Pandora.com is free, personalized, internet radio. Users create their own stations based on a genre or band and Pandora streams music that is similar. To do this, Pandora uses the Music Genome Project, a system that uses over 400 individual attributes to apply to a song and analyzes them to bring the user music they will like. Some of the characteristics include "Beats Made for Dancing," "Knack for Catchy Hooks," and "Emphasis on Instrumental Performance."
Pinterest is a photo sharing site that allows users to create "pin-boards" and browse through millions of images and "pin" the ones they like on their board. Created by Ben Silbermann, the website became the fastest one in history to gain 10 million users. TIME Magazine called it one of the "50 Best Websites of 2011." Pinterest's mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting."
Alexa.com, the global leader in web analytics, is a website that records traffic (or the number of "hits") on other websites, as well as their rank. It is an invaluable tool for marketing and research. It was founded in 1996 and gets its name from the Library of Alexandria. The top three sites right now are Google, Facebook, and YouTube.
StumbleUpon.com states on its home page, "We help you explore new and interesting things from every corner of the Web." It functions as a roulette-like discovery engine, bringing the user to websites of photos based on their interests and likes. Clicking the button allows the user to "stumble" upon a new page. As of August 2011, the site registered over 1 billion stumbles per month.
Twitter.com is a social networking website that made "micro-blogging" famous. Users of the site send and receive messages no longer than 140 characters, called "tweets". As of 2012, 340 million tweets are sent daily. In an interview with the L.A. Times, Twitter creator Jack Dorsey said when it came to naming the site, he and his team "came across the word "twitter," and it was just perfect. The definition was "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds." And that’s exactly what the product was" (source).
Netflix.com is an on-demand movie provider that allows streaming over the Internet. The website is only one half of the company, the other branch of it is a service that provides subscribers with DVDs through the mail. Netflix brokers deals with movies studios for the films, documentaries, TV shows that appear in their media library. A Netflix app is also available for iPhone, iPod, iPad, and other mobile devices.
TheOatmeal.com is a web comics site created by Matthew Inman in 2009. The site gained popularity because of Inman's clever and humorous spin on everyday situations. The site attracts around 4 million visitors per month. According to an interview Inman gave to the Seattle Weekly, he has been taking drawing classes in hopes of re-inventing his signature style.
Here is the latest comic that media-savvy types such as myself will finder interesting.
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