Submit This Press Releaseto Slash.dot

Monday mornings I read through press releases collected over the previous week, sorting out the useful ones from the not so -- for my upFront.eZine e-newsletter. I just came across one that included these items in the body of the press release:

* Bookmark with de.li.cious
* Digg - Submit this story to digg
* Slashdot - Submit this story to slashdot
* Technorati tags - CAD, 3D CAD, MCAD, Design, Tech, Autodesk, AutoCAD, SolidEdge, SolidWorks, COSMOSWorks

I'm surprised that Wikipedia is left off the list.

I feel this social networking phase is getting out of hand. Submit press releases as "stories" to Digg and slash.dot? I think not! In any case, why wouldn't the pr firm do the submitting themselves?

(I clicked the four links to see what would happen. Nothing:
* de.li.cious -- need an account.
* Digg -- need an account.
* slash.dot -- need an account.
* Technorati -- didn't work.)

And that's what's gonna kill the Web: Accounts and registrations. Usernames and passwords.Friction.

In the Just-to-Be-Ornery Department

I wonder how many PR people know what "slash.dot" means -- without running to Wikipedia for the answer -- other than something that sounds edgy?

Comments

[Jürgen Wagner]

Accounts and registrations is the only Anti-PR-People shield web 2.0 have ;)

[A New Direction in Redirection]

A newly launched service, which can be found at www.onodot.com has recently been launched, which offers full URL redirection, web forwarding and cloaking services, entirely free of charge. In addition to the free features, a low membership payment will grant the user access to advanced functionality such as advanced statistics and other tools.
The ability to set up web forwarding and hide URL strings which are cumbersomely long is not a new concept, many website have offered this kind of URL redirection in the past. So what is so different about www.onodot.com? Paul Scott, a spokesman for Onodot tells us that, “Before we entered in to this venture we took a long, critical look at the competition, and found them lacking in many areas. Most other free URL redirection services carry advertising, or are complicated to set up. Here at Onodot we have focused on providing a very streamlined web redirection service, tied to a very set of advanced tools for paid members. We bring something new to the web redirection arena, something which has been lacking until now, simple functionality with optional bolt on subscriber only features.”
It is clear that the team at Onodot have gone to great pains to ensure that their system, which not only allows web redirection and URL forwarding, but enables the user to hide URL entries which are too long, is simple to use. Has this simplicity been gained at a loss of flexibility though? Paul Scott was quick to comment that, “Not in the slightest, although our basic offering has a very simple to use and uncomplicated interface, more advanced users will find there are a whole wealth of more complex tools at their disposal. Most prominent of these are our advanced statistics, which allow the user to track a whole range of web usage stats.”
As we have seen above, Onodot offers a free service for web forwarding and URL redirection, as well as the ability to hide long URL entries, so why would somebody wish to subscribe to the paid service? Once again, Paul Scott steps forward to tell us that, “Although our free service is fully featured, our paid service would be the preferential choice for those people serious about collecting proper web usage stats. Our advanced stats module, which is only available to paid members, will track not only site usage, but the actual way in which the short URLs are being used, as well as provide reports on masking . Our basic stats module is free for everyone, but only our advanced stats module provides full statistics, and this is a very good reason for people to make the shift form a free to a paid user.”
Onodot have also implemented an affiliate scheme, and interesting move, as the membership rates are fairly low. At first glance it would appear that the addition of an affiliate scheme to a primarily free service is not exactly a great idea. However, when we look a little closer we find that Onodot are offering a healthy $0.50 for each sign up the affiliate generates. This is far more than other similar schemes, and is obviously target at affiliates who are willing to drive paying customers to the Onodot site, instead of hoping that free customers will convert to paid membership.
Overall, Onodot offers a fresh take on the old URL redirection and web forwarding ideas of the last decade. The ability to mask a URL and hide a URL which is too long is also a very useful addition. There can be no doubt that Onodot will become a useful and well used service in the future.