May 11, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending May 11, 2008.
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May 9, 2008
With Mother's day and a bunch of birthdays coming up throughout the rest of the year I have been thinking about the whole gifting process and more specifically paper greeting cards. I there is still something nice about getting a paper card since it is an artifact you can hold and touch and save until the paper turns yellow. I have even found that more of the total inventory of greeting card play music. I find it kind of annoying but it seems that someone must be buying these new music cards. But with all the social interactions that technology has enabled from your cell phone messages to online e-cards to Facebook gifts that can be sent I pose this SOMEWHAT FRANK question for you:
Do Paper Greeting Cards Still Have A Place?
Give your SOMEWHAT FRANK opinion in the comments section below.
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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 28, 2008
TECH cocktail DC 2 the community builder event that took place last Thursday evening in Washington, D.C. showcased six startups from the local area. The event united over four hundred guests for an evening of conversations, showing off and fun.
This is the last event before the upcoming TECH cocktail CONFERENCE which will unite all the various TECH cocktail cities for a full day conference in Chicago on May 29th. The list of speakers is pretty amazing and the focus of the conference is to help anyone in business to take a more "no nonsense" approach by leveraging technology and the Web (i.e. running a "real" business rather than one setup to simply attract as many users as possible with no real monetization strategy in mind).
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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 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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March 29, 2008
The adoption of Twitter, which I covered previously a number of times , appears to be acceleratingly since March 6th, as I have seen my followers double in that three week period. My friend Gary Vaynerchuk recently started to do a daily "thoughts on life" video podcast and gave his thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook...kinda. So in response to his video I wanted to make a quick SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode 18 with my thoughts on Twitter (mainly) as well as a few comments about Facebook.
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March 26, 2008
Is email broken? I have been struggling to manage email for a long time as I attempted to liberate my inbox back in 2005 only to once again stare email bankruptcy in the eyes. Email is such a double-edged sword since I need email to communicate but get so much of it becomes difficult to use effectively. I am not alone, I have heard the same things from a number of colleagues and recently TechCrunch editor and founder Mike Arrington even called the communication crisis produced by email a opportunity for an entrepreneur.
I recently met Jared Goralnick who is a bit of a productivity guru. Jared joined me on quick SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode number 17 (below). He recently founded AwayFind.com. AwayFind, a DC-based startup, looking to help ease some of the email burden so you can focus on your day-to-day tasks without constant interruptions. With AwayFind, which is currently in private beta, users can setup a page (like this one I created) to include in auto-response messages to anyone that emails them. The auto-response offers a little explanation as to when you might get to the mail and a form which can contact the user directly via SMS text messaging and email if the item being sent was an emergency or needs to be handled immediately.
Watch the latest SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode with Jared Goralnick now.
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March 20, 2008
I have been to a number of industry events and I don't know how many times I either run out of cards are find myself cardless but technology has made it a lot easier to connect. LinkedIn recently joined Facebook and a number of other sites that have created iPhone experiences which makes it pretty easy to contact people and connect immediately thus online identity has replaced one of the features of offline identity - the business card.
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January 31, 2008
DEMO 08 was a blur of excitement and adrenaline as 77 companies showcased their stuff in front of the tech world. I pulled together roundups for Day 1 and Day 2. Now I wanted to look back and express the launches that I found the most interesting personally. Please keep in mind that there might be some very compelling products that I left off this list because I could not relate to them as well as the ones on the list below. If you attended DEMO 08 please drop a comment below and let me know which launches were keen on.
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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 24, 2008
Microblogging platforms have been springing up like crazy these days as bloggers look for easier and shorter form ways to quickly express themselves online. Lifestreaming to these platforms also become more prevalent as an aggregation of online activities. I am a big fan of microblogging platforms like Tumblr, Twitter, and Soup.io. They offer a light but powerful platform for self-expression. But there is not a one size fits all solution for every blogger. Chyrp (found deceptively at chyrp.net) offers an open source blogging platform that is more of a medium weight blogging solution.
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January 12, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Video: Tantek Çelik recently discussed open Web standards and data portability at an Open Media Web Meetup. Tantek believes writing on the Web is like "writing in sand" since it all could be wiped out when the next wave of technology comes through. Tantek also speaks about data formats and how content data formats expires content over time. It is an interesting perspective from an innovation leader and long time advocate of open standards efforts like microformats.
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January 7, 2008
Lifestreaming has made great strides in the past year as Justin.TV strapped a camera on his head. Robert Scoble, Sarah Meyers and a number of others including myself have participated in one way or another in the lifestreaming video movement leveraging tools like UStream.TV, Mogulus and Blog.TV.
With CES taking place in Las Vegas this week and the unfortunate fact that I was unable to attend (due to my day job) I am going to take full advantage of my friends lifestreaming videos to get the feel of the conference. There is a new tool called Qik that might make lifestreaming even easier than before. Qik is an alpha product that has sprung onto the scene to enable users to stream live video directly from their mobile phone.
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January 6, 2008
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending January 6, 2008.
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January 1, 2008
Do you ever wonder what software products you spend the most time on? I do. While there are ways to check the last time you use a product it is not a walk in the park. Wakoopa tracks what kind of software, games and other applications you use. Similar to how Alexa keeps track of web site metrics, Wakoopa looks to keep track of applications that you run on your PC or Mac. Wakoopa makes it easy to share your top software as well as discover new software from other Wakoopa users.
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December 30, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending December 30, 2007.
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December 29, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Video: There are a number of online communities with a new one popping up just about everyday. GOOD Magazine recently took a more literal approach and created a pop-up community center in New York and they created a video to showcase it.
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December 21, 2007
Lifecasting, the process of broadcasting the events in a person's life through digital media, has become popular as more people become comfortable with expressing themselves online. Mod My Life puts an interesting spin of lifecasting by allowing you to control what a particular lifecaster is doing thus democratizing the lifecast.
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December 12, 2007
Have you ever had a issue you wanted to stand up for an issue but figured it would not go anywhere without the backing of a large enough group of people on your side? Well, now you can test the waters of any issue or problem with the help of The Point. Inspired by the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell which explained the idea that trends need to reach a certain point before becoming mainstream, The Point is a community where people come together and take action, securing the safety in numbers necessary to make things happen to solve problems.
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December 8, 2007
I got a chance to sit down with Future Works and Bub.blico.us founder and PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis to chat about the book Now Is Gone that he assisted Geoff Livingston in writing. The book is a good primer for anyone that is thinking about the new media landscape from big companies to entrepreneurs.
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December 1, 2007
I got a chance to chat with Greg "The Trend Junkie" Cangialosi today regarding his new book "The Business of Podcasting Book." The book is a great guide for any corporate executive or other party interested in better understanding podcasting. Greg and I leveraged BlogTV, a split screen webcam video platform I previously highlighted on Somewhat Frank, to chat about a number of topics related to social media from discussing our podcasting pal Gary Vaynerchuk who has been changing the wine world to a quick getting started with podcasting step-by-step.
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November 25, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending November 25, 2007.
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November 21, 2007
Everyday just about everyone asks the same few questions as they prepare for another day. What is the weather like outside? And, what should I wear? Now thanks to crowd-sourcing and the power of the Web you can get some help with these questions. Cumul.us is a web site that aggregates the opinions of the masses to display weather predictions and what people are going to wear as a result. Brilliant!
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November 4, 2007
How can you engage your client community via blogs and social media? Last Thursday, I spoke on a panel at The New New Internet Conference to discuss this very question. The panel consisted of Gary Vaynerchuk video blogger at Wine Library TV and Director of Operations at Wine Library, Geoff Livingston blogger at The BuzzBin and author of Now Is Gone and Rohit Bhargava blogger at Influential Marketing and author Personality Not Included and myself blogger at Somewhat Frank, co-founder of TECH cocktail a community-building event startup and product manager of myAOL. If you want to find out about social media you best watch the video and learn about blogging, engaging social media and hustle 2.0!
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November 3, 2007
I got interviewed by trend junkie and entrepreneur Greg Cangelosi of Trend TV this week while at the The New New Internet Conference. In case you might not know Greg Cangelosi is a podcasting expert and just authored a book titled . I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.Greg and I sat down and chatted and he captured the casual interview on Trend TV.
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November 2, 2007
This week the Web development community has been buzzing as details were released about an new widget API called Google OpenSocial. Google officially launched OpenSocial and provided this video to further explain its actions. I have been trying to get my head around what it really means and would like to open it up to my readers for input via a Somewhat Frank poll to get your take on OpenSocial.
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September 21, 2007
MeeVee, a Silicon Valley-based personalized TV startup, has recently announced a partnership with Amazon to offer TV content via their Unboxed Video Previewer widget. The MeeVee product offers a personalized TV listings and video content. With its sites set on being the a personalized Joost-like product without having to install any software MeeVee will now be leveraging Amazon's widget distribution channel. Amazon widgets can be found at: http://widgets.amazon.com.
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September 18, 2007
Metaplace, a company founded by San Diego-based Areae, has just launched a virtual world that can be embedded on the Web via a flash-based client widget. Every world is indexed, tagged and rated by users on the Metaplace portal, so virtual worlds in the Metaplace network can be easily linked together.
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September 15, 2007
With Apple putting out iPods and other products out every quarter it inevitable that you will want to get rid of some of your old electronic equipment or e-waste. What do you do with your old electronics? Good question right. Well, you can recycle it - what else can you do?
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September 13, 2007
While there are a number of Web 2.0, Ajax, personalized home page products that leverage syndication for content updates. I recently found three applications that seem to lean towards a more minimalist visual bookmarking startpage approach. In this article, I will take a closer look these products, so as to point out some alternative approaches to the classic personalized startpage.
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August 26, 2007
Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending August 26, 2007.
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August 14, 2007
Are you looking for a little more out of the time and energy you spend on the Web? If so, you might want to check out a Passively Multiplayer Online Game or PMOG. A proposal created by Justin Hall, Passively Multiplayer Online Games look to create a game around your Web attention data. Justin Hall has been referred to by the NYTimes as the "the founding father of personal bloggers" and decided to create a game out of the Web with PMOGs as part of his Masters project at the USC Annenberg Center.
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July 4, 2007
Email used to be so hip. Now it is such a pain in the ass. I have written about email management and liberating my email inbox before, but being on the road the last 19 days has turned my inbox upside down. Om Malik wrote a great piece today about...
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June 30, 2007
Bub.blicio.us was in Palo Alto, California, yesterday covering the release of the iPhone at Steve Jobs' favorite Apple Store. This short video (above) highlights the day's events with interviews of Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk. Interestingly, after all the iPhone mania settled down (around 7pm PST) I casually got in...
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June 29, 2007
The iPhone frenzy has been brewing all week across the country. I just was curious to see how many Somewhat Frank readers were going to get an iPhone immediately. Take this poll and let me know. Free Polls - Take Our Poll
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June 1, 2007
Widgets are hot. Widgets are sexy. Widgets, widgets, widgets. I previously have covered the widget craze but widgets now have a few new promoters. With the Facebook open platform announcement last week there have been lots of new widgets and applications added to Facebook each day. Personally, I have already...
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May 11, 2007
Trying to figure out how to get a poll on your blog, myspace page, or other website? Your search is over. PollDaddy is a great resource for quickly generating a poll to put practically anywhere on the web. PollDaddy is both flexible and free and it can be easily embedded...
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May 6, 2007
Photo of the Week: This was the view from Sweet View on Derby Day at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 05.06.07 Microsoft to Buy Yahoo? Nope. Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a...
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May 5, 2007
How much is a name worth? This artistic video created by Good Magazine, titled What is in a Word.com?, recalls the highest priced domain name sales of all time. Can you list the five domain names?
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April 29, 2007
Photo of the Week: Keyboard infestation could happen to anyone of us. Thanks to bhollar for capturing the moment on film. Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 04.29.07 Newsvine Relaunches... Announcing Evergreen Mike Davidson proudly announced the first major overhaul of Newsvine since launching a little more than a year ago. It...
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April 19, 2007
While standard businesses are not going away anytime soon Moo has been a web 2.0 cultural innovator. If you have been around the web 2.0 scene at all you know exactly what I am talking about. Moo, a London-based printing company, has created a new trend in business cards that...
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April 7, 2007
End of the web's free ride? Doubtful. As a former Tribune Co. employee it was surprising to see the Washington Post article published today (April 7, 2007) saying that, soon-to-be Tribune Co. owner and real estate billionaire, Samuel Zell was set on trying to make news aggregators pay for newspaper.com...
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March 12, 2007
Sphere, the blog search engine that launched in May 2006, has been steadily disseminating and connecting the web via the "Sphere It" contextual widget. The widget has grown in popularity as it helps readers offer content recommendations from the blogosphere, as well as related content from current sites. It ultimately...
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