As a major fan of the expected release of Spore, it was interesting to see Google actually promote Spore by noting that games can now utilize Youtube by uploading a quick video:

Enter Spore, the much anticipated game from Electronic Arts and Maxis, which lets players create their own alien creatures, import their creations into the game world, and upload video of their creatures’ moves directly to YouTube from within the game. Additionally, all of the YouTube community can enjoy: Spore’s own YouTube Channel, which will showcase the most popular videos of creatures fans and gamers create.

I am certain this will help increase the visibility and popularity of the game, but I am surprised they didn’t expand on this and noting how this could be used for popular games like World of Warcraft where players commonly put up their own videos.

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So, I wanted to be able to somehow convince my wife to make a music video with me of Love’s Angel (爱的天使) by Jolin as a romantic thing, but she’s rejected that idea before. Now, I came up with a great idea that she could buy an LV bag (that would be $1000) as long as she and I could make a music video similar to the one that Jolin has.

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Expanding on my previous post titled: “Has Google’s Growth Peaked?” that dealt with Craig Hordlow’s the concept that Google has peaked due to people getting used to the web and no longer needing Google nearly as much, therefore using other destination sites instead, Sante J. Achille at Multilingual Search finds a survey via TechCrunch by the University of Southern California of over 2000 people.

The survey deals with a lot of issues, but one of them is that 51% of those surveyed trust Google to provide relevant and accurate results, down from 62% in 2006.

My point? That just because Google’s growth peaked, does not necessarily imply people are smarter about the web, there are a variety of factors, and currently my opinion on this is that Google’s results are less relevant, with no new big visual changes (beyond showing its own video images from Youtube). Until I see some good data otherwise, the assumption of the average person being smarter about how to search is yet to be proven in my opinion.

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I wanted to follow-up on my previous post with a good night’s rest behind me (had a great dream of having superpowers). I want to make sure everyone knows I am not trashing his reputation or think badly of him, on the contrary for the most part I am/was filled with jealousy which very rarely feel or show.

Firstly, I think its great that he posted up some clips and is very smart to have done so on the Chinese Youtube, Youku, which caters specifically to the Chinese audience (I have seen previous singers on Youtube, but obviously that caters more to the English speaking audience).

Others will surely trash him and consider what his ulterior motives are behind him posting up on Youku (heck, it could have been a simple bet from a co-worker at HSBC to put up his vids there or something).

Still, I’ve never understood why people like him or my friend Adam who enjoyed singing the Communist National Anthem (which ironically is actually illegal to do in China on TV as my friend Adam found out), but then again I’m not exactly big on any kind of nationalism either so my bias clouds that judgment beyond the obvious marketing ability on catching eyes.

Now, singing 周杰伦 (Jay Chow) I can understand fully and have enjoyed many of hours singing the song, raving to 黎明 (Leon Lai) (wish I had a video of that instead of pictures), lip-syncing to girly 郑秀文 (Sammy Cheng) (guilty pleasure on that one), and even running a college CASA at GWU (yes, that old fable about some white guy on the East Coast running a Chinese club was me).

If that doesn’t help give an understanding of who I am, know that many people I knew back in high school and my friends still today call me a white Asian guy (hence the nickname: whiteaznguy) for my knowledge and interest over Asian topics. Heck, in my group of friends that I often hang out with, there is only one white guy (you know the token white guy?) and it isn’t me as they say I’m really Asian than I am white.

So truly in the end this guy has my respect, my interest in getting to know a fellow cultural 中国通, and a bow to his courage, but not my Shanghainese wife.

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