SOMEWHAT FRANK

Video iPod Finds a Spot in the MLB Dugout

Major League Baseball has a new addition to its bench - the Apple Video iPod. The Colorado Rockies and few other ball clubs have adopted the use of the Video iPod to watch prepare for baseball games by dissecting player swings and pitcher mechanics.

According to a report by CNN.com, Brian Jones the Rockies assistant video coordinator came up with the idea and had this to say:

"It wasn't like we invented the wheel. We're using Apple's technology as best we can. We figured if you can watch music videos by rock 'n' roll and by country, why can't you watch at-bats by San Francisco and pitches by Jason Schmidt?"

As a former baseball player who used to have my at bats video taped to become more mechanically sound, I think this is an excellent usage of new technology. It could help a player be better prepared and sometimes thats all you need to have an edge. As Brian Jones stated, watching game tape is really not a new concept but it is a new handheld usage that makes it unique.

US Government Now Searchable Via Google

Google has launched a Google U.S. Government Search vertical. The site is laid out in three columns like a portal or personal homepage in which various news elements are organized and pulled in based on a category or source. Interestingly, the Washington Post has its own location in the bottom right corner of the default layout – not bad real estate. Though a user can login and personalize the page layout. 

According to a recent post on the Google blog:

"...it's a site on which you can 1) search across a huge index of U.S. Federal, state and local government websites via a single search box, and 2) stay up to date through personalized content feeds from government agencies and press outlets."

I did a few searches for LLC information and found the results to be more targeted and better than a normal Google search however it would be nice to be able to search by state - since each state may have its own LLC forms and regulations. I expect similar medical and travel vertical search engines from Google soon.

Mozilla Laying Down The Feed Icon Law

The Mozilla Foundation which brought us the Firefox browser in addition to the fairly new orange feed icon, shown to the right and discussed previously on Somewhat Frank, has decided to create guidelines for the use of the feed icon. Apparently, Mozilla had the browser Opera sign an agreement prior to using the orange icon. Frank Hecker, the executive director of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, commented extensively on the usage of the feed icon in a post on his blog saying:

“We propose that the feed icon be freely available for general use in connection with web feeds using open web syndication formats, without the need to enter into a trademark license agreement (or similar arrangement), and that these guidelines not be legally binding.”

The post goes on to specify how the icon should and should not be used. I understand what Frank and the Mozilla folks are trying to do and I think it is important to have some guidelines to help ensure that the icon is not used in ways that could dilute or confuse people. However, I hope that this strong statement does not turn people to create yet another standard syndication icon to add to our collection of orange feed icons thus further confusing the average online user - since they are probably not paying attention to Mozilla’s guidelines or which feed icon is the current “cool” standard.

eBay Integrates Skype Into Listings

No surprise here, eBay has finally added a click to call link to its listings. This is a clear integration of Skype, the free Internet phone service provider, which they acquired back in September 2005. This could lead to a number of other sites (Amazon, Craigslist, Google Base) integrating similar services. The conversation has been plentiful about this move today on techmeme.

Krun.ch: Compress and Send Files Fast

Krun.ch is an online tool that allows you to compress, store and send files online. Krun.ch is unique in that it is only a temporary storage solution as files expire after 24 hours. Prior to expiration a user can send files around as they see fit  not to mention users will be able to keep track of your krunched and unkrunched files and easily access.

Krun.ch is the latest creation of the young and talented developer Kailash Nadh who also created the popular ping engine Pingoat and splog search engine SplogSpot before selling them both in March 2006. I find that all of Kailash projects are simple to use which is a characteristic I thoroughly appreciate in his work. While I understand there are a number of similar services like DropSend (highlighted previously) and Whale Mail among others I would recommend giving Krun.ch a whirl. For additional details on Krun.ch be sure to check out the Krun.ch Blog.

ArmChairGM For Sports Your Way

With the MLB baseball season in full swing, World Cup soccer kicking into gear and the NBA Finals heating up I think it is appropriate to shed some light on ArmChairGM, a sport resource site that any sports fan can edit.

ArmChairGM a wiki solution aimed at the sports lover and appears to be built on customized and AJAX enhanced version of MediaWiki, the same wiki software, which powers the popular Wikipedia and it's sister site Wikia. However, ArmChairGM takes interactivity a step further by also incorporated voting similar to Digg and comments which mirror blog comments to each piece of content.

According to co-founder Aaron Wright:

"ArmchairGM is a decentralized bliki - a blog and wiki combined with non-hierarchical editorial control (think Digg).  We give passionate sports fans the ability to write blog entries or news articles, which are given depth by linking to our growing sports wiki, and have the results sorted democratically by other users."

If you are a sports enthusiast or if you just want to find out more about how it works be sure to check out this step-by-step ArmChairGM tutorial - and let the games begin!

Somewhat Frank Outage

Somewhat Frank is having a bad day as it has been experiencing some technical difficulties since 5pm CST. It appears to be an outage by Moniker causing the problem. I apologize for the inconvenience I hope the site will return soon. Please hang in there.  Thanks.

*Image thanks to Brooklyn via Flickr

Attensa Goes Corporate: Enterprise RSS

Attensa, the Portland, Oregon-based company specializing in creating business-class RSS solutions, has been busily working on an enterprise RSS solution. No, not the Star Trek Enterprise spacecraft; I am referring to a new hardware product called Attensa Enterprise Suite RSS Server. Attensa Enterprise Suite RSS Server, or AES:RSS for short, is targeted at companies looking for employees to safely and securely use RSS as a communication channel.

There are a number possible uses for RSS within the corporate environment. Anything that can be done via email most likely can be done using RSS with the additional benefit of having increased metrics on the communication’s reach, which can ultimately help to gauge its success. An RSS stream could be used from something as primitive as a mass communication or as targeted as corporate building services communications (i.e. fire drill, fridge cleaning, phone upgrades, etc.). Corporate RSS could be used for secure items such as financial statements, project management, paycheck stubs and top-secret abstractions. Not to mention, corporate RSS could be used for rich-media communications via podcasts and video-casts for shareholder meetings and training, among other things.

AES:RSS is a self-contained Linux-based server that has simplified the deployment process, thus making all of these corporate RSS dreams a simple reality by offering an enterprise solution as a piece of hardware, which comforts even the most stringent corporate IT. Most corporate IT professionals know the ease of plug-and-play hardware versus having to install and configure a server with a product themselves.

A major benefit of the Attensa server solution is that it will go out and pull down RSS feeds for the various users within the corporation once and then distribute them all via the server. This takes some of the stress off the corporate infrastructure by limiting the number of repetitive feed retrievals. Feeds are then presented to user with slick AJAX web-based feed reader. Administrators within the company will also be able to create RSS messages an AJAX web application.

In speaking with Matthew Bookspan, Director of Product  Management at Attensa, the company has been busy with the AES:RSS in addition to revamping its online feed reader, which I highlighted prior to being updated for a post on TechCrunch comparing the online feed readers. Attensa also offers a desktop solution and a mobile solution, both of which sound pretty interesting, though I have not used either of them so cannot comment on their capabilities.

I should mention a few other competitors in the Enterprise RSS space: Newsgator Enterprise Server and KnowNow Enterprise Syndication Solution. Both use similar enterprise server solutions. KnowNow in particular has been implemented by Rentals.com to help manage its lead notification process.

However, Attensa offers more than just the server; Attensa also uses "attention," as I highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank, to offer corporations valuable metrics on usage and influence. Attention can be used by employers to monitor who is producing the most influential content and use it as a gauge for rewards. It also can be leveraged to fight information overload by having the most influential information bubble to the top. I could see Attensa even taking it a step further and look forward to seeing what they come with in the next couple months. The pricing for AES:RSS is still unclear but I would presume is will be comparable to other hardware options like Google Mini and others. Be on the lookout for more to come from Attensa.

GoodSearch: Search To Benefit Charity

GoodSearch, a Los Angeles-based search engine powered by Yahoo, well, makes you feel good about searching. By designating a charity prior to searching, GoodSearch will designate a donation to the organization of your choice each time you perform a search. Talk about killing two birds with one stone! Just imagine what you could accomplish in the name of charity simply by using GoodSearch during your workday alone. Add that to the number of days a year you work, and now you’ve really done some good. So go ahead, make it your browser toolbar and perform a search that really makes you feel good!

Ken Ramberg the founder of GoodSearch states:

"Fifty percent of our revenue is distributed to charities and schools. The revenue is divided among the organizations based on how any times supporters of that charity or school use the site. We estimate that a charity with 1,000 supporters searching the internet twice a day will receive $7,300 at the end of the year. The more people who use the site, the more money an organization can earn. The sky is the limit!"

Wow, this is definitely the opposite of "being evil." For more details on GoodSearch be sure to check out this similar article on Treehugger.

Typepad Now Offers FeedBurner Inside

Typepad, the blog platform by Six Apart which powers Somewhat Frank, announced a new partnership today with Chicago-based feed management giant, FeedBurner. This means that Typepad users can now more seamlessly integrate their feeds into a Typepad blog using FeedBurner and take advantage of FeedBurner's excellent metrics capabilities. The most interesting part about the integration is that if you have an old feed out there lurking in the blogosphere FeedBurner will redirect it to your new FeedBurner feed without offering a taxing user experience.

I am happy to see this type of teamwork and I would expect to see other similar partnerships with other blog platforms like WordPress and Blogger.

For more details check out the latest post on the FeedBurner blog. TechCrunch also was quick to post about it. Finally, find out Rick Klau of FeedBurner's perspective on the deal.

Topix.net Enters Classified Ad Business

Topix.net, a news aggregator service owned by three large, traditional media companies, has added the ability to post free classified ads on its site. Topix offers a free alternative to both print and online classified newspaper sites, which have been banking on paid classified ads for years. Another direct competitor would be Craigslist, among others.

You can see a screen-shot of the layout to the Chicago ads below. Obviously, the number of ads is limited, however, I expect them to pick up with time.

According to Chris Tolles, who posted on the Topix blog about the classified system and how it fits into Topix mission:

"Our goal here at Topix.net is to help people connect better with their community -- whether that be where they live, or what they're interested in. We started by collecting news from all over the net and using technology to automatically tag it with geo-location and topic."

I am a big fan of Topix.net and the moves that included the introduction of blog search results, mapping conversations and, most recently, a publisher platform. I think this move by Topix.net further hedges the bet of its old media ownership, which has been looking for additional revenue streams due to the decline in print readership. Maybe they should look to Topix because I feel Topix gets it.

Search for Contacts, Events & Reviews

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. Most simply put, microformats are:

"Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards."

Technorati has also introduced Pingerati. According to are recent article by John Battelle, Pingerati is supposed to:

"…provide a channel to translate human-directed announcements into microformat-ready html."

Tantek Çelik, Technorati Chief Technologist, posted last week about the new features and said this of microformats:

"Microformats are the key building block, the lingua franca, that make structured information open and sharable on the Web."

I think this service will come in pretty handy in the future as more people adopt its usage. Just yesterday a colleague asked me if I knew of a way to search for someone’s contact information and the new microformat search for an hCard may been the solution we were looking for. This is making the assumption that the person we are looking for has placed their contact information online somewhere to be found by Technorati. Nonetheless, it is a step in the right direction.

Tags: microformats, search, pingerati, ping, liveweb, realtimeweb, hCard, hCalendar, hReview.

Cars.com Launches OnRamp Blog

Cars.com, the Chicago-based company owned by Classified Ventures, has launched the second blog in the history of the company by launching the Cars.com OnRamp Blog. Cars.com has brought on Dave Thomas, formerly of AutoBlog fame among other things, as a key contributor. According to a recent post the goal for OnRamp is to:

"Give consumers the latest, most useful news about the world of cars. We won’t be a gearhead blog, but we will tackle the topics that matter most to you — safety, innovation, gas mileage, recalls, new models, getting the best deal."

I actually met with the Cars.com team a few weeks ago to share some of my blogging knowledge, tips, tricks and expertise. I think the resulting blog looks great! I think the mission sounds like it will be able to add additional value to auto reasearchers and buyers alike.

Google Fun 55 Ways From Sunday

As if Google were not clearly fun enough already, Philipp Lenssen, editor of Google Blogoscoping, has released a new book titled 55 Ways To Have Fun With Google to help uncover the little known fun tidbits about Google. The book’s title says it all but in case you are looking for more details the book is said to be filled with Google games, tricks and utilities that you may not already be familiar with. Visit lulu to order a copy.

Do a Frank Gruber

No, it's not the latest dance craze. A "Frank Gruber," as defined byRalph Poole, is to compare a bunch of services as I have previously on TechCrunch and Somewhat Frank.  I'm not sure what significance this name-as-an-action milestone holds, but for what it's worth, I'm flattered. Thanks, Ralph!