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Filed under: Internet, Video, Social Software

Barack Obama plans to post weekly YouTube address

Obama YouTube
For years, the president of the United States has delivered a weekly radio address to the nation. President-elect Barack Obama plans to be the first to videotape that weekly address and post it on YouTube.

The move shouldn't come as a huge surprise. The Obama campaign used new media tools like Twitter, YouTube, and text messaging as a key part of its effort over the past two years. But it's a bit silly to point out that Obama will be the first president to use YouTube in this way, as Obama's transition team is trying to do. The video sharing site didn't exist when President George W. Bush was running for office. So all it really means is that President Bush didn't use YouTube.

While Obama won't be sworn in as president until January, he has started to deliver the weekly Democratic Party radio address, which will also be videotaped and uploaded to YouTube and to Change.gov.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services, Google, web 2.0

YouTube and New Orleans team up for presidential forum

youtube new orleans presidential forum
YouTube, the mayor of New Orleans, and the governor of Louisiana have publicly invited the presidential candidates to participate in a presidential forum this September. Since this is not an official debate, it is unknown if any of the candidates will actually show up. Either way, the event should prove successful -- here's why.

It's been quite some time since New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, but the city is not done suffering. There's about 86,000 evacuees stuck in Houston, Atlanta and 40 other cities, and there the government currently has no plan on how it will bring these people home (not to mention the city's other 921,332,437,208 problems). So even if the candidates don't show up to the debate, the publicity stunt should help to remind government officials that it's not over yet. In other words, it's a giant call for help.

Despite that many may dismiss YouTube as a time-waster, this isn't the site's first dive into the presidential race. Last year, YouTube allowed its users to record and send in questions, which would be answered by the candidates on TV. And though we know the Google owned site gets a lot of great publicity out stuff like this, we can't help but tip our hat for the good work.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Glassbooth releases Facebook application

Glassbooth Facebook App
Glassbooth, the presidential election voting aid we previously covered, has released a Facebook application so that you can put their helpful quiz on your Facebook profile (between your "Hot or Not" and "Which Friends character are you?" apps).

After you take the quiz via the application, results showing your top three candidates are displayed on your Facebook profile. Your friends can click the candidates to see why you agreed with them (based on degree of similarity on specific issues).

Your friends can also add the application to their profiles and take the quiz to show for whom Glassbooth suggests that they vote.

Filed under: Features, Blogging

Which early personal computer personifies the candidates?

It's Super Tuesday here in the US, the day when a large swath of Americans cast their ballot in the Presidential primary. Try as we might, we couldn't decide who to vote for. So, we thought we'd lay things out with a metaphor we could easily understand; classic computing. After analyzing candidate after candidate, we think we've figured out which goes with what, so without further ado we answer the unasked question, "Which early personal computer personifies the candidates?"

Barack Obama



The Lisa. Predecessor to The Macintosh, and every Mac which came thereafter, the Lisa was a powerhouse in its day. It was also obscenely expensive, new, and "inexperienced". The Macintosh spent the 80's and 90's as "that other PC" and has only recently come into its own and displayed the ability to lead the pack.

Read more →

Filed under: Web services

Glassbooth: which candidate agrees with you?

GlassboothIf you're not sure which presidential candidate deserves your precious vote, spend 5 minutes on Glassbooth to learn which candidate's views most closely relate to yours. Glassbooth uses a two-part process to lead you to voting enlightenment.

The first part is a point-assignment exercise where you assign a total of 20 points to specific topics (gun control, abortion, health care, etc.) based on how important the issues are to you. It's kind of like video game "Create a Player" modes where you're given limited points to apply to your player's attributes to tweak the player the way you want.

Read more →

Filed under: Business, Internet, Yahoo!

Jerry Yang takes over as Terry Semel resigns

Big news on the Yahoo front as Terry Semel officially departs from Yahoo. The news came down the pipes on Sunday when Terry made the announcement.

Through a conference call this afternoon, Jerry Yang went over the details including the management changes. Jerry Yang will be taking over the CEO position, and Sue Decker as the President. Terry wanted to leave sooner rather than later as he said that Yahoo has had a difficult and challenging year.

Supposedly Terry will be keeping his role as chairman and consult the company on an ongoing basis. Although we aren't sure how that will play out as even though Terry had helped Yahoo through the .com bust, quarter profits were nothing special for many years since, with Terry, of course, continuing his outrageous yearly pay.

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