GBuy

Google is likely to launch soon a raft of services that link search returns directly to purchasing opportunities online, possibly providing some online stores with “trusted” status from Google, a way of improving click through for companies playing straight with online buyers. It’s one more incremental step to making the web a better place to find and buy than any traditional advertising medium.

Now for A Sum Up

It's been a busy posting day in part so I pay my dues in the public dialogue. Gradually the content and services section of the site should build into a mini-EPG for those of you looking for new audio-visual content.

Still I'm mindful that how I came to this kind of subject was through the cultural impact of computing and new media services.

“Right now, we are exploring new structures of knowledge and power through our recreational life,” says M.I.T media specialist Henry Jenkins who works in the C3 (Convergence Culture Consortium), “which are helping us to acquire new skills in collaborative problem solving which are already spilling over into other important sectors.”

That to me is the crucial change we're collectively bringing about. Jenkins goes on to acknowledge, in an e-mail interview I did with him a couple of weeks back that what we know is now being conditioned by the dialogue.

That means traditional sources of authority are less compelling than they used to be; they are less powerful. Traditional sources of expertise are devalued.

On the other hand what we endure for that change is that what we know becomes less certain. The main error of mainstream media outlets like the BBC is they continue to talk with conviction, as if they have a special insight that the community does not have.

And it will reflect increasingly in our political choices. Already today we've seen that the blogging community (readers and writers) think differently about politicians than do the majority of the population. They get what politicians are at more easily. It's being reflect too in the way products are made with more companies engaging the public in product design or adapting their marketing in order to provide users with free services, like Nike's soccer tricks upload site.

The traditional business attitude was that free ended with the dot.com boom, but free continues to grow. See it here too. And for the political momentum behind free go here. Free has become the big success story, audience the new name for customer base, content the driver for brands.

These are the kind of change we're looking to record here.

Net Neutrality

Updates on the net neutrality story (that’s the danger of telcos using our desire to access certain services frequently, e.g. Yahoo, as an excuse to charge) can be found here and here.

Click.tv

Can't see yet where this leads as a business but Click.tv is something special if you want to search inside video.

Podcasting Matures

Just because I’m a low level user of mobile devices doesn’t mean they’re not the dog’s. Anyway Podcasts are the real democratiser and Podshow.com is doing a good job of becoming the meta site. So far I’m confused about what differentiates them from podcastalley and  indiepodder. Hope to answer that in the next 24 hours.

The Blog Impact in US Politics

Well it's starting to show. People engaged in blogs have opinions quite different from voters who don't read blogs.

That Guardian Explanation

Yesterday I blogged on Comment is Free, the Guardian group blog site. Most blogs are open ended, in the sense that if I comment on your blog then my URL is available in the comment header so that future readers can click and follow me out of the page.

The Guardian doesn't seem to do this, unfairly corralling the reader on the Comment is Free site. I wrote to the Guardian yesterday for an explanation but so far no response. Maybe other readers could do the same.  comment.is.free@guardian.co.uk

Docos

Here you'll find outstanding observational documentary films ready for pay per view.

Sport on Bit Pass

Sports coverage is the obvious big gainer from IPTV and Internet TV. GDBTV are already talking with the majority of English soccer clubs while BitPass are providing pay per view services for the Green Bay Packers. I don't want to use the "sign of things to come" cliche but it surely is.

Google Video

I was playing around with Google's video beta this morning. They've launched their new video ranking system and believe it or not there's nothing there on the World Cup. Now I know the USA lost yesterday but still, no world cup clips in the top 100?

Well, they've created a whole sub-channel especially for the beautiful game. Try the footvolley video.

Mobile Movies

I’m the guy who asked for his GPRS connection to be disabled (I racked up four and a half hours of web viewing after turning it on accidentally). So? I don’t claim enough expertise in mobile content but I have spoken with the people at Wildlight and what they’re trying to do makes sense – movies on the mobile. Though I would prefer to play the movies out on the web too, those of you who want to try it out, it’s over there.