Yesterday, I received an email notification that Next2Friends is now in Beta. This is the latest social network portal on the web. I registered myself. Surprised? Me, who did not even join FaceBook, the site that practically everyone and his dog joined? Well, prizes like iPods and laptops sure can drive membership!

However, I don’t think they mentioned how these prizes will be dispersed. Perhaps they are given to those who sign up the most new members or something like that and so that means I don’t even stand a chance because I don’t like spamming my friends and family with email invites to register with this or that website.

With so many social networking portals to expand our social circle, really, it is not easy not to have friends nowadays, even if they are only virtual ones but then friendship has to start somewhere, right?

If you are curious to know what Next2Friends could offer you that Friendster, MySpace, Facebook and every other social network portals in between have not been offering, then you will have to hop over to Next2Friends to read about them because I am not going to write them here.

I used my iPhone and Nokia E61i as if they were a desktop and laptop just now when there was a power disruption in my home. After more than two hours in the dark staring at the ultra bright screen, I tell you, I am ready to puke. I don’t feel well at the best of times when I over strain my eyes but just now, it was worse.

It was not as if there was anything I could do and it made me realise that even with technology in your hands, without electricity, they are useless. I mean, I have two computers and two internet lines and two mobile devices but I had no electricity to power them.

Sure, you could say that we can depend on the battery but for how long? My iPhone was almost flat and I didn’t do much except to reply to a few emails, surf a little, play a little Reversi and listen to music.

UUgghh my eyes are crossed already!

I know some of my friends are already sick and tired of AdWords and Yahoo! While Yahoo! has been kind to us bloggers, the other company, which runs AdWords has not. I know that these blogger friends who advertise heavily on AdWords have been very mad because of being unfairly penalized for passing link juice and have been looking for an alternative.

This afternoon, I was told of Adknowledge Bidsystem Marketplace. This company offers the same services that Yahoo! and Google do; distributing text-based advertisements in various targetted high traffic channels on Cost Per Click (CPC) basis at a cost of 30% lower than the other two companies. That is a significant savings, if you ask me.

Although at this point in time, Adknowledge Bidsystem is not as popular as the other two more established companies, I believe that the lower cost is attractive enough for advertisers to give this system a try. As the saying goes, “Never try, never know!”

As an advertiser, I know that your main concern would be being a victim of click fraud. This could happen no matter which company you go with. However, to counter click fraud, Adknowledge Bidsystem has implemented Click Scoring® Technology which will determine the quality of clicks and removing those that are identified as fraud clicks so you never have to pay more than necessary, hence getting a better Return On Investment (ROI).

Have you heard of the launch of IZEA Ranks today? Or was it yesterday? I tell you, this time difference is mighty confusing to me. In any case, it seems like there are bugs in the system because I saw the blog of a friend with only one unique visitor per day and also one for the three month average. It can’t be ….

I like it that the search blog input box is so intuitive. It auto-completes whatever URL you try to type in with the blogs that are already in the database. I used to worry how my blogs will rank on IZEA when it launches, but no longer. I know I could do with more traffic but it would not be making much difference to me now because although I have a handful of blogs in the system, some of them have already retired from active duty and I could not care less if anyone reads my blog since I am blogging purely for passion again.

And no, I am not so kiasu that I have to be number one. Who cares, right? At the end of the day, there will always be a first, the last and the in-betweens. It’s not like Talledega Nights where the guy lived on the motto, “If you’re not first, you’re last!”

And at the end of the day, IZEA Ranks will be just like any other ranking system. There’s more to life than worrying about where we end up in the system, right?

Oh, by the way, if you do not know yet, IZEA Ranks will rank blogs ONLY. However, I am not sure I want to implement the codes on my blogs that are not already in the IZEA system.

I have been asked if I know which the best online casinos are. Well, I don’t even know ALL the casinos so I can’t make a true comparison but the beauty of the internet technology is that if we require information, someone is always going to provide it on the web for free. This is the same case as looking for information on the best online casinos.

I got to know of an online casino guide at Dexcasinos.com which has staff who have real hands-on experience with most of the available online casinos and this team of professional online casino players will then review the casinos and rate them accordingly, taking into account factors like bonuses, customer service, quality of game and graphics, among other features that make an online casino stand out.

If you are curious to know which casinos can give you value for money and entertainment, then you are better off reading the reviews that are posted on an online casino guide like Dexcasinos.com!