TMZ.com is letting its users vent. Readers can post audio comments about items on the Hollywood gossip site. Other users can then listen. TMZ.com, which stands for Hollywood's 30 mile zone, is the No. 1 most-visited entertainment site. It is also planning to let readers post videotaped comments. It's all the rage for user interaction. The New York Times just published its first videotaped letter to the editor. Meanwhile the San Francisco Chronicle is posting readers' voice-mail messages.
But, here's the story of the day. Straight outta Pittsburgh. Happy birthday SMILEY FACE! Who knew? And who keeps track of this stuff anyway? Get this: Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman claims he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message. No one really knows whether he's the first or not. But that's not stopping Yahoo from presenting the Smiley Award, an annual student contest worth $500.
