Keeping Abreast of the Buzz in the Biz: My Not-So-Secret Weapons Revealed

Many of these sites have been mentioned on this blog, or even exist in the sidebar, but they are worth repeating. If you want or need to know more about global internet trends, then there are a few fun ways to put your finger on the pulse.

VIDEO:
What are people watching? What are people linking to? What are people talking about? Two sites do a very good job of covering this from two different perspectives. ViralVideoChart measures links, Videmeter measures views.
ViralVideoChart.com
Vidmeter.com

SEARCH:
People look for things that interest them. They have a specific intent in mind when they type words into a search engine. This stuff is gold, and both Yahoo and Google have interesting pages to track trends and cultural shifts.
Yahoo! Buzz
Google Zeitgeist

BLOGS:
Blogging makes the internet world turn. It is word-of-mouth in a rocketship. Knowing what people are talking about is the key to understanding them and what they really want. These sites are worth their weight in wit.
WTF [Where’s The Fire] by Technorati
BuzzFeed

We only feature movies, music, fashion, ideas, technology, and culture that are on the rise and worth your time. – BuzzFeed

ONLINE ADVERTISING:
There are a million ad blogs, but the best aggregation I have come accross for one stop shop-talk is the Ad Feed.
TheAdFeed.com

There. Now you know a few of my more obvious secret weapons. I’m going to have to dig a bit deeper next time…

2006 Top 10 Viral Ads

Thanks to Viral Video Chart and their perpetual dedication to trawling the internet.

Viral Video Chart Countdown on YouTube

I love the Viral Video Chart. I check it daily to see what the most popular online videos are from MySpace, YouTube, and others. We even link to their cool RSS feed in our sidebar (look to your right). It looks like the guys over there have begun to compile all these hits into a short TopTen countdown. Check it out.

Top 10 Strangest iPod Accessories

In light of Apple’s anti-climactic announcements yesterday regarding the iPod Hi-Fi boombox, I thought I’d let you in on some more ecclectic 3rd party accessories. They include everything from jukeboxes to beds, wallets to thongs, and even a cute little vibrator called the iBuzz. Check out TechEBlog’s Top 10 Strangest iPod Accessories.