Jan. 7 - The British consumer magazine Computing Which? has ranked Bebo as the best social networks, ahead of rivals Facebook and MySpace.
The ranking is based on the findings of a single anonymous expert who tested 10 popular social networking sites.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Rating the best social networks: Bebo Won
7 Google Maps Tools For Firefox
Firefox has tons of extensions, and when you drill them down to specific items, such as Google Maps, it’s amazing how powerful of a tool this open source browser can become. Today, we’re serving up seven tools and add-ons that will make using Google Maps in your Firefox easier and much more fun.
Advanced URL Builder - Lets you pre-enter the complex part of a URL, and then just copy the part you want to query. For instance, with Google Maps, enter the first part of their URL, copy the location listed on a webpage and immediately get the info from Google Maps.
BlueOrganizer - BlueOrganizer will recognize different types of content in a page and give you smartlinks based on what’s there. For example, if it’s an address it’ll give you a link to Google Maps to let you go there directly.
GDircections - Highlight any address in a web page and it can map to your edited home addresses. Will also add the search engine selections for the top right of your Firefox.
GMiF (Google Maps in Flickr) - This add-on brings Google Maps support for Flickr to show geo-tagged images in Google Maps.
LookLOCAL Toolbar - Enter any address into the toolbar an get instant comparisons between Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Windows Live Local. You can receive driving directions, satellite images and more.
Minimap - A robust addition to your sidebar that lets you drag-and-drop an address, geotag, and more into the sidebar and Google Maps will pull it up for you.
PackageMapping.com - Have you ever wondered how your mail order gadgets get to you? If it was shipped via UPS, USPS, DHL, or FedEx, this extension will let you highlight the tracking number, right click it, and get a visual map of where your package is and everywhere it has been in-between.
Obama turns Facebook fans into delegates
Barack Obama's victory in Iowa was marked by heavy participation by young and first-time caucusers. The San Francisco Chronicle takes note that this may mark the first time that politicians talk about bringing in young voters actually materialized on the ground. The Obama campaign "had a candidate who spoke to the issues that mattered to young people and they combined online outreach with on-the-ground, in-person contact," said Kat Barr, education director for the nonpartisan Rock the Vote and a nationally recognized youth voter expert who was in Iowa for the caucuses. But key to the breakthrough, the Chronicle's Joe Garofoli says, was Facebook. Obama's campaign had three times the number of Facebook supporters (more than 182,000) as his nearest Democratic... more
Microsoft Takes Another Page From Apple With Windows Mobile 7
Apparently, Microsoft has no shame when it comes to borrowing Apple’s best ideas. This time, though, it’s in mobile phones. It looks like Microsoft is going to push a touch-screen interface in a big way. Screen shots and specs of the next version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 7, are being leaked. WinMo 7 appears to support a gesture interface that will let mobile consumers flick their fingers to slide through images and applications, zoom in and zoom out, and even shake the cell phone to do things like shuffle music. (Note that these features are from a purported internal Microsoft document from last summer and may not actually find their way into Windows Mobile 7, but we are hoping that they do).
Not everything in WinMo 7 is copied from the iPhone. The shaking bit is new, and when the screen is locked, you will be able to doodle on your cell phone screen. But there is no denying that Microsoft is taking its cues from Apple on the user interface of its mobile operating system. Will history repeat itself with Microsoft running away with the prize here, or will Apple strike back by licensing its mobile operating system to other cell phone manufacturers?
Motorola Acquires Online Music Store Soundbuzz
Motorola has acquired Singapore based music downloads site Soundbuzz.Soundbuzz offers online music purchases throughout the South East Asia and Oceania region and currently has partnerships with Hutchison 3, Motorola, Airtel, SingTel, M1, Optus Zoo, Telstra/ BigPond Music, Microsoft (Windows Media Player 10), Creative Technology and Sony BMG. Downloads from the Soundbuzz retail store sell in Australia for $1.69 AUD ($1.47) per single.
Motorola said it would use Soundbuzz to expland its MOTOMUSIC service into India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
One word of warning though, if you do wish to check out Soundbuzz, don’t try it with anything other than Internet Explorer.Source: Fox Business
Mozilla Secretly Launches A Viral Campaign For Firefox (against IE)
Mozilla has quietly launched a new viral campaign in support of Firefox, complete with song (YouTube TC exclusive above) and some fighting words against Internet Explorer.
The main part of the campaign is a site by the name of Fight Against Boredom which apparently means don’t use Internet Explorer, use Firefox. The site itself features a fake talk show setup, links to a Facebook page, downloads for the fight boredom song, and links to download Firefox.
It’s meant to be viral, but I’m not sure Microsoft will take the following statistics quoted on the page in the best light:
Compared to Internet Explorer users, Firefox users are
- 21% less likely to be a sales representative or agent at their current place of business.
- 45% more likely to have gone on vacation in San Francisco within the last 2 years.
- 33% less likely to live with others suffering from high cholesterol.
- 6% less likely to have eaten any meal at Chick-fil-A within the last 7 days.
- 24% less likely to live with others suffering from heart disease.
- 66% more likely to have viewed or listened to audio or video about politics or public affairs news within the last 30 day.
- 89% more likely to have purchased database software for work in the last year.
- 38% less likely to live with others suffering from breast cancer.
Source: TechCrunch
Microsoft, NBC Join for Olympics Coverage Online
NBC is teaming up with MSN and Microsoft in an alliance to create NBCOlympics.com on MSN, which is a new website for Olympic fans in the U.S. The site features videos from competitions, including live and on-demand formats, as well as analysis and results from NBC’s broadcast and media teams.
While NBC is the owner of U.S. media rights to this summer’s Olympic Games, Microsoft is getting its kicks too. Offering up its Silverlight technology to deliver the video content. The coverage the Olympics for the new website will be powered by MSN and Microsoft technology. This isn’t the first time that Silverlight has been chosen to power a network’s online video, especially for sports. Announced at CES today during Bill Gates’ keynote speech in Las Vegas, this will benefit both NBC and Microsoft.
The video content will be broadcast across MSN video on the site’s homepage, as well as through other websites in the Windows Live network. NBC has a lot going on at the CES as well. It’s created a special website just for the CES event, giving you an insiders look at what’s going on in Sin City. There, NBC will also be announcing its redesign of Access Hollywood’s website, the relaunch of Nightly.msnbc.com, and the announcement of video embeds finally being available for Beet.tv.
As NBC looks to leverage as many ways as possible to distribute the Olympics video content across the web, the company has linked up with the likes of MediaZone for appealing to a younger demographic. With a partnership with Silverlight, the reach for an even broader audience is evident.
Investors Preparing a Takeover of CNET?
According to New York Times, a consortium of CNET investors, led by large investment funds such as Jana Partners, are seeking to take over CNET’s board of directors. The consortium has a 21% stake in CNET’s ownership, and they’ve sent a letter with their plan to the CNET board approximately two weeks ago, but CNET has been silent so far, supposedly preparing to put up a fight against this initiative.
Although CNET hasn’t commented on the proposal directly, they’ve issued a statement on Saturday, claiming that the company has “made significant strategic, financial, personnel and operational progress.” However, Wall Street analysts don’t seem to agree: their almost uniform prediction is that CNET shares will slump, continuing the trend that has been going on for the last three years, in which the shares have lost 19% of their value.
The problem with CNET is that it’s simply too big. They’re doing their best to follow the trends (mostly by acquiring smaller sites, such as Gamespot or MP3.com), but advertisers have found that advertising on smaller, niche sites is cheaper and more effective. The way the company is managed needs to change. However, the question is whether a bunch of investment funds - should they succeed in gaining control of the board of directors - will have the vision to make the necessary steps to put the company back on the right track again.
Skype Alternative for MySpace Chats: SightSpeed on Open Social
There are a number of developmental projects taking place around the introduction of on-demand video chat tools that are heavily integrated into social networking, though this is among the first to present itself as an option for existing, larger networks, especially within the realm of Open Social participants. SeeToo is among the more recent startups that have taken it upon themselves to present a simplified, no download tool for integrated chat.
In an effort to further spread the use of its new application, SightSpeed is offering SightSpeed Light to developers to use with other Google APIs for integrated video experience with other applications. Similar to what several, from Meebo to AOL, are hoping to do with existing chat tools, SightSpeed is hoping to get its tools integrated with as many applications as possible. How many Google apps out there would you integrate with video chat? All, perhaps?
Having tackled the business-end of video chat, it looks like SightSpeed is hoping for a younger demographic with a wider range of online video chat usage. Given Skype’s integration with MySpace, is the market ripe for integrated tools for more one-on-one communication?
While a huge benefit of online social networking is the removal of time-sensitive response etiquette (meaning, you could have left me a message 3 days ago and I can respond tomorrow at 2 a.m.), the presentation of an immediate form of communication is appealing to some, and may grow in popularity should the process be simplified enough for social networking’s core demographic to find it useful.
Yahoo Takes Agnostic Platform to Battle With Android - Telcoms Still Going to Hell
Yahoo! announced tonight that it will be turning its mobile service, Yahoo! Go, into an open platform for 3rd party developers. Unlike Google's Android OS, the Yahoo! Go platform will work on more than 250 mobile devices that Go already works on.
PaidContent's MocoNews points out that though Go "comes preloaded on some phones made by Motorola, LG, Samsung and Nokia, carriers in the United States strip the software from the phones."
In as much as handset manufacturers are open to platform-type innovation, and software vendors are obviously moving in this direction - it seems obvious that the foot-draggers are the telcom carriers. Their stranglehold over the mobile world seems in direct conflict with efforts to make the most of the mobile user experience - but telcoms are used to being the among the most hated companies on the planet.
To draw an analogy with major record labels and DRM - this is almost the opposite type of situation. The case for mobile openness seems to remain based in hopefulness more than a survival imperative for vendors faced with a market threat.
To draw another analogy - might this be comparable to Comcast telling Mozilla that it can't start Comcast customers who are Firefox users out on Google's search page, that it has to make a Comcast search page the default home page?
While telcom execs will likely get theirs in the afterlife, the rest of us will probably have to keep on wishing - unless 3rd party software becomes the only meaningful means of monetization and major revenue sharing comes about.
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