Crenk

By: Luis Sandoval

Personalized homepage apps are amazingly abundant and all are easily customizable and easy to use. It’s an amazing concept, being able to have access to information, news, photos, and your daily to-do list from practically anywhere in the world.

Netvibes is one of these applications that allows you to set up your homepage to your liking. Those familiar with Google’s iGoogle will recognize Netvibes for what it is. Though I do find Netvibes to be aesthetically more appealing with it’s rich dark tones, and the text stands out from the background making it easier to read.

So let’s look under the hood and see what Netvibes really provides:

Interface Design: Sleek and visually appealing. Everything I need to set up my personalized homepage is easily identifiable and laid out where I would expect the options to be. The surface for your widgets is substantial and even they have their own colorful flair to distinguish them from their brethren.  What I especially like is the middle bar for settings does not take you to a new page, but instead slides out a menu where you can make adjustments on the fly without ever leaving your page. This is something that iGoogle lacks. You can delete widgets in iGoogle, but if you want to play with settings you typically have to leave the page to set them.

Widget Options: Definitely not a problem in this department either. The windows for the widgets are sizable, crystal clear, and very colorful. I honestly found more useful widgets for Netvibes then I did on iGoogle, but that could just be a matter of preference. Everyone’s tastes are different, so perhaps for you, the widgets you want are not available. Still, I went through most of the entire catalog and cannot imagine how someone would not find what they are looking for. The widgets move about the interface with just a drag and drop ability. As you move them the rest of the widgets move and adjust accordingly, again, similar to iGoogle’s design.

Social Aspect: This is where Netvibes sets itself apart. With the online community congregating around social networks, Netvibes stands heads taller above the rest by integrating several popular social networking sites into it’s search engine to find other friends that use their service. This creates a community where you can share directly with others, and even include your friend’s front page on your page. The idea was pretty amazing, and the concept very original. Unlike other spaces where you have to pick and choose what you want to share, and then have to go through permissions drama, Netvibes makes sharing easy and even fun.

Regarding the social aspect, the “Universe” ideas is simply awesome! Now the pages you put together can be published through Netvibes and pushed out into the internet community for others to view and interact with as well. Your pages might give you some popularity among certain circles and now your friend count through Netvibes will naturally increase. A very interesting way to meet someone, via their Netvibes page.

Overall Netvibes is definitely a recommendation for those that look to increase their social activity online, meet new people to share new things with, and be a part of something bigger than their normal online experience. If you prefer just straight up information with no community because of lack of time or interest, stick with sites like iGoogle, their app is just as easy to use and provides a more simplified experience.

By: Luis Sandoval

Blog Catalog is a blogger friendly cataloging site. What does this mean? Avoid the spam, avoid the distractions, and focus on marketing your blog and connecting with other bloggers in one of the most well put together communities I’ve seen for bloggers.

Becoming a member is easy, if you actually have a blog, and not an agenda to market your spam across the net. There is an actual waiting process from your submission because your site is viewed by a real human being who determines whether your site is legit or not. This cuts down on the “net trash” that tends to propagate across sites like these. It took a day for mine to be accepted, but the return email was a warm and caring invite welcoming me to the community and sharing with me the possibilities of being a part of their community.

Once you’ve been accepted you’re able to access all of Blog Catalog’s features including the discussion forums, joining neighborhoods, adding individual users to your friend list and exploring other sites.

I was amazed at how quickly this community grew, and while I’m new to the site (about 2 months) I’ve experienced great relationship building in the forums, and have seen increased traffic to my own site due to the camaraderie you are encouraged to build through Blog Catalog.

What makes this site a treat as well is the ease of navigation. There is little confusion on this site, and you get what you need when you need it.

A new addition to Blog Catalog’s services is an area where you can focus your discussion on Politics. Blogs, ideas, and people related to politics are gathered in this new forum to hopefully have a voice that drives change. This social experiment is a step in the right direction, and hopefully other topic dedicated areas open for the greater good of the community.

I actually live in the same city where Blog Catalog is headquartered and I am amazed at how open and friendly they are. Already I have seen one of the founders actively engaged in the community by doing guest speaking engagements and being a part of the Meetup.com experience. A company like Blog Catalog definitely understand what it means to be social, and looks towards the community to help pave it’s future.

Overall Blog Catalog is worth joining, and definitely worth building a community of followers on. Like anything else, it’s only as useful as the user makes it.

By: Luis Sandoval

Not a Final Cut Pro guru? How about iMovie for the Mac users out there, you a pro on that app? Some people look at putting movies together and just throw their hands up because the difficulty can vary depending on the program of your choice.

Now imagine a site that will simply look at either your MyPhotos folder or photo site of your choice (Flickr, Picasa, etc) and upload the photos you select. Take that a step further and imagine the same app looking through your music folder or having the choice of their own selections to include in your video. Animoto is that application, and it is an amazing app. The ability to create a video with no editing, quick clicks, and short upload times make this a must see and must have application for any user, pro or novice.

By letting Animoto upload photos and music of your choice, it then compiles all your selections, adds transitions, and WA-LA you’ve got yourself a little video that looks like you spent hours working on. It even adds a little MTV-ish like music info in the bottom left hand corner giving the title of the song and the producer’s name.

With the options of making a quick vidoe or long video, how can this be wrong? Word of caution, if you want the longer music video creations you do have to pay into it. The longer video option is great for creating family photo videos, or perhaps you’d like to put a wedding video together to capture the moment, or a wedding anniversary, birthday event, or any other holiday you can think of.

Animoto is still in beta but looks to truly be the end of boring slideshows. Sign up for an account right now and be ready for some real creative fun!

I’m adding my own personal short video of my kids for you to see, and then head on over to Animoto and let the fun begin!

By: Luis Sandoval

RSS, seems like that is the new mainstream on how everyone gets their information. You can have RSS feeds go to your email, your blog, you mobile devices, and even use an aggregater to capture all your feeds. With sites like Reddit and Digg , one would have to question if there is more you can do with feeds…the answer is yes.

Now honestly at first glance RSSMeme does not stand out, as a matter of fact it looks boring and not as easy to understand. But the question becomes, did you come for information or did you come to see something pretty? We all know that answer. Like Reddit and Digg, RSSMeme offers a ton of news bits lined up in the order they were voted upon and posted. You get everything you need without all the extra frills, and you get functionality that I found to be very useful.

For starters you get the article, who it was posted by, from what site it was posted on, and the time it was posted. All standard fare, but below it is where you get the extra metrics you don’t get from other sites. You get a list of everyone who is sharing it, what other communities have tagged along with how many times. Definitely worthwhile if you want to know whether a post is worth reading or not, and just how popular it is on the internet.

The selections above for “now” posts, “daily” posts, “this week” posts, and “all time” posts is a very nice addition to break up the articles into sizable chunks that are digestible for the reader. Your ability to customize and personalize the feeds is the best feature for this site. I can pick and choose which feeds make it through to the site, kinda like filtering your email, making sure only the most important and interesting rise to the top. The ability to have your feeds and your community’s feeds added to your Friendfeed is another awesome addition.

RSSMeme seems much more versatile then either Reddit and Digg. Though they may have “prettier” interfaces, and their communities are larger, I say give RSSMeme a try and play around with the customization, it seems like it has a lot to offer for those that stick around and explore!

By: Luis Sandoval

Amidst the myriad of online music options such as Last.fm and Pandora, Grooveshark has come into play as a more social networked option of the previous two. While this is a great way to connect like minded listeners via their music selections, the product could still use some major adjustments.

I’d like to start with installation. Like Last.fm, Grooveshark has an executable file which taps into your system to install an application. Groovesharks download is called Sharkbyte, and essentially attempt to connected with other media folders to extend your sharing options via the music you already have on your computer, for example in the iTunes folder. Once you’ve selected what you want to share you’re off to their website. I personally selected nothing since I do not like applications sharing anything that I currently have on my computer, feels too invasive.

As a user I was overwhelmed with the options the website offered. I felt the design was not fluid, and options were not clearly labeled as to their uses. While it seems like the site is very informative, for a first time user it’s crowded and hard to follow. What I found fascinating with Pandora is the ability to surf the options without ever leaving the main page where the music is playing; and when you did have to open a new page, it opens as a new tab in the browser for ease of use. I got lost too often on Grooveshark’s site. In an attempt to salvage my online experience I clicked on their FAQ’s and became frustrated when there was not sufficient coverage for my question to warrant even a click.

Now for the meat of the site, the music. From what I was able to see, the music options seem aplenty, and the created music playlists are very helpful. I enjoyed the fact that you could take existing playlists and make your own playlists by selecting only the songs you want. Creating playlists was fun, and the instant option to purchase is always good to have right at your fingertips. The quality of the music was clear, the player was a little awkward, but once you set the music to play, I overlooked the player. When the first song completed a major flaw came to light, it did not go onto the next track. I attempted several times to see if I could play entire playlists to no avail. One song? I only get the pleasure of listening to one song at a time? No thank you!

Grooveshark truly has a lot of potential, and of all the music networks I am on, this was definitely the most social. You can add friends who have similar interests in music, chat with them, drag and drop songs to share, broadcast your playlist onto Twitter and Pownce so your friends know what you are listening to. This could be an amazing social music network if only the rest of the site was not so frustrating.

Luckily this site is still in beta, so there’s hope. What are my suggestions to Grooveshark? Drop the install app, I don’t know many that want to openly share their library. Is sharing our playlists and favorite songs through the site not enough? Streamline the design of the site, make it intuitive, think of a first time user as opposed to someone who is familiar with Groovesharks offerings. Finally, let the music play. Let entire playlists play and use the site’s music engine to match new music onto our playlists to expose us to new groups. That is a way to grow a community; that is an excellent way to expand a listeners horizons.

This is a guest post from Ashraf Mansoor who is the founder of Twffaha.com, a job site intended for women in the Middle East.

Not A Luxury

Everyday we run into hundreds of web applications, be it clones for already successful businesses (Mixx to Digg) or original creative ideas. The potential of growth on the web is overwhelming, that’s why a lot of entrepreneurs seek to involve in creating startups, with the hope of being the next Google.

However, most startups fail to develop there ideas into cash generating machines. The reason is because of the lack of a solid, rational, business model. Startups and entrepreneurs get consumed by there ideas and hopes that they overlook the economical feasibility of their projects.

Startups should be profitable in order to guarantee it does not cease to exist. Even a VC backed startup will be under fire if it failed to turn a profit and award the VCs with a feasible rate of return on their original investment ( anyone?)

Plan Early

As an entrepreneur it is your job to plan a solid business model at the early stage of your project. Building an application and hoping to come up with a business model later is not a smart move to make. YouTube has been a great success, and revolutionized the way we think about the web, but in reality YouTube failed to cash on there huge traffic (#3 in the US according to Alexa) because of the absence of a business model initially, leaving Google to experiment with different business models that all but failed to reduce the search giant hefty bill of costs.

Size Does Not Matter

Once you have an idea that you believe can help you to generate money, study the business model. Services like 37Signals have done their homework early, and came up with a subscription based model that helped them to be profitable from day one. The fact that 37Signals is very small when compared to YouTube is insignificant, as long as they turn a profit and a very good one too.

Final Thoughts

1. Do not leave it till the end.

2. Do not depend on being acquired. The chances of you being acquired is slim, plus giants will look to acquire startups they know are profitable.

3. Conduct a market research to ensure that your figures are realistic.

4. Do not hesitate to change your business model, in case you found a more lucrative model - be flexible.