As the wikipedia entry points out, single serving sites have been around as long as dancing hamsters.
And actually the idea predates the web itself, with an Internet-enabled Coke machine devised by the uber-geeks at Carnegie Mellon University as early as 1982.
But Kottke pointed out in February that between Is Lost a Repeat? and Barack Obama is Your Bicycle and about 500 other sites, single-serving sites are on fire right now.
As the wikipedia entry points out, cheap domain names and cheap hosting have made it basically free to slap something together and chuck it on the web, almost always as a joke, and to see what happens. Whether you want to provide people with a constant status on Abe Vigoda’s vital signs or help the people of earth spell “definitely“, the world is your oyster.
And now brands are getting in on the game, with Converse kicking things off with a whole set of possibly entertaining, definitely time-wasting, video-based single serving sites, each serving up one piece of content. Topics range from when the Marquette b-ball team will be back in action to tips on how to get a hot girl from a girl that’s even hotter than that girl.
The strategy is basically built around the idea of snackable content, creating lots of individual bits of content that are easy to consume and spread, with the hope that a few of them will go viral within various segments of their audience. And given the sites are all connected together, if you get people in one site, the likelihood is pretty high they’ll click the next one. It’s spread betting brought to branded entertainment. They’ve made it really easy to just enjoy some random content, brought to you by Converse.
And that same strategy is being employed by a slick little YouTube mashup that’s been rolled out by Poke New York, upl8.tv. Which makes the second branded single serving site in less than a week.
UPL8.tv is a cool idea and with a great execution. Let the wealth of random YouTube videos wash over you, hit space bar if you want to skip one. And as Iain points out over on Crackunit, it’s even programmable by URLs. 80’s pop videos?. Hockey fights? Kenny Loggins? Check, check, and check. It’s all there for the taking.
It is the best kind of single-serving site: it does one thing, really well. There’s no clutter or distraction.
Technorati Tags:
brand, buzz, engagement, innovation, marketing, trend, viral
Subscribe to *supercollider for original research and insight goodness
Hey there. Thanks for the coverage. We did another lil’ single server http://Live.pokenewyork.com about a year ago. still kicking…
rawk.
/ t
I keep listening to the news speak in regards to getting free online allow applications so i have been looking around for the most proficient web-site to get one. . Wow! thank you! I at all times wanted to write in my web-site something like that.
What an excellent piece of text! No idea how you came up with this article..it’d take me weeks. Well worth it though, I’d assume. Have you considered selling advertising space on your blog?
Just what yr would Saturn will manufacture automobiles?.
Its wonderful as your other blog posts : D, appreciate it for putting up. “Age is a function of mind over matter if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” by Leroy Robert Satchel Paige.
Funny. I live and breath classic rock and scored high 1300’s when i took the SAT a couple of years ago. Also, I came from a predominantly Spanish background
Hi there, my name is Rene Topete and I’ve got to point out that ” Converse unleashes a legion of single serving branded sites » *supercollider ” is a superb contribution.
I have been surfing on-line greater than three hours as of late, but I by no means found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It is lovely worth enough for me. In my view, if all website owners and bloggers made good content material as you did, the web can be much more helpful than ever before.
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I in finding It really helpful & it helped me out a lot. I am hoping to provide one thing again and help others such as you aided me.
Have you ever thought about adding a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and everything. But think about if you added some great photos or videos to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and clips, this website could definitely be one of the greatest in its field. Very good blog!
Very effectively written information Will probably be invaluable to anyone who usess it, including myself Keep up the good work – for positive i’ll check out extra posts.