Luis Sandoval is a Media Strategist and Founder of Advantj Media based out of San Antonio, Texas. He writes on topics related to media and technology for a variety of sites around the web and publications.
Blellow burst onto the scene a few months ago, and after winning a few awards paired with an explosive launch at SXSW, the social networking site is experiencing explosive growth. For any self starters, entrepreneur, freelancer, or contract worker, this network has been the hub for meeting new people, finding job leads, and joining project teams seeking specific talents. Companies are welcome to also post their job listings for a reduced nominal fee to attract some highly talented professionals.
The unique name is an extension of its unique community. Putting together some of the best aspects of popular social networking sites, it fosters creativity, innovation, and looks to be the dominant force in finding work for the self starters around the world. While Elance and Odesk serve as bidding job boards, Blellow looks to use its extensive network to rely on recommendations and friendly introductions to new people to pair people with the right project.
If you’re looking to expand your contacts, find unique job postings, and converse with people in a specific industry or topic, then Blellow is the place to network!
With updates to Flock, Firefox, Opera, and even IE, browsers are becoming key factors in how we choose to integrate our online experiences with our daily lives. Each of the above mentioned browsers have key factors that stand out and make them useful to someone, all depending on our tastes. What if you could find a search engine that learned, adapted, and showed you extra content that you would not have found otherwise?
Worio is the social search that has somehow found a way to intelligently learn from your search habits and adapt itself to your likes and dislikes. Worio creator Ali Davar focuses on the search as a form of discovery. He comments that Worio will show you things that you perhaps never even thought of, but are related to your initial search.
The idea of discovery is key to Worio, and information is collected and saved on your habits. The mechanism can be turned off and it will simply function like any other search engine, but the uniqueness also comes in being able to share your favorite links and sites right from the search, without having to rely on social bookmarketing efforts or emailing people. Anyone within your network can see your habits and you can see theirs. Taking this concept a step further, Worio now supports Facebook connect. Now you can directly share your passion, your searches with friends in Facebook and open people up to a whole new world of discovery.
The search looks very promising and has a bright future, we’d love to hear what you think.
Video conferencing used to be a tech heavy, equipment demanding effort that was unheard of for the common person at home. Nowadays with the bevy of online tools available, video conference is accessible to just about anyone with a desktop/laptop and a webcam. TinyChat helps to facilitate such an opportunity by allowing several people to join a video chat room at once, much like a group IM, only this time you can see everyone!
TinyChat recently did a massive update that propels this online application into the forefront of the video chat options. This past weekend they released not just an updated product, but a new site that really highlights their offerings and the creativity of the team behind it. Looking under the hood first, here’s what we find with the update:
New design for main page / Chat pages
“On Focus” Support will alert you of new messages via flashing title and a sound (optional) if the tab or window doesnt have focus.
More intuitive private messaging system
Ability to join a chat with pidgin / Trillian / Any Jabber client – We also have a IRC -> Jabber Proxy in place
Tons of bug fixes, Scalability tweaks and other stuff you wont notice.
Proper Embed system allowing you to make a room to host on your site
Moderation system, so you can kick and ban bad users
This most certainly makes the service that much more attractive to the already booming user base it has established. Their understanding of the social space is also helping them develop strong ties to their expanding community, listening to the request being made by their supporters. Already in the plans for the next update are things such as country flags associated with the user, private messages via command, recording playback, and the ability to boot people from the chat that are not participating effectively.
There is no doubt that TinyChat is going to experience continued growth and their site welcomes its users and new members alike to interact with them. This easy and free to use application is a must have for anyone who continues to have group chat via IM, and does not want to pay for an account with Skype. With the added benefit of embedding it into your site and sharing it across various social networks, this is definitely an option for the vid-curious.
Do you ever wish you could DJ some of the hottest clubs from around the world? Spinning tracks and creating beats that livened up the party and got the people dancing? Not all of us have that opportunity to be an infamous DJ, but thanks to Grammy-nominated artist, DJ, and label owner, Paul van Dyk, his mobile application can put you on a global stage to make your own hot tracks.
There is no doubt that van Dyk is one of the hottest DJ’s around, appearing on Top 10 lists, featured in some of the biggest music publications, and with popularity the world over. His new iPhone/iTouch app gives you the controls that he uses to make your music on the go. Paul van Dyk’s specially created application by Zip Design, developed by Yuza Mobile will appeal to fans, music enthusiasts and professional DJs alike, featuring a BPM Counter, Frequency Analyser, Decibel Meter, Seismic Reader, Virtual Glow Stick, DJ Check List and an Itinerary Manager. This is no doubt the biggest iPhone app for DJ’s, artists, and music enthusiasts to hit the market, and with over 1 Billion apps already sold in the iPhone App Store, there is definitely going to be increasing demand for this product.
“I have had great fun being a part of the development team for my app over the past few months and think that both aspiring and professional DJs will have great fun using it. On a practical level, it includes everything that a DJ needs.”
(Paul van Dyk)
Watch Paul van Dyk’s introduction to the app here:
For those of us that have had to make PowerPoint presentations time and time again, using the same templates over and over again, it becomes increasingly frustrating because you think there is only so much youc an do. Well luckily, with some savvy searching, and perhaps a little creativity on your end, Powerpoint can become something new, thanks to the bevy of templates on TemplatesWise.com.
Powerpoint presentations can get a fresh face lift with these new, unique backgrounds that can ressurect the drab into the fab. By what I can tell, this site has hundreds upon hundreds of new templates for you to use, that are easy to find based on their categories. You can preview them, and download the ones you like. They also include packs for charts and graphis, looped music, and other creative for your presentations that will keep your presentation visually attractive while you share the important information.
I’ve used this site for a few public speaking engagements already, I’ve been very impressed with it, and I recommend you give it a try. As PowerPoint has gotten on in age, it’s nice to see creative sites like this offering the facelift that it has so badly needed.
PayPal seems to have established itself as the premier method for online payments. I have a paypal account which I use on a regular basis myself, but the process can actually complicate even the simplest of situations. In some cases PayPal seems a bit overkill when something easier could be used. This is where Paystr comes into play.
The online application allows you to set up your own web page for collections purposes. The customization far outweighs the impersonal requests that PayPal creates, with the invoices they allow you to create. Instead Paystr really want you to customize your efforts and your attempts to collect funds for a variety of things. The site declares that its services are great for parties, events, games, gifts or whatever it might be you are collecting for.The focus of Paystr is for the user to focus more on the actual project and less time on the actual collections.
The site is free, creating an account is easy, but standard “PayPal” fees apply. The online site accepts credit cards also, to make it easier for you to collect your funds ahead of time. You can set up multiple payment methods and multiple levels of products or services giving your audience options, ease of use, and safety of knowing their payments are secure.
Grooveshark is an application that was reviewed here on Crenk sometime ago. At the time, I didn’t see the relevance of
Grooveshark awarded CNET's Top 100 Webware Award
the application, though it had some good aspects, I just did not feel comfortable with the entire package. It was not long after that post that officials from Grooveshark contacted me for a dialogue encouraging me to take a look at the offerings again, highlighting features I had not really seen the first time around. In the year that I’ve had with Grooveshark, I’m impressed with the continued efforts it’s making to establish itself as a viable music service for users.
CNET was obviously impressed enough to award it the 2009 Webware Winner for Audio and Music. Grooveshark has indeed come a long way and its user base has grown significantly. With this announcement comes features that again make Grooveshark heads above the rest. For starters their partnership with Ping.fm to build Tinysong API, which allows users to take the code and develop webapps that provide access to Groovesharks extensive library of music. It will be interesting to see what developers come up with as we’ve seen with various other online applications, the opening of the API makes it easy for supplementary apps to proliferate the net.
The second feature that was announced deals specifically with the blogging community. Grooveshark has announced that is now has a Wordpress plugin that allows integration into blog posts for users to set up their favorite songs for specific posts. You can set up just one song, or a playlist of songs for your readers on your site. An interesting option, at the very least you could create a small station of songs on your, possibly with a widget.
Grooveshark is definitely expanding its platform and appeal, and it should be interesting to see how much further they go in 2009!
It’s likely that a lot of us have moved towards cloud computing for storage of our files.
Documents, spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, a lot of these creations are now held in applications like Google Documents, Zoho Writer, or even placed in an application like Drop Box. This transition has left a great many of our thumb drives collecting dust on our desks, or lost in a drawer.
Portable Apps is just one way to bring life to your thumb drive, especially if you like your applications set up a certain way and you’re moving from computer to computer throughout your day. Portable Apps allows you to bring applications such as video viewers, word applications, browsers set up to your liking with your bookmarks, games, and other productivity applications that you may want to carry with you as opposed to having to start from the ground up as you change computers.
Portable virus scanners, portable zip applications, portable image editing software, and even portable coding applications allow a user to increase their productivity as a professional without the fear of downloading software onto another computer, especially if it’s forbidden in areas such as your work computer or a library setting.
Portable Apps promotes itself as “Convenient, Open, and Free.” Your entire life can be portable and your experience can remain the same no matter what computer you are on. Give it a try, dust those thumb drives off and never worry if a computer has the applications you need or if there is a compatibility issue.
In less than a year, Zemanta has made a name for itself in the blogosphere. By becoming the premier add-on to the FireFox browser, bloggers now had access to an amazing set of tools to provide further depth to their posts. With hundreds of thousands of downloads, it seemed like a surefire winner, and there was little doubt that Zemanta has room to expand, but where and when?
Zemanta late last year supported another FireFox add-on called ScribeFire, a simple blogging tool that opened up in your browser without having to log into any other site or leave the page you are on. This allowed for amazingly quick posting to the blog of your choice, but also provided the same depth that you had available to you from within most popular blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad.
Recently it was announced that Zemanta has made another move towards mass market exposure, it has integrated with Gmail and Yahoo Mail, offering users of those mail clients the ability to attached related articles, pictures, and keywords to their emails that the recipients might need to fully understand the topic. I personally can’t imagine a better mass exposure opportunity than attaching yourself to two of the largest mail clients on the internet today.
Zemanta is a key tool that I recommend all bloggers install, but now with mail enhancements, I’m happy to see them growing. I’ve always been a big supporter of their efforts as it’s nice to see innovative ways to breathe life into a long standing medium like blogging.
It’s apparent that Zemanta will continue to offer what it always has; by offering photo suggestions, article suggestions, and keyword suggestions, as you type, updating every 300 words, there is bound to be another leap into further integration.
Perhaps a jump into an office platform for document and presentation creation, like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Only time will tell!
Often, users of Digg comment how they enjoy some of the content, but that readers notice that the same individuals get their
HYPick Logo
stories on the front page time and time again. Users that try their hardest to get their stories on the front page fail more often than not, leaving many to wonder if the site is truly leveraging the wisdom of the crowds or if the system is being gamed.
I won’t get into that discussion, you can find plenty of content on that if you search. What I do want to focus on is an alternative to the Digg’s, Reddits, and other supposed community news sites. Enter HYPick, from the creative mind of social media strategist, Oren Todoros. His vision of truly representing the wide swath of internet users is visualized with this social news site that heavily encourages it’s users to HYPE their favorite stories and articles.
On HYPick there’s no specialized voting system, or fancy magic attached to stories, it’s purely at the mercy of the community. Articles with the most activity are ranked higher. So as users come and go, read and comment, links and pass on, the article gains momentum as something the community feels should be read by others.
No good vote, bad vote system, just real people participation!
There is no doubt that the passions of the community will have a voice. Many would call this a level playing field, that will remain to be seen. For now the HYPick community is alive and well and already gaining momentum.
The Purpose
Putting power into the hands of the users has been what most community news sites have been after. Accomplishment is iffy at best, but no one can deny the current reign of those sites that have dominated this arena for several years. HYPick’s unique approach will truly test the vision that Oren and his team have put together.
In order to make HYPick the next attractive playground for user submitted news stories, they have integrated two HYPick specialized widgets for their users.
The first:
HYPick Reader
The reader widget which can be placed on the right side of your site. It provides easy access for your readers to see what is being ranked and spoken about on HYPick, but also gives you the ability to quickly jump to the post of interest.
I can even appreciate how the posts can also show imagery when they appear on this list. HYPick did a great job with this widget ensuring that users of their service will always have instant connectivity to the happenings in the community. Detail wise I’m not too sure if there are limitations to the articles listed on this widget, whether they are selected as highly ranked posts rated by the community, or if any post that is put to the community is automatically listed here. Still, HYPick wants to make sure that the community is always involved.
Of note the widget is customizeable to a point, but again, it shows HYPicks dedication to the opinion of its readers!
The second HYPick add-on is this:
HYPick Website Button
In it’s continued effort to ensure that readers and users alike are constantly connected to the community, you can integrate the HYPick icon onto your site, similar to what Digg and Reddit due with their icons. This will notify readers that your post can be placed on the community site for involvement by all. The icon is set up to be unobtrusive yet functional in its duty.
Overall the entire system seems pretty sound. It’s a new playing in the user submitted news community, but it also provides a platform for those that are frustrated about their lack of appearance on the front page of some of the major players. Now I can’t personally vouch for these individuals, I don’t know what their content is, but HYPick seems to be an open forum for a wide variety of possibilities in the news community. I look forward to seeing what this player can do!
In the words of John Cougar Mellencamp, both the commerical for Microsoft Songsmith and the number of parody tunes that have been released “hurt so good.”
The Songsmith commercial caused a ripple of laughter when the painful commercial made its rounds on the internet. Viewers lamented on the lack of acting as well as the blatent use of an Apple laptop throughout the entire promotion. You can vew the entire promotion here.
Recently, several Songsmith parodies of popular songs have been released using the Songsmith application.Both TechCrunch and This Week in Tech (TWiT) covered these interesting adaptions that almost appear to come from a bizarro world.
Here is “Roxanne” by The Police via Songsmith.
If you’d like to see other tunes mutilated by this Microsoft inception, visit the the article posted over on TechCrunch. Prepare to laugh, cry, or a mixture of both!
Netbooks have hit the scene and it’s all the rage. Is this a fad? Many report that netbooks do not offer the same experience as a full sized laptop and has sub par hardware. With a price tag under $500, I think most users understand what they are getting when they get the product.
I’m actually in the market for a netbook myself, looking at the MSI Wind, but as I research the various types of netbooks, it’s interesting to see an OS built specifically for a netbook.
Introducing Jolicloud, a Linux-based operating system being created by Netvibes founder Tarig Krim. This screenshot shows the merging of desktop and cloud applicatons with icons that are easily recognizable for users. Future updates will include a touchscreen that users can interact with, especially considering the smaller size of the screens.
I look forward to the release of this OS and hopefully have a review posted.
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