Crenk » Social Media

Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:53:50 +0000

Heard of Twitter? Sure the whole world has by now. Lone tribes on far islands have heard about Twitter. This massively immersive and widely used micro-blogging network has become a staple for both our personal and professional lives. The world seems to still be feeling the “Twitter effect” as industries adapt their existing messages to fit the fast paced world of this social network.

But do you ever feel like you’re being left behind? Perhaps not enough time to get the right message in a timely fashion? Now there’s a solution to that.

Twuffer presents itself as the buffer between you and your timed messages. By using the web application, you are able to preset messages on a timed schedule to be released on your network at the times you think most important. The possibilities of this type of functionality are as endless as your creativity.

The web app is easy to use and can serve you to better time your announcements, set reminders for yourself or others, engage in timed online activities, or, as the site suggests, make it appear as if you never sleep. The practicality of this app seems pretty straightforward.

The application is currently in beta, but your able to explore what it has to offer pretty seamlessly. I suggest you give it a try to announce regular days when your podcast or blog post will go live, or perhaps some other similar campaign to see if Twuffer is right for you!

Digg Launches Trends. See What Are The Hot Topics on Digg

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:35:04 +0000

Twitter’s Trending Topics is a great way to see what’s buzzing, what’s going one and what’s happening in the world. Often, big stoies are made publicaly aware on Twitter trends before they hit mainstream news. Several times I’ve watched BBC World News when the presenter used Twitter trends as a source.

Now Digg are launching a new trends experiment which will follow in the footsteps of Twitter. However it’s not just a carbon copy.

The trends feature will display stories that people are digging fast but only recently. The idea is to catch big stories in their initial phases before they hit mainstream media.

Here is what the official Digg blog reads about the new experiment:

Because there’s so much that happens beneath the surface of Digg, we’ve been working on new ways to expose the most interesting stories to more people. Today we’re launching a new homepage voting experiment called Digg Trends which will surface certain highly active stories as they’re trending to Digg’s homepage so people can vote on whether or not they feel the story actually belongs there.

How does it work? Digg Trends identifies and highlights upcoming stories that have a high volume of activity (think Diggs, comments, favorites, shares, etc.). When we detect a new trending story, it will appear on the homepage for ten minutes. Based on the Digg and bury activity in those ten minutes the story will either become popular or not. To make it easy to follow the action, we’ve setup a Twitter account to tweet out when a new Digg Trend is up for voting on the homepage. Here’s an example of what a Digg Trend might look like:

The goal of Digg Trends is to put high activity stories in front of the community quickly and to present a fun new way for people to express whether they like the story or not. We only show the most basic information for each story so as to ensure that voting is as unbiased as possible.

Social Networking with 6rounds Expands Online Community

Luis Sandoval — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:02:37 +0000

Social networks as they exist depend on the number of friends you start off with and thus you expand your network based on your existing network and grow from there. For many, not having an online presence makes it heard to start a social network when there is no online network to utilize to start. For many this can be frustrating and for many becomes the reason why they do not adopt the social scene. What if there was simply a network that didn’t rely on existing friendships and paired you with new people based on your profile to participate in unique shared experiences?

6Rounds is the answer and the unique network is sure to make a splash in the world of social engagement.

The network itself is designed to be a fully interactive experience incorporating the best of micro-messaging and video networks. There’s now a space for those not interested in hosting entire video shows, or who lack friends to build on a social profile on Facebook or Twitter.

6Rounds functions as a completely unique and diverse network that no user will get the same experience from their engagement. The network allows users to come together in a “live” setting where they will be challenged with “using a combination of webcams, real-time games, social activities and media engagements, we present a wide range of opportunities: from watching videos, playing real-time games, listening to music, Facebooking and Youtubing, to shopping together and beyond,” says the site.This sound a little like speed dating with the entertainment provided, and none of the relationship awkwardness attached. I can see how this would be appealing to both veteran and new entry supporters of social engagement.

The network is free and looks to combine the best of social networking, instant messaging, and video content to create an ever changing user experience.

Social Media Revolution

Augusto Alvarez — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:07:11 +0000

How much is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google involved in your common day activities? Did you ever ask yourself that? Where would you be if those didn’t exist?

Well there thousands of those existential questions that you may or may not asked yourself, and there’s no need to get real philosophical about this, but we sure can be certain that those technologies, web apps and more have an important presence in most of our days.

About those presences, here’s a very interesting video about the facts of several of these social tools, technologies and media: “Social Media Revolution”

Here are some of the facts that caught my attention:

Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web
1 of 8 couples married in the US met via social media
If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest
TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users, Facebook took less than 9 months to reach 100 millions
Ashton Kutcher has more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway and Panama
80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices
Wikipedia has over 13 million articles
80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
35% of books sales on Amazon are for Kindle

“Social media isn’t a fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate”

27 Circular Social Media Icons in 3 Sizes

Steven Finch — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:37:03 +0000

I have been after some great social media icons for a long time and I have finally come across a great set. All icons are circular and of the highest quality. Icons include AIM, Bebo, eBay, Hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Windows Live, Ning, Orkut, Twitter and more.

Download: Social Media Icons Pack 2.0 (.rar), Social Media Icons Pack 2.0 (.zip)

Facebook Reaches Quarter of a Billion

Dean — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:01:09 +0000

Its official, Facebook, the social network that started out as a noting based at Harvard has now grown to have over 250 million active worldwide members. Astonishing.

The momentous figure was officially announced on the official Facebook blog by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Just a few months ago they celebrated reaching the 200 million mark by launching the non-profit organization Facebook for Good. Now however, they are changing tactics for what should be a huge blowout party –they’re doing nothing except carrying on with their work.

Apparently, they are now trying to make the service more accessible on mobile devices as the growth of Facebook is now largely coming from international countries where people are more likely to access the social network on their mobile devices like the iPhone or Blackberry.

“Today as we celebrate our 250 millionth user, we are also continuing to develop Facebook to serve as many people in the world in the most effective way possible,” Zuckerberg wrote. “This means reaching out to everyone across the world and making products that serve all of you, wherever you are–whether through Facebook Connect, new mobile products and the other things that we are building.”

As we have seen with Twitter, failure to keep the ball rolling can lead to growth rates dropping like a rock. Facebook seem to be doing a good job. The next six months will be a challenge because as a ball gets bigger, its harder to roll.

3banana Launches Android Smart Phone Notes App

Craig Agranoff — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:11:31 +0000

3banana is a Silicon Valley startup that just appeared on the market, launching a new note-taking application (called 3banana Notes) for the Android, the iPhone, and small-device Web use.

The application is free and works by synchronizing with an online notebook so you can save information you want to save quickly and easily from your phone. This allows free access online, whether you have your phone with your or not.

The app has a wireless synch-up and allows for social media sharing. Think of it as Twitter for your iPhone, but with a few more uses. Notes can be shared or kept private, as you prefer, and on an individual basis. So if you’re wanting to jot down that next great American novel idea you came up with, you can keep that to yourself, but if you’re wanting to see if anyone is up for coffee on the corner of Johnson and Main, you can broadcast that to your friends.

Andreas Schobel, the co-founder of 3banana and its CTO, says, “…the 3banana note taking app helps you catch those ideas before they escape. 3banana also makes it easy to share your notes with friends—rather than being lost forever, that idea in your notes can be the beginning of an online conversation.”

This seems like a great idea and one that could catch on quickly. Especially since it will work on so many platforms of portable phone. More universal apps like this are needed, in my opinion, to stop the trend of “it’s all about the iPhone.” Not that I don’t like iPhones, I just want to see more competition so the technology will improve faster.

Probably the sum-up from Steve Brown, the CEO and other co-founder of 3banana, does it best: “In the information-rich and fast-paced world today, the challenge is to get information from the brain in your head, into the brain in your pocket, and connected to the brainpower in the Internet cloud. We streamlined and simplified our note taking app so that users could quickly jot down a thought or tag a photo on their Android smart phone with as few keystrokes as possible, and then synch and share those notes wirelessly and effortlessly.”

Basically, it works like this: the 3banana software stays synched with their online service so that photos and notes on the smart phone can be immediately stored and kept online. At the same time, websites, online notes, and other Internet-based information can also be kept through a browser interface. Synchs in Twitter-like feeds with friends and colleagues can also be set up so that it creates an “always on” cloud for data sharing.

Shared notes can be linked with Twitter or Facebook for wide broadcasts or can be kept inside 3banana for easier and more private sharing and discussion.

3banana is currently available for download from the Google Android App Market free of charge.

Front Page of Digg Impossible? Try HYPick For Better Results

Luis Sandoval — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:31:06 +0000

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!

Dataopedia: Look At Your Sites Key Metrics In One Place

Steven Finch — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:37:12 +0000

Not too long ago the guys over at Killerstartups launched a new service called Dataopedia. Dataopedia is a basic solution that allows users to type in any url and find quickly key metrics from various sources.

Metrics that are measured include Google PR, Alexa Numbers, Compete and Quantcast analysis, Social media breakdowns, Twitter news, Technorati links, Friendfeed and url registration information. Currently, Dataopedia pulls in all this information from various partners including Crunchbase, Compete, Digg, Getsatisfaction and more.

There’s also something interesting buried at the bottom of the site profiles: an ability to comment on the site using Disqus. While that’s not likely to have the reach of a Google Search Wiki, it provides yet another way to gather details about the site and its reputation.

Dataopedia does a great job of pulling all the key quantitative and qualitative site measures required in todays world of web 2.0. There is still a lot of improvements that can be made with the user interface, but over it is probably already leading in this specific market, even thought market is very small.

Pricing Books Just Got Social

Luis Sandoval — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:25:42 +0000

There are a lot of companies out there doing amazing things with emerging social media opportunities. It seems that this opportunities are not industry specific. Currently new ideas and applications for these ideas span across all industries, and all it takes is some innovative thinking to make it happen. Being a start-up is no longer a requirement. There are a lot of existing ideas and companies out there that are reinventing themselves with social media, and the “now” generation when it comes to getting information on the spot.

Mobile technology does not make it any easier on companies either. With so many applications out there, you can do everything from making payments to ordering pizza, even shopping for groceries for a quick quick up at the store. The speed of technology is forcing companies to think faster and smarter, probably moreso now than ever before. This is the business world we stand in today; social media, mobile apps, instant connectivity, instant gratification, the world moves faster, so businesess have to move faster.

This is where Booksprice comes in. Here is a company with a solid business model of providing cheap books for users looking for the best deals. Their site is amazingly easy to navigate but offers more than just books, it offers music, DVD’s, and more. What’s the “more”? Think of it like a mashup of Amazon and MySimon, or any other similar combination. I’ve been using the site for searches over the past week and have found it very useful.

This is definitely a college student’s dream when it comes to finding affordable textbooks!

Pricing Books At Your Fingertips
Booksprice announced at the beginning of the month that their company was now offering instant lookup via Twitter, called Price Tweet. Twitter has been the micro-blogging application that has simply taken the social media world by storm as the ultimate way to connect with users worldwide. This life tracking application has been integrated into a number of companies as a way of connecting with the customer, announcing specials, and offering coupon codes, and now Booksprice has joined those ranks.

Via your mobile device, a user can now send a direct message to Booksprice (d booksprice) and after that input the ISBN/UPC number and click “SEND.” In a matter of seconds your mobile device will receive a reply with price comparisons for more affordable options. The idea is to provide the user with information on the fly, saving them the hassle of searching for prices across all the sites they would normally have searched through.

Lucy Orbach, co-founder of Booksprice states, “With this new tool, Booksprice goes beyond the online market. In a fast and easy way, it will help the shoppers compare the price of the items from the store where they are to their prices online. Since online shopping involves a shipping cost, the prices shown on our messages will include standard shipping to the US, making it even easier to compare. Now, that the Holiday shopping are here , our direct quote tweets can help shoppers make sure they don’t overpay for their books/DVDs at store.”

To further impress upon its users the usefulness of the Twitter client, users can set up alerts for a certain time frame to announce when the price drops. If you are still unhappy with the prices offered by various vendors, and you’re waiting for another price drop, simply fill out some information and alerts will be sent either to your mobile or desktop Twitter client as soon as it records a drop. When the end date comes, the updates stop, without the users need to go back into the site to stop it. It’s very innovative and useful no doubt for seasonal shopping whether it is for books, DVD’s, music or other items of interest.

I highly recommend this site as an option for your bargain shopping. Chances are you may not go back to your old price hunting sites again!

You Could Be Britney Spears New Boyfriend!

Luis Sandoval — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:07:50 +0000

Okay, it’s a long shot, but with her track record, you actually might have a chance. I’m not saying anything is wrong with her, she just likes to meet a lot of people.

Well watch out world, Britney is online in the social media world. Where? You can connect with Britney on Twitter…or with her “people” at least. To coincide with the launch of her new blog site, fans can follow her on the Twitter stream and even reply to her. I wouldn’t hold your breath for direct answers, but stranger things have happened.

Any way you look at this, whether you like Britney or not, enough “mainstream” artists, performers, and other entertainers jump on Twitter, it will be hard to ignore its dominance in the market.

Social Mention: The New Social Media Search Engine On The Block

Steven Finch — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:08:31 +0000

I came across a new search engine this morning called Social Mention. Social Mention is a social media search engine, search areas include blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarks, comments, images and more.

Social Mention is great for website owners/ceo’s for keeping track of the buzz surounding their web properties. However, I would have liked to see the text size in the main column a little smaller, thus allowing more articles above the fold.

Social Mention is a great start at a search engine and Im looking forward to seeing how it grows in the future. I think Social Mention is already a lot easier to use than Technorati!

Use Tweetrush for Your Twitter Addiction

Luis Sandoval — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:21:49 +0000

Like any good addiction, the first step is always admitting you have the addiction. For many of us, Twitter is that addiction. We find ourselves Twittering from work, twittering from parties, from events, from weddings, from bar mitzvahs, from the car, from our mobiles, you name it, we addicts are Twittering from it. On the other hand, there are still a few that remain of the mindset that Twitter is a time waster and provides no value.

Well for the addict like you and me, we are introduced to Tweetrush. A very systematic web app that provides you with your Twitter usage metrics. Now, after typing in your handle in the search bar, you can receive a breakdown of your usage and find out just how addicted you are.

Tweetrush was built on the analytics engine called Rush Hour, which basically looks at actions taken by a user, such as typing and sending a message via Twitter. Tracking can be done via the website and also through the various API’s that exist for the web application.

Information can be tracked for the last 7 days of usage:

The tracking can even break down by the hour of usage:

No matter how you slice, it, Tweetrush is an excellent tool for measuring your addiction, providing useful information on usage, but ultimately also reveal just how much of your life Twitter has taken over. Give it a try and learn to live with the addiction, Twitter is not going anywhere soon!

Review: Strands to Connect and Recommend

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Just recently I’ve been able to play with the new relaunch of Strands. The social networking site falls in line with popular sites like FriendFeed and PlaxoPulse, and looks to aggregate your social networking habits all in one place, but extend to even recommending things you might like.

Some will say that the multitude of social network platforms are watering down the market, and while that may be so, there are always small distinctions that separate them from one another. I for one thoroughly enjoy my Strands account specifically because of recommendations. Now even though I am new and still meeting people on there, I enjoy going through profiles and looking through recommendations.

Strands single handedly battles the information overload and filters your “feeds” from different social network sites. You set up your profile the way you want Strands to respond. What I find especially interesting is that Strands does not just support the major players in the game, but also reaches out and taps into lesser known social networks such as Hype Machine and Meneame (Spanish Digg clone). This really creates a sense of inclusiveness as opposed to exclusiveness.

Strands “evangelist” Drew Olanoff on Twitter is a great person to follow on Twitter for day to day happenings with Strands. Sure he incorporates details of his personal life, but he works to build strong relationships with the communities he’s a part of and welcomes feedback on Strands.

If you’re looking for a method of “life streaming” that is functional and easy to use, definitely check out Strands. I don’t see it knocking off the heavy hitters like FriendFeed just yet, but I do see some major success for this social networking site.

Currently the site is still under private beta, but you can sign up at their site to receive an invite, or if you’re really nice to a certain someone on Twitter, perhaps…just maybe an invite might float your way!

Plurking Just Doesn’t Sound as Good as Twittering, But at Least it Works

Steven Finch — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:48:56 +0000

In what may become to be known as the “Great Twitter Outage of May 2008″, with people getting agitated over lack of service on Twitter, a new rival has stepped up to take its place. Will it succeed and become the new miniblogging application of our generation? Only time will tell.

I was referred to Plurk earlier on by someone on Twitter who said that they were fed up with not being able to have all the features that we were so accustomed to just the other day. With Plurk, first of all, it just sounds like a really bad name. I mean, you can say “what are you Twittering?” and that sounds good and tells your audience something, but with Plurk, what can you say that sounds catchy?

Aside from the name, Plurk has some pretty good features that combines Twitter with another up-and-coming application: Brightkite. Not only can you list in 140 text characters what you’re doing, simliar to Twitter, but you can upload photos and videos associated with that update and share with your contacts. Definitely a big plus compared to Twitter.

From an aesthetic standpoint, it looks relatively clean, but somewhat busy. Twitter was simple in their design and you could see your followers and their updates. That’s basically all that people required. However, Plurk includes a timeline at the top -half of the page where you can see your followers and their updates and when specifically their updates were. For better or worse, Plurk has a definite advantage over Twitter right now.

Now keep in mind that Plurk is still in its infancy and Twitter has had some time to grow and make some serious significant updates, but Plurk allows you to follow people without being their friend. Just become a “fan” of them and you’ll be able to keep track of their updates. If you add your GTalk or other IM application to Plurk, you should be able to update your status that way, but unfortunately, you’ll also get EVERY update that your people makes which makes it kind of annoying.

Perhaps just a fancy feature to have as well, Plurk offers you the chance to earn more “karma”. They term it as:

Every plurker has his/her own karma value. It is recalculated every day and falls within these intervals:

0.00 to 21.00: You are in the state of creation

21.00 to 41.00: You are in the state of maintenance

41.00 to 61.00: You are enlightened

61.00 to 81.00: You are so close to Plurk Nirvana

81.00 to 100.00: You have reached Plurk Nirvana!

Your karma score is directly influenced by you and your friends Plurk activity. The more active you are, the more points you’ll get. Using various features of Plurk such as instant messaging or uploading a profile image will also help.

So basically, karma in Plurk is just a novelty status item for people to add to their daily enjoyment. This is probably an unnecessary item unless the creators decide to implement some other reward-based value add system at a later time. And one thing that most applications dealing with the social web should probably think about is an easy way to find your friends. Unfortunately when I set up my account, I had an awful time adding friends by search. Instead, I needed to physically type their user names (oftentimes a guess) into the Plurk URL path and then find them.

I’d say go ahead and sign-up for Plurk. There are definitely rooms for improvement in terms of features and that can only lead to better services for its users. So sign up today -if anything, it’ll give you some time away from Twitter while it’s down, but won’t prevent you from going cold turkey. You can find me on Plurk too, so stop by and say hi!