blufr blings out some blogs

What do rap artists, athletes and bloggers all have in common? They all like to show off some bling. While the celebs might shell out for over-the-top diamond necklaces or rings, bloggers flaunt a different kind of accessory: widgets. According to a New York Times article, these embedded little gems “enhance [the blog’s] usefulness or aesthetic appeal” for the users.

In The Times article this Thursday, three examples of these small codes-of-wonder were pictured. One was blufr!

From NY Times:

A collection of widgets, from left: Blufr is a game based on trivia questions; Streampad Music Player creates a playlist to listen to; from ChipIn, a listing that provides up-to-date progress on a fund-raiser or social event.

Soon after the article appeared, recaps in places like Center Networks and Megite Tech News began to appear in other parts of the blogosphere.

Finally, New York City is seeing some seasonal weather … even Jerusalem had snow before the Big Apple. And yet, with winter weather comes the fear of winter flu. How can you mitigate your chances of catching a cold? Sue Vorenburg in the Albuquerque Tribune suggests using the dap. Akin to shaking hands, the dap requires greeters to pound fists. The idea behind it is that less skin contact means less chance of passing germs. Perhaps, but if you really want a sanitary way of saying hello, why not just follow the example of the Japanese— and bow towards one another!

Even if it isn’t really fresh news for the company, it’s still nice to see other people get excited when they stumble across something new to them. Take for instance Dan Bobinski’s article “An Ocean of Gadgets” in Management Issues. He writes about his recent discovery of 1-Click Answers, although he calls it Answers.com in his article. I tried responding to set the record straight … so far, no correction. That’s ok as long as he likes it, is using it, AND (most importantly) talking about it.

On Wednesday, the NYC office gathered for our weekly lunch together in the conference room. The topic of conversation could have any number of things: marketing, business development, SEO. But there was a more pressing issue that dominated the discussion: the season premiere of 24. With the recent return of Jack Bauer, an article from GoReporter also appeared which pointed people to Answers.com for facts on the popular show.

Last week, 1-Click Answers was named a CODiE finalist for the Best Consumer Productivity Solution. The judging now enters its final phase where the decision will lay upon SIIA members. Our competition includes:

• EverNote, EverNote Corporation

• PhotoStudio® Expressions 2.0, Individual Software, Inc.

• Quicken Home Inventory Manager, Intuit, Inc.

• Family Tree Maker 2006 Version 16, MyFamily.com, Inc.

At this point, we don’t receive anything except permission to use the graphic above. However, the statue to the left is a physical reality. In October, we won a Silver W3 Award for web creativity. The statue just arrived and is now proudly displayed in the reception area.

Add Answers.com to the Business 101 Books

Snakes on a Plane is a case study of word of mouth advertising; the Aeron Chair is a case study for status branding; and Answers.com is a case study towards profitability through Google’s AdSense, so says Rick Aristotle Munarriz in The Motley Fool:

In its original form as GuruNet, the company would charge visitors for access to its database of reference material. It was a model doomed for extinction, especially with the growing popularity of free community-driven offerings such as Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers.

In January of 2005, Answers.com found religion. In other words, it found Google. It decided to transform itself into a free site and populate its millions of high-ranking content pages with Google AdSense ads. The makeover has been remarkable.

Quarter	Revenue Per 1,000 Queries
Q1 2005	$1.32
Q2 2005	$2.20
Q3 2005	$3.07
Q4 2005	$4.18
Q1 2006	$4.67
Q2 2006	$5.95
Q3 2006	$6.45

The article goes on to say that while Answers.com is not profitable yet, the company is on track to hit that milestone soon.

Talk about hitting ... Tigger and a tween recently had a tangle at the Orlando theme park, Disney. So what does that have to do with us? Seems Tallahassee.com brought Answers.com into the fray when they spotted some damning information on that brawling, bouncing buddy of Poo. According to “The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh,” AnswersPage, Tigger has an alter-ego known as the "Masked Offender."

Following the president’s announcement that he will deploy more troops to Iraq, many bloggers got online to do some serious Bush bashing. Dada’s Dally believes more people would get behind the president if his decisions were made with the help of a Magic 8-Ball, rather than … well, no one knows who is really helping Bush with his decision-making, considering he brushes aside the wisdom from his advisors, senators and even panels. No matter, with the Magic 8-Ball, Bush will have 20 hard-to-disagree-with responses that he could use anytime from now to 2008. (See list of possible responses here).

I’m not quite sure how Answers.com got a mention in a blog waxing nostalgic for Nintendo’s NES system, the Apple Newton or $1 tolls to cross the Bay Bridge. Yet, Answers.com is there, on Raphael Ebron’s blog, noted as a company that has the right strategy.

The Daily Novel was also doing some reminiscing, remembering the day when journalists were professionals with accredited degrees. Nowadays, though, breaking news is happening on blogs. The tools that make that possible? Among many, the power of authoritative facts brought to you by Answers.com makes it possible.

blufr

World Tech Logic this week sung the praises of the simple yet addictive trivia game, blufr. Star New Grroup stopped short of calling it a brilliant marketing play from Answers.com.

Q&A ... Who will lead?

More and more ink is being spilled these days on the war over who will ultimately control Q&A online. This week, it was reported that Amazon is beefing up its service, Askville in an attempt to compete with the many competitors, including Answers.com, reports an AP story.

Another battle brewed online after ABC added a (sic) to a quote referring to the afterlife.

"You were one of my best friends and I'll never forget you. All my prayers go to your family and I'll see you again." (sic)

Conservative media watchdog, NewsBusters first defined ‘sic’ by calling upon Answers.com and then went on to blast the network for implying that religious belief is so erroneous that it warrant a ‘sic’ label. Bloggers helped fan the fire, until an ABC News executive later stated that the ‘sic’ referred to a misspelling of “I’ll” (ill) in the original post.

Why does winter make us crave comfort foods? Even though it’s a balmy 60 degrees in New York, a reporter in Vermont was waxing poetic about her morning bowl of oatmeal. While some may not savor a steaming bowl of oats, there are plenty of people starting their day with a bowl of cereal — which according to Answers.com is the third most popular supermarket item after carbonated beverages and bread.

Board member Ed Sims was in the news this week in one of those start-of-year articles that predicts what’s in store for 2007. This particular story from Palto Alto Daily News focused on the transformation TV Advertisers will make in order to reach their audiences in the age of TiVo. Sims credentials as an authority on this topic included being a venture capitalist, a blogger and a board member of Answers.com.

Speaking of start-of-year articles, there are also the end-of-year articles that pop up ‘round this time. Answers.com’s released its own “2006 From A to Z” topic page, which had at least one blogger, ResourceShelf, link to it.

Elsewhere in the blog-o-sphere at the start of this year, a pet enthusiast, Scatchings-and-Sniffings was sharing his 2007 New Year Resolution: to do more research on obscure breeds. Out of the gate, one of the first sites he stumbled across while doing due diligence on the Afghan breed was Answers.com, which told him the dog is one of the 14 ancient breeds.

blufr

This week, a video showed up on You Tube to disprove the validity of blufs on blufr. By Friday afternoon, the video had been seen by 2,225 on YouTube, and was found linked to an NYC comedy blog called The Apiary. The post on Apiary didn’t go unnoticed. Another blog, Mo! took the opportunity to sound off about the pros and cons of YouTube vs. stand-up when it comes to “alternative comedy.”

AnswerTips gets a warm welcome out the gate

Just as the holiday weekend was gearing up, an article praising the technology and functionality of AnswerTips appeared in a well known blog, CleverClogs. Jay B., who first sent word of this story out, wrote:

I first noticed this beautifully written blog entry (well, of course it’s about us) and was delighted to see a blogger getting excited about AnswerTips…even before we launched it as an offering on the site. But even more exciting — Gil and Michal are now officially Technorati tags! What’s also nice is that this is a serious blogger; Google page rank of 4, which is rare for a blog. As soon as we get this page up there, Liz will be spending a lot of time getting people like this hooked on AnswerTips…

So it looks like we can look forward to more positive press in the New Year about AnswerTips …

An article apropos of the season, came to the defense of the often heckled confection, the fruit cake. The author, Jean Clements, said that in Canada fruit cake was the traditional wedding cake. Whether the guests minded, she doesn’t mention, but she does say that all the information you would ever want to know about fruit cakes can be found at Answers.com.

There were several notable deaths in the news this week, and Answers.com was repeatedly one place reporters turned when they needed biographical information. Poynter Online, a web resource for journalists, even pointed reporters toward Answers.com for information on a foiled assassination attempt on former president Gerald Ford. Some album information on the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” appeared on Ochblog.

blufr

AP writer Jake Coyle wrote a story about the Whimsical and Weird Websites of 2006. blufr made the cut. The story has been reprinted in Austin 360 and The Lexington Herald.

Blufr also made another list this week. Bob Stumpel put together a list of games he feels are going to be part of the Web 3.0 phenomenon, and blufr ranked again.

Hope you all enjoy your New Year’s celebration.

Stories on Staffers

Many staffers at Answers.com had interviews appear in the news this week. Rob Formentin had a story in iMedia that explained why advertisers should put their dollars down on Answers.com. Jeff Cutler, Bruce Smith and Chris Witten had a lunch meeting with John Blossom that turned into an article on FAQ Farm and viability of WikiAnswers.

Jacob Shwirtz has also been getting some attention this week thanks to his video and fancy footwork. “Where in Israel is Jacob?” is currently listed in as the #10 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Travel & Places - English on YouTube. The video has also been showing on a number of blogs. Just a partial list is below:

http://www.jewlicious.com/?p=2978

http://standwithus.blogspot.com/2006/12/where-in-israel-is-jacob.html

http://www.theviewfromhere.net/2006/12/arthur-murray-calling.html

http://www.israelity.com/?p=1762

Answers.com is often used as a new source, but this week blufr also proved to be a mouth of authority. In the Winnipeg Free Press, blufr trivia helped answer why the sport of hockey is also known as curling.

On a final note, there’s a blogger in San Francisco whose into the spirit — not the holiday spirit, but the spirit of champagne. And he tells his readers that before they pop some tops off the bubbly, they should check out information about this libation on Answers.com.

Answers.com is a featured search this month

Answers.com was nominated as the “Featured Search Engine” for the month of December on Internet Marketing Monitor. As the site says, “Most search engines help people find websites. Sure… we use them to find information. But, for the most part, we're looking for sources of knowledge when we use a search engine.” That’s where Answers.com steps in. “Unlike a lot of other search engines, Answers.com doesn't point users to the information… it brings the information to you.”

Investor Ashkan Karbasfrooshan reiterated again on Seeking Alpha that he has a soft spot for Anwers.com, and will continue to hold his shares in the stock. You can see what he originally wrote about Answers.com on Nov, 8. on his blog at HipMojo.com.

And of course, Answers.com provided the relevant, authoritative information that journalists depend on when piecing their stories together. This week, Answers.com supplied information on proper ping-pong ball grips, the history of hockey, and when the peanut butter and jelly sandwich was first referenced in print. A marketer for i-choosemygift.com also gave Answers.com credit in a press release for helping define the word “savings” — something in scant supply at the holiday season.

blufr
blufr got another nod of approval from the education and reference folks this week. The Essex Library Association in Connecticut linked the game on their site, calling it “a trivia quiz to help pass the time during a slow moment with Uncle Homer and Aunt Millie til the next wave of turkey gravy is ready.”

Tech programmer, Ravishankar Shrivastava, likes blufr so much he actually posted the code so readers could add it to their own site … way!

Answers.com at iMedia

Robert Formentin brought in a great article about Answers.com this week during his time out at iMedia.

Reporter Kevin Ryan of iMedia Connection wrote an article that highlighted how Answers.com is different from the competition and why advertisers should place their ads on the site.

The Columbus Dispatch has an interesting column where they invite users to submit questions and then answer them one a month. Seems that Answers.com is often the source for these answers.

This month, Answers.com supplied the facts about when Christmas lights first became popular both inside the home and out.

In education, our friend Alan November inspired blogger Ken Ronkowitz to mention us after presenting his workshop last week. Alan gave the group his usual spiel: beware of search and use Answers.com.

Know that Russian ex-spy who was poisoned? It was polonium. What’s polonium? Dallas Morning News gives us kudos for being able to define the extremely rare — and dangerous — element.

The Gadget Guide, which explains the terms behind the technology, has been receiving its own fair amount of press, as well. Tech Whack picked up the press release and Liz has had success encouraging bloggers to review the page.

blufr

Stan Carthage lists all he’s learned from blufr … it’s so smart!