Why I Blog and Spend (Too Much) Time on the Web...

When my dog Manny was diagnosed with Legg-Perthes Disease last year, there was little information available on the web about the disease, it's impact and the necessary surgery. So I documented the entire process (both Manny's experience and mine) on MyDogManny.com. I made the site in the hope that it might help other dogs and dog-owners overcome the debilitating and commonly misunderstood disease. I receive emails like the one below every couple weeks. This one arrived yesterday and really demonstrated the power of the internet and of content.

I just wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks for all the work and time you put into your website (mydogmanny.com) and chronicling your dogs' progression through FHO surgery.

We recently went through the same experience with our own dog. We were on the fence regarding the surgery, as our pet is older. Your experience convinced us that she could get through this, and the surgery was a huge success!

Without your site to encourage us, we probably would have put her down. Thank you so much for the help and encouragement that your experience lent to us. We are looking forward to many more good years with our beloved little fur ball Peawee, a toy mix we rescued from a shelter.

Sending good vibes to you today - you rock!

Manny:

Another Reason to Love Amazon - Pre-Orders Arrive on Time

I've pre-ordered products on Amazon before - but they used to ship on the release date rather than arrive...

Apparently that has now changed. I ordered MLB The Show 2008 for the PS3 (supposed to be phenomenal) and it arrived at noon today - just two hours after most stores even opened their doors.

I also have found the Amazon subscriptions to be super convenient - for items requiring routine purchases (like razors, toilet paper, shampoo, etc), Amazon will now schedule deliveries to occur over customizable periods. Subscribers get a 20% discount on those items to boot.

Big Honcho Media and Semi Pro = Very Impressive

Several weeks ago, I was approached by Big Honcho Media about running a Semi-Pro promotion on SportsWrap. I've been approached by many media / marketing companies - but Big Honcho Media was really terrific.

I was impressed with every interaction and exchange - from emails to the logo-stamped deliveries. In addition to the iPod Shuffles they provided as prizes, Big Honcho sent over a series of unique Semi-Pro gifts (socks, t-shirt, head band) and a hand written thank you card.

Very impressed!

Semi Pro Will Ferrell

Vail Snowmobiling Tour - Photos and Video

Yesterday, we took an unbelievable snowmobile tour in Vail. I had never snowmobiled before - so we decided to take a 4 hour tour with Nova Guides (one of the big guide companies in Vail Valley). They took us out in groups of 8 and we had over 80 miles of national forest track available to ride. The tracks were about 20 minutes past Minturn on route 24 (which before I-70 was the only way from Vail to Denver) - passing through Redcliff, an relatively recently abandoned mining town.

Here are some of the photos from atop the tracks at about 12,000 feet. You can see Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Vail and some other local chutes. The highlight of the trip (other than riding around powder at 50+ mph) was seeing one of the riders in our group fall off his snowmobile and subsequently have it roll 400 yards down a bank of waist-high powder.

Snowmobiling in Vail 1 Snowmobiling in Vail 3 Snowmobiling in Vail 4 Steuart Martens

The first video shows the view atop the mountain. The second is of the fallen snowmobile.

RedLasso Video Is Taking Off... Out of Nowhere

I am starting to see RedLasso video embedded through the web and would anecdotally say that, on newer content, I've seen more RedLasso videos than YouTube. The Janet Jackson video before is from a recent PerezHilton embed (one of his many).

The player is so-so (I still prefer VideoEgg's) - but what makes RedLasso interesting is how much televised and near-live content they are indexing. There isn't much information available about RedLasso (including on their website), but here is an overview of their service:

RedLasso offers a one of a kind TV and Radio search engine that starts by recording and indexing live television. Recording TV enables RedLasso to then index all the video while translating the voices to text. Searching for a particular term will return results from a number of networks. Users can then use the RedLasso video player to create up to ten minute clip from any search result. I searched for "free agency" on ESPN and found a clip about the upcoming baseball free agency pool. I have included the clip I created below though RedLasso also enables you to send it to a friend or directly link to it. I think RedLasso is a great idea as it offers a way for content producers to find and embed content that was previously not easily accessible. Read More

A Week Into Yahoo Buzz... Digg Probably Isn't Nervous

Nearly a week after Yahoo Buzz has launched, and I haven't found a compelling reason to do anything more than visit the homepage. I get the sense that this is the overwhelming sentiment and that Digg isn't losing any sleep over the much-hyped Yahoo property.

I have two primary complaints (and numerous others):

1) I am amazed that Buzz launched without allowing publishers (like myself) to post content. This is wrong on so many levels. First, readers don't want to read what is essentially a combined rss feed of Yahoo and USA Today. What makes Digg so enjoyable is it's ability to expose readers to varied and new content.

More importantly, it prevents Buzz's growth from a content and readership perspective. Digg has 'share this' icons / links on millions of blogs and there is a clear incentive for readers and writers to post their content to Digg (get traffic, build community rankings) - without that incentive, Digg would collapse, readers would have less content to browse, and the 'economy of content' collapses.

... And Yahoo has an opportunity to out-muscle Digg by delivering top content-providers more traffic than any other web property (and rumors are that Yahoo is willing to float top articles on Yahoo.com's front door).

Yahoo Buzz

2. Buzz has a few verticals: Sports, World, Video, etc. The verticals are nothing more than a sort order for articles. The top searches module on the right page is consistent on every Buzz page and Obama, Hilary Duff, and Iran (top 3 searches) have no relevance to the Sports category. There are power-users on Digg for each category and there are readers who only visit specific categories - there is no motivation to move beyond the first page on Yahoo Buzz.

Signs You Might be in Serious Trouble

True story and a certain sign that 1) Something is wrong 2) You spend far too much time on the internet 3) You spend far too much time working on the internet

I was told that, in my sleep last night, I emphatically said:

"No! You can't do that unless you login!!"

Uh oh.... Speaking of which, I am getting slight tumblr envy. I really enjoy good tumblr-users' blogs. Rich, routinely updated, highly visual.

Ordering Pizza Officially Moves Online

Wondering why you are now getting more Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa Johns emails?

eMarketer reports that "the average online pizza order is $6 to $9 higher than the average telephone order." The research suggests (as one would expect) that ordering online is an easier, more enjoyable experience than dealing with people over the phone: "online customers had a more leisurely experience than did phone customers, and that having access to the entire menu let them order without feeling rushed, resulting in the higher totals."

Sure - this research seems obvious, but:

- + $6-$9 per pizza order is quite significant ... that's nearly another pie per order - It speaks to the importance of customer service, having digital menus and being able to control the experience - This speaks well for upstarts like GrubHub, Yelp and Google / Yahoo Local - I now understand why I get more-than-weekly emails like the one below (and I suspect it will get worse!)

Pizza Hut Pizza