Inside BC, 6/5/07

An occasional feature where I rant about this blog....

FeedBurner, who manages one of my site feeds, has been purchased by Google for somewhere around $100 million. They have been very reliable with my feeds and in notifying me of any problems, and I wouldn't expect that to change. Hopefully there will be some new features integrated with Blogger.

Photobucket, who hosts my photos, has been purchased by Fox Interactive Media for somewhere in the $250-$300 million range. This worries me. I just want a photo host that's quick and reliable. Recently, Photobucket has added all kinds of new features, yet they've never been able to master putting together an interface that doesn't run like molasses, even on a fast computer. I worry that having Fox Interactive Media is going to mean even more hype where there should be substance. Time will tell...I have six more months before I have to renew.

One thing that I ABSOLUTELY do not like on the Photobucket site is the "Buy Prints" feature in the top right corner. Here viewers can purchase prints of my photos through QOOP, but none of this money goes to me. So it's okay for QOOP to make money off of something that they don't own?

In the Photobucket forums I heard it explained that anybody can right click on your photo, save it, and "steal" it, therefore it's not any different if they do it with QOOP instead. Bullshit! Some random idiot downloading my photo for personal use is one thing. Officially sanctioned theft of my property, which is then compounded by a monetary payment to the thief, is quite another thing.

Now I'm starting to get mad, so I should stop.

On Friday, I shattered a record for unique visitors with 260, page views with 419 and returning visitors with 75. (I know, pretty weak relative to some of the massive blogs out there.) My previous record for unique visitors was something like 48. All of this for a story about the Cedar Grove project in Price Hill, which involves the rehab of four houses. Maybe people thought the project was something else?

(EDIT: It was pointed out to me that the Price Hill post was linked to by Cincinnati Nation, and a search through my stats proved that to be the case. Thanks to Cincinnati Nation for the referrals.)

I got two comments (well, one posted twice) in that topic and it was in Spanish. From what I could gather, the blogger has a site where you can order personalized T-shirts. Ostensibly he was offering me the opportunity to create Building Cincinnati shirts. I think I'll wait a little while on that one, and I'll probably go with a company that isn't some random blogger/blog page.