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Great News! Twitter Clones Begin Closing Down…Starting with Pownce.Today

The chances are you’ve heard about Pownce shutting up shop and frankly I am delighted! I’m delighted not because I enjoy witnessing companies fail but because it’s about time Pownce members tried bigger and better services. Services who really listen to their users and create tools which actually enhance the web experience for them.

I’ve been a member of Pownce since day one and at one point, a devoted member and daily visitor. However, as time went on, reccurring bugs weren’t fixed, feedback wasn’t acted on, other services launched, original members abandoned ship and eventually, so did I. I did come return every now and again to see if things had improved but more often than not I was met with a blank white page which seemed to be a never ending problem (if you’re a Pownce member, you should know what I mean).

The team behind the service is joining SixApart and Pownce is closing in 2 weeks, and in my opinion - good riddance to bad rubbish. Hopefully two weeks will be enough for any remaining ever-faithful Pownce

Historically Significant: Oldest ‘Lolcat’ FoundToday

I Can Has Cheeseburger, home of the biggest collection of Lolcat images in the world reports that they have found the oldest known Lolcat in the world.

So, it should only be a matter of time before someone will come up with a Rembrandt featuring a much older Lolcat, only to be surpassed soon by an Egyptian Lolcat. How far back will we go?

Well, for now we just go back to 1905. From iCanHasCheeseburger:

This captioned cat picture postcard was found by Tracy Angulo in a Seattle antique store. Tracy tells us that the photograph is from 1905, which would make this officially the oldest cat picture with a caption, AKA lolcat, that we’ve seen.

The differences are clear. Proper grammar and a more formal tone was in vogue back then. But the similarities to modern-day kitten struggles and lolcats are amazing. ALL CAPS is still cool, but most importantly,she also no can has cheezburger. More than a hundred years later, all that’s changed is the spelling.

Let us know if you find older Lolcats. Or don’t.

Tip: “Get Offline. Do Your Work!”Today

Found at Toothpastefordinner:

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Forget Viral Marketing. It is all about Reverberating Marketing!Today

Photo credit: Leigh D. Stark

I never liked the term Viral Marketing. It just sounds like bad karma. Viruses are associated with diseases and death. Do you want to associate your product or service with that?

It also sounds too easy. All these marketeers being asked for, or offering, a quick ‘Viral Campaign’ by clients. That is like asking for a quick number one music hit or a quick successful start-up. Wishing for it doesn’t make it so.

Anyway. I have found a better word: Reverberate

Reverberating, according to my dictionary, means: To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho

I like that! This is exactly what a good marketing campaign does. It reverberates through the blogosphere, on Twitter and offline. With every reecho of your message a new echo is born. You can hear the whispering bouncing off the walls in dark alleys. Your message, reverberating from individual to individual. Constantly changing in form, just like a real echo. The underlying message, the concept, always strong and carrying your echo, but maturing as it passes along.

Just like an echo your marketing campaign will die out, eventually. That isn’t bad. It will be replace

The Microsoft BMW Product Navigator ConspiracyToday

Microsoft spends a lot of money on innovation but we rarely see those innovations implemented in the real world. So I was pleased to hear that BMW was announcing to be the first car manufacturer worldwide using Microsoft Surface. I expected the new BMW to have a Microsoft Surface dashboard. Or even more exciting, a Microsoft Surface windshield!

But no. They only use the Microsoft Surface thing to let people choose the color, options and interior of their new BMWs in their stores. Yawn.

Or maybe I’m wrong and this is really exciting for BMW buyers. Instead of trying to talk a few thousand of the price of that new car they will be so transfixed on that screen that they will simply order the most expensive edition of their new BWM. Cool.

Maybe I’m just paranoid but could this whole video be fake? You tell me: at the 0:17 mark you see the guy from BMW clearly pinching a photo. The photo doesn’t shrink but looks like it is picked up. He pinches again and suddenly the image grows enormously. Very different behavior from what you’d expect from a regular old pinch. Right? Could it be they sorta faked this orgasm video? Including the happy ‘normal’ people at the end? You tell me!