Another social media website they recommend is StumbleUpon. Like its title, StumbleUpon provides a way to “stumble upon,” or discover, and rate webpages, photos, videos, and news articles. StumbleUpon also ranks each webpage based on the user’s ratings. According to Kelley and Copland, StumbleUpon is very consistent and offers solid results.

Twitter is another website discussed, but it did not receive the best review. Twitter attempts to answer the question, “What are you doing?” It is a service that allows users to send text-based posts, or updates, that are up to 140 characters long. These updates are displayed on the user’s profile page, as well as the pages of the users who have signed up to receive them. Users can respond to the updates via their phones, IM, or on the Web. Kelly and Copland have a few reasons why they do not recommend Twitter. They have noticed that it is not instantaneous, but rather has a 20-30 second delay on each update. They believe it to be of low value and bad quality.

For other recommended Web 2.0 websites, Kelley and Copland advise Craigslist, Go2web20, and TechCrunch. They are very impressed with Go2Web20 since it offers a complete Web 2.0 directory.

On a side note, be sure to keep a close watch on seomoz.org for Rebecca Kelley’s SES comics from the SES conference in New York. Rumor has it that there are some pretty embarrassing pictures!

Internet advertising revenue reached sixteen point eight billion dollars during 2006. The fourth quarter of 2006 was the highest quarter ever, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau;revenues for that period were just under four point eight billion. IAB CEO and President, Randall Rothenberg stated, “The continued growth in Interactive advertising is clearly based on marketers’ recognition that they connect with consumers most effectively through Interactive media. The increase underscores marketers’ understanding that Interactive advertising can engage consumers, build brands and sell products and services.”

Mike Arrington at TechCrunch reported that blog ad firm Federated Media was raising money and looking for a buyer. John Battelle later commented that neither statement was true, although like any startup, a future sale could take place. Apparently advertising is booming on blogs too! Accoding to Arrington Federated Media projects $30 million in sales and “several million dollars” in profit in 2007.

YouTube fans in Turkey will not be able to reach the video-sharing site. A Turkish court ordered the country’s biggest telecom to block access to YouTube after videos insulting the founding father of Turkey appeared on the site. Turkish media notes the ongoing “virtual war” between Turkish and Greek site visitors. Insulting videos seems to be a standard method of attack. The video implied that the Turkey founder was gay. Insulting Ataturk is called Turkishness and is a crime punishable by prison.

Wikipedia will still allow contributors to be anonymous. But after a prominent editor who claimed to be a theology professor in a New Yorker magazine interview proved to be a college dropout, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales said the website will require people to document the professional expertise they claim to have. Twenty four year old Ryan Jordan, was exposed as a dropout from Lexington Community College .. which by the way is only 5 minutes from WebProNews headquarters in Lexington KY.