It's that time of year agaaain! From Dec. 20-31, we'll be releasing 10 questions a day into our news quiz looking back at notable events of 2008. That's 12 months of goodness totaling 120 questions.
For anyone disconnecting over the holidays, the year in review questions will stay live through Jan. 5.
Josh, our Lead Developer, has volunteered to talk and host The SF Ruby Meetup Group right here at our Maiden Lane headquarters tomorrow night. Daniel thinks he's off the hook, but he'll be there, too. The subject of the meeting will be Scaling Rails in which he'll talk about our experience (and by this I mean our development team) scaling our quiz during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
BTW: I was really tempted to write "I <3 Rubyes" as the headline but I guess I'll leave that for a custom print t-shirt. :)
Big day in the U.S. today ... The whole world is paying attention to what may be the most important presidential election in recent history. Though at this time the race is not over, it's clear that the Internet has played a central role the 2008 campaign and positions itself as a big (huge) winner. It's possible that this view from our San Francisco-based office is slightly subjective, but there is no doubt that the access to real-time information and mobile devices have encouraged people to participate, speak up, act, share, link, comment, connect.
We're happy to be part of this.
In the past month, our 2008 Elections Quiz has gotten noticed in a few client sites around the States: The Detroit Free Press, The Washington Times and the Miami Herald. Across sites, more than 10,000 new player accounts have been created... People from different party lines have given our quiz their vote of confidence by playing for hours at a time and for more than 30 minutes on average. No, we're not kidding. :)
We've been checking out our stats between the sites running the Election Quiz and it's interesting to note that though Democrats overall beat out Republicans on the Detroit Free Press and the Miami Herald sites in percentage of answers correct, percentage-wise Republicans on the Washington Times site beat out all groups on all sites.
In terms of questions, most of you did not know that Harry Truman (and not George Bush) had the lowest approval ratings in the history of the US presidency. Give 'em hell, Harry's rating was all of 22%, compared to Dubya's 24% from this September. The hardest question was that William Taft fared the worst in seeking re-election. The guy only had 8 electoral votes in 1912!
Many of the most difficult questions were historical trivia, but fun tidbits from the candidates, like Joe Biden claiming to never have had a drink, proved fairly difficult as well. Though a few questions were answered correctly by all users, there weren't any questions that all of you got wrong (rats!).
No one got all 50 buttons, but "mark b," an Independent immortalized on Mount Rushmore on the Detroit Free Press came the closest with 49.
Our 2008 Election Quiz is gaining some exposure (very mucho muy welcome) as it goes live in the Sunshine State at the Miami Herald. It's great timing as Florida takes center stage heading into the final week of the presidential campaign.
Another Web site is live with our 2008 Election Quiz, this time on the East Coast. The client is the Washington Times and you can test your political IQ here.
So, now we're wondering how they'll fare against the Midwest users over at the Detroit Free Press. We hope that the West Coast sites come aboard soon, too. Hint, hint!
At times when our attention span escapes we stumble upon fun / cool / interesting things... since we're all talking elections and more elections, an Elections wordle is in order :)
Image of http://wordle.net/
It's live. Our 2008 US Election Quiz is live. Show off your campaign knowledge and pick up some US history trivia along the way over here.
We launched Oct. 7 with 200 questions and have been adding 10 new ones six days a week. We plan to keep that up right up to election day.
The quiz is similar to Deadline and the Olympics one but we've introduced the idea of campaign buttons, which you collect as you move up the ranks. You can modify your profile settings to display a button in your collection, too.
You'll be off to a good start if you've been watching the debates since we've created a good chunk of questions based on the debates. And don't forget that we gave a you a few freebies in our last post.
Day in and day out, our entire Newzwag staff is tracking down each and every news tidbit you might find interesting (Example: "Japanese Aquarium Puts Dolphins on Weight-Loss Program").
And because of this constant hunt for news, we inevitably run into US election coverage every 6 nano-seconds (Seriously, I can't go buy a pack of smokes without running into 9 people trying to register me to vote - am Canadian, can't vote, stop asking me you hipster idiot).
So it's only natural that after being bombarded by constant coverage of the 2008 presidential election, that we decided to create an entire quiz devoted to the lengthy and intricate maze that is the crazy world of presidential politics.
To be sure, this has been no easy task. If you think politicians are good at not answering journalists' questions, try creating questions based off those non-answers. Miraculously, we have managed to accomplish this monstrous feat.
And just to entice you, Dear Reader, here a few kernels of presidential-awesome we've learned while creating our new quiz:
And on top of all that, we've even got questions on issues ("It's the economy, stupid"), the workings of government (apparently the Electoral College is NOT a school for would-be politicians), and day-to-day election coverage (another candidate mangled the English language!).
So stay tuned for the debut of our totally super awesome, and always informative/fun/hilarious Newzwag 2008 Presidential Election Quiz.
We are now live on ESPN too. Yipeeeeeeeee!
Take our Olympics quiz and challenge your friends.
By: (Bo) and [Rob] and <Sara>
The only way I MIGHT lose a bar trivia night that has an Olympics category is if I'm playing against Rob Ready [and he is still standing upright without slurring his speech]. Why? Because this editorial team knows everything, EVERYTHING [seriously, like everything] there is to know about the Olympics--Olympic history, why Francisco Lazaro didn't finish the 1912 Games (he died), how Olympic basketball isn't the same as NBA basketball (something only Tony would know), and which googly-eyed mascot belongs where <"I can't help it. I like cute.">. We've got it down. But it's been a marathon of a process (ask Tom).
I knew nothing about sports or the athletes for Beijing 2008 when we were told, "Make Olympic questions for an Olympic quiz." It was a painstaking, fact-checking, guessing, brain-racking process, all of which lead up to one question: What is interesting about the Olympics?
Then it turned into a "What is true about the Olympics?" What do you mean the 1980 Moscow Games weren't the first to be boycotted? It says so, right here, on the Internets! What do you mean this American isn't competing for America? Americans ALWAYS compete for America ... that's why we're Americans! Yaaaarrrrr!
Breathe. Cry a little. Drink some beer [the latter an ancient Canadian tradition].
And, we're back.
On top of our regular Deadline duties, we've been stockpiling trivia about the Olympics in an attempt to separate out the fanboys jumping on the Olympic '08 bandwagon from the real Olympic hardliner fans [Note: Bo is a total fanboy] (Thanks, Rob). We admit, it's a tough quiz, though from the number of 100% we've seen, you wouldn't know it (people are much smarter than ... well ... me).
Some notes on the Olympics quiz: We kept the politics out of this one. We left them for you in Deadline, but the Oly quiz is sports-flavored, athlete-focused. We also had to write most of the extended answers this time around, so we had to be a little more creative [Response upon being asked to actually write something: "I am illiterate."].
We really couldn't have done it without Tom. He made more Oly questions than all of your other editors (those lazy gits). Also, we can't forget Maureen, our underpaid ("volunteer," we call it) intern this summer who actually went to the library and checked out Olympics books for us (cute).
And the content is amazing and all (thank you, thank you), but our quiz questions wouldn't be half as much fun without the cheats, bling and what-have-you, courtesy of our boys in Dev.
They've been working strange hours, running back and forth working on stuff while we look on haplessly and feel a little useless (that could just be me). This week has reduced them from our chillax dev gurus to incarcerated, pizza-eating, computer vampires. Mad props and much love, guys. They rock hard.
Anyways, take the quiz. And enjoy the Games.
Live now:
In the US http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/trivia
In Australia http://media.foxsports.com.au/multimedia/2008/07/olympics-quiz/
In India http://sify.com/sports/olympics/olympicsQuiz.php
In South Africa http://sport.iafrica.com/beijing2008/quizz/
P.S. Our motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius, Bar Trivius Drinksus
Newzwag's interactive version of the Olympics quiz is live in Australia and boy, the Aussies are having fun playing. They're spending an average of 17min playing according to our stats. Go ahead, "Pit your wits and find out just how good your Olympic knowledge really is, or challenge a friend and go head-to-head to determine who knows the most when it come to the Games."
In Australia, the games live here Interactive Olympics Quiz.
Summer Games Trivia at Yahoo! Sports Tests Your Olympic Mettle
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 7, 2008 - Summer Games Trivia, a newly minted online application from Newzwag, a subsidiary of Agence France-Presse (AFP), is available on Yahoo! Sports throughout the month of August. The new game synthesizes news stories and photos from the AFP's media machine into a challenging, entertaining and addictive game focused on Olympic sports and athletes, both past and present.
Newzwag's Summer Games Trivia on Yahoo! Sports makes the news engagement application about the Olympics available to the Internet's largest audience of sports fans. The game resides on Yahoo! Sports' newly launched website dedicated to covering the Summer Games at http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/trivia.
Summer Games Trivia has many appealing features that enhance community and social interaction. You earn cheats to get ahead on the leader board and you can smack talk your friends about your ranking. The game is free to anyone who wants to play, with no strings attached (you don't have to buy anything or get spammed after playing). The content is updated in real time, so no trivia stone goes unturned throughout the run of the Games. You can invite your friends to play or compete with complete strangers, all the while gaining critical Olympic knowledge you can insert into any conversation or bring up at family gatherings.
As Newzwag's first large-scale foray into the social media space, Summer Games Trivia is just a taste of what is to come, with more applications being introduced over the next year related to relevant cultural events and themes.
About Newzwag
Newzwag is a subsidiary of Agence France-Presse (AFP). The company develops technologies and ideas that bring one of the world's richest news resources to the rapidly evolving world of social media. For more information, check out www.newzwag.com.
About Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Agence France-Presse is a global media company providing real-time news coverage 24/7 with a worldwide network of more than 3,000 journalists and stringers spanning 165 countries. AFP covers the full spectrum of world events, from politics and general news to sports, business, entertainment, health and science. For more information, visit www.afp.com.
Olympic, Olympiad, the Olympic rings, Beijing 2008 and related marks are owned by the International Olympics Committee, the Chinese Olympic Committee, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, or their related entities. AFP, Newzwag, Yahoo! and Summer Games Trivia are neither endorsed by nor affiliated with any of the Olympic entities.
Contact:
Bronagh Hanley
Bronagh@bignoisepr.com
415-314-7262
This summer, all eyes turn to China. Even if we've never watched a game or looked at sports pages, the beauty and the drama of the Olympic Games make everyone in the world a sports fan. Who can forget Nadia Comaneci's perfect score during the 1976 Montreal Olympics? Even though I hadn't even been born when she accomplished such feat, she was my idol! Olympic news spans the globe, from Romania to Montreal, to Colombia (Col-O-mbia with an 'o') where I grew up; Olympic legends live in our hearts forever.
AFP clients jumped at the opportunity to go beyond the news to get into social gaming with our Olympics version of Deadline which goes live next week on a couple of high-profile web properties (all I can say for now).
At this stage, the quiz includes biographical and historical information about past and present athletes and Games. It tests player's knowledge about the Olympic sports and news -- both on and of the field -- and events from the run-up to the Beijing games. With the start of the games, the quiz will incorporate news from each day's events, drawing players back to test their skills on a daily basis.
We are leveraging people's competitive spirit and their desire to keep up-to-date with the whirlwind of news events. We know our players enjoy the thrill of competing, the opportunity to learn while they play and yes, to brag to their friends too. Go ahead, train your brain.
After months of experimenting on social networks we'll soon be offering AFP clients fun and informative social applications. We are taking Deadline to AFP's media clients as an add-on to AFP's Olympic products, which will enable clients to engage audiences in more meaningful ways. (btw: the app won't be called Deadline anymore)
It's an exciting time for Newzwag. We are remixing tradition with modern practices by tapping into AFP's services and bringing premium Olympic coverage to new audiences through the quiz. We're confident the infrastructure of the game will help clients build community and encourage people to participate and interact.
Stay tuned for more info on Newzwag's experiments and growth.
We just released the first version of our most comprehensive news application to date.
Fuel News allows you to engage with the news and each other. It's a place where you can deepen your knowledge, and discover the stories you might have missed.
From browsing to voting, to commenting, bookmarking and sharing, Fuel News is social news right on Facebook.
Check it out at: apps.facebook.com/fuelnews
Jon Dillon, CEO
Josh Schwartzman, Lead Developer
Daniel Lockhart, Software Developer
Rob Fracisco, UI Developer
T.J. Simoneaux, Editor
Bo Kim, Editor
Rob Ready, Editor
Sara O., Editor
Deadline is now live on Facebook. It's Newzwag's first news applications on your favorite social network.
Deadline is a game of non-trivial pursuit. A quiz to test your wits and discover who knows what's happening in the world - and who doesn't... If the pressure gets too much, we'll even help you cheat.
Play at: apps.facebook.com/deadline
Continue reading Deadline live on Facebook Platform.
Newzwag is a San Francisco-based company funded by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
We develop technologies and ideas that bring one of the world's richest news resources to the rapidly evolving world of social media.
With a mix of modern spin and attitude, we hope to entice people to connect with the news, and each other. Newzwag encourages engagement through innovative applications that let people test their knowledge about the world and share what interests them with others. It sparks conversation, fires up debate, and gets people passionate about the news again.
Our corporate contact info:
Newzwag, LLC.
16 Maiden Lane, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
T: (415) 262-1400
F: (415) 262-9967
Newzwag is a San Francisco-based company funded by Agence France-Presse (AFP). We develop technologies and ideas that bring one of the world's richest news resources to the rapidly evolving world of social media.
The lowdown on Motown ... Newzwag goes live on Freep.com
We're out of the gate at SF Gate!
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