A good friend of mine, James Mowery has started up his own blog, Tech In Demand, which deals with Technology, a sprinkling of Web 2.0 and buzz worthy insight. James was at one time a contributing editor to Mashable.com and was responsible for this post, Online Productivity Toolbox: 30+ Resources to Get Things Done which received quite a number of Diggs. James certainly knows what he’s talking about and I highly encourage you to check out his project. He’s made it into my FeedReader, who’s next?
Kevin Rose startup, Pownce, has completed the roll out of a new update which contains a couple of new features such as on site image and video previews, other profile links and more user customization options.
Users can now view images and videos that are within links, on site. You’ll no longer need to actually click the link in order to preview what it is. As it stands, you can now embed video into your Pownce messages as long as it is from one of these services, YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Revver and Vimeo. On site image previews are currently only capable of being viewed from Zooomr but Pownce plans on adding Photobucket and Flickr support in a future update.
Pownce has added a feature that I think many users are going to appreciate. Powncers will now be able to display links to their other online profiles. The list of sites to choose from which you have an account with is tiny compared to that of OnXiAm, but the list does contain quite a few popular services which should suffice for now.
Also released in this update, is an area on your Pownce user page that displays the next 5 Upcoming Events. In the top right-hand corner of your Pownce user page, you will now see a list containing the next 5 events that you created, or that you have been invited to.
Last but not least, Pownce has included a few more user customization options. These are described below:
you can now open links in a new window by default! you can also set your default note view to something other than ‘notes & replies’, and you can select whom you’re note. tired of seeing all replies displayed inline? no worries, you can set it to just ‘notes’. and finally, you can specify whom notes should go to by default (such as your ‘best friends’ or ‘coworkers’ set).
If you use Pownce, be sure to check out the new features and let me know what you think. If you want, you can add me as a friend as well http://pownce.com/Jeffro2pt0/ I don’t use Pownce that much as I get my social kicks from Twitter. On a side note, Pownce tells me that I have 11 more invites to give away. If you were late getting on the bandwagon, but still want to go along for the ride, be sure to let me know in the comments if you want to be invited into the service.
Yappd, the service that was awarded my first negative review which can be read here, has released a few updates which finally make the service worth using. These updates include uploading photos, public API and TinyURL Support.
Yappd members can now upload photos via their web site. Yappd has also added in support so that you’ll be notified if friends on your watchlist have posted any Yappd messages. If your a developer, and for some reason would like to integrate Yappd into your application or website, you can now visit http://yappd.com/api to tap into their Beta API.
Yappd claims they are focusing on the capabilities of their platform by allowing member’s of other microblogging websites, to have their other “messages” posted as Yapps automatically. Another item on their to do list includes, expanding their mobile carrier support for picture messaging and international support.
With these updates in mind, I may have to go back to the Yappd site and give it another try.
I was wondering why my whos amung us widget was screwing up, and now I know why. Whos Amung Us has rolled out some updates to their web based widget which shows you how many users are concurrently browsing your site, in real-time. The most notable changes are within the WhosAmungUs website itself. Now, all widgets that are produced by the team are accessible on one page.
One of the biggest changes is a brand new widget called MAPS or Maps.amung.us This widget shows you who has visited your site based on the location of their IP address. Think Frappr in real-time. Be sure to check out http://whos.amung.us/ to grab your widgets and to check out their new widget, visit http://maps.amung.us/
I was wondering why my whos amung us widget was screwing up, and now I know why. Whos Amung Us has rolled out some updates to their web based widget which shows you how many users are concurrently browsing your site, in real-time. The most notable changes are within the WhosAmungUs website itself. Now, all widgets that are produced by the team are accessible on one page.
One of the biggest changes is a brand new widget called MAPS or Maps.amung.us This widget shows you who has visited your site based on the location of their IP address. Think Frappr in real-time. Be sure to check out http://whos.amung.us/ to grab your widgets and to check out their new widget, visit http://maps.amung.us/
PCWorld has put together a list of 25 websites worth watching. The list includes sites such as ClipMarks, Meebo, Spock, Pageflakes, Approver.com and others. Out of the sites PCWorld covers, the one that I am the most excited about is probably ClipMarks. ClipMarks is just an overall cool service that allows me to clip various portions of articles I discover across the web. It’s almost as if I’m creating my own search engine based on my ClipMarks which is then shareable to the public.
At any rate, give the list a read and when your finished, please leave a comment letting me know your thoughts.
Frank Gruber from SomeWhatFrank has finally got his hands on his Moo sticker book. Moo is a UK based company that specializes in printing things based on user’s stuff. I’ve been meaning to check them out and create my own sticker book for my girlfriend, but I haven’t had time. Once I do and the sticker book arrives in the mail, I’ll be posting my review along with a slew of photos.
Typically, if you want information on a particular subject, you fire up your favorite browser and type in your search terms into Google. Depending upon your method of searching and the popularity of the specific topic you are searching for, Google may or may not provide you with the most helpful results. Cagora hopes to change this by creating a site where hundreds of communities and special interest groups will be able to provide you the information you need.
Twitter has pushed out a new feature dubbed “Profile Search“. This new features adds a search bar to your profile page, allowing you to search for like minded users.
The new search function allows users to search across information such as name, location, bio and url. This is intended to help users find other ‘like minded‘ individuals to follow. For instance, I did a search for 
‘Ohio‘. As it turns out, there are 690 Twitter users who have Ohio listed as their location in their Twitter profile. That’s nothing compared to the 1,930 Twitter users who live in California which is then trumped by New York with 2,155 people. Just for giggles, I searched for ‘web 2.0‘ which netted me 277 results.
So now, instead of randomly following people and claiming them to be your friend, use the search tool to find Twitter users with similar interests.
Can you believe that WordPress has only been around for two years? It’s true. Back on August 20th, 2005 the first blog on WordPress.com was created, that being Matt’s blog. I didn’t know this but, invitations for the WordPress.com beta were sold on ebay for as much as $90.00 Check out these insane stats that Matt published concerning what has been accomplished over the past year:
Wow, that’s what I call user generated! I’ve only used the stand alone WordPress CMS for a few months now, but it’s been the best damn CMS I have ever used. It’s been a pleasure to work with and it’s one of the only systems I’ve used where everything seems simple. So I’d like to take this oppurtunity to thank Matt and his crew for this awesome piece of software, and to wish everyone involved with WordPress a Happy 2nd Birthday.
Also, if WordPress.com is indeed getting the same amount of traffic as Facebook.com chances are, WP.com will see birthdays 3, 4, and 5!
Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff 