Robert Scoble, the Microsoft blogger who is leaving Microsoft to join a vodcasting start up, writes about “the screwing of the Long Tail” by which he means all the companies that are making advertising dollars from user generated content. Is there a chance that these users will combine and rise up and create a new model in which they combine and keep most of the money they collectively generate themselves? He thinks there’s a chance.

Interesting perspectives from PaidContent.org on the tensions inherent in user generated content business models. “Perhaps the social web will come to be known for its freeloaders, rather than its uploaders,” it quotes Donna Bogatin saying.

According to Jeff Jarvis The Guardian has just announced that it will produce a constantly updated PDF version of the online paper designed to be printed out and read on the train etc. The plan is for a version to be created every 15 minutes.

There was a lot of noise on the web last week (which was even picked up by The Today Programme on Friday) about the discovery that adding Mentos mints to a bottle of Diet Coke produces an entertaining reaction. One enterprising team even produced a “firework display” using the technique and set it to music. Now, PaidContent.org is reporting that the team has so far made $15,000 in advertising revenue from the clip which has so far been viewed a staggering 2.5 million times. The clip, which cost $300 to make (mostly in bottles of Coke and Mentos) was posted on Revver.com which shares ad revenue 50:50 with it’s content creators.

It started with a Yahoo! Answers question… then Leondard’s blog took up the challenge and produced a good list of products and services which in his view will become essential in five years time.
They include:

• Software as a service becomes more standard.

• Global identity framework, referred to by some as “Identity 2.0.”

• Digital Media – more and more of it, some cheap and some free, carried on many gadgets of many sizes, with wireless access to sync and stream effortlessly.

• Smart phones.

• RFID

• Self monitoring

• Personal aggregators

• Shared everything.

In some 30 countries round the world there are now more mobile phones than people reports Lunch over IP quoting Informa Telecom & Media. There could be 10 more countries joining the club by the year-end.

A table produced by Wired site Webmonkey

scores the popular aggregator sites on a number of criteria.

Online advertising has risen by nearly 30% in May, according to PaidContent.org which also publishes other financial highlights including for About.com.

American Apparel which has 130 stores in real life is opening its first in the online game Second Life.