Identi.ca: The Force Is Strong With This One (But is no Jedi, Yet)

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First there was Twitter. Then there came a host of other services that tried their hands at status microblogging, the most of which fell by the wayside as Twitter gained dominance. Then came FriendFeed, and some folks realized that this short style of blogging, conversing and status-updating was pretty fun. Then people remembered Utterz, and Go to site

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» Social Networking Trends from Coast to Coast: Residents of Massachusetts and California led the nation in googling the term “social networking” during the last 12 months according to Google Insights for Search, a new search analysis tool.Launched on August 6, Google Insights for Search is a free service that allows users to track the popularity of phrases and words that have been typed into Google’s search engine from 2004 until the present day. The resource enables users to sort data by country, sub-region, time and industry. The application also includes heat maps that display the geographic location of where terms are most popular, the top searches related to a term or phrase, and the fastest rising searches.As of August 8, Massachusetts and California each had a search volume index or SVI of 100 for regional interest in social networking, tops in the nation for the past 12 months. The term “search volume index” or SVI is a measurement that reflects how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. Rounding out the top ten were New York (SVI=96), the District of Columbia (96), Washington (88), Maryland (86), Illinois (84), Georgia (80), New Jersey (80) and Utah (80).(click to enlarge)Nationwide, the top three related searches to social networking were “social networking sites,” “social networking site,” and “social network.” The fastest rising searches were “social networking trends,” “social networking tools,” and “social networking scripts.”By city, Google searches for the term “social networking” was highest in Pleasanton (SVI=100), a suburb of San Francisco. Close behind were New York (92), San Francisco (91), Austin (76), Washington (76), Los Angeles (73), Boston (71), Reston (69), Chicago (66) and Atlanta (63).(click to enlarge)Also of interest: How search volumes for the term “social networking” have changed over time. After periods of relatively minimal interest for the term in 2004 and 2005, search volumes took off in first quarter 2006 and peaked in November, 2007. After a sharp dip in December, 2007, search volumes have shown steady upward growth throughout the first half of 2008.(click to enlarge)Google cautions that the results show the likelihood of users in a particular area to Google search a term on a relative basis. In this case, just because a particular city, say Minneapolis, didn’t rank in the top ten, it could mean Minneapolis residents don’t use Google to search for social networking information (maybe Yahoo? MSN?). They may also use a different phrase or term to search for social networking information (social media? Facebook?). Another caveat: I suspect Google hasn’t worked out all the bugs in the data just yet, but they’re not letting on. Case in point: On August 7, I used Google Insights for Search to track regional interest by state for the term “social networking” in the last 12 months On August 8, just 24 hours later, I ran the same search, and the results were significantly different. Why the big differences in the ranking and the scores, especially if the results captured data from the last 12 months? Small sample size? Data glitch? Human error? Maybe it was an issue at my end with my Internet connection. Perhaps I misunderstood something? A difference of one day shouldn’t make that much of an impact in the rankings, right? My suspicion is that Google launched this application only a day or so before and they’re still tinkering with its algorithms and ranking systems. The designers should get a pass on this one, but we should be on the lookout for similar inconsistencies in the future. If a year or even six months from now, we’re seeing the same kind of significant fluctuations in day to day results for the same search over a one year period or longer, it may be time to raise some red flags. New York Leads Nation in Googling “Facebook” (click to enlarge)The application was also used to track Google search statistics for leading social networking brands in the last 12 months. At a state level, Google searches for the brand “Facebook” were highest in New York, Arkansas and Connecticut. At a city level, searches were highest in New York City, Sterling and Milpitas.California Leads Nation in Googling “YouTube”(click to enlarge)At a state level, Google searches for the brand “YouTube” were highest in California, Virginia and Hawaii in the last 12 months. At a metro level, searches were highest in Milpitas, Sterling and Los Angeles.(click to enlarge)Oregon Leads Nation in Googling “Twitter”(click to enlarge)At a state level, Google searches for the brand “Twitter” were highest in Oregon, California and Washington in the last 12 months. Clearly, the Pacific North West and the West Coast love Twitter. At a city level, searches were highest in San Francisco, Austin and San Jose.(click to enlarge)California Leads Nation in Googling “Mashable” (click to enlarge)At a state level, Google searches for the brand “Mashable” were highest in California, New York and Texas in the last 12 months. Beyond these three states, search volume was not sufficient enough to show results. At a city level, searches were highest in San Francisco and New York. Search volume was not high enough to get results from any other cities.(click to enlarge)Insights for Search: A New Data FrontierThese findings illustrate that Google Insights for Search is an amazing new application for social networking pros of all stripes. While not without its quirks, the tool is quite literally a mind reader that allows researchers to peer into the brains and online activity patterns of Google users. While the tool was designed to help online marketers create more and better AdWords marketing campaigns, I suspect the resource will be deployed for so much more. It will be used for everything from environmental scans to trend spotting to brand tracking and countless other applications that Google hasn’t yet planned or maybe ever imagined. Perhaps this is a stretch, but the new database (which is updated daily) has seismic implications for the forecasting of consumer behavior and business investment. It could completely revolutionize the way economists measure and track personal and corporate spending intentions. Currently, the gathering of intention data is done by written or phone surveys which are fraught with issues. Sample sizes may be low or not truly representative. People or organizations conducting the surveys may be biased. Those being surveyed may be less than honest or complete in their responses. Not here. Users want something. Users search for that something in Google. Google delivers information on that something. That’s it. It’s pure. No messy survey gets in the way. No agenda. No ego. Google never blinks. For better or worse, Google captures it all from hundreds of millions of users all over the world, countless times a day. No survey can do that.Experimenting with this tool, I feel like an ADD kid again. I’m tinkering with different keywords and phrase combinations like some digital Rubik’s cube, and going wild playing with the different geographic, time, and industry filters. On a whim (and strictly out of professional curiosity of course), I checked which U.S. state led the nation in googling the term “sex” during the last 30 days. Answer: South Dakota. For the term “Britney”: Louisiana. The term “Obama”: District of Columbia. The word “carpet”: Colorado. The phrase “air conditioning”: Arizona. The word “babysitter”: Ohio. I’ve barely started, and my head is already spinning with ideas on how this data can be used in business plans, Powerpoint presentations, sales pitches, brainstorming sessions, concept testing or for just plain fun. Not to sound ungrateful or greedy, but I’m already preparing a wish list of upgrades for Google Insights for Search 2.0. How about including a filter for time, not just for dates? In the last 30 days, the tool revealed that Phoenix led the nation in googling the term “pizza.” That’s great, but could you add another filter which identifies search volumes for specific times (3-4 pm? 7-8pm ? 10-11pm), particular days (Friday? Saturday) or even exact dates (March 14, 2008) for a word or phrase? Could you take the data that’s currently available in the Google Web History for individual users, and aggregate and publish the data for all Google users? This would allow researchers to scan search volumes by the different types of Google searches, say, Web, images, news, products, sponsored links, video, maps, blogs, and books? Could you arrange a meeting with the YouTube folks down the hall and create a comparable “YouTube Insights for Search” application that provides comparable search volume data for YouTube searches? And while you’re at it, why not spring for lunch and invite the Facebook and Twitter suits to the Googleplex? While you’re chowing down, explore the feasibility of creating a “Facebook Insights for Search” and/or “Twitter Insights for Search” that provides a database of Facebook and Twitter search volumes and activity patterns, also broken by location, date, times and location. I can already hear the thunder of privacy advocates banging their war drums, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Perhaps I’m thinking too far ahead, but the point is that Google Insights for Search is a flawed but still spectacular new research tool for business and Web analysts everywhere. The resource has countless applications in not only social networking, but in virtually all industries, products, and services. Look for more detailed articles and tutorials on how to fully tap this resource and take your online research and forecasting skills to the next level.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Checkout Trends Knows Your Shopping HabitsGoogle Trends Now Updates DailyHow to Spy on Your Customers: Networked InsightsGoogle Trends Adds Another Way to Inaccurately Track Website TrafficWeb Hosting? What Web Hosting?Google Trends Thinks I’m HotSave the Date - Social Gaming Summit: June 13, 2008

» A New Way to Date: 6 Online Resources for Group Dating: Group Dating isn’t new in Japan, where compa or gokon parties have become a regular part of their dating scene. The word compa comes from the word companion and gokon is a combination of the words goudo (group) and compa (companion). It is said that this practice evolved from the difficulties of finding a partner due to the pervasive shyness that exists in Japanese society. Group dating gatherings usually take place at public venues such as restaurants where each attendee brings a couple of eligible friends. The thing that people seem to like best about this concept, besides the whole law of averages, is the fact that if all else goes wrong and you don’t find a match you still wind up having a good time out with your friends. (Traditionally, compa isn’t for one-night stands but obviously there are many that will seek this type of experience.) The trend has become a cultural phenomenon, gaining popularity in the UK and now the US. Here are some popular online services that cater to the group dating/compa concept:IgnighterIgnighter is a new group dating service from the TechStars camp that hand-picks the top ten best startups out of four hundred entries they receive every year. You can use their free service on their site or via their facebook app.The key to the service is the group profile that you create which is similar to the kind filled out on standard dating services, except this one describes everyone in your gang. Once two groups agree to meet up they just decide where they want to hang out: Dinner and a movie, coffee house, happy hour, Tapas, ballgame, etc.Team DatingTeam Dating is from the well-known www.Match.com which focuses on group dating. They claim to be different than the rest by not requiring as much profile information to get started. They also state that they require less personal information which means more privacy. Here’s a video about Team Dating from the company itself:Date-My-MatesDate-My-Mates Started in the UK in 2006 so its database serves that corner of the world. The same concept applies, just in a different area. Just because you don’t live in the UK doesn’t mean you can’t use this service. If you and your pals are planning a group trip to that region then this service could make the journey all the more fun.Let’s Meet OutLet’s Meet Out serves only the New York City area at this time so it won’t be for everyone. However, NYC is one of the most popular places for tourists so you could make arrangements with your friends to meet another NYC group.PlanJamPlanJam has a slogan that says it all, “From your screen to the scene.” They aren’t actually a group dating site but they can facilitate such an event. Their event planner is impressive as it can calculate what the entire evening will cost you in addition to gathering all of the details you will need to know.I Am Free TonightI Am Free Tonight is owned by eTwine and offers not one but two Facebook apps called Meet New people and Are YOU Interested? The website looks like something from the late 1990s so it’s doubtful that much action is taking place there, but I would venture to guess that a great deal of activity is going on with the Facebook apps. I’d like to test it out myself, but the wifey frowns upon such behavior.ConclusionGroup dating seems like a fun and useful experience. Marrying the technology of online dating services with the real world benefits of group activities is also a brilliant idea. The services that make the best use of social networking and provide the easiest interface will come out on top. Give these a try and share your experiences in the comments area. Also share any other group dating services we might have missed this time around.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Wannago Adds Hot-or-Not for Parties & AttendeesJDate Up for Sale: Worth $185M?Kizmeet Launches Second-Chance Dating SiteMatch Activity Gets Angel FundingMatch Activity Launches Online Dating SiteDating on Plentyoffish - Trading Fees for Scumbags?Tila Tequila Coming Out on MTV Reality Show

» Be Careful if You Access Gmail Through a Public Hotspot: If you check Gmail’s settings, the last option under the “General” tab lets you “always use https” when accessing Gmail. It’s a fairly new option, and it might sound strange; isn’t Gmail secured by SSL (Secure Socket Layer) by default (hence switching to “https://gmail.com” when you type in “gmail.com” in your browser)?The answer is: yes and no. Once you log in, Gmail reverts back to an unencrypted connection, since SSL connections are slower than regular ones. This means that whatever you do on Gmail is unencrypted from now on, and someone sniffing traffic on your network can easily obtain sensitive data. Of course, not everyone has the skills to do that, so the chances of it actually happening are pretty small. Or, better put, they were small until now. As reported by Hacking Truths, a tool has been presented at DEFCON that makes stealing session IDs from Gmail a relatively easy affair. And once someone has your session ID, he/she can log in to your Gmail account without authentication. In practice, this means that not having the “always use https” option checked, especially if you’re accessing Gmail through a wireless hotspot, or any other unsecure network, has become a hazard, and is not recommended. Google has been fairly silent about this, letting users decide what they want to do, but I’ve switched to SSL and I recommend you do, too, especially if you use Gmail for business purposes.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Gmail Security Flaw Spotted, Spam Filters SubvertedSevere Gmail Malware FixedSecurity Vulnerability Found in AOL Instant MessengerGmail Reaches 25GB of Storage; For Corporate UsersGMail Phasing In IMAPGmail Mobile Gets an UpdateGoogle Vulnerabilities Reveal Your Gmail Contacts & Messages

» Will Natural Language Supplant Keywords In Advertising?: Powerset, the company that was acquired by Microsoft in an attempt to shore up its search, may be more lucrative than originally thought. According to reports, Microsoft may be tapping Powerset’s technology to improve advertising in search results and in the process, change the way advertising is done.Right now, advertisers bid to display their ads on search results pages containing specific keywords pertaining to the product or service they’re advertising. For certain, niche products, that’s not so bad — fewer keywords mean more chances of targeting the right audience. But for larger companies like Dell, which need to worry about countless keywords, the process can be far more taxing. But Powerset believes that its natural language processing could change the way ads are displayed and enhance the profitability for all parties involved.I think Powerset is totally wrong.If a particular company sells sneakers, they can bid for placement on search results pages pertaining to “sneakers,” “shoes,” “footwear,” “socks,” “feet,” and the company’s and its competitors’ names. But with natural language processing, as Powerset proposes, that company would need to bid on search concepts where people ostensibly ask for the best kinds of sneakers or where to find sneakers.Powerset’s belief that this new type of ad-placement mechanism is game-changing may be true, but it’s wrong in believing that it would work better for advertisers. How could it?Keywords may not be fool-proof and may tend to make things more difficult for advertisers, but we can’t forget that bidding on them works for one reason: it simplifies a process that is extremely hard to gauge. More often than not, people that search for sneakers will use some of the keywords listed above. And while they may use others, a company is almost guaranteed that anyone even remotely fond of shoes will see their ad.But in Powerset’s scheme, companies need to rely upon the intention of those same people and how well it can guess how they interact with a search engine, regardless of the keywords used. In other words, they have to hope that a large portion of users will look for the same thing within the same basic parameters: “where to find sneakers at an affordable price.”Trying to guess what people will say, as opposed to what people will include in their query, is extremely difficult. Why try to guess a whole sentence or a structured query when you can pick one word and hope people use it?Natural language is too subjective. Sure, it might help return better results at times, but I think it will fail to make advertising any easier for the advertisers. Keywords simplify things and help companies increase the chances of their ads being placed on the right pages at the right time. But when they need to guess based on “natural language”, they’re forced to guess what each individual would say at any given time. In the process, things become too complicated and the chances of engaging the highest number of people in the right market is limited.Let’s not forget that Powerset worked with Wikipedia and there is currently no indication that it will work with Web search, let alone search results advertising. This idea sounds too much like straw grasping from a company, in Microsoft, that’s desperately trying to pull one over on Google. And if it goes through with this idea, that certainly won’t happen.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Report: Microsoft to Acquire Powerset Natural Language Search for $100M+Online Ad Network Raises $8.2M for Cryptic Start PageFree Passes to Early Screening of “The Dark Knight”Mobile Advertising Set To Go Big This Year?Australian Ad It Last Comes To AmericaAOL Acquires Third Screen Media, Broadening Mobile Ad PlatformsAdMob Launching Unit Just for iPhone Campaigns

» Top 10 Online Note Taking Applications: Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.Which note taking applications do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.EvernoteEvernote is one of the most talked about online note taking applications. One special feature here is the drag-and-drop desktop version that allows you to see your notes and clips offline. You can use the Evernote mobile application for your Windows Mobile phone or iphone to capture pictures and record audio to send to your Evernote account. You can also email notes to Evernote using a secret email address. Google NotesGoogle Notes has some nice features including collaboration among multiple users, a publishing feature, integration with Google Bookmarks, the ‘Unfiled bookmarks’ link on the left sidebar of the Google Notes Web interface that sorts and displays all the urls you have saved, quick clippings of Web pages with the ’star’ button, and the export to Google Docs feature.UberNoteUberNote works in the same manner as Google Notes. However, one neat feature here is that you can add your tasks in any note that you are working on. Later, you can view the ‘Open Tasks’ link on the sidebar of the UberNote interface to open all notes with incomplete tasks. Similarly, you can integrate your bookmarks with any note and find it later with the ‘Bookmarks’ link. Other nice things to know about UberNote are that it runs on AJAX and has a history feature that will save all the revisions you make on your notes. You can clip notes with the UberNote online dashboard, with the browser extension, email your notes to a personal email address, or from an AOL IM application.SpringnoteSpringnote is an OpenID enabled online note taking application that takes a different approach than the ones mentioned above. This one is not for writing short notes and clipping websites, but longer notes, and comes out just a bit different than an average online office suite. The Springnote note editor is feature rich and you can choose from a variety of templates, plugins , and insert video and audio to enhance your notes. You can collaborate, share your notes with friends, or post them on your blog.WebAsyst NotesWebAsyst Notes comes with features for including attachments to your notes. You can sort the notes into specific folders and share the folders with your contacts. WebAsyst also has features to add files, photos, contacts, mail, projects, an issue tracker, pages, and a shopping cart.LuminotesLuminotes,a personal wiki notebook, as the site describes itself, is an easy to use wiki that lets you create notes. You can attach files to your wiki, and share them with your friends. Features such as automatic saving and revision tracking are very useful. Once you have completed your wiki, you can download it as well. This is not one of the conventional online notebooks but a key reason why you might want to use this is because of one feature that allows you to hyperlink one word or sentence in a notebook to another.StikkitStikkit wants to be a smart application without being clever. What it does is pick up specific terms from your notes and arrange your notes as to-do lists, calendars, contacts (peeps), bookmarks and tags list. Now is that smart enough? You can also choose to share your Stikkit notes with your contacts and receive comments. For quick Web clippings, it provides a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari, and a right click menu option for Internet Explorer users.FruitnotesFruitnotes allows you to create notes by calling a specific phone number, though currently they have only listed a US and UK number. It also allows you to create your own profile and view others’, thus doubling up as a social networking platform. The note editor is feature rich and lets you upload images and videos. Once done, you can publish your note for everyone to see.NotefishNotefish is a simple online note taking application that allows you to drag and drop your notes, resize them, color them, tag them, and share with contacts. You can also move one note from a particular project to another easily. There is a Firefox addon that you can use to clip Web pages conveniently. Zoho NotebookZoho Notebook is the most sophisticated and most feature-laden online note application of the bunch. Zoho Notebook provides you a palette where you can type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. There are also various tools like the Line tool, Freehand tool, Select tool, Hand tool, and Shapes. There is a rich text editor with export, publish, and share features. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats and IP telephony, or use the Firefox plugin to add Web clips easily. If you are the advanced online notebook user type, then you will find Zoho Notebook providing the solutions to almost all your requirements. I said ‘almost,’ as I couldn’t find a mobile phone support for Zoho.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:NoteSake Supports All Languages & Exports to WordKeep Thoughts on your iPhone with PogoNotesZoho DB Launches, Beats Google Docs to the PunchJjot Takes Pink Stickies Online for Note TakingThe Daily Poll: Would You Build Apps for the MySpace Developer Platform?Wakoopa Now Tracks your iPhone AppsLookery to be Advertising Network for Facebook Apps

» 18 Tools to Turn Firefox 3 into a Communications Portal: Firefox can be made into so much more than just a browser via its huge extension base. Yes, this means you can replace some of your instant messenger, chat and microblogging needs by adding just a few extensions. Here are 18 tools that will let you turn your Firefox 3 browser into a communications portal.Whenever we discuss numerous Firefox add-ons, we like to remind you that we do not recommend you install ALL of them unless you like your browser slowing down.MessagingChatZilla! - In a time before instant messengers exploded in popularity, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was all the rage, and it is still quite popular. This extension will add an IRC client to your browser so you don’t have to open a separate program.Gabbly Chat Sidebar - A sidebar client for Gabbly chats hosted on any Web page or community.Google Talk - Allows you to add Google Talk integration to your browser.GTalk Sidebar - This sidebar extension allows you to use Google Talk in your window without having to stay on GMail all the time. It also lets you save yourself the effort of installing the stand alone GTalk application for your desktop.Meebo - Adds integrated instant messaging via the Meebo system inside of your browser. In the sidebar you can see which buddies are online, as well as which system they are using, and when need be, you can drag links and images over to them. You can learn more about Meebo in this episode of Mashable Conversations.SamePlace - Works in Firefox, Flock and Thunderbird to give you the ability to chat with your contacts on AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Twitter and Yahoo.SMS Sidebar - This extensions gives you the ability to send SMS messages to just about any phone in the world. It does cost money after the first 50 text messages, but seems to be reasonably priced and offers numerous features.WataCrackaz AutoSMS - Allows free two-way SMS text messaging to phones all around the world and actually allows you to receive replies.Yaplet - Adds the Yaplet chat system to your sidebar so you no longer have to switch tabs while you chat and can continue to surf as you talk.Yoono - The Yoono sidebar can be updated with widgets for all major instant messengers.MicrobloggingFirePownce - An official extension from Pownce that allows you to update your account via a button added to Firefox.Fownce -Allows you to post the current URL you are viewing to Pownce or just post a general update to your account.Mahalo Share - Lets you recommend a page across numerous services, including Pownce and Twitter.Shareaholic.com - Lets you update numerous services from one handy plugin, including Pownce and Twitter.Twitkit - Highly customizable Twitter application that allows you to choose colors, look up your account information, manage your followers and more.TwitterBar - An interesting extension for Firefox that allows you to use the browser’s address bat to also send Tweets to your account on Twitter.TwittyTunes - Feel a burning desire to tell Twitter what you are listening to via FoxyTunes? This extension will solve your dilemma.Twitzer - Twitzer is not a Twitter client, but a tool to help you get more than the 140 characters into that little box.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:400 Million Firefox DownloadsFirefox Campus Edition LaunchesSave the Date for the New Communications Forum 2008Baidu Gets Firefox Deal in ChinaFirefox 2 Security Fixes ReleasedMozilla: Would You Like a Virus With That Add-on?Firefox Now Officially Hates Me

» Splashtop’s Answer to Dell: 15 Million and More Deals with HP, ASUS: Just last week we heard of Dell’s upcoming Latitude On feature, which allows you to immediately access certain applications on your computer upon opening your notebook, effectively bypassing the Windows boot up process. Powered by Intel, this Latitude On feature was designed and implemented by Dell. At the time, I noted the probability that some larger companies will create such features in-house and provide some competition for software makers like DeviceVM, the maker of Splashtop. That’s not to say that the smaller software makers are down and out - in the world of capitalism, competition makes the world go round. And now Splashtop, the company that provides the instant-on application for computers that would like immediate access to things like the Internet, has an additional $15 million to keep the competition going. This Series C round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc., with existing investors Storm Ventures, DFJ Dragon, Tim Draper and Larry Augustin also participating in this round. To make Splashtop’s position even greater, the company has partnered with HP on select notebooks and has more PC manufacturer partnerships in the works. In conjunction with Splashtop’s funding announcement, we also learn that ASUS has chosen to extend its partnership with Splashtop for the use of its instant-on environment capabilities. ASUS will be using Splashtop for its Eee Box B202 Nettop computer, which is a desktop version of its low-cost notebook that was introduced last year. As an alternative to some of the larger brands, ASUS is pushing to differentiate its position with the inclusion of Splashtop’s instant-on ability to bypass the boot-up process. And while Dell has a large focus on the business side of the personal computer industry, HP is targeted towards college students, who could easily latch onto the features that Splashtop provides. I also mentioned that the inclusion of more accessible features on a computer was also a step towards competing with the mobile phone industry on some level, though I feel its ultimately part of a larger merging process between the two types of devices when it’s all said and done.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Splashtop Funded and Launched: Surf the Web Before Booting Up Your PCDell Latitude On Bypasses Full Boot Up. Will This Kill Splashtop?KateModern Team Creates Series For MySpaceJoost Announces Partnership with Major League BaseballBebo’s Next Kate Modern is Named SofiaNew Animated Series Attacks Clinton, Obama & MoreMySpace TV Debuts “quarterlife” This Weekend

» Michael Phelps Has One Million Facebook Fans: Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week and a half (and probably even if you have), you’ve undoubtedly heard the name Michael Phelps many, many times. The record setting swimmer from the US not only won an unprecedented eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, but is perhaps (and waaay more importantly) the longest running “trending topic” on Twitter search. And today the 23-year-old from Baltimore has yet another accomplishment to add to his social media resume: one million Facebook fans! With a little prodding from the social network (the site has been congratulating him and directing US users towards his fan page - see below), Phelps is now second only to Barack Obama in fans, and is quickly approaching 50,000 wall posts too. Beyond the Fan Page, Phelps actually uses Facebook, and alluded to the sudden surge he was seeing in friend requests in an interview with NBC’s Bob Costas over the weekend. How long will Phelps mania last? According to Google trends (which only updated thru Sunday), news references for the athlete have finally leveled off, but given Phelps is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week and the Olympic closing ceremonies still await, expect him to swim right past Obama and become the most popular Facebook user of all-time. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:7 Lessons Olympians Can Teach Internet EntrepreneursDell to Dell: Hey Bro, Here’s $155 MillionPhucktard Fred Phelps Hates Tim Russert, Too.Former eGroups CEO Dies in Panamanian Plane CrashJangl Calls the Whole Thing Off; JaJah Reaps the BenefitsMediaWeek: MySpace Only Makes $17 Million YearlyPeter Gabriel Throws in More Cash to Keep We7 Rockin’

» Can We Please Define Cloud Computing?: Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of articles pop up on my feeds and in my reading lists talking about the evils of cloud computing and several damnations of the term as being strictly something from the marketing department. For some reason surpassing understanding, the term has become the next “skunk drunk kool-aid” whipping boy, and many folks seem to want to inflate their credibility by attempting to deflate the cycle of hype before it even begins.I’ll not focus on the annoying tendency of some other technology pundits to attempt to appear more intelligent than they really are by trying to predict the death or fakeness . I’m not saying that the pundits I cite in this article are those folks, but very often there are those who don’t understand what the term they rail against means, and the irony is they are using the technology they decry to distribute their message.Aside from that, two articles have popped into my reader today that talk about this. One is by my esteemed collegue here at Mashable, Steven Hodson on his blog WinExtra, and the other is by Mike Elgan over at Datamation > IT Management. Steven’s post asked (and answered with the affirmative) whether “Cloud Computing is a New Flavor of Kool-Aid,” where Mike Elgan’s article asserted that “Cloud Computing is for the Birds.”What did they say?In Steven’s article, he quoted a comment that used a very ill-informed definition of cloud computing and then he ran with her assumption:As Cyndy Aleo-Carreira pointed out in a comment on one of my posts about cloud computingThe only difference now is in the transparency of what’s happening. It’s been the rare company who’s actually owned their own servers; how much has historically been outsourced to companies like IBM and EDS? EDS was running the servers for a good chunk of Blue Cross/Blue Shield as far back as what? The 70s? 80s? And they had your medical information. So not only are we dealing with an older technology that’s been given a new coat of paint; but we also are being asked to place too much of our trust and daily lives in the control of systems that are nothing more than black boxes. Black boxes that are in the control of corporations that tell you to just trust them – even as their systems go down.Cyndy’s view of cloud computing is myopic in its sense of history, and grandiosely ignores the origin and definition of the term. The architecture she describes is more aptly called client/server architecture or mainframe architecture. Steven, by building on her incorrect assertion that this is cloud computing, leads him down a path that there is “nothing new under the sun.”Similarly, Mike Elgan throws down a laundry list of ways he thinks that the term “cloud computing” has been misapplied:“Cloud computing” has been used to mean grid computing, utility computing, software as a service, Internet-based applications, autonomic computing, peer-to-peer computing and remote processing. When most people use the term, they may have one of these ideas in mind, but the listener might be thinking about something else.Here’s the thing, though: Mike Elgan isn’t completely wrong. Some of those types of computing technically fall into the definition of cloud computing, and someone who actually understands the origin of the word can see why that is and why there is a whole host of other types of technology.Where he’s way off base is his conclusions:“Cloud computing” is misleading. As a marketing buzzword, it’s used to suggest that something new and better is going on, when in fact there may be nothing new about it.In other words, the “cloud” in “cloud computing” represents ignorance. And this ignorance is touted as one of the benefits of “cloud computing.” When companies hawk “cloud computing,” they’re selling the idea that ignorance is bliss. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. We’ll take care of everything.Cloud computing simply increases the number of things that can go wrong. And go wrong they do. In the past few weeks, GoToMeeting, Amazon’s EC2 and S3, SiteMeter, Gmail, Netflix and MobileMe each experienced significant outages.I don’t think it means what you think it means.It surprises me that Mike, writing for an IT publication, doesn’t recognize the origin of the term. Cloud Computing comes from the cloud symbol on a network designers flowchart. I don’t have a long history with being familiar with network design, admittedly (I’ve only been designing and implementing networks since 1994), but the first time I saw the cloud symbol widely used was when it referred to (if I remember correctly) MCI’s old ATM cloud. When a packet of information was sent to the Internet and hit the ATM cloud, the routers analyzed traffic patterns and that packet was routed dynamically across the cloud based upon how it would get there the quickest.This technology is fairly widespread now, and most Internet routing techniques operate on these principals, which is probably why the term dropped from use. The cloud isn’t just used for that particular example, though. In a network diagram, it can be used to represent any complex network that can route data reliably without it being necessary to detail all the possible paths inside that cloud the data can take.Where this intersects with Web 2.0 is when the cloud started becoming a place where you could not only push data through but where you could offload computational cycles. The first really solid example of a type of cloud computing I ran into was the distributed.net project. Purists now call the concept grid computing, but I like to think that there are enough similarities between the two to lump them together.In a nutshell, the project was a successful attempt to create a cloud-based (or in their terminology: distributed) computer. There was a contest at the time of the inception of the project to crack the RC5 encryption routine, and to do so, the project team created installable clients that would take tiny bits of the RC5 encrypted data and attempt to brute force hack it.Let’s skip some of the history lesson, already.Rather than walk through all the historical examples of offloading computing to the cloud, let’s look at the most widespread examples today. If you search through Mashable’s archives for the term “cloud computing,” you’ll find that nearly all of the pieces make reference to either distributed computing, or something akin to Amazon’s Elastic Cloud Computing Service.In essence (and I’ve had to explain the service about three times this weekend to technical lay persons), Amazon’s cloud is about redundancy and scalability. Your server and computing environment exists in a virtual sense, and it isn’t tied to any one particular machine. If one or five or fifty machines fail in the server farm, theoretically the environment is redundant enough to handle the shift without interruption in service. If your server is suddenly Slashdotted, then you’ll be allotted more resources for the duration of the traffic spike.It’s a completely different system from the mainframes of old, though, because there are parallel, scalable, intelligent and redundant systems in play with this model, and in most of cases in context to Cyndy’s original example, you’re talking about a single processor environment.But don’t these Web 2.0 thingies go down all the time?Mike Elgan lists a number of services (GoToMeeting, Amazon’s EC2 and S3, SiteMeter, Gmail, Netflix and MobileMe) that have gone down lately, and says that this is evidence that you must be some sort of ignoramus to trust cloud computing over traditional server environments. The problem here is that several of the examples he cites are in no way connected to the concepts of cloud computing, and a couple others are only tertiarily related to the term.GoToMeeting is an example of remote access run through a central authentication system. SiteMeter is third-party analytics package that failed due to a JavaScript error. Netflix is a mail order business that failed due to a database configuration error. Even if you dilute the meaning of cloud computing to encompass every computer with clouds in the sky above it (as he seems to have done), his argument still breaks down since he isn’t suggesting we all go back to the stone age and use an Abacus for everything.The truth is that all systems eventually fail. There is no such thing as 100% up time, no matter what it is. Indeed it is important to reduce failure points within a systems’ architecture to increase up time, but it stands to reason that the better pathway towards accomplishing it isn’t to have a legion of distributed experts at every single organization running in-house servers of varying levels of efficiency and reliability. If you’re an average startup or small business, it is absolutely a wise move to trust experts with a reputation and business at stake when it comes to keeping your architecture online.Put another way, ignorance of systems engineering and network architecture is not only bliss, it’s sound business. As elastic computing and hosted software solutions become commoditized, commonplace and increasingly efficient, what’s the purpose of hiring an in-house IT staff in the majority of small business situations? If the goal in business is to make money, why waste it on an automated solution you can buy at a fraction of the cost.Simply because you can’t hold a cloud it isn’t there.Cloud computing is admittedly a broad term. The swath cuts across a lot of specific technologies like server virtualization across multiple machines, certain software written for the web, and distributed computing. But within the broader definition of software types, there are clean lines of delineation here to be found.Despite this, and as is often the case in tech marketing, a lot of folks will latch onto a term and use it before they clearly understand what it means. This will cause a knee-jerk reaction from pundits to call out the marketers on their ‘blatant lies’ and ‘brain-dead zealotry’ about the products and services they represent.Soon enough, the echo chamber amplifies the sentiment because it isn’t cool not to hate on the new buzzword and then there is a PR problem to manage. The PR and marketing pundits take a look at the chaos and wonder where the wheels came off the bus, and in the ultimate in meta, they analyze the analysis trends. The PR professionals who read them send out more press releases attempting to clarify their message around the term, and the cycle begins anew.Then the investors all look at the cycle of hype and anti-hype and suddenly decide that it’s time to pull resources out of “cloud computing,” investments. Meanwhile all the end-users roll their eyes at the hullabaloo and wonder who the heck put any of us in charge in the first place.Meanwhile, all it could be avoided if someone took the time to, you know, look up the definition of the word.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Mosso Updates Pricing Structure; A Better Model for Cloud Computing?Nirvanix Offers 30 Day “Fee Holiday” to Lure Amazon S3 CustomersOffline Google Docs Access DeployedYahoo’s Supercomputing Initiative Running HadoopRightScale Pulls $4.5 Million From the Clouds Network.com - Sun Provides Grid Computing for $1/CPU-hourRackspace Unveils Mosso For Scalable Storage

» Are We Walking A Fine Line With All This Openness?: If there is one thing that can be said for the Web 2.0 movement and social media it is that its proponents are strong believers in openness and transparency. They are such strong believers that they have no problems leaving things like their cell phone numbers on their blogs, their addresses on their blog about pages or their complete traveling itinerary viewable by all on sites like Dopplr.Back in September of 2007 I wrote a post on my own blog titled Who needs Carnivore when you have lifestreams. The idea was that there was no real need for any secret government data mining project since we all seemed to be so willing to give away our information for nothing.This idea of online security has been going on for almost as long as two people could talk to each other over the Internet. With Web 2.0, social networking and social media there came the idea that security online was non-existent and the soon we got use to that fact the better off we would be. I have never been a fully fledged proponent of this transparency idea to the degree that some seem to be. For me I still believe that some modicum of personal information security is needed, despite having relaxed over the years from my original feelings on the matter.For me security and the protection of my personal data on the web is extremely important and it is something I don’t believe that those involved with Web 2.0 or any social media service take seriously enough. Even today Chris Miller here on Mashable wrote about the idea of Social Network Identity theft and how the user; unless you are someone like Robert Scoble, don’t have any rights should they find that someone has stolen their identity on some new social networkSmaller social networking companies seem to be more open to step in the middle and assist in clearing up someone purporting themselves as you. However, who is to say there cannot be two people of the same name at a company? Who wins in that regard? First come first served? Why would any site wish to step in the middle, when deleting accounts or editing information holds them more liable in many people’s eyes. Larger companies, such as Google, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook seem to stay far away from the matter. You are hard pressed to find a statement or help item on the subject, much less who to contact when you are the victim.However as minor as this idea of social media identity theft might seem it really on the tip of a potentially huge iceberg of danger that could face us as we open up more about ourselves on the web. This was made abundantly in an excellent article today by Alexander van Elsas as he looked at both a popular web service for travelers and a technology that is becoming commonplace in vehicles these days.The first he talked about was Dopplr which is a social network that lets enter in your travel plans primarily as private for friends and families. The person he used in his example was Robert Scoble and the fact that there are still a lot of details about his travel plans that are made available as you can see here. While this might seem slightly innocuous on the service Alexander quite rightly points out that this provides anyone in the mood for committing burglary the perfect time table and place to do the crime.As far as the second idea it requires nothing more than a nice expensive vehicle with built-in GPS being parked on the extended stay section of just about any airport. Something like this isn’t as far fetched as one might think as Alexander provides a true event where this happenedIt turns out that car thieves in the Netherlands had found a very lucrative thieving method. They would go to the long parking area of our national airport and steal expensive cars with integrated car navigation systems. Then they would choose the “home” address on the navigation system and drive to the house of the unaware owners that were obviously on vacation. As a result, not only their expensive car was stolen, but their house was conveniently emptied too.I have always maintained that no matter how good the intentions of people might be when they set about to change the world with all these cool social media services those services will get misused. While we might like to believe that all this openness and transparency might be a good thing for other people it is like being handed a shopping list. The problem is they are like us and they will more than willingly exploit any weakness available to their own end.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:EU Raises Microsoft Fine to a Total of $2 BillionAOL Letting You Signup for the “Do Not Track” ListMicrosoft & Yahoo Sign Pact Pushing Blog Censorship in ChinaOpenness, Transparency and Web 2.0Here’s An Idea: Location-Aware Disposable Apps For The iPhoneBebo To Follow Facebook and Launch Developer PlatformUniversal Music: MySpace and YouTube Owe Us Millions

» Mashable’s Upcoming Guide to Conferences and Events: Here’s Mashable’s latest round-up of upcoming Web 2.0 events, parties, and conferences. Not on this list? Contact us and let’s establish a media partnership. August 21, 2008: Community Next::Monetize is an exclusive expo bringing together top advertisers and publishers/bloggers/app developers. The goal is to connect these influential groups and help publishers find new and better ways to monetize and of course have fun in the process. There will be a free delicious lunch and an open bar all afternoon. Want more information? Visit our CommunityNext::Monetize announcement for the skinny.September 6-7, 2008: SearchCamp is designed to be an affordable and fun way for small businesses and marketers to learn about how to market their businesses online. Topics range from Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO Basics) to Public Relations & the Internet and Web 2.0 Technologies. Speakers are from the local Philadelphia area as well as New York City and Washington D.C. including well known blogging authors Geoff Livingston, Debbie Weil and search experts like Mike Grehan and Kevin Ryan. The event will coincide with PodCamp Philly. Read more about SearchCamp Philly.September 7-9, 2008 Be the first to see the most innovative, marketing defining new technologies unveiled for the very first time. Attend DEMOfall 08 on September 7-9, 2008 in San Diego. Mashable readers are invited to attend for a special rate of only $2,395 – a $600 savings off our regular rate. Click here to learn more and register: http://www.demo.com/F8mashableSeptember 8, 2008: The Inbound Marketing Summit brings together experts in the field of inbound marketing to share the latest strategies, tools, and best practices to utilize inbound marketing methods to grow your business. In order to remain competitive, businesses need to be found on the web and leverage inbound marketing techniques to reach customers with targeted messages that customers seek out, not ignore. Learn about search engine optimization, business blogging, social media marketing, optimizing landing pages, closed loop marketing, and more. Keynoting the event are best-selling marketing authors and bloggers Seth Godin (Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Meatball Sundae, and more) and David Meerman Scott (The New Rules of Marketing & PR). More information and a discount code are here.September 10th, 2008: Join The E.Factor for an evening filled with some of the brightest minds and learn how this economy could be a prosperous time for start-ups and Entrepreneurs alike. More information, agenda, and registration information can be found here.September 16-19, 2008: Web 2.0 Expo New York will be held at the Javits Center. Whether you’re new to the Web 2.0 world or an expert or in Ajax, Ruby, tagging, the social graph, user experience, meta-programming, search engine marketing, community building, web operations, user-generated content, building startups from scratch, or “Web2.0-ifying” the enterprise, come to Web 2.0 Expo New York and immerse yourself in the Web 2.0 experience. Mashable readers can save or get a FREE expo hall pass! All the juicy details are here.September 18, 2008: The Houston Interactive Marketing Association presents “Interactive Strategies: Secrets Exposed,” a full day conference in Houston, Texas, on September 18, 2008. Interactive Strategies is the South Coast’s rogue interactive marketing conference featuring Tara Hunt as the keynote speaker. Breakout sessions will cover topics in social media, SEO, and digital media. More conference details and a 20% discount for registration can be found in the official announcement on Mashable. September 19-21, 2008: Join Mashable staffers in Las Vegas for BlogWorldExpo, the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media. BlogWorld also features over 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and Internet-savvy business. ALSO, this year, Mashable is ready to help organize booths and sponsors for BlogWorldExpo! Got what it takes? Email us at advertising@mashable.com and we’ll fill you in with all the details! More information and a discount code are in this post!September 23-26, 2008: Returning to Sydney Australia in September for the 5th year, Web Directions South ‘08 once again features a two day conference of leading international and local experts in web design and development, two days of in depth workshops, parties, receptions and other networking events. Featured speakers this year include Jeffrey Veen, Derek Featherstone, Daniel Burka, Douglas Crockford, Jeff Croft, and Lynne D Johnson, who will cover front and back end web development, web app security, web design, interaction design, and much more. Check out Mashable’s official announcement here. September 29-30, 2008: InterAct 2008, to be held on September 29-30 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, hopes to have 1,000 attendees each day, 65 exhibitors, and 35+ of the industries hottest talents speaking about proven methods to increase market share on the web, turnkey web solutions, user experience, search engine optimization, user interface design, branding, rich media, video, mobile media, social media, new business development, and networking, networking, networking. Want more information and a discount code? Hop on over to our conference post with all the deets!October 6-8, 2008: Back for the second year, Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008 (VWF) isproduced by the Virtual Economic Forum, Europe’s leading virtual worlds media company. Three days of congress, expo and workshops covering entertainment, enterprise, community, education, marketing, regulation, and finance… plus lots more. VWF is the place to make connections, be inspired and have fun.October 20-21, 2008: Mashable is pleased to be collaborating with US-based Virtual Worlds Management to bring you to Virtual Worlds London, the premiere event focused on virtual worlds and Web 3D. Virtual Worlds London takes place 20-21 October 2008 in the heart of London at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Virtual Worlds London is the leading event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds. VW London is presented by leading VW business blog Virtual Worlds News. More information and a discount link is right over here. October 21-23, 2008: Marketing Connections is a unique event focused on exploring the great power and strategic value in integrating all the pieces of the modern marketing landscape: both traditional and emerging. Most events today only present a sliver of the marketing mix — whether it’s online, search, email, tv or radio. At MCONN, attendees will walk away with a holistic view of the broad spectrum of technologies, strategies and solutions at their disposal in this new marketing world — leading them back to their most important goal — generating effective outcomes for their customers. Get a discount code and more details in this post.November 11-14, 2008: For anyone involved in the production, marketing, or management of an Internet web site - this is a must attend event to be held in Las Vegas, NV. PubCon covers search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), web hosting issues, domains & the domaining business, Internet video, podcasting, multimedia, and special sessions of interactive attendee site reviews. In addition, there are tracks on new marketing techniques, linking strategies, social media, and online advertising. Save 15% by using the code on our discount announcement. November 24-25, 2008: Affiliate marketers unite in Israel for Affilicon Israel. For the first time ever, you have the chance to meet face-to-face in Israel with top affiliate marketers and learn from experts in Search Engine Optimization, social networking and media, and other leading internet technologies. At Affilicon, network with highly successful affiliates who live and breathe the world of affiliate marketing. Meet new people and explore new potential relationships with operators and vendors. Want more information? And perhaps a discount code? Click here.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:I Took a Ride in the Schwaggin’ Wagon, at Web 2.0 ExpoAOL Goes Local In IndiaTicket Giveaway for O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns EastWorld’s Simplest iPhone AppAnnouncing O’Reilly Graphing Social Patterns East: June 9-11, 2008Meet Mashable Blogger Kristen Nicole at DEMOSecond Life Teams Up With IBM for Virtual World Interoperability

» Six Apart Launches Blogs.com to Promote You — Maybe: Six Apart announced today that it has officially launched Blogs.com in an attempt to “find the best blogs on the Web.” And even better, the company said that it’s willing to let any blogger submit their site for consideration.At first glance, Blogs.com is well-designed and its editorial staff, which picks the top ten stories to be placed on the site, seems to be working hard at finding the right balance between the top stories and a wide range of subjects. But at this point, I can’t help but be suspect of its implementation and whether or not it’ll really be the place for small and big sites to co-mingle.A quick glance at Blogs.com’s technology page tells you everything you need to know about its current focus. Sure, the topics are wide-ranging, but the sites they link to are mostly those you would expect to see on sites like Digg or Techmeme: Engadget, Techdirt, and Wired.Granted, the company didn’t explicitly say that its aim is to make blogs.com into a site that’s dedicated to finding good content from small bloggers, but Six Apart did say that it’s trying to “help all bloggers.” If that’s true, why wouldn’t Six Apart actively seek out smaller blogs and let those that have little exposure get a piece of the limelight for once?By Six Apart’s very own billing, its crack editorial team is “assembling Top Ten lists of blogs by category, to help you discover the best sites that you never knew existed.” If that’s true, I’d like to see more than the obvious choices on the site and let the smaller bloggers take the limelight.But just because things don’t necessarily reflect Six Apart’s intent right now, it doesn’t mean that it won’t work. Blogs.com is now accepting submissions to be included in the top ten lists and your site could get more exposure if it’s picked. And if it follows through on that promise and gives small bloggers the kind of exposure they wouldn’t normally get, I’ll be the first to take up arms alongside Six Apart.But until then, I want to wait and see what comes of it. If it turns into a derivative service that tries to mimic Techmeme, albeit with a more editorial flavor, that will be a mistake.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Calendar Launches Public DirectoryApple’s iPhone Directory is Really Real!Facebook Opening Their App Directory To The WebYet More Revenue Sharing: RawSugar’s Rewards ProgramiGoogle Themes Directory is LiveFireAnt - Best Vlog Directory YetPageflakes Users Create 100,000 Pagecasts

» Zeer Helps You Build a Better Grocery List (The Startup Review): Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.STARTUP DETAILS:Company Name: Zeer20 word description: Zeer helps people buy better groceries: Get food reviews, build shopping lists, join communities, share advice, and go mobile.CEO’s Pitch:Zeer helps people get answers to their questions about groceries, so they can “believe in what they buy.” On Zeer consumers can:- Get food reviews: With nutritional information on more than 100,000 products.- Get organized: Build your shopping list and keep track of what you have in your fridge or pantry.- Join communities: Going green or organic? Have a food allergy? Trying a new diet? Join a Zeer community to learn from people like you.- Go mobile: Visit m.zeer.com on your mobile browser to get food reviews in the store, and see your shopping list on your phone!Mashable’s Take: Since the iPhone and the iPod touch came along, it’s been easier for me to keep track of things like driving directions and shopping lists while I’m on the go. There’s nothing worse than having all your groceries scribbled on a sheet of paper that you’re carrying around the store, digging in your purse for a pen so you can check things off your list. And now that we have things like highly established grocery delivery, online ordering and list creation services, the task of grocery shopping is becoming even easier. Zeer is a Web-based solution that spans both your computer and your mobile device, so you’ve always got your grocery list on hand. And its community-driven groups and discussions can help you form grocery lists around things that are important to you, such as a low-carb or an organic diet. In this sense, Zeer is a service that helps you find the food you should be eating and has the added benefit of a grocery list manager. Creating a list is easy enough–just search for items you need and add them to your list. Zeer is also a product review site, meaning you can add items to your wish list, write a review or read other users’ reviews. In this particular sense, Zeer is also a recommendation tool that lets you leverage the wisdom of crowds in order to choose the food that’s best suited for your needs. Given Zeer’s initiatives towards this end, I wouldn’t mind seeing some more specific features that help recommend and manage a user’s diet, from grocery items to full recipes. And while Zeer is still in its beginning stages, there are a number of other services that it competes with on some levels and could work with on other levels. For instance, Qponix has created a grocery list manager that works with retailers to help consumers create lists while also receiving coupons for immediate (in-store) redemption. Working with Amazon’s wish list integration capabilities, Zeer could also help consumers manage their lists and shop for items online. Such integration would also encourage other users to take advantage of Zeer’s tools, as it wouldn’t require users to start from scratch when joining Zeer’s site.Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:21 iPhone Food Apps to Eat Your Heart Out

» Google Won’t Let Search Startups Grow Too Large: Czech search engine, Seznam is on the block for $1 billion, according to reports, and Google may be in the hunt for that country’s most popular search engine. And while it wouldn’t surprise me if Google did acquire Seznam to shore up its international influence, it points to a key issue that shouldn’t be overlooked: Google is so powerful and so rich that the chances of a small search engine growing to challenge its prowess are becoming smaller with each passing day.There are a variety of search engines in the wild that all offer something new or unique. Some think Quintura will be a major player in the search space one day, while others believe Wikia, Clusty, or even KartOO might have a shot at slaying the Google beast. Each offers something unique and something that many people may be looking for, but do they have the staying power or popularity to grow under Google’s nose like Baidu, and utterly command the search market in one space? I doubt it.Google is simply too big and too powerful to be challenged by a small firm. That’s not to say that it’s better than Wikia or even better than Quintura, but it does mean that Google simply won’t let these services get too big before it’s forced to react.The search engine space is increasingly becoming a three-horse race in the United States and even fewer are finding footing overseas. According to the most recent numbers, Google now controls 70 percent of the US market and Yahoo and Microsoft continue to lose ground. All the while, smaller search engines like Wikia and Quintura are not even included in that discussion. That said, they’re still growing, albeit at a much slower rate than Google.But that doesn’t matter much anymore. Years ago, search engines would start up and have a fighting chance at reigning supreme. But in today’s consolidated market, there’s no such chance. Instead, the idea of creating a search engine has followed the Web 2.0 mantra that venture capitalists love and egotists that want to rule a market don’t: Make your search engine grow to a level where people take notice, do something unique, and in no time, Google or Microsoft will acquire it to shore up their presence online.Powerset is a prime example of that idea. Sure, it only lets you search Wikipedia right now, but what it did do was provide a highly-useful way of inputting queries and getting relevant results to be returned. And in the process, Microsoft saw something it liked and acquired it before it became a threat or before Google had the opportunity to do the same.It might sound naive to say that no company will ever really challenge Google, but it may be true. The way I see it, Yahoo is the only company that’s even close right now and it’s in such disarray that it’s not a threat to Eric Schmidt and the rest of his cronies at all. Microsoft is probably the stiffest competition because it has the cash to compete, but let’s not forget that its market share is barely relevant — it has yet to even hit 10 percent.But that’s also where the smaller search engines come in. Smaller search engines don’t need to play the same game Google and Microsoft do and tend to be more successful when they break the mold and create a real user experience. The Web is littered with the remains of search engines like Lycos, Altavista, and dare I say, AOL, that tried to do the same thing as Google and failed, so why shouldn’t startups try something new and give the big three some ideas?After using the myriad search engines on the Web, it’s abundantly clear that some — most notably, Wikia and Clusty — have a chance at growing into a search powerhouse. But in today’s environment where both Google and Microsoft make billions each quarter and have all the money they need to stop small search engines from growing too large and threatening their dominance, that’s simply impossible.Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are probably here to stay for quite some time. And although I’d like to see a new company crop up just as much as the next person, the chances of another Baidu emerging are extremely small — Google or Microsoft would acquire it before that ever happens.That said, it doesn’t mean innovation is dead and I fully expect Microsoft to lead the way in that regard. After all, if you’re trailing by such a wide margin, wouldn’t you want to try something new and hopefully coax more people to your service?---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Calendar ImpressesGoogle Releases Custom Search Business EditionMoFuse Grow Launched for Mobile Blog ReadersGoogle Receives 64% of US Searches in AugustWikia Search - Miles Behind the CompetitionGoogle Blog Search Semi-Launched in ChinaGoogle Product Search Not as Froogle

» 6 Online Email Aggregators that Do More Than Just Aggregate: For most of us, Gmail can be the simple answer to aggregating all of our emails together in one place. But for those who are looking for something new with a bit more spice, there are a whole new breed of email aggregators that promise to redefine the way we look at and use our inboxes. Here are 6 online email aggregators that do more than just aggregate.ZenbeZenbe, “designed to be the world’s best email experience,” is the coolest new kid on the block and might just emerge as the big guy soon enough. The advertisement-free service offers you an email program, startup page, calendar, files directory, task list, your Facebook updates, Twitter, a chat application, Delicious, and address book all in one place. While you might be getting many of these features in other email programs, the presentation and flawless execution is what make Zenbe a clear winner. The calendar, startup page, file directory, and email come in tabs in the center of the page. There is a right-hand sidebar that executes the Twitter, Facebook, chat and to-do list applications. Zenbe can get your emails from other email services like Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, and MSN using POP. What I particularly like about Zenbe is the start-up page titled “ZenPage” that will definitely change the way we look at emails and start-up pages. You can have members at your ZenPage and chat with them live from your account. OrgooOrgoo is similar to Zenbe but in a much simpler form. If you take away Zenbe’s ZenPage, Facebook, Twitter, and a few other features, you are left with Orgoo. The service provides you with an inbox and a chat application on the right-hand sidebar, and aggregates your SMS messages, but what is really striking about Orgoo is its video chat feature. Orgoo’s video chat allows you to use any webcam and start chatting from your account page. FuserFuser, as the name suggests, simply fuses all your email accounts, including AIM, AOL, Comcast, POP3, IMAP, Gmail, Hotmail, Live, Netscape, Outlook, Yahoo, and more, in one place. Not only that, you can also get and reply to your MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter messages from the Fuser inbox.TopicRTopicR is not really about aggregating your emails from all of your other email addresses, but experiencing a whole new way of using email while still retaining your old email addresses. I can bet some of the features in TopicR will make you say “wow.” With TopicR you can send private emails that can’t be forwarded or copied. It also acts a file upload service where you can upload a number of pictures or audio files that your recipients can see online so that their inboxes don’t get clogged. You can mix music and pictures in your attachments and create a slide show. You can also create an RSS feed of your email. TopicR acts as a social networking platform where you can browse through the publicly shared content and connect with other readers. What I find particularly interesting is the Activity Stream, which in TopicR’s words is “the stream of people’s activities around your email topics and contents.” Talk about the next generation of email - this could be close.GoowyGoowy is for the Flash fans out there. It provides you a Flash based webtop that includes features like email, calendar, contact management, a startup page, IM, file storage, and more. You can add your Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail accounts into Goowy using POP3. There are plenty of customization options that you can choose from, including dozens of inbox skins.JubiiJubii not only aggregates your different email accounts but acts as a smart service that adapts according to your usage patterns. For example, it sorts out your incoming emails into your private and public inboxes and highlights important senders. It provides a file storage center with a 10 GB space for the first 1 million beta users and 4 GB per user thereafter that you can use to store any type of files and share easily with your contacts. Jubii also acts like a social networking platform where you can see who is online and connect with them in real time. Instead of emailing, you can choose to call your contacts on landline and mobile phones using the service. The following countries are supported currently for the online telephony service: US, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and United Kingdom. Jubii currently allows you to call and talk your contacts for 30 minutes a day or 3 hours per month for free. Jubii also provides an RSS feed reader feature that you might want to check out.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:GloobTV Launches Human-Powered Video AggregatorTwitterMail Lets You Tweet from your Email AccountContactify Creates URL for your Email AddressYouTube Desktop Easily Aggregates ClipsInsiderPages - User-Generated Business ReviewsFav.or.it: 200 Invites for Mashable ReadersFTC: Bogus Email Alert

» Music Streaming Service Grooveshark Lite Takes Aim at Pandora and Last.fm: Grooveshark is launching a new online music streaming service called Grooveshark Lite today that aims at creating a better all-around experience than what you’ll find on Last.fm and Pandora. And although it has some issues, it’s a service that you’ll definitely want to check out that may make you think twice about using its competitors’ services.If Pandora had a love child with Last.fm, its name would be Grooveshark Lite. Grooveshark’s service lets you input an artist’s name or song and it immediately searches its bank of millions of tunes to find what you’re looking for. Once you pick the song you want to hear first, you can click the ‘Autoplay’ button afterward and Grooveshark Lite does the rest by playing songs that you might like based on your original preference.On Pandora you can’t replay a song you just listened to and are limited to the number of tracks you can skip. But during my time with Grooveshark Lite, I was able to replay any song I wanted — it shows a cover flow of albums to trace your steps — and I skipped a slew of songs without any dialog box telling me I couldn’t. On top of that, I could also decide if I liked or disliked a song, much like Pandora, so I could keep the songs for later in my queue or get rid of them entirely if they weren’t so great.Grooveshark Lite does a fine job of finding songs that you might like and after searching for a range of artists from Dean Martin to Bob Dylan, I was extremely pleased with the ability to jump from Nat King Cole to Bruce Springsteen and back without a hitch. And although the site is designed to let you enjoy the songs you love, but also find songs you may love and don’t even know, it’s the first that makes it extremely easy to search for and listen to all the songs you already enjoy.But not everything Grooveshark Lite offers is great. It’s not nearly as social as a site like Last.fm and it’s lacking the kind of interaction you would normally find on Last.fm like messaging and friend monitoring. Aside from that, Grooveshark Lite doesn’t create “stations” the way Pandora does. That said, you can save any song you listen to and you can create a playlist of songs, which actually makes it easier to find your favorite songs anyway. On top of that, it’s not hard to create a station that plays songs that are similar to your favorites — just input the name and let it go.As much as I tried, it was hard to find faults in Grooveshark Lite. It’s extremely well-designed and is easy enough to use for those that are tech-savvy and those that haven’t seen a computer in months. More importantly, it gives you full control over the songs you listen to in a way that’s simply unprecedented.While using Grooveshark Lite, I decided to find some songs from every decade and add them to my Queue to be played later. Instead of clicking my way through junky songs that may be somewhat like my favorites, I was practically a DJ and populated my Queue with a group of songs that I really enjoy. After that, I simply let this service go and it played them one after the other.Grooveshark Lite also lets you buy songs through its own music downloading service. And although it’s not nearly as user-friendly as iTunes or Amazon’s MP3 service, which makes it extremely easy to search and find songs, it does the trick. After enjoying a song, you can click the “Buy This Song” link on the right pane of the page and it brings you to Grooveshark’s store, which then allows you to buy the song in seconds.When I first heard about Grooveshark Lite, I was skeptical of how useful it was. Wasn’t it just jumping into a pond that’s already dominated by companies that have left little room for improvement? But after spending some time with this service and getting a feel for just how well it’s designed and implemented, it became quickly apparent that being late to the game isn’t such a bad thing after all.In my opinion, Grooveshark Lite is better than both Pandora and Last.fm and it’s one of the most exciting and entertaining services I’ve used in a while. And for someone like me who doesn’t tend to like too many new offerings, that’s saying a lot.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:1,004 Grooveshark InvitesNearly Free Music Downloads on GroovesharkGrooveshark InvitesGrooveshark Partners with Naxos to Offer Classical MusicGrooveshark Launches Final Pre-Beta Version with UpgradesGrooveshark Private Beta Sneak PeekMicrosoft Licenses Flash Lite; Whoa, What About Silverlight?

» Pick a Startup to Get Funded: The VenCorps Mashable Showdown: For the first time ever, Mashable readers get to pick a startup to get funded. The winning startup will receive a $50k seed investment from a real VC firm and access to an entire community to help them grow.We are partnering with VenCorps to offer invites to the first 500 readers who register with the invite code “mashablerocks.” VenCorps is a community of entrepreneurs, investors and service providers focused on discovering, funding and growing startups. VenCorps is a project of New York venture capital firm Spencer Trask.In VenCorps you can nominate and vote on startups between now and September 1st. During the month of September, the top 9 startups compete in a Mashable Showdown for the support of the community. The winning startup receives an investment of $50k and the right to ask for up to $5 million.Community Manager Will Pate was with us on the entire SummerMash Tour, if you have any questions please email him at community@vencorps.com. We are excited to see which startup Mashable readers pick!---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Pete Cashmore Gets Scobleized Viacom Sues YouTube for $1 Billion…The End of the Tube?Mashable Writers UpdateMashable Rocks: Announcing the Winner of Rock BandMashable Relaunches - Like Our New Look?Wordpress DevelopersAuthors at Mashable

» Push Mail is the iPhone’s Most Pressing Achilles Heel: As an first-generation iPhone owner, I’ve come to discover and begrudgingly tolerate a number of quirks with the device. Not counting the botched launch the iPhone 3G, the retrofit iPhone and iPod touch 2.0 software updates, and the MobileMe cloudware suite, the software itself shows clear need for improvement. Though the device is widely seen as the benchmark for smart handhelds, and rightly so, in many ways, there some particularities that make for an exceedingly faulty experience. One is the push notification service.Many mobile Web users of BlackBerry devotion have long known that push mail is something just shy of heavenly in convenience. And so it is something that Apple was fairly quick to say would arrive on the iPhone. Enterprise users could mate the device with their corporate exchange server and have immediate access to email, calendar, etc., and all changes would quickly synchronize. Months later, Apple announced its intention to bring push to the consumer sector, too, through the .Mac replacement known as MobileMe.Forward to today, and MobileMe has been seen roughing the public waters for several weeks, and doing so with some major hiccups. Yet, even after Apple had announced having remedied faults in email transmission late last month - at which point I sprang for a free 30-day trial of the service - problems have evidently persisted. Email simply would not “push” to my device. At least not in any way that would seem reasonably expedient. (Hours upon hours, let’s say.) Suffice it to say, I abandoned the effort in a few days’ time.I should note, other components in MobileMe did transfer information as advertised. Contacts added through my iPhone would move to the cloud automatically with little delay, for instance. But I assume for the broad majority of prospective subscribers, mail would be the singular most important aspect of the $99 investment. And it has underperformed, plain and simple.I would venture to think Apple will right all problems in coming months, and according to a relatively fresh MacRumors report, the company “has pulled the push notification service in (the latest developer-specific iPhone 2.1 Beta 4 software) release ‘for further development,’” proving that hypothesis to be very probable. (MacRumor’s Jeff Longo notes that third party developers have issued requests for “background process support” of push transfers for their applications, and that this notice likely promises such an enhancement at the SDK level.)But one thing seems clear. While Apple takes an adventurous route with its mobile platform, pressing buttons both for consumers and corporate customers alike, reliability in cloud-based communications is not its forte. Yes, it can sell you songs, music videos, television shows, and movies with aplomb. Its podcasting efforts are also exemplary. But a BlackBerry/RIM killer - a success story which the company is naturally aiming to challenge - it isn’t. And it won’t be for quite a while longer.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:New Zimbra Version Utilizes iPhone’s Active SyncZimbra Optimized for Your iPhoneGoogle Talk Comes to the iPhone…And It’s Kinda UselessHow to Despam Your iPhone EmailPush-It Alert Delivers Real-Time Web Content to Mobile PhonesWorld’s Simplest iPhone AppTeleMoose Optimizes Amazon Shopping on Your iPhone

» Pandora Might Avoid Extinction by Getting More Social: Let me say from the outset that I am a thorough fan of Pandora and its browser-based and iPhone-friendly offerings. Both work exceptionally well. (Most of the time, anyway. Music recommendation isn’t a perfect science - with or without a so-called Genome Project involved in the process.) Yet the Washington Post has featured an exposé by Peter Whoriskey this weekend to the effect that Pandora, save for a swift change in royalty fees stipulated for Internet music playback by SoundExchange, the representative for a number of studios in the industry, will soon be facing a “pull-the-plug kind of decision.” So says the founder of the service, Tim Westergren.That, I hold no reservations in saying, would be (all but) tragic. Pandora has added considerable value to the custom radio market, and its arrangements with mobile phone carriers and home theater systems by Slim Devices (Sqeezebox) and Sonos are quite elegant methods for casual listening sans a PC.Yet, I feel I must beg the question: Is the royalty system all that gives Pandora and the people behind it the kind of finite outlook they predict as a result of drastically increased licensing costs? Might it not be at least partly due to the competition’s much more expansive implementation of social services intertwined with music streaming and recommendation that targets Pandora for expiration? Is it, when all is said and done, an algorithm, or a set of algorithms, that music fans wish for? Or is it interactive, person-to-person frameworks by which to share and learn of favorite artists and new releases they crave more? Popular names like Last.fm and imeem are readily serving to such demand quite well.For the time being, Pandora seems quite healthy, I’ll allow. Google shows that the last 12 months for the site have generally moved upward from a low of 200,000 visitors per day in July 2008 to 400k by July 2008. It then witnessed a surge to about 450k in the days immediately after. But a service like imeem, for instance, which carries quite a few social networking components in addition to its media-rich archives, has a sort of all-in-oneness to it, and Google marks it as having had 400k visitors in July 2007 turn to 800k a year later.Similarly, Last.fm is also a popular destination for social music entertainment. Its name is well enmeshed in the market. Mind you, it is early neck-and-neck with Pandora, user-wise, so it would be silly to think it’s anything of an outstanding financial success. But in terms of assets, I would venture to peg Last.fm as a more promising wager going into 2009 and beyond. (Just for reference, Google Trends shows Last.fm as having experienced ups and downs over the last four seasons, but it has often maintained a rough 400k daily visitors.)Now, there is without question a noticeable segment of the Pandora listenership that has with it a critical feature for the service’s continuance: allegiance. There’s considerable affinity for the service, from the core utility to the various accessories the company has added to its repertoire, and if SoundExchange weren’t forcing its hand greedily, Pandora would not be in serious trouble. But unless it can command a greater advertising premium - Westergren told the Washington Post that it would soon add intermittent, in-stream ads, a la NPR (“The next half-hour is brought to you by…,” is the example he offers) - the company really is at the mercy of SoundExchange. More users would perhaps be helpful to bring in more ad dollars, but Pandora would then have to deliver more streaming music, and pay in kind for that increase. A rather circular situation, in short.Perhaps brighter days will greet the gang at Pandora in the weeks to come. But it has investors to satisfy, and the burden of SoundExchange clearly isn’t making life easy. ($17 million of a projected $25 million in revenue for this year will go toward royalties.) I only question whether the Last.fm class of social music sites is really where the future lies, and that something like Pandora, while superb in its own right, is not heavy enough on community building to sustain itself indefinitely.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Pandora Now Free!Reciva Adds Pandora To Their DevicesPandora Now Available Anywhere With GlobalPandoraSnocap Launches Pandora MashupRumor: Pandora Adding Videos?Pandora Remains Blocked to International UsersLast.fm and Pandora - Music Discovery Services

» How to Chase Hurricane Fay Online: So you’re a modern day storm chaser. “Twister” remains in your top 5 favorite flicks ever. You trawl YouTube for highlights, send off 140-character-long remarks about everything from monsoons around Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim, watch for news of tornadoes in the American Midwest, and follow coastal onslaughts brought on by hurricanes of intensities grand and grander. Put on your wetsuit then, because a hardy sea creature called Fay, presently traveling through Cuba, is slated to hit southern Florida early next week, and the volume of information available to Web-savvy observers is extensive.Of course, you can visit the de facto forecaster for many a weather watcher - Weather.com - for relevant information. The site is home to news reports, an interactive tracker, videos, and satellite data. All the standard stuff. If you’re situated in the target zone, for whatever reason, and you’re one to document such occurrences, you can upload videos for site visitors to see.Another base of operation on the Web, MyFoxHurricane.com, run out of the Floridian city of Tampa Bay, seems to do Weather.com one better so far as visual material is concerned. The front page is literally stuffed with satellite readings, both static and time-lapsed. And like Weather.com, MyFoxHurricane offers coverage of all regions most vulnerable during the year’s peak hurricane season: the Eastern Atlantic, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and the entire southeastern seaboard of the US. The site also gives users the ability to view live video, watch a “supertracker,” chat with fellow visitors, and even transfer hurricane data to Google Earth if you choose. The site presents links to various governmental and non-profit organizations as well. One such destination is NOAA’s National Weather Service website.The National Weather Service website is, visually speaking, predictably basic, but it’s a useful resource nonetheless. For a quick way to look at multiple perspectives taken by NOAA of the situation pertaining to Hurricane Fay’s presumed path of travel north through Florida, the NWS is perhaps one of the best places to go. No video to consume, from what we can gather, but if you’re interested in the goings on surrounding the cyclone, you can glean some unfiltered output in the ‘State’ link under the ‘Text Messages’ designation.AccuWeather is one more source for information on storms, which, like all of the abovementioned destinations, has done the duty of putting Fay front and center. It has gathered the requisite satellite and radar data, video updates, analysis, and warnings for advanced preparation, and, if need be, evacuation. It should be said that the layout of AccuWeather is somewhat of a strong point for the service. Nearly everything one could wish for is immediately on tap.MobileAs for mobile readings and alerts, both Weather.com and AccuWeather make for quality information engines. Each service’s mobile-specific websites are free to use (they do require mobile Web connections, however). For iPhone owners, the always-available Weather application, which consults AccuWeather, does lack in detail, so if you find yourself wanting for an enhanced view of Fay’s situation this week, WeatherBug provides a free application download.There is also Twitter to consider! Sure, it’s had its ups and downs, some particularly newsworthy in and of themselves. But as with the geological tremors that swept parts of California late last year and earlier this year, there’s no question that the microblogging service we’ve developed undying love-hate relations with will prove useful to anyone concerned with Hurricane Fay and her abusive intentions.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Earth Outreach Collects Layers Of Cyclone Nargis EffectsYieldBuild Raises $6 Million for Ad Optimization NetworkCrowdstorm - Social Networking Meets ShoppingJobster Launches Advanced Job Search for FacebookgPhone: European Exec Confirms Its ExistenceFacebook Search Code LeakedBest of 2007: Top 5 Villains in Tech

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