Alexa Share Trading Game Face-Off

Alexadex
Have you ever played Alexadex? It’s a virtual share trading game with a difference… you buy and sell shares in websites! Alexadex is specifically designed around the site Alexa, who provides information on the web traffic to other websites. Alexa collects information from users who have installed their “Alexa Toolbar,” allowing them to provide statistics on web site traffic. Alexadex uses these statistics, to give each individual website a price per share. Therefore if the popularity of the website goes up, the price of the shares will go up and (assuming you have purchased those shares) your total portfolio value will increase. Alexadex has been open for 2 years and has gradually rised in popularity. It has thousands of members and is ranked at 3,187 according to Alexa.

Alexa Share
In August 2006, the world was introduced to Alexa Share. A similar idea to Alexadex, there was a new competitor in the share trading game market. Alexa Share had a much more colorful interface, something that Alexadex lacks, and a few more features (most noticeably, the ability to make your portfolio private). In the first few months of opening Alexa Share had a few bugs, but people were positive about the game and helped the owner of the site fix them up.
Alexa Share also encourages communication between its members, features include a private messaging system, group message boards and a forum. At one point they also had an IRC chat room. The site is ranked at 44,030 in the 6 months its been open.

itsdEx
itsdEx opened in May 2006 and took a slightly different approach to the share trading game. Unlike Alexa Share and Alexadex, it is mostly “Web 2.0″ with some nice design effects and good use of AJAX. The creator labelled the site as “social trading” as it plays the role of a social network as well. itsdEx offers many features that neither sites have, including members get their own blogs and gallery. Also share prices are calculated differently, and you can apply different strategies to the game. itsdEx is ranked at 52,302.

So what is the best site?
Although Alexadex is the most popular (and original) site, there a constantly numerous complaints about bugs and lack of updates. The owner of the site rarely makes changes to the site and seems to have lost interest in it altogether. Some people are also losing interest in the game and are moving over to Alexa Share and itsdEx.
Alexa Share is a nice site and is very stable, although it is said to be easier to “arbitrage” on it. However there are some rules over the site, and the owner is constantly on top of things and also helps enforce these rules.
itsdEx is the most fun to play and also provides the most detail on statistics, however it’s theme and use of AJAX are a little bit buggy and sometimes inappropriate. Also there seems to be too much content and can get a little confusing.

Me personally? I am a fan of Alexa Share and find it the best site to play on, so head on down there and lets battle it out

Google Adsense… in Games?

Google is spreading its advertising reach by buying a company which provides adverts within computer games.

According to Red Herring, which broke the story late last week, the search giant paid $23m for Adscape Media.

Adscape Media has offices in San Francisco and Canada. In February last year, it showed off technology based on patents from 2002, including a way to link virtual game adverts to the real world.

It aims to work with games developers and publishers as well as ad and media agencies.

A Google spokesman refused to comment on market rumours and speculation.

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/19/google_schtum_on_adscape/

Oscars 2007

The Oscars 2007 are on Sunday, February 25th at 8PM EST / 5PM PST / 1AM GMT.

The nominees for best actor are:

• Forest Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland” (predicted winner)
• Leonardo DiCaprio for “Blood Diamond”
• Ryan Gosling for “Half Nelson”
• Peter O’Toole for “Venus”
• Will Smith for “The Pursuit of Happyness”

The nominees for best actress are:

• Helen Mirren for “Queen” (predicted winner)
• Meryl Streep for “The Devil Wears Prada”
• Penelope Cruz for “Volver”
• Kate Winslet for “Little Children”
• Judi Dench for “Notes on a Scandal”

The nominees for best supporting actor are:

• Eddie Murphy for “Dreamgirls” (predicted winner)
• Jack Nicholson for “The Departed”
• Michael Sheen for “The Queen”
• Jackie Earle Haley for “Little Children”
• Alan Arkin for “Little Miss Sunshine”

The nominees for best supporting actress are:

• Jennifer Hudson for “Dreamgirls” (predicted winner)
• Adriana Barrazza for “Babel”
• Cate Blanchett for “Notes on a Scandal”
• Rinko Kincuchi for “Babel”
• Abigail Bresline for “Little Miss Sunshine”

Beatboxing Flute Player

This guy is amazing, he can beatbox and play the flute at the same time…

YouTube Antipiracy Software Clash

The media industry is clashing with YouTube over its proposal to offer antipiracy tools only to companies that have distribution deals with the top online video-sharing service, media insiders said.
YouTube, owned by Google, plans to introduce technology to help media companies identify pirated videos uploaded by users. But the tools are currently being offered as part of broader negotiations on licensing deals, they said.

The move contrasts with YouTube’s biggest rival, News Corp.’s, popular Internet social network, MySpace, which said on Monday it would offer its own version of copyright protection services for free.

YouTube’s “proposition that they will only protect copyrighted content if there’s a business deal in place is unacceptable,” a spokesman for Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and Comedy Central, said this week.

One media industry source likened YouTube’s policy to a “mafia shakedown.”

Earlier this month, Viacom demanded YouTube remove more than 100,000 Viacom video clips from the site after the two sides failed to reach a distribution agreement.

Viacom has become the poster child of dissent against YouTube, trying to prevent the site from turning into the Apple of online video.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is credited with saving the music industry by simplifying the process of buying and playing digital music with the iTunes online store, but the company’s chokehold on the industry is now resented by record companies.

In a prepared statement, YouTube said the process of identifying copyrighted material is not an automated process and required the cooperation of media company partners.

For instance, a clip of a TV show owned by one company might contain music produced by another, making the process of identifying ownership difficult.

“These matters are very complicated and we are working with our partners to identify and solve these problems,” YouTube said in an e-mailed statement.

Indeed, even Viacom admits to the difficulties of locating copyrighted content. About 60 to 70 videos out of the 100,000 it demanded to be removed were not owned by Viacom.

Negotiating tactic?
Despite the public vitriol between YouTube and the media industry, some industry experts dismiss the spats as little more than saber rattling ahead of eventual deals.

Media companies–torn over how best to court younger viewers who split their leisure time between watching TV, surfing the Internet and playing video games–are attempting to make their programming more widely available, especially on popular services such as YouTube.

“The debates are about negotiations more than anything else–who’s going to pay whom and how much,” said Saul Berman, IBM’s global media and entertainment strategy leader.

Some legal experts said YouTube has no obligation to invest heavily in leading-edge technology only to give it away.

“There’s no reason for me to spend a lot of money on a … solution and give it away for free,” said Gregory Rutchik, founding partner of San Francisco-based piracy litigation firm The Arts & Technology Law Group.

Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey agreed, adding that media companies might feel they are being blackmailed into signing distribution deals with YouTube.

“If YouTube can sweeten the pot and come back with a better offer, I think the concerns of the blackmail naturally vanish,” McQuivey said.

Original URL: http://news.com.com/YouTube+antipiracy+software+policy+draws+fire/2100-1030_3-6160405.html?tag=nefd.top