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I wrote a quick post to Google Buzz recently that dealt with a concept and issue that’s been rattling in the back of my mind lately. We consume so much information from so many sources that we’re bound to run into the same stories. The news that becomes popular does so because of it being shared, telling friends, sending it to others, and spreading the word.

Virality is the term that’s been associated with this for some time. Getting things to “go viral” is a key to success, but the value of any story is its exclusivity, or who publishes it first. The above concept image is a visualization of my thoughts on how this issue might be dealt with.

I call it – Flume.

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While it’s been a rather lucklaster year for new music, it’s been a great year for video gaming. Lots of new IP’s, blockbuster sequels, and next-gen must-plays. Here’s the list of my 10 favorite games that I’ve been playing this year… (more…)

There wasn’t much this year in the way of new music that really impressed me, so I’ve narrowed down my best-of list to simply the top 5 albums I’ve been listening to and enjoying the most this year. I don’t know if it’s me getting more selective in what I like to listen to, or if newly released music is getting worse… In any event, here’s the list: (more…)

Since FriendFeed’s launch of a new still-in-beta redesign, there’s been much debate over some of the features and style changes – both on blogs, and within the service itself. While any change is sometimes met with reluctance and skepticism, as Facebook has realized with their latest changes, there’s a number of reasons why the aesthetic and functional revamps of FriendFeed are helpful for both its users, and for the proliferation of real-time data on the web. Here’s a breakdown of why I believe FriendFeed has made a lot of correct choices in their transition from data aggregation, to a broad conversational hub for the web.

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Most who use Twitter casually are interested in simply posting their daily exploits for their close friends. Recently the trend to use Twitter for everything from news sharing, to professional networking, to business promotion, is becoming more prevalent as the service’s userbase continues to grow rapidly. As I’ve branched out with my own personal uses of Twitter, I’ve found employing the use of some third-party created tools and applications can help to better manage your relationships, and make Twitter work wisely for a myriad of purposes. Let’s take a look at some of the most helpful of these implementations and see what they offer to all of us working to get the most out of Twitter.

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Here are my top 10 favorite albums for 2008. A mix of electronic, dance, rock, live albums, and albums that were released for free make up some of this year’s selections…

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Now that music has become mostly a commodity in the minds of consumers, music industry companies are having to think of new solutions in order to stay relevant and profitable. While they struggle to figure out how to reach those consumers, companies like Last.fm, Pandora, and Slacker are exploring today’s real innovation in music – customized and personalized listening experiences.

While all three services offer their own unique implementations of online radio, there are a number of ways that each solution trumps the rest in features and user experience. Let’s dive in to a comparison and find out what makes these services so slick:

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I recently started a Twitter discussion with Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks on the relevance and usefulness of the <small></small> tag. I’ve had this same debate with co-workers on why one would still use <small></small> over just using a <p></p> or <span></span> with an appropriate <class></class> or <id></id> to define the “smallness” of the tag. The one thing we both noticed is that no one uses the <big></big> tag anymore, so why should anyone use the <small> </small> tag? This seems to be only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to determining which element to use for an intended result. Let’s look at a few more instances of controversy in the realm of standards and semantics on the web.

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