For the week of November 14, 2005

Here are some of the most read stories and feeds on Rojo, as well as the most used story tags. For the latest stories, tags, and feeds, visit the Rojo Explore page and for the latest news that's buzzing in the Rojo sphere, keep your eye on the Rojo blog.

It was a bumpy start for Google's supposed e-Bay killer , Google Base. The much-touted, late-to-market database this review from TechCrunch: Yuck. It goes on to compare it to a 1985 dBASE file that has less to offer than Craigslist. And it's ugly too. The word from SearchEngineWatch is that it's old-school tagging--maybe someday it will replace classifieds and Monster, but not yet. Scripting News is also lukewarm. If all the words about Google Base were being written on paper, entire forests would be flattened by now says PaidContent.org which collected reactions both good and bad . 
 

Google Analytics got more upbeat reviews. TechCrunch likes the tools that lets Web site owners track how well keywords and ads are working . Ars Technica highlights bells and whistles like Flash-rendered graphs, 80 types of reports and spiffy geographical overlays. And of course, there's already a hack: gHacks shows how to keep Google Analytics from tracking your searches here.

Digg uncovered this essential read from Forbes about the search giant's plans to take over the world—one small project at a time. Even Wal-Mart is afraid of Google . And so is Microsoft which is reportedly considering making desktop apps free. CNET.com quotes three Microsoft insiders who say Redmond is seriously investigating ad-supported versions of Works, Money and Windows. 

The dotcom days have turned into the blogosphere days . Yahoo! News: Technology reports that 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds, have signed up for Open Source Media, an ad-supported service that will combine blogs with newsroom reporting. Bloggers will be paid by traffic generated. PaidContent.org also reports Yahoo will begin serving up content from several popular blogs on its home page, including the super-snarky (and highly entertaining) Gawker.

Other popular links on Rojo this week: a mashup that maps the homes of celebrities (Google Blogscoped suggests calling it Stalker Directions); NASA photos of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 taken from the International Space Station, 220 miles up; and in virtual space, A+E Interactive says Miami filmmaker John Jacobs paid $100,000 to buy a space station  in cyberspace within Project Entropia. Why? So people within the game will visit the virtual nightclub inside.

Top Tags

Here are the most frequently used tags over the last week. Click on the tag to view stories tagged. To see what stories are being tagged--and to see popular tags-- visit the Tag section on Rojo.

google
mobile
media
firefox
flickr
openlaszlo
microsoft
web
creative commons
music