feeds and podcasts, smart feeds, etc. But, hands down this is one application I would definitely spend the money on and it saves me a ton of time, and lets face it, in this day and age, time is money!! Three Cheers to Newsfire!!