Koo’s Corner

Digg.com is a web 2.0 icon and my company  has worn the title “Digg For Sports”, although the shoe doesn’t exactly fit.

With a new emphasis for web 2.0 companies to diversify revenue streams, Digg today announced the opening of their online store. My buddy who works for the vendor that Digg partnered with told me of pending opening, yet it was Kevin Rose’s Twitter that alerted me that it was finally open.

First impressions is that the site is pretty well designed with some pretty cool stuff to buy. While this may not take Digg from late stage startup to a public company, this is solid investment for them

Any merchandise purchased which should be modest, will not only = revenue, but will also essentially be profitable marketing as the Digg brand will get some more visibility.

Digg is more then just a company, its a symbol of web 2.0 for better or for worse. Literally CEO, Kevin Rose, has been a poster boy for the movement since his Business Week Cover in 2006.

Also fueling Kevin/Digg’s appeal is his frequent updates to his blog, video podcast, episodes of Diggnation, and aforementioned Twitter account. Below is a screen shot of today’s activity on Twitter which sheds light on a new comedic twist to Kevin’s social media endeavors.

For awhile now, those who have cyber stalked Kevin (like me….over 70,000), have gotten some recend updates on his oncoming cold.

Well someone with a good sense of humor got tired of all the updates and created a “Kevin’s Cold” account, which has been well receieved as the account is nearing 500 followers which is pretty impressive. In fact I am jealous, but as we all know I do pretty good myself…

Below are some random things on my mind tonight.

- Yesterday I commented on Tesla Motor’s big announcement to produce cars in California over New Mexico. Today another big rumor is floating around that Tesla has reached a deal to sell batteries to Mercedez in their efforts to sell electic cars by 2010. With other big name auto companies believed interested in similar deals, one wonders if Tesla’s future may one day be mainly as a battery maker and secondarily a car manufacturer.

Tesla Battery Below

- Yahoo email freaking blows compared to Gmail. Most of the emails in my inbox are spam and a good 25% of non spam emails end up in the spam folder.

Emails I have had to dig out of my spam folder include 2 job offers, a reply email from a friend, a response from an Ohio State professor about a speaking engagement, and notification that I won an African lottery ….kidding.

Gmail on the other hand is pretty much balls on accurate. Yahoo is a crap shoot, and I am thinking of phasing out the account.

- I gave into the temptation to join Twitter tonight. I’ll recap my thoughts in it in a couple of weeks. Feel free to “follow” me at http://twitter.com/bkoo

- Finally wanted to give a look at how sweet Yardbarker is. There are a lot of cool fuctions and things we are doing, but what continues to amaze me is how easy it is for fans to interact with athletes. Below are some schreenshots of some exchanges between me and Chiefs WR Dwayne Bowe and Angels Pitcher John Lackey