Las Vegas Web Design

In China, it’s easy to get free music: simply fire up search engines Baidu or Google, enter an artist you’d like to listen to, and download the melodies. In a country where (IFPI claims) 99 percent of all music files are pirated, the major record labels are happy to get at least an advertising revenue split with a popular search engine in exchange for giving out music for free.

Google’s free music search servicehas been in the making for quite a while, and now they’ve taken off the beta label, meaning that the service is here to stay. It’s a necessity, really; to be able to compete with Baidu, which also offers music downloads (the legality of which is, however, disputed) and holds over 60 percent of the search market, offering free music downloads is a must for Google.

Google’s service offers some 350,000 songs from Chinese and foreign artists that can be freely downloaded; according to Gary Chen, CEO of Google’s partner in this venture, www.Top100.cn, that number should rise to some 1.1 million in the following months. Google is splitting the advertising revenue share with Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI and Universal Music, but such deals are unlikely to happen in countries other than China, where the pirated-to-bought music ratio is radically different. Furthermore, although anyone can access the service at this address - www.google.cn/music/homepage - you cannot download the songs if you’re not connected to the internet from China.

Still, it’s interesting to see how very different business models can be arranged with the major labels, depending on the state of the market. Free music downloads is not something they would consider, for example, in the US, but in China they’re happy with this deal. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Reviews: Google

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We asked you to pick your favorite submissions for the Remix Mashable Design Contest, the competition celebrating Mashable’s new tagline, “The Social Media Guide.” After a huge response - 2,787 submissions over 14 days - Mashable and our commenters have selected the following 15 designs as the winners. The winning designs will be showcased in our Zazzle store.

Congratulations everyone, and thanks for a fun contest!

Design #2388 by tigerstance

Design #1796 by Wizelizard

Design #591 by jad…

Design #588 by lloydy

Design #1987 by Earthhue

Design #1822 by Oli

Design #773 by sallynec5

Design #2248 by ProfisSite

Design #1561 by jmc0635

Design #72 by umxca

Design #2692 by VisuALchemy

Design #179 by zipcads

Design #1759 by idealerror

Design #594 by artyko

Design #970 by jduna

Thanks to our Remix Mashable Partner

99designs is the largest online design contest marketplace, connecting 29,000+ designers from around the globe with clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design services. More than 18,000 projects have been completed to date, covering everything from logos & webpage design, to product packaging and t-shirts.

Reviews: Mashable

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Fring is a mobile platform that allows its users to chat and connect with friends via Skype, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ, and through Fring Add-ons, which connects your phone to Facebook and Gmail, among others. Fring offers everything from email updates to international Skype calling within iPhones, Windows Mobile devices, Nokia phones, and others.

Fring has taken its mobile social experience to another level with its release of Twitter 2.0, a fully-functional Twitter client currently available for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones. Their Twitter interface, which replaces a less-impressive Twitter add-on, is fully-functional and has capabilities that the mobile version of Twitter.com cannot do.

The Twitter 2.0 add-on is capable of almost everything offered on Twitter’s web interface, including:

- Fully-functional Twitter search

- Easy profile viewing

- The ability to easily open links

- Direct messaging

- @reply messaging

These may be basic features, but they are a welcome relief for those who use Twitter regularly, but do not own an iPhone to manage their Twitter account. The official mobile Web interface of Twitter.com does not offer an easy way to send direct messages or @reply messages. And most frustratingly, Twitter’s official Web interface is not integrated with Twitter search, making it impossible to check up on topics or trends on the go.

Fring is already an impressive IM and VoIP (Voice over IP) client for iPhones and mobile phones everywhere. But with Twitter 2.0, it becomes even more invaluable for those using Windows or Symbian-based phones. Skype for the iPhone may be launching tomorrow, but Fring, with its integration with Skype, IM clients, and social media tools like Twitter, may become an even more attractive application to install.

Reviews: Facebook, Gmail, Twitter

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If you’re a curious person like me, you like voicing your opinion, finding new movies, reading useful articles, and sharing the best of what you find. There are a lot of social media websites that have these capabilities, but today there is a new entrant to the social media discovery arena: Lunch.

And for Mashable readers, we have invite codes for previewing the site two weeks before it comes out of private beta.

Lunch: An Overview

Lunch’s premise is simple: it is a platform and online community for discovering and sharing opinions and ideas. First, the platform: the company claims that its secret sauce is its Similarity Network engine, which calculates commonalities in tastes and opinions between people. Each rating, review, or game played helps the engine determine your tastes. This helps hook up members with reviews and information on specific charities, products, or ideas that they didn’t even know they were fans of, but that the system calculated.

The second part of Lunch is its community, specifically the reviews: everything under the sun can be reviewed, from a political position to this Mashable article. Reviews can include images and detailed formatting. Users can rate and comment those reviews or have discussions. Lunch’s goal is to replace reading hundreds of reviews and websites on products or ideas, but instead focus on relevant reviews from people with similar interests or mindsets.

The website itself is fun and fully functional. It offers a game called ExhilaRATE where users can compare likes and dislikes against the community, a full array of social networking features, and a bookmarklet, which makes it incredibly easy to review any page or idea. In addition, Lunch’s founder, J.R. Johnson, has had success in the past, most recently selling VirtualTourist to Expedia.

One problem I had was being able to review specific items. I wanted to review cats (cats are awesome, after all), but I could not find a specific review item for “cat” within the first few pages of 299 pages of reviews. The review section needs to be smarter about what users are looking for. It needs an easier way to refine results and reduce clutter.

Lunch - A StumbleUpon for Ideas?

The pitch for Lunch reminded me about another company that focuses on discovering interesting content and providing ratings and reviews - StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is the popular social media service and toolbar that allows users to find new web content based on previous Stumbles, friend recommendations, and categories.

Although StumbleUpon is based on Web pages and Lunch is based on ideas or “data points,” their purpose is similar. It feel like Lunch may be a StumbleUpon for ideas, but with far more focus on reviews and social networking tools. Founder J.R. Johnson also noted to me that Lunch’s core strength is how well its Similarity Network engine helps target reviews and content based on user interests.

Lunch Invites

Now that you’ve been reading so much about Lunch, you’re probably wondering: where are those invites you promised? To try it out, simply visit the Lunch homepage and click on the section that says “Have an invite code? click here.” Then type in your email and the invite code “Mashable”.

If you give it a try, please don’t forget to tell us what you think of Lunch in the comments.

Reviews: Mashable, StumbleUpon

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Do you remember what came in between printed encyclopedias and Wikipedia? For many, the answer is Microsoft Encarta, which was distributed starting in the 90s via CD-ROM and more recently on the Web via MSN. Today, Microsoft announced that it’s discontinuing Encarta later this year, offering symbolic confirmation that Wikipedia is the world’s definitive reference guide.

Microsoft acknowledges as such in an FAQ they’ve setup explaining the move and what existing Encarta customers can expect. The company writes, “Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past.”

That’s quite the understatement. As PaidContent points out, the crowd-edited Wikipedia boasts 2.7 million entries in English versus just 42,000 for Encarta. Need further confirmation of why Wikipedia is simply a better model? News of Encarta’s discontinuation has already reached the product’s entry on Wikipedia.

Reviews: Wikipedia

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Soon you may be seeing links to download copies of Star Wars or the newest Britney Spears album pop up your Facebook news feed. This is because The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s most popular websites for file sharing and torrents, now allows you to share links to download these files right from your Facebook profile.

It works simply: The Pirate Bay site now includes links under torrents to “Share on Facebook”. Once posted to your profile, your Facebook friends can click the link on Facebook to begin the download right away, provided they already have a torrenting client installed.

Torrents, for those who are not familiar with them, are a method of sharing files between computers. Torrents and torrent websites don’t host files, but instead allow people to share between computers, sometimes known as peer-to-peer sharing. It’s a popular way to share movies, albums, and TV shows. Although legal files are shared through torrents, some people share movies and music that are illegal to download, which is why the ability to share them via Facebook is already controversial.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 150 to 200 million people signed up already. It’s one of the best ways to share links, blog posts, and content. Many websites, including our own, have links for easily sharing content to Facebook. So it makes sense as to why The Pirate Bay would want to encourage people to share torrent links on Facebook. But because many of these files are illegal to download, it also makes sense that copyright infringement organizations are not very happy.

The IFPI, an international organization that represents companies fighting copyright infringement, has already responded against this move, saying that it’s illegal to share links to download these types of files in any way. If sharing torrents via Facebook becomes popular, it’s likely that other major organizations such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), will speak up. This could put Facebook in the middle of the copyright battle that has been going on for years.

With easy methods of sharing links like Facebook and Twitter, torrents to files that are illegal to download could pop up more often, especially as websites such as The Pirate Bay add more social media sharing features. The question is: will Facebook allow its users to share torrents freely, or will it start blocking them under pressure from organizations like the RIAA?

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

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One of the best things about the web and social media is how much great information is written and produced every single day. If you’re a regular reader of blogs, you probably come across great articles that you just want everyone to know about. But what’s the best way to share these posts?

Luckily, there’s no shortage of ways to spread the word. Blogs, social networks, instant messenger, and mobile phones are some of the many ways to let others know about the best content on the web. Here are our 20 favorite ways to share a great blog post:

Sharing Via Social Media:

1. Using Twitter to Tweet and Share: Perhaps the fastest and most effective way to share a great blog post is through Twitter. Sharing or retweeting a link in Twitter can spread like wildfire. Use a URL shortener such as tinyurl or bit.ly to shorten links to fit within 140 characters.

2. Posting to Facebook: Sharing a blog post on the world’s largest social network is as simple as going to the Facebook homepage and posting a link.

3. Digg it: Not only will you help bring that blog post one step closer to reaching the front page of the news site Digg (which will spread it even further), but all of your Digg friends will see it as well.

4. Post on MySpace Profile: Don’t forget about the world’s second largest social network when sharing your favorite articles. Post the link to your MySpace profile so your friends can enjoy it too.

5. Posting to LinkedIn: Some blog posts are worthy of being shared by your business network on LinkedIn. Post a link to the Network Updates area in the homepage.

6. Stumbling on StumbleUpon Stumble the post! StumbleUpon is a favorite network for discovering fun websites and useful information, so make sure that you give the post a thumbs up. The StumbleUpon Toolbar is the easiest way to Stumble.

7. Bookmarking to Delicious: Delicious is great for not only sharing posts, but for helping categorize blog posts for others to find. In addition, you can import your delicious bookmarks to Facebook, FriendFeed, and other social media websites.

8. Sharing on FriendFeed: The social media aggregator FriendFeed has a vibrant community who love to share videos, links, and pictures. Use the FriendFeed bookmarklet to quickly share a good blog post to FriendFeed.

9. Adding to Reddit: Reddit is another great social media site for sharing and voting on articles. It’s quick and easy to submit a link

Sharing Via Blogs:

10. Reblogging Great Posts: Blogging about a great article is one of the best ways to engage with the topics being discussed. Post a link, write some commentary, and share it with all of your readers. And don’t forget to share your own blog post as well!

11. Sharing via Google Reader: Google Reader has a great feature for sharing blog posts. If you use Google Reader as your news reader of choice, all you have to do is click the “share” button at the bottom of blog posts to share it with all of your Google friends. You can also add notes and comment as well.

12. Posting on Tumblr or Posterous: If you want to share something via a blog, but don’t want to write a full blog post about it, there are great options for that as well, primarily Tumblr and Posterous. They are the quick and easy versions of full-fledged blogs, ideal for posting about pictures and blog posts.

Useful Tools for Sharing

13. TwitThat: TwitThat is one of the quickest and easiest tools for sharing blog posts. It will post to your Twitter quickly and easily. Just add the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar and click it whenever you come across a great post.

14. Shareaholic Firefox Extension: There are a lot of great social networks where you can share a great post, but who wants to visit Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn to share a post? If you are a Firefox user, then install Shareaholic, an extension that goes on your toolbar. It provides quick links for sharing to all of the major social networks.

15. Ping.fm: If you’re a busy person, you might not have time to share on all of these social media websites. Isn’t there an easy way to share a blog post everywhere, all at once? Ping.fm links to all of your social networks and sends your updates to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, to any other website you wish to link to it. You can even update from your instant messenger. It’s the perfect solution for those who like to share content all over the web.

Other Ways to Share:

16. Emailing: Email has always been a good way to share articles, especially with close friends and family. Although it may not reach as many people as Twitter, it will definitely reach anyone who isn’t as deep into social media as you are.

17. Texting: Did you know you that many blogs, including Mashable, support sharing an article via text message? Look out for the ShareThis button (three green dots connected by lines) under blog posts and select the “text” option. iPhones and mobile browsers have made it easy to read links sent by texts.

18. Changing IM Statuses: You probably have dozens, if not hundreds of IM contacts. Share great posts with all of them by changing your IM status to a great post you just read or wrote.

19. IMing a friend: If changing an IM status seems too impersonal, then just IM your friends the link. You can then have a fun chat about the blog post.

20. Talking to Friends: If you don’t have a computer handy, then don’t forget about the analog approach - call a friend or tell him or her over coffee about a great blog post you read. You can always send the link later if necessary.

How Do You Share Blog Posts?

This post only scratches the surface of sharing in social media. There are hundreds of tools and resources at your disposal. If you have another great way to share blog posts, please add it in the comments.

Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Firefox, FriendFeed, Google, Google Reader, Mashable, MySpace, Posterous, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Twitter, reddit.com

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“Retweeting” is a natural way of finding the best and most useful content on Twitter. By reposting a tweet and putting “RT” plus the originator’s username at the start (eg. “RT @mashable”) Twitter users can share tweets that interest them. On the web, there are several great tools for following retweets - RetweetRadar and Retweetist, for example. There are also blog buttons, like the one on this post, to make retweeting easier.

For those who are on the go and still want to know what’s popular on Twitter, however, then Retweet [iTunes link] for the iPhone is a new app that’s worth a try.

Find Popular Tweets on the iPhone

Retweet, developed by Colin Tulloch, does two things: it aggregates the most popular retweets on Twitter, and it gives a user the ability to retweet anything he or she finds on the application.

Popular retweets can be viewed from the past 30 minutes, 3 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours, ranked based on the number of retweets they received. Check out the web version of Retweet to see how it works.

If you only want one Twitter app on your iPhone, we think something more fully-fledged like Tweetie [$2.99 on iTunes] or TwitterFon [free on iTunes] might be more useful (unlike some Twitter iPhone apps, both of these include retweeting as a feature), but given that Retweet is a better way to see what’s buzzing on Twitter right now, it’s a good addition to your Twitter app collection.

Retweet does normally come with a price tag: $0.99. However, for the next 24 hours, the developers have dropped the price to free. That might be the excuse you need to give it a spin.

More iPhone Resources from Mashable

-50+ Free iPhone Apps to Make You Richer

-70+ Free iPhone Apps for Social Media Mavens

-Top 30 iPhone Apps for Organization and Productivity

Reviews: Tweetie, Twitter, Twitterfon

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If you’re an art or photography fan, then you may want to take a look at the newly redesigned Picli. Picli is a social media website that launched in March 2007. It acts like a hybrid of Digg and Flickr - users can upload and vote on photography and artwork.

We had a lukewarm reaction to Picli in the past, but for the last three months the Picli team has been working to completely upgrade the Picli interface and mission. The result is a slick and easy-to-navigate social media website for photos, although it still cannot replace the usefulness of other photo websites like Flickr, Photobucket, or even Facebook photo albums.

In a lengthy blog post, Picli explains the new updates and features to its interface. Some of the highlights:

- Navigation: The navigation of the website is updated to be more intuitive. The top menu bar has all of the primary navigation, and the center is now completely dedicated to the content.

- Publishing control: Users can upload photos and wait to publish them. This prevents people from voting on pictures before you’re ready.

- Full-sized photos: Photos are no longer resized by the system automatically.

- Voting: Users can now see which photos they have already voted for, a long overdue feature.

- Social/profile features: Profiles are more in-depth and include information on favorite photos, friends, and albums. Picli has also implemented friend requests and custom backgrounds.

- Paid accounts: Just like Flickr, you can either have a free version of Picli or a premium version of Picli that includes additional space and cool features.

Overall, it’s a good redesign that implements features that should be part of any photo-sharing website. However, Picli needs to do a lot more to differentiate itself from the major photo websites: Flickr is still the leader in high quality photography, and Digg is the best place for oddball and funny images. Which leaves us wondering: is there really a place for Picli?

Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket

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Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake has revealed her new startup, Hunch.

The goal of the service is to help people make decisions by using a series of questions (a decision tree) that can help weigh options and ultimately give suggestions for how to proceed.

Hunch is in early beta and not publicly available, but thanks to Caterina we’ve had the opportunity to try it out. Our take: Hunch is extremely useful for decision-making, a fact that could make it highly profitable as a provider of product purchase decisions. Couple that with its Flickr pedigree, and Hunch looks to be a good bet.

How Hunch Works

Hunch already provides a plethora of questions it can help answer, ranging from whether or not someone should work for a startup to which acne medication will work best. It seems best suited for large or difficult decisions - you don’t need Hunch to pick out your breakfast, although there is a decision tree for that question as well. I decided to try it out for a decision I have already made - moving to San Francisco.

The concept and use of Hunch is simple - start with general questions and drill down into details related to a decision. I was given questions on what I wanted in dining, climate, geography, and entertainment - all relevant to my decision to move. When I had answered all of my questions (about 10), I was presented with four choices, #2 being San Francisco: this form of web-assisted decision-making is impossible with existing tools like Google searches. Trying it out with other questions shows that its suggestions tend to be on-the-mark and useful, and with more tweaking, it will only get better.

Wiki-Like Editing and User Reviews

Hunch works well at suggestions and decision-making, but this is not what struck me about Hunch. What I found interesting were the actions someone could take once a suggestion was made. Like a wiki, anyone can edit a result in Hunch and add URLs for reading more information. In addition, it also has a user review section, where users can comment and write down the pros and cons about the suggestion.

Hunch not only works as a decision-making tool, it also works as a wiki and a review website of practically everything. I found the pros and cons helpful. I could see myself not only coming to Hunch for decisions, but for reading user reviews about a city, a person, or a product.

Business Model: Conversion Rates Could Rival Google

Hunch’s current business model is based on referrals and commission fees - if a specific book is the answer to a question, it will offer the ability to buy it on Amazon. If it’s a person or place, it links to Wikipedia to learn more about the suggestion.

This idea draws easy comparisons to Google search ads. It’s well known that people who click ads next to Google results are more inclined to make a purchase than those looking at ads elsewhere on the web: after all, searching for “15-inch laptop under $1000″ probably means you’re in the market for one. If Hunch can provide the very best recommendation at the end of a purchase decision, its conversion rates could be the same or better than Google’s. That means big money, IF Hunch can get the recommendations right.

Reviews: Flickr, Google, Wikipedia

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