In my new book Click, I discuss how, by using Internet behavioral data, we're able to identify early adopters of technology. That exercise is very insightful when we query what early adopters of technology are doing today (think crystal ball into what technologies might be hot tomorrow).

The most recent run of this analysis proved to be very interesting. Technology-forward Internet users are bypassing direct visits to online video "warehouses," such as YouTube, in favor of sites that provide some editorial direction as to where to find the best content by specific topic or viewpoint.

One topical area that has risen to the top in online video, in light of the upcoming showdown the first Tuesday in November, is the politics category. Of the top 20 sites visited by early adopters, three are geared to providing a guide to political videos.

The first site, Political IQ, provides a very interesting matrix of content by candidate (or other political figures) and then by specific issue. So if you want to know where Obama stands on terror, or where McCain stands on immigration, the matrix allows you to quickly locate that video content.

The other two video directory sites in the top 20 were for blue-state filtered content, GoLeft.tv and for Drew Carey's online project Reason.tv.

As online video content and consumer generated media continues its explosive growth, look for more niche video directories to help you find what you're looking for.

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I have a problem that I've been complaining about over the last three years. I have three blogs that I contribute to, over one hundred RSS feeds that I subscribe to, three social networks, and two primary email accounts.  I spend my day shuttling between three programs and 10 websites to manage all of my communications. I've often wondered why someone hasn't attempted to crack this problem with a single interface that can manage all of my different channels.

Enter Flock. Founded in 2005 in Redwood City, CA, the company, according to its websites, seeks to "enable the richest user experience possible across information-gathering, sharing, communication, self-expression and interaction." The product Flock 2.0 is essentially a web browser, but one that was built around the idea of creating a user interface that allows you to deal with your web-based email, news reader, and social networks all within one interface.

I've been playing with the new 2.0 version for the Mac. After a few minutes of downloads, I have a dashboard that shows, at a glance, my incoming messages and Facebook "friends'" status, my top RSS feeds, news feeds, and content from my favorite channels on YouTube and Flickr.

On the downside, the interface does appear to be a little cluttered and is not the optimal experience on the limited screen-space provided by my MacBook Air, however, When connected to a larger monitor, Flock 2.0 is a step towards helping me streamline the digital portion of my day.

flock.com

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While I have mixed feelings for my new iPhone 3G (short battery life, dropped calls), one single application that I've downloaded from the iTunes Application Store has caused me to turn a blind eye to any iPhone shortcomings.

Apple Remote for the iPhone allows you to wirelessly control your iTunes library, and depending on how you've wired your home stereo, provide the ability to control your music selection from anywhere in the house. When we renovated several years ago, we wired several speakers throughout our house, which allows me to play our stereo from our living room receiver.The one very annoying shortcoming is that if I want to change my music selection, I have to run back to the living room to make adjustment.

Enter Apple Remote. Now, with my Apple TV, I can control what music is playing all from the iPhone interface, including the ability to scroll through album cover-art to make my selection.

You don't to have an Apple TV or have had the foresight to pre-wire your house to create a complete home-wide stereo system. Thanks to the folks at Lifehacker, with a minimal investment in equipment you can wirelessly "wire" your entire domicile to enjoy the remote experience.

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At the MVTech blog we continue to monitor the effect of our financial Armageddon on the state of our Internet use. And the latest stats that we've gathered from Hitwise indicate that this blog's focus -- computers and electronic gadgets -- may be taking the biggest hit in decreased visits (and resulting online revenue).

As we approach the 2008 holiday season, visits to retail sites are down 9.1% compared to 2007. If we break retail visits down into categories, visits to computer retailers are down 21% from the previous year.

If we look at searches containing terms such as computers, terms that center around increased performance and capacity are on the decrease, while searches for cheap, budget and low-cost laptops are increasing, indicating that we're becoming more price sensitive in our technology purchases.

The Top 5 Websites Visited from "Cheap Laptop" Searches:

1. Overstock.com
2. ComputerGeeks.com
3. LaptopCloseout.com
4. Dell.com
5. TigerDirect.com

Among the top brand's searched in conjunction with the term "cheap," are Dell, Acer, Toshiba and Apple. One of the rumors circulating in the blogosphere about Apple's upcoming product announcement expected tomorrow is that there will be a new low-cost Macbook offering. As we continue to weather tough economic times, we'll keep our eye how this effects the latest electronics offerings as well as the Internet resources that will help us stretch our gadget dollars.

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Internet behavior can reveal hidden insights about how the bricks and mortar world effects us. As the news of financial woes reached a crescendo over the last two weeks, our online habits reveal that over the last year the most affluent Internet users in the U.S. are slowly pulling their heads from the sand.

Based on Internet usage from last August, people in the most affluent Claritas PRIZM segment that we track -- the "Upper Crust," as it's known -- were spending a good portion of their Internet day logging into their brokerage accounts (Schwab, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity). But that's been changing as economic news becomes increasingly dire.

In August of this year, that same segment was spending significantly less time checking their portfolio. In fact of the top 20 sites visited by the "Upper Crust" by August 2008 brokerage sites had dropped to the bottom of the list. What replaced online brokerage accounts to top the affluent online list? Diversionary sites, celebrity blogs like TMZ.com and PerezHilton.com and online gaming sites.

Two weeks ago, the online tides changed again, this time, search data reveals that there is an increase incidence of search terms containing "login" specifically to brokerage accounts (the same accounts that topped the list in 2007). Apparently, some of us have had our head in the sand so long we've forgotten how to view our long neglected financial portfolio.

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I'm a geek. There, I said it. Different forms of technology clutter my briefcase as well as my nightstand drawer; I'm constantly on the quest for the latest technology to make my life easier. But even among my geek counterparts, I am a member of a sub-set of electronic hoarders: the style-conscious gadget geek.

If you want to spot one of my sub-species, look through airport lounges for anyone carrying a super-slim MacBook Air. Although it's lightweight (there are other sub-notebooks that are lighter) and powerful, its true allure is sleekness and beauty. As Metrotechtuals will tell you, there's a shortage of computing accessories that will satisfy a style/function test.

Iomega recently released its luxury line of portable hard-drives for the "high-fashion mobile user." I've been using the eGo leather-wrapped 250 Gigabyte portable drive ($122.95) on a recent business road-trip. At nearly a half-pound and 3.5"x 5.25" x .75" the eGo Leather is noticeably larger and heavier than my current portable, the LaCie Little Disk. Out of the box, however, the leather-wrapped eGo provides instant tactile allure. With brown leather surrounding the gently curved device, the eGo looks remarkably like a traditional hip-flask sans screw-cap. As I connect the device to my MacBook Air on my space-challenged airline tray table, I appreciate the device's style, but it does appear to clash like a stately leather wing-back chair in an ultramodern New York penthouse. I think, however, that Iomega is going down the right track with executive-look storage device; in fact a storage device designed specifically to match the aesthetic of the MacBook Air (the eGo Helium) will be released soon.

Testing the device, it functions on-par with other portable drive. Iomega also includes the Drop Guard, which protects your data caused by shock to the device. I dropped my drive from the rated 51" drop height onto concrete and was relieved to have it survive unscathed.

Bottom Line: If you identify more with a leather club chair than with an Eames, or are prone to dropping things, then this hard-drive may be for you.

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This topic seems as good as any to kick off MV Tech, my new blog for Men's Vogue. I'll be covering gadgets and Web news, as well as reporting on Internet data that provides insight into our online and offline worlds.

Of course, porn is legitimately in the news: Mozilla -- like its competitors Safari, Internet Explorer 8, and Google Chrome -- has just announced that it will give users the option of a "private mode" (known colloquially as "porn mode") in Firefox 3.1. Which means that it will not collect your history or cookies; users can open and browse in a separate window without worrying about what kind of trail they'll be leaving behind.

That begs the question: Does porn really need the help? You'd be surprised. It seems as though other kinds of browsing might be eating away at the naughty Web giant.

Over the last three years, visits to porn sites have experienced a precipitous fall. They've been mysteriously buoyed this summer -- possibly caused by poor economic conditions (some even postulate that the Tax Stimulus Program has stimulated more than the economy). At the same time, social networking, as a category of sites, has shown signs of becoming an addictive activity (friend-adds, pokes, virtual beers, to name a few), with numbers that continue to rise.

We only have so many hours in the day. That's my theory as to why we're seeing a negative correlation -- or a trade-off -- between visits to adult entertainment sites when compared to visits to social networks such as MySpace or Facebook. In my new book Click: What Millions of People do Online and Why it Matters, I discuss this fascinating trade-off between two very different categories of Internet use. Here's an updated chart comparing the face-off between the two categories.

But there's an interesting data-bit that might shed some light on the trade-off between networking and porn: While MySpace and Facebook have been attracting 18-24 year-olds in droves, that same age demographic has been leaving the porn category in droves.

Maybe younger Internet users are spending so much time online exploring friends' profile pages that they're left with no time to look at porn. Or maybe they're already being so titillated that they don't need to.

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