yooRyoo fans: we apologize for our unexpected haitus since last week. Because we were unable to provide you with an update last Friday, we bring to you today our ever-popular “Friday Fishwrap” feature…but on a Monday! “Friday Fishwrap” is where we reveal to you the results of our “Is It Real?” feature from the previous Sunday, and then share a fun video from the World Wide Web for you to enjoy!

Our last “Is It Real?” posting featured a new iPhone application created a 3D, holographic animation on the iPhone that moved when you moved the phone. It was aptly named “iHologram” and was available through the iTunes app store. It’s hard to describe in words, but it really is cool to see it in action - watch the video in our last post, to get a sense of what it is!

We then asked you to vote on the authenticity of the application. Here are the poll results:

• 50% of you thought that while it looked cool, it wasn’t real
• 40% of you thought it was real, and want to download it to your iPhones
• 10% of you were undecided

The actual truth: while it is a great concept, the iHologram is not yet real! To quote a story from Gizmodo about the iHologram:

The amazingly convincing 3D anamorphosis app iHologram turns out to be just a technology demonstrator rendering rather than a real app. Its developer, David O’Reilly, apparently wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes with the cool clip of the strolling cat, but just demonstrate how the 3D effect could be made to work. He’s up for collaboration “with a developer or studio who wants to make it happen,” for real, though.

I can’t wait to get it when it is real! So, for now we are just with a cool video to demonstrate the concept.

Speaking of cool videos: today, in a crazy celebration to Web 2.0, we proudly present an over five minute video called: “5000 Web Apps in 333 Seconds”…check to see if you can find your favorite in this crazy kaliedoscope of all things good about the web!

Rest assured, yooRyoo is back on track and tune in tomorrow for a very new satirical Web 2.0 posting. Until then, have a great Monday everyone!

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Happy Sunday, yooRyoo readers. Today we present another verson of “Is It Real?” - the web 2.0 guessing game that’s sweeping the nation! Here’s how the rules work - every Sunday, we feature a web 2.0 company, application or service and give you a brief description of what it is and how it works. Then we ask our readers to vote on whether it is real, or not.

The twist is that you cannot use the web in anyway to help you find the answer. The voting polls stay open all week (encourage your friends to come out and vote). Then, the following Friday (in our Friday Fishwrap) we reveal the answer.

So, now that you understand the rules, let’s introduce today’s application - called “iHologram.”

This iPhone application is a 3D animation program, and works by assuming a constant viewing angle (35-45 degrees), typical for when the device is placed on a tabletop. The 3d scene’s perspective is then warped using anamorphic perspective, making the object appear to jump off the screen.

It’s hard to describe - it might be better just to see it in action:

While not available through the iTunes appstore yet, interest in the iHologram is high and sales are expected to go through the roof!

So, yooRyoo readers, we ask: without searching Google or using the web in any way, Is iHologram real? Vote below and tune in next Friday for the results.

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Happy Friday, yooRyoo denizens! It’s been a crazy Web 2.0 week (particularly if you own a Sarah Palin website or blog). Judging by the web activity this last week, I expect this to be an interesting election cycle online.

Every Friday, on our Friday Fishwrap, yooRyoo presents the results of our “Is It Real?” poll from the previous Sunday, and then shares with you a fun, interesting video about Web 2.0. So, let’s get started:

Last Sunday, we featured a company called MyGlu - a web 2.0 open-source API that allows users the ability to thread together status updates and the like from a variety of social network sites. It’s all presented in a single, dashboard-like intereface. Then, we asked you to vote if the company is indeed real. Here are the survey results:

• 50% of you thought that MyGlu was real
• 50% thought that MyGlu might be real
• No one thought that MyGlu was fake.

Well, in all actuality, MyGlu is indeed a fake, made-up company - everyone was wrong! I guess it is believable that a service like MyGlu can exist (particularly since there are too many social networking sites in this day and age - I belong to seven myself - SEVEN!!!). Well, who knows what the future of the web will hold…

Which is a nice transition to today’s video. It’s entitled “Internet 1994” and features the cool, “new” possibilities of what the web could be. Sometimes it’s interesting to reflect that a mere 14 years ago, the web was filled with static webpages, indexed in categories by Yahoo! and Alta Vista. This video is a quaint, retro reminder of this new technology - enjoy!

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Happy Sunday - the weekend is almost over. But before you head back to work, make sure to vote on today’s Is It Real? contender.

For those of you new to Is It Real?, it’s a simple concept: we provide a company name and description, and your job - if you choose to accept it - is to vote on if you think it is a real company or not. We tally your votes all week long, and reveal the real answer on Friday.

One caveat - you cannot use the internet in anyway to help guess your answer. Ready? Then let’s get started:

Today’s company is called MyGlu - a web 2.0 open-source API that allows users to begin threading together information from a variety of social network sites, and presents it in a single dashboard-like interface. Taken from the website directly, here is a brief description of their services:

No two social networks are alike. Taking this into account, MyGlu is designed to aggregate key information from all these sites, and give users an easy-interface to share and update data.

With already existing APIs for MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Friend-Feed and Spokeo (to name a few), MyGlu is a much-needed application is the clouded web 2.0 space.

So friends, we must ask - Is MyGlu Real?

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Happy Friday, everyone. You made it through a shortened work-week. Typically, on Friday Fishwrap we not only feature a cool, web 2.0 video, we also share with you the results of our “Is It Real?” survey. Since last Sunday, we had a very special “OMG - it IS real!!“ edition, there are no poll results to share. So, straight to the video…

Today’s video is called “Evolution of the Cell Phone” which I found on the great site 5min. Enjoy and have a safe weekend. And don’t forget to tune in this Sunday for a new “Is It Real?“…

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Fans of “Is It Real?” might have noticed a recent trend where most of our “Is It Real?” features are indeed real. That is not only a testament to the wide-breadth of companies on our Web 2.0 world, it also speaks to the strangeness of it all. In fact, a recent set of Google searches has revealed a number of the satirical companies that we created actually do exist!

To that end, today we are featuring a few of those companies. No polls this week - but be sure to tune in next Sunday for a brand new version of “Is It Real?“…

yooRyoo created company #1: Triangle Hero

Introduced on June 12, Triangle Hero was a parody of Guitar Hero, but with a less-sexy instrument. Designed to teach players how to patiently wait through 138 bars of rest in symphonic pieces before playing your triangle controller, we thought it was a smarmy commentary on those crazy instrument games. Well we weren’t the only ones…

The Cartoon Network started featuring this commercial for a suspiciously similar game…

yooRyoo created company #2: Toot and Toot 2.0

Created as a rip on Twitter, Toot (and Toot 2.0 - now available for the iPhone 3G!) is a faux company designed to provide your health updates to subscribed friends through a micro-blogging service. Now you can Toot all day long, and no one will be the wiser!

Did you know there’s a real Toot company? We didn’t either…here’s a description of their services:

Toot! is software for making rich résumés and portfolios.

A rich résumé includes examples of your work. It exchanges the dry chronology of dates, companies, job titles and duties for an enriched résumé with actual pieces of your work that prove you know your stuff. Those pieces can be presentations, reports, plans, lesson plans, budgets, schematics, art, music, dance — anything you can render in digital form.

A portfolio is a trove of your work, collected over time with reflections about each piece. With Toot!, you can keep an on-going record of your life, including artifacts from all its aspects — work, education, hobbies, family, vacations, etc. When it comes time to create a résumé for a specific opening, you can select those pieces from your portfolio that best exemplify your qualifications for the position.

yooRyoo created company #3: iClock

With Web 2.0 parody, Apple’s “i” series (iPod, iTouch, iPhone, etc.) is an easy target. yooRyoo imagined a time (hah!) when Steve jobs would create a clock where he could control - and enhance - the time-tracking experience.

However, there really is an iClock application. Here’s a review:

iClock’s simple, intuitive interface never lets me down. With a quick glance at the pull-down menu, I can see what time it is where I am….where I’m going…and where I’ve been. With another click, I can check the weather at my next destination. Its so much more than a digital timepiece for the Mac.

yooRyoo created company #4: the gPhone

In a clever twist to combat the popularity of the gPhone, yooRyoo introduced on July 22nd, our “open-source” version of a Google-created phone, called the gPhone. Ultimately, the gPhone is designed to do one thing really well - make phone calls! In addition, we added a feature called “I’m feeling lucky” which randomly calls people - it’s like the Web 2.0 version of drunk-dialing.

Since we debuted this clever satire piece, many people have started calling Google’s upcoming Android phone the “gPhone” (yes, Google is really creating a smart phone). We’ll take credit for where credit is due. Here are a few gPhone links:

• gPhone Finally Coming. About Time (published Aug 14th)
• iPhone and gPhone shakes up wireless world (published Aug 21)
• New g-Phone semi-revealed? (published Aug 26th)

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It’s clear that since we launched yooRyoo in mid-June, we’ve already had an impact on how technology is evolving. Stay tuned for more “OMG - It IS real!!” features in the future. Have a great rest of the weekend.

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Happy Friday before a three day weekend! As always, on Friday, we at yooRyoo share the results of last Sunday’s “Is It Real?” poll and then share a funny, relevant video making fun of Web 2.0. Today - as an added bonus for this extended weekend - we’ll also share some additional technology links that we find to be pretty funny.

First, let’s reveal the answer to “Is It Real?” - last Sunday, we highlighted a company called Estilook - a Portugeuse fashion site that allows people worldwide to judge other people’s fashion sense. A brief company description:

Estilook is an innovative social community directed toward people who have proper style. Our mission is to provide a democratic space where people of some countries, cultures can show and share its styles, interacting with other users of similar interests.

We asked you to vote, and vote you did - all week long. But now the polls are closed and here are the results:

• 60% of you thought it was real
• 20% said no
• 20% said they didn’t know

This just goes to show - once again - that you readers are great at separating the real companies from the fake ones. Estilook is indeed real - check out their website at: www.estilook.com

Enjoy the start of this long weekend with a funny British skit from YouTube called “FaceBook in Reality”…

Added bonus - extra-special content!!!!

As I mentioned, we found that MSN posted a few links in their Technology section this week.  While these postings had nothing to do with us, I am sure the MSN editors secretly visit our site and were inspired by yooRyoo.

They’re worth a look (even though the interface leaves something to be desired…what can you expect from Microsoft).

• Web 2.0’s Most Ridiculous Sites
• The Web’s 10 Weirdest Social Networks

Incidentally, these links were forwarded to us by our good friend, and loyal reader, Jim Merrion (thanks for sending our way, Jim!). Feel free to submit your ideas at any time through our Submission button.

Come back this Sunday for a brand new posting of “Is It Real?” - and have a great weekend!

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The latest Internet Photo Hoax has suddenly surfaced this morning, and is already causing a viral movement throughout Flickr, YouTube, SmugMug and other online media-sharing devices.

Crudely titled “Man on top of mountain with mountain goats,” this photo clearly illustrates the danger of letting amateurs use Photoshop:

This photo of a “seemingly normal” Colorado resident summiting a “14er” (a mountain that is over 14,000 feet) is eerily similar to the much-circulated - and decidedly fake -  “Tourist on top of World trade Center as jetliner is about to crash” photo:

Photoshopping Photos is unethical

The caption featured under the Coloradan’s photo reads: “So out of or group of five, I was the only person to make it to the top of Quandary, a “14er” near Breckenridge.”

Other people in his hiking party have already disagreed online, through various blogs and wikis.

For example, another anonymous poster (suspected of being his brother, Rod) wrote: “There’s no way he made it. All of us turned back, either because of illness, injuries and the impending storm. He says the storm headed south and missed the summit. I don’t believe it.”

Another blogger, JoMaz (John Martinez) also disagreed with the veracity of the photo: “C’mon, he has a mountain goat just behind him. Mountain goats are shy creatures that are not known to get that close to humans. Are you trying to tell me he got within five feet of one. Nonsense.”

The hiker in the photo, Wang Zen, posted this response on Valleywag, and other citizen journalism sites: “Look, I’m one of 50 people summiting that day. There were goats at the top, and that made it that much more magical. All their comments are sour grapes because they wimped out. I mean, it’s not like I had a shark jumping out of the water at me, or that fake guy on top of the world trade center with the jetliner about to hit the building. I mean, why PhotoShop a goat just behind me? That would be ridiculous!

Investigators are looking into evidence of doctoring, such as the use of the “cloning” tool and the “blend” tool. Investigator John Jingleheimersmidt, who investigated the fake Reuters photographs by Adnan Hajj remarked, “I don’t know, looks real to me.”

Meanwhile, the purported people behind the Bigfoot scandal and the Montauk Monster hullaballo have allegedly contacted WangZen to discuss an upcoming project.

UPDATE - 11:46am MST:

Breaking news from the AP indicates that Wangzen is a noted photo-manipulator. Investigators have seized his computer, and confiscated the following photo as proof of his shenanigans:

“It’s clearly a hoax. You’ll note the arrow signs on either side of his head that almost mock viewers of these photos, like he’s stating we have nothing between our ears,” says Detective Phil Collins (no relation) of Denver. “Moreover, the purported magazine - “Rocky Mountain Cyclist” - doesn’t even exist!”

Det. Collins added: “And that unzipped shirt is terribly offensive. This Wangzen guy is clearly a menace to society and should be promtply arrested!”

At the time of this writing, Wangzen is still at large, thought to have fled the state heading eastward. Who knows what future Photoshopping he will do.

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Today, in our regular “Is It Real?” posting, we’ll present to you a Web 2.0 company/service, and then we’ll ask you - the readers - to vote if it is real or not. But first, let’s ask an important question that might be plaguing readers of our site - why should you vote?

The answer is simple - Web 2.0 is great because it provides openess and true democratization to the web. However, because of this, it’s also very scary! Some things on Web 2.0 just shouldn’t exist. And you, as a savvy Web 2.0 consumer, must be sure where to spend your precious time on the web. Because, Google is watching you and ready to serve up ads based on the kind of sites you frequent! Big Brother is Watching!!!

So, with that, let’s get into this week’s Is It Real? -

Estilook - a social networking site designed to allow community members to have “fun” while judging other people’s design and fashion!! This Portugal-based Web 2.0 company allows you to:

• Share your style by uploading your pictures and looks
• Have fun knowing and voting in outfits of people from different companies
• Keep track of trends  and news to aggregate even more style while dressing up

Here is a rough (online) translation of their company mission (translated from Portuguese):

Estilook is an innovative social community directed toward people who have proper style. Our mission is to provide a democratic space where people of some countries, cultures can show and share its styles, interacting with other users of similar interests.
Professionals and not lovers of fashion are welcome to the site. Estilook Is a place where common people can learn to dress in accordance with proper style, can make uploads of these looks, to think on different appearances, to be aware of trends, events in the area and much more.

Simply put - this is Web 2.0 fashion police community! What more could one ask for?

So, readers, I ask of you: Is Estilook Real? Take a second to vote below:

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Happy Friday!! It’s that time of the week where we learn whether our last Sunday’s “Is It Real?” is actually a real company, and watch a few funny videos in yooRyoo’s weekly wrap-up called The Friday Fishwrap!

Last Sunday, we featured one of our most highly-contested “Is It Real?” companies to date - a social networking site centered around David Hasselhoff - Hoffspace. A brief description was provided (by the Hoff himself):

“While two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me… So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me.”

It was hard to tell if it was real or not, and all week long, the voting went back and forth from yes to no. During that week, Hoffspace was declared a violation of international internet domain, and then Chuck Norris rose to defend it. What a week - and here are the final vote results are:

• 46% of you voted yes (and must be big fans of David Hasselhoff)
• 38% of you voted no (and swore to poke their eyes out if it were true)
• 16% of you voted maybe (and seemed to be confused by the whole matter

The real answer: Hoffspace is indeed true (yep, get those sharp sticks ready, those of you who voted no). You can find out more at David Hasselhoff’s own website: www.davidhasselhoff.com. In fact, we should all go out and create your very own Hoffspace profile, and upload videos of how much we love (or hate - in a blinding, hating way) this idea?!?

Tune in this upcoming Sunday for a new edition of “Is It Real?” and until then, enjoy these great videos of Stephen Colbert insulting various towns named Canton in the US:

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