Lachlan at Read/WriteWeb wrote up a great profile of Scouta today. Many thanks, we’re glad you think it’s a great service.

This is just the kind of modeling system that I advocate to everybody who will listen. It costs the user nothing. There’s no extra work for you. No bonus clicks or monkey-dancing to get the application to start working for you. You can just use it and the benefits start to accrue.

This is now much clearer on the brand spanking new homepage. Launched only this past weekend, it allows users to experience recommendations without an account. I logged out and cleared my cache, but the homepage didn’t take too long to start recommending more and more Pearl Jam clips to me. Given I started the Pearl Jam group on Scouta on the weekend as part of my testing for this review (and because Pearl Jam rock!), I think that’s a sterling indication of what this application can do for you. Obviously, the recommendations get smarter and smoother for members, as they have a longer history of more actions to work with.

It’s great to hear that our little site is doing such a great job of recommending the right stuff.

We also hear you about the downsides. We’re really eager to all sorts of feedback, positive and certainly the negative. We’re constantly working on Scouta each week to improve it and make it as useful as possible.

All up, we’re stoked with another great rap!

This month has been an interesting one at Scouta. Aside from the obvious recent features released, the honor of attending Ross Dawson’s Web 2.0 event, and being ranked 6th in Australia.

What’s really grabbed my attention is we are now starting to see some fascinating statistics popping out of Scouta about popular content.

Firstly, let me point out, Scouta isn’t about top ten results. We focus on individuals, and their tastes and interests, however, we also know that the “Wisdom of Crowds” can produce some interesting results.

So this month I can tell you that Fergie’s new single, Big Girls Don’t Cry has been a lot more popular than Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done. How do I know.

Here’s Scouta’s Google Analytic charts showing both favorite videos as viewed in Scouta.

Now here’s a pie chart with Scouta’s popular content, showing the percentage of total page views. The blue shows our welcome page at 17%. Next up in Fergie in green with 6.14%. Linken Park’s video is the yellow at 2.23%.

The mystery for me - which someone might be able to clear up - is why SNL’s Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze’s Chipp ‘n Dale sketch is number three with 2.70%.

Today we released a feature that’s been on the cards for a long time. We’ve called it Scouta Play.

Before launch we realized we needed something pretty snazzy and fun to show people what Scouta could do. You see, recommendations aren’t that simple to explain because they’re a relatively new concept for most of the world.

So we decided to create a little magic on the front page that would allow you to play a video or podcast, and then rate it. Depending on how and what you rate, Scouta would then recommend more.

Anyone can now experience Scouta’s recommendations without creating an account. Zip over to the Scouta front page and you’ll see what we mean. You can select to display videos, or podcasts, or both, and play them right then and there. If you like something, rate it good, and Scouta will start learning what you love.

If you like playing with the new front page, it’s worth creating a Scouta account. Member’s ratings are stored, so over time Scouta gets a better understanding of what you love, and the recommendations will be more accurate.

Anyway, have a Play and let us know what you think.

By the way, thanks to members abigsplash and sfarmer76, this release is named Indigo.

We’ve just opened our Brighton, UK workspace and office!

I’ve been living in Brighton for just over a year now, working out of the house and on the occasional train. But now we can raise the flag in the JOLO (Just Off London rOad) aka New England Quarter of Brighton, across the street from the over sized Victorian-era St Bartholomew’s church. Those bells are getting louder. What?

We’ve moved in with widget startup Snipperoo, sharing a light and airy co-working space with a big central table and great big windows.

Huge thanks to Ivan and Jay for fully putting out the welcome mat. I think this is going to be a fun and productive place.

Here’s the address:

Photos: I’ll take some soon. In the meantime, see this tag on flickr for a few office and local area piccys.

I mentioned last week that Scouta would be participating in the Web 2.0 in Australia event in Sydney next week.

Ross Dawson, the man behind the event, also compiled a list of The Top 60 Web Applications In Australia, and he ranked Scouta as 6th, a number we’re very proud of here at Scouta HQ. Given we’re just over 3 months old we think it’s a pretty good achievement.

There are some pretty cool applications in the list, so it’s worth a look if you’re interested in the space.

Speaking of fostering innovation in Australia.

Myles Eftos, from BAM soon to be PerthNorg, has organized BarCamp Perth.

Scouta will be there.

I gave the title a slight twist, given it’s probably the furthest from the origin of the original BarCamp in Palo Alto.

Ross Dawson - a strategy consultant, keynote speaker, bestselling author, CEO of consulting firm Advanced Human Technologies, and too many other things to mention - sent me an email a few weeks ago to invite me to Sydney to present Scouta at “Web 2.0 in Australia.”

He’s posted a great run down of the event and showcase on his blog, The latest on Web 2.0 in Australia: Showcasing the best.

Given the people attending, I’m guessing this is going to be great for the local Aussie “web 2.0″ industry. I’m sure it will stir up plenty of discussion and interest, that is only going to benefit everyone.

We’ll have to make sure we continue the discussions, and ensure the ball continues to roll. Perhaps more for the 2web crew.

There’s been plenty of press recently about gaming social sites. InfoWorld talked about YouTube just the other day, Scammers gaming YouTube ratings for profit.

The Web has long been known as an effective medium for malicious attacks, but the problem of people gaming YouTube and other user content-driven, or Web 2.0, sites is only beginning to rear its head, and it’s an issue that the companies backing such portals must take seriously as they look into the future.

As more Internet users begin to turn to “user-generated content” for untarnished reviews and insights, YouTube and other Web 2.0 portals begin offering greater financial incentives for people to post popular content, said Joe Laszlo, an analyst at Jupiter Research in New York.

“This is a nascent issue, but one that YouTube and the rest of the user-generated content sites need to confront now, as so much of the Web 2.0 concept is built around the idea of trusting the community to help make judgments about content’s quality,” said Laszlo. “These types of scams call into question how reliable the community aspect of Web 2.0 really is, and if these types of sites becomes susceptible to a lot of tricks, and content that people don’t really want to see gets surfaced, people will question their value.”

Fortunately, the way Scouta is built it is more resistant to gaming that most social networks. We don’t have top tens, or lists based on what everyone “likes.” Gaming isn’t a major factor because Scouta is personalized for each individual, and there is no list to be the top of.

That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t try and game Scouta, and it sure doesn’t mean we’re not constantly concerned with avoiding the issue. In fact we’re implementing a new feature shortly, which we’ve been careful to design so it doesn’t introduce a simple way to game our recommendation system.

Regardless, it’s an exciting time on the Internet. The general public have the upper-hand, and that’s the way we like it.

Duncan, at Techcrunch, points to Next New Network a “new kind of media company, creating micro-television networks over the internet for targeted communities, bringing together elements of tv programming and internet philosophy to allow viewers to contribute, share and distribute content.”

“[micro-networks are] a brand that lives on the internet and creates a relationship with its audience wherever it goes. In practical terms, every network of [Next New Media] will have one or more shows, 3-11 minutes of programming, on a weekly or daily basis, a website, and a feed that can be subscribed to in places like iTunes or My Yahoo. Many may also have a Channel or homepage on sites like YouTube. You can go to any of those places and get every episode of the networks’ shows when and how you want them.”

NNN have a philosophy like our own. We think there’s going to be a bunch of content on the net, and not everyone will want to consume it the same way. Why not allow them to access media in a bunch of different forms: iTunes, YouTube, etc.

A few people, unfairly, compare NNN to Joost, and suggest it’s a “poorly thought out version.” The reality is that NNN is like the production company. Joost happens to be a delivery platform, like today’s television networks. The two co-exist, and both are required.

More info at the nextnewsnetwork blog, and their post about getting Crunched. Check out their list of networks, and bookmark the ones you love in Scouta.

We’ve just been hit with a network hardware failure on our main web servers, so scouta.com will be out of action for a while while we route around to alternate servers. We’ll be back on the air shortly.

[Update: 16:14 BST: we’re back! though there might be a few hiccups to come over the next few hours as we put a permanent fix in place]

[Update: 21:45 BST: normal service is restored now. Phew.]