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I wrote a guest post that just was published on TechCrunch, the weblog tracking Web 2.0, titled The State of Online Feed Readers. I analyzed the leading web-based feed readers and a few up and coming readers and compared them.
Thank you Mike Arrington for the opportunity. It was my pleasure to write the post. I hope you enjoy it. If you like the review please Digg it here.
NOTE: TechCrunch is not being renamed SomewhatFrankCrunch as I might have joked about previously.
Museum of Modern Betas or MoMB has recently hit a milestone by reporting on beta application number 1000. Wow! That is a lot of betas. Congratulations MoMB on your accomplishment. Additionally, MoMB as put together an image of all of the previously reviewed screen-shots from each beta patch-worked together. Part of it is shown above be sure to go here to see the full image. Interestingly, MoMB also pulled up an image of the Google beta from 1998 and we all know how that went.
Typepad, the hosted Six Apart blog platform solution, is offering up some additional features for bloggers in the form of widgets. According to Six Apart:
"A widget is a piece of content or functionality provided by a third party that you can place in the siderail of your TypePad blog. Technically, it's a snippet of HTML and/or JavaScript that you can manage like any other sidebar content module on your blog."
Typepad has always had Typelist which help to format your list of information and you could use the "Note" Typelist to add HTML code snippets to create your various widgets. The introduction of Typepad Widgets should remove the need to use a Typelist for code since a widget probably would be a better implementation.
There are number of widgets that have been created already and are available Widget Gallery. Also, Six Apart has decided to open up its API to let developer take a crack at creating new widgets. I am going to have to explore pimping out Somewhat Frank with some additional bling now that I have Typepad Widgets at my disposal. Not to mention, I just think "widget" is a fun word.
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 browse, rate and contribute April Fools pranks to spur laughter in the spirit of the holiday.
April Fools Rules was developed by Mike Cieri and Greg Mroz. I talked with Mike recently about the product and he said that in creating April Fools Rules:
"We wanted to play around with some web 2.0 techniques, learn php, and make a funny site as we are humorous guys."
I think April Fools Rules accomplishes all of Mike's stated objectives. April Fool Rules relies on user-generated content in the form of Aprils Fools pranks or ratings which is a key characteristic of the web 2.o movement. Though, I noticed that the site did not have syndication feeds (RSS or Atom) so I asked Mike about why they are not offered. Basically he said that they could be added with phase two since they are valuable until you have the content flowing into the site. Additionally, Mike and Greg are working on adding tagging features so that users can tag pranks themselves which is another key web 2.o characteristic.
Be sure to check out April Fools Rules to search for the perfect prank or contribute a prank today - just in time for April Fools Day.
Ruby on Rails, the open source web application framework written in Ruby that strives for simplicity, launched Rails 1.1 recently (March 27, 2006). The launch updated Rails with 500 fixes, tweaks, and features from more
than 100 contributors. These Rails 1.1 tweaks are meant to make Rails operate more smoothly.
Ruby on Rails seems to be gaining traction in development circles for its easy of use as a solid tool-set. Carlos Pero had this to say about Rails in general:
"I've been developing dynamic Web sites for over 12 years, and it's nice to see evolution in the tools used."
I have not yet developed anything using Rails specifically so it is difficult for me to weigh in on it. I'll have to wait until I get additional Rails tinkering under my belt.
Newsweek Magazine's latest cover (April 3, 2006) shows the co-founders of the online photo collaboration site Flickr, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. The article goes on to explain the web 2.0 movement in simple terms for all of its readers that may not know what an "API" is or think "Ajax" is a disinfectant cleaner. The article introduces Flickr, MySpace and a few other web 2.0 companies.
I think the most interesting item to note in the article is the bit about MySpace and how just about every Monday MySpace has record registration numbers. Tom Anderson, CEO and co-founder of MySpace says:
"Talk to me any Monday and we have probably set a new record."
Anderson believes one of these Mondays MySpace will pass up Yahoo as the traffic leader on the entire web. The most amazing part is that MySpace has caught on all my word of mouth.
I think the article is a much needed piece about the web 2.0 movement. It should help to get some of the web 2.0 principles like RSS and user generated content out into the mainstream which should help with adoption of some of these concepts. John Cook points to some other perspectives on the article.
YouOS is a web operating system with a suite of intriguing online applications built for you. These applications include simple applications like and complex applications like word processing.The platform is written in JavaScript so you do not need to know multiple languages to contribute your own creations. YouOS was created by four very well educated individuals with a goal of creating a scalable, set of tools written in one language among other things.
YouOS offers a number of common applications online through an web browser which includes email, word processing, instant messenger and RSS reader applications. Additionally, simple applications are offered like the Flickr search application which I have shown below.
The common word processing application is shown here and is called YouOS RichTextEditor.
I am just skimming the surface with what YouOS has to offer. The possibilities are endless because you can also create your own applications on the flexible YouOS platform. With YouOS its all about you - so tinker to your heart's content.
For updates on YouOS be sure to check out the YouOS blog.
David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals recently posted It's a great time to start a business in response to It's a bad time to start a company posted by Caterina Fake. I would strongly recommend you read both posts. I have found I agree with David on this one. I think that thoughtful ideas can turn into reality online more quickly and tattily than ever before.
Yesterday (March 25, 2006) I posted about PlentyofFish.com which is a prime example of the opportunity currently in the online space. Some may argue it is not truly a web 2.0 start-up but it has been successful online with a social networking site which is a web 2.0 commonality. Not to mention, if a story of a simple idea like a free online dating site turned success does not get your entrepreneurial blood boiling than I am not sure what will.
Is it a good time to start a web 2.0 company?
*Image thanks to thinkquest.org
PlentyofFish.com is a 100 percent free online dating site created by big fish Markus Frind that has made some waves in the blogosphere this week. A recent Markus Frind interview transcript was posted by Andrew Johnson and it drive home the point that a successful web site can be run with limited resources - bootstrapping if you will. Markus Frind runs one of the largest dating sites on the web with the help from his wife.
According to the interview PlentyofFish.com has been raking in $10,000 a day in Google ad revenue via the Adsense program. Wow, that is $300,000 a month on contextual ads! It wasn't always that successful though, Markus it built up slowly from $40 a day in 2003. Markus's strategy was to stay under the radar so that no one cloned his service as he organically grew the dating service by blocking Alexa and comScore from tracking the site. Dave Evans may have called it early in his PlentyofFish.com post from back in January 2005.
The story of PlentyofFish.com loosely reminded me of the way that Craig Newmark and Craigslist rose to prominence - organically and with limited resources. It is stories like these that give entrepreneurs and product developers alike something to keep striving for.
Do you know of a similar story you would like to share?
Kitmondo.com recently launched a cost-per-lead online classified advertising service. The service was created for web site that need have a classified advertising section but have no content or means to collection advertisements for the section. Kitmondo.com offers a partnering solution so that sites can display advertisements in their brand while being hosted by Kitmondo. Check out the diagram below for the Kitmondo business life-cycle.
It is an interesting concept and an alternative for sites not interesting in building their own classified advertising infrastructure. Currently, Cinematography.com has implemented the Kitmondo ad solution and can be seen here. For additional information check out the Kitmondo blog.
Lovefilm,a British movie rental service, has teamed with Universal Pictures and is planning to offer the first ever download-to-own service set to launch on April 10, 2006. The service will allow users to download movies to their laptop, PC or handheld device. The film's DVD release will coincide with the release of the downloadable version. The first title said to be released is "King Kong." According to a CNN report, Mark Livingstone , Lovefilm's CEO said:
"The time is only 12-18 months away when you will be able to put the kettle on, get the kids ready and then have a great movie ready to watch."
Additionally, 6,500 titles will be released to follow on both Lovefilm and AOL which are both owned by Time Warner. I wonder what kind of traction this product will receive in the United Kingdom and I wonder when it will be introduced in the United States.
Ben Barren just pointed me to the interesting statistic that Google has aquired 1.25 companies a month in 2005. This is pretty amazing growth! Not to mention, it appears they are on the same sort of pace in 2006 with the recent aquisitions of Writely and @LastSoftware.
*Image thanks to everypicture.com
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 to post a listing to. This concept tends to only focus on the population that participates in the blogosphere which is limiting when trying to enable the most comprehensive listings service. Not to mention, do you really want to post for sale items on your blog? Or would you need to set up a separate blog to post for sale items?
On a recent Gillmor Gang podcast Mike Arrington, co-founder of Edgeio, spoke about its recent progress. Edgeio now will now offer a way for users to post a listing and create a blog to house the ad. With the addition of the new feature, Edgeio has the potential to become a very large scale hosted blog platform for publishing items fairly quickly which increases the risk of exploration by splog (something I know a little bit about with my Splog Reporter experiences).
For additional information on the new Edgeio check out this post on by Pete Cashmore.
UPDATE: Keith Teare, co-founder of Edgeio, has posted a detailed list of Edgeio enhancements which you can read here.
Gigapets? Rhett Miller? Sushi? What IS Big in Japan? Big in Japan is a (surprisingly Texas-based US-based) company in the process of completing a "Web 2.o toolkit" which includes a number of valuable services to help bloggers promote their blogs. Big in Japan calls its products "pro-sumer" products since they are for promotion purposes and made to mix, match and mash. Big in Japan claims:
"Use these prosumer blogging tools and you can be Big in Japan."
The services in the toolkit are as follows:
- PodServe - podcasting tool offering a simple way to create, host and list your podcast.
- FrankenFeed - syndication tool which makes it so easy to combine multiple feeds.
- elfURL - URL creation tool allows you to shrink giant URL's to more manageable units.
- InstantFeed - syndication tool which enables feed delivery to your instant messenger.
- QwikPing - ping service tool for getting the message out once your blog has updated.
- FeedVault - feed reading list manager which allows you to manage your OPML reading list and save it in one safe place.
- MailFeed - syndication by email for people who are not down with RSS and atom feeds.
- SocialMail - email via syndication for people who want email delivered via RSS.
- StatsTool - metrics management tool which enables you to pull together all your different metrics packages into one place.
PodServe may be the most well-known service. However, StatsTools sounds very useful as it will allow you to pull together the metrics of all your different blog offerings. So in essence I should be able to see my FeedBurner, Google Adsense, Amazon and a load of other services all in one place. The Big in Japan tools are built on the Ruby on Rails version 1 framework and several of the services are not yet available but I am anxious to see them completed. For updates be sure to stay tuned to the Big in Japan blog.
Yahoo Voice has launched today (March 22, 2006) which gives users full inbound and outbound Voice Over IP or VOIP telephone calling capabilities. The product will directly compete with Skype which was gobbled up by eBay in 2005. Yahoo Voice should help squander the near domination in the space by Skype, though other services like Gizmo do exist.
Yahoo requires users to download the latest version of Yahoo Instant Messenger client and will compete by offering slightly cheaper service than Skype at $2.99 a month or $29.90 a year and then two cents a minute to place calls.
I am not a big Skype user since I pay for Vonage, another VOIP service that requires a little more hardware and setup than the PC based services. However, if I was not using Vonage, I am sure I would be using one of the other PC based VOIP options.
To better understand how Yahoo Voice works be sure to check out the How To Make Phone Calls Page. Also check out these reviews on TechCrunch and PC Magazine.
Startup Mixology: Tech Cocktail's Guide To Building, Growing & Celebrating Startup Success by Frank Gruber
