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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August 1, 2007
Looking to make it easier to for people to keep track of the items that they want BoxedUp.com offers a place to help users shop and share for items that they may want. Founded in London by Chris Osborne and Jeremy Baines, the three employee team has recently morphed and...
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April 25, 2007
Viddler, a video startup created by a distributed team of developers, launched last September to enable users to upload, enhance, and share online video. Unlike its competitors Viddler has a different business model as it aims to offer both free and premium services on a subscription basis. The most interesting...
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March 29, 2007
The days of desktop office productivity software are numbered as solid web-based products have began to emerge. ThinkFree, a San Jose-based company, offers a fairly robust web-based Microsoft Office compatible application suite. ThinkFree Office Online is easy to use as it leverages users’ familiarity with Microsoft Office to offer a...
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March 28, 2007
Mapping mashups have become extremely common in the web 2.0 as developers have leverages web services to combine data with maps of Earth. I recently had a close encounter with a mapping mashup of a new kind called Sloog.org. Sloog.org is a bookmarking service for Second Life residents and offers...
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January 13, 2007
Have something witty to say about a particular item? Riffs, an ATTAP Technologies company, offers a feature-rich, social bookmarking, recommendation site for information-sharing details about movies, music, fashion and other sorts of interests. With Riffs you can recommend different items by starting a riff, registering and posting a witty comment...
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January 9, 2007
Woohoo, an AOL Pictures by-product, recently upgraded to offer a more robust Flash-based snaggable photo slideshow widget. The previous widget offered the ability to show images in a clickable stack called the photo collage as shown below or by visiting this link. The upgraded version of woohoo offers not only...
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December 5, 2006
Yedda, an Israeli social knowledge sharing startup, launched just a few months ago and takes a fresh approach to knowledge sharing online. Yedda helps answer questions online by proactively seeking and empowering people to help. Yedda does this by leveraging: "...two patented technologies – a unique semantic analysis engine and...
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November 19, 2006
Qloud, a Washington, DC based startup, recently launched a music search with social networking features and tagging. Qloud music search allows a number of search options as users can search for music by artist, song, keyword, genre or a number of other criteria. Upon finding a song it can be...
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August 28, 2006
Flickr has added geo tagging which allows images to be plotted and searched via a map. This new feature was something that was rumored a few weeks ago. Originally, I was not so moved by the potential new feature but after seeing the implementation I am impressed. The new map...
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August 4, 2006
Flickr may be offering a new geotagging feature soon which could allow users to be tagged based on geography. This feature is said to combine mapping with the drag and drop of photos which could help to combine Yahoo Local and Flickr. There is a screen shot here. I am...
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July 19, 2006
What impeccable timing Flickr has. Not even a few hours after I compose an article praising Flickr do I come to find out in visiting the site that Flickr is down. Flickr posted (as shown below) the message, "Arrggh! Our Tubes Are Clogged!" Though I appreciate the humor, I am...
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July 19, 2006
Flickr is one of my favorite web 2.0 applications. While it is not the most popular photo site on the web (ranking 6th behind Yahoo Photos, Photobucket and a few others in visitor metrics according to a Comscore, June 2006 report), Flickr is a fantastic photo repository and social network...
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June 6, 2006
Technorati has unveiled some new features in the Technorati Kitchen recently which adds microformat search to the mix. This means that you will soon be able to search contacts cards (hCards), events (hEvents) and reviews (hReviews) via Technorati. For more information on microformats you might want to check out microformats.org....
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May 17, 2006
Structured blogging a standard format for organizing blog information which was highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank was discussed at Syndicate NY. A panel was constructed to discuss the topic which included: Jen Consalvo - Director at AOL Eli Chapman - Co-founder of Mediatronica Chad Dickerson - Director at Yahoo Gus...
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May 16, 2006
David Weinberger, co-author of Cluetrain Manifesto and currently a fellow at Harvard Berman Center, discussed tagging and taxonomy. He is currently working on a book that is due out in May 2007 which deals with organizing ideas and the affect it has on our culture, primarily knowledge. He drew the...
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April 28, 2006
Technorati already uses tags to assist find-ability in the real-time search however, as I viewed my Technorati Favorites today I noticed the interface changed to add a new tagging feature. The feature can be found via a new "Blog from Favorites" tab which displays your select favorite blogs. This information...
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April 27, 2006
Grupthink, a company based in the heavenly Rocky Mountains between Glacier and Yellowstone Park, recently launched to provide an outlet for posting questions online in hopes that its user base can supply answers. This is not a new concept as Google Answers and Yahoo Answers both are similar products and...
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March 29, 2006
Still trying to come up with the perfect prank to pull this April Fools Day? April Fools Rules, a prankster's dream web site, recently launched (March 28, 2006) and may be the resource you have been in search of. April Fools Rules is your shenanigan source. It allows you to...
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March 24, 2006
Edgeio, which crawls the edge of the Internet for listings, has been busy since its launch and will soon be rolling out feature that make it easier to post a listing. At first launch, Edgeio could only be used if you had an RSS feed of listings or a blog...
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March 9, 2006
As I watched the season finale of Project Runway with my girlfriend (I swear it is her favorite show) I thought it would be an ideal time to explore the collaborative shopping community called Stylehive. Stylehive is a new online community where contributors can bookmark stores, designers, trends, and must-have...
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March 5, 2006
iBegin.com, the user-powered local search engine, has officially launched. I had the pleasure of checking out the beta this week and found it to be put together well and with its users as a top priority. iBegin now open to the public in Toronto with plans of rolling out to...
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March 1, 2006
BlogBuy was created by Michael Edwards and Chris Neglia and launched this week to enable you to buy and sell items via the site while leveraging blog platform elements. BlogBuy also has the ability to communicate with your own personal blog or set of blogs to publish the item in...
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February 20, 2006
Chuquet, an aggregator site that I mentioned in this previous post, helps to both textually and visually track what people are linking to online. Chuquet assumes that items that are highly linked to are more important thus are part of recent online buzz. Chuquet also tracks the most popular Flickr...
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February 14, 2006
I came across Google Maps Mania, a blog which tracks Google Map mashup applications, while producing my own Ning powered Google mashup application called TeamSportsBars.com. Google Maps Mania is a blog that highlights new Google Map mashups and posts a little brief about each one. It is definitely worth taking...
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February 12, 2006
Edgeio, the new service crawling the edge of the web for listings, launched a blog recently. The first post on the blog titled The Beginning give a wonderful explanation and background on edgeio. It starts by saying: "Edgeio is all about edge publishing. It is our belief that services that...
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February 7, 2006
I recently created a new site called TeamSportsBars.com using the Ning platform. The site was a result of a Thanksgiving break lunch conversation between my family and some out of town visitors (which happened to be my girlfriend's family). This question came up: "Where can you watch and cheer for...
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February 5, 2006
My patience with TagCloud has grown weary so I have decided to instead try using Eurekster's Swicki community search product and tag cloud which I previously posted about on Somewhat Frank. Check it out in the left rail. I hope it helps my visitors find blog posts they may not...
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February 4, 2006
Technorati added the activity chart feature in mid-January like the chart below. I have yet to put one to use but I thought it would be a great way to display the blogosphere buzz leading up to the Super Bowl thus showing us a "bird's eye view" of the Super...
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January 31, 2006
ZoomTags is a new way to implement a commercial tag cloud with revenue potential on a website or blog. This new type of commercial tag cloud offers keywords from a tag cloud up for sale. Michael Arrington profiles ZoomTags on TechCrunch and brings up a wonderful point in saying: "Nothing,...
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January 23, 2006
I have been trying to setup a tag cloud using the TagCloud Beta. The initial steps of setup were a breeze. Basically, you create an account and configure your sources for the cloud by entering RSS feeds or by using an OPML file. I decided to go with my RSS...
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January 16, 2006
Tagnautica is a very cool tag based PHP browser application that helps you explore Flickr photos. I recently read about the application created by Mario Klingemann from Munich, in this post by Phillip Lenssen. In giving the Tagnautica a try I searched on tags of my name "FrankGruber" and it...
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January 12, 2006
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has a conversation sparking post today (January 12, 2006) about the fate of Technorati the blog search engine. It was sparked by a print article in Red Herring* by Liz Gannes. Technorati after some technical shakiness in the early summer of 2005, has emerged as the...
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December 20, 2005
Technorati has given the blogosphere a holiday gift early by releasing a redesign of its search results page and an updated member profile page. Our pal, Niall Kennedy, Community Manager at Technorati explains the updates with his favorite feature being the a new personal tag cloud in saying: "Technorati now...
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December 19, 2005
It appears del.icio.us which was recently purchased by Yahoo is having some technical difficulties. I went to the site yesterday evening and it was down for maintenance. I visited the site early this morning (December 19, 2005) and it is still down. However, the site was displaying this message: "Due...
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December 9, 2005
Yahoo’s acquisition of del.icio.us today (December 9, 2005) further emphasizes that that Yahoo is serious about moving forward with offering Web 2.0 applications and services. The move to acquire the popular social bookmarking and tagging service coupled with the previous acquisition of Flickr the popular public photo sharing application further...
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December 8, 2005
You're good enough, strong enough and dog-gone-it people like you. Feel better now? Well it appears that is the point of the new Web 2.0 application called bmindful. The site allows you the ability to sign-up and create a profile of affirmations about yourself. Each affirmation then associates a tag...
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November 30, 2005
I have once again been in the process of analyzing the new and existing blog platforms since the information in my last analysis in mid-July 2005 in my post titled Blog Platform Option Analysis may need to be updated. I am not quite finished with my analysis yet and will...
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November 21, 2005
Swicki is a new term that I first encountered on a Phil Bradley's blog post. I had to do some further investigation and apparently Swicki is a new type of collaborative search product by Eurekster that allows you to customize your search results. More simply it is a customizable search...
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November 17, 2005
According to these reports on TechCrunch and Naill Kennedy's Weblog there is a strong indication that Google is close to acquiring the "smart" photo sharing service Riya, that I recently explained on Somewhat Frank in the post Riya Learns People In Photos. According to the reports the deal is going...
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November 15, 2005
Just in time for the holiday shopping season Yahoo has launched a new beta product in its shopping section called Yahoo! Shoposphere. Shoposphere's key feature is the ability to create a "My Pick List" which is very much like a wedding registry or wish list that you might have created...
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November 12, 2005
del.icio.us bookmarks for 11-12-2005 by Somewhat Frank (a.k.a) Frank Gruber Child Still for Sale on Craigslist?This is just so wrong! A mother tried to sell her 4 year old child on Craigslist for $500. 10 Best Entrepreneur Blogs : Lifehacker Entrepreneurs cannot miss these blogs.Cuban : SteelCityBlog I heard that...
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November 11, 2005
Riya (formerly Ojos) is a new photo sharing offering that learns what people in photos look like. It appear this is done through automated facial recognition and tagging software. With time more people in photos are recognized and are indexed for the photo search. According to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch:...
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November 9, 2005
Topix.net recently (November 6, 2005) started to index blog content and is offering it as part of its regular search results. This is a monumental move by Topix.net in the rise of citizen journalism. Yahoo! News recently began to offer blog news in the right rail of search results however...
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October 21, 2005
The buzz about the Flock “social web browser” has been going for quite sometime in the blogosphere. Flock beta is now ready for download. To find out more about the Flock browser please refer to my previous Flock Somewhat Frank post. I just downloaded the developers preview of Flock and...
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October 17, 2005
Pluck first introduced the community tagging and blog search engine called Shadows as a Beta in mid-July. It offers a simple way for bloggers to tag their posts rather then actually adding tag code to your posts. It also offers other collaborative capabilities which include joining web groups and discussions....
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October 5, 2005
Ning has created a recent buzz in the blogophere as the start-up co-founded by Marc Andreessen also the co-founder of Netscape was released. Ning was formerly known as 24 Hour Laundry but just changed its name to Ning. So what is Ning? Ning is a free online service that allows...
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September 2, 2005
Technorati released a new type of blog search on its site blog search engine site by releasing a beta called Blog Finder today. This new search allows users to search for blogs by topic based on the use of Technorati tags. It then returns the most authoritative blogs in each...
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July 27, 2005
It sounds like Mark Cuban and IceRocket are changing the name of the IceRocket's blog search at the URL blogs.icerocket.com to Blogscour.com sometime in the near future since you will notice it already redirects to IceRocket. Mark recently mentioned the change in this blog post. He then goes on to...
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July 23, 2005
Finally Technorati's rankings, sources, and links are reflecting accurately again. I had emailed support a couple of times last week and never heard anything untill yesterday when I got a personal email from Naill Kennedy, the Community Manager at Technorati, and he gave me my updated ranking and link totals....