When I first started using Google back when I was at school I never realised what Froogle was. It was only a year or so ago that curiosity got the best of me!

Froogle has been replaced! Well not exactly, just re-branded and given a new lease of life.

Froogle started off as one of Googles first spin-off for their search engine back in 2000. It obviously proved to be successful as they kept it! But it didnt really make sense to keep it as Froogle as all the new products use “Google” in the name at somepoint.

So now when I go to Google’s front page there will be a table with the brand new name…

Google Product Search

So simple!

Not only has the name changed but the layout has too. It is now more in-keping with the other sites Google host. The user interface has been simplified with not such a mess of products shown back to you.

Overal its such a simple change but will make the whole site alot easier to understand.

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How many YouTube spinoffs are being generated at the moment? ALOT is the answer. Alot of startups are aiming at the conent that YouTube will not allow. (whilst still being legal).

The latest of these spin-offs is ScrewTube. At the moment it is just a 1 page website but according to TechCrunch the main focus of their content will be pornographic and sex related videos. Some people might find the site immoral but there will deffinitely be an audience out there that will be interest. But, there is already a site out there, PornoTube has been out for quite a while and is already reached a high Alexa Ranking.

Another spin-off is GodTube. Described in their “About Us” page

GodTube utilizes Web based technology to connect Christians for the purpose of encouraging and advancing the Gospel worldwide.

It seemed a simple idea but it proved very successful so shortly after the site was launched YouTube itself added its own religious channels.

So whats coming next? We will just have to wait and find out. You will hear about it here on TechJuicer!

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A few weeks ago PhotoBucket video and MySpace users got a shock when MySpace blocked all video content. PhotoBucket soon after released this blog message.

The reasons for MySpace doing this are unclear. There have been a few theories expressed in blogs and news sites.

It could have been a massive warning to all other widget making sites just warning them that althought users can add virtually anything to their profiles, MySpace still has the power and is still in charge of all their content.

Another possible reason coule be as a warning to any company wanting to earn money from MySpace. Quite a few widget companies have the ability to add advertising into their products, including photobuck, AdBrite InVideo and BritePic for example.

Photobuckets Alexa stats seem to still be on the increase even after this incident.

It seemed the action they took must have had quite a backlash as less then 2 weeks later all Photobucket videos are all unbanned. It could be due to a reasonable proportion of the 40 million plus users Photobucket giving MySpace their honest feedback.

So this event does just seem to be a warning rather then a full-on war. Although, the press that was centrered around this case was all bad for MySpace. People say all publicity is good publicity, but after this case the negative impact on MySpaces’ users perception doesn’t seem to be increasing.

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Spawned from the advertising network AdBrite, BritePic might well revolutionize the way bloggers and social networking sites display their images.

Adbrite is one of the top advertising networks that had a wide variety of ways advertising can be displayed on websites. This new tool is the next step that as far as I can see no one has taken yet. See an example below of the BritePic tool.

As you can see it looks like a normal image but with interactive features and in-build advertising. Check out this promotional video.

I used BritePic on one of my other websits and it was really simple to integrate. I used it in a social networking site proving that even with dynamic content BritePic works absolutely fine.

The Adbite technology has been put to a really good use in this product. It has only been available for a few weeks but I can imagine it catching on really fast.

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