(* Source: Amy Muller *)

Some nice examples here...

Posted by brian tiong at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Brian Solis *)

Depending on which numbers you source or believe, all reports agree that the blogosphere continues to expand globally.

As the leading blog directory and search engine, Technorati maintains a coveted Authority Index which is considered amongst bloggers as the benchmark for measuring their rank and selling their position within the blogosphere. (At least until recently). Authority in the index is defined as the number of blogs linking to a website within the last six months. The higher the number, the greater the level of Authority a blog earns.

However, a disruptive trend is already at play. While blogs are increasing in quantity, their authority–as currently measured by Technorati–is collectively losing influence. For instance, just last November, Technorati counted 32,493 links towards gadget blog Engadget’s “authority.” Today, it counts half that amount (16,326). Even TechCrunch’s link authority as measured by Technorati is down by several thousand links, yet its relative position in the overall ranking (No. 3) hasn’t moved.

In its annual state of the blogosphere last year, Technorati revealed that it had indexed 133 million blog records since 2002. In March 2008, Universal McCann published a report that indicated 184 million blogs worldwide were created, with 346 million people reading blogs globally.

So why do I believe that blog authority is losing its authority? 

 Read more here

Posted by brian tiong at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P Aune *)

Sean says...

Deciding to become a freelance worker can be a scary proposition. Sure there is an allure to picking what projects you work on, but it can also be stressful not knowing where your next paycheck will come from. Luckily there are numerous resources out there that not only help you find more work, but also loads of tools to help you do your job more efficiently with a professional edge.

We’ve gathered over 85 tools and job sites for a variety of freelancers and web workers. While a lot of these items are focused on web design elements such as photography, programming and writing, we made sure to include something for everyone.

Have more resources to recommend? Tell us about them in the comments.

Work Tools

It’s important for freelance workers to be as organized as possible. After all, it’s up to you to track your time, individual projects, create your own invoices, and more. There are tons of great tools to simplify this for you. For example, GetHarvest.com can help you keep track of your time spent on projects in differing locations, and Zoho Invoices can help you create professional looking invoices to send to clients.

Adobe AIR Apps

AgileTracker - Allows you to keep track of time spent on projects by client, and if you are using AgileAgenda, you can sync them with each other.

Google Calendar Invoice Creator - Allows you to use Google Calendar as a way to keep track of your hours and then import that data into this app to automatically generate invoices.

Klok - Klok allows you to easily keep track of your time spent on multiple projects. You can easily start and stop tracking by just clicking a button for each project. You’re able to generate multiple reports based off of this information.

Ora Time and Expense - Ora allows you to track expenses, keep a list of your tasks, run a timer on your tasks and more.

Sundial - Keeps track of time spent on multiple projects & clients and allows you to generate reports based on any time period.

Timeloc - Offers multiple features such as running several clients with different billing rates per account, setting different timing intervals, audible alerts and much more.

Vertabase Timer - You can track time on projects for various clients and then export that data to other systems so you can generate reports and invoices.

Invoicing

BillMyClients.com - Has import & export capabilities, allows you to save invoices locally at any time, HTML customization for better branding, recurring invoicing, PayPal integration and other features.

Blinksale.com - Create invoices from their templates, or you can use your own CSS to custom design one of your own.  Also allows you to import clients from Basecamp, create tags for better organization, set up recurring invoices and more.

CannyBill.com - CannyBill can help you accept credit cards, export data to QuickBooks, automate invoicing and late payment notices and a host of other tools.

CitrusBill.com - You can automate late payment notices as well as customize the look and feel of your invoices while managing all of your payments.

CurdBee.com - A simple and straightforward invoicing solution that also integrates with PayPal and Google Checkout.

Endeve.com - Endeve allows you to customize invoices, import clients from Outlook, track which clients owe you money and a whole lot more.

Fluttervoice.co.uk - A UK-based invoicing service that allows you to generate new invoices and keep track of your payments.  Your clients can also login to see all of their invoices with you at a glance.

FreeAgentCentral.com - Helps you to invoice your clients, keep track of billing, prepare your taxes, and more.  Focused on freelancers in the UK.

FreshBooks.com - FreshBooks allows you to automate late payment reminders, track your time and expenses, customize the look of your tools for a full branded experience and more.

GoToBilling.com - Get paid from an emailed invoice, keep track of your clients, use marketing tools to gain new ones and more.

InLattice.net - Give your clients web access to their invoices and receive confirmation that your customer has viewed an invoice. InLattice integrates with major online payment systems and other tools.

InvoiceJournal.com - InvoiceJournal allows you to send invoices for free via email or print them out to be sent by snail mail.  Also allows you to use multiple currencies.

InvoiceMachine.com - Customize your invoices with logos and colors, use their built-in timer to track your billable hours, create PDFs of your invoices and more.

InvoicePlace.com - InvoicePlace lets you send invoices, track all payments, generate reports, export to Word & Excel and more.

Invoicera.com - Invoicera offers you several time saving features such as automatic repeating invoices for frequent clients, integration with multiple payment gateways, printing, management and more.

InvoicesMadeEasy.com - This service allows you to email or physically mail invoices yourself, or you can pay as little as a $1.00 each to have them mail invoices for you.  Offers all of the usual features to boot.

Invotrak.com - Allows you to track your time sheets, generate invoices, see who has paid you, generate various reports to see how you are performing and more.

LiteAccounting.com - Create invoices you can send via email, save them as PDFs, set up recurring invoices, and more features.

SimplyBill.com - Save your invoices as PDFs, create quotes for work that you can later convert to invoices, get alerted when an invoice is overdue and numerous other features.

SimplyInvoices.com - SimplyInvoices integrates with the Basecamp API to give you full integration with your account and allow for easy invoicing based on your Basecamp activities.

Winkbill.com - Set up recurring billing, export invoices as PDFs, accept payments via PayPal, multiple templates to choose from and more features.

Zoho Invoices - The popular Zoho online office suite has an invoicing feature that can be used for free for a few invoices a month, but you’ll have to pay if you have numerous payment requests to make.  Allows you to import and export data, set up templates, set up recurring billing and more.

Time Tracking

GetHarvest.com - Harvest offers pricing plans from free to premium, but offers an amazing array of platform integrations such as iPhone, Basecamp, Beanstalk, a WordPress plugin and more.  Offers both time tracking and invoicing.

MyClientSpot.com - Helps you keep track of your billable hours, staying organized, tracking leads and numerous other features.

Tickspot.com - Allows you to keep track of your time spent on a project and even see how close you are to using up your client’s allotted budget.  Also offers a free iPhone application.

Time59.com - Keep track of your time and expenses and generate invoices that you can send to your clients.

TimeIQ.com - Keep track of your billable hours. Allows for exporting of data, generating reports at your own specified intervals, and several more features.

Toggl.com - Toogl allows you to manually keep track of your time or use their timer.  They also offer both an online version or a Windows-based download that you can use on your desktop.

Miscellaneous Tools

Bizzvo.com - Allows you to import contacts, keep to-do lists, take notes, log phone calls with clients, create invoices and more.

Cashboard -A Basecamp compatible tool that allows you to use Mac OSX, Windows and iPhone applications to update your customers on projects, send invoices, accept payments and more.

CreativeProOffice.com - CreativePro Office allows you to manage your clients, projects, tasks, invoicing and more all in one easy web application.

FreelanceSwitch.com Rates Calculator - Have no clue what you should be charging for your hourly rate as a freelancer?  This rates calculator asks you a series of questions about your working situation, how much you want to make and so on, and then gives you a suggestion of how much to charge per hour.

Homecourtx.com - Gives you a customer management system as well as the ability to pass files back and forth and invoice.

SimplifyThis.com - SimplifyThis is both an appointment book for keeping track of your meetings, and any of those that might be billable, as well as a full invoicing service with payment gateway integrations.

Job Listings & Opportunities

So you’ve got the tools to do your job, but do you have the work to do?  Photographers have tons of places like iStockphoto where they can open an account and sell their images with little to no hassle.  For writers there are places such as Helium.com, where you can write any time you’d like, on any subject. While places like FreelanceWriting.com will help you find steadier work.  And if you’re a programmer, there are sites like GetAFreelancer.com, where it seems people will always need workers for more highly technical jobs.

Freelance Photography

123rf.com - 123 Royalty Free pays you a 50% commission on downloaded images, and also allows you to earn money for referring subscribers and new photographers alike.

BigStockPhoto.com - BigStockPhoto pays you between $.50 and $3.00 per download for your photos, and even higher for special requests.

Dreamstime.com - Photographers can place their images here for a sale and receive between 50% and 80% commission.

Fotolia.com - Commissions range from 33% to 64% depending on your exclusivity and your ranking based on the total number of downloads you’ve sold.

FreelancePhotoJobs.com - Find all sorts of freelance photography jobs for magazines, weddings, websites and more.

ImageCatalog.com - Depending on licensing, ImageCatalog pays photographers anywhere from $.40 to $40.00 per download.

iStockphoto - Photographers can earn from 20 - 40% commissions on each photo they sell through this royalty free site.  (Disclosure: Mashable has a partnership with iStockphoto)

PhotoStockPlus.com - You can earn commissions up to 85% with a 3.25% processing fee for both photos you sell as well as products you put your images on such as mugs and other products.

Shutterstock.com - Shutterstock pays a flat rate of $.25 a download and increases it to $.30 per download when you hit $500 in a pay period.  You can also earn commissions for referring others to the service.

Freelance Programmers & Web Designers

DesignQuote.net - Potential clients with design and graphic art work post jobs that freelancers can browse through and post bids on to win contracts.

FreelanceAuction.com - Allows you to bid on listed jobs for all aspects of programming and design.  Numerous listings for Web coding and design work such as logos.

GetAFreelancer.com - Focused on a wide selection of computer related work from basic site design to developing full sites for Joomla, OsCommerce, WordPress and more.

LimeExchange.com - Offers jobs that freelancers can bid on, and then you can continue to use the service to check in with one another throughout the lifespan of the project.

oDesk.com - A marketplace for freelancers to meet up with clients and look for work.  Clients can leave ratings and reviews for any freelancers they hire to help them get future work.

ozLance.com.au - Focused on Australia, ozLance has listings for Web development, content writing, audio/visual work and more.

Project4Hire.com - Contractors post technical programming or blogging jobs they have available and freelancers bid for the work.

RentACoder.com - Has thousands of open coding projects and a newsletter you can subscribe to so that you receive daily notifications of new projects as they come available.

ScriptLance.com - ScriptLance focuses heavily on programming assignments, but also features some listings for blog content creation.

SearchWebJobs.com - A job site focused on Web related jobs with a section dedicated to freelance engagements that indicate if you must live near the office or if you can work from anywhere.

Freelance Writers

BloggerJobs.biz - Numerous blogging jobs from all different styles of blogs that range from freelance to full-time.

FreelancePortfolios.com -A resource allowing writers to set up portfolios to show off their work and skills to potential employers.  Also has some job listings for people looking for work.

FreelanceWriting.com - FreelanceWriting.com features a mixture of articles and resources to help people break into freelance writing, and also offers some job listings and links to other resources.

Helium.com - While not so much freelance writing as writing “on spec,” you are free to write articles on any subject and then you can earn revenue from a portion of their advertising sales related to your articles.

Jobs.ProBlogger.net - A jobs board over at the well known ProBlogger for freelance and full-time bloggers looking for work.

JournalismJobs.com - Features job listings for blogs, newspapers, magazines, newswires and other forms of print and online media.

Online-Writing-Jobs.com - Offers all sorts of freelance writing job listings for magazines, reviews, resume writing, blogs and more.

Suite101.com - Freelance writers of all stripes can write articles on just about any subject of their choice and get paid a share of the advertising for the entire life of the article.

WritersWeekly.com - A weekly ezine dedicated to freelance writing that features articles and some listings for jobs.

WritingBids.com - A site that allows various online and offline publishers to post writing gigs that freelancers can bid on in an attempt to win.

WritingCareer.com - Features listings of freelance writing jobs as well as guides and advice for aspiring writers.

Miscellaneous Freelancers

AllFreelanceWork.com - AllFreelanceWork offers a support community as well as a jobs board for people looking for work in web design, sales, marketing and more.

Amazon Mechanical Turk - Run by Amazon.com, Mechanical Turk offers all sorts of quick freelance work from simple things such as doing searches for Creative Commons licensed photography to writing full articles for web sites.

BizReef.com - Contractors post their jobs and freelancers bid on the work in a number of fields such as graphic design, marketing, photography and more.

ContractedWork.com - Businesses needing work done post their projects and then freelancers can bid for the work.  Has a heavy concentration on web site related work, but does also have listings for other fields.

Elance.com -A well known freelancing website with just about every type of job you can think of from high end coding projects to engineering, finance, copy writing and a lot more.  Freelancers can set up profile pages listing all of their skills and what services they offer.

FreelanceJobs.org - Freelancers can set up a profile explaining their background while employers can post jobs for computer workers, Web designers, writers, translators and many more fields.

FreelanceWar.com - Listings for editors, writers, web designers, journalists, copywriters and pretty much everything else you can think of.

Freelancers Union - In addition to providing excellent resources for freelancers, the Freelancers Union offers a “Gigs” section.

GoFreelance.com - Has job listings for writers, sales, photography, marketing and several other fields.

Guru.com - Freelance work in every field including things such as fashion, broadcasting, illustration, Web design and more.

iFreelance.com - Site for freelancers and employers looking to connect for numerous types of freelance work such as writing, design work, Web programming and more.

ProZ.com - Focused on translators and translation services, ProZ also offers message boards for freelance translators to talk about issues concerning their business.

Skillance.com - Enter what your skills are, set up a profile, and let contractors search for the people that best fit their project.

Sologig.com - Listings of freelance consulting jobs from around the United States in numerous fields such as aerospace, sales, legal and numerous other fields.

TheFreelanceNation.com - This site pulls together listings from 119 different freelance job boards with listings for legal work, web design, photographers, PR and many, many more fields.

Vois - This virtual outsourcing site allows users to find a wide range of projects from simple logo design to full websites, SEO help, and more. In addition to finding projects, you can collaborate with clients on the site.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Cameron Chapman *)

Cameron says...

Last year we featured over 100 web applications to organize every aspect of your life, from your belongings to your social calendar, and more. Since then, many have been significantly improved and lots of new apps have been released.

From basic to do lists to event planning, fitness, educational organizers, and more, here are 100 new applications to get you even more organized.

Have a favorite? Tell us more about it in the comments.

Organize Your Stuff

LivingSocial - Organize your interests (restaurants, video games, books, TV shows, etc.) and share them with others.

eMove.com - Online tools to help you move.

BookBump - Complete book organization, including in-depth management tools, instant bibliographies, and organized book lists.

GuruLib - Home library organization application.

allmythings - Secure home inventory software that offers both free and paid plans.

WhatYah! - Organize and create complete lists of your movies, games and TV shows and share them with your friends.

TuneUp - Automatically cleans up and fixes your music collection, relabeling files, finding missing cover art, and even notifying you of upcoming concerts based on your collection.

PutPlace - Organize, store and backup all your digital stuff in one place.

Closet Assistant - A complete wardrobe management application that even includes an events calendar, so you know what events you need to dress for on a given day, and can plan accordingly.

Booktagger - Keep track of all your books, discover new books to read based on recommendations, keep lists of books, and even start an online book club.

Organize Your Shopping

No More Notebooks - Manage your shopping wish lists, research and compare prices, and recommend items to friends.

Rearden Personal Assistant - Online application that helps you book and organize services from trusted suppliers.

Wishlistr - Create customized wish lists that you can organize based on event or other criteria.

iStorez - Create your own personal mall to simplify your shopping.

Organize With Lists

blist - Create shareable online lists for managing every part of your life, from projects to finances to gifts.

vitalist - Getting Things Done list organization and management application.

do it, do it, done! - A simple to do list creator and manager.

Listphile - Community-powered list and database site.

Whimber - Online creator of printable to-do lists.

Wipee List - Free, easy-to-use online task management.

SimplyChecklists.com - Pre-made checklists in a variety of categories to get you organized.

iDo - To-do list for Getting Things Done (GTD).

checkser - A wiki of existing checklists that also allows you to create your own.

Doomi - Super simple to do list manager.

NowDoThis - Incredibly simple to-do list manager that only shows you one task at a time.

Listaculous - GTD list application.

Listas - Shareable list creation from Microsoft.

Organize Your Information

Hordit - Online file and information storage and organization that offers free unlimited storage for your PDFs, spreadsheets, documents, YouTube links, scanned images and more.

NutshellMail - This app organizes and consolidates all your email accounts, plus all your social networking accounts.

Shoeboxed - Receipt organization app that also organizes your business cards.

Joodo.com - Organization app for your photos, videos, friends and more that also offers media sharing and tools to find new content.

LaterThis - Save and organize websites you’d like to revisit later when you have more time.

Luminotes - A personal wiki for gathering and organizing your notes and information.

Zenbe - Integrated email and calendar that also manages your attachments and allows you to share items with others.

Pageonce - Organize all of your online accounts in one place and get alerts for payment due dates, financial transactions, cell phone minutes, and more.

Clipperz - Password organization app that also helps you organize and track any of your sensitive data (PINs, IDs, SSNs, etc.).

Feedoor - Feed management app that lets you merge, manage, and do more with your RSS feeds.

chi.mp - An online life management application.

Scrobbld - eBay and PayPal order and payment management.

Evernote - Capture and organize information from your mobile device, laptop, or any other device or platform that’s convenient.

fluxiom - Enterprise digital content management.

springpad - Online notebooks to organize everything in your life.

Zootool - Online organizer for your images, documents, videos and links.

Second Brain - Complete organization of your social media, files and bookmarks.

Picporta - An automatic photo management app.

Zettels - An online personal organizer.

Voyage - RSS feed organizer.

The Alphabetizer - Free app to put any list in alphabetical order.

Pocket - Organization for all of your bookmarks that includes sharing.

Users-Edge - Organize your data and information using a variety of pre-made templates.

Ziggs - Organize your online brand and image all in one place.

Agglom - Organize your links in sets and lists to create multimedia pages, rss feeds, slideshows and more.

Eluma - Keep all your online stuff - web sites, podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, etc. - organized in one place.

Organize Your School Life

Notely.net - A complete student organization suite that includes schedule, calendar, note-taking, and more.

zotero - A Firefox extension that helps you keep your research sources organized.

NoteStar - Organize your research paper notes.

Utilium - Organize learning materials for your students and lower their course material costs.

iProcrastinate Mobile for iPhone - A free homework and task management application.

Schoolhouse 2 - A Mac homework manager that includes tasks, notes and file attachments.

Organize Events, Teams & Trips

Wigadoo - Plan outings with friends (whether a night out on the town or a ski trip in Aspen) and organize everyone’s finances to make your trip happen.

WedSnap - An entire suite of wedding planning tools.

MeetingPuzzle - Helps arrange meetings based on convenient times for everyone involved.

Socializr - A free and complete online invitation, party planning and event sharing app.

Bistrola - Coordinate your get-togethers while keeping everyone happy and without alienating or bullying your attendees.

Crusher - Create and send invitations to events or parties and keep track of RSVPs and other information.

Event Wax - Event planning that includes an event website, payment processing (through PayPal), searchable and sortable attendee list, and more.

Goovite - Event invitation creator that doesn’t require registration.

SimpleSeating - Online seating chart creator that offers free and paid plans.

Eventbrite - Online commercial event planning for ticketed events.

Mobaganda - Easy to use party and event planning app that doesn’t require a registration or login.

MyPunchbowl - Online party planning and invitation organizer.

Pingg - Create your own invitations to email or print, and then track RSVPs, reminders, and more.

Presdo - Fast and easy planning for events, parties, and other gatherings.

GoodInvitation.com - Create free event invitations and manage your event plans.

anyvite - Create free invitations that can be viewed on a computer or through mobile, IM, or SMS tools. Also includes an after-event site where photos, videos and comments can be posted.

fluidTables - Create seating charts for weddings or other events and then create a PDF to share with friends and family.

prohmote - Promote your event without having to register or login.

PurpleTrail - Ad-free invitations and complete event planning with mobile access.

Zoji - Event planning that includes invitations, instant messaging, photo sharing, blogs, and more.

GoPlanit - Research and plan trips with your friends and get recommendations for things to do and see.

anywr - Contact management with built-in event organization.

center’d - Event planning that includes special planning tools, including ready-made plans.

MyInvites - Free online invitations and event planning.

Triporama - Free group trip planning.

TripCart - Online road trip planning.

Amiando - Event websites that include online registration, billing and ticketing, and more.

funpiper - Personalized event planning that includes SMS invitations and messaging.

Congregar - Event planning that includes tools to help find the best date.

I’m In - Free group trip planning.

DOPPLR - Organization tools for frequent travelers.

TournEase - Free golf tournament planning app.

Moreganize - Free event organization tools, including polls, surveys and to-do lists.

RosterBot - Free team event management app.

evite - Free online invitations and party ideas.

bestpartyever - Complete online party planning and tips.

Organize Everything Else

Chandler - Complete organizer for notes, to-dos, events, and more.

TabUp - Collaborative organization for your daily activities and more.

VIP 4.0 - Book and magazine layout organization and planning tool.

Ucareer.net - A career management app to assist in your job searches.

ProfileFly - Organize and promote all of your online identities.

RustyBudget - Online blog organization and management tool.

Gyminee - Track your workouts and what you eat, be held accountable, and get motivated, all for free.

Calorie King - Diet and weight loss tools to keep you on track and organized.

Zefty - Online allowance management for your kids.

Google Health - Complete health records management from Google that also includes information on potential medication interactions, different conditions and even lets you search for hospitals and doctors.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Scott Lachut *)

It’s no secret that social media is a driving force in the way big businesses are marketing themselves to consumers. These networking tools create open channels of communication between companies and customers, giving a face to formerly impersonal corporations through employee blogs, Twitter updates and playful Facebook applications. Customers are able to engage with the brands they buy in meaningful ways never before thought possible (or allowable) by sharing their experiences in a variety of ways ranging from feedback and innovations to photos and video.

But simply saying your business uses this methodology doesn’t guarantee instantaneous success. The demographic that is reached in this manner represent a savvy audience of users that value authentic interaction and thoughtful use of these technologies or they’ll choose to opt out of the loop. With that in mind, Samir Balwani, blogger and social media marketer, has assembled an insightful list of ten big brands that are effectively using web 2.0 tools, along with the lessons to be learned from each example. We have included the abbreviated list below:

1. Blendtec on YouTube
2. Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice”
3. Starbucks asks customers for their ideas
4. Sun Microsytems CEO blog
5. IBM employee blogs
6. Zappos on Twitter
7. Comcast on Twitter
8. Ford’s Public Relations
9. Graco on Flickr
10. Dell’s multi-platform approach

Mashable: Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media

Posted by brian tiong at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

People generally love sharing things, and Twitter has made broadcasting updates to anyone who cares to care on what you’re doing, wearing, reading, commenting on, eating, using, etc. a breeze; in 140 characters or less, even. It’s only natural to see so many users also share which music they are listening to at any given moment on Twitter, as this has been a fairly popular use of status feeds on other social networking and communication services for years (Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger leap to mind).

Here’s a number of ways to use Twitter for just about anything related to music:

* Blip.fm - dubbed the “Twitter for Music” when we first reviewed the service, it got its own API in late 2008. Blip.fm enables anyone to start their own music station and broadcast tunes to Twitter and other status sharing services where people can interact with the choice of music.

* Twiturm does much of the same - upload music and share it with all your Twitter followers in a heartbeat. Intended for artists who want to share their own music, hence the name (”Twitter Ur Music”).

* Twisten.fm - Escape Media Group linked its music discovery service Grooveshark and its URL shortening service TinySong with an application that crawls Twitter for messages about music (and “then you listen to them”).

* Twt.fm (anyone see a naming pattern here?) - type in an artist, track, and your twitter username. Twt.fm will then generate a track page for you using your twitter page design and you’ll be able to tweet it to your followers.

* Tweetj - include a #tweetj tag in your tweets when you’re listening to music and it’ll be posted to a public playlist. The playlist allows you to discover new music and immediately purchase tracks on Amazon.

* A similar service is WiiZZZ (yes, that’s the actual name) - it allows you to listen to entirely random songs that have been posted and shared by Twitter users on any given day.

* Play Twitter - allows you to easily play mp3 files directly on Twitter or Identi.ca. MP3 links will automatically become playable right on the page.

* Tra.kz - this “URL shortener for all things music” was cooked up by MixMatchMusic and does exactly what you suspect it would do and therefore competes with the above mentioned TinySong and alternatives like Song.ly.

* TwittyTunes - Firefox extension that comes with another Firefox extension, Yahoo’s FoxyTunes, and allows you to instantly post your currently playing songs to Twitter with just a click.

* LastTweet - enables you to embed a widget with your latest tweets into your Last.fm profile

Also worth checking out, even if not directly related to Twitter: Nabbit (”connects your cellphone to your radio”), MuseBin (music news and reviews in 140 characters, like Blippr but music only) and Twones (the “social music feed”).

Did I miss any other apps, tools and websites worth noting?

Share them in the comments and I’ll be happy to update the post.

Update: it’s not Twitter-specific, but you can use Favtape to put together your own playlists / online mixtapes and share them on Twitter.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

Robin says...

I’m not going to discuss the economic meltdown and its devastating effect on technology companies and internet startups in this post, but rather something that crossed my mind earlier this morning: “Web 2.0″ seems to become more and more a void (and an avoided) term. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is definitely apparent.

So why do I say it’s fading? For one, because the number of startups that contact us and include the term Web 2.0 in the subject line or message is visibly dropping (and that’s a good thing), and I hardly ever see it mentioned anymore on other technology blogs and news sites either. That’s not really tangible, so I took a look at the number of mentions of the phrase across the web, and they seem to be decreasing significantly, reflecting my feeling on this.

Judging by Google Trends, which shows how often a particular search term is entered relative to the total search volume across various regions of the world (and in various languages), the term started being used at the end of 2004 when Tim O’Reilly organized the first edition of the Web 2.0 Conference. Search queries for the term started picking up in the middle of 2005, when TechCrunch was started - with the tagline “Tracking Web 2.0″ by the way - and the number kept increasing until the end of 2007. After that, the trend is clearly downwards, falling back to the level it reached in early 2006 today. If the trend continues, there should only be a handful of people left who scour search engines for “Web 2.0″ by 2011.

Also noteworthy: take a look at the geographic regions that have generated the highest volumes of worldwide search traffic for the term over the years - it’s Asia, with the top 5 regions being India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia (in that order). Furthermore, Google Trends pegs the number one language in which people search for stuff related to the topic of Web 2.0 to be Russian before English.

And just in case you’re curious: “Web 3.0″ doesn’t seem to picking up much.
Let’s all rejoice.

Google’s “Insights for Search”, a beta service that analyzes a portion of worldwide Google web searches from all Google domains to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you’ve entered - relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time - gives an even better overview:

Posted by brian tiong at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Valeria Maltoni *)

The news business is not what it used to be - with digital media, it's much closer to the people who read and comment on the news these days than (almost) to the action. In fact, when it comes to Twitter, it is often the people (formerly known as audience) who find themselves in the middle of the action and who do the reporting.

Business Week

Twitter Name: @johnabyrne

Media Person: John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief, BusinessWeek.com. I met John in 2003 when he was editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine and had the opportunity to spend time with him at FC Real Time conference as well as the magazine in NYC. John is a good listener and learns fast. I'm not surprised that he'd become comfortable on Twitter so quickly. His stream is a good mix of reporting from events, personal interaction, and highlights from BusinessWeek.com. I published an interview with John here a few months ago.

Stats: follows 1,256 / 5,946 followers / 1,847 updates

The rest of the organization: There are many other journalists and editors from BusinessWeek.com on Twitter (you will find them on the wiki linked above). This is an organization that has really started participating in a distributed fashion stretching from blogs now onto a different, public platform. Update: here's the twittering gang from BusinessWeek.

One thing: the one differentiating characteristic of John's stream is pointing out the day's "most-read" story at BW.com.

TechCrunch

Twitter Name: @TechCrunch

Media Person: Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch. This is a startup and tech news blog network. Michael Arrington has announced that he is "taking a break" from blogging on TechCrunch.

Stats: follows 557 / 54,427 followers / 6,595 updates

The rest of the organization: Erik Schonfeld, co-editor at Tech Crunch is also on Twitter.

One thing: TechCrunch breaks a lot of news on technology. Yesterday, for example, we were barely realizing that Google has a problem and the site already had 122 comments on a post about Google flagging the whole Internet as malware.

Wonkette

Twitter Name: @anamariecox

Media Person: Ana Marie Cox,is a Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist and occasional grown-up. That's how she describes herself on her personal blog. She used to blog at Time, and that is what caught my attention at first. Then I spent more time reading her work and was pulled in by her style.

Stats: follows 151 / 17,888 followers / 1,916 updates

The rest of the organization: Perhaps a news publication is looking into enrolling her help with their digital property.

One thing: Her Twitter style is very conversational.

MarketingProfs

Twitter Name: @marketingprofs

Media Person: Ann Handley, editor or head of content as she puts it, Marketing Profs, where she also wrangles a team of bloggers of which I am part. This reminds me I ought to write something for the DF soon, before I get booted out. I interviewed Ann for this site as well.

Stats: follows 14,230 / 14,075 followers / 7,147 updates

The rest of the organization: Marketing Profs is a fine online publication and I was lucky enough to meet some of the people who make it possible at the B2B Forum in Boston last June. I like the idea of making the content come alive with events.

One thing: In addition to the great sense of humor, Ann is a community builder. It is clear from her tweets that she enjoys highlighting the good work of others.

GigaOm

Twitter Name: @om

Media Person: Om Malik, founder and senior writer, GigaOm. Malik was a senior writer for Business 2.0 where he focused on broadband and its impact on our lives and prior to that senior writer at Red Herring where he focused on telecommunications. He was part of the founding team at Forbes.com. That's quite a bio. I smile at myself. The first time I linked to GigaOm, I had no idea of who he was. I was observing his reporting skills in a post I wrote about the Skype Outage. Then I wised up and concluded that his reporting was better than the WSJ.

Stats: follows 528/ 17,420 followers / 2,712 updates

The rest of the organization: The Network of sites provide one of the leading daily online news reads for the key influencers in the emerging technology market place. As you can see from the tweet here, the team members from GigaOm are on Twitter. Looking at the team bios, I cannot help but think that indeed new media publications is where many journalists may find continuity to their work.

One thing: Malik retweets and shares a lot with others on Twitter. He is someone I would enjoy meeting for sure.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Valeria Maltoni *)

Valeria says...

I have long believed that dialogue is the art of thinking together - talk changes our lives, it allows us to learn by listening. Customers and communities are changing the nature of marketing and communications through talk, but also through actions. If you're like me, you think that social media = tools and marketing = business.

Since we are in our own right working on changing not just the tactics for the channels but the nature itself of marketing (as currently done), I asked twelve great marketers from my network to share their thoughts on what we'll be working on in 2009.

More than predictions, which is hard to do, we focused on direction. This eBook is the result of our collective energy and execution experience. For a bite-size preview, here's what they say:

• "Basic metrics you can initially use to match up before, during and after sales deltas are frequency, reach, and yield" - Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder, @thebrandbuilder

• "There are three imperatives for execution programs in 2009 - start with measurement, create content for the open Web and for mobility" - Matt Dickman, Techno||Marketer, @MattDickman

• "The foundation and core of what social media is, consists of the five C's. Conversation, community, commenting, collaboration and contribution" - Mike Fruchter, My Thoughts on Social Media, @Fruchter
  

• "With social media as a platform for participation, people can behave the way they were hardwired to behave in the first place - humanly, tribally" - Francois Gossieaux, Emergence Marketing, @fgossieaux

• "Social media enhances marketing efforts as an additional indirect communication channel" - Beth Harte, The Harte of Marketing, @BethHarte

• "Companies with greater social intelligence have stronger bonds with employees and customers, and that translates into revenue" - Lois Kelly, Beeline Labs, @LoisKelly

• "Change ensures our own livelihoods - new opportunities and trends to capitalize upon, unique products and profit centers that merit development, robust innovation to leverage"- Christina Kerley, CK Epiphany, @ckepiphany

• "Social media interaction allows us to have… well, interaction with our customers. It lets us see them as people instead of statistics and it lets us hear their voices" - Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide, @JenniferLaycock

• "Goals absolutely must be built on business objectives" - Amber Naslund, Altitude Branding, @AmberCadabra

• "A proper social media education is more than just learning new tools. The most important lesson we can impart is the necessity to think 'humans'"- Connie Reece, Every Dot Connects, @ConnieReece

• "Social media isn't causing problems, but it is revealing them. And the problems aren't new; they've been around for a while" - Mike Wagner, Own Your Brand!, @bigwags

• "The secret of success in social media is a product or a service that people actually like and use" - Alan Wolk, The Toad Stool, @awolk

I pulled together their ideas in this PDF - Marketing in 2009. We'd love to hear your reactions and examples.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Trendspotting *)

I'm not big fan of predictions but have a look at what trendspotting is saying about 2009.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jason says...

After my first few weeks on Twitter I quickly came to realize that most people are not nearly as interesting as they think they are - my Twitter feed was constantly inundated with tweets describing such mundane topics as my friends’ favorite day of the week and what they had for breakfast. But within this apparent pool of mediocrity I found a few gems - Twitter users who managed to entertain me on a regular basis, and have kept me addicted to my Twhirl client for months on end. Now the time has come to bestow these great Tweeters with the honors they truly deserve.

The Shorty Awards, currently the top trending topic on search.twitter.com, is setting out to reward Twitter’s best and brightest with their own awards show. The contest is meant to identify the best Twitter users in over twenty predefined categories ranging from Business to Food, as well as any number of user-submitted custom categories (the site will weed out the ones that don’t get enough participation).

Posted by brian tiong at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

  (* Source: Sean P Aune *)

Sean says...

While eBay has been the champion of online auctions in the United states for years, lately there has been talk of lower sales and an exodus by sellers.

With the declining economy, where can buyers and sellers turn? Where will one get rid of that junk that’s been sitting in their garage for years?  Luckily eBay is not the only game in town, and we have a sampling of 17 different sites for you to try.

General Auction Sites

Auction.com - Auction does not charge any listing or final value fees, but does charge you for enhancements like bolding your listing and so on.  Traffic seems a bit low, and a lot of bells and whistles you’re used to seem to be missing.

Bidtopia.com - Bidtopia has some unique ideas in that bidding and selling have to be done from separate accounts.  The site only charges final value fees and focuses heavily on $.99 auctions.

Bonanzle.com - The site allows you to import your existing items from eBay and Craigslist, encourages direct contact between buyers and sellers, and prides itself on a quick listing process.

eBid.net - eBid offers several country specific sites, free registration, no listing fees for auctions, and even offers you the ability to pay for a lifetime membership that will remove all final value fees from your listings.

ePier.com - ePier does not charge any listing fees, but their final value fees are fairly high.  Focuses heavily on localized auctions with city listings for places like Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington DC and more.

iOffer.com - iOffer is not an auction site, but lets you buy and sell after negotiating with other users.  Offers you the chance to import your items and reputation from eBay and other sites.

OnlineAuction.com - Basic Online Auction registration is free, but verification will cost you $4 a month, and selling will cost you $8 a month.  Paying the selling fee will keep you from paying any final value fees.

Overstock.com - Well known for their television ads and selling overstocked goods, Overstock allows users to list auctions on their site.  They do have listing fees as well as final value fees.

SalvageSale.com - SalvageSale specializes in bulk auctions and items a bit too large for your standard UPS delivery truck.  This is the type of site you go to if you have pallets of products to unload, or large construction equipment.

TheSOCExchange.com - SOC Exchange charges a flat rate of $1 a month or $10 a year for unlimited auction listings.

Webidz.com - While it is free to list auctions, open a store and bid, Webidz charges you $5.00 to become a verified member, and you will be charged this fee any time you change your personal information.

International Auction Sites

CQout.com -CQout is primarily UK-focused, but charges no listing fees, and only a 1.5% final value fee, which makes it one of the lowest in the industry that charge.

Gmarket.co.kr - Gmarket, short for Global e-Market, is a popular auction site from Korea.  The site is available in both Korean and English, and welcomes buyers and sellers from all over the world.

OZtion.com.au - OZtion is free to register, and has no listing fees, but does charge final value fees with a maximum of $99.00.  The site focuses primarily on auctions inside Australia.

Souq.com - Souq focuses on auctions in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The site is available in both Arabic and English.

Tazbar.com - UK-based site that offers four different levels of monthly subscription from free to £18.99 a month, which determines how many listings you may have and how much they will cost.

TradeMe.co.nz - With approximately a quarter of all the residents of New Zeland having an account on TradeMe, it is considered the biggest website in the country.  They have expanded into many other areas such as real estate and a classmate locator.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: ThreeMinds *)

Posted by brian tiong at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Isakson *)

I'm been a big fan of Paul for a while now and here is another reason why.  Paul talks about modern brand building is this presentation.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: BusinessWeek *)

The 25 Most Influential People on the Web

Each year, we turn to readers and BusinessWeek staff for the Best of the Web list, asking them to contribute names for a list of the Intern­et's movers and shakers. Take a look at the slide show to see which people have the most impact on the Web these days.

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Cameron Chapman *)

A great list from Cameron on what's out there today for running your own business...

Cameron says...

Last August we featured a post with more than 230 online apps for running your business. Since there are hundreds of new apps coming on the market every year, we figured it was time for an update. This year we came up with more than 270 additional apps. Some are completely new since last year, others might have been overlooked, and still others made significant improvements that gained them a spot on the list.

Accounting, Billing, Invoicing, Estimating & Contracts

LiteAccounting - Invoice and track payment from your customers without a bunch of extra, useless features.

Invoice Journal - Free invoicing program.

endeve - Issue invoices, manage clients and check revenues all in one place.

ContractPal - Take your contracts and forms paperless and have them completed, validated, signed and processed online.

Bootstrap - Online bookkeeping software that lets you track sales and expenses, organize your records for tax time, and more.

Citrus - An online billing website that allows your customers to view, download and pay their invoices by credit card or direct debit.

Zapproved - Create and send proposals, manage the approval process and reach agreements without any hassle.

Mumboe - Online contract and business agreement management app.

FinanciFY - Easy to use online financial management tools for small businesses and individuals.

Invoice Place - Online billing software that lets you track invoices, quotes, receipts and more.

Zoho Invoice - Manage invoices and payments, format invoices and quotes, set up recurring invoices, and more, with free and paid plans.

GoToBilling - An online app that manages invoices and payments, marketing, customer relationship management and more.

NetBooks - Marketing, sales, inventory and financial control in one place.

Pulse - Cash flow management app for small businesses.

Shoeboxed - Online tracking and organizing of your receipts.

FreeAgent Central - Accounting and money management app for freelancers.

CurdBee - An online billing application that integrates with payments through PayPal or Google Checkout.

Clarity Accounting - Online accounting for small businesses and professionals with multi-user support.

Calendars & Scheduling

Appointy - An online appointment management tool.

SuperSaaS - This is online scheduling software that allows you to accept appointments booked directly on your website.

BookingPad - An online bookings system that can be integrated into any website.

clickbook - A free online booking and scheduling program.

eXpireTrack - Track and plan for the date that products are to expire.

Scheduly - Add your business to their directory and then let your clients pick their own appointment time slots (from your available slots).

When is Good - Find out the best time for everyone to meet without the hassle.

Shiftboard - Online scheduling for businesses to coordinate worker schedules.

Robyn - Easy online scheduling for service providers.

ScheduleOnce - Scheduling engine to get everyone who needs to meet together at one time.

TimeBridge - See the availability of everyone you need to meet with.

Charts, Diagrams, and Whiteboards

Exploratree - Online mind mapping software that provides ready-made thinking guides.

Wisdomap - A simple mind mapping application.

Best4C - An online charting and diagramming tool.

Scriblink - A simple, free online whiteboard.

Gliffy - Online diagramming and charting software.

Mindomo - Free online mind mapping software.

Mapul - Online mind mapping that allows you to create organic looking mind maps.

WiseMapping - Free mind mapping software that allows you to publish and share your mind maps.

Collaboration & Workgroups

Homecourt - Homecourt is a Web-based collaboration tool.

blogtronix - An enterprise social platform that includes blogs, wikis, documents and social media so that users in large and small organizations can collaborate and build communities inside and outside their company.

WorkflowPerfect - A Web-based business process tool that facilitates collaboration.

ClientSpot - A project collaboration and time tracking software specifically for virtual assistants and other freelancers.

skrbl - Online collaboration and white board space.

Planzone - Secure and private collaborative project workspace to share files, manage tasks, and communicate with others.

Nuospace - On demand collaboration software that provides online document management, allows you to edit pages in your browser, and offers tools to engage your colleagues.

DeskAway - An online project collaboration app aimed at small businesses and teams that organizes, manages and tracks your online work.

Mentat - A free project-sharing service accessible from a browser of supported devices (including BlackBerry).

Easy Projects .NET - Project collaboration software that offers both a downloadable option and a hosted version.

Ecto Connect - An online collaboration, communication and content sharing app.

Clearspace - An online collaboration suite that includes documents, blogs, discussions, projects, and more.

Twiddla - An online conference tool that allows you to mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or brainstorm on a blank canvas.

Sosius - Online workspace that includes a contact & group manager, custom workspace, file management, calendar, blog, discussions, chat, and more.

CollectiveX - Create free group sites for collaboration and networking.

Yammer - A twitter-like app for getting updates from your co-workers.

BrightIdeasLab - An online home for all your brilliant ideas that also offers collaborative brainstorming space.

Ximdesk - Collaboration and social networking platform for enterprise.

Status - A Twitter-like app for keeping your work group connected.

GroupSwim - Social collaboration and community tools to bring your employees, customers, and partners together.

Kindling - Idea management and collaboration tool that lets you vote on ideas.

Conferences, Presentations & Meetings

Expectnation - A conference program organizing software.

KinetiCast - Create online presentations, deliver them, and then track who’s watching.

Gretastudio - Create on-demand presentations for your company’s products, record training and e-learning materials, or other types of presentations that require audio or video content.

280Slides - A free online presentation software that allows you to import existing documents, download to PowerPoint, publish to the Web and more.

SlideRocket - Design professional quality presentations and then deliver them in person or over the Web.

vcasmo - Presentation software for business presentations, academic teaching, seminars, conferences, sales pitching, live events and more.

slideboom - Allows you to share PowerPoint presentations live online.

Empressr - A visual storytelling and presentation application.

Zoho Show - Create embeddable presentations online, present from a remote location, or share and collaborate on presentations.

slidelive - Present Microsoft PowerPoint presentations live online with this browser-based meeting solution.

Text The Mob - Collect feedback during presentations and seminars by posting polls or message boards on a large screen and having your audience send their input via their cell phones.

ReadyTalk - Online Web meeting and audio conferencing solutions.

Persony - Inexpensive Web conferencing service.

Calliflower - Conference calling tools that include Skype integration, invitations and reminders, and more.

GoToMeeting - Online meeting and conferencing software.

buzz2biz - A free online meeting platform.

MyCommittee - Online tracking of meeting agendas and minutes.

GroupLoop - Web-based committee organizing software.

Crowdsourcing, Networking & Community

Wild Apricot - Online tools for clubs, associations, and communities that include email newsletters, blogs, discussion forums, a member database and more.

OctopusCity - Build your online business network, keep in touch with people through mini-feeds, messaging and free teleconferencing, and save time by keeping one universal address book system.

LittleEngine - A community of small businesses and their patrons that are committed to buying locally and supporting local businesses.

Advisor Garage - A social network that connects entrepreneurs who need advice with advisors on just about any business-related topic.

Xing - A global networking and contact management site for business professionals.

Cambrian House - A free crowdsourcing app.

Socialcast - Private online communities of all sizes to help organize enterprise communication that allows employees to decide how to find and use information while reducing email clutter and unproductive communications.

CEOWorld.biz - Global networking for managers, entrepreneurs, and senior execs.

cmypitch.com - Online networking for entrepreneurs, investors and service providers that helps connect people who can help each other succeed.

Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service & Contact Management

Mojo Helpdesk - Mojo Helpdesk allows you to track customer requests, keep your customers and your staff informed about what’s happening with their accounts, and deliver better service.

TagTicket - This hosted helpdesk software is great for managing customer problems as well as in-house issues. There’s nothing to install, and it allows you to manage, track and share your emails and files with other staff.

RightNow - RightNow is an on-demand customer relationship management program that integrates sales, service, marketing, feedback and voice functions.

sfa finity - This CRM software offers all the regular features, plus account-centric, contact-centric and opportunity-centric perspectives, allowing you to view information the way you prefer.

LinkingUniverse CS - This progress-oriented CRM tool helps you work toward your customer goals. They also have a blog with tips for using the program.

Stazzle - Stazzle is a basic CRM that allows you to track information from birthdays and anniversaries to favorite ball teams and restaurants. It also allows you to track who referred which client and why.

HelpSpot - This help desk software allows support staff to easily manage requests from multiple sources in addition to providing powerful self-help functionality.

CRMdesk - This help desk software allows you to automate your online customer support.

insidesales.com - InsideSales.com provides a lead management CRM suite that incorporates an auto-dialer and allows coordination between multiple departments dealing with a single customer.

Free CRM - This is a Web-based customer relationship management software that allows for sales force automation. Track leads and manage your sales pipeline.

bConnections - This is a simple, easy to use CRM system that allows you to shorten your sales cycle, provide better customer service, make informed decisions, and increase your sales.

salesboom - This is a CRM and back office solution that’s user friendly and provides seamless integration.

SalesJunction - SalesJunction is a highly customizable but easy to use contact management system that’s very affordable.

Leadvine - LeadVine can help you increase sales by allowing you to post sales leads and have the community find you new customers.

Bizroof CRM - A free, Web-based contact management program.

Bizzvo - Bizzvo offers contact management, email marketing and invoicing solutions.

BatchBook - BatchBook is a small business CRM that manages contacts, communications, and to-do lists, and offers list and report functionality (including creating things like mailing labels and email lists).

Solomon - Solomon is a simplified Web-based CRM and contact manager.

ClairMail - ClairMail provides account management, mobile payments, customer service, and more, all on your mobile phone.

Appature CRM - A marketing-focused customer relationship management program.

Helperoo - A simple email support system geared toward small teams.

Mzinga - A full set of comprehensive social media and enterprise learning solutions that address talent development, enable support staff to communicate and collaborate with customers and partners, and helps your marketing team increase brand visibility, demand for products and services, and more.

Oprius - A contact management software designed for independent sales people.

b2b CRM - A Web-based CRM that manages contacts, activities, and your sales pipeline, and integrates with Outlook and Word.

zendesk - A branded online customer support system.

helpdeskpilot - Help desk software that includes email integration, a knowledge base and more.

Tactile CRM - A cost-effective CRM that tracks sales, deals, emails and customer contacts.

Nuebbo - Online contact and virtual business card management.

Simple Sales Tracking - An online sales tracking app that offers free and paid plans.

Soocial - A simple contact management app and address book.

Database, File Storage & Information Management

Pixily - An online service that lets you aggregate, organize, find and share your documents.

ThinkFree Docs - Online document sharing.

.docstoc - An online repository of free documents you can download, or upload your own documents to share.

Thinkfree - Online access to files, collaboration space for your team, and the ability to edit documents and post to blogs with a Web-based editor.

SpringCM - Online contract and document management.

ProofHQ - Online management and review of designs, artwork and documents.

Xythos - Online document management and storage.

NomaDesk - Online virtual file server with offline continuity.

Middlepost Docs - An online document manager that also allows you to sign docs.

AirSet - Online document management and sharing.

Email

MailChimp - Email marketing app that includes subscriber management, advanced coding capability, tracking and reports, and more.

Ping82 - Control, manage and track your email using tools made to improve communication between people working together on a project.

eMail Manager - A Web-based email management solution for high volume email environments.

IFM Campaign Manager - A Web-based email list management and marketing tool.

Xpenser - Record your expenses with email, SMS, Twitter, IM, and more.

Synergymail - Online email marketing app that includes campaign tracking.

Mad Mimi - Email marketing utility that allows you to create branded email newsletters and promotions.

EmailBrain - Email newsletter management app.

Employee Management, Payroll & Human Resources

Taleo - Taleo is e-recruitment and talent management software.

Zapoint - Zapoint is a Web 2.0 enterprise talent management platform with integrated performance management, skills mapping, organization mapping, recruiting and succession planning.

Halogen Software - Halogen offers talent management and employee performance solutions.

SuccessFactors - An on-demand talent and performance management platform that gets everyone in your company working together by aligning goals.

Cornerstone OnDemand - This is an on-demand talent management suite.

paylocity - Online payroll, human resources, time tracking and tax services.

Litmos - Create, deliver and manage online training.

Akken - Staffing and recruiting management software that includes email, CRM, accounting, human resources, and more.

TalentMaze - A marketplace for employers to find top recruiters to find the best employees for their businesses.

Rejose - Applicant tracking system that’s simple, efficient and cost effective.

Catch the Best - Online resume and applicant tracking solution.

Feedback

Kumquat - Quickly and easily solicit feedback from clients, superiors, peers, fans, family, or anyone else on projects, plans, on-going activities, blogs, or whatever else you want.

Feefo - Feefo is an independent customer feedback system that is transparent and comprehensive (and doesn’t allow business owners to edit customer feedback).

RivalMap - An online app that helps you monitor and share market news, maintain knowledge of your industry and competitors, and discuss information.

Feedback 2.0 - Collect opinions, expectations, and suggestions from a selected audience and discover the consensus.

ConceptShare - Share media with colleagues and have them leave feedback, reply to comments, approve artwork, and markup on visuals.

Backboard - An online feedback tool that allows users to markup documents (including images, text and websites).

Marketing & Publicity

StartPR - StartPR allows you to monitor your brand on social media sites including blogs, social networks, and more.

Prospect Insight - This is a Web marketing automation suite that provides information to your sales team on where to spend its time in order to maximize your return on investment.

HubSpot - HubSpot is an Internet marketing suite that integrates with your website to track your online marketing efforts.

iKarma - A reputation management service that allows you to compare customer comments, display testimonials, get customer referrals and manage your word-of-mouth.

Survelio.com - An online survey service.

Sonar - An online polling software.

formatpixel - Create your own online magazines, catalogs, brochures and more.

Traceworks - Online marketing software that helps you set goals, plan, execute and optimize your marketing activities.

ReputationHQ - Online reputation management app that searches for your desired information across millions of websites.

WordJot - Business blog hosting platform.

IncSpring - An online marketplace for businesses to purchase brands and logos directly from designers.

Anthillz - Professional relationship and reputation management.

BrandDoozie - A DIY online marketing material creation suite that helps you create professional-looking business cards, brochures, logos, and more.

Shoutlet - Distribute and track viral marketing campaigns across social media outlets.

Money Making & eCommerce Solutions

GoodBarry - An integrated system that runs your website, email marketing and online store that also automatically grows your customer database.

Scrobbld - PayPal and eBay order management app that keeps all your transactions in one place.

Office Applications

Celum Imagine - Software that lets you manage and distribute your photos, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and multimedia content.

gOffice - They offer Web Word Wizard, a true online word processor.

PDFHammer.com - An online, free PDF editor that allows you to merge/combine files, rearrange, reorder and delete pages, lock your PDFs and more.

Organization & Management

OrderMotion - An order management system for online businesses.

MagSuite - An open source marketing automation, sales force automation, accounting, service automation and inventory control system.

Process Maker - Organize your company’s work flow and eliminate paperwork.

Alfresco - Open source enterprise content management that offers collaboration, record management, knowledge management and more.

minutesinaminute - An online app for keeping track of your company meeting minutes.

SyncWizard - Synchronize your contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more with your portable devices.

analysis-one - Online tool to help you monitor your financial and non-financial business performance.

Phone & Voicemail

Phonesheet.com - This is a Web-based phone call and contact management program that allows you to track incoming and outgoing calls on a daily basis.

Vontoo - Vontoo provides automated voice messaging on demand.

Task Lists, Planning & Project Management

Torch Project Management - Torch allows you to collaborate using messages, e-mails, files, tasks, Google Docs, and other methods. You can bid, track your time and invoice clients directly. Offers seamless work flow (connecting bidding, project management, time tracking and invoicing).

PlanPlus Online - An online calendar, time management, project management, and contact management suite from FranklinCovey.

Wrike - Practical project management software that allows you to create tasks from emails.

Comindwork - Project management, knowledge management, and collaboration software.

No Kahuna - Project management with no unnecessary features.

Teamness - Organize project data and share it online with customers or colleagues.

Teamwork Project Manager - Online project management that includes custom views and quick access tabs.

PriorityTrack - Gather ideas, prioritize, collaborate, and keep projects on track.

ProjectPipe.com - Project management for small-to-midsized teams.

Planix - Consistently and accurately estimate resources, scheduling and costs of software development projects.

Pelotronics - Project organization and collaboration app.

Task2Gather - Free online task and project management.

ididwork - Keep track of the work you actually do, see what other members of your team are doing in real-time, and get feedback from your manager.

Gtdagenda.com - An online planner for Getting Things Done.

Undone - An online to-do list manager and project management app.

Qcron - Project management and time tracking app.

OnStage - Online project management, workspace and collaboration tool.

Joint Contact - Project collaboration and management tool.

Viewpath - Manage projects and events online.

5pm - An online project management tool with a customizable interface, an interactive timeline, time reports, email integration and more.

Flempo - An online to-do list with the ability to assign tasks and keep track of progress, collect tasks from other systems (using the Flempo API), and more.

TaskAnyone - Assign tasks to anyone via email, and TaskAnyone will follow up until they follow through.

TaskBin - Manage group tasks in a single shared to-do list.

ProjectOffice.net - Online project management that includes issue tracking, expense tracking, and knowledge management.

Lighthouse - Simple issue tracking and project management.

@task - Online time tracking, work flow and project management app.

Jumpchart - Online website planning app.

LiquidPlanner - Team management, task management and project scheduling all in one online app.

eloops - Online project management software that includes a calendar, data backup and social networking software.

XPLive - Project management app that focuses on individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

Project Spaces - Project management and online workspace that includes a document library, task list, calendar, announcements and email lists.

Goplan - Simple online project management.

TargetProcess - Project management software that features real-time progress tracking, communications features, and more.

Staction - Group project management and communication app.

Collabtive - Easy to use collaborative project management software that tracks milestones, task lists, time tracking and more.

LessProjects - Project management from the people who created LessAccounting.

Jumptree - Project management that updates you by email, manages accountability and more.

Project2Manage - Free hosted project management that includes milestones, to-do lists, and more.

Mingle - Project management and team collaboration app.

Time Management & Tracking

TrackMyPeople - Track your time and your employees’ time online.

Office Timesheets - Web-based time and expense tracking that’s easy to use and available anywhere.

Tick - A time tracking app for the service industry.

TSheets - Simple online time and labor tracking for small business.

Tempo - Simple time tracking with reporting features.

myHours.com - Online time management, tracking and timesheet solution that is accessible online or via mobile phone.

LiveTimer - Online time tracking service with reporting features, iPhone/iPod Touch interface, and more.

Paymo - Time tracking that includes online invoices and expense tracking.

Time59 - Online time and expense tracking and invoicing.

Paybackable - Online expense tracking that includes mileage expense calculations and expense reporting.

motismo - Online time tracking for creative professionals.

Virtual Office Platforms

WORKetc. - A suite of online tools including employee timesheets, document management, customer support, sales management, project management, billing and invoicing, and more.

ConcourseSuite - This open source online suite of programs offers customer relationship management as well as online presence management, team collaboration, and customer service.

OpenGoo - An open source Web office with text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, task lists, email, calendars, contacts and more.

Website Tools

Outlandish - Landing page management tool for small to medium-sized advertisers.

VersoChat - An all-in-one solution for Web analytics, chatting with online visitors, live Web statistics and more.

LeadLander - Allows you to see exactly which companies are visiting your website to investigate your products.

LEADSExplorer - LeadsExplorer allows you to capture what companies your website visitors are coming from so that you can turn them into leads.

Sharedbase - An online tool to manage your members-only website and your membership database.

SmoothStart - Create online landing pages for generating, managing and tracking new leads.

Industry-Specific

Gympro - A program for personal trainers that allows you to manage your client information, assessments, workouts and schedule.

Practice Fusion - This is a free online electronic medical records software.

Buildium - An online property management program for property managers and associations.

TopSchool, Inc. - A Student Lifestyle Management system for schools.

ekklesia360 - This is a content management system designed specifically for churches to help increase new visitors and provide up-to-date information to their congregation.

Body-Quest.net - This is a business management solution for personal trainers that allows you to track your clients’ progress.

TenantWIZ - A property management program for vacation homes that works whether you own a single property or a large hotel or condo operation.

booktoeat - booktoeat allows restaurants to accept online reservations and bookings.

restaurantdiary - restaurantdiary is a restaurant booking and reservations system with no commission charges and flat monthly fee.

ClubReady - ClubReady is a fitness club management service that helps increase revenues and dramatically improve client and employee satisfaction.

ServiceBeacon - ServiceBeacon provides a Web-based car dealership marketing application for both new and used car dealerships in addition to their consumer services.

openSIS - An open source student information system that tracks student demographics, contact information, scheduling, gradebooks, report cards, transcripts, health records, attendance, cafeteria management, state reporting, and more.

RdEXpress - An online restaurant booking system for single unit restaurant operators that also includes a CRM and marketing system.

Music Arsenal - A business tool specifically for indie bands that helps you manage tasks, projects (tours, albums, etc.), concerts, records, and more, all online.

Plaid - On-demand ministry management software that organizes contact lists, tracks visitors, sends emails to targeted contacts, prints attendance sheets, and more.

Scriggle-it - An online fan management and music marketing solution for bands and musicians.

DonorDrive - Constituent, donation and event management software for non-profits. Includes reporting and exporting capability, e-mail marketing, message forums, and more.

Ministry(Starter) - A content management system geared toward Christian ministries.

RealProEdge.com - An email tool specifically for real estate agents.

fourthbook.com - An easy to use online church management software.

Massage manEdger - An online suite of tools for massage therapists that includes a website with online booking, electronic client files, streamlined daily accounting and more.

rezgo - An online booking software for travel tours and activities.

carbonmade - A free online portfolio showcase.

Planning Center Online - A church worship services planning app.

Creative Manager Pro - Online ad agency management software.

Rentomatic - Simplified property management app that includes an online rent-payment system.

Tuggle - Online ministry management suite that includes communication and event management tools.

CollabTrak - Project management specifically for Web designers.

N2uitive - An online insurance claims interview management software.

Macrocasa - Manage your real estate website and business.

Propertyware - Online property management software that organizes property and lease information, records income and expenses, lists vacancies, and more.

RentYield - A property management tool for landlords and real estate investors that allows you to stay on top of your rental income and track performance of your properties.

Shockfolio - An online portfolio site for actors, musicians and photographers.

Weefolio - A free online portfolio creator.

Streetfolio - Property management app that manages cashflow, insurance, mortgages, and more.

Miscellaneous

GigTide - Online creation of resumes, that also allows you to publish, manage and track your resumes, contacts and cover letters.

RB-Apps - RB-Apps provides customized, DIY business mini-applications based on the RB-Apps Platform.

lumifi - Use lumifi if you need to compile research and collaboration from multiple sources, discover information you might otherwise miss, and assemble that research into a well stated case.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Valera Maltoni *) 

Valera says... 

Posted by brian tiong at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P. Aune *)

Sean says... 

Earlier this week Google launched Lively, a new social network where anyone can create an avatar and virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. 3D services such as Lively are popping up more and more online thanks to the popularity of virtual worlds like Second Life, Meez, and more.

So are your skills up to snuff? We’ve gathered over 20 3D creation tools so that you can create your own avatar or virtual world. Whether you’re a 3D pro or just starting out, we’ve got tools for everyone. Try them out and let us know what you think.

Free 3D Tools

SceneCaster.com - Create 3D environments, complete with talking avatars, that you can then share on Facebook, Flickr Flickr and more. 3D models are partially based on items from major retailers. Can be displayed on any device that supports XHTML (i.e. the iPhone). You can learn a lot more in the write up our Kristen Nicole did.

Akebulan.com - Makers of 3DBuilder and 3DRender. Builder is currently in beta (you need to sign up and they will email it to you), Builder lets you create interactive 3D environment that can then be accessed in a browser via a regular URL. 3DRender allows modelers to test their models with the Java3D API.

Anim8or.com - A freeware 3D modeling program created by a software engineer at NVidia. The last stable release was in April 2007, but it says it’s still being worked on.

ArtOfIllusion.org - An open source project for building a 3D modeling program that can be used by all skill levels.

AutoQ3D - Has both free and paid versions.

Blender.org - A full-featured, GNU licensed free program that clearly gives you more bells & whistles than we could ever list here.

Seamless3D.com - An open source 3D modeling program project, has several tutorials and seems like a good place to get your feet wet.

SketchUp.com - Proving that Google will come out with some crazy stuff, this Google app has numerous 3D modeling possibilities, and can help you create more 3D buildings for Google Earth Google Earth .

TopMod3D.org - An open source 3D mesh modeling system that is platform independent.

Wings3D.com - An open source mesh polygon modeling program that is under very active development.

ZModeler2.com - A 3D modeler primarily aimed at those creating models for games.

Environments

Ajax3d.org - An effort to build 3D online worlds using both Ajax and the X3D open standards. Seems a bit quiet over there, but there is some activity on the forums.

OpenGL.org - A standard for 3D, cross-platform, cross-device development since 1992.

Web3d.org - A project that is working to develop an open standards, royalty free, system based in XML. The goal is for it to work between the Web, networks, and mobile devices from the same development and render full 3D environments.

Commercial 3D Tools

3ds Max - One of the top tier makers of 3D programs, offers different programs for different jobs, expect to spend several thousand dollars.

Animation Master - This program will let you create still images as well as animation. Offers annual subscription plan or one-time purchase pricing.

Bryce - This program boasts of its landscapes, but from watching their demo reel, it is capable of a lot more, and is reasonably priced.

LightWave - High end 3D modeling that has been used in movies such as Sin City and 300. Will cost you around $1,000 at the high end of pricing.

Modo - A rich 3D tool used by architects, package designers, animators and more. Price is in the $900 range.

Maxon - Is capable of lighting, polygons, animating, texturing and more. Works well with Adobe.

OpenWorlds.com - Used by groups as large as NASA, you can find uses for learning apps, ecommerce, gaming and more.

3D Box Maker Professional - A shareware licensed tool to create 3D software-style boxes such as the one pictured in the screenshot. Perfect for the small software developer.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P Aune *) 

Sean says... 

With airfare on the rise, planning a trip can be expensive and complicated.

We’ve lined up over 30 tools that let you do everything from finding more affordable tickets to predicting the best time to buy them, and even using a 3d map of your plane to select your seat.

Domestic

CheapAir.com - Searches for all regular and sale fares at the same time and allows you to filter the results on the fly via Ajax so there are no reloading delays.

Momondo.com - Offers search for nearly 500 airlines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline in nine languages.

Vayama.com - Uses an interactive map to help you choose your airports http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport . Also generates 3D seat maps for your plane to help you choose your seat.

CheapFlights.com - Also operates CheapFlights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheapflights .co.uk. In the US they assist you with finding cheap tickets via JetBlue Airline-Mergers , American Airlnes, Orbitz and Priceline amongst others.

CheapTickets.com - Offers up flights, car rentals, cruises and even train tickets.

Expedia.com - Besides being able to search all the major airlines, you can also book hotels, cruises and more.

Hotwire.com - Sells unsold inventory from major companies and offers them at a large discount by not showing you the name until after you book.

LessNo.com - Specializes in flights in the USA, the UK and Indochina.

Orbedia.com - A metasearch that allows you to check Orbits, Expedia, Travelocity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelocity , Hotwire, CheapTickets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CheapTickets and more in one shot.

Orbitz.com - Books all forms of travel from airline flights to trains & cruises.

Priceline.com - Name your own price for airfare, hotels and car rentals, and then see what they return to you to meet your bid.

Trabber.com - Searches 30 websites for the cheapest tickets for users in the USA, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK.

Travelocity.com - Probably as famous for their spokes-Gnome as their booking, they do go the extra mile giving you phone numbers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_number to speak to an actual human if you need to.

Wego.com - Focuses heavily on international flights by searching numerous foreign carriers as well as domestics.

Yahoo Travel - Search all the major airlines with only low booking fees.

Non-USA

Airline-Network.co.uk - A UK-based search that focuses on long haul flights to overseas destinations.

Cleartrip.com - Flight and hotel booking inside of India.

DoHop.com - Part-owned by CheapFlights.co.uk, gives you the ability to search over 660 airlines worldwide.

FlightChecker from MoneySavingExpert.com - Focuses on budget airlines, offers charts to show you which part of the month is the cheapest time to fly.

Ixigo.com - Cheap airline search limited to flights inside of India.

Jetcost.co.uk - Jetcost searches multiple ticket sites such as Expedia, British Airways and more to help you find the cheapest prices.

Kayak.co.uk - Searches over 140 airlines and travel agencies and gives you the tools to book directly through them.

Liligo.com - Offers localized search of hundreds of airlines for Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary and the UK.

Skyscanner.net - Leans towards broader searches for those with flexible travel dates. Also offers suggestions for those who just want to go somewhere, but can’t think of anyplace themselves.

Miscellaneous

AirlineQuality.com - A site for rating airlines, their seats, airports and their premium lounges. Also offers chat rooms for people to discuss everything related to the airlines.

Farecast.Live.com - Microsoft powered service to search multiple sellers and predict for you if you should buy your ticket now or hold off for a possible price drop.

FlightArrivals.com - Check on flight arrivals, departures and reschedulings in the USA and Canada.

FlightAware.com - Track all of the flights in the United States in real-time. You can also narrow it down by carrier and see exactly where a flight is at any time.

FlightStats.com - Check the status of airports in regions all over the world, flights, rate the airports and discuss on the forums.

FlightView.com - Get real time updates on flights and the status of airports.

FlyMyCase.com - A shipping company specializing in picking up and delivering your luggage to and from just about anywhere in the world.

SeatGuru.com - Detailed plans for different models of planes that gives you ideas of what each seat is like in advance so you can choose the best one for you.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Kevin Purdy *)

Writing your blog should be a fun way to stretch your mind and stay connected to trends, friends, and the greater world, not another computer task that takes far too long to get done. But that's exactly what it can feel like if it takes you more time to find your post ideas, tweak your markup, and make everything look right than to actually get your thoughts down. Being somewhat experienced at this blogging thing, your Lifehacker editors have pinpointed a few tools and tricks that make our posts go faster and smoother. After the jump, we round up 10 of them.

10. Skip the copy/paste with AutoCopy

Many bloggers quote passages from other web pages, and referencing those snippets of language usually requires a Control/Command+C, then Control/Command+V once you're at the exact right place in your markup. Not so with AutoCopy, a free Firefox extension that automatically adds whatever text you've highlighted in your browser to the clipboard, then pastes it when you middle-click anywhere in Firefox. If you're not using a quick-blog tool like Tumblr, it might be the closest equivalent to the kind of speed-of-thought blogging that keeps writing from turning into a chore. (Original post)

9. Copy links and their titles with CoLT

When it comes time to post a relevant link at the end of most Lifehacker posts, the uninitiated (read: me, a few months ago) have to first copy the URL of the link, paste it in the right spot, then head back, copy the title of the linked page (being careful not to click!), then paste it inside the link tags. Those who have discovered the magic of the Copy Link Text Firefox extension, on the other hand, have magic right-click options that make grabbing the URL, the text, or both parts of a link dead simple. Give your right-click a rest and get back to adding context. (Original post)

8. Make reusable templates for posts and images

A lot of posts are, at least structurally, very similar, with a certain-size picture up top, a certain formatting for IM pastes or photo dumps, or similar repetitions. To save your time for real editing, try using Wired's guide to automating Photoshop actions. For hand-coding HTML, it pays to create templates out of your common formats (tables, unordered lists, picture posts) and plug them into a text-substitution app (see below for links and ideas). If you're tinkering with your site's design or layout, why re-invent the wheel? Grab a free template for Blogger, WordPress, or one of 40 general CSS templates for use on any site,. Need more? Check out Gina's roundup of seven different free HTML templates.

7. Live-blog from your phone with Jott

Free voicemail-to-text service Jott can help you nail down post material while you're on the go with a phone call, but you can also use the service directly with a number of blogging platforms, including Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal, Tumblr, and WordPress. If you're hosting your own blog, you can still use Jott's voice-to-email service in conjunction with your platform's email-to-post function to indirectly get your thoughts up online, even while you're miles from your keyboard.

6. Automate repetitive code with text replacement

If you've ever manually embedded a Flickr photo, created a custom headline or signature template, or searched out previously-used code to copy and paste for your posts, you need to add a text replacement app to your stable. Any of them—Texter for Windows, TextExpander for Mac OS X, or Snippits for Linux—can quickly paste, while also preventing common typos and misspellings. If you just want to speed up your HTML coding, try Adam's Markdown automation script, a stand-alone, blog-focused precursor to Texter.

5. Get topic-based post ideas sent to your inbox every day with Google Alerts

Whether you write about a team, a certain topic, or a broad trend, Google Alerts brings your post material to you. Use the same kind of advanced search operators you use on Google's main search site to laser-focus on a particular kind of web site, blog post, news story, or group post you're looking for. Decide if it gets sent as fast as Google's servers find it, or in a daily or weekly email digest. Using Alerts exposes you to a wider array of information than you'd get from a defined list of RSS feeds, and it's an easy way to keep your eyes on the web without really being at the search box all day.

4. Spend less time resizing images

Few blogs can get by with just words alone, but finding the perfect image to illustrate a post—and then making it fit right—can take more time than the post itself. If you're not committed to Photoshop or its open-source alternative, GIMP, free online image editing site Picnik is a good bet, both for its right-click Firefox extension and its integration with Flickr. If you've got a whole set of pictures to post up, you can try the Windows-only ImageResizer, or for an elegant solution, use the export-and-resize functionality of Picasa. (For more on finding reusable images, see our six ways to find reusable media.

3. Keep post ideas synchronized with Foxmarks

Great posting fodder can be found at all hours of the day, but you're not always ready to post it at that exact moment. Use the Foxmarks bookmark synchronizer, and your bookmarks toolbar becomes a universal idea space you can drag-and-drop your links onto. Anyone who likes more control over their backed-up bookmarks can synchronize with their own server, and it can be rolled into a portable Firefox to help you get blogging done with just a thumb drive and some spare time. (Original post)

2. Quick post media (minimum writing required) with Tumblr

A tumblelog—that is, a quick-post blog powered by the Tumblr webapp—makes posting your thoughts, IM chats, videos, photos, and other favorite media tidbits a lot less intimidating than the wide-open HTML spaces of Wordpress, Movable Type, and other platforms (which are still great for longer, text-and-links posts). The real time-saver is Tumblr's bookmarklet, which makes capturing and preparing a new post a one-click affair. Here's more on keeping up an instant, no-overhead blog with Tumblr.

1. Bookmark and track email and posts with Gmail

Adam showed us back in the day how you could set up Gmail as a bookmarking service (using the Gmail this bookmarklet), but with Gmail's 2.0 version, it's even easier to throw the emails that inspire you to get blogging with your other links, as they have short, human-readable permalinks that you can easily drag into a bookmark folder. And, assuming your blog inspires some kind of feedback, you can keep it separated and organized from your day-to-day mail using filters and persistent searches.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Compete *)

The song remains the same at the top of the Video rankings in March: YouTube continues to outpace the market, growing 7.8% while the video viewing sessions across the web grew only 2.3%.

Meanwhile Veoh narrowly maintained its spot in the Top 10, with phenomenal 23.8% monthly growth, edging out CBS Interactive by a very thin margin. The CBS Interactive division includes Sportsline.com, which scored a 154% gain as the prime spot for watching live streaming March Madness games.

Meanwhile Joost, which is backed by CBS, presented the games as a live streaming “experiment.” While Joost works via client, the March Madness offering did not bring much in the way of new visitors to the site to download the player.

Advertisers placed $545 million on TV for the 2008 NCAA Tournament, according to TNS, but just a tiny fraction of that followed online. With 8.5 million consumers watching next-day tournament highlights and interacting with NCAA Basketball content on the web, there was a huge opportunity to reach March Madness fans and perhaps to do it with more efficient media buys.

We used Compete’s BehaviorMatch, which can be customized for any demographic or behavioral segment, to call out the top video sites for March Madness fans.

While Sportsline came out on top in terms of Composition, predictably, some unexpected sports video sites like Runners World and The Golf Channel also scored high. Meanwhile, the largest sites like YouTube and MySpace aggregated the most eyeballs but had the worst Composition scores.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *) 

| View | Upload your own

Morgan Stanley’s Internet Trends report from last month takes a big turn from previous reports - the focus is nearly 100% on social applications and how they are taking over the Internet (Yahoo apparently read it). Key takeaways:

• YouTube + Facebook page views > Google or Yahoo page views (and may be bigger than both combined)
• 6/10 top internet sites are social (youtube, live.com, facebook, hi5, wikipedia, orkut); none were on the list in 2005
• YouTube has 258 million users, 50% visit weekly or more
• >50% of Facebook users log in daily, 95% of Facebook users have used at least one third party application
• Skype revenue is $1.67/user/year, up 9% Y/Y
• 14 million photos uploaded daily on Facebook
• Google + Yahoo = 61% of U.S. Online Ad Revenue
• Google: $4.4b ad revenue in Q4, paid out $1.4 billion to partners
• Yahoo: $1.6 billion in ad revenue in Q4, paid out $429 million to partners

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Henry Wok *) 

Henry says... 

We’ve been analyzing historical TechMeme data to dig a little deeper than the leaderboard information on the site that shows top blogs over the trailing 30 days. Mark McGranaghan and I are slicing the data in a number of ways and will publish it shortly on CrunchBase.

For now we thought we’d show a teaser - below are the top 100 tech bloggers/authors, based on the total number of headlines they have had on TechMeme from January 1, 2008 until today. The data isn’t 100% perfect as we’ve been grabbing it only once per hour, so a headline that was up for less than one hour may not be counted. But in terms of tracking the most popular bloggers, the data is meaningful. Since a lot of the top leaderboard blogs are multi-author, this helps to shake out who’s actually writing the popular stories.

Full list is below:

Posted by brian tiong at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *)

An excellent overview on the web today.

Erik says...

Today more than ever, the Web is a global game. Below are charts from a new State of the Internet report from comScore that paints a picture of global competition on the Web.

In 1996, two thirds of all people online (66 percent) lived in the U.S. By last October, that had completely flipped, with 77 percent of the online population living in the rest of the world and only 23 percent in the U.S. The U.S. still has the largest total number of Web surfers (162 million a month), but China is catching up fast (with 96 million):

In China, homegrown sites such as TenCent, Baidu and Sina all reach more native Web surfers than Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo:

In fact, the leading Websites in many big markets such as Russia, Japan, and South Korea tend to be homegrown as well:

Social networks are the fastest-growing category of sites (nearly 60 percent annually), but they still lag in terms of penetration (less than 40 percent) behind photo sites, entertainment sites, search, and portals:

The fastest growing of all social networks, of course, has been Facebook, which jumped from the second pack to where it is now running neck-and-neck with MySpace:

Drilling down into search, Google still dominates with 62 percent share worldwide:

And it dominates search even more in other countries than it does in the U.S., where it only commands a 53 percent market share (compared to above 90 percent in parts of Europe and Latin America):

Looking at the efficiency of its search ads, Google puts up an ad against only about half of its searches, whereas Yahoo puts up an ad 75 percent of the time. Yet for those searches where an ad is shown, Google gets 0.24 paid click per search compared to 0.18 for Yahoo and 0.14 for Microsoft. (Search advertising on AOL and Ask are also powered by Google and they show the same or better clickthrough rates).

For display ads, Yahoo and MySpace control the most market share, with 19 and 15 percent each, respectively. (Microsoft comes in a distant third with 6.6 percent):

The report also gives an estimate of the unduplicated reach of Microsoft and Yahoo. A combined Microsoft-Yahoo would have 173 million unique visitors a month across the globe, a 10 percent share of all page views, 32 percent share of search, and 24 percent share of display ads:

Both Microsoft and Yahoo each have about 260 million Webmail users (with duplication), with Google’s Gmail bringing up third place with 87 million (no wonder Google execs keep bringing up market concentration concerns in relation to mail and instant messaging):

Posted by brian tiong at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Henry Blogget *)

Henry says...
 

For the past few quarters, we've analyzed the amazing rate at which advertising spending is moving online. Now we're able to look at full-year 2007.

Specifically, we analyzed the change in US advertising revenue at 17 major media companies from 2006 and 2007. The companies included Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX), Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIAB), CBS (CBS), and Clear Channel (CCO). The companies span all the major advertising sectors: Online, TV, Print, Radio, and Outdoor.

Highlights:

• Total US ad revenue across all 17 companies grew 9% from 2006 to 2007, from $53 billion to $58 billion

• Online ad revenue grew 28%, from $14 billion to $18 billion.

• Offline grew only 3%, from $39.5 billion to 40.6 billion. This was helped significantly by the inclusion of affiliate fees and (and global revenue) at CBS, Viacom, and News Corp.

• Online ad revenue grew by $4 billion.

• Offline ad revenue--in all other media--grew by $1 billion.

So advertising revenue is flowing online at a frantic rate. That's the whole story? No. Let's look at how that online revenue breaks down.

• Online ad revenue grew 28%, or $4 billion.

• Online ad revenue at Google grew 44%, or $2.7 billion.

• Online ad revenue at Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL grew only 15%, or $1.3 billion.

• Google captured 2X as much revenue as its closest three competitors combined.

It is true that perhaps a third of Google's growth came from AdSense revenue, which is placed on third-party sites--so other companies are benefiting from this growth. But the growth on Google's properties alone still vastly exceeded the growth on AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Another fun stat:

• The year-over-year growth of revenue on Google.com (US)--approximately $2 billion--was more than twice as much the growth of ad revenue in all of the offline media companies in this sample combined. This is such an amazing fact that it bears repeating: A single media property, Google.com (US), grew by $2 billion. All the offline media properties owned by the 13 offline media companies above, meanwhile--all of them--grew by about $1 billion.

For supporting details, please see our SAI Advertising Share Shift spreadsheet.  TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld runs some cool graphics on the numbers.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

Dan says...

Below are five apps which have particularly tickled my fancy in recent months.

Moody
http://www.crayonroom.com/moody.php



Moody is a small but perfectly formed desktop app (Mac or PC, although the Mac version is more fully-featured) which enables you to tag tracks in your iTunes library according to mood. The interface is a 4 x 4 multi-coloured grid with the horizontal axis representing a spectrum from Sad to Happy and the vertical axis ranging from Calm to Intense. So a track like Homesick by Kings of Convenience would most likley be tagged purple (bottom left - v. sad and v. calm), whereas Tubthumping by Chumbawamba would be tagged yellow (top right - relentlessly happy and intense). Arguably one for the Nick Hornbys amongst us as you need to put in a bit of tagging legwork to get maximum value out of it (it is possible to download other people's tags, although there's no saying their tagging criteria will match yours).

FIQL
http://www.fiql.com



What marks FIQL out from other playlist sharing communities is the recent addition of video, pulling in (mostly YouTube) videos to match the tracks in the playlist. Whilst its only ever as good as the tagging on YouTube, the random nature of the videos is strangely compelling - you never know if you're going to get an artist's official video or a bedroom cover version. Below is an embed of some of my favourite music videos of all time (see earlier post on Top 20 best music videos ever).



MeeMix
http://www.meemix.com



MeeMix bills itself as "Internet radio that gets you" and the homepage invites users to "start playing the soundtrack of your life, here and now". Soundbites aside, MeeMix is a decent personalised jukebox in the Pandora mold with a slick, if slightly cutesy, interface. You can create new stations by entering the name of an artist or track and then rate tracks using a Hot or Not slider. There's also a Mood Control panel with Pulse and Surprise Me sliders, enabling you to adjust the tempo and serendipity of the suggestions.

Mixaloo
http://mixaloo.com



Mixaloo is an online playlist creator, positioning itself as the digital successor to the analogue mix-tape. Users are invited to select between 10 and 15 songs (from a library of over 3 million) and then share/promote their mix (via a selection of embeddable widgets - see below) with the added incentive of a revenue share on any resulting purchases. Whilst 3 million tracks sounds like a lot, in reality the library feels frustratingly limited - mix-tapes by their nature tend to include more obscure tracks and Mixaloo's catalogue is decidedly mainstream. Still, it's nice to have an alternative to Apple's iMixes, with the added bonus that some tracks are available to listen to in their entirety (rather than just a 30-second preview).



Songkick
http://www.songkick.com



You wouldn't guess it from the name but Songkick is all about tracking tour dates for your favourite artists, which you can either enter manually via the site's 'Band Manager' or get automatically scraped from your music library by the downloadable Songkicker plug-in. Whilst it's potentially a bit of a one-trick pony, the site does offer an appealing alternative to sifting through multiple email updates from assorted ticketing companies (NB. Currently only covers the US and the UK).

Posted by brian tiong at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: The Guardian *)

The power of bloggers are increasing as the Internet grows.  The guardian has kindly put together a list of what they think are the 50 most powerful blogs today. 

Here is what they say:-

 

"From Prince Harry in Afghanistan to Tom Cruise ranting about Scientology and footage from the Burmese uprising, blogging has never been bigger. It can help elect presidents and take down attorney generals while simultaneously celebrating the minutiae of our everyday obsessions. Here are the 50 best reasons to log on"

 

Here is the list.  See if you are current with your blog reading...

Posted by brian tiong at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Shankar Ganesh *) 

Ok, you’ve got loads of music on your computer - but is that all cluttered, unorganized, unmanaged and simply not easy to access? May be you need to do something. Literally hundreds of free software let you play, organize, burn and do lots more with your digital MP3 music collection. Have a well tagged, sortable music collection that you can be proud of!

Here comes a carefully chosen list of free programs that might help you squeeze the best out of your MP3 collection.

Part I - Audio Players

The default audio player software on your Windows is probably not enough, when it comes to extensive features and customizability. Here’s a pick of the best media players that can let you sort through and efficiently play most audio formats on your Windows computer:

VLC Player - It’s more light on resources that you would imagine. VLC is a very versatile player - throw any odd format, and it plays them for you instantly (FLV included).

Winamp - Winamp has its own fans, it’s customizable to a large extent and can come as a great saver. If you listen to music every other day, you need to have Winamp installed. A similar player is Jet Audio.

Songbird - A feature rich application that has great looks, go for it if your Windows computer has got some memory to spare, it’s reviewed here. You can customize it by adding extensions (similar to Firefox).

Part II - Organizers/Taggers/Jukeboxes

Jukeboxes are music software that come with amazing capabilities. Go for them if you have huge music collections scattered all around - not just in your computer, but also in audio CDs.

Media Monkey - The best piece of software out there that you’ll love using. Tag editor, format converter, CD recording, iPod support, you name it - it’s got all the tools that squeeze the best from your tracks.

J River Media Jukebox - Very pretty, has good features. And might serve as a good jukebox.

>> I missed out Foobar, thanks for the heads up Ashwin!

MP3 Tagger - The best ID3 tagger out there in the market, that’s free as well.

Magic MP3 Tagger - Update: Oops, sorry guys this is not freeware.

Part III- Rippers, Converters

Audio Grabber - Fantastic audio ripping software, with FreeDB tagging support included. Another similar ripper is FreeRip. Another one a few commenters have mentioned is Exact Audio Copy

Part IV - Audio Editors

Trust me, as far as I know, there’s no free editor as much capable as the professional ones out there. But still if you’d like to do some basic recording and effects, you could try these:

Audacity - Open Source, and is very light weight.

Wavosaur - Comes with no installer, and is a single exe file that does the job. Supports WAV format

Part V - Other

Last.fm - A social networking site for audiophiles out there. Listen, get interesting tracks based on what you’ve played, and add friends! More such music sites here.

Tunatic - A song is playing on your head, but you just can’t get it’s title right? Then download this, install, hum the song through your mic and let Tunatic locate info on the song for you! Quite cool for show off as well

Audio Files GDS Indexer - Google Desktop Plugin - Install this one if you have got Google Desktop installed. Adds a bunch of functionality to the Desktop Spider to make it more friendlier towards Audio files.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P Aune *) 

The Nintendo DS is the latest and possibly most popular handheld game system from Nintendo. As has become tradition with just about every game system, there is a large and active homebrew community making all sorts of tools and toys for it. We’ve gathered 20+ examples of some of the things your favorite game system for those on the move can do that you may never have known about.

Make sure to read the instructions for each as some require different homebrew installs than others. The DSWiki has detailed directions on how you can get in to the homebrew world.

Art

Animanatee - An animation program that allows up to 10,000 frames of animation, or until the memory runs out.

Colors! - A pressure sensitive art program that you can save your artwork via memory card or email it over Wi-Fi.

FlickBook - A simple animation program for making small animations.

Phidias - An art program that lets you create detailed images saved to the BMP format.

Communication

DS-AIM - A version of AIM for your DS.

IRCDS - Internet Relay Chat comes to your handhel.

SvSIP - A VoIP tool based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Still in development and only handles basic phone functions at thi time.

Emulators & OS

DSLinux.org - If it’s electronic, somebody stuffs Linux in it, and the DS is no different.

DSMouse - Turn your DS into a wireless mouse for your computer.
Emulator-Zone.com - A repository of several emulators for the DS.

Goomba - An emulator to run original Gameboy games on the DS.

SnezziDS - Away to run Super NES games on the latest iteration of the Nintendo handhelds.

Utilities

DSFTP - Allows you to set up an FTP server on your DS, also includes instructions to incorporate it it into other homebrew programs.

DSLiveWeather - A client to access Weather.com’s weather information.

DSOrganize - A lightweight organizer for your DS that also includes a RSS reader, file browser, web browser, IRC client, text editor, calculator.

DSReader - Another popular ebook reader that also allows you to turn the DS sideways to read it in more in the orientation of a traditional book.

DSVNC - A VNC tool to allow you to control a computer over a private network from your DS.

Image Viewer - From the same homebrew group behind Moonshell, uses an app on the computer end to convert photos for better viewing on the DS and then gives you a viewer inside the DS.

Moonshell - A popular media player that can use MP3, OGG, MIDI, AAC and other audio file formats. Can also show JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TXT files and some videos.

TextViewer - Can read several file formats and allows for text bookmarking so you don’t lose your place.

Treasures of Gaia - A Google Maps application that works both in French and English.

TxtWriter - This allows you to create simple txt files using a modified on-screen keyboard. Can be saved to a memory card for transfer.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

Here is a round up of the winners of the Techcrunch 'Crunchies 2007'.  Happy surfing!

Duncan reports...

Best Overall: Facebook

Facebook revolutionized the idea of what social networking could be.

Best technology innovation / achievement: Earthmine

Earthmine picks up where Google Earth leaves off, bringing deep semantic data to 3D panoramas of the real world. Earthmine’s system can keep track of the objects found in the real world and attribute information to each of them, such as latitude, longitude, elevation, and other attributes.

Best Clean Tech Startup: Tesla Motors

Tesla’s green sports car has captured the imagination of a public who had come to expect electric cars to be dull are boring. Due to be released this year, the company has pre-orders from some of the biggest names in Entertainment and Technology.

Best video startup: Hulu

Hulu put television online. Their broadcasting system was modeled on the success of social video sites and drawn the praise of its previous critics.

Best user-generated content site: Digg

Digg’s simple voting system defined the emerging social media revolution. Getting “dugg” quickly became a badge of honor and established a coveted place in the geek lexicon.

Best mobile start-up: Twitter

Twitter, the new addictive microblogging platform. It wasn’t until after the South by Southwest conference that people realized the value of the incredibly simple microblogging platform.

Best International startup: Netvibes
Based in London, Tariq Karim and Freddy Mini’s Netvibes has made waves in the U.S. as a top personalized web portal.

Best consumer startup: Meebo
Meebo made instant messaging ubiquitous by bringing it online. They then developed it into a platform where anyone could add chat to their applications.

Best enterprise startup: Zoho

Zoho’s comprehensive online suite of 14 business applications ranging from document editing to CRM continues to lead the way in the move away from desktop computing to working in the cloud.

Best design: SmugMug

SmugMug is professional photo site. SmugMug’s attention to detail and design can command as much as $150 per year from their users.

Best new gadget/ device: Apple iPhone. See the Apple acceptance speech here.

Best business model: Zazzle

Looking for a Star Wars hat or memorable mug? Zazzle is an on-demand factory of consumer goods for top brands. It also lets consumers become producers by uploading their own images onto that T-shirt, mug, or mousepad. . Consumers can also receive a commission on products that they sell and design themselves

Best bootstrapped startup: Techmeme.
Founded and developed solely by Gabe Rivera, Techmeme serves as the front page of the tech blogosphere. The site’s advanced algorithms identify the day’s top stories by making sense of conversations across the web’s best blogs.

Best Startup Founder: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Does this really need any explanation? At 23 Mark has built one of the world’s leading online destinations that has recently been valued at $15 billion. A remarkable achievement for anyone, let alone someone at the still relatively young 23. A well deserved award.

Best Startup CEO: Toni Schneider (Automattic)

Schnieder has lead the company from its roots as a open source alternative to Movable Type into a multi-million dollar enterprise that saves the world from blog spam and offers a free hosted blogging solution that competes with Google’s Blogger.

Best new startup: iMedix

iMedix combines search and social networking to change the way people find health information online. Users are encouraged to help each other by sharing health experiences and links from around the web.

Most likely to succeed: Automattic (WordPress)

The open source blogging platform that powers the long tale and turned into a multi-million dollar spam fighting and hosted blogging service.

Best use of viral marketing: StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon’s service lets users bookmark and discover new sites they love. With only a $1.5 million investment in 2005, StumbleUpon gew to over 4 million Stumblers and was bought by eBay in 2007 for $75 million

Best time sink site: Kongregate

CEO Jim Greer describes Kongregate as XBox live for casual games. This site hosts some of the webs most addictive casual games. Remember Desktop Tower Defense? Moreover, the games are not only played by users, but also created by them in exchange for a share of advertising revenue and other rewards.

Most likely to make the world a better place: DonorsChose

DonorsChoose.org is dedicated to connecting classrooms in need with individuals who want to help.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by brian tiong at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Mashable *)

Sean P. Aune says : 

Think the music industry is dying, and that it’s time to go independent? Or have you always favored smaller, independent record companies over huge bureaucratic institutions? Don’t worry, even if you don’t have dozens of spin doctors working for you, you can still promote your indie band online. We’ve got 25+ tools to help you do just that.

AmieStreet.com - A social network and music marketplace for indie artists. They give the artists 70% of the sale.

AnyGig.com - A place for musicians to get listed for small gigs, or find venues to play at.

Artistopia.com - An online venue for performers to give themselves an online presence with a profile and display their work.

BandBuzz.com - A social network where artists can set up a profile, upload their music and get reviewed and recommended by users.

BandChemistry.com - A site for musicians to find new members for their group or form a whole new band.

Bandwagon.co.uk - A social network for lovers of indie music where the bands can sell mobile content such as ringtones and wallpapers.

ChampionSound.com - Free mailing list manager for artists, promoters, and venues.

Elisteningpost.com - A way for musicians to upload their music and sell it just about anywhere they want such as MySpace and Facebook.

FireGigs.com - A site with the aim of promoting unsigned bands by arranging to get their music to be played in the background at cafes, coffee shops and more. Also promote you through a Facebook app and MySpace widget.

Fuzz.com - Lets performers upload their music sell it, as well as manage mailing lists and more.

HumbleVoice.com - A place for all types of independent artists, including musicians, to upload their work and promote it.

iJamr.com - Indie musicians upload their music and bloggers can display your songs on their sites for free, and if a sale is made, they blogger gets a cut.

Indistr.com - A company letting independent artists sell their music directly to the public and the musicians receive 75% of the sale.

mTraks.com - An online marketplace and network for indie artists to promote and sell their music.

Mubito.com - Allows you to set up a band website easily and sell MP3s. Two levels of stores with one of them being free.

Musicane.com - Promote and sell your music and ringtones.

MusicNation.com - A community of musician profile pages that engage regularly in competition for various prizes.

Panjea.com - Bring all yourclips from the web together and put them in to one player so they take up less space on your page, so you can promote all your music easily.

PocketFuzz.com - A place for musicians to sell ringtones of their works and notify their fans of news via mobiles.

Popfolio.net - A music widget provider for blogs that lets independent musicians upload their songs for inclusion, and possible sales.

PumpAudio.com - A service for indie artists to get their music licensed for television and film.

Ripple9.com - A site to help bands promote themselves on mobile devices to their fans. New sign-ups are frozen while they are being purchased by Google.

Scriggleit.com - Software you can use on a laptop at your merchandise table so people can sign up for your mailing list.

SessionSound.com - A site for independent musicians to try to stay indie by selling their music online.

Sonicbids.com - Allows you to construct a low cost electronic press kit that can be constantly updated so the recipients always get the latest version.

Unsigned.com - A site for unsigned bands to put up a profile page and host a playlist of MP3s to attract new listeners.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Radiohead blew us away with the “donated” sales revenue from its last album “In Rainbows.” The band offered the music for free, and let fans choose how much they’d pay, almost as a tip for the album. What comScore found was that 62% of global users chose not to pay for the album at all.

What’s equally as interesting is the fact that international fans were less likely to pay than US fans. You’d have to do a fairly extensive study to figure out why this may be the case, considering variables such as the native country of the band, the amount of disposable income per capita in various countries around the world, the musical preferences of countries’ citizens, the prevalence of P2P networks as legal options in other countries, etc. So there’s really not much to say in regards to these stats for Radiohead’s album at this particular point.

But what is another topic of conversation is something we’ve touched on in previous coverage of Radiohead’s flip of the script: is this an anomaly and how can regular musicians replicate such success? I’ve said my two cents on the matter–it’s currently rather difficult to make a killing on album sales in the same manner that Radiohead has done, if you don’t already have the fan base. The music industry knows this and may use it to its full advantage.

Radiohead used to be part of the music industry’s machine. Having now cut out the middle man, the band offers content direct to the fans. So with the music industry now looking for ways in which to continually make the same amount of money it raked in during its peak years, I wouldn’t be surprised if Radiohead gets sued.

It was that industry machine that enabled Radiohead to garner such a large fan base, right? So now that the band has kicked the middle man to the curb, the middle man may still want a cut of current sales. While the music industry is still boo-hooing about the decline of sales and the slower adoption of current legal trends, it still has a machine to run. In order to close that gap between previous power and current influence, it will have to find better, more cost-efficient ways in which to advertise artists, and market them across the web.

We’ve seen some pretty under-handed effects arise from this kind of pressure (that means you, Marie Digby), but the evolution will go on, and balance out at some point. As we all know, advertising isn’t going anywhere. The music industry will just need to continue to shift its approach. So will we still have artists able to gain major traction without the music industry’s machine? We won’t have to. The machine will just be better operated.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Stan Schroeder *)

Everyone has joined more than 1 social network, will social network aggregators catch on? Here is a great list by Stan from Mashables.

(* Source: Andrew Min *)

For all you people out there that are using movable type like i do... enjoy.

(* Source : Daksh Sharma *) 

One of the main topics here at Mashable has always been social networking. In the past several years, some networks have thrived, some vanished, while hundreds of new ones appeared. It has become a huge area to follow, and this article illustrates this well: a collection of over 350 social networking sites, all of which were covered in one way or another here at Mashable. We hope to have created an extensive and useful resource for anyone interested in social networking. Enjoy.

Feel free to add more apps in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources.

Books

Americabookshelf.com - One of the largest book exchange clubs across the US.

BooksConnect - A book sharing community site connecting readers, authors, publishers, librarians and booksellers.

BookCrossing.com - A community of users from over 130 countries who exchange books with each other at public places like cafes, parks etc.

Bookhopper.co.uk - Free community for UK residents to share used books with each other.

Bookins.com - Book sharing website that enables members to exchange used books with each other in real time.

BookMooch.com - An interesting concept where users can exchange books with others through points. Users gain points when they give books to others.

Booksalescout.com - Online community of users allowing them to sell books in the US.

Bookswim.com - Book borrowing service with free shipping for registered website.

ConnectViaBooks - A social networking site connecting book lovers and enabling them to discover other similar interests.

GoodReads - GoodReads is a book reader’s community enabling members to review, share books they have been reading.

PaperBackSwap.com - Users can share books amongst each other and only pay for the delivery charges.

Pazap.com - A book trade engine for students to buy and sell old books.

Read It Swap It - A free service that allows users to exchange books with others.

Revish - Revish is another community for book lovers, letting them review their favorite books, group up, or simply tell the world what they’re currently reading.

Shelfari - Shelfari is a popular social networking service for book lovers.

Socialbib - Book swapping network between students.

Business Networking & Professionals

AdvisorGarage - It is an online directory of advisers who are willing to assist budding entrepreneurs.

ArtBreak - ArtBreak is an artist community for sharing and selling artwork.

Blogtronix - Blogtronix promotes corporate social networking, enterprise 2.0 and wikis.

Commutal - Commutal is an online sharing platform for businesses to create media rooms, participate in domestic groups and share event happenings with each other.

CompanyLoop - An online co-working community for global businesses.

ConnectBeam - Connectbeam offers social networking specially designed for corporate users.

Decorati - An interior designer community enabling users to post items for sale and for exchange.

DoMyStuff - A good site for working professionals looking to find online assistants.

Doostang - An invite only career community for professionals.

Fast Pitch - It is a quickly growing business networking community in corporate world. Its online provides users with a one-stop shop network to market their business.

iKarma Inc. - iKarma is a specialist in providing customer feedback for organizations and professionals.

ImageKind - ImageKind is a community and marketplace for professional artists.

Jambo - Jambo lets you connect with your neighborhood friends.

Jigsaw - An online business card networking directory for users to establish contacts with each other. Each business card is listed with an email id and a contact number.

Konnects - Konnects enables members to create their own professional networking communities.

Lawyrs - A professional social networking community for lawyers.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for business users, one of the most popular such sites out there. Some aspects of it are free, but many are paid.

mediabistro.com - mediabistro.com is for professionals in content or creative industry.

Pairup.com - Pairup connects business travelers assisting them to travel together.

Ryze.com - A site for establishing new connections and growing networks. Connections for jobs, building career and making sales.

Spoke.com - Spoke offers access to business network of over 40 million people worldwide.

Visible Path - Visible Path helps organizations to integrate social networking into their existing tools.

WebCrossing Neighbors - It provides a private label social network with personal spaces and user groups.

XING - XING is a networking directory of business contacts powering relationships between business professionals allowing users to connect with each other.

Family

Amiglia - A family networking service enabling users to connect to family members by publishing and sharing family trees, photos etc.

CafeMom - CafeMom is a social networking site for mothers to connect and share thoughts with each other.

Cingo - Cingo users connect with each other to organize their family life.

CommonGate - A social networking platform that enables users to create their own social network for their friends, family or organization.

Family 2.0 - Family 2.0 helps you create your own family social network, you can add family members, send personalized emails and create event alerts.

Famiva - A premier social network to connect with family members and relatives in a secure environment.

Famster - A private secure social network for family members.

Geni.com - An exciting social networking site enabling members to create their family tree. Although it’s a relatively new site, it has grown tremendously fast, and has hundreds of thousands of users.

Genoom - Genoom creates a meeting place for its site users. They can create a family network by inviting their relatives and discover their past memories.

Kincafe - An ideal social network for families to connect with their beloved ones.

Kinzin - Kinzin is an online meeting place for families to share family events, photos, stories and recipes.

MayasMoM - A family networking site for parents.

Minti - A collaborative parenting site.

MomJunction - MomJunction allows mothers to find reliable answers to questions, create private spaces with friends and build communities.

MothersClick - MothersClick connects mothers in a neighborhood with each and provides parenting advice to them.

myfamily.com - An excellent way to connect with your family members.

OneGreatFamily.com - An online shared database with combined knowledge and data at a single place.

OurStory.com - OurStory enables users to share stories of their families with others.

Parentography - A social network offering advice and advice for families.

The Family Post - A sharing network for communication with family members.

Friends

43 Things - A tagging based social networking site. Users create accounts and list a number of goals or hopes and these are parsed based on similarity to goals of other users.

Amitize.com - Amitize is a worldwide friendship network.

aSmallWorld - aSmallWorld is a private online community designed for individuals who would like to connect, re-connect to share similar thoughts with each other.

Badoo.Com - Badoo is a dynamic multi-lingual social networking site with innovative photo and video features that allows its users worldwide to gain an instant mass audience and interact both locally and globally.

Bebo - Bebo is a hugely popular site (especially in the UK), and similar in philosophy to MySpace. It allows users to communicate with their friends in multiple ways including blogging, sending messages and posting pictures.

Eons - An online gathering place for the elderly; most of the users are over the age of 50 years.

Facebook.com - Facebook is a social networking phenomenon connection people with their friends, family and other users with similar interests.

Faceparty - A UK based community social networking website. It started for youngsters but has now risen to popularity among all age groups.

Flingr - Flingr allows users to connect with all categories of friends – colleagues, college mates and school buddies.

Friendster - It is a popular global social network for finding new friends and developing friendships as well as searching old friends.

hi5 - Hi5 is a prominent social networking service in India with over 40 million users. However, Hi5 has recently experienced an upsurge beyond India and has shown increasing popularity in EU too.

Lovento - Lovento allows you to discover news friends and also find information about latest events.

Multiply.com - Multiply is a social networking website providing easy way to share digital media which includes photos, videos and music.

Mycool - Mycool enables members to find and share their interests with special groups.

MySpace.com - MySpace is an interactive social networking website consisting of personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. It’s currently the biggest social networking site out there, and while it might not be the most advanced one, the users seem to love its simplicity.

NetFriendships.com - A comprehensive social networking site enabling users to make new online friends and discover old ones.

Netlog - A social community of more than 20 million young Europeans.

Orkut - Orkut is a social networking service owned by Google. It enables users to meet new friends and create communities.

Passado - Passado is Europe’s no.1 re-union website connecting members with friends from school to workplace.

Piczo - Piczo offers safe social networking environment to youngster around the world. Piczo users can design their personal website with photos, videos etc. and share it with their friends.

Plazes - A social networking website for connecting with local users.

Pownce.com - Pownce is a mix of social networking and microblogging. It enables users to send messages, files, events and links with each other.

ProfileHeaven.com - A UK based social networking site for teenagers.

reunion.com - A leading online service for discovering old friends, classmates and family members.

Vox.com - Vox is a social blogging service where users share their ideas, photos, videos with family and friends.

Xanga - Xanga is one of the biggest social networking platforms with features of sharing photos, photos and videos.

XuQa - An online college social networking site with poker gaming features.

Hobbies & Interests

ActionProfiles.com - It is social networking community for sports and action. The features of the website are profiles of users with photographs and videos, reviews of products and job discussion boards.

Arts community - Arts community provides a dynamic community experience by providing extensive listing of exhibitions, events and openings.

BeGreen - BeGreen is a community that aims to generate environmental awareness for users.

beRecruited - beRecruited is a dedicated online community for sportpersons and coaches.

BottleTalk - BottleTalk is a wine lover’s community making it easy for members to share their drinking experiences.

CarGurus - An automobile community website enabling users to post car reviews, photos and share opinions.

Change - Change is a nonprofit social networking website that connects like minded users and allows them to exchange information.

ChangingThePresent - A nonprofit fund raising community with membership of over 400 nonprofits.

ChickAdvisor - ChickAdvisor is a sharing community for women users.

CircleUp - CircleUp is one of the best community website connecting users to groups, clubs for knowledge sharing, information exchange.

Coastr - Coastr connects beer lovers with each other.

ColShare - ColShare is a community for people who have hobby of collecting items like coins, stamps etc.

coRank - A rating community for users to share interesting information on internet.

DailyStrength - A huge community of over 500 groups dealing with health issues and various medical challenges.

Dundoo - Dundoo enables users to create image collages out of social networking profile. A big amount of ads on the site somewhat diminishes the overall impression.

Flixster - Flixster is a community for movie lovers.

FuelEmpire - FuelEmpire brings automobile enthusiasts together at one place.

GirlSense - A community for girls to promote their fashion designs & creations.

Greenvoice - An online networking platform for people who are conscious about the environment, who want to inform each other on environmental issues and create a difference.

iYomu - iYomu is an adult social networking website and it allows users to search for site members who have similar interests or for business needs.

Motortopia - Motortopia is community for automobile lovers. It consists of passionate lovers of bikes, planes, cars and boats etc.

MyCatSpace - MyCatSpace is a community for lovers of cats passionate to share experiences of their cats with others.

MyDogSpace - MyDogSpace users can share their dog pictures, write blog posts about dogs and communicate with other dog lovers, all in a very lovely community.

Uniteddogs - A social networking website for dog owners. The dog owners can creae profiles of their dogs, create blogs and share their thoughts.

vSocial - vSocial is a video based social networking platform allowing content owners, site operators to deliver the message online with video.

Language

15+ Language Communities

Media (Photo, Video & Audio)

25+ Video Sharing Services

30+ Photo Sharing Services

20+ Music Sharing Services

Buzdeo - Buzdeo provides secure video sharing service with friends and family.

Fotki - A photo sharing service enabling users to connect with friends.

Fotolog - A big online photo sharing community.

Music

Asoboo - Asoboo is a sharing network for cultural artists from around the world.

BandChemistry - A network for musicians uniting music bands all over.

BandWagon - BandWagon is a music community website for music fans to manage their web pages, profiles, videos and music.

CrackSpace - A common place for fans of hip-hop music.

Moob - A dedicated community of hip-hop fans.

MOG - An online community powering site members to discover music and music lovers.

Mobile

CrackBerry - A community dedicated to BlackBerry users.

Dodgeball - A New York based service facilitating social interactions through mobile phones.

Friendstribe.com - A mobile phone based social networking site.

GotZapp - A mobile social network for sharing images, audio and graphics with your friends’ mobile phones.

Groovr - An ultimate mobile social networking site for staying connected with friends. It is compatible with iPhone.

Jaiku - Jaiku is essentially a microblogging service with an SMS gateway, very similar to Twitter. They’ve recently been acquired by Google.

Loopt - Loopt is a cool mobile based friend locator website. It uses GPS to show its users the location of friends by updating maps on mobile handset.

Mixxer - Mixxer enables users to content on their mobile with site members.

Mobango - A mobile community service powering users to search for user generated music content, videos and other data.

Mozes - Mozes enables members to connect & socialize with each other through mobile phones.

Partysync - Partysync helps users to interact with people using mobiles.

Peepsnation - Peepsnation allows users with similar interests to connect with each other on location basis.

Rabble - A location based social networking service for mobile phone users.

Socialight - Socialight is a mobile based social networking site where users share their travel experiences with other mobile users.

Wattpad - A mobile phone social networking platform allowing users to discover, read and share their stories with each others.

Shopping

18 Sites for Social Shopping and Deals

3LUXE - A community generated product research site.

AgentB - A common place to find out the best shopping deals on internet.

bringsome.com - A global goods delivery platform enabling community members to assist each other with access to best items from across the world.

boxedup.com - Boxedup.com users add their favorite products to their list and share it with others.

CoWorkersAds - An online marketplace listing allowing site members to discover and sell items among coworkers community.

iliketotallyloveit.com - A user generated marketplace where users submit cool products.

MyItThings.com - A user generated magazine for shopping.

MyStore.com - A social market place for buyers and sellers.

Productwiki.com - ProductWiki is a common place for users to share information about consumer products.

RedFlagDeals.com - RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most popular shopping community which offers huge discounts to site users.

Sale Grab - SaleGrab is a social shopping site for best sales and discount deals.

Shoppero - Shoppero offers profit sharing to site users for writing product reviews.

Smashing Darling - A collaborative market place connecting buyers and sellers at one place.

Social BookMarking

50+ Social Bookmarking Sites

Students

AlumWire - AlumWire has been created to assist college students, alumni with professional opportunities.

B4Class - A social network for high school and college students.

Campusbug - A college student social networking website.

CampusRank - CampusRank members select and rate their old school friends and group them into various categories.

College.com - An online community for college students.

CollegeMedium.com - A student classifieds website for buying and selling items, jobs search etc.

College Tonight - A great place to meet fellow college students and alumni.

DormItem.com - A local classifieds listings for schools in various cities.

Graduates.com - A social networking site assisting graduate school students to stay in touch post completion of course.

Half.com - A leading student market place for buying and selling textbooks at discounted prices.

iHipo - An international community for college students and business professionals looking for networking opportunities.

LocalSchools - A networking site connecting students with local US colleges and universities.

Pazap.com - A student trading site for buying and selling on-campus books with other students.

Quizilla - Quizilla is a social network for young teens.

RateMyProfessor.com - RateMyProfessor connects students aspiring to study similar courses by assisting each other.

Student.com - Student.com is a big online community for college students, high school students and teens with around 1,000,000 members.

Studentbid.com - Studentbid.com is a student market place for sales and purchase of items without any fees.

StudentSN.com - A social network allowing users to create home pages with contact information, personal information and photo albums.

Uloop.com - Uloop allows students to trade textbooks, promote community events and do host of other activities.

Travel & Locals

Amicoz.com - Amicoz is slightly different from conventional social networking sites; it doesn’t have some of the common features found on socnets. It is dedicated to assist users in sharing their travel experiences, nothing more, nothing less.

Citizenbay - Citizenbay is a user community for discovering local information.

CityTherapy - CityTherapy is an easy way to find and share places of interest (restaurant, bars) in Europe.

CouchSurfing - A global travel network connecting travelers with local communities.

fatdoor.com - A fun and an interactive way to connect with the folks from your neighborhood online.

Going.com - A fun way to interact with people locally.

iloho - An online travel community with similarity to social bookmarking services like digg.

MatchActivity - A site connecting people on the basis of their activities. Users can find things to do and join people in their area.

Matador - A travel based social network with an integrated blogging service.

myTripbook.com - myTripbook.com is a place for people who want to share their travel experiences through photos, videos and blogging with others.

OurFaves - OurFaves is a community of urban savvy folks who enjoy the Toronto city and find out cool places to hang out at.

Outside.in - A nice way to explore local communities to keep track with neighborhood news.

Rummble - Rummble enables users to discover as well as share places of interest in your neighborhood.

TravBuddy - TravBuddy is a cool site for sharing travel experiences, finding new travel friends or reading travel reviews of fellow friends.

Travellerspoint - An international meeting point for worldwide travelers.

TravelTogether - A travel based social networking service enabling users to share travel plans, travel deals and experiences.

tribe.net - Tribe.net is one of the easiest ways to connect with people for finding a restaurant, a killer apartment, a gentle dentist or a hiking friend.

TripUp - A travel community site for finding travel information and planning for trips.

Triporama- Triporama provides an easy way to plan and collaborate on group trips.

VibeAgent - VibeAgent is a site about hotel reviews, travel meta-search and social networking.

WAYN - A social networking website uniting world wide travelers.

WeExplore - WeExplore provides an online platform for volunteers and travelers from all over the globe.

Wikitravel - Wikitravel is dedicated project for creating a trusted, up-to-date travel guide. It has over 16,641 travel destination guides maintained and written by Wikitravellers from around the world.

Zoodango - Zoodango is a website enabling users to connect with urban professionals either online or face-to-face at local venues.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

 

Following on from my previous round-up of 50 virtual worlds, below are fifteen virtual worlds currently in development.

	Adventure Rock bbc.co.uk/cbbc/adventurerock/ Larian Studios / BBC Virtual world for children ETA: Fall 2007
	Flowplay http://www.flowplay.com/ Flowplay Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007
	Meet-Me http://www.co-core.com/ Co-core Virtual rendering of Tokyo ETA: Fall 2007
	Novoking http://www.novoking.com/ Novoking Chinese 3D avatar environment ETA: Fall 2007
	Pirates of the Caribbean Online http://apps.pirates.go.com/pirates/ Disney MMOG based on Disney IP ETA: Fall 2007
	Planet Cazmo http://www.planetcazmo.com/ Pileated Pictures Browser-based teen world ETA: Fall 2007
	Twinity http://www.twinity.com/ Metaversum Virtual/real life mashup ETA: Fall 2007
	Whirled www.threerings.net/whirled/ Three Rings Design Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007
	Zoodaloo http://www.zoodaloo.com/ Zoodaloo Virtual world for kids ETA: Fall 2007
	PlayStation Home http://www.homebetatrial.com/ Sony PlayStation virtual community ETA: Spring 2008
	Spore http://www.spore.com/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Will Wright's god game ETA: Spring 2008
	Uworld http://www.uonenet.com/ UOneNet Chinese virtual community ETA: Spring 2008
	Lego Universe http://universe.lego.com/ NetDevil / Lego MMOG utilising Lego IP ETA: Fall 2008
	Infinity: The Quest for Earth http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/ Flavien Brebion Space-based MMORPG ETA: 2008
	Adellion http://www.adellion.com/ HonourBound Ltd. Medieval MMORPG ETA: Unknown

Posted by brian tiong at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

A great round up by Dan... 

If you relied solely on the mainstream media for your knowledge of online trends (more fool you), you'd be forgiven for thinking there was only one virtual world. Second Life has hoovered up huge swathes of column inches and airtime over the past 12 months (see earlier post on the Second Life media frenzy) with only the occasional nod to World of Warcraft or Habbo Hotel.

However, there's much more to virtual worlds than Second Life. Immersive online environments are a huge growth area, as demonstrated by the below round-up of 50 virtual worlds, ranked by approximate user numbers (with a few, for which I couldn't source viable user data, tacked on the end). It's worth stating that the approximate user figures are just that: approximate. Gleaned from a wide range of different sources, they are mostly self-reported and cover a multitude of differing definitions. I've tried to reconcile the figures wherever possible to try and reflect number of active users rather than number of avatars or visitors to the website, although many will still be way off base.

In terms of trends, the kids market appears to be a significant growth area and that's without including avatar chat sites (e.g. IMVU, Zwinktopia) or the growing legion of pet/doll sites (e.g. NeoPets, GoPets, MyePets, Be-Bratz, Stardoll).

	World of Warcraft http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ Blizzard Entertainment Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 9m
	Habbo Hotel http://www.habbo.com/ Sulake Launched: 2000 Approximate no. of users: 7.5m
	Nicktropolis http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis/ Nickelodeon Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 5.1m
	Runescape http://www.runescape.com/ Jagex Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 5m
	Club Penguin http://www.clubpenguin.com/ New Horizon Interactive / Disney Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Knight Online http://www.knightonlineworld.com/ MGame Corporation / Noah System Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Barbie Girls http://www.barbiegirls.com/ Mattel Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Coke Studios http://www.mycoke.com/ Studiocom / The Coca-Cola Company Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 4m
	Gaia Online http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia Interactive Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 3.5m
	MapleStory http://www.maplestory.com/ Wizet / Nexon Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 3m
	Dofus http://www.dofus.com/ Ankama Games Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 3m
	Guild Wars http://www.guildwars.com/ NCsoft Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 2m
	Whyville http://www.whyville.net/ Numedeon Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 1.7m
	Second Life http://secondlife.com/ Linden Lab Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 1.5m
	Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom http://vmk.disney.go.com/ Sulake Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 1.4m
	Disney's Toontown http://play.toontown.com/ Disney Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 1.2m
	Mokitown http://www.mobile-kids.net/ Neue Digitale / Daimler Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 1.1m
	Lineage / Lineage II http://www.lineage.com/ NCsoft Launched: 1998 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	There http://www.there.com/ Makena Technologies Launched: 1998 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	BOTS http://bots.acclaim.com/ Acclaim Games Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	Webkinz World http://www.webkinz.com/ Ganz Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 1m
	AlphaWorld http://www.activeworlds.com/ Active Worlds Launched: 1997 Approximate no. of users: 900,000
	Entropia Universe http://www.entropiauniverse.com/ MindArk Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 600,000
	Virtual MTV http://www.vmtv.com/ Makena Technologies Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 600,000
	Virtual World of Kaneva http://www.kaneva.com/ Kaneva Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 600,000
	Final Fantasy XI: Online http://www.playonline.com/ff11eu/ Square Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	EverQuest / EverQuest II http://everquest.station.sony.com/ Sony Online Entertainment Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Faketown http://www.faketown.com/ Identity Play Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Dubit http://www.dubitchat.com/ Dubit Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Cybertown http://www.cybertown.com/ Integrated Virtual Networks Launched: 1995 Approximate no. of users: 500,000
	Playdo http://beta.playdo.com/ Playdo Launched: 2000 Approximate no. of users: 400,000
	Eve Online http://www.eve-online.com/ CCP Games Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates http://www.puzzlepirates.com/ Three Rings Design / Ubisoft Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar http://www.lotro.com/ Turbine, Inc. Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	Star Wars Galaxies http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/ LucasArts Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000
	City of Heroes / City of Villains http://uk.cityofheroes.com/ Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 180,000
	vSide http://www.vside.com/ Doppelganger Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 150,000
	Ultima Online http://www.uo.com/ Electronic Arts Launched: 1997 Approximate no. of users: 135,000
	Dark Age of Camelot http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/ Mythic Entertainment / Electronic Arts Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 125,000
	The Sims Online http://www.ea.com/official/thesims/thesimsonline/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 100,000
	Xivio http://www.xivio.com/ Xivio Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 22,000
	citypixel http://www.citypixel.com/ citypixel Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 20,000
	Teen Second Life http://teen.secondlife.com/ Linden Lab Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 5,000
	Westward Journey II / Fantasy Westward Journey http://corp.163.com/eng/games/westward_journey.html NetEase Launched: 2002 / 2004 Approximate no. of users: ??
	Scions of Fate (Yulgang) http://fate.netgame.com/ KRGsoft Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: ??
	Legend of Mir II / Legend of Mir III http://www.legendofmir.net/ WeMade Entertainment / ActozSoft Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: ??
	MU Online http://globalmuonline.com/ Webzen / K2 Network Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: ??
	HiPiHi http://www.hipihi.com/index_english.html HiPiHi Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: ??
	GalaXseeds http://www.galaxseeds.com/ Frima Studios / Corus Entertainment Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: ??
	Virtual Ibiza http://www.virtualibiza.com/ Lightmaker Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: ??

Posted by brian tiong at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Nielsen has released its latest numbers for top social networking sites for the month of September. Not surprisingly, MySpace is still on top, with a 24% increase since September, 2006, while Facebook sidled up again in the number 2 spot, still gaining on MySpace with a 133% increase. This rate of increase is higher for both MySpace and Facebook, which were at 23% and 117% for the month of August, 2007.

The rest of the top 10 social networking sites remained about the same, with AOL Hometown and People Connection being the only networks to see a decline in traffic since last year. AOL’s troubles are reflected in its massive layoffs and drastic changes being made at the company as it shifts into an ad-supported model.

A recent study by Nielsen shows in interesting correlation for users that have profiles on both MySpace and Facebook, indicating that these users will spend more time on each site, than those with profiles on either one or the other. In other Nielsen news, the company has recently launched two new features, Nielsen Online and Mobile, for additional metrics tools.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Emarketer *)

Kids and marketers enter pixellated space.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Jordan Chark *)

Avatar creator Meez is back in the news this week, but there are dozens more avatar creation tools gunning for this market. Today we attempt an overview of that market: please add more suggestions in the comment section.

Weblin- Create an avatar and use it as your virtual self within web pages in real-time, interacting with other Weblin users who share the same interests.

Meez.com- Create a 3D animated avatar for export directly to most web profiles, blogs, etc.

Second Life- Use this extremely popular virtual world to do just about anything, but first, you have to create your avatar. Here, avatars can be customized almost entirely, with plenty of room to create a most accurate likeness of yourself.

Mypictr- Use any image and resize, crop, customize, and export it to many other web 2.0 social networking sites and profiles, like Facebook, and Digg.

Gizmoz- Create, animate, and share photorealistic, great looking avatars, and even video clips featuring them. The animation and overall look of the avatar is sourced from a real picture, actually ending up almost like a personal CGI generator.

Mii Editor- Create your own “Mii”, the avatars characteristic of the Nintendo Wii.

Simpsons Avatar Maker- “Simpsonize yourself” by creating an avatar in the classic style of the Simpsons.

Gickr- Instantaneously create an animate gif file by either uploading your own pictures, or sourcing from Flickr.

Gravatar- Create an 80×80 pixel avatar by uploading an image which is then associated with your email address, appearing on Gravatar enabled websites and blogs without additional effort.

IMVU- Create and dress up your personal avatar which can then be used in their virtual chat-rooms or with their visual messenger client.

fix8- Create, animate, and dress up your avatar primarily through interfacing with your webcam in order to capture real movement and look.

Zwinky- Customize your personal cartoon avatar and share it across the web.

Digibody’s Caricature Maker- Use the components of a caricature to create your unique caricature avatar.

Faketown- A pixel-art, avatar based, MMORPG, similar to second life, but much less realistically.

DoppelMe- Simply assemble an apparently “hand drawn” avatar image for use anywhere.

SitePal- A pay-based 3D, animated avatar creation service aimed towards business looking to create a personal presence on their website.

Gaia- Another avatar-based MMORPG, this one, anime-styled.

imbee- The social network for young people includes an avatar creator featuring images of animals from the National Geographic Kids library.

Myrl- A social network based on avatars in the “metaverse”, supposedly using avatars to connect with the web by virtue of collaboration. Close to it’s beta launch, this definitely looks like something to keep an eye out for.

Kaneva- Yet another avatar-based virtual world, Kaneva looks like a valid Second Life alternative.

Blogscoped- Chat with others in this virtual, visual, chatroom, which makes efficient use of user avatars. While it may not appear to be that “web 2.0″ it uses PHP, MySQL, Ajax, and the Google API, which effectively categorize it as so.

MojiKan- A somewhat odd MMORPG for customizable 3D pet avatars.

Frenzoo- Customize and use one of their well-designed avatars in chats as well as a variety of other environments.

Clickbeurs (Dutch)- Create an avatar and apply for a job through virtually chatting with potential employers, a somewhat odd idea.

Mr. Picassohead- Create stunning, Picasso-like paintings which are easily transformed into avatars.

Whyrobbierocks- Create a “stereotypical” avatar for use on various social networking sites, IMs, etc.

Weeworld- Interact with some quite uniquely designed avatars in a virtual world primarily based on chats and mini-games.

Voki- Create an avatar, record your voice, and share. A possible alternative to something like Sitepal, but geared more towards a less-business-oriented audience.

Honorable Mention

While all of the sites (except for a couple, added for their significantly customizable avatars and creation engines) above are primarily based upon the principle of avatar creation and customization, I’d like to quickly mention the importance of your “avatar”, or probably more aptly named character in many popular MMORPGs. The likes of which are probably most easily recognized in games like World of Warcraft.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : Fred Cavazza *)

Virtual universes are hype, that’s a sure bet. With very strong media coverage for universes like Second Life or World of Warcraft, announcers and users are discovering new spaces for playing, communicating, entertaining and even working which are in complete rupture with 2D spaces they already know.

Complete rupture? No, not exactly since most of these universes are evolution from existing services (chats, social networks, maps…). All these virtual universes bring some oxygen to sometimes unappealing concepts by providing new possibilities. But with new opportunities comes a lot of covetousness and build a very competitive environment inside which the most media covered are not the most interesting.

Did you know it?

• There are more than 150 millions of Neopets‘ users which have already created more than 217 millions of accounts (you can count again, that’s more than MySpace)
• KartRider and QQ are social platforms which generated nearly $100M in quarterly earnings (it’s quarterly earnings, not annual turnover)
• There was $1 Billion Invested in Virtual Worlds in the Last Year (again, it’s $1 billion, not $1 million)

Do these figures astonish you? Well… so they did to me! But they are real.

Four main fields

Comparing all these universes won’t make any sense. First of all because they are very different and then because they target very different audience. But if you REALLY need a comparison, then you can have a look at these two (partial) comparison charts: Virtual Worlds Comparison Chart, Casual Immersive Worlds and Virtual Worlds Platforms and User Numbers.

Let me introduce you to these universes by using a map where I positioned most of them. All of these are not vast virtual world like Second Life, but they all share common characteristics: avatars, virtual currency and virtual places where avatars can meet, chat, play and interact.

This map is divided in 4 main fields:

• Social, with universe revolving around community building
• Games, with universes relying on online games
• Entertainment, where music, videos and films related content
• Business, where selling or exchanging goods is the main motivator for users and with enterprise applications (virtual training, serious games…)

Please not that these fields overlap themselves:

A wide typology of uages

You can find on this map various groups which are related to specific usage:

• 2.5 & 3D Chats, which are an evolution to instant messaging services but with a much stronger immersion (IMVU, Taatu, Citypixel, Faketown…)
• Avatar-centric, where avatars are at the center of interactions and functionalities (Neopets, Club Penguin, Stardoll, Virtual MTV…)
• Social Platforms, universes which inherits from social networks and sharing platforms while adding some avatar management and online games (Habbo, Cyworld, QQ, Gaia, Playdo…)
• Branded Universes, which propose a total immersion inside the brand’s graphical universe and products range (Barbie Girls, Pepsi Town, MyCoke, ToonTown, T-Works, Home…)
• Virtual Worlds, where users experience nearly total freedom of action (Second Life, HiPiHi, There, Entropia Universe…)
• MOG, online gaming platforms relying on casual games for developing sociabilization (KartRider, PuzzlePirates, MapleStory…)
• MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games which requires a stronger social involvement (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Dofus, RuneScape, Lineage II…)
• Online Sport Games, based on collective or individual sports (Football Superstars, Online Soccer Manager, Fishing Champ, Ultimate Baseball Online…)
• Adult Games, money games targeted at adults (PKR, Cameo Casino…)
• Virtual Sex, 3D dating spaces (Red Light Center, Virtual Ibiza, Naughty America…)
• Virtual City Guides, which are natural evolutions of local and mapping services (Google Earth, UpNext…)
• Serious Games, which are deploy inside enterprise to build 3D collaborative spaces, virtual training classes and augmented meeting rooms (Innov8, MPK20, Quaq…)
• World Generators, which allows 3D world creation (Active Worlds, Multiverse, Metaplace…)

Obviously, all these universes are not at the same maturity level: some are approaching the final stage of their life cycle (like Everquest), some others are crossing a turbulence area (Yankee Group Says Hype of Second Life Far Outweighs Its Ability to Impact Mainstream Interactivity), others are growing very fast (Gaia Online) and some are repositioning themselves (like IMVU which is morphing into a social network and Entropia Universe which will try to compete with video games).

A nearly saturated market?

With more than 150 active or soon-to-be-launched virtual universes, accept some numerous take over and disappearances. In this profusion, which universe is the right one? Its’ a hard guess since only two audience niches are sharply targeted: teen and adults (Virtual Worlds Are Trendy Spot for Kids and Teens).

It took 10 years to structure the internet media landscape and provide announcers with reliable communication tools (adwords, adsens…) and measure tools. How long will it takes with the virtual universes media landscape? Who will master advertising inside these new territories / markets? Is co-creation a reality? So many questions… which will find answers in the next months. Stay tuned.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)