May 11, 2008
Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day as it acts as the foundation of your day. A few weeks ago Lijit Networks hosted a breakfast the morning after TECH cocktail DC 2. It at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. and was a lot of fun. I got a chance to capture episode 24 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV.
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May 5, 2008
Xobni, the social email plugin for Outlook, which I highlighted previously has finally opened its doors as a public beta. I initially had some private beta invites that went very fast but I continued to receive inquiries. Now you can get your own copy of the latest Xobni product and test it out for yourself. These are also unconfirmed rumors that Microsoft is bidding to acquire Xobni so it would not be far fetched to think that Xobni could be integrated directly into Microsoft Outlook if the rumor becomes reality.
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April 30, 2008
Twitter has exploded since coming out earlier last year and I have talked about it a number of times and even put my thoughts on video. I even saw my own sister come around and sign up for an account after talking to her about it awhile back and getting the: "why would I want to do that?" reaction.
Twitter recently were reported to take a little more funding thus making an exit price tag more pricey. But I wanted pose the question to the blogosphere and my SOMEWHAT FRANK readers:
What is Twitter worth?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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April 22, 2008
"The environment is where we all meet; where all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become."
—Lady Bird Johnson
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April 21, 2008
Do you remember when online forums were the cutting edge in online community building tools? While forums still have a place on the Web there are so many richer community building experiences. Forums are still being used and Twing looks to bring them up to par by aggregating online forums. Twing offers a forum search and adds community features to surface the 'hot items' in the forums.
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April 20, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending April 20, 2008.
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April 16, 2008
With the popularity of text messaging and the rise of Twitter via mobile there is a growing trend for find me/follow me mobile applications. FindWhere, a Sterling, Virginia based company, has just launched an application called Livecontacts to help you find and keep track of your buddies. Users can now share their location and track their friends’ locations for free. Livecontacts is taking the same approach that craigslist took to democratize the online classified advertising space by offering users what is traditionally a paid geographic data service for free.
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April 14, 2008
Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Most computer games, mobile devices and other online activities these days contribute to a sedentary lifestyle. How can kids keep on top of the obesity? GoTrybe, a Tennessee based startup, offers a interactive online approach aimed at attacking the problem. GoTrybe is an interactive community for kids based on health and wellness.
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April 13, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending April 13, 2008.
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April 12, 2008
I am a taggaholic. I love to tag items in Flickr and across the Web. I even find myself sometimes tagging other peoples photos and online content. This would not be possible without "folksonomy" and recently got to watch Thomas Vander Wal present at AOL as part of the AOL Developer Network Speaker Series. Thomas Vander Wal invented the word "folksonomy" and knows a thing or two about the social web. It's more than just today's social networks - it's layers of interactivity, circles of sociability, reputation and identity. He also shared his thoughts on the spheres of sociability, social objects, and the path to get users to fully embrace creating and sharing social objects.
I got a chance to talk with Thomas after his presentation and it is episode 20 of SOMEWHAT FRANK TV.
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April 7, 2008
As a member of the frequent flyer club, I have used TripIt and previously reviewed when it first launched. Now TripIt has made traveling easier by adding some additional mobile support for users on the go with the TripIt Mobile release. With TripIt Mobile users can access what they need to know from their mobile phones including flight changes, and in my case cancellations, hotel addresses and phone numbers, and auto rental info. By adding additional integration components for your TripIt account, even restaurant reservations can be accessed.
Making TripIts applications available on mobile devices makes a lot sense since when you are traveling you are most likely cannot as easily get on your computer. TripIt offers applications to enable staying in touch with others in your social network, allowing you to schedule appointments if in the same area or at the same event. In checking out the mobile experience I snapped the photo shown here can be visited on your mobile device at: m.tripit.com.
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March 31, 2008
Though email is a bit of burden at times, it is also in many cases the first point of contact for people as they go about their everyday routine. A large number of email users spend a significant part of their day working inside the email environments. Xoopit, a San Francisco-based startup is looking to capitalize on that point by looking to create a series of products that transform the email inbox into the largest social network. Xoopit takes a similar approach to Xobni an Outlook plugin which I highlighted previously and is rumored to be acquired very soon. Xoopit, today announced they had raised $5 Million Series A round of funding led by Accel Partners and Foundation Capital as they also rolled out a private beta.
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March 26, 2008
Finding the best place to eat, get a haircut or buy groceries in your local neighborhood can sometimes be a daunting task using the Web. While there are some sites like Yelp that lend a helping hand they don't cover everything you might be looking for and they certainly do not have all of your friends recommendations.
Loladax, a Washington, DC based startup, which just officially launched today is looking to offer prioritized search based on recommendations on Facebook friends. Loladex, founded by Laurence Hooper and Dan Goodman both formerly of AOL, is looking to offer true word of mouth by creating a compelling local search engine experience for just about anything in your area.
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March 21, 2008
You may recall Bode Miller, the USA Olympic silver medal skier and 2008 Alpine Skiing World Cup Champion, apparently he is doing more than just skiing these days as he has teamed with PathConnect to create SkiSpace, a social network for skiers and snowboarders. SkiSpace, not to be confused with MySpace, launched in December 2007 and offers basic social networking features.
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March 20, 2008
Diigo Diigo, a Reno-based startup I previously covered when it launched Web Slides, has just launched version 3.0 which is offers an integration of a number of social bookmarking and research services that create a powerful set of community tools.
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March 19, 2008
Microblogging has made it easy to share but with a number of services available one can get overloaded with options making it difficult to keep them all updating the time. Rather than have to stick to one service you can post to a number of services at one time with the help of Ping.fm. Other services like socialthing! and HelloTxt offer similar functionality but I thought it was worth mentioning yet another service as we all look for the ultimate one stop shop for managing all our microblogging needs at once.
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March 18, 2008
As reported on TechCrunch earlier this week, Facebook is working on a chat functionality. They held a press conference today and TechCrunch recorded this exclusive video demo of Facebook Chat. The presenter in the video is Peter Deng, the product manager for Facebook Chat, who made it clear that this is a preliminary version of the product. Facebook Chat appears to be something that available when you are on Facebook with the ability to turn it on and off.
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March 18, 2008
Are you a fashion trend setter? If so, you might want to check out Polyvore. Polyvore is a social fashion site where users can create arrange outfits or inspiration boards to share where you and others can potentially buy the included items. Polyvore enables users to drag and drop clothing items or snag items from the Web t0 create new outfits which are then tied into various shopping sites and could offer some interesting revenue sharing options. Launched in February 2007 and backed by Benchmark Capital, Polyvore recently hit the one million outfit mark.
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March 17, 2008
If you are startup looking for a little funding and guidance you might want to check into one of the incubator program like TechStars. Nestled just outside of Denver in Boulder, Colorado the TechStars program is in its second year and still accepting hungry startup founders for this years applicants. Throughout the summer program, founders can get up to $15,000 in seed funding, are surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs, work in great space downtown Boulder, and are given access to learn from an line-up of fabulous mentors.
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March 16, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending March 16, 2008.
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March 15, 2008
Brica Brica What? BricaBox, the social content platform which I covered previously here and here, that launched a few weeks ago offers users the ability to display structured content with social features. After many attempts I finally got a chance to sit down with BricaBox founder and CEO Nate Westheimer while attending FOWA Miami 2008 which is the latest SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode.
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March 14, 2008
Looking for something new to read, watch or play? blippr, a startup created by Tag Team Interactive, offers a social utility which aims to facility social recommendations about books, games, movies, music, and (soon) TV from your friends. With blippr users can compile lists of things that they love and "blip" them which is similar to voting for an item (i.e. digg).
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March 13, 2008
Wow! AOL buying Bebo for $850 million was a pleasant surprise to wake up to this morning. I think this is a smart move for AOL as Bebo is currently the third largest social network on the Web behind Facebook and MySpace. With AIM offering one of the larger social graphs on the Web but a turnstile of online social networking site attempts in the last two years. It looks like AOL has finally decided to invest externally in the space which adds to the large number of other acquisitions that recently occurred in the social platforms group which include Goowy and Yedda.
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March 9, 2008
Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed today at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas. This is the second time I have seen Mark Zuckerberg speak in person as the first I recorded at TechCrunch40. Unfortunately, this time though I am press I was not able to get a seat in the main room where Mark spoke. Bummer. Sarah Lacey the author of a Business Week cover article as well as a book on Mark Zuckerberg interviewed Mark.
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March 8, 2008
On a clear, crisp evening in Boulder, Colorado over two hundred technology enthusiasts piled into The Foundry Billiards Club to better connect and amplify the technology signal of the region. The event, TECH cocktail Boulder in partnership with DEMO, showcased five startups from the local area. The event was sponsored by Boulder-based Lijit and Chicago and soon to be also Boulder-based skinnyCorp - thank you both!
Since TECH cocktail is one of my own creations with co-founder Eric Olson, we were really enjoyed the evening getting to hangout with some of the technology "movers and shakers" in the Denver/Boulder area. For more details check out the official TECH cocktail Boulder 1 photos and event wrap-up article. Read on for more on the startups that demoed at TECH cocktail Boulder.
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March 5, 2008
Do you have a scrapbook? Traditionally, creating a scrapbook was a very physical activity which helped to preserve your real life memories in a book format to look back at and share at a later date. Scrapbooking has turned into an billion dollar business and even merits its own conferences...
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March 4, 2008
YourTrumanShow, the personal video diaries startup, that launched, VideoMap, a video discovery widget at the DEMO Fall 2007 Conference has now released it to the Facebook world. VideoMap lets users see who links to them and who they link to as well as the video content they have collected. As user watch videos, a graphically rich visual map tracks the path of discovery, relationships, and content. VideoMaps also leverages YourTrumanShow's recommendation algorithms to help cultivate social interactions.
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March 1, 2008
MetroProper, a Chicago-based company, that recently demoed at TECH cocktail Chicago 7 just relaunched their site to offer a totally fresh design. Deemed as "Digg for local businesses" MetroProper offers an number of social sharing and bookmarking features.
I got a chance to chat with Philip Tadros founder of MetroProper and he talked to some of the design changes prior to their official launch.
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February 23, 2008
Twitter is a great communication tool. I use it all the time. I initially enabled mobile notifications but found I was getting a constant stream of Twitter text messages which can be somewhat distracting. So I turned off mobile notifications except for direct messages. But I still find that I miss "@ replies" since they cannot currently be sent to my mobile device.
I just put in a feature request to Twitter. I would love to be able to get "@ replies" sent directly to my mobile device just the same as direct messages are. Anyone else want to see this feature added?
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February 19, 2008
Why go to the ballgame, concert, lunch or dinner solo? Obviously, we all like our own privacy sometimes but other times we might want to find someone with like interests to hang out with. This is especially true for those that might have just moved into a new area. WhyGoSolo is a new social networking site aimed at helping you to create spontaneous new connections so, as its name implies, you won't go solo any longer.
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February 19, 2008
XING, the social network for professionals which is extremely popular in Europe, has just published some numbers showing off its continued growth. According to a recent release, XING, has 5 million members registered which has contributed to reached revenues of 19.61 million euros or approximately 28.74 million U.S. dollars. XING founder and CEO, Lars Hinrichs had this to say:
"We delivered outstanding results for the 2007 fiscal year, and have already demonstrated this year that XING is not only an active consolidator in the European business networking market, but is also striding ahead with organic growth and has shown incredible innovation."
Some of this could be attributed to additional revenue streams that were created by expanding XING's e-Commerce and Advertising.
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February 17, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending February 17, 2008.
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February 16, 2008
Have you ever taken a photo or seen a video and wanted to immediately share it with your friends while on the go? Obviously you could upload it to Flickr or Facebook or a number of other sites but more than likely times you probably would fire off an email to your friends to share it with them. Your friends would then get your message at various times depending upon when they actually go to check their email which means you are not instantly communicating with your friends.
Movial is looking to help make sharing easier with the recent launch of Movial Social Communicator. Social Communicator offers a desktop client and mobile application that syncs all your mobile phone contacts and empowers users to send videos, photos and news directly to their friends at their current location.
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February 14, 2008
Twitter rolled out a fun and timely little feature today to enable users to send a little Valentine love through Twitter. Users can tell others who they "heart" by simply listing another Twitter user and then making a heart with the "<3" characters. I just tested it out and sent some love to some of my friends and of course to TECH cocktail. Check out what happens when you do - shown below.
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February 14, 2008
MyBlogLog, the blog community creating site operated by Yahoo which I previously reviewed, has rolled out a slick new community widget. The widget offers a glossy finish and flyouts upon hovering to see the details on the recent visitors of the community. It seems MyBlogLog has simplified the widget by removing a number of features and customizations.
According to a recent post by Ian Kennedy on the MyBlogLog blog, the new widget was graphically inspired by Arlo Rose who created Yahoo Widgets (formerly Konfabulator). I like the new look and updated the one on Somewhat Frank.
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February 13, 2008
Looking to sell your music, art or videos online but don't know where to start? Hurox pronounced "who rocks" is looking to help. Hurox is a Kansas City-based startup that recently launched an early beta product looking to help people create a place to sell goods on a social platform. Positioned to help artists sell their work (i.e. photos, videos, music, etc.) Hurox offers tools that enable anyone to create a page and sell their goods. Users can either sell their content or revenue share to earn credit for page views off of the unlimited number of pages that they create on Hurox.
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February 5, 2008
Super Tuesday! Did you get the load of election action you were looking for? If not, you might still be able to catch some thanks in part to a map mashup that TechCrunch reported Google teamed up with Twitter to provide. The Google Maps Twitter mashup is similar to Twittervision but for political related twits (a twit is a Twitter message) so you can track the today's Super Tuesday elections on real-time on a map.
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February 3, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending February 3, 2008.
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January 30, 2008
After another eventful evening, this time at the traditional DEMO Jam Session event, day 2 of DEMO08 was another intense day of product launches. Once again, rather than reviewing every single company that launched a product I will offer some tidbits and analysis from day 2.
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January 29, 2008
After an evening mixer last night which helped to get everyone together DEMO08, as its name implies, was filled with lots of demos. Rather than review every single company that launched a product today I will give you a brief overview of each one. Overall, I was impressed by a couple of pen-like gadgets, a few enabling technology sites, a couple video sites and of course mobile products.
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January 29, 2008
Are you gearing up for Super Bowl this weekend? Or better yet counting down the days till pitches and catchers report to another MLB Spring Training? I am. FantasySportsMatrix (FSM), a Sunnyvale, California startup, launched into beta today to offer the typical suite of social networking features to create a place for sports fans to interact.
With blogs, wiki's, forums, polls and a host of other types of content I could see sports addicts entering the social media conversation via a site like FSM since it offers a gentle way to introduce the "Average Joe" to wiki's, blogs and other user-generated content. As a sports fan, all I can think of is - Go Cubs!
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January 27, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending January 27, 2008.
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January 25, 2008
Seesmic, a startup founded by European entrepreneur and blogger Loic Le Meur, has been in closed alpha since October 2007 has hopes of creating a video conversation platform online. Seesmic creates an dashboard for anyone with a web cam to quickly create a video. Videos can then be published to a website or social network page as well as responded to within the Seesmic community.
My first impression of Seesmic was that is reminded me of slimmed down version of BlogTV which I use regularly for video interviews. But it appears that Seesmic is aimed at creating more a short form or Twitter-like video communitywhere people can interact around both user generated and professional content.
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January 23, 2008
Do you send post cards when you are