Blogging

Hot Topic, a clothing and accessories retailer catering to those interested in alternative music, announced Wednesday that it has launched ShockHound, the company’s first online music site offering millions of MP3s, band merchandise, music videos, and editorial content.

According to Hot Topic, Shockhound offers tracks from major record labels, like Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and EMI Music, as well as independent labels. The company also says that artists will be able to upload and sell their own music directly to users without requiring a record label to act as the broker between Shockhound and the artist.

“Our goal was to create an authentic, online experience of music discovery,” says Betsy McLaughlin, CEO of Hot Topic. “A place where fellow music lovers can come together and explore, share their likes and dislikes, read the latest music news, and enjoy exclusive content on their favorite artists.”

One of the unique features ShockHound will offer is its editorial section. The site will feature reviews, music news, interviews, original programming, and music videos that are controlled by the editorial team on the site.

Although Hot Topic is well-known for its alternative rock products, ShockHound features music from all genres, so the service definitely has its sights set on competing with iTunes and Amazon.com’s MP3 DRM-free store. But unlike iTunes tracks, each ShockHound song is DRM-free.

For those interested in buying tracks from Hot Topic’s service, each song retails for 99 cents and can be downloaded on the ShockHound page.

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Hot Topic launches DRM-free music service

If you’ve used a computer in the last decade, no doubt you’ve come face to face with the Google Toolbar. A Dell computer I bought a few years back came with both the toolbar and Google’s desktop search program pre-installed. Also, an obscene amount of software comes with it as an optional add-on in the installation process since Google pays referrers a fat $1 per new user.

Next month, Google’s toolbar turn eight years old and to celebrate, the company has launched a brand-new version for Internet Explorer, which brings it up to speed with last month’s beta release for Firefox users.

Of all of the features, my personal favorite is the updated autofill system. This lets you have separate autofill profiles, which can be changed on the fly. This is useful if you’re planning to use the toolbar at work, since you can keep one set of information for personal use (e.g. usernames, addresses, phone numbers), and another for business. It can also follow you from browser to browser as long as you’re logged in with your Google credentials.

Other big changes include the introduction of gadgets, which users can affix to the top of their browser and summon with a click. It also throws in Web bookmark sync, and the updated sharing button, which lets you send entire pages to friends via SMS or without having to use an e-mail account.

Google’s put together a pretty neat shot of how the toolbar has progressed since its introduction, which I’ve pasted below.

As the years have gone by Google has relied less on words as much as more recognizable icons. (click to enlarge)

(Credit: Google Inc.)

Excerpted from:
Google celebrates eight years of toolbar with new IE version

It slows down your browsing. It makes some Web sites inaccessible for no discernible reason. It doesn’t even offer you any xiao long bao or pu’er tea for your troubles. But if you want to know what life behind the Great Firewall of China is like, then the Firefox plug-in China Channel is the cheapest and fastest way to experience using the Internet in China without actually being there.

Tibet.com as it renders under the China Channel…

(Credit: CNET Networks)

After installation, getting to experience Web surfing the way the Chinese do isn’t hard at all. Users have three ways to activate China Channel: via the China Channel toolbar, a navigation bar button that you must drag and drop onto the bar to get access to, and a status bar button. The buttons function by opening a menu, from which you choose to switch from None to the China Channel. Much like the IE Tab extension, the page will then render as if your IP address is inside China.

The toolbar is interesting for a slightly different workflow that results in a Web page that informs you of your IP address and its country of origin. Choose the China Channel from the drop down, and then hit the big red Go button. With China Channel activated, the page will declare that the plug-in has been activated. Switch back to None and refresh the page, and it changes to reflect your proxy server-free surfing experience.

…and unblocked by the Great Firewall.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The experience drives home the point of just how severe Internet censorship is in China, going beyond government hot-topic issues like Tibet and Tiannamen Square to that hotbed of revolutionaries known as Wikipedia. Even my own innocuous blog was blocked when I was there, although two years later it seems to be free. Or at least it was when I tested out China Channel: while sensitive material seems to be permanently blocked, the 30,000 employees of the Great Firewall appear to apply their censorship in a more arbitrary manner for less topical Web sites.

This is a great experiential plug-in that’s worth grabbing just to see how citizens in countries with Internet censorship have to struggle with hamstrung browsing.

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Explore the Web from China–without leaving home

Health care product giant Johnson & Johnson announced that it has completed its acquisition of HealthMedia, a company that specializes in online health counseling and Web interventions.

HealthMedia is a unique property on the Web. It combines its technology and behavioral science to emulate a health coach in a browser. The site’s suite of services provides automated coaching for topics on wellness, disease management, behavioral health, and medication adherence that the company claims will help reduce health bills. Because of that, Johnson & Johnson believes the addition of HealthMedia to its properties will improve the company’s standing in the health care community.

“It is exciting for Johnson & Johnson to establish a new business platform to offer customers meaningful products and services focused on wellness and prevention that reduce health care costs, and at the same time, deliver new growth for our company,” William C. Weldon, Johnson & Johnson CEO, said in a statement. “Global health care systems, including governments, employers, payers, and individuals, are seeking new solutions to more effectively manage spiraling costs of care. Our establishment of a Wellness & Prevention platform recognizes our conviction that a comprehensive solution must begin long before the onset of illness, and that investing in wellness and prevention now can avoid more costly health care expenses later.”

HealthMedia will maintain its offices in Michigan and will not be forced to lay off employees or engage in any management restructuring.

The rest is here:
Johnson & Johnson acquires HealthMedia to lower health care costs

Recommendation tools are a dime a dozen these days. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though–the more exposure you get to new content, the greater your chances of finding a new favorite. To aid in that search is newcomer Taste Kid, a search tool that provides simple recommendations for music, books, TV shows, and movies.

The tool uses previous user searches to figure out how terms are related, which means as time goes by the results are honed, and hopefully more accurate. While each of these results is missing links to purchasing pages and audio samples, each one has a YouTube video that you can view right from the results.

What makes the site particularly useful are the unrelated items that get stuck on the bottom of each exploration page. The site tacks on the most recently added and popular bands, books, TV shows, and movies, which turns each result into its own browsing experience. In just a few minutes you can peruse about a dozen videos to find something you like–and if not, a simple click on something you do like takes you to another recommendation page to start the process over again.

Where the tool loses some of its luster is the lack of a breadcrumb trail to get you back to your original search, or any sense that it’s getting to know you better. Mufin, a music recommendation tool I took a look at a few weeks back does this, and it makes it a far more engaging experience. Ideally future iterations of the tool will keep track of this with a cookie.

[via TheNextWeb]

Start a deep dive into music, movies and TV show recommendations with Taste Kid, a simple recommendation tool.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

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Taste Kid offers dead simple content recommendations via search