Hmmm... What's that "MarketEcho" button do'

Greetings, citizens! ROBOGEEK here with something new under the sun.

You may have noticed that our Navigation/Menu Bar (under the Harry animations) has been growing again lately. In an ongoing effort to make Ain't It Cool even cooler, we've partnered with a couple great companies to add some exciting new sections to AICN that we think are, well... cool.

First of all, there's AICN: Epinions, which we've unleashed as a public beta. It should be all ship-shape in about a week, but in the meantime feel free to peek and poke at it. Bear with us, though; it's still just a PUBLIC BETA. Ultimately, however, we think it's going to serve as a great new forum for AICNers to review movies themselves (something many of you have asked for), and have access to a wealth of film-related resources.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about AICN: MarketEcho, which we've been toiling away on deep in the bowels of Geek Headquarters for the last year with our pals at Austin-based MarketEcho. In fact, last summer some of you got the chance to participate in a private beta test; now, at long last, we're finally opening the doors to a public one.

In a nutshell, AICN: MarketEcho is an opinion trading arena - part opinion poll, part virtual stock market.

Sound familiar? ;-) Well, we've got something different in mind. Something cooler, we think.

See, instead of merely trading actors or upcoming movies (which I personally think is kinda boring), AICN: MarketEcho will allow you to trade answers to almost ANY question, ultimately reflecting the stories on AICN - and your own suggestions.

For instance, right now we're starting out pretty simply, using several Golden Globe categories as "starter" questions (with more coming next week).

Soon we'll be adding different sorts of questions - covering not just awards, but casting, director attachments, greenlights, box office, you name it.

Eventually you'll get to submit your own questions, with each of up to eight possible answers becoming a virtual stock (aka contract)... so long as one of said answers will ultimately prove true.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Every question starts with a total value of e$100 (one hundred e-dollars), which is split evenly between each possible answer (aka contract). That is, if a question has two possible answers, their starting price is e$50; if a question has four possible answers, their starting price is e$25, etc.

Then, like a stock market, you trade - buy low, sell high. Most of the questions will have built-in closing dates, at which point the wrong answers will be worthless - but the correct answer will be worth the entire e$100.

Pretty groovy, huh?

Decide for yourself at aintitcool.marketecho.com

Questions? Feedback? Problems? Suggestions? Share 'em in the MarketEcho Forum (at the bottom of the AICN Forums), which will also let all of you communicate with each other. (Bugs can be reported directly to webmaster@marketecho.com.)

As I said before, this is a BETA TEST. We know we've still got some issues to work out. Some things may be a little wonky. That's why we're asking for your help. You have the opportunity to help make it better. Let us know what you want from it, and we'll do our best to deliver.

Thanks - and enjoy,

- ROBOGEEK

P.S.: Yes, we will be giving out prizes. Stay tuned...

P.P.S.: I'd be remiss if I didn't offer a HUGE tip of the hat to our indominable webmaster Dave, who has put a lot of work into both of these projects - and pretty much keeps the site running single-handedly.