If you’ve installed the latest version of the Firefox (3.0.12), you may have trouble browsing MediaTakeOut.com. Internal pages at MTO, one of the most visited African-American websites online, were blocked by Firefox because malicious software found on some of the sites pages. According to the Google Safe Browsing Report generated by Firefox:

Of the 956 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 110 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-07-22, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-07-22.

Malicious software includes 20 scripting exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 1 new process(es) on the target machine.

Malicious software is hosted on 4 domain(s), including zbestprice.org/, applepie.gd/, bubbled.cn/.

1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including lemonia.ws/.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS36351 (SOFTLAYER).

It looks as if the site works fine on most other browsers (Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer) , but if MediaTakeOut’s readers use Firefox at the same percentage as  Blackweb20.com users (about 25%), MTO could be losing out on a large chuck of traffic.

It’s unclear where the malicious software is originating from or which pages are affected, but my previous experience leads me to believe that the malicious software may be coming from some of the sites advertisements.

In this edition of the Black Web 2.0 Show, I sit down with the Founder and CEO of RapRadar.com Elliott Wilson. Elliott boasts an impressive resume, spanning across nearly 20 years of monitoring and documenting Hip-Hop music and culture. Elliott’s career was jump started after he co-founded an independent magazine, Ego Trip, which subsequently morphed into successful books and television shows. Shortly after Ego Trip, Elliott became a music editor for The Source, and a rap/Beatbox editor and columnist for CMJ: New Music Journal.

Just prior to launching RapRadar.com, Elliot served as  Editor-In-Chief of XXL Magazine and founding editor of XXLmag.com, as well as an executive producer of VH-1’s Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme and Ego Trip’s The [White] Rapper Show.

Elliott and I discussed a wide range of topics including the differences between print and online content production, his personal blogging style, his impressions of other the Hip-Hop blogs, as well as the controversy surrounding Vibe selecting RapRadar as one of the top 50 Hip Hop Blogs.

Enjoy!!
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In this episode of the Black Web 2.0 Show, we sat down with Daynel Smith, Chief Content Officer of Vibe Media Group. Danyel joined VIBE in 1993 and was appointed music editor a year later. In 1996 Danyel became Editor-In-Chief of Vibe Media Group, serving until 1999.  Danyel returned to VIBE in 2006 as Editor-In-Chief, and in 2009 was promoted to Vibe’s Chief Content Officer.

In this interview Danyel dicussed her new role as Chief Content Officer and Vibe’s newest project, TheMost Magazine, who’s first issue hit new stands last week, and TheMostmag.com which is a slated for a soft launch later this month. We discussed the subsequent events leading to the creation of TheMost, Vibe’s rational for creating the magazine in print format, as well as how TheMost will compare to Twitter as it relates to covering celebrity’s lifestyle. Enjoy!!

Scribd’s original vision to liberate the written word and “turn everyone into a publisher and create the best possible reading experience on the web and mobile platforms” has just reached a new plateau. The world’s largest social publishing company is opening an Internet store that will offer new sales opportunities for authors and publishers who long to share their work with the masses.
Although the services provided were once free of charge, Scribd will now retain 20 percent of each sale, and pay the remaining percentage to the writers, or copyright owners of the sold literature.
To further demonstrate their forward thinking, the San Francisco based company has implemented a system that will permit all purchased content to be read on various devices such as a pc, eBook reader, or a cell phone. The price range for material offered on Scribd starts at $1, with no maximum.
In the vein of iTunes, the online store will authorize authors and publishers to sell individual chapters of their books. AP reports that popular travel guide, Lonely Planet, plans to sell segments about specific cities, rather than require the reader purchase the entire book.
True to their mission, Scribd intends to provide authors with a means to circumvent the publishing industry so they may be able to establish profitable, autonomous careers. The cutting edge online shop also presents the consumer with the chance to find quality material at record low prices.

Essence, the leading media and communications company dedicated to African-American women, announced a partnership with CNN and HLN to debut What Matters, a weekly series on issues of importance to the African-American community. The recurring segment, which debuted on CNN on Friday, May 8, will feature topics ranging from 401(k) strategies to elder-care issues to pop culture. What Matters is an extension of the regular news items and features in Essence magazine, as well as the ongoing multicultural programming on CNN and will be developed collaboratively. What Matters will be available both on on-air and online. The online segments will be hosted on CNN by Tony Harris and Don Lemon with contributions from Roland Martin, Fredricka Whitfield and T.J. Holmes.

Online users can view the “What Matters” segments on-demand at CNN.com and on Mondays via CNN.com Live. This online content will be available beginning May 15. In addition, Essence.com will offer users related articles, additional commentary, blog discussions and the opportunity to view the “What Matters” segments.

“Essence is proud to partner with CNN, HLN and CNN.com to launch What Matters as a platform to inform, educate and define the cultural discussion,” said Angela Burt-Murray, Editor-in-Chief, Essence. “Last year’s collaboration on the Essence/CNN co-production CNN & Essence: Reclaiming the Dream laid the groundwork for What Matters — a project that will combine our reach and expertise to further the development of quality programming for African-Americans.”

Source

Procaster is a software program recently debuted by the live streaming service Mogulus. When it comes to streaming live video, names like Ustream.tv, Kyte.tv or Justin.tv are usually the first to pop into my head. Mogulus may very well change that with Procaster.

Ease of Use

Recording a live broadcast is as simple as clicking the record button. Once you’ve got that rolling, you have a toolbar across the bottom of the screen that lets you control the recording:

• Camera – This is probably what you’re used to. This just does a full-screen recording from your webcam
• Capture – This captures whatever you’re doing on your desktop
• 2D Mix – This will show your desktop as well as a miniature shot from your webcam
• 3D Mix – This also shows your desktop and your webcam, but in a fancy 3D layout

You also have the option to Zoom-In/Zoom-Out and you can Stop the recording when you’re done. This automatically makes it available at Mogulus.

Highest Quality

Procaster claims to produce the smoothest and highest quality video of any alternative. It automatically adjusts depending on your connection and video settings. You can also reach live HD quality with the right settings and equipment.

Screen & Game Broadcasting

Not only can you do the basic things that you’ve seen in other screen capture programs, but Procaster also boasts full frame-rate capture. This means that you can play a video during your capture with full audio and video playback. No stuttering or video quality loss. The recorded file format is a basic Flash file that can be played by any Flash player.

Another very interesting feature is the ability for gamers to broadcast themselves live while playing. This has never really been possible before. The quality is good enough for you to actually read the in-game text and you still have the option to display webcam input side-by-side.

Audience Interaction

Like most other live broadcasting services, you get a live chatroom as well. You also have the option to tweet your broadcast to your Twitter followers so they can join in on the fun.

Conclusions

Procaster and Mogulus are both free to use. One interesting feature of Mogulus that no other service shares is 24/7 Linear broadcasting. This means that, even if you’re not recording at the moment, visitors will still see a linear broadcast of your previous recordings. It’s just like they tuned into your very own TV channel. They still have the option to watch any of your recordings on demand as well.

You can also upgrade your Mogulus account to Pro status, which gets you higher quality video, more storage, 24/7 support, deep analytics, removes ads, and allows you to monetize.

Procaster is another step in the direction of making quality audio and video production available to average people. I’ve personally experienced this with the music industry (you have a “studio” in your basement, right?) and now you can have your own always-on, high-quality, video channel. This is definitely a service I’ll be playing with in the near future. For a detailed video demonstration, check out the Procaster tour. (TC coverage)

VIBE Media Group is enhancing its online offerings with the launch of two new digital services, Vibe Video and Vibe Mobile as well as a new search syndication partnership between Vibe.com and Rushmore Drive.

VIBE has teamed up with some of the top music video providers including Universal, Sony/BMG, and Warner Music to provide more than 15,000 on demand original music videos. The VIBE video service is fully searchable by artist or title, and it offers users the opportunity to rate, mark as a favorite, and comment on any video in the catalog. The most viewed, commented, and discussed videos will be made available on the site. VIBE’s content team will post weekly top picks to keep the avid music fans up to date on what’s hot.

VIBE also launched VIBE Mobile, an opt-in customizable mobile text alerts. The application allows users to specify the most pertinent information, and the system will send content updates and text alerts to your mobile phone with links to the entire. Users can customize alerts based on specific artist or topic keywords.

Vibe has also closed a search syndication partnership with IAC’s black search engine Rushmore Drive. Replacing Google Search, Rushmore Drive will now power all site-wide and web search results for Vibe.com. Vibe’s RD powered search results will include not only text based results, but also images, videos and other custom results modules tailored to the Vibe audience.

“The partnership heralds the beginning of a new era in search,” states Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., CEO of RushmoreDrive. “By making our technology available to urban and Black publishers for the first time, we’re increasing our target audience’s accessibility to relevant information. Our partnership with Vibe.com is part of a broad-reaching strategy at RushmoreDrive to power search for online publishers. Vibe’s brand leadership position in the urban lifestyle market made them a particularly compelling inaugural partner,” added Taylor.

From the outside-in, MediaTakeOut.com looks a little different than most urban entertainment blogs.  But Fred Mwangaguhunga, the website’s founder, says the site was originally created to (and still is) primarily run as a business that fills a void in the online media marketspace.

“It’s not an extension of personality, it’s not a hobby, it’s not some way of expressing myself,” Mwangaguhunga says.  “It was always set up as a piece of entertainment for the public.”

Prior to starting MediaTakeOut, Mwangaguhunga ran an online-based laundry business.   A limited marketing budget led him to spend all his advertising dollars on blogs, which were cheap at the time.   While keeping track of how his own advertisements were performing, Mwangaguhunga noted how quickly traffic and ads were growing within the larger blogosphere without drawing much interest or competition from larger media conglomerates.  After selling the laundry business, Mwangaguhunga decided to start his own blog.

Mwangaguhunga originally started MediatTakeOut as a general interest site that covered a little bit of everything in entertainment.  He didn’t know exactly how big it was going to get or where it was going to go from there, but depended on marketing data to guide him.  He differentiated his operation on the back-end, opting for a customized content management and analytics system that allowed him to track user behavior in more detail than the typical WordPress integration and allow him to scale the business to accommodate growth.  The results made MediaTakeOut what it is today.

“On the back-end we could see what stories people liked the most and we would give them more of what they wanted,” says  Mwangaguhunga.  “For whatever reason the African-American stories were just doing better than the other stories.  And so we just provided more and more and more until about a month in we realized let’s just go all the way and make it an urban website, and that’s what we did.  We are always actively using that to guide the direction of the site.”

Mwangaguhunga says that MediaTakeOut also separates itself from its competitors by developing a reputation for breaking stories rather than simply telling them or passing them along.  Maintaining the standard has required that  he manage his operation more like a small newspaper than a typical blog.   Mwangaguhunga begins his day at 2am every morning and has a meeting with his staff of four between 3am and 4am to discuss what’s going to be on the site, each of who are required to produce between one and two stories everyday, seven days a week.   Despite a relatively expensive cost structure for a start-up blog including; staff, data storage and servers, a proprietary content management system, and custom reporting, MediaTakeOut became a profitable operation after only six months and has remained profitable since.  Mwangaguhunga says he owes much of that to previous experience and education, including working for a start-up telecommunications company and obtaining a law degree and MBA from Columbia.

Although Mwangaguhunga’s style of management has allowed MediaTakeOut to eclipse its direct competitors in terms of traffic, he admits that the site earns nowhere near as much in terms of revenue as websites with similar traffic, and even falls behind a number of smaller sites.   Mwangaguhunga credits this to a decision he made from the the time the site was launched to keep editorial content completely separate from advertising.

The strategy has provided mixed results.   Mwangaguhunga says MediaTakeOut probably lost a lot of advertising dollars to other sites early on.  In hindsight, he believes it was still the right decision.  However, as a result of his decision to focus on content above all else, MediaTakeOut has become the default source for urban entertainment news among African-Americans, which he believes is what is most important in the long run.

“If you are going to bend your content to the advertiser’s whim, in the short run you are going to get more advertising.  In the long run I don’t think that’s the case.  The advertisers want nothing more than eyeballs.”  “Your main goal as a publisher is to bring eyeballs to the table.  In the long run, the more eyeballs you have the more they tend to want them.”

One of the easiest ways to hinder long term viability, says Mwangaguhunga, is to reduce potential future growth and value by doing something that would bring in cash today.   He believes that too many online media entities, particularly those transitioning from the print world, tend to do just that by introducing what he refers to as “exotic” revenue models that charge online audiences for content.

“What you’re starting to get are these awkward ways of making it feasible, at least theoretically feasible to do, “  says Mwangaguhunga. “When I hear people coming up with revenue models that would reduce the number of users and somehow increase the number of revenues, those are never attractive models to me.  If the other urban entertainment companies decided to charge for their content I’d be very happy for that to happen because MediaTakeOut, as long as I’m here, is going to be free.”

Mwangaguhunga believes that in such an environment, there are two things he needs to focus on to grow his business.   The first is consistent innovation in management, marketing, and content delivery.

Mwangaguhunga stresses the importance of getting as deep an understanding as possible for the tone and pulse of the audience, using simple logic to determine if an idea makes sense specifically for the website in question, launching tests and getting feedback on whether or not it works.  Mwangaguhunga claims that trying out things before they are in vogue has prevented him from spending time on things that provide little to no value to MediaTakeOut or its audience.   He says that the recent boom in social networking components in blogs and online magazines, something Media Takeout tested and abandoned in 2007, is a prime example.

“Whereas everybody is putting social networking components to their websites, MTO tested it in three or four different ways two years ago and recognized that it doesn’t work,”  says Mwangaguhunga.  “Since then, we see that every new site that comes out has this component.  And you never see it work on any site.”

Even more important than innovation to Mwangaguhunga is consistently growing market share by continuing to study and cater to his readers’ interests and leveraging the MediaTakeOut brand through other channels.  MediaTakeOut’s first foray into a media channel outside of the internet will be a television program to be launched in the near future.  He says it will be the first of a number of steps in putting MediaTakeOut’s popularity on par with the most  popular general interest entertainment news outlets.

“I believe that there is a real opportunity for MediaTakeOut to be larger than anyone can imagine right now,” says  Mwangaguhunga.  “And every step that I take is in that direction.”

Likaholix is a service that allows you to find things you like and share them with your friends. It automatically crawls the net to find movies, music, books and other things that you may find interesting.  The service was started by a couple of ex-Googlers (Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan).

What It Does

Keeping with the design principles of other Google-related web apps, the interface of Likaholix is simple and clean. You simply search for what you might like and click the Like button once you’ve found it. You also have the option to add a note telling why you liked something.

If you have no idea what you are looking for, Likaholix provides a few ways to help you out:

• You have a Recommended page that lists things you might want to like based on items, people and topics you like
• You’re also given a list of items that nobody has liked yet, in case you’d like to like them
• You can also just see what your friends have liked

Why You Need This

Many other bloggers have covered Likaholix, but some of them seem to be missing the point. A lot of people feel like we don’t need a service where you just like stuff. You can already like and favorite things on FriendFeed, Facebook, and even Twitter. They don’t feel that Likaholix is going to last and have no clue how it will keep people interested.

I think Likaholix and Plinky (previously covered here) have a lot in common. Not only were both started by ex-Googlers, but they both help you to generate content. Many people that use social media, especially those new to it, have no clue what to say or what to write. Likaholix provides a solution to this problem. It automatically posts your likes to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I’m sure we will see integration with more services in the future.

Likaholix is also useful as a place to find recommendations. You can easily tell what your friends like, which provides you with a trusted recommendation and possibly an entire discussion thread detailing why people like something. The next time you’re looking for feedback on a major purchase or you can’t figure out which brand of laptop you should buy, you might appreciate having access to a database full of stuff that people you like…like.

Likaholix is currently in beta, but you should be able to snag an invite and more info on Likaholix from one these other posts:

• “Liking,” the hot social trend, continues with Likaholix
• Ex-Googlers Launch Likaholix, a Curated Web Startup
• Likaholix Launches Recommendation Engine Based On Social “Liking”

SocialToo, one of the few services that provided a way to auto-dm new followers, recently made a bold move against spammers on Twitter. Much more than just a way to get at new followers on Twitter, Socialtoo is a way to solve many of your social media needs.

What Did They Do?

According to their blog, SocialToo has decided to discontinue their auto-dm service. You know all those Direct Messages you get from people you follow with links to random crap that you probably don’t care about? SocialToo will no longer provide anyone with the means to send those to you.

That’s probably not all that interesting to you. That’s only one of many services that are setup to spam you, right? Well, they’ve taken it a step further:

In addition, starting today, while you will no longer have need for blocking SocialToo users’ automated DMs, we encourage you to invite all your friends to come check the same option you were using to block SocialToo DMs, and we’ll block other sites that do automated-dms.

So, basically, if you go sign up at SocialToo, you can potentially block all automated DM’s from any service. SocialToo has just replaced one of their most recognized features with a very powerful tool against Twitter spammers.

But Wait, There’s More

Besides keeping the quality of the social community in mind, SocialToo has much more to offer:

• You can auto-follow those who follow you on Twitter
• Blacklist those you never want to follow
• Unfollow people based on filters
• Get a daily email detailing who followed or unfollowed you, including the last tweet you sent before they did so
• Poll your network using the Social Surveys feature

You even get a simple URL that points to your Facebook profile so you don’t have to look it up every time (mine is rahsheen.socialtoo.com).

Jesse Stay over at SocialToo is very active in the social media community and responsive to feature requests and user input. Blocking all auto-dm’s across multiple services is reason enough to sign up, but I definitely enjoy a few of the other features as well. It’s clear to me that SocialToo has been listening to the community and is keeping our best interests at heart.