SOMEWHAT FRANK

Ask500People Live Polls The Web For Answers

Ask500People aims to live up to its name by taking a simple poll question and opening it up to the Web to interact and answer. It offers a social and public polling record that is plotted on a map real-time. The map moves around as poll questions are answered by 500 people (which attributes to its clever name).

Holiday Gift Wish List Round-Up

The holiday season is upon us and it is time to get your holiday wish list in order. In my family if I do not produce and circulate a wish list I could end up getting some random gifts for the holidays. While all gifts are appreciated, sometimes the best ones are those that you wished for. What's the best way to collect, organize and share your holiday wish list? There are a number of Web 2.0 sites that are devoted to creating shopping or holiday wish lists and I will showcase eleven of them in this article.

RedZee For A Carousel of Visual Search Results

RedZee, a Tampa, Florida-based startup, tries to take advantage the old proverb "a picture is worth a thousand words" by displaying a single still thumbnail image preview of a search result in the place of the usual text based result - calling it Search 2.0. RedZee also leverages your potential love for claymation animals like Wallace and Gromit or Gumby with its little Red Zebra mascot. Who can argue with a little red zebra?

Google Aims To Save The Planet: Surprised?

Google announced today that they will be looking to get into trying to save the planet by announcing a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. I happy to see Google is taking such a stance and it makes me wonder what will Google do next. In the last week alone Google has announced they are making broadband switches, going to be offering a TV-related product soon, releasing a mobile phone platform soon and a  Google Magazine was even spotted in print in China among other products and endeavors. It is a pretty amazing to think that a single text box search engine could come to create such a diverse list of products.

Userplane Partners With TV Sites

Userplane, the web chat and community tools provider, has announced today that they are working with network and cable TV media companies to rollout social networking and messaging services within their existing online communities to kick off online conversations. Userplane's deal includes Channel 4 (UK), The CW, FUEL TV, and the Independent Film Channel as they will be adding the Webchat, Minichat, and Webmessenger applications to their online communities.

Shoeboxed Organizes Your Shopping History

After two of the biggest shopping days of the year Black Friday and Cyber-Monday respectively I figured it was probably important to make sure you save your receipts. You may throw them in your wallet, purse or in a shoebox under your bed somewhere. With Shoeboxed you can save all your receipts in one place online. Shoeboxed aims to make it easy to keep track of your own personal shopping history by offering an online repository with sprinkles of social candy to make sharing it easy to share some of your personal shopping history.

BricaBox A New Kind Of Publishing Platform

Brica what? BricaBox, a New York-based startup, offers a publishing platform for organizing and displaying content in a more structured manner. It's goal is to offer a way to present detailed content or data. Wondering why you might need more structure? Read on to find out how you might be able to use BricaBox.

Google Getting Into Everything, NewsCorp To Buy LinkedIn?, FireFox 3 Beta, Death to E-mail, Popular Twitter Clients & Don't Text-N-Drive

Photo of the Week: With the Thanksgiving holiday this past week I ate entirely too much and encountered situation shown above several times. I am glad that Marc Levin captured it on film with this photo titled member of the clean plate club.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 11.25.2007

Amazon Kindle A First Look Video

My old friend Benjamin Higginbotham at Technology Evangelist gives an honest and 'somewhat frank' perspective about his first 12 hours with the just released the wireless book reading device the the Amazon Kindle. Ben is a veteran e-Book reader users and lists the positives and negatives to the Kindle. 

I Need A Medic! A Health 2.0 Round-up

False alarm, I don't need a medic but sometimes I have medical questions, like what is "Steakhouse Syndrome", "Chronic Pain" or "Blurred Vision." Of course you can check out Web MD or HealthLine but there are a few new medical searches that offer more of  a Web 2.0 approach. This article will examine a number of the new health and medical sites on the Web.

Thanksgiving 2007 on the Web

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all we have. This includes indulging in way too much food and football with family. Needless to say there are lots of ways to get into the Turkey Day spirit. Last year, I showed just how to or how not to deep fry a turkey. Today I am going to list a number of other how to's, lists, recipes and videos to get you ready for some TURKEY!

Cumul.us: Predict The Weather & What To Wear

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!

Magnify.net Video & Vlog Platform In A Box

Magnify.net, a New York-based startup, offers a platform that makes it easy to add video to any web site. The Magnify video platform lets users build a custom channel, deliver the traffic and keep the page views. Magnify acts as the backbone and eliminates the need for a site owner to reinvent the video hosting wheel while creating a social media site. Magnify also enables users to monetize via their own ad calls. Thus Magnify could be a perfect fit for someone looking for a simple way to add a video channel to a their site.

Dawdle Video Game Search & Marketplace

Dawdle, a Chicago-based startup, recently launched to offer video game lovers a new place to buy and sell games, gaming systems and accessories. Dawdle tries to take the hassle out searching for items online by devoting the site to matching buyers with sellers via an innovative matching engine.

Amazon Kindle Going E-Book, Facebook Looks To Buy, Barack Cleantech VC Fund?, Workaholics Help, Design Trends & Presentation Tips

Photo of the Week: I spent the weekend in Chicago after another successful TECH cocktail this past week and snapped a shot of the new Playboy building the home of Playboy Enterprises and Northwestern University among other tenants.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 11.18.2007