Scopetech

Yesterday we took a look at Contrastream, a website helping people find new music from bands unsigned and not considered mainstream. Today we got word that the site has decided to launch early. Contrastream is a good example of a site using the Digg-style website where user participation drive the content. It would not be surprising to see Digg implement something similar at some point in time or even do something the company has yet to do: acquire another site considering how well Contrastream seems to work.

Bloglines is still the preferred RSS reader for some even though it has been pretty much outdone by Google’s Reader product feature-wise. Now, Bloglines has finally come out with a Beta that could quite possibly shake things up a bit. The interface is very appealing to look at, almost Mac-like.

While services like Google Reader and Bloglines are considerably different from sites like Netvibes or Protopage that line is now being blurred as Bloglines now allows for you to track specific feeds with drag and dropt boxes very much like Netvibes. It’s an interesting mash-up having the functionality of both sites.

Bloglines’ beta now also features the one thing I have been clamouring for: the ability to drag and drop feeds into folders as you want. For some reason Google thinks it’s labeling is better when it serves to do nothing more than confuse me. The beta can be used by anyone and may actually get me to switch back to Bloglines…again. Check the beta out here.

Contrastream has nothing to do with Contra, the 2-Dimensional shooter of our childhoods. Instead it’s a site with digg-like features allowing users to find the latest and greatest in independent music through user recommendations. The site creators have decided that relying on magazines to find out about this music isn’t enough as the volume of good music out there just isn’t being covered.

The Fresh Albums section shows the highest quality albums that are most hyped by the site’s users while the fresh albums section show the albums that are about to reach fresh album status. Users can also view albums by the latest submitted into the system. Contrastream focuses on 3 specific genres, Indie Rock underground hip-hop and indie electronic.

Users can comment on albums, share albums with people on blogs, set up a site profile and participate in the forums as well as vote on albums by “hyping” them. In keeping with the underground/independent theme, if a user thinks a certain band/artist is too mainstream or not inauthentic they can be flagged as a sell-out. Expect the site to launch soon.

Fichey is a flash-based site that allows users to easily browse websites, as ranked by services such as digg and del.icio.us. The site caches jpegs of the websites which can easily be viewed by the site’s flash interface.

It’s an interesting concept that is great for quickly going through the various sites’ pages.

The site’s navigation consists of a floating box which you can use to choose which site you want to view pages from, choose the date to get sites from and buttons to go to the next image.

Clicking on an image you’re viewing takes you to the actual site.

While it’s certainly no replacement for digg or any of the sites it uses, it is a quick way to check out a bunch of sites generating buzz, one after the other.

“Turn 1 cent into $10 million!” This is the purpose Moola, a new service claiming to be the world’s first “Advertournament”. The premise: Moola provides users with their first penny which is then used to be waged against another player in a short flash game. The winner doubles their money and moves up the ladder, continuousy doubling their money all the way up to 10,737,418.25 dollars. Sound familiar? Well, if you’ve ever been up late at night watching infomercials, this has all been heard before. Hoping people are dumb enough to fall for an old trick in a new format, Moola has taken the pyramid scheme online, replacing selling products with playing online games and investing money with wasting time.

Moola can be explained in a couple simple steps. First, a players choose the money they want to wager, then they choose the game to play. Before the game loads, an advertisement plays. Unlike most ads, you cannot choose to ignore this advertisement because you are quizzed after them, every single time. The game is then played after the forced advertisement, and the winner takes all the money while the loser starts all over gain. This process is repeated until someone wins millions of dollars. Progress is expressed in what I like to call the “Time Wasted Pyramid,” a Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-esque graph displayed on every page.

Although Moola seems like a fair online game service, breaking down its format reveals subtle tactics to make sure the house always wins. Every game played on Moola is a game of chance. To win the top prize, a player would have to be lucky enough to win 30 games of chance consecutively, wagering their full winnings every time. With that kind of luck I’d rather invest in a lottery ticket or compete against Jamie Langridge in the U.S. Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship.

Also, the entire concept of Moola is based on what other players are willing to wager. This means that to win the big 10 million dollar grand prize, there has to be at least one person with the same amount of money that is willing to lose it all in one short flash game. Someone who has also has been lucky enough to win 29 consecutive games. Impossible doesn’t even begin to describe the odds of this situation. It’s much like the contests radio stations run. Sure, you COULD win the Mustang and a trip to New Zealand, but most likely you’re just going to end up with a coupon for a free meal at Bennigan’s.

To be fair, Moola users can choose only to wager a portion of their winnings and are able to cash out at any time. Though this means you could very possibly get on a streak of 15 wins and take home a little over 300 dollars, Moola is hoping the Vegas effect will keep users from quitting while they are ahead, always hoping for that next big win. Double or nothing is an addictive concept.

The last in shady dealings that Moola offers is the “Booster Zone.” Toted as a way to move up the Time Wasted Pyramid faster, Moola users are encouraged to sign up for promotions to partner sites in order to receive money in their Moola accounts. Though some promotions are free, the ones offering the most money to Moola users usually require purchasing a service. A free site offering advantages to users willing to pay? Never.

Put simply, Moola is a waste of time. The sad thing is, that’s exactly what they want it to be. All the wasted time on their site is spent looking at advertisements, generating more and more money for them. As a user sits there about to waste all their imaginary money on the next game of rock, paper, scissors, Moola is getting cash from the advertisers. Though it’s a great business model, when it comes to consumers, your time would be better spent on one of the internet’s millions of free flash game websites. At least then you don’t expect any money.

The two dominant comic publishers in the world, DC and Marvel, are often viewed as dinosaurs by the web comics crowd. Old guys with old money on an old platform. It looks like DC wants to change that, as they begin to hype their new web comics platform, Zuda.

The site aims to be a social aggregator of web comic talent. Artists submit original comics (using DC or other characters and such is not permitted) in a standardized format, users vote and comment on the content, and the highest rated of the comics may get a publishing contract with DC.

Zuda seems like a winning business idea for the publishing giant. Bright creators come flocking to them in droves, hoping to score, and the community gives them a pre-installed test market for the material. For all the cynics believing DC is luring in starving artists to poach their potential franchises from them, the Zuda team attempts to stall that notion right from the get-go:

The copyright for each comic submitted to Zuda will be owned by its creator. DC will publish the winning/chosen comics under fairly conventional publishing agreements adapted to the peculiarities of the digital platform: initial payments for the work that is done, with royalties from revenues based on other uses, such as books, merchandise and movies/television shows. In the next couple of months the contracts will be going up on the site, and we’re doing our best to make them as clear as possible, so people can make an informed decision about submitting their work.

Zuda is set to launch officially this October, according to the site. You can sign up for their update mailing list on the Zuda main page or check back to Scopetech for further updates as we get them.