MamunAhmed.com » Technology

Site review: FunnyJunk.com -where the junks are funny. The pioneer of the social picture sharing

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:33:28 +0000

FunnyJunk is an image and video sharing website where people post funny pictures, animated gifs and funny videos. After posting other users can vote if it is funny or junk and comment on the pictures. According to its statistics page, everyday it gets on average 600/700 new sign ups, 20m page views and 90k comments. Given the fact that this site has never done any marketing or PR the statistics figures are pretty good.

Registering and uploading something on the site process is pretty simple. From users aspect simplicity strikes a chord. I signed up on the site within few minutes and started voting by clicking on funny or junk options.

The FunnyJunk.com also known as fj among the users. It has a very close knit community. In my first visit to the site, I came across to some really funny images. Most of the images reflect the real life stories of the users. Here is one I found quite funny.

The site has been floating around on the web for quite awhile. The whois information is showing the site was first registered more than 10 years ago on 2001. I am guessing the site had its own thumbs up and thumbs down time over the last 10 years. But it also seemed it had a viral effect after launching on the users.

Sharing things socially has been a big thing for last 5/6 years. We have seen the growth of Hot or Not, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc sites all were built on the idea of getting the users to fill up the site and sharing with other users.

FunnyJunk also made me think- if it was the pioneer of social image/video sharing, which has been a catalyst of the aforementioned sites, which were based on social sharing model.

The number of people comment and vote on each image are astonishing. I am pondering of Tumblr actually got the idea from FunnyJunk when they first started.

If you are bored and want to see some really funny jokes, comics and videos you can visit FunnyJunk by clicking this link.

Let me know if you ever visited FunnyJunk and what do you think about it by commenting below.

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Bloombla – where Twitter meets what have you done

Mamun Ahmed — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:56:39 +0000

UK based Bloombla combines Twitter style updates with past tense story telling in a short format, for a service I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like before.

The core premise of Bloombla is a statement starting with “I’ve.” Users enter what they’ve done before, for example I’ve been to the United States, or I’ve eaten a Wagyu steak. Interestingly (or perhaps strangely), the service forces the structure of your story, with the first two words after I’ve having to come from their list (it auto prompts possibles as you type), with only the end statement free for input. You also can’t change the I’ve, so you can’t say I’m, as I found out when my first entry on Bloombla ended up reading “I’ve annoyed at having to match words in Bloombla.”

There is some reasoning around the forced entries, besides wanting to annoy users. Each entry is matched against existing entries, and common entries get a cumulative vote, for example 15 people on the site currently have posted “I’ve been to Italy.” Like Twitter, there’s also a social aspect to the site, complete with feeds from friends, so you can track what your friends have done previously as well.

I get the niche. Users like sharing what they’ve done before, and you see these sorts of statements on blogs, social networking sites, and even services such as FriendFeed. I get that they are trying to make a centralized destination for these sorts of statements, and certainly I can see some novelty value in using it. What I don’t get though is the business case: how many times are people going to want to share “I’ve done xyz” or “I’ve drunk a bottle of Vodka today” in past tense on an ongoing basis on the one site, when they can easily share the same things on regular services that don’t force a restriction on what they say.

Source: inquisitr.com

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Defining Social Commerce: A Tale of Three Conversations

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:35:39 +0000

Everyone, especially Wall Street, is standing up to salute social commerce. Look at the IPO pipeline – LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga, Living Social. But despite all this attention, the definition of social commerce is fuzzy at best. How do we know if these companies will win, if we can’t even agree on what it is?

When defining something social, it’s helpful to characterize it by the conversations that make up the experience. I’ve observed three elemental commerce-related conversations currently taking place: shopping, marketing and trading.

Social Shopping

When I’m thinking about buying something – especially something expensive or something that I simply care about a lot – I talk to people I trust. Social media makes this much easier to do. It lowers the barriers of effort and social appropriateness around having this conversation. Six months ago, I was looking for a camcorder (the video function on my phone just wasn’t cutting it for filming the school plays).

While I would never have taken the time to email all my friends to ask which camcorders they liked (that would just be weird), I felt totally comfortable soliciting their thoughts on Facebook. This open conversation introduced two new elements into the commerce equation: impulse and serendipity. As people chimed in and the conversation took shape, a few friends who hadn’t really been looking for camcorders became interested in and purchased the same model I bought.

Social shopping is rooted in the overall shift we’re seeing – consumers engaging in the social discovery of everything. Rather than just searching for information, consumers are increasingly turning to Facebook and Twitter to get trusted recommendations.

We already see this significantly affecting the way they’re discovering and consuming news. Moving forward, sharing trusted recommendations will only continue to grow as a huge factor in how people discover what to buy. Last year, Facebook commissioned a study by Nielsen which confirmed the obvious: trusted recommendations have a huge impact on the decision-making process. People were four times more likely to buy something when it was recommended by a friend.

It definitely worked in my case.

Social Marketing

Businesses need to talk with their customers. For millennia, this conversation occurred face-to-face in markets or in storefronts. Unfortunately, this dialogue has devolved into what is now primarily a one-way conversation: “marketing.”

Social media introduces a less-intrusive, more organic way to converse with customers rather than blasting them with emails or direct mail pieces. When done well, it reintroduces a two-way conversation between the business and its customers.

These conversations, because they occur openly, have the opportunity to fuel word-of-mouth awareness. They also have a self-correcting feedback loop. If a business fails to engage me by sending me too much stuff or stuff I ignore, messages from that business start disappearing from my Facebook newsfeed. Similarly on Twitter, great content is retweeted; noisy accounts are easily unfollowed.

This style of two-way, conversational marketing through social media (beyond just customer support) will likely take off first with small businesses. They’ve always valued the business-growing power of marketing through their existing customers for building loyalty and fueling word-of-mouth referrals. It’s why they prioritize customer service and cultivate their reputation in the local community. It’s why they join the Rotary and sponsor Little League teams.

Social media just removes a ton of friction from this process.

source: readwriteweb.com

Site review: Bonsoni.com – Your online marketplace

Mamun Ahmed — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:24:18 +0000

Intriguing site – convenient to use and provided that you are keeping an eye you can get yourself some great bargains as well as giveaways. Already I found a free desktop computer from there. In their own word-

“Bonsoni.com is an online marketplace for buying and selling items, properties, finding a flat share, jobs, local services, free to collect items and many other categories.

Our aim is to provide a simple, safe, friendly but nimble platform for people to connect with each other, and trade goods and services”

Bosnoni.com successfully avoided Gumtree and Craigslist issues with spam and scam stuff, the aforementioned websites can learn a lot from this new promising start-up.

One of the things I really liked of this site was, when users post an ad they don’t need to fill up page after pages of information. The site allows you to post an ad in single page with just few clicks. After posting the ad users can easily manage them from their account, which is really useful.

The design and usability of Bonsoni.com is 10/10, very easy on eye. Space planning as well as the categories are up to the scratch.

Replying to an ad also very easy on Bonsoni.com, as long as an user is signed in, no need to fill up captcha. They don’t charge to post any ads not even on the services or Jobs section.

Whethers its getting a used TV or searching for accommodation hunting for a job or trying to find a free of charge haircut then Bonsoni.com an excellent site to look at.

You can visit Bonsoni.com by clicking here

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Google Testing Display Ads In Gmail

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:51:27 +0000

Google seems to be testing display ads in Gmail. I’ve not spoken to anyone but found the following image ad in my personal Gmail account this morning.

Image ads have created their way into paid search on Google.com and numerous other properties on Google. But this was truly jarring for me to encounter. It is the only such ad I saw (subsequent to an e-mail from a clothing retailer in my inbox) following purposely searching for other people.

I’m certain it is a test to determine how users react and what the response rates are. Gmail is formally a component of the “Google Display Network“:

Your text, image, wealthy media, and video ads can seem across YouTube, Google properties like Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger, also as more than one million Internet, video, gaming, and mobile display partners.

I’m not certain how lengthy this test has been running; it is the initial time I’ve observed it and I use Gmail as my main e-mail address.

Postscript: A Google spokesperson supplied the following comment:

We’re usually attempting out new ad formats and placements in Gmail, and we lately began experimenting with image ads on messages with heavy image content.

They also stated the ads started running final Friday.

Source: searchengineland.com

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Time for Self Service Postal Machines for Royal Mail?

Mamun Ahmed — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:17:27 +0000

I wonder what people do when they have a Mon-Fri hectic jobs, but need to post something recorded or next day delivery items. Posting something which needs customised pricing is a night mare, if you have hardly anytime in your hand during the week. It leaves only option of Saturday posting. But only specialised post office branches are open on Saturday for few hours.

In the era of technology and Do It Yourself services, Post office do not offer self service posting facilities yet, it sounds a bit odd. You can do banking, shopping , buying train tickets and many other things using self services but you can’t post recorded delivery letters.

According to The National Federation of SubPostmasters, services designed to boost incomes are failing to deliver. They also called on the Government to introduce “tangible new work” for post offices.

There are plenty of people out there those who are avoiding to use the Royal Mail services just for it has a time consuming method of working. Just to post a letter using the counter service you need to wait average 15 minutes. People do not have that amount of time in their hands anymore. Well, Royal Mail do have a service where people are able to print off the stamps off the net, but if anyone wants to have a next day delivery or recorded, still you need to queue up on a post office.

I wonder why the Royal Mail not introducing 24/7 self service postal machines? If Royal Mail been compared with other services, it seems it is so old fashioned.

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Vodafone Summer Roaming Offer – A Strategy To Becoming Market Leader

Mamun Ahmed — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:27:48 +0000

Vodafone introduces the summer roaming option which allows their customers use the phone while abroad.

Arun Sarin – the former CEO- had the vision to expand the brand and safeguarding their dominance by expanding to emerging markets. By the year of 2010 Vodafone looking to be the largest player in Indian market by securing at least 25% share.

Vodafone Coverage in the World

In Europe, which is a matured market for mobile operators, only unique offers will brought new customers, having realising that Vodafone have introduced the free roaming option on a tester basis.

Although it is very tempting to sign up for this summer offer, but since the customers are more conscious and smarter than ever, they will think twice to switch operators, clearly because there is no guarantee that Vodafone will do the same next year as well.

However, Vodafone has been planning for this quite a long time, now they are closely monitoring how many new customers making queries about this offer, based upon that they will permanently introduce the free roaming option in EU.

Vodafone Market Share in Europe

If any other operators do not act swiftly and quickly jump on the free roaming offer boat, there is a significant possibility that Vodafone would be the number one in the UK market, regardless how hardcore customer retention policy the other companies follow. Remember the TalkTalk and BT fiasco?

However, the Vodafone strategy certainly welcomed by many customers. The overpriced roaming charges are unscrupulous. Vodafone ushering other operators towards a proportional market where the EU customers will certainly be benefitted.

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Where is the Speed Controller in My Car?

Mamun Ahmed — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:09:09 +0000

I am just back from a week Holiday in South West part of England. Everyday was consist of quite good few hours driving for site seeing purposes.

Whenever I drive in UK, I feel it is so confusing. Too many instructions on the road, too many speed cameras with “watch your speed” signs. While I was driving through this instructions and signs jungle, literally I was going above the national speed limit (70 mph/112 kmh) time to time. Also while I was overtaking any vehicles, it was very tempting to raise the speed and overtake more.

Albeit the government is trying to “kill the speed” by introducing tough rules and regulations by penalising the drivers in various way. But there is no sign they will impose any tougher regulations to car makers, which might help to reduce speed on the motorway. A driver has the same experience of driving since the first drove a car. Nowadays the cars are more sleek, easy to speed up, quicker in turns but there is no effort has been made from the car industry to introduce any technology on the car, which will make the drivers to drive within the speed limit.

While I was driving in a comparatively less busy road sticking to the speed limit, I was missing a device which allow me to stay under the speed limit. The device could be like – the driver can set up the speed limit and “lock” the speed. Until he unlocks the limit, the car wouldn’t drive more than the speed he has intend to drive. If he needs to speed up he can override it. The use of the device can be voluntarily.

The car manufacturers are moaning and groaning about how their sales plummeting day by day and blaming the economy, but why don’t they realise that they have lack of innovation?

Whatever car you buy it serves the same purpose regardless how much you are paying. They have been marketing the cars as a sign of prestige, ego and social status. But they forget to promote them as a “need”. Nevertheless they completely ignored the necessity of introducing new features on the cars by introducing new technology.

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Report Unwanted Spam Telephone Numbers

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:24:50 +0000

Every phone owner faces unwanted calls. They can be telemarketers, charities, political, surveyors, fund raisers, scam artists and so many various sources. Once the got your number sometimes its impossible to get them delete your number from their database. Sometimes they delete your number from the database but before that they sell your details to other companies.

Although you can register with Telephone Preference Service to opt out from any unwanted sales calls but still you might be receiving some strange ones.

Whocallsme.Com is a website launched to fight against them. It is a website to share these telephone numbers with others. It is very simple to use. You can trace a number and if it is on the database you can know what trick they play to catch you and what other users have experienced from this people.

You can add a number to the database and explain your experience with them. Using the phone number search on the top of left hand side you can find a number. If it is not in the database you can add and share your experience with others.

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The Ultimate Revolution – By The Media?

Mamun Ahmed — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:28:57 +0000

I came across to a video prepared by Casaleggio Associati – an Italian media consultancy firm – which objective is to develop a culture of network through original studies, strategic advice, articles, books, newsletters, seminars on the Web.

The animated video which is narrated in 2051(!) is rather interesting, they have forecasted few things, which initially seems not impossible.

The media supremacy starts from 1990s by inventing internet. Everything related to old media vanishes. The traditional media was in brink of closing down so it reacts by introducing stricter copyright law which resulted Napster the peer to peer music sharing website got sued. At the same time free radio based on the internet introduced as well as internet based TV.

A internet based news site appears, which is written by thousands of journalists around the world. The power of masses emerged.

Prosumer- producer and consumer of information evolves. Anyone can be Prosumer. All of the news channels become available on the internet to watch.

Blogs become more influential than the old media. News papers become a free object. The main cities of the world people are connected to internet for free.

A person can have multiple online identities. Radio, televisions and newspapers become state financed. And eventually traditional media got abandoned.
Google become mightier than ever. Google buys Microsoft. Amazon buys Yahoo.

Google, Amazon along with BBC, CNN and CCTV becomes the world universal content leader.

The concept of static information such as books, articles and still images transformed to knowledge flow. The creator can chose the own advertisement according the contents.

People will be able to share the memory with others as well as feelings and emotion.

Experience becomes the new reality.

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