Hans' Blog

Summary of the Basset Hound Wikipedia Article

2006-05-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, the Basset Hound breed is the most friendly and loyal type of dog on the face of Earth. Since I have a Basset Hound, I chose this particular aritcle to due my course edits too. I did not have much trouble finding information about the Basset Hound to post on the Wikipedia page. Also, the community based around this article was not as stringent as the other three I edited. The first edit I made to the article was in regards to the breeds increased possibility of being diagnosed with arthritis. The second Wikipedia edit I contributed to this article was about the average life expectancy for most Bassets falling between 8 and 12 years of age. The third Wikipedia edit I mustered up was the entire section relating to the necessary steps to training the Basset Hound breed. All the edits I made were untouched by the Wikipedia community, which made my day when I looked this afternoon. Below are links to the edits I made to the article and the article itself:

Basset Hound article
First Basset edit
Second Basset edit
Third Basset edit

Summary of the Nantucket, MA Wikipedia Article

2006-05-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Numerous people agree with me that Nantucket, Massachusetts is the best vacation spot in the United States. Since I believe this is as a fact, I figured it was only right that I edit the Nantucket Wikipedia article. The first edit I contributed to the page was about the average temperature on the island during the months of January and July. Also, since I was not signed into my Wikipedia account I added an excerpt into the trivia seciton of the article about tourism on the island. The community disliked my contributions and deleted both edits. The second edit I made was about "The Great Fire" that took place on the island in 1846. The community did not delete this edit, but they reworded my sentences. The third edit to the page I added to the two highest elevations on the island. Also, I added a small trivia fact about how Nantucket is an island, town, and county. Again, the Wikipedia community dislike the trivia fact, but actually left the highest points of elevation under the geography section. The Nantucket community did not feel that most of my edits were suitable for the Wikipedia site. Below are the edits I made to the article and the Nantucket article itself:

Nantucket article
First Nantucket edit
Second Nantucket edit
Third Nantucket edit

Summary of the Frank Sinatra Wikipedia Article

2006-05-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

I am a huge Frank Sinatra fan, so I thoughtwhy not contribute to the Frank Sinatra article at Wikipedia. This was the most difficult of all the articles to contribute information to the already well established page. The first edit, I added a small excerpt about Sinatra referring to his song "My Way" as his National Anthem. I figured the Wikipedia community was not in agreement with my statement because they chose to delete my edition to the page. The second edit, I researched a considerable amount compared to the first and came up with interesting information about Sinatra's battered eardrum. This edit is under the Early Life section of the article and actually was able to survive the scrutiny within the community. The third edit was done to the Sinatra article about two weeks ago. It took me about two hours of surfing the web to find enough information about the infamous entertainer that was strong enough to withstand the critics at Wikipedia. I managed to contribute information about how Sinatra started in the music industry and it still exist under the article today. Below are the Wikipedia edits I did to the article and the Sinatra article itself:

Frank Sinatra article
First Sinatra edit
Second Sinatra edit
Third Sinatra edit

Summary of the Chicago Cubs Wikipedia Article

2006-05-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

I chose to edit the Chicago Cubs Wikipedia article due to the fact I lived in Chicago ten years of my life and to this day remain a diehard Chicago sports fan. Over the past semester in Information Technology Applications in Marketing, I have been contributing to the Wikipedia community by posting edits to the Cubs page.

My first edit was a month or two ago and was done on "The Curse of the Billy Goat". I placed this edit under the Quick Facts section of the Wikipedia article. The second edit to the Cubs page was more difficult than the first. I had to research some facts on ESPN about the Cubs and managed to find some team history about the various no-hitters that have taken place throughout the franchise. The third edit I contributed was about CY Young Award Winners that wore the Cubs uniform when they received the honor. The community embraced the edits without corrections, which makes me believe that they are considered positive acquistion to the Wikipedia article. Below are all the edits to the Chicago Cubs Wikipedia article and the article itself:

Chicago Cubs article
First Cubs edit
Second Cubs edit
Third Cubs edit

Cutbacks at AOL

2006-05-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

While on the Naked Conversation blog I came across an interesting post about a Washington Post article reporting on massive layoffs at AOL. The blog is titled AOL Lays Off Boiler Room and speaks about AOL laying off employees that were in the division of the corporation that discouraged existing customers from cutting of service. At first, I was astonished by the fact that AOL invested that much time and money into preventing customer turnover. Then I thought back to middle school and then high school when my family used AOL as our internet provider. My father in particular hated AOL's internet speed and customer service. We eventually switched to MSN and enjoyed our internet experience much more. If I think back to about ten years ago, just like in the blog post on Naked Conversations, my father had a difficult time terminating the AOL service. To this day, my family probably receives those annoying internet free trial CDs that AOL waste substantial amounts of money on.

I do undertand AOL's business decision to lay off the 7% of employees within the company because of the industry evolving toward customer support solely on the internet. It is not as convenient for customers to use customer service over the phone, so why shouldn't AOL cut back on employee phone support. First off, AOL should focus on satisfying customers rather than worrying about losing them. If they don't they will end up in the Jurassic Era, as stated in the blog.

Sinatra's Start

2006-05-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

Trying to add information onto a Wikipedia page about one of America's most notorious entertainer is becoming more difficult with every edit. Again, I surfed the internet for what felt like two hours. I found some good information about Sinatra's start in the music business. The beginning of his career did not start extravagantly manner, just like any other musician. You have to start somewhere is what everyone always says. Anyways, I added two sentences about Sinatra joining the Three Flashes and forming the Hoboken Four. It isn't something that will wow the Wikipedia community, but it will continue to help the website grow. Below is exactly what I added to the Frank Sinatra Wikipedia page:

"Sinatra began his singing career after joining the Three Flashes following a radio talent show, Major Bowes Amateur Hour. The group acquired Sinatra and the Hoboken Four was formed."

I hope everyone enjoyed Sinatra.

Nantucket Trivia and Geography

2006-05-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

Another Wikipedia edit to the Nantucket, Massachusetts page. I scanned the web via Google and came across a fun fact that fell into the Trivia section of the page. Also, I figured it wouldn't hurt to add a bit more to the island's geography facts. Both edits don't add substantial amounts to the page, but it will help the site and the page to continue to grow. First, I listed the edit that is located under the Trivia section below:

"Nantucket is the only place in America that is labeled and recognized as both a island, town, and county."

This I had no idea was true until tonight when I came across it on Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce's website. Lastly, I stated below the addition about the two highest points on Nantucket under the Geography section:

"Also, the highest point on the island is Folger Hill which stands 109 feet above sea level. Altar Rock stands at a height in close second at 108 feet above sea level."

Again, I found this on the same website I stated above. Enjoy the page and the new information on Nantucket.

Chicago Cubs CY Young Winners

2006-05-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

What to add? That was the question I asked myself about 15 minutes ago, while looking at the Chicago Cubs page on Wikipedia. Eventually, I googled the franchise hoping to find some useful facts about the baseball team. The baseball almanac had a decent amount of information on not only the Cubs, but all major league baseball franchises. Again, I contributed more information under the Quick Facts section in the Chicago Cubs Wikipedia page. Instead of writing about Cubs no-hitters, I decided to mention all the CY Young Award winners that existed will playing with the Cubs. There were not as many CY Young winners as I hoped being a Cubs fan, but the pitchers on the Cubs that won the award were all future or existing Hall of Famers. Below is the list of CY Young winners:

CY Young Winners:
Fergie Jenkins - 1971
Bruce Sutter - 1979
Rick Sutcliffe - 1984
Greg Maddux - 1992

Training the Basset

2006-05-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

The Basset is a difficult dog breed to train due to their stubborn temperments. I realized on the Basset Hound Wikipedia Page the temperment of the Basset was mentioned, but how to deal with this attitude was not touched upon. I took the liberty of doing a small amount of research and also digging into my own experiences with my Basset named Elvis to write about possible training methods. I added a small section dedicated to useful techniques and approaches to taming the Basset breed. The section I added was near the bottom of the Wikipedia page labeled Training. Below is the paragraph I added:

"Training is a touchy topic when deal with the Basset Hound breed. Gentle and patient training is the most effective form of training. Trainers must be persistant with the breed in order to achieve a well mannered dog. The Basset has the tendency to become stubborn by listening to their nose, rather than their master. Owners need to make the training process lively and entertaining to allow the Basset to learn more efficiently."

Enjoy and I'm out loocsixela.

Frank's Battered Eardrum

2006-05-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

My second Wikipedia edit done to Frank Sinatra's page was difficult, but I managed to learn a bit more about Sinatra in the process. I decided to follow and edit Sinatra's Wikipedia page, for the simple reason he is one of America's finest entertainers. I enjoy almost all genres of music that have existed throughout American culture, excluding country. But once my father introduced me to Sinarta's music at a young age I knew I would enjoy his music for the rest of my life.

I knew all about Sinatra's career through Wikipedia and other websites, but I realized I was unfamiliar with his personal life. The class assignment to edit Wikipedia pages gave me the incentive to learn more about his early life. I found some useful facts about Sinatra at numerous websites on the internet, but found this one the most intriguing:

"Following his teen years in New Jersey, Sinatra was interested in serving his country during World War II. But, on December 9, 1941, close to his 26th birthday Sinatra was classified as "4-F" at Newark Induction Center. The Government classified Sinatra as "4-F", due to the punctured eardrum he suffered when getting hit in the head by a childhood friend swinging a bike chain during a fight. This allowed Sinatra to pursue entertainment, rather than being enlisted in the Air Force."

I added this paragraph to the wikipedia page under the Early Life section. Hope you all enjoy.

No-Hitters in Chicago

2006-05-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Milt Pappas
Originally uploaded by hptasch.

Thanks to ESPN's website I managed to muster up some useful information about the Chicago Cubs. It took me a good amount of time to figure out what I wanted to post on, but I managed to to find some Quick Facts that would be useful to any Cubs fan. The thing that made it so difficult to find relevant information about the beloved Chicago baseball team, a long with the Wikipedia community, was the substantial amount of content composed within the team's Wikipedia page. No need to fear though, I added a list of all the no-hitters that have taken place during the teams long luxurious life span. I listed the name of the pitcher and the date the no-hitter took place. It is under the Quick Facts section of the page and looks like this:

No-Hitters Throughout Team History:
Larry Corcoran - 8/19/1880
Larry Corcoran - 9/20/1882
Larry Corcoran - 6/27/1884
John Clarkson - 7/27/1885
George Vanhaltren - 6/21/1888
Walter Thornton - 8/21/1898
Bob Wicker - 6/11/1904
King Cole - 7/31/1910
Jimmy Lavender - 8/31/1915
Hippo Vaughn - 5/2/1917
Don Cardwell - 5/15/1960
Ken Holtzman - 8/19/1969
Ken Holtzman - 6/3/1971
Burt Hooton - 4/16/1972
Milt Pappas - 9/2/1972

Take a look at the page and learn more about the franchise.

Ryan's Wal-Mart Blog

2006-05-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

I was venturing through my teammates blogs when I came across Ryan's post about protesting outside Wal-Mart sponsored by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The protest took place in front of multiple Wal-Marts across the nation in order to build awareness of unfair healthcare benefits toward the company's employees. The activists passed out literature related to the issue and sold candy to benefit the struggling employees.

I have heard rumors about prior complaints toward Wal-Mart and how they treat their employees in house. I realize that numerous competitors view Wal-Mart as the devil himself destroying everything in its path, but I never realized it existed this strongly within the company. In the business industry Wal-Mart has always been an innovator, whether it be with inventory management or growth in sales volume. This has led them to be seen both positively and negatively around the business community.

The article got me thinking about if there were any other recent articles about unfair benefits received by Wal-Mart employees. So, what else can you do except google the topic itself and see what pops up. It is not worth me mentioning any of the links about protests associated with Wal-Mart because the list is to extensive. Just try it yourself by typing in Wal-Mart protests into a google search and you will see what I mean. That company has some major issues dealing with their lower level employees if they ever want stronger publicity generated through any community (internet in particular).

Loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, and finally loocsixela

2006-05-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

I know I took awhile to post about our search engine experiment that is taking place in class, but it is better to be late then sorry. For everyone that is not familiar with the experiment I will indulge you. This made up word, loocsixela, is referrenced to the Green Bay Packers website. Professor Brown picked the Packers webpage as the URL link because he is a big fan. I wanted to test the link, so we will try a couple of them:

loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela

Google Adwords

2006-05-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

I made a step toward becoming a host for Google Adwords. I followed the link that Professor Brown left to apply for being a host. After you apply, Google sends out the email that verifies you have successfully applied to become a host. Google is going to check the relevance of my blog site to the program policies then get back to me in 1 to 2 days if I am a qualified host. Hopefully soon I will be privileged enough to be able to host Adwords, if Google sees me fit.

The "Great Fire" of Nantucket

2006-04-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

What to edit? What to edit? I was browsing the articles I decided to edit at Wikipedia and came to the conclusion that Nantucket, Massachusetts would need some more trivia facts. I surfed the web to better acquaint myself with the ultimate vacation island in the United States. I found some great facts that I will blog in the near future for all you avid readers. For now though, I just editted this small history trivia about the small island of Nantucket:

"Also, in 1846 the "Great Fire" burned throughout the town fueled by whale oil. This left hundreds within the main town homeless and poverty stricken."

Keep your eyes open for more blog post on Wikipedia and recent news in bloglines.

More on Podcasts

2006-04-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

I took the liberty of going on itunes to venture into the possibilities that I might have as a potential podcaster. I know the community is growing, but I realized that there were many podcasts that caught my eye. For example all the ABC News podcasts from World News Tonight to all the ABC local news shows seemed helpful. The podcast that I myself subscribed to, for free I might add, was ESPN's own PTI(Pardon the Interruption), my favor show on television. Also, I subscribed to another free subscription of the New York Times Front Page podcast that summarizes each days news. Hopefully, people will catch on to the benefits and possibilities of podcasting. This will not only benefit me, but all the people with ipods and any other electronic device.

Everyone get on the bandwagon if not for yourself, then do it for me.

60 Minutes to Podcast

2006-04-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Venturing through Diva Marketing's categories, I came across a topic that I have taken interest in since the recent spring semester. Podcasting is becoming increasing popular in both the advertising and consumer communities, which gave me an idea that maybe, just maybe, I should join the band wagon. Diva blogged about CBS taking to the podcasting business with their crown jewel show '60 Minutes'. She referenced an article on Online Media Daily to show the direction of not only CBS, but podcasting as well. Betsy Morgan, senior vice president of CBS Digital Media and General Manager of CBSNews.com, speaks about 2006 being the year the podcast breaks out of its shell and booms with popularity.

Diva states that, "The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported several months ago that about one in three--29 percent--of the 22 million plus U.S. adults who own MP3 players have downloaded podcasts. Almost half of those between the ages of 18 and 28 who own iPods or MP3 players reported downloading podcasts."

So, their is room for growth and that is what Betsy Morgan is hoping for. This is where I realized that I need to hop on the band wagon and download podcast for myself.

Who Wants to Catch a Deal?

2006-04-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

The presentation given by Dan Baxter and Tim Patton this past Wednesday was a well organized presentation. Dan Baxter made class interesting the entire time by continually given us students information about their expanding business. DealCatcher was established in July of 1999 in Dan Baxter's bedroom. He thought of the idea to benefit his friends and family by finding deals around the interent. He realized that DealCatcher became instantly popular and decided to drop out of college at the University of Delaware. After quitting college, Dan decided to seek help from his long time friend and programmer Tim Patton to create a more beneficial site for the customer. The mistake that some of DealCatcher's customers make is that they store the products that are listed on their site. Leaving them responsible to ship and bill the customer, but that is not the case. DealCatcher benefits the customer by retreiving deals around the interent and making them more convinent for internet user. They have partnerships with certain companies while other companies deals are posted to solely benefit the customer, rather then seek profit for DealCatcher.
Finally, I can not forget the other brilliant idea Dan and Tim came up and are working to perfect. They are creating a search engine that will specialize in searching for message boards and possibly blogs. If perfected that will become increasingly popular through the years because they would be the first to perfect that type of search engine.

Everyone check out DealCatcher and look for this new search engine.

Life Expectancy of the Basset

2006-04-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

My second Wikipedia edit to the Basset Hound page was an informative one. I researched and learned a bit more about the background of the breed. The Wikipedia page had excellent information, but I managed to find one of the most researched and dedicated sights of Google called Basset Facts. I managed to browse the sight and came across the history of the breed, the different colors, the Basset's temperments, and there was much more that I did not even get time to read about. Regardless, under the Health section of the Basset Hound Wikipedia page I added the below comment,

"Also, the life expectancy for an average Basset usually lies between 8 to 12 years of age, but there are extreme cases where they live beyond 14 years old."

There will be many more helpful facts about the Basset breed in the near future.

The Opinions on Punta Cana

2006-04-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

I know it has been awhile since spring break, but I wanted to recap on my previous blog, "The Reviews that Picked the Resort," about the resort I was visting in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. As a whole, I really enjoyed the trip to Punta Cana and had experienced that I could never get when vacationing in the United States. For me, it was my first vacation overseas and I knew it would be a trip that I would never forget. The customer reviews were helpful and insightful for what to stay away from and par take in. The one thing I thought was weird that I did not pick up on with the reviews was that everyone at the resort was either Canadian or European. Also, no one talked about topless older woman and constant.........what you doin....aaaaaa. Once I got back I went to check the reviews and I realized that I must of overlooked where everyone was from. I was one of the few Americans and was constantly getting looks from the locals and vacationers. Regardless, I would agree with the customers that the resort was well above par and I had a memorable trip.

Next year though I think I will keep trying different exotic locations.

The National Anthem

2006-04-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

When I was deciding which page on Wikipedia to edit there was no way I could leave out the greatest entertainer in the history of entertainers Frank Sinatra. The page that was constructed on Wikipedia covered all aspects of Sinatra's career and life. It was extremely difficult to find another fact to incorporate into the encyclopedia page about Sinatra, but I managed to think of an excellent fun fact for all the users out there. After all the songs and albums I have listened to I managed to remember how Sinatra himself referred to his infamous "My Way" song as the national anthem. So, I added this comment in the first paragraph,

"While performing, Sinatra was notorious with his fans for referring to this signature song "My Way" as the national anthem."

Hats off to Sinatra and his contribution to the American culture.

Cascading Style Sheets

2006-04-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

Professor Brown made a recent blog posting about how to spice up the external appearance of our personal blogs. Cascading style sheets are used to manipulate the description of the presentation of a document written in mark up language. In simple terms this means I can change backgrounds, text and hyperlink colors, and other images located on my blog. This was a great tool to become familiar with if I ever need to perform website manipulation or construction.

Adding to the Geography and Trivia of Nantucket

2006-04-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

It was difficult to decide which Wikipedia article may need corrections or additional information. The individuals who took the liberty of posting the article topics I chose to reflect upon did an excellent job both referencing and researching the subject matter. Fortunately, I managed to find a geographic............fun fact...........from Wcities website about Nantucket island. I added to the geographic section of the Nantucket Wikipedia article,

"According to wcities, the island of Nantucket's elevation is approximately 48 feet above sea level. Also, the average temperature during the month of January is 33 degrees F. During the month of July, the average temperature rises to a comfortable 68 degrees F."

Also, since I was not signed into my Wikipeida account I added a fact to the trivia section of that same Nantucket article. I mananged to muster up a informational fact about the island that stated,

"It was not until 1880 that Nantucket was discovered as an ideal spot for vacationing. Eventually, tourism became the primary source of income for island inhabitants."

I hope the author of the article appreciates the added helpful facts for Nantucket Lovers, but I would not be surprised if the Wikipedia community dismisses the help.

What's the Buzz about Mark Hughes?

2006-04-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

Mark Hughes' presentation on Buzz Marketing got me thinking about how the job market and business industry will be progressively changing as our generation enters the real world. I have always been interesed in marketing in general and only saw the large name companies as the productive marketers because those were the big name corporations I always saw on television. When I dove into the core marketing classes I began to realize that effective marketing incorporates more then television and magazines. Internet contains a large marketing opportunity that numerous marketing firms are taking advantage of, but Mark Hughes takes an even more unique approach to getting a company recognized.

Mark Hughes spoke about Buzz Marketing and how he personally used it to generate company recognition before the company even began business on the internet. I was extremely intrigued by Mark Hughes's presentation and him as an individual. After his informative presentation in our class I was interested in what else I could figure out about Buzz Marketing and Mark Hughes. Obviously, I googled both topics and multiple websites were listed. What interest me the most about buzzmarketing.com was how globally excepted the concept was. I was unaware that universities and businesses around the world endorce Mark Hughes' ideas as adamantly as I came across. London School of Economics and Stanford University have used Buzz Marketing as a required reading in the business marketing classes at each university.

I have no idea how Mr. Hughes brainstormed the concept to rename a town in Oregon Half.com for a shot period of time, but that story caught my attention more than anything else he spoke about. The fact he convinced the entire town of Halfway, Oregon to rename their town within a small town meeting was flat out hilarious. He spent minimal funds in putting Half.com on the map, but in turn caused both a positive and negative media frenzy. This media frenzy blew the websites name up even prior to the release of the website and caused Buzz Marketing to be in full force. For me personally, Mark Hughes introduced a new found love and interest for unique forms of marketing. I realize that creative thinking will get you ahead with not only marketing, but any type profession.

If customer word of mouth can cause me to book a trip to Punta Cana and put Half.com on the nations map then there is nothing it can't do.

The Curse of the Billy Goat

2006-04-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

Being from Chicago, I am naturally a Bears, Bulls, and Cubs fan. At sometime or another, Chicago has had a dominant sports team, whether it be in football, basketball, or baseball. Chicago has become a famous city around the country for numerous reasons. The famous deep dish pizza that the center city of Chicago perfected is notorious throughout the country. Also, Frank Sinatra gave the city the privelege of being called his kinda town. Last but certainly not least, the sports of Chicago have managed to create one of the strongest and demanding fan base in the country. The Cubs and Sox split the cities fan base in half, but many believe the cities baseball heart beats with the Cubs. The love of the Cubs is what led me to post the infamous curse of the Billy Goat that hovers of the franchise to this day. I added "The Curse of the Billy Goat" under the Quick Facts section of the Chicago Cubs Wikipedia Article. The addition goes like this...........................

"The Curse of the Billy Goat: William "Billy Goat" Sianis, who was a greek immigrant, allegedly placed a curse on the team to never win another pennant or return to the World Series. Sianis placed the curse over the Cubs after Mr. Wrigley ordered ushers to eject Sianis and his famous goat. "

Eventually the Cubs will lift the curse, regardless GO CUBS!

Arthritis in Basset Hounds

2006-04-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by hptasch.

My second Wikipedia post was to the Basset Hound article. I had a Basset Hound, Elvis, through elementary school, middle school, and high school. He traveled with the family on all our moves around the United States. He lived in Texas, Illinois, and New York with my family and myself. He was always a fun loving dog and a major part of the Tasch family. Having my dog Elivs for ten years of my life influenced me to pick the Basset Hound Wikipedia article.

I felt as though it would be easy to post about a topic that I am extremely interested in and familiar with. So, with regards to my Wikipedia contribution I added a little excerpt about a subject that influences many Basset's health, including my own dogs. Under the Health section of the Basset Hound page in Wikipedia I contributed the following statement,

"Due to Bassets short legs and large mass, the dog breed is susceptible to arthritis to the joints as they grow older."

Hope you enjoy the added facts about Bassets.

Who Wants To Know What's On The Tube?

2006-03-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

To the blogsphere I ventured today and ran into an excellent article on John Battelle's Searchblog. The article is titled TVRANK: Tell Me What People Are Watching. In the blog, John Battelle speaks his mind about the occurances he ran into during his yoga session at the gym. He came across a group of gym members watching a news report about a murder on trial for killing a 14 year old girl. The trial caused John to think about the possibility of instantly searchable television ranks. This would allow any online user to search what everyone is watching on television at that very moment. The idea seems like it would be a powerful, but what can be accomplished from this new innovation. What are people going to do when they figure out what everyone else in the nation is tuning into? Personally, I would tune in if it sounded interesting, but if it didn't tickle my fancy the information would be useless to me. Instant search for television programs is as meaningless to me as the weather in Alaska. Instant search is an extremely innovative idea. I feel as though exclusive news is always all over the web where you would have to be blind in order to miss. People left comments to the article and many varied in their outtake on John's recent revelation. Tivo caught my eye more than the talk about instant search.

Another take on MySpace

2006-03-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

I was browsing each of my teammates blogs to learn a little bit more about them. I came across Lindsey's blog about MySpace. I personally do not use the up and coming personal biography on the internet, but I hear it is extremely popular amoung people in college and youngsters. Once I read Lindsey's comments I realized she was on the same page as me with regards to participating in my space. Eventhough I don't know much about the site I have heard a few local news reports and read brief articles on the web. The local news report with NBC News was done around Philadelphia and interviewed parents and their children. The reporter made parents realize that their children are lieing about their age on MySpace and giving their personal information out to possible predators. Through all the positive publicity of the program, I want people to recognize that there are articles and people that do not support MySpace. Finally, I found this intriguing article, at NBC News, about two men that used MySpace to again molest two Connecticut girls. Maybe, more stories like this will show that the site is not for young children that are not mature enough to regulate their personal information.

Internet Madness in March

2006-03-23T22:06:00.000-08:00

While rummaging through the blogsphere for class I decided to venture into a very interesting site clickz.com. Everyone in our class knows about it, obviously, but I personally never realized the amount of news you can get from this particular site. Being March an all, I decided to run a little search about March Madness and see what would manage to appear. I figured it would be articles about possible picks that may be made or the amount of hipe around the event, instead most of the articles talked about the influence the event had on the web. One article in particular, March Events Influence Web Traffic, caught my interest by describing how many more visitors each website recieved after a week the tournament was scheduled to begin. I am one of these online users that visited multiple sites that I don't normally visit on a daily basis to take part in online pools with friends and family.

The article goes on to talk about how mostly traffic increased occured around sport websites during the weeks on March 3rd and 10th. For example, Sportsline.com experienced a 36% boost in unique online visitors at the end of those two weeks. SportingNews.com, ESPN.com, and Fansonly.com all experienced considerable growth in online visitors due to the NCAA tournament. Jarvis Mak describes it perfectly to why fans and online users are accessing the web:

"With live game audio and real-time scoring updates, the Web is a go-to media destination for sports fans looking for the latest stats on their alma mater and favorite teams," said Jarvis Mak, senior Internet media analyst at NetRatings. "Fans turn to the Web to obtain printable brackets for March Madness and select their team picks. Sports sites are a great companion to television, enhancing the experience of fans."

BPG Properties

2006-03-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

Since each student in our Info Technology Applications in Marketing class had to subscribe to a search output in bloglines I figured I would make mine not only interesting, but useful for my career. I am doing an internship with BPG Properties, which is located on Market Street in Philadelphia, during the up coming summer. This led me to subscribe to a search output in bloglines focused around BPG Properties and the recent news that is released about the corporation. BPG Properties is top five in the nation for private investing companies. The company primarily invests in commercial and residentalreal estate around the nation. If you want to read more about the company visit the attachment I have above.

The Reviews that Picked the Resort

2006-03-23T18:04:00.001-08:00

I decided that I would get my act together early this semester and prepare for a spring break vacation that was long over due. Deciding where to go was by far the most difficult part of the whole planning and registration process. Once I spoke to all my good friends at college and talked to them about who had the money or even wanted to go, I was faced with the difficult task of picking the destination. First, I thought of the obvious college spring break hot spots in Mexico, which are Cancun, Acapulco, and Cabo. All of those hot spots seemed to mediocre and bland for the trip I wished to venture on.

As the process of choosing the trip dragged on my friends began to bail out left and right. Only two true friends stayed on bored with me to have the time of our lives. All of us spoke about going toward the Caribbean, rather than Mexico. The Caribbean seemed more exotic and adventures then the typical Mexico spring break.

Next I had to decide which resort would suit us more then the others. At this point I began looking up resorts on a website my friends father recommend to find a cheap deal that all of us could afford, being college kids and all. He steered us toward cheapcaribbean.com, which turned out to be the best kept secret to help me in our important resort decision. After comparing the accomadations and prices at numerous resorts ranging from Jamaica, Punta Cana, Aruba, and the Bahamas a decision was rendered.

This decision was not an easy one and caused alot of heated disputes and long deliberation, but all in all it came out okay. I somehow focused on Punta Cana and saw some all inclusive prices that were within our price range. It was hard to pick the one resort that caught my eye, but when I was reading reviews about some of the resorts I came across one resort in particular that everyone seemed to rave about. Just as we spoke about during class I became influenced not by traditional marketing or resort websites, but it was the customer that closed the deal. The customer reviews caused me to book this all inclusive flight to Punta Cana at the Punta Cana Grand Resort.

Take a look it is going to be sweet!

Understanding the Direction

2006-02-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

This is the first blog experience that I have ever taken part in. I will be using my blog, Hans' Blog, primarily to touch on topics covered in BUAD 477: Information Technology Applications in Marketing. Also, throughout the spring semester, here at University of Delaware, I will be reflecting with blog articles that range from team-mate's blogs to chosen Wikipedia articles (Chicago Cubs, Frank Sinatra, Nantucket, and Basset Hound). Enjoy the semester's blog postings.

Start Posting

2006-02-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

It was really that easy to create this blog.