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Mooziko, the African YouTube

Alice Backer · 22:33 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Le Blog de PKJ Agency, a blog that “casts a global look at the African Internet,” weighed the pros and cons of Mooziko, the African YouTube, this week and stirred up some debate in the process. Says the blog:

Alors que Youtube vient de se faire racheter pour la modique somme de 1,65 milliard de dollars. Je viens de découvrir son petit frère africain Mooziko via le site Africa2point0.com. Le site a intégré de nombreuses fonctionnalités 2.0 et je suis assez impressionné par le service proposé. … Néanmoins j’ai quelques critiques à ce sujet:

* Trop de publicité
… Lorsque l’on consulte une vidéo on voit presque plus de pubs que de contenu réel à l’écran.
* Nouvelle fenêtre pour la vidéo
Pourquoi ne pas afficher la vidéo dans la même fenêtre de navigation ? …
* Lien direct vers la vidéo
Je pense que le site gagnerait à avoir des liens directs vers les vidéos pour accélerer le buzz marketing. Les gens sont plus enclins à fournir un lien direct qu’à envoyer un lien vers une page contenant la présentation de la vidéo et à ajouter dans leur message “Clique sur le bouton play, tu vas voir c’est formidable !!”.

While YouTube was just purchased for a whopping $1.65 Billion, I just found out about Mooziko, its African little brother via the site Africa2point0.com. The site contains a lot of 2.0 features and I am pretty impressed by the proposed service. … I do however have some comments/suggestions for them:

* Too much publicity
…When you watch a video, you almost see more commercials than actual content on the screen.
* New window for each video
Why not show videos in the main navigation window? …
* Direct link to video
I think the site would benefit from having direct links to videos to accelerate the marketing buzz. People are more inclined to send a direct link than to send a link to a page containing the video and adding in their message “click on the play button, you'll see it's great!!”.

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Links for Sun, 2006-10

Americas

Le Blog de [Moi] thinks back nostalgically (Fr) on a dance with a special woman she met for a couple of minutes in her twenties at a gay dance before the woman returned to her male companion.

Americas

Proyecto Colombia celebrates the discovery of a new bird species in the cloud forest of the Santander province. The bird proudly flashes its colors, which match those of the Colombian flag.

Americas

Ecuador Elige [ES], a group blog with 13 contributors followed the Presidential elections in Ecuador throughout the day. The site posts partial results and early reactions. Early results show Alvaro Noboa and Rafael Correa as moving onto the 2nd run-off round.

Sub-Saharan Africa

LSZ Blog describes (Fr) La Diagonale des Fous, [Diagonal of the Crazies] an annual hike across the local volcano. He explains that every year “they assemble in a small town in the southeast of the island, with the obsessive idea of reaching the other side of the island as fast as they can and by foot. A mysterious fascination pushes them to … be hot by day, cold by night, … be sleepy, have hurting feet … to finally reach the Indian Ocean after a diagonal of 140km. They have prepared for months.” This year is the 14th Diagonale.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Pierrot Dupuy laments (Fr) that despite a tactical 30 cent increase in cigarette prices, cigarette consumption in Reunion has not decreased. He concludes: “Since the stated goal of the hike was to lower consumption, we have to admit that the powers that be have failed.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

France-based Togolese blogger Kangni Alem writes (Fr): “France is going to progressively completely forbid tobacco smoking in public places. Thank God. To say I had no problem with public smoking would be a lie.” Tony, a commentator to the blog responds (Fr): ” In Africa smokers will continue to have a field day for at least another century.”