Previous entry: "6-October-2001 -- The Face of Information Architecture" WebWord Home Page Next entry: "9-October-2001 -- Ex-Razorfish.com"

10/06/2001 Archived Entry: "6-October-2001 -- Bagarashi.com"

Bagarashi.com -- "Bagarashi is the first company dedicated to giving you MP3 audio versions of popular web content. At this time, we are mainly focusing on web usability, information architecture, web marketing, and related content areas." (Comments: Bagarashi.com is an extension of WebWord. You can subscribe now, but it is in beta, so please be gentle. I've loaded up all of the WebWord articles, and the interviews will be added soon, depending on the demand. For only $14.95 you can listen to over 70 articles. When you consider that the cost of most audio books is $40-50, you can really see the value. The price will go up in about a month, so subscribe now! If you are curious, don't miss the sample files. Post your comments below or send me an email.)

Replies: 11 comments

The synthetic voice is awfull, english is not my first language and I understand english spoken by people but I don't understand anything from the free samples.

Please hire someone from a recording studio.

Posted by Anonymous @ 10/08/2001 05:51 AM EST

Eh, why would I want an audio file of a WebWord article?

Print article:
1) Read it or scan it
2) Print it out and share it
3) Print it and read later
4) Print it and include in a report
5) Copy & paste text to quote in a report, e-mail, etc.
6) Highlight select quotes

(I dunno about you, but I often quote usability articles in work-related material. I can't pin an MP3 file to the office bulletin board - the cork kind).

MP3 File:
1) Listen to it while sitting in front of my computer

I don't have a portable MP3 player, nor would I want to take the time to port MP3 files to another device.

Plus, it is painfully obvious that the voice is computer generated. You have to concentrate to follow what the voice is saying. Have we made no progress in 10 years?

Posted by JS @ 10/08/2001 09:08 AM EST

Also... the comparison of WebWord MP3 files to books-on-tape is weak. The first and strongest audience of audio books is visually impaired people. I'll venture a guess that most WebWord readers are not blind.

Sure, books-on-tape have other audiences, but they're primarily then an entertainment venue for people driving in a car, resting at home, etc. I just don't see an audience for WebWord on MP3. I'll be amazed if one person subscribes.

Sorry if I sound harsh. Don't mean to be.

Posted by JS @ 10/08/2001 09:13 AM EST

Hi,

I just came across this:

WebWord.com Weblog 0048
31-Oct-2000 to 9-Nov-2000
http://www.webword.com/weblog/weblog0048.html

The Bagarashi Challenges -- "The Bagarashi taunts you. He plays with you, like a sad little Chinese noodle. The Bagarashi has created puzzles to hurt your little pumpkin seed mind. He laughs at you. His incredible ebook includes 15 of his famous challenges. He calls you names, and makes you feel like a little baby monkey. The Bagarashi understands that you smell like rotten leather."
http://bagarashi.com/

So......whats the connection??

Varun

Posted by Varun Krishna @ 10/08/2001 12:29 PM EST

well, looking at the whois record, it seems that bagarashi.com was home to John's bile-spewing, slightly mad alter ego. (Since the record is a year old, I'm assuming John's involved in the past version of bagarashi) Maybe insulting readers stopped being fun, and the domain is getting recycled.

Definitely some issues over that kind of rebranding (since I hated bagarashi.com from the first - and no, it wasn't through webword that I first was pointed there - and I thought whoever was behind it had waaay too much time on their hands).

With domains being cheap, looking for something else might be better (say, like moving words from the web, could call it webword or something like that ;)

Posted by Jess @ 10/08/2001 02:19 PM EST

Links, links, links.

All of the content comes from other sites anyway, so why bother?
All you'll get with these mp3 files are summaries of the content, which is hardly useful for anything academically.

Posted by Silicon Ghetto @ 10/08/2001 04:49 PM EST

There is no way this can be anything other than a joke. John must be making fun of something or someone.

Posted by Lyle B. Højbjerg-Clarke @ 10/09/2001 12:44 PM EST

Silicon Ghetto writes:
>All you'll get with these mp3 files are summaries of the content, which is hardly useful for anything academically.

Well actually, you get the whole article - a books on tape thing, updated for the web.

The difference is that I like books on tape because I can't do much else when I'm driving, not so when I'm at the computer...and following an article with enough depth to be useful is a significant cognitive task, not something that can fade into the background while I do actual work.

Also I read much faster than an article can be read (whether synth voice or real person). And I can skim over parts that don't hold as much interest...so I'm not sure how much time I'd save.

If it was free, and I had a CD player in the car that would play MP3s, then I might consider trying to create a disc of content for driving.

Posted by Jess @ 10/09/2001 12:51 PM EST

I prefer to think this is just poor judgement by John. If it were a joke, it would be a serious breach of trust and I would stop reading WebWord.

Posted by Bob @ 10/09/2001 01:22 PM EST

Yes, I'm hoping it's a genuine project. If it's some sort of hokey test with us as the test subjects then I'll abandon WebWord.

Posted by JS @ 10/09/2001 05:46 PM EST

You mean you are actually charging for this load of crap?

John, you are one grandiose motherfucker. Get off your highchair.

Posted by Pilsen @ 10/10/2001 09:09 AM EST

Subscribe to Webword.com
Receive the best free usability newsletter on the Internet.

URL: http://www.WebWord.com/weblog/