The beta version of Palopia is currently online; a more finalized version is slated for mid-summer. Bigelow says Palopia offers some of the same features as Facebook and MySpace, but Palopia’s distinguishing factor is that it better serves communities and organizations - such as fraternities and clubs - than any other social networking Web site.

Hmm.  And then…

It took a lot of hunting to find investors for Palopia, yet Bigelow’s networking philosophy is surprisingly simple.

Read more: “The man who tried to buy Facebook.”

I did some research on what makes sites “sticky” and wanted to share some tidbits.

People repeatedly return to sticky sites because they’re popular, memorable and inspire action; popularity is obviously a function of being memorable and inspiring someone to act.

1. Clear value: there’s an understandable value to be obtained for the user, whether the site is being visited for task-oriented or experiential purposes
2. Customization / personalization: providing status, uniqueness and utility
3. Community formation: connection to real-world interactions, feelings of exclusivity and privacy, etc.
   
4. Front-load the community with influencers who are talkative and come from a wide range of backgrounds
5. Sense of comfort and inclusion within the site and community, with the knowledge or demonstrated evidence that information is protected from malicious usage on behalf of others or the site operator
6. Dynamic content: if nothing changes, there’s no reason to return
7. Peer pressure / herd behavior
8. Straightforward: easy-to-use, simple design that’s attractive to most of the user base and target audience

Research also indicates that for some sites, stickiness causes a reduction in pageviews and navigation depth, while visit duration may remain constant.  In other words, repeat visits to a site may reduce pageviews but have no effect on pageview duration.  This occurs because users of a site tend to remember where to go and focus only on the features that appeal to them.

Congratulations to Zach Klein and Jakob Lodwick for their launch of a new version of Vimeo yesterday.

Vimeo is a video-sharing site, like YouTube — but the beauty of Vimeo is that it’s friendlier, more personal and it has a hellaciously better design. Seriously!

The true value of Vimeo (ooh, alliteration) is that you don’t get any promotional stuff uploaded (yet) onto the site through anonymous accounts. It’s a place for friends to see each other, say hey to each other and share their lives/experiences over the Web when they otherwise can’t see each other in person.

Check it out, set up an account and upload some video. You won’t be disappointed.

To learn more about how Vimeo started, read Zach’s write-up here.

During the Korean War, the U. S. Army Office of Strategic Services left a supply of condoms for the Communist Chinese to find. The condoms were specially manufactured in an extra-large size. The label on the boxes, however, said, “Made in the USA Size Medium.”

Hilarious.

Via Kawasaki’s blog.

I think software should make life easier — heck, that’s why it’s made (at least that was the original intention…it’s easy to become sidetracked like this aside is doing right now). 

But here’s one thing I’ve realized about email: it’s too easy.

As a senior at Wake Forest, I inevitably get stuff from professors and administrators about classes, graduation, etc., + whatever I get from listservs to which I’ve subscribed (or been involuntarily subscribed). 

This means I’ll inevitably get from 30 to 60 emails in a day…most about nothing or about things barely related to my direct interests.  So what inevitably happens is that the real meat — the real, hard stuff that I really want to read — gets lost in the shuffle.

I guess I should be happy that I’m so popular (haha) — I mean, heck, I could get NO emails and have my email account be a waste of hard drive space. 

Central Desktop’s blog (via SvN) has a few observations about email that make sense.  To summarize:

1. Email is easy to understand
2. Email is universal
3. Email is accessible from anywhere
4. Email can be personalized
5. Email is manageable/configurable
6. Email is searchable
7. Email is in your face
8. Email just works
9. …and my personal addition…Email is an ego-booster

For my generation…and I think for anyone using email in particular…email is flattery.  Getting something addressed to YOU stirs up a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. 

This, in addition to the fact that there is really zero cost to sending emails, brings some understanding to the fact that 62 billion emails are sent a day. 

So what’s my point?  If you’re “shooting an email” just for the heck of it, why not pick up the phone instead?  It’s more personal…and you get to use your voice, too — which is becoming less and less common these days.