Web Monitor
14:55 UK time, Thursday, 3 December 2009
A celebration of the riches of the web.
Today in Web Monitor: Following him, the new Tom Sawyer's fence and just your average blog.
• putting her bets on an ex-sitcom actor saving advertising. Ok, so it's Ashton Kutcher, who dominates Twitter, being the first person in April to get one million followers. According to McGirt, it's not as lucky a coincidence at it might at first appear. Kutcher has a company which mashes together film production, social media and advertising and is happy to use his fame and social networking to promote brands. He explains in Fast Company that not enough people are worried about making money in these industries:
"I'm part of an industry that is struggling daily. Daily. And I'm always worried about the numbers."
• Maybe not one of the greatest fans of Kutcher's view of the future, which involves using his Twitter followers to help name a new drink flavour, could be . He's sick of companies asking us to invent their new flavours, names and logos:
"Crowdsourcing, if you're not familiar with the term, got its start in 1876 when Tom Sawyer convinced a bunch of his pals to whitewash a fence for him. More recently, software companies, newspapers, pharmaceutical companies, and countless other concerns facing metaphorical fences they'd prefer not to paint themselves are taking advantage of the fact that millions of people are willing to work for free these days because they're unemployed and TV is no longer as entertaining as it once was."
• As an antidote to all this high-level interacting is the blog . Perfect for all those who feel the need to say something but have nothing to say, it's a blog anyone can contribute their little bit of normal life to. Just don't expect anyone to read it, as explained on the "about" page of the site:
"No one cares. It would let you comment on submissions, but really, does anyone need or want to read your literary flatulence?"
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