Technically Speaking

I’m going to re-open the EmbargoZone blog-PR site shortly. But for now, enjoy:

Friendgiftr First to Turn Multiple Social Media Sites Into E-commerce 2.0 Platforms

Friendgiftr first and only company to sell popular brand name gift cards through e-commerce storefront to hundreds of millions of social networking site users

Hollywood, CA. (Feb. 16) — E-commerce 2.0 pioneer and rising star Friendgiftr turned multiple social media websites, including Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, Ning and Bebo, into commercial marketplaces for the first time with the debut of its new e-commerce storefront application network. Friendgiftr’s one-of-a-kind network is the first and only social media-based online storefront to offer actual purchasable retail and restaurant gift cards to hundreds of millions of social media site users.

Friendgiftr features the nation’s largest collection of gift cards for sale from a single source, with over 120 leading brand names like Gap, Dominos Pizza, Pottery Barn, Starbuck’s, Chili’s, Red Lobster, Regal Cinemas, Barnes & Noble, Applebee’s, Crate & Barrel, Marriott, P.F. Chang’s, Dell, Macy’s, Sephora, L.L. Bean, Banana Republic, and Overstock.com, among others. Through the Friendgiftr application, social media site users can now send gift cards in amounts from $10 to $100 to anyone in their network.

“Introducing our network of gift card storefronts across numerous social networking sites is a game-changing step forward in the commercialization of social media,” commented Rob Carpenter, Friendgiftr CEO. “It’s also a cornerstone of our unique business model. We partner with the companies whose gift cards we sell, which keeps our operating costs minimal, and unlike most web-based start-ups, we have multiple viable revenue streams, including commissions from cards we sell through a growing number of storefronts, slotting fees, advertisements and affiliate marketing programs.”

Another aspect of its unique model is that Friendgiftr is the only gift card merchant to allow card recipients to exchange the card given to them for a card they prefer from any of the merchants Friendgiftr offers, at no charge, and without the buyer knowing. Recipients can even split the gift card amount across multiple merchants’ cards, to make sure they get the gifts they really want. For example, someone who received a $50 Macy’s card can exchange it for a $25 card for Starbuck’s and a $25 card for Chili’s, or five $10 cards from five different stores.

With the simplest user interface of any online gift card source, Friendgiftr lets social media site users buy and send gift cards in just three simple steps: Â select the card and amount, enter the recipient’s name, email and a personalized message, then pay via Friendgiftr’s secure online payment platform.

About Friendgiftr, Inc.

Friendgiftr is the premier digital storefront company currently offering over 120 of America’s favorite retail and restaurant gift cards through its website and social media sites. Friendgiftr won the grand prize prestigious Henry Kravis Award in venture capital and entrepreneurship, and placed first in a VentureBeat.com technology trends competition held at the prestigious DEMO Conference for the concept of merging social networking and e-commerce. Friendgiftr partners with iCard Systems, a leading supplier of electronic and physical gift cards. Headquartered in Hollywood, CA, Friendgiftr is a Rob Carpenter production.

For Immediate Release: February 17, 2010

Contact: Rob Carpenter, (909) 851-8119, rob@friendgiftr.com

Press Info: Kendall Guimond, (909)262-2120, kendall.guimond@allterrain.net

Technically Speaking, look for the re-opening of EmbargoZone soon.

Yes, I have been around. Busy, busy. Miss me?

Check out my Tumblr blog

My Twitter stream

My Facebook

AIM (rexdixon2006), Skype(rexdixon1), etc.

Yes, even still keep a MySpace page going.

And somewhere out there I have a Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster account(s)!

Technically Speaking, if you can’t find me, you haven’t tried hard enough – because I’m pretty easy to find! If you didn’t get the GeoCities vibe, you missed the boat sometime back in ‘99.

The news of the moment is that Twitter has been officially down for about 1.5 hours now, and looks like Facebook has suffered it’s own meltdown.

MySpace however seems to be rockin’ right along just fine. I haven’t checked any of the other social net’s – but it seems that out of the big two, the one that everyone has abandoned seems to be working just fine. A little too messy looking still, but hopefully in time the new leadership sees the error of the past administration that was in charge there.

It does bring up an interesting thought of maybe just possibly the social net revolution isn’t over quite yet. Stay tuned for sure, as with this mornings meltdown and people that can get in to update their fb status, all are crying that Twitter is down. Now I’m sure once everyone wakes up and the services come back, there will be a lot of analysis of this event.

Technically Speaking, a new social world is in order about right now; well if someone can tune the cloud, but as someone once already stated “You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish!” >:-?

This is your last chance to leave your opinion via a twitter hashtag – #freeschtuff – and all you have to do is check out one or all of the Church Tongue songs below and leave your thoughts on twitter. Made it a simple click operation (ie: you can listen right here on this page) since I just installed this WP-Plugin.

Simple! You’ll be entered for a chance to win a – $25 eGift Card from RizzoTees.

– i’d f**k elvis (ruff memphis demo) – JUST released in the past week!
– SEX KISS – semi-NEW SINGLE!
– impress us with your drugs
MySpace Page – Church Tongue – leave comments/friend if you have a MySpace account!

More info / background is here:

The Gutter : pre-Church Tongue (for a bit of a background)
– Casket mp3
– Outlook mp3

Church Tongue : Your Opinion could be worth $25 via – #freeschtuff

Technically Speaking, I’ll be drawing the entrants to the #freeschtuff (only 3 so far) out of a black top hat tomorrow – Wednesday 7/15/09 – Live on UStream! Here are the 3 that have entered (left their opinions via #freeschtuff) to win that $25 eGift Card from RizzoTees or FREE T-shirt:

@klasinski
@kopper
@jonconnelly

As of this morning, the experiment with the twitter hashtag has been a big #FAIL. No worries, many of you are probably asking “Why Church Tongue?”. Well it’s a friend of mine’s experimental gothic music mix send up. He asked me to help him promote the page, and I said, “Sure, why not.” Church Tongue isn’t your ordinary band or even your run of the mill music offering. That is exactly the point of it!

I know that those who have listened to the tracks probably have an opinion. If they saw the tweet on twitter or even not, they could easily leave an opinion with the hashtag system. That is all that Church Tongue is asking for. Right now, there is exactly ONE opinion - and looks like @klasinski is going to win the $25 eGift Card from RizzoTees by default. Quite sad.

I thought that the tweeps out there would have an opinion. I watch people be opinionated daily via twitter. Here is the chance to just take a few listens to some interesting music, and if you don’t like it, all you need to do is say so. If you love it or have suggestions, leave that also with the #freeschtuff hashtag.

Again, to date ONE opinion, looks like the winner will be easy to crown! Here are the details of this contest that is an easy chance to win a $25 eGift Card:

i’d f**k elvis (ruff memphis demo) - JUST released TODAY!

SEX KISS – semi-NEW SINGLE!

impress us with your drugs

MySpace Page – Church Tongue – leave comments/friend if you have a MySpace account!

This is your chance to leave your opinion via a twitter hashtag – #freeschtuff – and all you have to do is check out one or all of the Church Tongue songs above and leave your thoughts on twitter. Simple!

You’ll be entered for a chance to win a $25 eGift Card from RizzoTees.

Technically Speaking, it’s one of those things like the lottery – you can’t win if you don’t play – I posted the original details of this contest right HERE!

While it’s been brought up today in two different posts, one by Steven Hodson over on the Inquisitr which I saw earlier, and now it’s been re-plugged on SiliconANGLE by Rizzn, I really don’t see the sameness that both guys are pushing. Leo Laporte’s claim on Twit is just that. Twitter is a totally different entity entirely. I never have gotten the two confused.

I’ve always liked what Leo has done for the older generation of geeks, but come on now – Twit and Twitter? Not even close to the same. Never have I confused the two products or brands. Plus I don’t believe either one has been referred to as the other. I don’t think anyone has thought Twitter had anything to do with Leo’s show/brand called Twit. At least people with a little common sense and knowledge have never thought that.

If there is in fact any type of case to be brought up, its should be the case of day late dollar short. That’s right. If Leo wanted to make claims to Twit, his registered trademarked brand name, why in the heck does he wait until 2009 when Twitter the totally unrelated brand and never referred to the Leo brand Twit, to make a public gripe about it on his FriendFeed? Can you say stir the pot, and jump on the twitter money train?

What money though? I guess when you have the momentum, Hollywood can think of turning anything into a reality show. Now that Twit has realized that they missed the moment of opportunity, and just let Twitter slide by unopposed, they jump in with this idea that somehow their trademark and brand is now infringed. I think they are stretching for an easy revshare pay day, and the courts might grant it, even though they’d be totally wrong to do so.

Technically Speaking, Twitter and Twit – never have confused one over the other in my mind. Vote in my twtpoll if you want too:

Wow! The month of April has sped right on by. I guess that is what happens when you have one full time gig and a couple of part time gigs going on. So here are some quick items that just ran by me today that I wanted to share

- PercentMobile – Grab your invites if there are any left! I talked to David the CEO late this afternoon and he opened up some more invites, but those could be gone! You really need to know what your % Mobile is. And don’t forget to follow the twitter @mobileanalytics

To get a sense of some of the data you would see, check out this report for FourSquare, the mobile social network that MG is in love with. Not surprisingly, 76.5 percent of all of its traffic is mobile. Although it comes as an iPhone app, you can also access it via a mobile browser. The most popular device accessing it that way is not the iPhone (since most people use the app), but rather the Blackberry (9.9%), followed by HTC’s G1 Android phone (9.6%), followed by two more Blackberry models (8.9% and 7.4%), and then the iPhone (7.3%), and then another Blackberry (7.1%). Guess which platform FourSquare is going to develop an app for next? Yup, the Blackberry.

- EGolfGroup and Innovative Business Golf Solutions join forces to launch the Business Golf Country Club – Nice to see Scot getting this social network of his going quite well from what I read and hear. Also now they have the golf heaven connection, which I understand is anywhere from Palm Springs, CA – Sedona, AZ.

“The bond that links golf and business is indisputable,” says Bisbee. “On any given day thousands of executives take to the fairways because they have heard golf is good for business, only to discover the process for success is as difficult to master as basic golf technique.”

Duke, author of How to play business golf, founded his company after researching and playing business golf in different business environments only to realize the vast majority of golfers who attempt to use golf as a business tool fail to grasp the precise parallels.

“Like a private country club, the BGCC ensures an exclusive, safe and absolutely spam-free Internet environment for golf-related business and networking,” says Duke. “We afford our members the tools to post messages, communicate freely and exchange information with fellow BGCC members.”

The Business Golf Country Club makes every effort to screen out applicants who have no interest in golf or golfers. Spamming is not tolerated, nor posting any information for the soul purpose of selling products or services.

Read the entire BGCC press release.

Technically Speaking, Full Disclosure time: I am working part time for PercentMobile in the capacity of Community Manager. Scot Duke and I have been friends for a few years now and we have done podcasts and other ventures in the past. Follow me on twitter to keep up with everything!

Technically Speaking, this guy understood the economic impact of writing stuff for twitter!

Friends On Fire, the new Facebook app that launched earlier today based off of the Yahoo! Fire Eagle. Along with the official Yahoo! blog post, there was really good coverage of the new app.

In addition to Friends on Fire, we’re also launching a new way to update Fire Eagle — a Firefox extension that adds a button to your toolbar. With one click, your location is instantly shared with your trusted friends on your favorite services.

I haven’t had time to try the Firefox Fire Eagle extension yet, as it’s been a busy Friday – wanted to write this post hours ago! Glad it was well covered.

Of course, if you’re out and about, you’re not necessarily going to be hauling around your computer with you. Instead, you’ll want to grab one of the mobile Fire Eagle updaters from Yahoo’s Gallery. These apps include simple mobile updaters like Fire Fone for the iPhone as well as more robust social networking apps like Brightkite.

I haven’t tried the mobile yet either. Now here is one thing that did come up in discussion in a call I had earlier today. There are a lot of 35 and older people online. In fact, here is a thought for you – most people that age and older would rather have a hidemenow.com function vs a “Here I am! Here I am!” mobile all the time find me everywhere network. Not saying there is failure here, but basically – you are not 23 years old forever is all I’m saying!

While Foursquare and Whrrl may have a good time this weekend at SXSW, how will it translate into the real outside of SXSW coming in the following weeks.

Just in time for SXSW, Dennis Crowley, one of the original developers of Dodgeball, has released a new location-aware social app (iTunes link) for the iPhone: Foursquare.

One of the main issues of Foursquare that I see out of the box is limited support or limited areas as described.

The app currently features a database for 12 of the larger metropolitan areas in the U.S., including Boston, New York, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and Austin. We expect that Foursquare will add data for more cities in the next few months. If a certain restaurant or bar is not in Foursquare’s database, you can also add your own.

Like I said – after Austin and SXSW this week – what about the real world post SXSW?

Whrrl, I just never found it easy or fun. Maybe that has changed in the 2.0 version as outlined in this post, but still what about Loopt?

You’ve got options when it comes to iPhone apps designed to help you capture moments in time, but the Whrrl v2.0 iPhone app hopes to help you combine photos, stories, and your location with the photos and stories of your friends for a collective storytelling experience.

While there is even more written about Yahoo! and Fire Eagle, and Friends On Fire.

Despite the hype they get, location-based services have yet to catch on in the mainstream.

That above quote is the main issue of location based social nets in one sentence.

Of the two, Friends on Fire for Facebook is the more consumer-friendly.

This above quote sums up Friends On Fire for Facebook. It is quite easy to use, and yes, I signed up as shown by this picture below.

Technically Speaking, there are just as many 35+ age people online and technology savvy as I already stated above that would rather have some startup come up with the hidemequicknow.com vs the find me here! Find me NOW! COME HUG me TODAY! social networks of today. It’s not at all a fail, but a miscalculation of mainstream appeal. For complete coverage inside of SXSW – check out Rizzn unleashed, on twitter @rizzn, as well as posts that he will be putting up on siliconANGLE.

@jamievaron started this site – Twitter Should Hire Me – back on Monday 3/9/2009. In her own words she says:

This site was started on March 9, 2009 while trying to decide between throwing myself in front of Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, or Biz Stone’s respective vehicles OR creating a site in the hopes that one of them will see it.

I chose the less painful option: website. Good call, right?

So, here’s the deal: Twitter is blowing up as we all know and they are going to need some people to work for them. I WANT TO BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE. It’s not difficult to understand why either. The micro-blogging platform is amazing and from what I’ve heard, the company is equally as awesome.

Technically Speaking, @jamievaron is doing some pretty interesting marketing. Now the only issue is, and I’ll leave this up to the readers – will Ev, Biz, Jack – think “hmmm.. cool girl, we should hire her! OR will they really be thinking “Freakin’ Psycho Groupie Chick from HELL!!!”

It should be interesting to see if @jamievaron gets noticed (oh she already has that going!) – but noticed enough to actually get hired over at twitter. If she does, it might change the whole ball game for unemployed people looking for work at the best companies out there!

So – what do you think? Great Idea or Psycho Groupie Chick?