awesome stuff!!

Credit: Ogilvy

My personal opinion on some of the service I also use:

Ushi (=linkedin): great community, terrible user experience (i got spam after making the mistake to subscribe to group and you can only unsubcribe by sending a email…..which I still wait to be treated…). I won't invite my pro connection to it before they improve dramatically.

Douban: I have a profile but dont use it to much. Just to follow some local artisit I like. My chinese is too poor to be really immerse but it is pretty good.

renren, kaixin: i just avoid joining to much SNS because I know I wont maintain the account..so i dint try.

Sina Weibo: have you notice how all microblogging are called Weibo?? I believe Sina was the first but now their is Sohu Weibo and Tencent Weibo… But usually if someone say "i am on Weibo" they mean Sina. Well….like twitter…it is quite intimidating. I start using twitter back only since my friend recommended Hootsuite. For Sina….I basically asked one of my local colleague to provide a training…and all the foreigners said they want to attend 🙂
But at first glance… it is not visually as clear as Twitter I feel (difficult to distinguish comment to tweet to date….) but it is maybe just my "laowai" biais.

Also if you know of a tool to follow flux or send tweet to both twitter and Weibo at once…I am interested!!!! Please contact me!

QQ: i tried QQ international…and wont say to much bad thing about it because I know the product manager and he is French 🙂 but basically not good enough for me to keep using it. And more important, no reason to use it if i can not interact with all my old contact from MSN.
Disclosure: my MSN account has been hacked and blocked and it is so complicated to get it open again that I just give up on it. Just using skype now. Great customer service MSN!

Youku, Tudou (also 56.com): basic video website. as good as youtube. they also "steal" content from youtube, so can find most of american TV show^^

Online music: 🙂 I just download from google and baidu. dont try it from outside China it is impossible (they detect your ountry location through IP adress). The good thing to be inside the great firewall.

Zhihu (Quora): I am still waiting for someone to give me an invitation!!! (anyone?)

Dianping (yelp): just awesome, you can find all the good place and user recommendation of the best dish!!!

Jiepang (Foursquare): design is great, usability too. I stopped using it because I only have ipod touch and so no 3G (ipod touch only have wifi in china..)But will start again as soon as I have a smartphone!
Disclosure: Jepang CEO is a ABC from Silicon Valley and might get involve for next iWeekend. Nothing official yet. Stay Tune!

Tuanguo website (groupon): have try mysef but local friends had bad experience buyin make-up that turned out to be fake. No after sale service. So limit you buy to restaurant and services!

Taobao (ebay): Main difference with ebay is that it is not focusing on second hand stuff. Just general online shopping. I would liketo buy something form taobao EVERYDAY!!! It is so troublesome to go out, bargain price for ban tian (forever) and then realise the quality suck…. With Taobao, you get deliver at the door, can check and then pay (depending of the seller but often possible). Still I never use it because never manage to be able to use my chinese credit card online. You have to go at the bank, activate something, they will give you a USB sofware that you have ti install and…..it doesn't work on mac!!!! No man, no deal. Yes i am talking to you Alipay!