SOMEWHAT FRANK

Office 2.0, Mobile RSS, SplashCast, Yahoo Widgets & Netvibes Updated, New TechCrunch CEO & Web Launch Strategy

Photo of the Week: The trees are blooming faster than web 2.0 startups these days. I snapped this photo, titled Flowering with my camera phone, while at the AOL Mountain View, California office this past week.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 03.25.07

Under the Radar Office 2.0 Winners
I had a chance to drop into the Under the Radar Office 2.0 event at Microsoft's Mountain View, California office on Friday (March 23, 2007) that showcased a number of startups in various business related software categories. This article announces the top picks in each category.

SplashCast: Channel Yourself Across the Web
SplashCast, my favorite video player widget, has made some changes which make it easier to place videos to be syndicated via RSS, in an embedded player and a number of others.

How To Market Your Web App
Read/Write Web examines the horrible peak-then-slump scenario the is common in the web 2.0 era and often happens after Digg, TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, Somewhat Frank or other popular blogs spotlight a site.

Newspapers are dead...
Robert Scoble explains why newspapers are dead. I don't feel that newspapers are totally dead, as The Washington Post and a few other newspaper-based companies have been quick to adapt to the changes in the media landscape. However, the rest of pack had better realize that they need to change NOW.

Welcome To TechCrunch, Heather
TechCrunch and the Crunch Network has hired its first CEO by luring Heather Harde away from Fox Interactive Media to join the team. I had a chance to hang out with Mike Arrington this past week and he was pretty happy to have Heather on board.

SideStep and EveryClick Team Travel Searches, Charity Donations
SideStep.com just announced a partnership with EveryClick.com, a UK based search engine with social responsibility, giving 50% of gross revenues to charities. It reminds me of GoodSearch - BRAVO!

Yahoo! Launches Widgets 4.0
Yahoo! relaunched its previously named Yahoo Widget Engine with a faster, lighter, and sleeker 4.0 version.

Netvibes Launches New Version
Netvibes, the personalized homepage product, officially released its new version called the "Coriander Edition". 

Looking back at three years of Web 2.0 investing
Jeff Clavier, an established entrepreneur, offers up a glance of his impressive portfolio publicly for the first time. Thanks Jeff!

RSS on the Go: A look at Web-Based Mobile Aggregators
Want to read your feeds on the go? There are a few choices for those of us who want the same feeds accessible in both big and small formats at the same time, without requiring the download of a dedicated application on any platform. AOL also offers a mobile feed reader that was not mentioned but is an easy way to check some feeds on the go as well.

Weaving The Web To Your Taste
Hossein Eslambolchi's service will scour the web for the media you want and feeds you recommended items.

Basecamp, activeCollab, and Goplan compared
With the mention of the Goplan launch last week, I think it is appropriate to now point out this solid comparison of its competitors.

Fresh Reader - Pushing the Feed
Profy reports on a new RSS feed reader called Fresh Reader a Web based, server type RSS feed reader that runs exceptionally fast. Fresh Reader is designed for either personal or corporate use, and allows for social bookmarking, mobile support, Intranet use and many other features.

Top 40+ FeedBurner sites aggregated
Frantic Industries has manually aggregated a list of the top 40-plus sites based on FeedBurner subscriber metrics.

Google Sued, Microsoft Buys TellMe, AOL Local, Last.fm Video, Attention Economy Overload & TECH cocktail 4 Coming Soon

Photo of the Week: This is a photo I took in my old neighborhood in Lincoln Park in Chicago prior to moving on to AOL in Virginia. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 03.18.07

Viacom Drops a $1 Billion Nuke on Google
Remember when Napster was a lawsuit target for helping to foster pirated music? When Google acquired YouTube everyone wondered who would be the first company to try and collect on video copyright infringement in a similar fashion. We now know, as Viacom was the first to step to the plate with a one billion dollar lawsuit against Google. Complete.com offers some interesting analysis on the situation.

AOL moves AOL Local Search into Beta - it's very slick
CenterNetworks reviewed the latest beta to come out of AOL. AOL Local refreshes the local options as a user moves around a map. So start in 10036 (Times Square) and move to 11235 (Brooklyn) and the options move.

Microsoft to Acquire Tellme Networks
Tellme Networks, Inc., a leading provider of voice services for everyday life, including nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service and voice-enabled mobile search. Microsoft and Tellme share a vision around the potential of speech as a way to enable access to information, locate other people and enhance business processes, any time and from any device.

Last.fm Adds Video Tracking
The Register reported earlier this week that social music play, Last.fm has added the ability to not only track the music you play on iTunes and other services but now is going to start doing the same with video.

Report: New Bloggers Flatlined in 2005, Reading Climbs
Steve Rubel reports that according to the latest State of the News Media report, the share of the online population that tried blogging peaked back in January 2005 at 10% and has hovered since at 8%. Blog readership, on the other hand is climbing.

The Attention Economy is Killing My Attention
Nick O'Neill explains how the attention economy may be producing information overload. He wonders how product like twitter along with blogs will be able to co-exisit as people piling on attention commitments.

Del.icio.us Adds Tag Descriptions
Del.icio.us, the popular social bookmarking site owned by Yahoo, has added a new feature which enables users to for the first time not only tag items but also add meta-data to title and describe each tag.

Goplan launches!
Webreakstuff has launched a new product called Goplan which offers a suite of online project management and collaboration tools that could draw comparisons to 37signals' product line.

TECH cocktail 4: Going, Going, Gone
TECH cocktail 4, the forth event in the event series I co-founded with Eric Olson back in July 2006, is now on its fourth event and we filled a 500 person guest list in 23 hours. Wowsers! TECH cocktail 4 will be on April 12, 2007 at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville in Chicago but due to the overwhelming response we have started a TECH cocktail 4 wait-list for anyone still interested in going. I hope to see you there.
 

What Is In Your Tumblr?

Looking for a place to aggregate your thoughts in a scrapbook fashion online? Tumblr is a simple microblog platform and might be just what you are looking for to post your thoughts, images and videos. Tumblr offers a six different types of posts which include: a regular post, quote, photo, video, conversation and link. Unlike other conventional blog platforms, Tumblr does not offer comments, thus making Tumblr more like a one way log than a conversation. Eric Rice calls Tumblr a hybrid of twitter and WordPress, but it is more than just that as you can integrate a number of feeds and thus create your own customized personal aggregator.

Tumblr is a product of Davidville, the small New York web development firm that has also brought us Senduit, the simple file sharing product and Channel Frederator, the original cartoon podcast.

I created a Tumblr log called Totally Frank to aggregate my activities on Twitter, Stylehive, Last.fm and Flickr. You can find other Tumblr logs by tuning into the Tumblr Radar, an aggregation of recent Tumblr posts.

New My Yahoo Beta Reactions, Google Phone, Feedbase Preview, ClearSpring Funded, Free Wi-fi & 5 Design Principles

Photo of the Week: This photo of a robot titled bleeplaps by Eric Skiff was taken at SXSW which is going on this weekend in Austin, Texas.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 03.11.07

My Yahoo! Gets Web 2.0 Makeover
Just as Yahoo CEO, Terry Semel hinted at last week, the new My Yahoo Beta was launched this week to offer an drag and drop experience that mirrors the current Yahoo home page. There were a number of media reactions to the product. Steve Rubel feels that the new My Yahoo is abandoning the geeks. Erick Schonfeld thinks Yahoo is chasing web 2.0 dreams. While Greg Linden explained how Yahoo will be adding more personalization to My Yahoo.

Freebase Will Prove Addictive
Freebase, launched this week to create an online database, is to centralize as much data as possible to allow participants to freely add and access data - developers can extract information from Freebase via a set of APIs and add it to their web applications. This application, if true to its mission, could be huge.

A Roundup of Tools & Applications For Developers
Brian Benzinger pulls together a hardy list of web applications for project planning, system administration, usability testing, collaborative development, and web services to help "Developers, Developers, Developers…".

Criteo’s AutoRoll: What Readers are Reading
Eric Olson showcases a new blog widget by Criteo called the AutoRoll that displays links to blogs that your readers should like similar to the way MyBlogLog offers up popular links in each blog community. Based on each unique reader's affinity for each specific blog, the Criteo Recommendation Engine will compute on a real-time basis the relative affinity of all blogs.

Google Phone: Team of 100 working on Blackberry like….?
Is Google planning to follow Apple's lead into the phone industry?

Clearspring Raises $5.5M for Widget Service
ClearSpring, the Arlington, Virginia-based widget marketplace, which helps content owners widgetize and widget makers hook up with web and desktop distribution platforms, has raised $5.5 million in its second round of funding, for a total of $7.5 million raised.

Start-up to launch FREE wireless network in Silicon Valley
Meraki Networks, a Mountain View, California-based start-up is planning to build a free wireless Internet network in central San Francisco, and all residents have to do is put a small wireless router supplied by the company in their window or rooftop, to bring free wireless Internet access.

Five Principles to Design By
Web designer Joshua Porter gives five principles he designs social media web sites by.

Newsgator Online Beta: Better Than Before - Still Not Good Enough
Marshall Kirkpatrick gives his perspective on the recently released Newsgator online feed reader beta product.

Feedable Puts a Memetracker in Your RSS Reader
Steve Rubel reviews the new Ajax feed reader called Feedable and expresses his liking of its "memetracker" feature. The "memetracker" is built right in and shows you what the hottest items of the day are.

AOL Launches Slick Web Mail Beta

Sporting a French gray color palette, AOL recently released a new AOL Mail Beta (codename: Cayman) to update the current web-based email product. It offers a clean Ajax interface extending a users usable space and making it easier to manage and organize large quantities of email. It is pretty slick. The biggest notable improvement is that messages can be read inline rather than via a pop-up window. However, if pop-up windows are your thing, than you can also opt to open messages in new windows. Users can now access email more quickly as the AOL Mail Beta has removed a click from the process. There are a number of additional interesting features including a right pane that give users quick access to "to do lists", "contacts" and even "celebrity gossip" via TMZ.com. Just remember, this is beta so there are some known issues that will be corrected before the product is ready for prime time.

AOL offers free email accounts and 2GB of storage space and you can even select your own personal email domain. I am extremely pleased with the new web mail product and would urge you to give it a try. I'd love to hear what you think.

Disclosure: I am an AOL employee. I do not work on AOL Mail but I am the product manager for two other AOL products.

Group Recipes Community For Food Lovers

Are you a food lover looking for great new food recipe ideas? Group Recipes is an online community dedicated to creating the most useful resource for food lovers. With a wealth of recipe data, Group Recipes enables users to search, browse or share food by taste, location, mood, photo, ingredients, uniqueness, rating, and compatibility. Users can set up their own profile page to help connect with other users, form foodie groups and collaborate on recipes with other users. Group Recipes also offers users a mashup that plots places to dine on a map. Also if you have dreams of being the next Rachael Ray you can take a crack at creating your own cooking show with Group Recipe TV. For example, here is a video recipe for Minty Pea Pasta.

To help users connect with foods they might like, Group Recipes also offers some unique recipe discovery mechanisms which include Recipe Stumbler and Recipe Robot. Recipe Stumbler, is very much like StumbleUpon, as it allows users to stumble onto new recipe offerings at the click of a button. Recipe Robot is a personalization engine that learns about your food likes or dislikes to help determine recommendations to offer users based on a first time food taste test and by keeping track of user attention or click stream data. Recipe Robot offers food compatibility on food items a user encounters.

Bottom-line: Group Recipes is a feature-rich, food community resource that aims to connect recipes with foodies everywhere.

Google vs. Microsoft, Hollywood Disrupted, OpenID Explained, BitTorrent Video Store and the Feed Reader Market

Photo of the week: With the 79th Academy Awards tonight I felt this photo title Over Hollywood Sign by Jorge Mir offered a good point of perspective.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.25.07

Hollywood Disrupted By Social Media?
An opinion piece in the LA Times, titled “The Movie Magic is Gone”, explains how Hollywood is losing its place as the epicenter of cultural products and how movies are losing their relevance as the "barometers of the American psyche". Personally, social media has definitely pulled me away from more and more television and movies the last couple of years.

BitTorrent.com Launches Video Store
BitTorrent Inc, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing software, has released the final details of their long awaited video store. The store itself will go live this Monday, and will offer movie rentals at $2.99 - $3.99, and “download to own” TV shows.

It’s G-Day: Google Launches Apps Premier
Google has Microsoft squarely in its cross-hairs as it launched Google Apps Premier, its subscription package of premium, hosted business applications in direct competition with Microsoft. It does not surprise me. Interestingly, this past week I also heard a radio advertisement for "Breakfast with Google," an event setup to showcase Google @ Work for government organizations.

How does OpenID work?
Good question, this video post offers some perspective on just how OpenID works as explained by Simon Willison. Also Digg announced this past week that they are going OpenID.

How Many Founders Does A Startup Need?
Brad Feld looked at number of founders in successful Internet businesses. The average is 2.09 founders and Brad discusses this number and gives his input.

Netvibes2Go, Pretty Good Actually
GigaOm takes a look at Netvibes mobile experience and reports back on it. Basically, Netvibes setup is easy: create a tab in Netvibes called “Mobile,” and drop in some of these modules.

The State of the Web-based RSS Reader Market
FeedBurner released a great look into the feed market and Read/Write Web took it a step-further by examining the web-based feed reader market. The article also pulls in some numbers from another feed-based business called Pheedo.

Next Net: 25 startups to watch
Business 2.0 has once again listed 25 startups to watch in 2007. Here are last years 25 hottest startups.

Yahoo's New Patent, Google Reports On Feeds, Web 3.0 Explained, Mobile Examined, Dash & EggDrop Fun

Photo of the week: Create a 2 gigabyte ChapStick as explained by The Machinist.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.18.07

Patent Monkey: Yahoo Ready to Smash Up the Mash Ups
Yahoo was recently granted a patent that could cause a bit of a shake-up to other web portal companies if acted on. The patent covers the ability to give users control over customized templates that are saved and stored on a host server and the idea that real-time information is  stored on the host server and delivered to the user in the template.

Google Is Now Reporting Feed Subscribers
Google has started reporting subscriber counts for Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage. What does this mean? This is one more data point to help you understand how many people have asked to receive your feed (aka "subscribers"). The number that Google is reporting is the total number of Google users who've subscribed to your feed in Reader or with Personalized Homepage. Somewhat Frank has seen a huge spike in subscribers via FeedBurner as Google products were previously not part of FeedBurner subscription counts. TechCrunch's subscriber count spike is even more glaring as it went from about 178K to 261K overnight. Thank you Google!

Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
Read/Write Web predicts the formula for the next web (web 3.0) will be as follows: 3C = Content, Commerce, Community | 4th C = Context | P = Personalization | VS = Vertical Search. Do you agree?

Xdrive Shows and Autocopy Beta Tests
Xdrive Shows is a new web-based application available on Xdrive that allows you to combine pictures and music into multimedia slide shows.  Watch a Xdrive Shows demo here. Autocopy, a new feature in the latest version of the Xdrive desktop client software, enables automatic uploads of music and photos directly from your PC to your Xdrive account. Give Xdrive Shows and Autocopy a whirl here.

Mobile Search Not That Hot?
Andy Beal looks closely at a recent UK survey of mobile phone users which suggests that there may be no where near the amount of people using their cell phones for search as previously thought. Do you search the web on your mobile device?

Building Social Applications at Climb to the Stars
Stowe Boyd presented this past week at Lift on the topic of Building Social Applications. He has put his presentation slides out on the web for your viewing pleasure.

Dash fills coffers for Web-connected car navigation
VentureBeat reports on a new GPS device that will be connected to the Internet too. That is pretty sweet if you ask me. The device is expected to be priced within the $500 to $800 range, along with the existing leading GPS devices.

Yahoo! Go 2.0 Goes Gamma
Yahoo launched a new gamma version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0, after the new service initially launched in beta just a month ago. The gamma version enables users to search directly from maps and share oneSearch results, news articles and the service directly with friends.

RSS Reader Triggers Airport Security
Josh Hallett recently found out the hard way that is you are using the paid wifi in the terminal and you open up a desktop-based RSS reader like NetNewsWire, the network assumes your flurry of RSS-grabbing activity is a suspicious event.

Bored? Organize An EggDrop
Make Magazine just created a handy .pdf and video explaining how to perform your very own EggDrop. I haven't heard about an EggDrop in years, it brings back memories of middle school.  So if you are bored or wants to do something different give an EggDrop a try.

AOL Supports OpenID By Enabling Over 63 Million AOL/AIM User Accounts

Managing the login credentials for every web site or service you sign up for tends to be a daunting task. Remember your username is "somewhatfrank" on service A ,"franky-baby" on service B and "frankyhollywood" on service C can be somewhat troublesome. After exploring its options, AOL has decided to address the problem and support the movement to decentralize online identity by enabling anyone with an AOL or AIM screen-name to integrate with OpenID. OpenID is:

"OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity."

The AOL move is a huge show of support for the OpenID movement as the de facto standard in user credential interoperability as it has instantly added an estimated 63 million users to the OpenID system. AOL colleague,  John Panzer was one of a few instrumental in the movement to adopt OpenID at AOL and expressed his views in the blogosphere and explains what adopting OpenID does for AOL users today by saying:

• Every AOL/AIM user now has at least one OpenID URI, http://openid.aol.com/<sn>.
  
• This experimental OpenID 1.1 Provider service is available now and we are conducting compatibility tests.
• We're working with OpenID relying parties to resolve compatibility issues.
• Our blogging platform has enabled basic OpenID 1.1 in beta, so every beta blog URI is also a basic OpenID identifier.  (No Yadis yet.)
• We don't yet accept OpenID identities within our products as a relying party, but we're actively working on it.  That roll-out is likely to be gradual.
  
• We are tracking the OpenID 2.0 standardization effort and plan to support it after it becomes final.

So if you have an AOL  or AIM screen-name, your OpenID profile is linked to your AIM Pages profile at:

OpenID.aol.com/<enter your AOL screen-name here>

Obviously this process did not happen overnight and additional integration work will continue at AOL but nonetheless it is great to see AOL taking a leadership role in helping to solve online identity issues by supporting the OpenID movement.

Related Article:
The Web Profile Aggregators

Trixie Tracker: Log A Baby's Every Move

Trixie Tracker offers a simple online application for parents to keep track of their baby's various activities. While this may sound a little obsessive, I would have to say it may help parents to organize their baby's lives. Trixie Tracker aims to help parents keep better tabs on the various activities surrounding a baby so that they have a record to analyze and gain a better understanding of their baby's habits.

Trixie Tracker, which logged its 100,000 nap in 2006, is organized with a number of tabs with each set up for a different tracking category. The tracking categories are sleep, diapers, bottles, solids, nursing, pumping and medicine. Trixie Tracker is currently offering a free 2 week trial and then is $14.95 for 3 months billing periods or $8 per month if you go month to month. The current logged numbers are shown in the image below.

I do not expect to use this site anytime in the near future, as I do not have a baby, but a colleague of mine is preparing for twins so this might be the web's gift to him and others expecting an arrival soon.

Web Influencers, Netvibes Security Issues, AIM is #1, Go2Web20.net Revamped, Attention 200 & Design Geekery

It rained quite a bit this week in Silicon Valley so I thought this photo titled rain on tuesday taken by Daisy Romwall was appropriate.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.11.07

The Wizards of Buzz
The Wall Street Journal took an in-depth look at some of the social bookmarking sites that help others to discover the hottest content on the web. These sites include Digg.com, Netscape, Reddit, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Newsvine – all of which empower users to submit content items from around the web. Items are rated and promoted via voting or other mechanisms within the site.The most popular or highest rated items bubble to the top and usually become even more popular as traffic surges towards sources of these hot content items. These social bookmarking sites are managed by a number of users but there are some key influencers that do the most consistent heavy lifting. WSJ put out a podcast to go along with the article and it can be downloaded here.

Netvibes module developer collects web creds, personal content
Niall Kennedy highlights how Netvibes, the personal homepage startup, recently experienced some serious security issues. Netvibes was recently praised by Wall Street Journal reporter Walt Mossberg, but it appears its open-source approach to development has left its users at the mercy of rogue developers. What does this mean? Basically, it means a rogue module developer could take advantage of Netvibes’ users to steal personal information like emails, bank information and just about anything else personal you might find in a homepage module. This is unfortunate for Netvibes as most of its quick growth and development is due to its developer network. I guess Netvibes will have to rethink its security and privacy approach if it or risk losing the trust of its users.

Wall Street Journal IM Ratings: AIM Is #1
What instant messaging product do you use? If its not AOL’s AIM 6.0 you may want to reconsider your choice as an article published this week in the WSJ titled "Rating the New Instant-Messaging Programs" compared AIM 6.0, Yahoo! Messenger 8.1, and Windows Live Messenger 8.1. AIM 6.0 was rated #1.

A Lesson in Viral Video
Inside Higher Education details the events surrounding the Web 2.0 video created by Michael Wusch which Somewhat Frank helped surface in the blogosphere. The article further emphasizes the viral power of the web and the influences of the blogosphere.

Go2web20 Relaunched!
The popular and slick web 2.0 directory created by Orli Yakuel has been revamped and relaunched with a number of improvements which should make the faster and easier to use. It should also offer more information for users. Included in the changes is the creation of a few innovative advertising options.

RocketDock: Add A Mac-like Dock To Your PC
If you are a Mac-lover stuck in a PC-user’s body then you might want give RocketDock a try. Lifehacker recently showcased it as a download of the day so I gave it a try. Upon installing the application created by Punk Software it instantly fulfilled my longing for a Mac-like dock for managing my desktop. Here is an instructional video which details the various configuration options of this nifty little add-on. Oh and buy some schwag or donate to support their development efforts.

31 Places to Monitor Your Reputation Online
If you are into tracking what people might be saying about you online you might want make sure you are checking a bunch of online sources. This article lists 31 places to keep your online reputation in check.

23 Signs That You're Becoming a Design Geek
While developing products I often find myself thinking I am a designer and I know I am not alone. I am admittedly not even close to the skill level of a full-fledged UI designer (like the designers I work with at AOL – they rock!). Nonetheless, this article will give you 23 design geek signs.

Announcing: The Compete Attention 200™
Compete recently posted a list of the top 200 online destinations based on their metrics tracking systems. Surprisingly, Somewhat Frank did not make the Attention 200 – this has to be some sort of mistake.  :-)

Gradefix Helps Students Plan Study Time

Gradefix is an online tool that aims to help students with getting better grades by auto-generating an appropriate study schedule based on a student's availability.  A student simply enters all of their homework, readings, quizzes or exams and Gradefix does the rest. Gradefix uses a set of patented algorithms to look at how much time the student has available and then Gradefix calculates the optimal schedule for completing the tasks. Gradefix color-codes each class automatically as well as categorizes each task by task type with the letters "R" is for reading, "H" is for homework, "Q" is for quiz study, and "E" is for exam study. For more details on how to use Gradefix check out this instructional video.

In testing Gradefix, I found the application simple to use with a clean user interface as shown below. Gradefix makes it easy to print out a set study schedule as well as enables users to set up email reminders. Recently Gradefix also offered the ability to receive tasks list in RSS format. Currently Gradefix does not appear to offer a mobile component. It might be nice to start by offering the ability to send SMS text message task reminders.

Gradefix is free for up to 10 tasks and $5 per month for unlimited tasks. For more information on the product check out the Gradefix soapbox.

Bottom-line: Gradefix gives students a hand with task management by creating a study schedule for them based on their availability.

Widgets, Modules & Marketing, Breakthrough Ideas of 2007, Google Attention Tracking & Web 2.0 Mainstream

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.04.07

First things first, today is Super Bowl XLI and I am from Chicago which means I will be rooting on the Bears today. The photo above shows the Merchandise Mart in Chicago supporting the team by shining the team's orange and blue colors. Go Bears!

Desktop Modules Help To Personalize Data, Cut Through Clutter
Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal dissects the various personalized start page options. He is a Netvibes user but critiques all the other options as well and even hints at a new version of My Yahoo coming soon.

Widget Marketing
Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog explains how widgets are a great way to help market your site or blog. He even shows off his recent Widgetbox creation.

Desktop Widgets 101
Mike Arrington takes a moment to point out the differences between desktop and web widgets. Widgets are sexy in 2007 and so I would highly recommend you know what they are.

The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2007
Harvard Business Review's annual survey of emerging ideas considers how nanotechnology will affect commerce, what role hope plays in leadership, and why, in an age that practically enshrines accountability, we need to beware of “accountabalism.”

del.icio.us: overdue new year's resolutions
del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site, has grown to 1.5 million users. This article hints at upcoming integration with Yahoo, its parent company, and user interface updates.

Is Google building the Attention Economy?
Vecosys expresses view on the attention movement and explains Google's recent launch of new products (i.e. Google Reader Trends and Google Bookmark and Search History) that have been leveraging and surfacing attention data.

Mainstream Media Usage of Web 2.0 Services is Increasing
Has mainstream media recognized 'web 2.0'? This article by Read/Write Web takes a closer look at mainstream media adoption of 'web 2.0.'

News Search + Personalization + Social Media = Wikio
Wikio blends news search and personalization in a Digg-like layout. It also offers search and customization options to make it easy to get to items you might like.

Geeks love * tshirts for Sale
I love tee shirts that offer a cool design and this one was created by Cindy Li which fits the bill.

An Inventive Video Journey To Web 2.0

What is web 2.0? Time Magazine recently tagged it "You 2.0" with its mirrored magazine cover naming "You" the person of the year. However, the question has been pondered and explained in a number of video attempts including one by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington which I highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank. A new video recently emerged to take viewers on an extremely creative journey from the beginning of the web to what we are now calling "web 2.0."

The video titled, "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" was created by Michael Wesch, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. All I can say is, Michael Wesch thank you for producing this video, I found viewing it extremely enjoyable - well done! 

SimpleSeating: Seating Charts Made Easy

Deciding where everyone should sit can sometimes be a daunting task at a dinner party, in a classroom or even in the workplace. To help with the problem, SimpleSeating uses a simple Ajax, drag-n-drop interface to create detailed online seating charts in a flash.

Easy to use, SimpleSeating offers a number of features which include RSVP tracking, meal tracking and simple guest notes. SimpleSeating also provides a variety of table arrangements, sizes, and configurations to fit just about any situation. Event seating charts can be printed or shared with others by passing along a link to the chart. SimpleSeating allows a free use for one event at a time of up to fifty guests.  If you are looking to plan a few events at once, the Basic plan is available for $19.95 for two events up to 350 guests, the Plus plan is available for $44.95 for five events for 450, and the Pro account for up to 450 guests, but email for a quote.

Planning a seating chart for a recent family birthday party was simple with SimpleSeating. After registering, a quick SimpleSeating tour explained the simple procedure to name the event, add guests, and even determine the entrée of each person. Groups could then be seated at the same table or could be divided by last names. Everyone’s favorite, "kid’s table" can be differentiated from the "adult table." Guest lists can be imported and exported in the .csv format to cut down on redundancies surrounding setting up multiple or reoccurring events.

Bottom-line: SimpleSeating is an easy to use tool for creating seating arrangements for your next dinner party, banquet, wedding or even for the office.