I’m a big fan of skiing and snowboarding. Unfortunately, the weather last Sunday was great for anything but. Single digit temps and 30 mph winds. A true die hard would’ve hit the slopes, but I wimped out and got online to find some ski and snowboard videos.

YouTube was a disappointment in that playing their videos in full screen was torture. I’m sure you’ve been there and experienced the same pixelated mess. I needed to find a site where HD was the standard and not the exception.

Enter Vimeo. Oneupweb posted our Obama Sign video there, so I thought I’d check it out. I was looking for a quick fix. Maybe 10 minutes of deep powder riders in British Columbia. Well, 10 minutes turned into 4 hours and I was hooked on Vimeo.

At Vimeo you’ll find only high end, artistic user-generated videos. No vert ramp skater clips shot on cell phones here!

Finding what I was looking for was fairly straight forward. The site search allows you to search by Videos, People, Groups, Channels and Forums. I searched for “snowboarding” in Videos, clicked on a thumbnail that looked good and discovered a way-cool film about pro snowboarders, from South Korea of all places. The original is a classic travelogue with amazing photography.

It features awesome snowboard talent crossing the globe in search of great snow and the next big money contest. The quirky twist to this film is the slope-side signs in Korean and the 3,000,000 Won prize check the winner was holding on the podium. What really blew me away was the rich, saturated colors, incredible details and awesome sound. This is online HD heaven in full-screen, woofer-thumping glory.

But wait – there’s more. Vimeo is an online film and video community where you can connect with users in all sorts of ways. Vimeo Groups allows you to create communities. Vimeo Channels showcases videos around a common theme. Examples are: Video Art, Short Films, Slo-Mo, Animated, Documentaries and 19,000 more channels! Projects is a forum where you can meet new people hoping to collaborate on video projects. There’s even a Facebook Connect feature to integrate Facebook with Vimeo. The more I explored, the more impressed I was.

Connecting with other Vimeo users is easy. First as a contact, then you subscribe to their videos to see their new submissions. With a free basic membership you can connect to your hearts content and upload 500MB every week. With a Vimeo Plus membership your upload limit is 5GB per week, plus other perks. This will set you back a whopping $59.95 per year. Are you kidding me? What a steal!

In the mood for a video but don’t know what to watch? Check out the staff recommendations on the home page. Or click the Explore tab for more ideas. The Right Now tab shows the latest videos just uploaded or in the process of uploading.

Vimeo also has a widget that’s customizable for your blog, social network profile or anywhere that supports embed code. The widget automatically updates when you upload new videos.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I like the site and recommend it for those chilly winter weekends spent hibernating.

Editor’s Note: You can read more Reviews on StraightUpSocial, search marketing-related reviews on our sister blog StraightUpSearch, broad-based reviews on Oneupweb Reviews, and product-focused Oneupweb Reviews on Epinions.

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Hey, everybody, the Academy Awards are right around the corner! Whoooo! I can’t wait to see what Jennifer Aniston wears! Yee-hoooo! OMG, what if she runs into Brangelina!!! Oooooh, no you dih-ent! Hey, seriously though, I can’t wait to see The Dark Knight or Wall-E or Man on Wire win best picture, because they were the best films of 2008, and it makes sense that they’d win! Because they were the best pictures. Wait, what? Wall-E can’t be best picture because it’s animated? Man on Wire can’t be best picture because it’s a documentary? The Dark Knight isn’t even nominated? Well, heck, isn’t that a dilly of a pickle? ZOMG, but what if Jen has to present Brad an award for being a creepy old baby? Oooooooh!

No you dih-ent.

I love movies, but I don’t love the Academy Awards. I don’t even like them. I don’t like the Academy. I don’t like a bunch of anonymous industry dinosaurs telling everyone what movie they thought was the best movie of the year. For me, their track record speaks for itself. I despised The Titanic. I couldn’t even watch Forrest Gump (I actually threw the video across the room after ejecting it, with my boot, during the part where Li’l Forrest teaches Elvis how to dance). The ceremony itself is a poorly-coordinated series of interminable, self-congratulatory speeches only occasionally punctuated by unfunny jokes and embarrassing musical performances. And who cares who wore what dress? Seriously? I’m sure I can read about it in Us or People later, when I’m at the dentist’s office. But, shucks, enough about me. What am I gonna do about it, is what you’re asking. Besides whining? Like a giant baby?

One of my favorite movie-related sites is RottenTomatoes.com.

I can typically rely on the ratings, because the Tomatometer compiles reviews from many different sources, so if your favorite critic woke up on the stupid side of the bed and gave Marley and Me four stars, he or she will be drowned out by a sea of more competent voices. Inclusion is, from what I can tell, based on a near-perfect democratic process: reviews by, say, Richard Roeper are given the same weight as those by all those people (and they are legion) you’ve never heard of. The movies are rated on a percentage of how many “fresh” (good) or “rotten” (sucktastic) reviews they’ve received. Go there, cinephiles. You won’t regret it.

What I’d never looked into, though, is whether I could use RottenTomatoes.com as more than just a ratings tool, as a digital soap box to espouse my jaded views and, perchance, find like minded folks out there who also feel that the Academy would be one of the things we wouldn’t miss should California finally fall into the ocean. And who just want to talk about movies we love, while not hearing about how “great” Tom Hanks or Robin Williams are in their latest cinematic atrocities.

(By the way, if you like Tom Hanks (who I actually liked in Road to Perdition) or Robin Williams (I got nothin’), please don’t take offense. Keep liking them. You’re in the majority. I’m the freak, here.)

And there it is: The Vine.

Not only can I start a journal (“The Aching Fist”), but I can start my own group (“The People’s Academy”). I can post my own reviews. I can reach out to other freakish film buffs and talk smack about Julia Roberts. We can simultaneously discuss the relative merits of both Why Does Herr R Run Amok? and Making the Grade.

We can give our own damn awards for Best Picture, Best Upstaging by a Monkey, Best Spit Take, Best Open-Hand B-Slap, Worst Special Effects, Least Realistic CGI, whatever we want. We can create a manifesto that calls for the death of movies based on TV shows and/or starring Adam Sandler. When I’m ready, and when I’ve moved in a little bit (get a picture put up, etc.), I can auto-invite 20 friends to join in. And get the ball (or, in this case, tomato) rolling.

Thank you, RottenTomatoes.com, for providing a venue, and for making it so darn simple. And all I have to suffer through is a few banner ads. Which I can complain about in my journal. Ha!

I give The Vine community a rating of 99.99% fresh, and I’ve done very little. I’ve only just begun. My group and journal are mere shells right now, empty vessels. Tabulas rasa. But I’m single, live in the goondocks, am a dork, and have started to intensely dislike Facebook. I’d imagine it’ll fill up pretty quick.

Take that, secret entrenched cabal! Quiver in fear, Academy members!

Viva la revolution!

PS: Blatant hint – the Vine features a fairly robust search function, that you could maybe, if you want, use to find my journal. Or my group. If you want.

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Tumblr is a free micro-blogging service that allows you to create a tumblelog. A tumblelog is a customizable mini blog/online scrapbook that allows you to easily and quickly express yourself by posting text, photos, quotes, links, audio and video.

Tumblr really emphasizes fast and easy. I found the only thing easier than posting to a tumblelog is signing up for the service. According to Tumblr it only takes 10 seconds to sign up; they weren’t lying. I didn’t have a stopwatch running, but I’d say that I was good to go in about 10 seconds flat.

Anyway, this is the only form you need to complete to become a Tumblr:

Note the big, easy to read letters! I couldn’t help but feel like I was looking at the blog version of a Jitterbug phone.

After signing in you are directed to your dashboard which offers tabs to immediately begin posting.

From here you can begin expressing yourself until your heart’s content. Within a matter of minutes my tumblelog began to take shape as I was quickly able to post a text entry, a photo and a website link.

It was ridiculous how easy it was. As far as posting larger media files, I could post photos as fast as I could find them on my computer. Tumblr also has features that allow you to post to your tumblelog while you are on the go (or just plain busy):

  • Bookmarklet – You can drag a Share on Tumblr button to your web browser’s bookmark toolbar to quickly post to your tumblelog.

  • Mobile + Email Posting – Email or text posts from your mobile phone directly to your tumblelog.

  • iPhone App – The Tumblrette app makes it simple for iPhoners to upload tumblelog content.

  • Instant Messaging Posting – Allows AOL users to post IM’s directly to their tumblelogs.

All in all, I think this is a great micro-blog service. I am not an avid blogger – what little I do, I post to my Facebook page. What has always bugged me about blog pages is how cluttered they can get. I really like how clean the tumblelogs are and I am very impressed with how easy and fast it is to post various forms of media.

In addition, I think a business could really benefit from using Tumblr:

  • A business could post company messages in a variety of ways – text, photos, quotes, links, chat, audio and video – to benefit different audiences. A properly maintained tumblelog would be very good for reputation management.

  • With time management always an issue, Tumblr can benefit a business because it’s so easy to post messages and it’s easy to maintain.

  • With its customizable interface, it would be easy to design a tumblelog to match your business’s theme, color, design, etc. I can see a graphic design department going nuts with this one.

Bottom line: I am usually very picky about the products and services I use online. However I like what I see here. It’s simple, clean and easy to use.

The Official Oneupweb Review… OneUp Thumbs-Up.

Editor’s Note: You can read more Oneupweb Reviews on StraightUpSocial, search and ecommerce-related reviews on our sister blog StraightUpSearch, and product-focused Oneupweb Reviews on Epinions.

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Pew Research data released this month has reinforced the importance of having a social media profile.

If your boss is tapping you on the shoulder about what’s going on with the company Facebook page, or if you are your own boss, you can use Facebook Apps to connect with your company’s target demographic.

Social networking applications, most commonly referred to as apps, offer a way for businesses to share video, blogs, photos, music, games and much more, directly from a Facebook profile page. Facebook apps for business are organized in categories by purpose, such as Recently Popular, Most Active Users and Newest.

While almost every social network has a way to pass food, drinks or throw snowballs, Facebook has some interesting ways of connecting a business with its target audience. Of course the The Visa Business Network is an obvious choice for small business owners looking for new ideas, but what about I Am Mom? Whether you’re an independent scrapbooking consultant or a medium-sized kid’s retail chain, this app could help connect you with your target audience: Moms.

I Am Vegetarian is a similar app to I Am Mom. It could help a health food store connect to one of its biggest markets. This app also applies to lifestyle companies, such as yoga studios, or even an independent nutritionist.

For businesses looking to share video, podcasts and blogs, RSS lOOkout grabs content from other websites. Have your own company podcast, blog or list of jobs appear directly in the company Facebook profile. SeenThis? is another app that allows friends to share what their reading online.

There are a lot of specific apps for different magazines and newspapers, including NYTimes.com Most E-Mailed Articles. This could be a great app for an independent bookseller looking to share news. There is also an app for The New York Times News Quiz to test your news IQ.

The list of potential apps is an endless one. And if you have access to a developer, you can customize applications that fit your company’s specific needs. Facebook’s principles for apps give developers insight and thoughtful guidelines. Facebook also offers a verification process for new apps that can help them gain exposure.

So whether your business is small, large or somewhere in-between, there are plenty of social applications that can engage your target audience. And remember, if you don’t like what’s out there, you can always make your own.

Editor’s Note: You can read more Oneupweb Reviews on StraightUpSocial, search and ecommerce-related reviews on our sister blog StraightUpSearch, and product-focused Oneupweb Reviews on Epinions.

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With the snow wreaking havoc on northern Michigan and the mall parking lot full this past weekend, it dawned on me: Christmas is almost here. Time to break out the eggnog, make my last-minute online purchases (complete with free shipping) and start cleaning like a madwoman for the imminent arrival of downstate relatives.

And of course, check out what the new yuletide greetings are in the social media landscape.

Last year, one of my favorite viral e-cards involved uploading a friend’s picture to see them dressed up and merrily dancing like an elf. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who found it enchanting. ElfYourself.com, brought to us from Office Max and powered by JibJab, is reported to have logged more than 193 million site visits last year.

So I decided to head over and see what was new for this year. I was pleasantly surprised.

This year, ElfYourself allows visitors to upload not just one, but five photos. And that’s not all. I was also given the option to choose the style of dance I wanted to subject my friends to: disco, Charleston, country and classic. I’m a country girl at heart, so the choice was pretty simple.

After uploading pics of five Oneupwebers, here’s what I got:

Afterwards, I was then notified of the expiration date for my custom creation, with a link to keep it forever with a $4.99 digital download.

I could also purchase custom gifts including “office supplies” such as mugs, mouse pads and more. To take a cue from Guinness: Brilliant! Office Max has created a fantastic viral campaign that accomplishes what the social media world has so far, ultimately, been lacking—a way to capitalize on the buzz and monetize the success.

I give the 2008 ElfYourself 2 thumbs up. And if you agree with me, check out Oneupweb’s NaughtyListed.com—my other favorite social site this holiday season.

Editor’s Note: You can read more Oneupweb Reviews on StraightUpSocial, search and ecommerce-related reviews on our sister blog StraightUpSearch, and product-focused Oneupweb Reviews on Epinions.

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