Archive for the 'Geekiness' Category

Where am I on Google?

Published
by
Adam
on June 19, 2008
in Bebo, Geekiness and Ramblings
. 0 Comments

So, as you can probably notice, I’ve changed the design of my site slightly. It looks slightly better and it’s easier for me to create new “insightful” posts! Yeah, right! Anyway, the flipside to this new design is that now when I search for my name on Google, I’m nowhere to be seen! Previously, my Bebo page was the second entry for Adam Murphy listed on Google!

In trying to figure out why it disappeared, I noticed that the new design didn’t have my “Social” section with links to my profiles on various sites. It’s strange how my link from Adams Rants to my Bebo profile is what appears to have warranted such a high ranking for my Bebo page, yet Adams Rants doesn’t seem to be appearing in any of my searches for “Adam Murphy”.

I’m now a mission to become the highest ranked Adam Murphy on Google by practicing some search engine optimisation as well as purchasing a domain name “adam-murphy.info”. A little vain? Perhaps. But it’s always nice to have your name high up in the search engines!

Three Support - A Positive Experience

Published
by
Adam
on August 17, 2007
in Geekiness and Ramblings
. 0 Comments

I remember back in May when I was choosing a new phone provider, one of the companies that my friends were urging me to stay away from was the relative newcomer to the Irish market - Three. All over the net there were horror stories about poor customer support that only got worse after they outsourced their call centre to India. Apparently they didn’t want to even know about you after you bought your phone, let alone help you with any problems that you may be having and on the odd occasion where you did by chance get through to an agent who was willing to help, you found that you couldn’t understand them or be understood! Nevertheless, I opted to plunge for them, hoping that a) nothing would go wrong and b) if it did, their customer care could solve it! 3 months down the road, something did go wrong but I’m happy to say that my experience with 3 Support is a positive one…

I was impressed with almost every aspect of Three’s services. While their call tariffs were expensive, their texts were cheap and cheerful and I was saving a massive amount of money compared to my previous operator, O2. I was particularly fond of their “walled-garden” which offered tonnes of 3G services free of charge and I made certain to buy their data package addon which allowed me to access any website for as little as €5.99 per month! However, I did always feel that the term they dubbed their service - “Mobile Broadband” - was a little too generous as oftentimes pages would load up at a snails pace as their remote proxy struggled to process requests and oftentimes died just as you had managed to page you wanted!

I wasn’t really that bothered about it, because I didn’t really use it that much but it was when I was suddenly asked to reverify my age that I started to get a bit frustrated. Three require that all customers who wish to have access to “almost every website” must first go into a Three store with a passport so that their account can be verified. That’s fair enough but I verified my age in May and now it was asking me to do it again! It was around this time that I spotted this vast thread on Boards.ie which seemed to indicate that Three were now taking people off of their web proxy by request!

I sent Three customer care an email and within an hour I was contacted by a Three representative who apologised for the Age Verification issue and said that Tech support were provisioning measures that would mean that I wouldn’t have to verify my age again and also they were going to update my account so that I would no longer be using their proxy! The only downside to it was that I would have to wait up to 48 hours for these changes to take place but I suppose it was going to be worth it!

The next day I decided to check and see if I was off the godforsaken proxy and when I went to visit a site, it loaded instantly! I also went to download the GMail web app which was, like all other third party apps, blocked by Three. It worked! I then tried the Opera Mini mobile web browser and it worked flawlessly! Opera Mini really will change the way I can browse. It introduces a tonne of interesting and efficient features to help enhance my web browsing experience and I can see myself using it for a while to come!

So congratulations to Three for coming up trumps when the day that I had been dreading finally came and I had to contact you! Three have been taking a lot of slack lately regarding their mobile broadband service and their efforts to help people with issues but I can safely say that this was a reassuring experience for me and my approval rating for Three has never been as high!

How To Download Bebo Bands Music

Published
by
Adam
on July 12, 2007
in Bebo, Geekiness and Music
. 19 Comments

Many moons a go, I quickly slapped together a quick guide describing how to download music from the Bebo bands music service. The article was criticised for being rather vague, and rightly so. So I have decided to update the guide and even include some step by step pictures to help you.

STEP 1
First you must navigate to a bands profile page. Tonnes of major label bands and unsigned artists are available to choose via the Music Tab on the Bebo header. For this example I’m using the Transformers Movie Soundtrack page.

STEP 2
Once you are on the Bands profile page, scroll down and you will see a box labelled “Songs”. Here you can look at what songs are available to listen to. If you wish, you can click the “play” button to preview the songs before you download them.

STEP 3
Now you must right click in any blank space on the page and click “View Page Source” (in Internet Explorer it’s labelled “View Source”)

This will open up a window full of text which is probably alien to you. In actual fact it’s a programming language called HTML which is the language in which all websites are created but we don’t really care about its lifestory, instead we simply want to find out where the songs are located within this code.

STEP 4

Press CTRL+F (i.e press CTRL and while it’s pushed down press “F”) and a search box should appear at the bottom of the screen as shown (in Internet Explorer it will appear in the middle of the screen). In this box we type in “.mp3″ (without the quotes) and we are then taken to the section of the code which contains the information about the location of the music.

STEP 5
Now that we know where the .mp3’s are, we simply copy the address of the music file by selecting the area of text shown below and copying and pasting it into the address bar at the top of our browser window.

After pasting it into the address bar, hit ENTER and a dialog box should come up asking you where you wish to save the song.

STEP 6
Now that you have the song that you want downloaded, you can quickly download the rest of the available songs by searching for .mp3 and clicking “Find Next” which will automatically find the next song.

I wish you all the best of luck and I hope this revised tutorial will help those who found my first attempt difficult to follow!

Unblock Bebo (and any other site)

Published
by
Adam
on January 26, 2007
in Bebo, Geekiness and Learn Something New
. 365 Comments

Many schools, colleges and workplaces have taken it upon themselves to block access to social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, not to mention thousands of other “questionable” sites that they don’t want you looking at. Fortunately, there is a way around this and that is to use a proxy. To quickly explain how a proxy works, you type what website you want to look at and it downloads it to its server and then what it downloads is displayed on your screen, tricking any content filtering software into thinking that you’re looking at a non-blocked website! I have included a small utility which refers to an extensive list of these proxies when browsing. Enjoy!

Download Almost Any Song Off The Internet For Free! - Updated!

Published
by
Adam
on January 6, 2007
in Adam Investigates, Geekiness, Learn Something New, Music, Ramblings and Thinking
. 103 Comments
As of June 2007, RadioBlogClub have updated their web application which blocks this method from working. I’ll try find a workaround in the coming weeks

A few months a go, I published a quick how-to guide about downloading music for free from the RadioBlogClub website. After trying many sites and various methods of downloading songs, I decided on RadioBlogClub because of its ease of use and more importantly its vast selection of songs which far surpassed the offering of any other sites that I came across. If you are after more popular songs, you’ll probably have an easier time by going to BlogDigger.com who have a powerful media search tool which allows you to uncover songs embedded in blog posts from around the world! But as I said, it’s only really useful for very popular songs.

Times were good for music downloaders for a couple of months until RadioBlogClub caught on to this exploitation and, as already mentioned, started encrypting the URLs to their songs. For months I haven’t been near the internet, so haven’t had an opportunity to tackle this but now that I’ve managed to find a spare 10 minutes, why don’t you join me as I once again explain How To Download Almost Any Song off The Internet For Free!


1. Visit The Site


CLICK HERE (opens in a new window)


2. Search



In the search box type the name of the band (or song) that you are looking for. In this case I’m searching for “Snow Patrol”, a band that I recommend each and every one of you check out :).


3. Select the Song You Want



You are now presented with a list of songs available for that band. When you see the song that you like, click its blue play button to the left of it.

Look towards the right column and you’ll notice that something like the above has appeared.


4. Find The Song Code



In the grey box, there’s lots of “HTML” code. For those who are familiar with this guides previous outing, you’ll know that this is the part where you’re meant to select a particular bit of code. So select, like I have done in the picture, the bottom lines of the code beginning with “FlashVars”. Make sure that you select EVERYTHING after this and then continue.


5. Paste The Code Into AdamsRants Code Stripper


Check out My Code Stripper which will decrypt the music code. (opens in a new window)

Paste the code into the First box. Now you must butcher the code! Erase everything BEFORE the “http” and AFTER the “.rbs” and you’ll end up with something like this:
.
Now press the “DECRYPT” button which were convert the encrypted code into easily understood code like this:

6. Download

Now you can copy and paste the code into your address bar. Once you have done this, press enter and you will be asked to save it! You are almost there….


6. BUT WAIT!


After downloading the song, you may notice that Windows doesn’t know what to open it in, this is because the file ends in “.rbs” which isn’t recognised by Windows. However, this is only a basic ploy to stop people downloading the song because it’s actually a “.mp3″ which has been renamed to fool people! What you need to do is raname the file! Note: It’s been reported that unix based operating systems will automagically realise that it’s an mp3.


A “.rbs” file.


Right click the file and select “Rename”.


Change the file extension to “.mp3″.


VOILA!

Double click the file and it will now open in your preferred Media Player. It might seem a bit daunting to have to do this for every song, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!

A lot of people previously commented that this is a very longwinded system, but I’d have to disagree. After the first few songs, you’ll be able to download songs in no time at all once you get used to it which makes it perfect for situations where you’re asked to listen to a certain song by a friend but don’t fancy having to wade through the unreliable LimeWire or download the full album from BitTorrent.

Some people also commented on the sound quality which usually weighs in at 92kbps. The good news is that this means it takes seconds to download. The bad news is that audiophiles will be disappointed. This isn’t Dolby Surround Enhanced Audio that we’re downloading here. It’s slightly less than CD quality which, in my opinion, is perfect for phones or small MP3 Players with little space!

In the past, people tried to make some further addons to this hack such as an automated downloader. Once again people are welcome to make an any further additions to this exploit, but remember, if you’re leaving a comment, please leave some form of contact!

If you like what I’ve done, as a token of your appreciation, I’d be very grateful if you could find it within your hearts to feed me for a day by donating a euro or two :)


Download Almost Any Song Off The Internet For Free!

Published
by
Adam
on August 10, 2006
in Geekiness, Learn Something New and Music
. 106 Comments

For about 6 months, this method worked. But RadioBlogClub figured out how to block us from downloading the music. I have yet to find another workaround!

A few months a go, I published a quick how-to guide about downloading music for free from the RadioBlogClub website. After trying many sites and various methods of downloading songs, I decided on RadioBlogClub because of its ease of use and more importantly its vast selection of songs which far surpassed the offering of any other sites that I came across. If you are after more popular songs, you’ll probably have an easier time by going to BlogDigger.com who have a powerful media search tool which allows you to uncover songs embedded in blog posts from around the world! But as I said, it’s only really useful for very popular songs.

Times were good for music downloaders for a couple of months until RadioBlogClub caught on to this exploitation and, as already mentioned, started encrypting the URLs to their songs. For months I haven’t been near the internet, so haven’t had an opportunity to tackle this but now that I’ve managed to find a spare 10 minutes, why don’t you join me as I once again explain How To Download Almost Any Song off The Internet For Free!


1. Visit The Site


CLICK HERE (opens in a new window)


2. Search



In the search box type the name of the band (or song) that you are looking for. In this case I’m searching for “Snow Patrol”, a band that I recommend each and every one of you check out :).


3. Select the Song You Want



You are now presented with a list of songs available for that band. When you see the song that you like, click its blue play button to the left of it.

Look towards the right column and you’ll notice that something like the above has appeared.


4. Find The Song Code



In the grey box, there’s lots of “HTML” code. For those who are familiar with this guides previous outing, you’ll know that this is the part where you’re meant to select a particular bit of code. So select, like I have done in the picture, the bottom lines of the code beginning with “FlashVars”. Make sure that you select EVERYTHING after this and then continue.


5. Paste The Code Into AdamsRants Code Stripper


Check out My Code Stripper which will decrypt the music code.

Paste the code into the First box. Now you must butcher the code! Erase everything BEFORE the “http” and AFTER the “.rbs” and you’ll end up with something like this:
.
Now press the “DECRYPT” button which were convert the encrypted code into easily understood code like this:

6. Download

Now you can copy and paste the code into your address bar. Once you have done this, press enter and you will be asked to save it! You are almost there….


6. BUT WAIT!


After downloading the song, you may notice that Windows doesn’t know what to open it in, this is because the file ends in “.rbs” which isn’t recognised by Windows. However, this is only a basic ploy to stop people downloading the song because it’s actually a “.mp3″ which has been renamed to fool people! What you need to do is raname the file!


A “.rbs” file.


Right click the file and select “Rename”.


Change the file extension to “.mp3″.


VOILA!

Double click the file and it will now open in your preferred Media Player. It might seem a bit daunting to have to do this for every song, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!

A lot of people previously commented that this is a very longwinded system, but I’d have to disagree. After the first few songs, you’ll be able to download songs in no time at all once you get used to it which makes it perfect for situations where you’re asked to listen to a certain song by a friend but don’t fancy having to wade through the unreliable LimeWire or download the full album from BitTorrent.

Some people also commented on the sound quality which usually weighs in at 92kbps. The good news is that this means it takes seconds to download. The bad news is that audiophiles will be disappointed. This isn’t Dolby Surround Enhanced Audio that we’re downloading here. It’s slightly less than CD quality which, in my opinion, is perfect for phones or small MP3 Players with little space!

In the past, people tried to make some further addons to this hack such as an automated downloader. Once again people are welcome to make an any further additions to this exploit, but remember, if you’re leaving a comment, please leave some form of contact!

The Bebo Killer? The Future Of Social Networking

Published
by
Adam
on July 13, 2006
in Bebo, Current Affairs, Geekiness and Thinking
. 13 Comments

Yesterday I wrote about how Bebo had unleashed its greatest feature yet, Bebo Bands, which is enabling the infamous social networking phenomenon tackle the MySpace giant head on. But as it stands Bebo is currently on the verge of looking cluttered because its interface wasn’t designed to accomodate a full scale social networking site and instead was set up purely as a contact sharing site. This means that there are only so many features that Bebo can add to keep its userbase immersed and eventually users will bore of Bebo in search of the latest social networking site to arrive in town. What will this killer site be though? Well over the past while I’ve been tracking the progress of several up and coming sites which show a lot of promise as well as keeping an eye on the older social networking sites who are looking to reinvent themselves!

Now as you can imagine, it’s difficult to predict what the masses will want 6 months down the line but I reckon there will be an attempt to move away from the current trend of semi-static profiles whereby users enter in information manually and select a video manually. In essence, the future of social networking relies on a degree of automation. Picture this, you download an app which interacts with Winamp alá LastFM which then fetches your most played songs and fills in your favourite bands section and recommends other bands to listen to as well as suggesting other members profiles based on musical taste. I know that LastFM does this and does it very well, but a truly successful social-networking site would have to be much broader than this and not rely on nichés therefore appealing to the largest possible audience. Of course finding users with a similar taste in music to you would grow tiresome after a while and would also result in many false-positive matches being made. You need more diverse fields that can be compared with other users.

This is where I come onto the popular StumbleUpon plugin. Stumble Upon is a very, very promising plugin which is steadily growing in terms of popularity. Like LastFM, StumbleUpon also matches users based on tastes all integrated into a social networking frontend. In this case, the plugin comes in the form of a simple toolbar with several key buttons; “Stumble”, “Like” and “Dislike”. When setting up the plugin, you select what type of websites you like, ’sport’ and ‘movies’ for example. Whenever you click on ‘Stumble’ you will be directed to a site, based on your preferred categories, that someone else liked. After a while of ’stumbling’, the site builds up a profile of sites that you like and dislike and as stated earlier, matches you with other likeminded surfers. If something like this is implemented it opens almost endless possibilities with the ability to check out what sites your friends like being the first idea to spring to mind! Logging data of what sites people like and dislike would also be very useful for potential advertisers.

Advertising is one of the major obstacles that needs to be overcome when operating a social networking site. Advertisers are known to be hesitant to be associated with social networking sites where questionable content often arises which may harm a companies reputation. This means that it’s difficult to monetize these sites. If a feature akin to that provided by StumbleUpon was introduced to a social networking site, webmasters would no longer have to bombard users with ads and instead could simply deliver one ad which is chosen based on that particular members surfing history i.e if I like Sports sites then it could show me one ad relating to a sport which I’m known to like. This would be much more effective than the current systems in place on sites like Bebo which display ads based on popular keywords on the particular page you are viewing. This means that if I view someones profile on Bebo, I’m being delivered ads based on their profile whereas really I should be delivered ads based on my profile! It would result in a much higher CTR (Click Through Rate) and less intrusive ads for the members who are responsible for generating revenue for the website!

New social networking sites spring up almost everyday, some with new and totally out of this world ideas (eg: Zebo) while others just aim at improving on an already tried and tested formula (eg: hi5.com). I feel that the next successful social networking site will be one which strikes a balance between the two. People don’t want to see more MySpace clones but at the same time they don’t quite fancy the idea of having to familiarise themselves with something completely different to what they are used to and given the fierce competition in this sector of the internet, if a site fails to strike that all important balance, then it will almost certainly die off and be forgotten about.

Lets not forget about security though. The issue of security has been well highlighted throughout all forms of media and Bebo and MySpace are often the subject of sensational newspaper headlines or the topic of chat shows. The Bebo phenomenon even warranted an investigation by Primetime! Thanks to this media coverage, most sites have tightened up their security and now employ a dedicated team of moderators to monitor flagged content. Unfortunately, the internet is synonomous with anonymity which means that administrators will always be fighting an uphill battle especially when the intelligence of some members is questionable. Bebo has done an excellent job in making it’s members aware of the dangers of accepting people you do not know and any other large social networking site should aim to follow Bebo as an example. If a site should suceed in surpassing the standards set by Bebo then it will be well on it’s way to large scale domination!

The type of site that I have suggested above would be massive. It would undoubtedly be a massive drain on server resources having to maintain a massive database of popular music and websites - in realtime! One option would be to attempt to integrate the existing services into one site like Bebo has been doing with its Bebo TV option which is integrated with VideoEgg. It may be the quick solution and for now it seems to be working, but it’s main disadvantage is that it’s a closed format with little room for in-house development in the future which would hurt the site in the long-run!

So are there any existing sites which fit the bill? Well one site of particular interest is Orkut.com which is a Google-backed social networking site. It’s current policy is one that promotes organic growth. This means that you can’t sign up yourself, instead you must be invited by someone that is already a member. Given the infamous resources of Google, if they were to prioritize the development of the site, the sky would be the limit to what they could achieve! Until they open it to the general public though, Bebo and Myspace have nothing to worry about!

Lets not forget about Microsofts offering, MSN Spaces which is integrated into MSN Messenger and looks set to be integrated into the delectable looking Live.com. Given it’s current popularity with bloggers, MSN Spaces is not to be ruled out especially with the imminent official launch of Live.com - a Web2.0 portal.

TagWorld is a site that I actually feel sorry for. It’s features far surpass those offered by MySpace.com and lots of money has been spent on advertising its superior customization potential yet it fails to win over the audience of its competitors. I don’t think a reinvention is on the cards with its current owner owing to the fact that everything they’ve tried thusfar has been fruitless!

There are two new players to the social networking scene though and I’m happy to say that they do have the potential to be the future of social networking. GoingOn and PeopleAggregator both started out as one, however in December of 2005, the two creators split having come to two different conclusions as to how the site should operate. The basic ideas of the two sites are very similar. The sites in themselves are social networks where you can write blog posts, create groups, upload media and add friends, but they allow you to create your own social network within the site which offers users the chance to create their own Bebo like site. From what I can gather, the same username and password can be used throughout all of the created social networks. Cross-site compatibility is something which has astronomical potential. GoingOn.com is not open source, but is far more slicker than “PeepAgg”. Whether or not these two sites will indeed surpass Bebo.com and MySpace.com in the future is a tough one to call. PeepAgg and GoingOn have an interesting business model and plenty of new features as well as improving on existing social networking features which could just be what the people need.

Bebo release THE MySpace Killer!

Published
by
Adam
on July 11, 2006
in Bebo, Geekiness, Music and News
. 21 Comments

Bebo Bands
Since Bebo hit the headlines at the beginning of the year, many people wondered did it have what it took to be a giant-killer and overcome the major opposition in the form of the Rupert Murdoch controlled MySpace.

Over the past few months, very little in the way of groundbreaking features were introduced over at MySpace, however they did have the support of bands which, I feel, are vital to the survival of any of the social networking sites that we’ve seen come and go over the past year or so. MySpace seemed to be concentrating on tightening up their security measures after a string of recent bad publicity that the site has been involved in. Thanks, partly, to my findings, Bebo already had tightened up it’s security to a satisfactory level which allowed it to develop what are known as “killer-features”, such as their Skins system and optimising their Flashbox feature (which is now called “Bebo TV”). But now, and only now have they released their latest feature which puts them in a superb position to compete with MySpace.

The Bebo Bands feature was added a mere 15 hours a go and even though I’m not in a band, I’ve had the chance to play around with it over the past while. It’s not too dis-similar to MySpaces offering, however, like everything on Bebo, it’s looks much cleaner and won’t be subject to error messages every 15 mins ala MySpace. A band profile page takes on the same layout as a normal Bebo profile and therefore bands have access to the wide range of user created skins. They can even create one themselves and offer it up to other users and all through the Bebo site as opposed to unreliable third party sites. Of course it also has band related features such as a Song Module, where people can stream songs, an Album module, where we can look at the tracklisting of their albums as well as the artwork. There’s also a groupie module which works like the Top 16 does and a tour date module where people can check out details about their latest tours. There are also the usual modules on the page such as Bebo TV where a band can stream a video to you and the blog block where the band can share their experiences with their groupies.

It will be interesting to see how MySpace react to this and whether or not they can come up with anything ground breaking in response because given the unreliable nature of MySpace, the bands feature was the only thing that has kept many users loyal to Rupert Murdoch! If Bebo Bands takes off, and I think it will, then we could very well see MySpace being sold on at a considerable loss!

Monopoly - My Latest Obsession

Published
by
Adam
on May 18, 2006
in Adam Investigates, Geekiness, Life and Thinking
. 7 Comments

If you know me well, then you’ll probably know that I go through sporadic phases where I’ll be absolutely obsessed with something before eventually growing tired of it and seek something new to try out. Recently, my latest obsession has been that famous board game “Monopoly” which, until 2 weeks a go, was something I rarely played! But then Laura reintroduced me to the game which now threatens to be the subject of all my attention for the coming weeks!

Even if you do know me well, you’d be forgiven for wondering what one could possible obsess about with Monopoly, after all, it’s just a basic boardgame where you win by being lucky, right? Well yes, admittedly luck does play a vital role in the outcome of a game, however so does discovering the right property to buy based on probability. In fact, in the past week or so that I have been addicted to the game, I reckon I’ve spent more time theorising and playing out scenerios in my head about which properties one should own. I’ve also been using the internet to discover some exciting House Rules which make Monopoly more exciting to play!

As for the right property to own though, I can safely say that the orange group of properties (Bow Street, Marlbrough St and Vine St) are the most lucrative! I’ve come to this conclusion because the Jail square is the most visited square on the board thanks to the “Go To Jail” square and the Chance and Community Chest cards which send players there. When coming out of jail, a player is more likely to roll 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 than he is to roll a 2, 3, 4, 10, 11 or 12 which means that there is a very high chance that the player will land on an orange property. In other words, you don’t have to rely as much on luck for people to land on them. And land on them they will! Just you watch!

As for other properties to buy, I’d be inclined to buy the reds as they offer a greater return than the oranges at only a marginal increase in price. If someone rolls low when coming out of jail then there’s a high chance of them landing on a red property, although this will require more luck than the orange properties command.

If you want a real safe bet though, you can’t go far wrong with the railway stations. There are 4 stations which means that a player is more likely to land on a station on a round trip than they are to land a single group of properties. If you own all 4, then you will receive £200 everytime someone lands on one. Over time the money you earn from them will far surpass the amount you initially paid for them all and they become a nice and constant supply of cash to feed the development of your properties later on in the game. The green group, with its Go To Jail square just before it, and the blue group, which only have 2 properties, are generally unattractive to form a monopoly over because they are far too expensive! Although by all means buy the property when you land on it, as you could find yourself making a nice tidy profit on them later which can be used to develop your orange and red properties - properties that you know people will land on as opposed to properties you hope people will land on!

I think I’m going to leave my analysis there. If you just remember that then I can guarentee that you will have a better chance of winning than someone who relies on luck. Although sometimes you can be a victim of wicked bad luck such as rolling a double to land on a fully developed Mayfair and then landing on a chance card which asks you to advance to Mayfair. It’s improbable, but can and has happened in the past! Just remember that winning isn’t everything! Wait, it is! Sorry.

Analysis of recent bebo changes.

Published
by
Adam
on May 9, 2006
in Bebo, Geekiness, News and Ramblings
. 3 Comments

Has anyone noticed that Bebo seems to be a bit quiet as of late? With Summer fast approaching, so are the college exams. College students make up, I’m guessing, the majority of the Bebo userbase. In recent weeks I’ve noticed that there aren’t as many messages being forwarded or comments being left on people’s profiles which is no doubt due to the imminent exams, some of which have already started. Once these exams are over, I doubt that Bebo will be able to re-coup the students who used Bebo as a pastime to overcome the boredom of coursework. Neither will they be able to retain those who will be having an active social life throughout the Summer although I reckon some will choose to keep in contact with friends using Bebo. With a massive decrease in the active userbase, it will be interesting to see how Michael Birch and co manage to cope with the inevitable fall in advertising revenue. Maybe some of the 15 staff brought in to moderate pictures and profiles will have to be laid off? Whatever happens, it’s definitely going to be a lot quieter over the next few months.

Recently, YouTube launched a slightly revamped site with a few new features here and there. For this who don’t know, YouTube is a digital video repository where users can upload videos and then share them with their friends. For the past few months, a workaround allowed Bebo users to use videos hosted by YouTube as their flashbox. However, with this recent update, they appear to have fixed this workaround which has rendered many of the most popular flashboxes on Bebo obselete! The Flashbox feature has always been a big Bebo attraction so needless to day, the update dealt a big blow to Bebo users, some of whom may find Bebo less exciting without this ability!

Thankfully Bebo have been busy working on ways to make peoples profiles more unique and have struck a goldmine with their user-submitted skins. I don’t use the word goldmine lightly either! By allowing users to submit their own skins they will save money on having to hire graphic designers to develop skins for them as well as ensuring that there will be an almost endless amount of skins for users to choose from in the future. This is one of the many advantages that Bebo has over MySpace in that skins are just a one click job. It looks good and is an excellent idea on behalf of Michael Birch and co.

To summarise, I think that the hype of Bebo is dying down. The next few months will paint a realistic picture of Bebos actual popularity which I predict won’t be as impressive as others many think. They have been making efforts to innovate their site, however, as time goes on they will find it progressively more difficult to innovate for a wider userbase which will result in the decline of Bebo. When will this happen? I can’t say right now, but we need only look at the social networking sites of the past that have declined in recent months due to Bebo for us to come to the conclusion that soon another site will come a long and take the internet by storm!