Digital Media Stream

This is just a quick review of the new ChunkIt! product from TigerLogic, with a couple tips included. I'm positive that there are many more uses that will be figured out in the next couple weeks.

5 cool ways to use ChunkIt by TigerLogic:

1. Use the term chunkit. The web is a dynamically created space, but with a term as new as this, search engines aren’t quite sure what to make of it. In the first 20 results from Google, TigerLogic’s homepage shows up, and so does this blog, and the Techcrunch blog, but otherwise the majority of the first 30 sites aren’t really about the new ChunkIt! product. Helpful to see these irrelevant chunks before wasting time at chunkit.com or chunkit.net.

2. Type “Larry Ellison compensation” into the ChunkIt! box and then click the Chunk Google (or other search engine) button. I wasn’t aware that he made that much and to find out I never had to go to any of the actual websites that were returned in the search results. Fast and informative. I wonder what Bill Gates makes?

3. Type “Earth Day Events” into the ChunkIt! box to see what you can find near you. Or check out the Green Apple Festival events listed at our parter site.

TigerLogic announced today that it is releasing a new Internet browser-based application called ChunkIt! that enhances the search experience of any popular search engine or webpage.

They are calling ChunkIt! a personal search engine (PSE), with the ability to rapidly search through thousands of search results so users can quickly determine where to find the exact chunk of information that they are looking for, in its original context.

The browser-based application works with popular search services, such as Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Live Search, AOL and Ask to increase user productivity by extracting and displaying "chunks" of information alongside the search engine results to see beyond the simple search results.

The "chunks" are delivered in a dual panel page that display the chosen search engine results on the left and the ChunkIt! results of the key search words or phrase highlighted in the right panel. By clicking on the ChunkIt! icon next to each result, users are quickly taken directly to the highlighted chunk of information on the referenced Web page, thus eliminating the need to have multiple tabs or window open for one search.

Learn more about TigerLogic and ChunkIt! at http://www.tigerlogic.com/ChunkIt

My wife and I have been using a digital camera for the past few years and so I had forgotten the tediousness of searching through an old box of photos to find the one I needed. Last night, however, I had to find one of the old gems from my past (pre 1998). I'd include it here but, of course, it isn't digital.

It's a scary process to look through all the stages of life that can be shoved inside a box. Some pictures were amazing, but some were downright inappropriate for my sensitive workadaddy eyes.

So what do I do with all these forgotten snapshots. I want to, at least, convert the best of them into digital media, but making the effort seems beyond me. As always, I want easy answers that don't cost me anything. I'll look into it and see what I can suggest for anyone else who might be facing the same challenge.

It has been a few months since this blog has been updated. So, where are we now? The short answer is that we have a good draft of our latest website up and functioning. National Outdoors is a site we have developed that is focused on Outdoors Recreation Gear, Outdoor Equipment Reviews, Outdoor Pursuits, and Outdoor Destinations. The site also has a National Outdoor Recreation Directory that we are integrating for the first time into one of our projects. The end result is that we are excited about the potential for the new site and looking forward to seeing what our visitors think about it.

One realization that occurred to us while we were coming up with new ideas for websites was that the big video sites aren't always the easiest to navigate. In particular if a visitor is trying to find a video for a useful purpose not just entertainment. Our attempt at Useful Video Clips was to create a site that presented only useful videos for the visitor, similarly at How to Clips and eTour Clips we wanted to provide how to and travel videos in a easy way for users to find what they were looking for. Of course, these aren't unique ideas and we haven't developed much traction, but still the idea remains worthwhile even if our sites haven't taken off.

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I wrote a post a few months ago about our experience dropshipping www.digitalmediastream.net/disallusioned-dropshipper. We did have moderate success with it and have since moved on. But this evening I came across an article http://www.income.com/blog/2007/07/17/what-the-heck-do-i-sell/ that is promoting the same "dropshipping is the answer" mentality that I find irritating.

We found that we had to put in much more time to make the business run smoothly than we anticipated and sold the business on to someone who hired a whole staff to make his portfolio of dropship sites run well.

I was using the Google webmaster tools when I decided to look at the their blog. I soon came to discover that posting on a Google blog requires that one sign up for a blogger account or establish a new blog associated with an already existing Google account. So I did and quickly proceeded to add a post to see how it would look and more importantly how it might work for cross linking. Nothing special, but here it is: http://vonkirk.blogspot.com/2007/11/it-never-ends.html

In August, Von Kirk Enterprises successfully sold All Digital Frames , the niche e-commerce website for which this site served as a blog. As a result, the focus of Digital Media Stream will be transitioning away from its original sole focus on digital picture frames to a broader focus on trends in digital media.

I learned about SEO about 18 months ago as we started to develop a couple niche e-commerce sites for drop shipping. We had moderate success promoting our sites, but I have come to realize that the world wide web is a medium in which only an SEO practitioner can succeed. The concern I have is that I’m not very good at it, especially the off-page link building that is so important.

Recently, we entered into a contract to sell two of the niche e-commerce sites that we have developed over the past year. It looks as though they have found a good home with an entrepreneur that wants to assemble a large portfolio of sites similar to what Netshops has done. In fact, Netshops looked over our sites and decided to pass.

We're happy to have found a win win situation, with a buyer that is dedicated to making the sites a priority while we can now focus our energies on other projects that we are excited to get started.