SOMEWHAT FRANK

InviteForGood Links Events To Charity

InviteForGood is a social event planner that links social events to charitable organizations so that guests can donate while responding to an invitation.  InviteForGood is familiar to those of us who have ever worked with online gift-registries for weddings, except that, here, the registry allows guests to donate to selected charities instead of purchasing gifts.  This provides users with the ability to share the charities they are enthusiastic about with their friends.  The hope is that, after having exposed others to charities users care about, people will be more likely to donate in the future and begin a life of charitable giving. 

The website keeps users informed of when and who has pledged donations to the selected charities and provides users with the ability to quickly send out "thank you" letters.

Although the website includes certain preloaded charities, such as Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross, and the Books for Kids Foundation, users can also add their own charities that are not preloaded.  There is no fee for using the website and the website does not take any part of the donation for its own operating costs; it appears that InviteForGood is a purely charitable.

Bottom-line: InviteForGood could be a great way to share your enthusiasm for particular issues while encouraging friends to participate.

Joost Platform Brings TV Over Internet

Joost, formerly known as the Venice Project, is a platform that looks to "juice up" the web by offering TV over the Internet with a surprisingly crisp video quality. What is Joost? Joost is the creation of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, creators of Skype and Kazaa which leveraged peer-to-peer technology to turn the Internet into a television platform.

According to the Technology Review, Joost content initially comes from central servers located in Luxembourg, but as more and more users request the same content, the system shifts to peer-to-peer file transfers, which increases efficiency as more users log on. However, Joost does not require lengthy downloads but rather goes after those seeking instant gratification. With Joost it takes less than five seconds to change the channel and watch something else - on demand IPTV at your service.

I got a chance to check out the Joost private beta and I was pleasantly surprised with the way that it presented videos on a computer optimized for the ten foot experience. I have noticed a few people are offering invites to Joost so if you would like to check it out yourself go here, here or here - as they are offering more people a shot to test it out as Joost nears its public launch.

Currently, Joost is in the process of signing partner deals to bulk up its content offerings. With time this could make it an ideal way to watch TV. For more on Joost check out the first Joost commercial below.

Photobucket Sale, Facebook Classifieds, The Great Digg Revolt, iGoogle Communities & Last.fm Video Launched

Photo of the Week: While in Santa Monica, California this week for Twiistup I decided to get up early on Wednesday to go down to the beach and snap this shot.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits 05.13.07

Facebook to Launch Classifieds Service
Social network Facebook is set to launch a classified service to its users on Friday, according to the New York Times. The service will launch under the name 'Facebook Marketplace.' Makes sense, they are fishing where the fish are.

Are Search Engine Rankings are Dead?
With the advent of personalization and impending changes with the interface of search results, the notion of ranking seems to be on it’s way out. Lee Odden takes a closer look.

You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well
In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves -- or their offspring -- to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking searches.

iGoogle Community Modules
Want to put a little piece of yourself on your friends' and family's homepages? The iGoogle team seems to launch little updates every other week but this one caught my eye. it’s a new category called “my community." With cookie-cutter templates you can create your own modules. Creating and sharing these Google Gadgets is as easy as filling out a simple form.

Last.fm Launches Video - Aims To Be The MTV Of Web 2.0 Age
Online radio station Last.fm is adding a video section to its site this week, enabling users to create their own personalized video channels - similar to how users can already create radio stations based on their music tastes.

RSS Feeds for Tags at Amazon.com
The new functionality has been soft-launched and isn’t currently available on all Amazon pages. Support will become available across the board in the coming weeks. Woohoo!

MySpace/Photobucket: User Overlap Is Nearly 100%
NewsCorp plans to pay half as much for Photobucket as they did for MySpace. Photobucket is going for $300 million, and MySpace was acquired for $580 million, back in 2005. Interesting analysis by Mr. Arrington.

What Happened at Digg?
The firestorm that erupted at Digg earlier this week over a censored post has led to a lot of discussion about the nature of censorship in a world where everyone is a publisher. Some are calling it the "The Great Digg Revolt,"  as it illustrates just how much power the web 2.0 movement has given to its users.

Gmail Users are Younger & Richer?
The latest stats show that Gmail users skew younger and richer than other mail products. I guess I am old and poor cause I don't use Gmail.

Five Twitter Tools We Love
Getting sick of Twitter? Maybe these five add-ons may help convince you to the service for a bit longer.

LinkedIn lets you see who is viewing your profile — sort of
LinkedIn has created a new feature that lets you see who is viewing your profile. So now you can find out who is stalking looking for you in the business world.

What is your favorite web tech conference in 2007 so far?
Don't forget to vote for a conference you enjoyed the most so far this year!

GOOD Porn Video

I usually like to switch up the video sources I referred to on the weekly video post but I could not resist pointing out another solid video created by GOOD Magazine. GOOD contributor Max Joseph has created this video which takes a look at the porn industry on the web. Apparently, there are some online sites that offer pornography? :)

PollDaddy: The Big Papi of Polls?

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 on a page via JavaScript, Flash, direct link, widget or RSS.  One great feature of PollDaddy is that you can customize the style of the poll to match your site's design, using CSS, or select from a number of pre-configured designs.

We all want to get readers input and there is no better way to do it.  Also, thanks to a new feature called “WildFire” you can post your poll to your MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Freewebs, Xanga, or Hi5 account.  So if you want to post polls on the web, head on over to PollDaddy and find out what others are thinking.

Check out the poll below or visit it directly here. If you want to read more about the conferences then check out our previous roundup of solid 2007 web 2.0 and tech conferences.

Editors Note: Thank you to Nick O'Neill who writes a fine blog called TheWebpreneur.com for contributing this article to Somewhat Frank - come back anytime!  Nick is also co-hosting the upcoming Tech Cocktail DC with Frank Gruber & Eric Olson.

Twiisted Up in Santa Monica

Twiistup took place last night (May 9, 2007) at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, California to bring together some of the Southern California technology community. Twiistup, previously highlighted on Somewhat Frank, was founded by Mike Macadaan with the help of Ryan Buckholtz. Twiistup attracted a large turnout which filled the bar with loads of Southern California based technology and design enthusiasts. In addition, pulled together a number great giveaways, swag and even some sushi. DJ Anthony Valadez mixed psychedelic beats all evening and the bar offered a drink special on a drink called the Twiistup which was orange and tasted like Tang with a kick.

There were presenters throughout the duration of the evening which gave five minute talks for the crowd. They included:

Buildv1 - Digg-like site for connecting with entrepreneurs
CrazyEgg - heat maps your site traffic patterns
goodreads - social network for avid readers
mint - helps you keep track & save money
ooVoo - consumer facing video chat
Urbaniacs - create an urban hero avatar then go meet others
Verse Studios - gaming meets social networks
yourminis - flashy and sexy widget platform

Twiistup was a very good first event for the area which is often overshadowed by glitz of Hollywood. Congrats to Mike, Stephanie and Ryan for bringing the community together for an evening of tech related entertainment. Here are some photos from Twiistup.

Photo Attribution: Thanks to Mike Macadaan via Flickr.

Middio: Search YouTube Music Videos

Are you looking for music videos on YouTube? You are not alone. Middio launched publicly on Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2007) to help users find all the music they are looking for on YouTube. Middio indexes YouTube music videos so that you can search by song or artist and returns search results with embedded video thumbnails. Interestingly, Middio was created by Jake Jarvis, the sixteen year web developer, blogger, student and son of popular blogger Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine fame. Nice work Jake!

I performed a few video searches and received pretty good results but I also expect the search algorithm to continue to improve with time. I think the real value in Middio lies in the fact that it removes many of the bogus results you might encounter when performing the same search on YouTube itself.

Additionally, Middio enables users to convert YouTube videos to iPod format to be taken with you which is similar to a product put out by the TechCrunch team that allows for the download of YouTube videos. TechCrunch reported that it is possible that YouTube will try and block this portion of the application. Middio also currently enables users to share videos to Facebook so it could use some additional means for sharing but I figure they will come with time. Videos are played within Middio and you can see a screen-shot below.

Microsoft Buying Yahoo?, Goodbye Yahoo Photos, YouTube RevShare, Small the New Big, Conference Success & Twittering

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 deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, The Post has learned. Opps, false alarm.

Breaking: Yahoo To Shut Down Yahoo Photos In Favor Of Flickr
The Yahoo Photos service will be shut down in favor of the newer and more social Flickr, which they acquired in March of 2005. Peanut butter clean-up?

YouTube Makes Some Members Content Partners
Participating user-partners will be treated as other content partners and will have the ability to control the monetization of the videos they create. Once they’ve selected a video to be monetized, we’ll place advertising adjacent to their content and share the revenue with the content producer.

Small is The New Big
Now that Web 2.0 is growing up, scale no longer matters. GigaOm explains how even tiny businesses—like transcription services—can go global.

eBay widgets
What a fantastic and easy way to promote your auctions or Ebay fund raisers on your blog! The set-up for this widget is very simple to figure out. There are no technical hurdles for newbies to worry about.

The (Re)Birth of Mobile Banking
While the upcoming iPhone launch is capturing the lion’s share of attention in the Wireless industry, the re-introduction of Mobile Banking has been at the core of a movement to make a cell phone your next wallet.

Calacanis’ latest, Project X, Kokua?
Jason Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs Inc., and now an entrepreneur-in-action at Sequoia Capital is working on a new company called, Project X. Valleywag published some details about the company earlier this week, that has the apparent backing of Mark Cuban. I am hoping Mark also buys the Chicago Cubs at seasons end.

Most Profitable Web 2.0 Business: Conferences
The tech conference business continues to amaze me. They are true champion revenue generators of the web 2.0 area.

Rebrand & New Features: Google IG To Relaunch as iGoogle
Google’s personalized home page, Google IG, has been rebranded as iGoogle and launched at igoogle.com.

Twittering more than blogging
I sent 1,327 text messages last month, many of which were related to twitter so I have to say that I did not write anywhere near 1,327 blog posts in the same time. Marshall Kirkpatrick explains how he is has been twittering a lot more than blogging as well.

Video Recalls Priciest Domain Name Sales

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?

8hands To Monitor Your Social Web

Although there are a number of web-based web profile aggregators offerings, 8hands is a desktop application that offers users the ability to aggregate the activities of all of their favorite online social networks and sites. 8hands main goal is to:

"make a super cool tool that will help us navigate and keep us updated on any of our social network actions."

I guess you could say it is like having 8 hands helping you to monitor your social life online as 8hands provides real-time monitoring and notification as well as a summary of all your online social networking activities, which includes statistics. Not only does 8hands aggregate your social networks, it also extends the functionality of these networks by offering the ability to IM your social network friends, and to share your online content with simple drag and drop functionality.    Aside from the product itself, 8hands also offers some interesting desktop wallpapers.

Bottom-line: 8hands is an application that helps to aggregate, monitor and extend your social networks from one nifty desktop console.

Walk2Web: Walk Don't Stumble The Web

With StumbleUpon recently acquired for somewhere between $60 and $75 million it has brought other similar sites into the spotlight as the search is on for the next Stumble. StumbleUpon leverages a stupid  plain simple approach to enable its users to discover new places and videos on the web. If you are not one to "stumble," you might want to give "walking the web" a try with Walk2Web.

Walk2Web, created by San Jose-based Siteheart, uncovers new places on the web in a similar simple fashion to that of StumbleUpon but has its own gimmicky twist. Instead of stumbling, a user is presented a slide-show of random web site screen-shot thumbnails. Upon clicking on one of the site screen-shots a user is shown a visual representation of the related sites and a user can "walk" to other related sites. In addition a user can type in a direct URL to "walk" the web. Using Somewhat Frank as an example, I have captured a screen-shot (below) that shows how associated sites are presented.

Though Walk2Web offers an anonymous user experience, a user must sign-in to have the ability to rate any site with thumbs up or thumbs down, save the site to public or private bookmarks, tag the site and comment on the site.

Walk2Web has some work ahead of it if it strives for a StumbleUpon glory, as I did find some issues with the site. For example, I could not find an easy way back to the homepage slideshow and I could not find a way to see my bookmarks and ratings. All issues aside, I feel the concept of "walking the web" could be something people come to enjoy.

Bottom-line: Walk2Web offers a simple yet interesting way to discover, bookmark and rate places on the web.

Cappex To Connect Schools With Students

It has been awhile since I was looking for the right college experience. However, I do recall it being a rather daunting task as there are so many schools to examine in such a short period of time. A Chicago-based startup, Cappex aims to try give students some relief by helping students connect with colleges and universities that are interested in recruiting them. The site aims to help students, guidance counselors and school administrators by connecting them all via the web.

Students simply fill out a profile and schools can look for students through Cappex based on profile criteria. Similar to LinkedIn, Cappex enables schools to attempt to connect with students but students can chose which schools they are interested in connecting with. School administrators can leverage Cappex as a recruiting tool to search for prospective students. Guidance counselors can also get involved with Cappex by registering to assist student throughout the school selection process. Guidance counselors receive tips and tools that are highlighted in this tour.

Bottom-line: Cappex aims to connect students with schools that are interested in recruiting them.

Koonji Guides You Through "How To"

Search engines are often the first place we start when trying to determine "how to" do something we don't know much about. Searching the web does not always return the best results as there are often a number of steps involved in learning "how to" do something. We then have to figure out the proper "how to" steps and piece them together. Koonji, a community-driven site, is on a mission to change this by providing users with easy to follow, step-by-step guides to the most common activities. The Koonji community helps generate these guides by contributing the appropriate steps, recommended links and tips. Koonji is like Cliff Notes on the web.

Like Topix, Digg and many other web 2.0 sites, Koonji appears to be positioning itself to generate revenue from contextual advertising on its niche landing pages and help some people find just what they are looking for along the way. Whether you are looking to Make Money from Blogs or Make a Turkish Coffee, Koonji could become a valuable resource if the community continues to grow and contribute to bulk up the number of rich wiki-like pages.