Media

For years, the San Francisco-based prankster group, the Cacophony Society, has been having its own brand of fun during that city's famous road race, the Bay to Breakers, by having members dress up as salmon and then run the race route "upstream."

They call their version of the race the "Breakers to Bay," and it has become a tradition.

But now the group is a little bit peeved, reports Laughing Squid, because its antics have been spoofed by rum maker Bacardi for a T.V. ad without any form of credit.

In the ad, two … Read more

Guessing who will come up with The Next Big Thing is a perennial sport in this business, and today's emerging technologies provide reason for even more speculation than usual. Among the latest to weigh in with predictions is Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog, which makes a valiant effort at sorting through start-ups that remain buoyed in the wake of MySpace and YouTube.

First on the list is Fanpop, a social site that's built around specific topics that it calls spots. (Fanpop's honchos explained to us why it's not a "social network" here.) … Read more

Long before it fell victim to the talk-radio craze, San Francisco station KSFO-AM used to broadcast shows from the Golden Age of Radio every night. Most were comedies, but my favorites were horror tales from the likes of "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and "Lights Out"--which, of course, were the source of endless nightmares for a 10-year-old kid.

So I had mixed emotions upon coming across Pseudopod, which bills itself as "the world's premier horror fiction podcast." (There are so many others?) While not quite an interactive networking site, Pseudopod does depend on material … Read more

The ever-cheeky Register is always entertaining, but this post is as notable for its spot-on social commentary as it is for its wit.

We won't spoil the many punch lines in "10 ways to make yourself a YouTube star," only to note that its sub-headline says it all: "Fight strangers in the street, do strange things with animals."

The most serious competition to MySpace may come from another country.

Already, it's been noted that MySpace will likely face the problems of fleeting fidelity that have typically befallen social sites dominated by youths. But it may confront an even more formidable challenge based on the habits and sensibilities of an entirely different culture from Cyworld, the wildly popular social network in South Korea, which is opening in the United States.

The ubiquity of Cyworld in South Korea makes MySpace look like a fringe hobby. More than 90 percent of South Koreans between 20 and 29 are estimated to … Read more

AOL has launched a beta test of a new photo site that lets users tag their photos, create galleries and comment on other peoples' photos, features popularized by the Yahoo-owned Flickr. AOL unveiled the new AOL Pictures beta site on Thursday.

Does the world really need another social network? We have no idea, but we're posting about another one anyway.

Today's entry, called Fanpop, describes itself as "a network of 'social portals' called spots that are created for fans by fans." So how is this different from the zillions of other social-networking sites out there? As far as we can tell, the biggest distinction is Fanpop's organization around specific topics as communities, rather than the other way around.

This is done on just about all other social sites in some fashion, but Fanpop is trying to … Read more

Social networking sites are now going niche. A new site out of Dallas, dubbed FanSpot, touts itself as "your Virtual Sports Bar."

There are blog networks devoted to sports, like SportsBlogs. Like those sites, FanSpot users can create blogs and share photos and collectibles. But they are also encouraged to take their heated rivalries and loyalties for their favorite teams online. Users are urged to boast about their teams and make public challenges to fans of rival teams--in other words to talk trash.

"Sports fans are an opinionated, passionate bunch, to be sure. Fanspot.com is here … Read more

Fewer American children are being targeted by sexual predators on the Internet today than five years ago, according to a new study--an improvement researchers attribute to a growing awareness of the problem among young people.

The findings, (click for PDF), come from a survey by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.

Of the 1,500 children between the ages of 10 and 17 who were questioned, the survey found that 13 percent were victims of unwanted sexual advances last year, compared to 19 percent in 2000. Those solicitations included attention kids didn't seek, such … Read more