MacBlips and GadgetBlips Launch to Capture Leading Tech Stories

When I met with Jason and Erin Gurney of Ballhype and Showhype fame earlier this year, I practically sold them on the idea of launching an Apple Macintosh-focused site, which would distill the many Apple related stories from around the Web and provide a centralized site where Mac fans could discuss news, rumors and find a community with other Mac fans. Today, with the launch of MacBlips, they made good on that idea. And as if that weren't enough, in parallel, they launched a site called GadgetBlips, which gathers the top stories from sites like Engadget and Gizmodo, and provides gadget lovers a place to talk up their cell phones, TVs, laptops, or video game consoles, to name a few.


Both sites share a common foundation. MacBlips and GadgetBlips are constantly scouring the blogosphere to find those stories most-frequently referenced in articles, and bringing them to the site's front page, where users can vote them up or down, or make comments, like Digg, and of course, like BallHype and ShowHype.


MacBlips and GadgetBlips users can also submit stories they find from around the Web, and blog owners who write about Mac, Apple and gadgets can register their sites and track activity, to see which of their articles were found the most interesting to the community.

Speaking of community, any user can create or participate in subgroups on either site, focused on specific topics, be it iPods, iPhones, Mac Rumors, the BlackBerry or Nintendo Wii, for example. And as with most social networking sites, you can befriend other users, and be alerted when they have activity on the site.

The idea behind MacBlips and GadgetBlips is essentially to provide a single site that finds the very best Mac news and Gadget news, without forcing you to read all the related RSS feeds, and to help you find other Mac-heads and gadget freaks like yourself who like to debate wireless plans, discuss how to switch from Windows to Mac, or just when Apple might release the iPhone Nano.

As somebody who in the past has scrolled through screen after screen on MacSurfer.com to find the best articles, or gone one by one from MacWorld to AppleInsider, MacRumors and MacInTouch to be on top of the latest Apple news, the arrival of MacBlips is a welcome sight. But with so many other Mac-related sites out there, it should be interesting to see if the new addition will have folks changing where they choose to engage. And given the Gurneys' efforts on BallHype, which included game picks for sporting events and tournaments around March Madness and the NBA playoffs, for example, I'm very interested to see what kind of predictive behaviors they can do for the next MacWorld Expo Keynote.

You can find MacBlips at http://www.macblips.com/
You can find GadgetBlips at http://www.gadgetblips.com/

On both sites, you can find my ID as "louismg". (MacBlips | GadgetBlips)

BallHype Crew Takes a Vote, and Launches BeltwayBlips

Last week, the increasingly popular Ballhype and Showhype sites were acquired by Future US for a cool $3 million, as the Digg-like sites, focused on sports and entertainment respectively, were seen growing as destination sites for fans of all flavors. Less than 10 days after that news, the Future US team is already seeing dividends from the acquisition, as the husband and wife team, Jason and Erin Gurney, turn their attention toward Washington and politics with the launch of BeltwayBlips.

In the tradition of Ballhype and Showhype, BeltwayBlips aims to bring the hottest political news to the front page by both auto-discovering hot blog conversations through the number of external links, but also adding on users' up or down votes, like Digg. Those hot items receiving many votes in a short amount of time rise to the top, and after some duration, will drop lower in rank.

Earlier this year, when meeting with the Gurneys at their home, they said they didn't want to get into more serious issues, like politics or technology, and the pair felt two sites was just about all they can handle. But following the acquisition, Future US has allowed the Gurneys to add to the team of developers, and given them the support to expand their site portfolio.

The addition of politics to the arsenal should make for some very "lively" discussion for sure, given the clear partisanship shown by both the right and the left in today's charged climate. I have concerns that McCain fans will always vote down positive Obama stories, and vice versa, or a few unsavory characters could make the environment unfriendly. While in sports, one can divide their attention between about 30 professional teams in each league, in Washington, you're usually either "with us" or "against us", as has been frequently said.


Headlines reaching the top of BeltwayBlips in the last few days have included the news of Robert Novak being involved in a hit and run accident, rumors of John Edwards fathering a child out of wedlock, and the two presidential candidates taking opposing positions on Iraq. Forget C-SPAN, this political hotbed isn't going to be a snoozefest by any means.

As with Ballhype and Showhype, the site offers the usual array of features, including comment threads, leaderboards for users and blog sources, embedded video links, and the ability to create groups. If you already have an account with one of the *Hype sites, you can log into BeltwayBlips today.

BallHype Acquired by Future US In Attempt to Join Big Leagues

After 18 months of progressing beyond the rookie stages of product development, Ballhype, the sports story discovery, submission and voting site, announced this morning that they have been acquired by Future US, a San Francisco-based media company. The purchase, for an undisclosed amount, enables the company's properties, including BallHype and a sister site, ShowHype, focused on entertainment news and gossip, to continue, but with a partner to help increase their monetization as traffic and engagement grows.

As an early Ballhype user in the first half of 2007 (See: Hype It Up: Ballhype Is Here to Change the Game), the site quickly became a go-to for me in terms of finding the best sports news from around the blogosphere, without being married to the front page of ESPN. More than just a news discovery site, BallHype also offered community engagement through votes, comments, and contests, for game predictions and tournaments, like March Madness.

By October, the husband and wife team of Jason and Erin Gurney, saw the growth BallHype had delivered, and pointed their knowledge to Hollywood's glitz, with ShowHype (See: ShowHype Connects Hollywood With Silicon Valley Geekery)

When my wife and I met with Jason and Erin during a viewing of the NBA All-Star Game festivities at their home this last year, they told me despite its later start, ShowHype's traffic eventually eclipsed that of BallHype, soon becoming the primary driver of engagement, page views, and advertising. But the pair didn't want to reinvent the wheel again and again, making customized sites for the more mundane topics of technology, politics, or religion, choosing instead to keep focused on those things they themselves liked.

The purchase of BallHype by Future US shouldn't mean any dramatic changes for the pair of sites. They are still going to be running, and finding the best of the Web's news for sports and entertainment.

In an interview with AOL Sports' FanHouse, co-founder Jason Gurney said, "Our traffic had reached the point where it was substantial enough to prove the value of our model--but we weren't monetizing well, and didn't have enough resources to take advantage of some of the opportunities we saw."

The Gurneys built BallHype and ShowHype almost single-handedly, alongside some technical help, and partnership with other smart sports folks, including Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty, as well as advice from Gabe Rivera of Techmeme. The pair reside in the Bay Area with their two young children, a boy and a girl.

You can learn more about the acquisition on the official BallHype blog or at AOL Sports' Fanhouse.

LOUD3R Launches Massive Semantically-Driven Network

As I mentioned in yesterday's story on OneSpot, the quest to separate the wheat from the chaff in news and blogs through leveraging RSS and social tools is a vibrant market. Whether Web users are relying on Digg, Slashdot and Reddit to bring the hottest items to the top, or if they are instead turning to automated memetrackers like Techmeme to rank stories' popularity, a lot of people are asking to not read every single story, but instead, put their faith in the hands of others.

A new network debuting today, called LOUD3R, hopes to leverage this automation and social prioritization of stories, through a vast network of sites, including 25 at launch today, each one of them utilizing a semantic publishing engine, which finds, clusters and ranks content for a number of vertical topics, ranging from technology to sports, fashion to business.

Each one of the sites carries their trademark - 3R ending. For example, a site dedicated to Web 2.0 and community, isn't called Buzzer, but instead is translated as BUZZ3R, and can be found at www.buzz3r.com. Similarly, an auto site is called ROADST3R and can be found at www.roadst3r.com. I'll let you guess as to some of the others, including GLITT3R, WATCH3R, and FOUND3R.


A sampling of LOUD3R's 25 sites at launch
Like many other topical Digg-like sites, including Ballhype and Showhype, the LOUD3R network family promotes stories that have received attention from throughout the Web. But instead of getting voted up or down by users, the articles are driven by background rules, in Techmeme-like fashion, as Gabe Rivera has implemented on his own family of sites, including BallBug, Memorandum and WeSmirch. Users can make comments on the items, see related stories, or e-mail them.


A lead story on one of LOUD3R's sites.
The sites also use the same background semantic engine to highlight hot topics on each site. On PUTT3R, it's no surprise that Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate are hot topics. On WOOF3R, the topics instead turn to terriers and poodles.

Like Digg, you can see the "Most Popular" items, as well as "Newest", and the LOUD3R algorithm also tries to make a best guess as to what is most "Interesting".

Will LOUD3R's cute naming strategy and interesting use of semantics gain them significant traction? The company certainly hopes so. They have gobbled up more than 550 topically-oriented domain names with the "3R" brand, so today's launch is just the beginning. They hope that their semantic engine will help filter all the content on the Web and only bring visitors the "best available". And they definitely believe that through targeting topics that are historically underserved, they can get a leg up against competition.

With more than 500 sites planned for launch, not every single topic has to be a dramatic success for LOUD3R to make some coin, they hope. Their press release, also issued today, says each site has a low maintenance cost, and each will deliver advertising revenue. If the audience doesn't get QUIET3R, then LOUD3R should get BETT3R and BIGG3R.

Ballhype Revamps Web Site Ahead of Turkey Day

Ballhype, the sports news, discussion and game picks Web site, one of my personal favorites, upgraded their look and feel late tonight, giving a fresh "2.0" like appearance to the site which continues to grow by leaps and bounds in terms of traffic, users and story submissions.

With the advent of the NBA season and college basketball on top of college football, the NFL, NHL and Major League Soccer, it's no wonder the activity at the site is at all time highs. And while a simple Web site upgrade isn't exactly breaking news, it signifies to me another stage in the community's growing up. We've been happy visitors and participants of Ballhype for about eight months now, and have had the good fortune of meeting the site's husband and wife co-founders, who have the enviable position of doing what they love and starting a business at the same time.

The new look draws the site in line with its sister entertainment-focused community, Showhype, which debuted just last month. The new, more professional, look highlights the concept of "Hyping Up" a story, and with stadium lights in the background, reminds us it's all about the games and the athletes.

Of course, that doesn't mean everyone's happy. One occasionally irascible user immediately pounced on the changes, complaining, "....I can't stand it. Maybe make it an option for people to use the old theme?" But as the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time, and as a site grows, in order to gain new members, sometimes you have to leave the originals behind.

More detail around the relaunch can be seen on the official Ballhype blog.

ShowHype Connects Hollywood With Silicon Valley Geekery

Take the community submission format of BallHype or Digg, the blog ranking algorithms of a TechMeme leaderboard, and sprinkle in the gossip and glamour of Hollywood, and you get the unique community news and discussion site of ShowHype, which debuts today, brought to you by the minds behind BallHype.

The latest "Hype" in the family aims to take the mantra of "The best stories, the biggest fans" and apply it to a world where people are more familiar with movie scripts than JavaScript, and the box office is more closely watched than the NASDAQ. ShowHype users can log in to view the most popular entertainment news, videos and blogs of the day, submit new articles or even create unique ShowHype stories for what's sure to become a focused audience trading in the latest Hollywood dirt.


The ShowHype front page highlights today's stories with the most buzz.

Six months after the successful debut of BallHype, the site's creators, Jason and Erin Gurney, just may have another sleeper hit on their hands. Speaking to them a few weeks ago about the site in a sneak preview at their home, we talked about how they're eager to find fun topics, like entertainment and sports, for their users, and are steering clear of more divisive subjects. So don't wait around for PoliticsHype or GodHype any time soon!

Anybody familiar with BallHype will find the ShowHype interface extremely familiar. If you already have a BallHype login, the same credentials will get you into ShowHype. In fact, I've already started a users' group in ShowHype for "TiVo Fans", where we can share tips, news and tricks. If you're into Hollywood in a big way, or even if you're the more casual type who secretly wants to know what exactly is going on with Lindsey Lohan, Kate Hudson, and Justin Timberlake, then ShowHype should be a must-bookmark destination.

Also see: TechCrunch | ParisLemon | Frantic Industries

Ballhype T-Shirt Contest 2 Winner: Redsauce

After claiming our seventh Ballhype Golden Picks contest victory last week, achieving a controversial record score in the process, for the second time, we offered our t-shirt trophy to another member, who registered on the blog.

This time, we had eight entries, from "Reasonable Doubt for a Reasonable Price", "Zorgon", "VicTimes", "Redsauce", "Chone", "Patrick", "GREGSKY" and "Jason", the site's co-founder.

As with our last t-shirt give-away, we cooked up a quasi-elaborate scheme that featured Molly, our 18-year-old beagle, her love of food, and our camera. The conquest is laid out below.

Step 1: Create one Master "Bingo" Card

I listed out the eight entrants' names in equally-sized boxes and printed them out. The center square in the 3x3 table was "Molly's Free Kibble Spot".


The Eight Entrants: Click for Larger Image

Step 2: Introduce Molly to the Square

Molly asked to be shown the card before selecting the winner. Upon her approval, we could continue.


Molly Finds the Card to Her Liking

Step 3: The Judge Gains Incentive

Molly was escorted into the other room, and a piece of kibble was placed on each of the nine squares. The winner would be selected by being the LAST piece of kibble eaten. There were no doubts Molly would eat all nine.


The Card With Prizes for the Judge

Step 4: Molly Picks a Winner

With the card full of kibble, Molly first wrongly raced to the kitchen only to return to the card and started wolfing down the pieces, one by one. The very last to go was that of Redsauce, and due to that delay, Redsauce is our winner! You can see Molly in action below.


Molly making her selection

Congratulations to Redsauce! Erin should be in touch with you shortly to claim your prize!

If you're not yet a Ballhype member, you certainly should be. Join the site now!

Ballhype T-Shirt Give-Away #2, and a New Record!

A few weeks ago, we offered a free Ballhype t-shirt to a randomly selected individual who left a comment on the blog stating why they most deserved to win. In the end, with help from our 18-year-old beagle, Dharr18 was the lucky winner.

Well guess what? We won yet another Ballhype t-shirt again this week, after a controversial record-setting week of long shot picks aimed at predicting upsets. (See some discussion here)

It's once again time for you to put your name in the ring, and possibly walk away with a brand-new shirt from one of the hottest Web communities to debut this year.

To earn the Ballhype t-shirt, I ask only you comment to this post, and list:

1. Your login at Ballhype.com (or create one).
2. The game you most enjoyed watching in the last week.
3. Why you enjoyed watching.

It's that simple. Assuming we have more than one respondent, the rules are:

You must respond by 11:59 p.m. PDT, Mon. Sept. 24th.
Ballhype management will ship in USA only.

As with the previous contest, it is highly likely that Molly, our beagle, will be selecting the winner. We will cover that process at the time the winner is awarded. But until then, take a look at the Ballhype T-shirts available, and see what you could win!

Good luck!

Ballhype T-Shirt Contest Winner: Dharr18

After claiming our sixth Ballhype Golden Picks contest victory last week, we offered up our spoils, a free Ballhype t-shirt, to any site member who posted their user name, their favorite team, and their reason why they best deserved to wear the Blue and Orange colors of the Web's hottest social network centered around sports.

We had four entries, from "dharr18", "McLovin", "Alan1066", and "Jason", the site's co-founder.

With the midnight September 1 deadline having passed, it was time to pick a winner!

Step 1: Create The Name Cards

I took some nearby construction paper (ooh, pink - pretty!) and wrote the names of the four entrants in equal sized squares (as pictured below).


The Four Entrants: Click for Larger Image

Step 2: Add Some Incentive to the Judge

As I already promised I wouldn't make the selection, I got four pieces of dog kibble, and assigned one piece each to the four entrants (as pictured below). As our aging hound is still scent-oriented and food mad, this made sense.


Four Small Treats: Click for Larger Image

Step 3: The Selection Process

Kristine took Molly, the beagle, out of the room, while I took the four squares and placed them on the floor, hiding the pieces of kibble. The squares were placed in equidistant areas from where Molly would be emerging, as to not curry favor with one over another.

Step 4: Molly Picks a Winner

With the squares in place, Molly darted out, but first headed to her food dish. Finding nothing, she came back to the living room, and ran by "McLovin"'s square, and missed it entirely. We saw her then sniff at the "Dharr18" square, and turn away, eventually heading to "Alan1066", turning it over and eating the kibble. A winner! Or so we thought... we then looked back and found the "Dharr18" square was missing its kibble. Somehow, she had eaten it without moving the square, and in fact, "Dharr18" was our winner! You can see Molly at Alan1066's square, with a little pink showing below.


Our Humble Judge: Click for Larger Image

Should we get the opportunity to win again sometime, a less likely event with baseball giving way to college football, I'd like to offer this contest again, just maybe with some more entrants. So congratulations to Dharr18. Erin should be in touch with you shortly to claim your prize! We hope to also soon see you win the Golden Picks contest legitimately in the near future!

A Free Ballhype T-Shirt Can Be Yours!

Last week, for some reason, my combination of frequent game picks, combined with a slant toward underdogs and dumb luck, led me to my second consecutive Ballhype Game Picks win (my sixth overall). Now that both my wife and I have Ballhype t-shirts, as well as three of my colleagues, I'm thinking it's time to extend the opportunity to be clad in the colors of one of the most exciting Web communities to debut in 2007 - to you.

To earn the Ballhype t-shirt, I ask only you comment to this post, and list:

1. Your login at Ballhype.com (or create one).
2. Your favorite sports team (any sport, any level).
3. Why you best deserve the t-shirt.

It's that simple. Assuming we have more than one respondent, the rules are:

You must respond by Midnight PDT, September 1st
Ballhype management will ship in USA only

I will put your names on paper and have them selected randomly by a member of the Gray household who is not me (a.k.a. the wife or the beagle). Take a look at the Ballhype T-shirts available, and see what you could win!

Good luck!

Last Week's Win Marks 5th Ballhype Trophy

As Ballhype has continued to grow its feature set and user base, the most addicting feature for me has been an old standby - the weekly "Golden Picks" contest, where site visitors can select winners of the day's games in professional sports, gaining extra credit for correctly selecting underdog winners. By consistently making my picks on a daily basis, being willing to take risks and occasionally using strategy, its been common for my name to be near the leaderboard each week, ever since the contest debuted in early April.

Grandfathered into the site, thanks to being part of its beta testing, I managed to win the first week's contest, and by week four, I had repeated the success, taking my second first-place finish. After fellow user "Joski" swept through May, I gained my bearings and took the first two weeks in June for my third and fourth wins. And last week, after 5 different people won in between, three of them (including Joski) doing so twice, I stumbled to the top, winning out in one of the closest margins yet, forcing the site to go into two decimal places to separate first place from second.

Erin and Jason Gurney, the site's co-founders, have been kind enough to offer a prize to the week's winner, of a Ballhype t-shirt. I've spread the love around, giving away three to colleagues, and of course, making sure my wife and I have our own. Pretty soon, with continued luck, I'll have to start picking new styles, selling the much-coveted shirts on eBay, or helping clothe the homeless. But the one thing I won't be doing is stopping my picks. Given that Joski's got 7 wins to his credit, and I only have 5, you better believe I'm going to keep trying until I've got the all-time record. For some reason, I'm just competitive that way, even in a very virtual contest.

Ballhype Interviews Sports Blogs Nation

Ballhype scored a coup this morning, when the site's co-founder, Erin Gurney, lassoed a group of Sports Blogs Nation bloggers, including the aforementioned Tyler Bleszinski, for a roundtable interview. (See: Big Tent Sports Blogging)

In the interview, Erin asks some tough questions, about how bloggers are integrated into the Sports Blogs Nation family, how much traffic the network is receiving, and even some questions on why the network hasn't yet been acquired by a household name, given all its success. Additionally, some of the site's bloggers are asked if there are any downsides to forgoing their original blogs in favor of joining the SB Nation family. As one responded, "I honestly can't think of too many disadvantages to being a part of SB Nation; it's truly been a long series of advantages."

It's the second major story Erin's gotten in the last week, following her Sports Bloggers Survey.

As an active participant in Ballhype, and an assistant editor of two of the Sports Blogs Nation franchises, I'm clearly very open about rooting for both sites' success. It looks like they're on their way.

Ballhype Surveys Sports Bloggers

Ballhype, the user-driven Digg-like sports site which publicly debuted at the beginning of April, recently completed a study of 135 sports bloggers from around the United States, from a variety of sports focuses, to learn if this unique breed of uber-fans was best characterized by the unwashed basement dweller, or instead, a well to do self-made individual. The answer? Some of both. But by and large, the sports bloggers community is led by job-holding, house-owning (or renting), 20 or 30-something folks who don't get paid much, who could sink anywhere from 1-5 hours a day into their work.

According to Ballhype's survey, more than 80% of sports bloggers hold a college degree, while another 18% are full-time students, assumed to be working on getting one. Additionally, a strong 26% have a post-graduate degree as well. Most of these bloggers see their work as a hobby, rather than a career. And it's a good thing, because most aren't paid much, if anything. The results show 58% see their blog as a hobby that's just for fun, while 26% see it as a hobby that just so happens to make some revenue. Another 17% see it as a part-time or full-time job. But that can't be all that rewarding for the non-basement dwellers, as fully half report making less than $20 a month from the blog. Only one of every six bloggers (16%) claims revenue exceeding $500 a month - which just might keep you in stock of Top Ramen and Cheetos.

Almost 60% of sports bloggers see more than 1,000 visits to their sites per month, with just under 20% of all sports bloggers seeing an incredible 100,000 visits or more per month. As expected, this level varies wildly, from the one-off just for fun hobby blogs, to the very serious, frequently updated sites like DeadSpin, TrueHoop, and SportsBlogs Nation network, where you can find me at Athletics Nation and Sactown Royalty.

Most promising, 70% of sports bloggers who responded to the survey found the experience more rewarding than expected, and a full 90% would love to blog full-time if paid to do so.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey skewed to privileged white males, with 95% of respondents being men, and 87% being Caucasian. This could be due to early adopters of Ballhype slanting this way, or simply evidence of a good old boys network reaching new networks as well. My expectation is that in further editions of the survey, you will see these demographics return to the mean a bit, as there are some fantastic sports blogs authored by women and others of all backgrounds.

Be sure to check out the survey, the first of its kind that I'm aware of which focuses on the fast-growing sports blog community. Great work, Ballhype!

SportsBlogs Nation Revamps Home Page

SportsBlogs Nation, which bills itself as "a network of individual blog communities run by fans, for fans and united by a common devotion to their favorite team or sports", as well as the mother ship for both Athletics Nation and Sactown Royalty, two sites where I contribute, revamped their Web site today at www.sbnation.com, in an attempt to best highlight the massive amount of new content being generated daily from the site network's legion of bloggers, who have signed up to cover everything from the major national sports to collegiate, fantasy games, soccer, golf and boxing.

Previously serving as something of an RSS feed aggregator for the network's sites, the new SBNation.com highlights featured posts, recent posts by sport, and showcases each of the network's 112 different sports blogs. That's right, 112, and growing. That's an amazing number, first of all, and if you take the time to visit a few of the sites, you'll be sure to find the quality of fanaticism of the sites' writers and their coverage to be as good as any you'll find in more traditional media.

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, the site's co-founder, has often said that the world of blogs was best suited for the types of topics where people can take diametrically opposing positions, such as politics, sports and religion. Anybody who has ever tried to see if a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan could reach consensus, or asked a mixed political crowd on the benefits of gay marriage can see that. The massive growth and acceleration of new sites and users for SportsBlogs Nation has proven Markos true time and again, and today's site revamp just may make SBNation.com a destination site in the way ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports are for more casual fans.

As for me, it's been a long time since I relied on ESPN for my sports news. Truth is, I can usually find all I need to know about sports from the SportsBlogs Nation network and Ballhype. The move from mass media to fan-driven media is in full swing.

A screenshot of the new site from tonight is on the left. Click it to gain a full image, or simply visit www.sbnation.com.

Ballhype's First Two-Time Golden Picks Winner Is...

Given how I'm not even on the leaderboard for this week's contest (it's early!), I almost regret mentioning it, but through sheer luck and occasional flukiness, I managed to come in first place in Ballhype's Golden Picks contest last week, making it my second win in the four weeks the contest has been running. I also finished third the prior week and, as you recall, I won the first time the contest was held. It's yet again, one of those talents that has just about zero application to the real world. There's no money to be made from random sports outcome guesses on this here Internet.

Meanwhile, Ballhype is growing by leaps and bounds. Rarely does a day go by when I don't find a new feature on the site. Jason and Erin, the husband and wife combo behind the magic, are rapidly building out a solid site that is my go to for breaking sports news and scoreboard watching. ESPN.com and MLB.com are no longer a destination for me, except in those rare opportunities when Ballhype and Sports Blogs Nation let me down.

Of course, as they add features and users, the likelihood that I can extend my winning streak will rapidly go away. There are always more people out there with more free time than me who will take to the site and make me an afterthought. At least we've had fun when the site was getting off the ground!

Recent features are highlighted on the Ballhype blog. Go check it out!

Still Seeking Web Robustness After Prolonged Outage

To hear today's broadband-addicted geeks talk (er... type), you would think we could replace the nation's 9-1-1 emergency system with an intelligent mashup of Twitter, Instant Messaging, Blogging and RSS feeds. Some expect that in a time of crisis, if the nation's telephone systems are overloaded, that the Web would step in to save the day. But tonight, hours of sluggish Web access, which more closely resembled a Web abscess, only further highlighted to me that we have a long way to go before thinking we've got the ultimate answer.

Around 9 or so this evening, despite having full range of our wireless Internet here at home, I couldn't check e-mail, log on to the company network via VPN, or even load Web sites. Safari would tell me "4 of 15 items" had loaded, and the progress bar would stall. Doubting my wireless, I connected directly via Ethernet to our cable modem, and again, had no success. I even tried to connect to the open WiFi networks from our neighbors, and those that have acted as backups in the past weren't there to save me now.

And it turns out I wasn't the only one seeing issues. Not only was my wife's laptop not getting through, but via BlackBerry, I learned other colleagues were seeing similar slowdowns at their homes, as we all commiserated, complaining we couldn't pass over needed reports. Now nearly four hours later, I still can't log in from my home network, directly connected or otherwise, but did finally find a network which is letting me perform the basics - finally send an abbreviated update, catch up on Google Reader, check my standings on Ballhype, and synchronize all e-mail. A quick scan of Google News on e-mail and Web outages didn't find any results. It could be the issues were too localized to be news, or we have set such a low standard that nobody even finds such failures, whether from Comcast or AT&T or other providers, to be newsworthy.

The Internet has become such a lifeline for communication for work, friends, family and news that to cut it off or slow down access would have dramatic economic and social impact. It drives me completely batty when there are any delays at all. So while we may all murmur about how real-world traffic will be impacted by last night's truck explosion in the East Bay, and discuss alternatives, here in the Web world, we're not that much better prepared. This network is not redundant, and a single accident, intentional or otherwise, could leave us in the dark. I had a taste of that this evening, and that was enough.

With NBA Season Complete, Forecast the Playoffs on Ballhype

For the few of us who remained dedicated Sacramento Kings fans all the way through game 82, the season ended with a whimper. The Kings teased us with occasional strength, but ultimately drove us crazy and fell way short of expectations. Now, our only hope is that they somehow finagle an early pick in the upcoming draft and look to rebuild what is truthfully not a very good team.

Until then, our friends at Ballhype are ready for the next stage: playoffs.

The site is offering Ballhype users the option to choose the winners in each round of the NBA playoffs, just as is popular during March Madness with the NCAA college basketball tournament. Unlike the typical March Madness bracket however, Ballhype will allow you to change your picks after the series have started and give you more credit if you picked against the grain. The earlier you pick correctly, and the fewer the people who correctly selected as you did, the more points you get. Should be very interesting to see how this shakes out.

As of today, my pick to win it all? Houston. Over the Cavaliers. I anticipate being wrong.

Sign up for yourself at Ballhype.

Guess Who Won the Week's Ballhype Contest?

Ballhype is a growing force to be reckoned with in sports news and fandom. As I had mentioned in covering the site upon its initial launch at the beginning of the month, Ballhype offers sports' biggest fans a place to gather, share the latest stories and make their guesses as to which teams will come out on top in the day's games.

Last week, Ballhype launched its first contest to see who was most adept at picking winners, and most importantly, upsets. The site awards players with more points for correctly picking upsets than they do if you choose the favorite each time, so you are rewarded for risk. As they write, "Take the occasional risk! If you lose, yes, you look like an idiot. But if you win, oh my, it's sweet."

My against the grain, contrarian approach turned out to have worked last week, as I learned I had racked up the most points, despite not having the best won/lost record. My ultimate prize? Ballhype featured my picks on their blog (See: Game Show), I got a quasi-quote on the front page of their site, and get to go through the next week with a silly halo around my logo, comprised of a mashup of both Sacramento Kings and Oakland A's logos, with a little Cal sprinkled in. Pretty silly, huh?

You can see last week's picks leaderboard here. No telling what this week will bring.

Baseball Season is Upon Us, Sports Priorities Outlined

The A's, and much of Major League Baseball, had their first game on Monday, which just so happened to coincide with the last game of the college basketball season. Meanwhile, at the same time, the NBA and NHL seasons (clearly less important) are nearing their stretch drive for the playoffs. While continuing to ignore all the outlying sports (i.e. golf, tennis and all things racing, wrestling or winter), one could keep themselves quite busy by trying to stay on top of the sports world at large.

That's why I have a somewhat clear prioritization of my sports consumption, accounting for pure fanaticism of teams, importance of games, and the sports themselves.

1. The World Series (With A's participating)
Clearly the holy grail. My lifelong favorite team playing on the big stage.
1a and 1b would be other playoff games involving the Oakland A's.

2. NCAA basketball tournament (With Cal participating)
Again, the national stage, rooting for the blue and gold.
2a would be a bowl game with the Cal Bears football team.

3. Opening Day of baseball
This is exciting stuff. Kicking off the season knowing you can follow the teams day in and day out the rest of the way. Also, at this point, all teams have a chance to win it all.

4. The Super Bowl
I don't have a preferred football team, honestly. I rooted for the San Francisco 49ers as a kid, but that time is long gone. Still, the spectacle of the Super Bowl is unmatched.

5. The Big Game (Cal vs. Stanford)
It's a storied rivalry 100+ years in the making. Cal has the axe and intends to keep it.

6. NBA Playoffs (With the Sacramento Kings participating)
I can skip this process this year. The Kings are horrible. That will reduce conflict with baseball now, I guess.

7. The World Series (Any two teams)
Only if the Yankees are playing does it really diminish the game, but baseball's the best sport, and each game marks history.

8. Any Oakland A's game
I will watch any A's game, regardless of their record, over the playoffs of most leagues. Baseball and the A's are simply superior.

9. Any Cal football game
We've had season tickets for the last three years. The tradition. The band. Oski. Go Bears!

10. Select Olympic events
Track and Field events in the Olympics can be dramatic. Heck, even gymnastics can keep you riveted for every one-tenth of a point, or in rooting for the random Romanian to take a header off the beam. On the flip side, there are a ton of events that could go away and nobody would notice.

11. The NCAA tournament final
There's something exciting about the buildup of 65 teams fighting for a single championship, winner takes all.

12. Any Sacramento Kings NBA game
There's something wrong with me. For some reason, I still root for this team.

13. Any baseball game between any two clubs
I'd rather listen to the radio play by play of the Marlins vs. Phillies than watch the NHL ever, the NFL or NBA on most nights.

14. NFL Playoffs
The march down to the Super Bowl

15. Other
Insert here: The NBA Playoffs, random NFL Sunday contests, the occasional Cal basketball match, San Jose Sharks games in person.

So that's the priority list. If established, and acted upon correctly, if there are multiple games on at once, you know where you can find me. If it's A's baseball, I'll be there, with very few exceptions. But my loyalty to the Cal Golden Bears and Sacramento Kings isn't far behind.

That's why you can find me on almost any night on Athletics Nation, Sactown Royalty, or making my picks on BallHype. Spring and summer were made for sports, and the action is heating up.

Hype It Up: Ballhype Is Here to Change the Game

Take the community submitted news engine of Digg or Slashdot, the fanaticism of sports followers from SportsBlogs Nation, sprinkle in Google-like spidering of more than 1,600 sports blogs, and you have what just may be the perfect recipe for a breakthrough destination sports site. Ballhype, who suggests you can "Change the game" and "Hype it Up", offers all this and more, officially launching today after an extensive beta, of which I have been part.

Like Digg, Ballhype users can find new stories and post them to the service. Users can vote to "hype it up" or "vote it down" (like digg and bury), and those stories with the most positive votes rise to the top of the most-hyped list. Like Digg, you can discuss specific stories, but unlike Digg, Ballhype also pulls down stories from around the Web's vast sports blogosphere, from SportsBlogs Nation sites, including Athletics Nation and Sactown Royalty, to others including Deadspin and The Hardball Times.

More than just a story submission and voting site, Ballhype takes fans where they want to go, to a near-live scoreboard showing the day's games from all major sports, including the option to pick the winners before the games start, and have your own win/loss record ranked among the leaders on Ballhype. (I have to admit I started strong but was later shown I should stay out of the sportsbook at Vegas)

Ballhype also features extensive automatic tagging. If I submit a Sacramento Kings story involving Ron Artest, both the Kings and Ron Artest are tagged, and I can see all stories that have the same tags. I can also drill down by team or player, or specific blogs to find out as much or as little as I want to.

But best of all, the site is by the fans, for the fans. Some of the earliest participants, in addition to me, are the very bloggers behind some of the most popular sports sites. Fans have already created groups for "Bay Area Sports", "Basketball Addicts" and "Philadelphia Sports Fans", for example, so those with shared interests can find others who bleed the team colors and bite their nails all the way from preseason to the off-season draft picks. This is fanaticism at its finest, and yet another great example of how the Web can foster community regardless of location.

So, hype it up. After all, an authority no less than TechCrunch already noticed that "Sports Fanatics Will Love This". They will.