Shiny Media

My, have we been busy!? Here's Hippyshopper, the first of two blogs that we are launching this week.

Hippyshopper, a blog about ethical consumerism, is something of a departure for us as, unlike most of our sites, it is very UK focussed.  It is edited by Adam Vaughan, the Managing Editor of Stuff magazine in the UK, and a man who knows more about biodegradeable mobile phones than any other journalist.

Here's the release

Shiny Media launches Hippyshopper (www.hippyshopper.com) - the UK's first Green Consumer blog Heard about Motorola's biodegradable mobile phone? Or the toothpaste-free solar toothbrush? Or even Nike's green ethically-sourced shoes?! You'll find them all at Hippyshopper (www.hippyshopper.com) - the UK's first blog about ethical consumerism which launches today.

Published by the UK's leading commercial weblog company, Shiny Media, and written by Stuff magazine's Managing Editor, Adam Vaughan, Hippyshopper aims to enlighten and amuse its readers with green news stories from the UK and links to environmentally friendly sites around the world.

Its daily updates will: • Track the latest green gadgets • Tip readers off about what's coming in the organic food market • Give details of green exhibitions • Offer updates on eco-friendly health and beauty products • Give tips on how to recycle products

The site kicks off with a competition to win a shed load of green stuff including: ten Solios - solar powered iPod/mobile phone chargers - five Adopt An Animal Panda Packs from the World Wildlife fund; ten copies of Save Cash and Save The Planet; and a Collins/Friends of the Earth book stuffed full of practical tips to help you be a bit greener.

Here in Shiny Towers we are all still very excited about this review of Shoewawa in the Financial Times last week. After all it is not often that words like 'amazing, talented and intelligent' are used in our presence. The writer, one Jonathan Margolis concludes; 'Shoewawa is a brilliantly researched, well-written and intelligent site.' We really couldn't agree more. Thanks Hannah for the cutting.

It is not often we get see analysts notes round here, but this one came through a link to Shiny Shiny. Good to see that in a write up of the ten most important blogs on the web, alongside the usual suspects (Gizmodo, Engadget etc), is our very own gadgets for girls site, which is the only non-US site to be listed. The writer adds that ‘Katie Lee knows what girls like in consumer tech,’ and that ‘Shiny Media should be attracting huge VC investment shortly.’ Allright so one of those things isn’t true, but it is nice to be the only girl rubbing shoulders with the tech blog big boys.

Here at Shiny Media Towers we're all very excited about our latest sponsor. Dyson has specially chosen our flagship tech blogs, Shiny Shiny and Tech Digest, for its latest teaser advertising campaign (we'd like to tell you more about the actual product they are announcing next week but we'd have to shoot you).

Rather than your normal run of the mill banner ad this one is fantastically innovative (and we're not just saying that because they're paying us shedloads of cash). Remember the game Pong from the 1970s where you used your TV set to play tennis with a bat and ball? Well, they've reprised the game for the web which means that if you're bored reading our blogs - something we can't really imagine - you can always while away a bit of time, idly playing  the game across your computer screen. But don't take our word for how great it is - head over to the sites to play it for yourself. Just one more thing. You'll need Internet Explorer 6 and your screen maximised in order to take part.

The teaser ad runs until Monday when - hopefully - we'll be able to tell you more about the actual product!

Big thumbs up to the team at our favourite online new media website Net Imperative, who have just nominated Shiny Media for an Imperative Digital award. Sadly Best Media Owner slipped us by as did Best Site for which we thought Shoewawa was clear favourite. Nevertheless we are in the running for a Best of the Rest Wild Card award, where we are slugging it out with some rather impressive opposition.

So we need your help. If you have ever pinched a story from any of our sites ever, you can avoid spending extra time in purgatory by voting for us here. It is a fairly simple process and only takes a minute or two, and besides you can sign up for various Net Imperative newsletters which are well worth receiving.