NewsPond is a news aggregator that’s somewhere between TechMeme and Digg (okay, someone already said this, but I guess it’s a good description) - it aggregates news from different sources on the web using an automated AI algorithm while allowing registered users to comment on stories which then determines the stories “Buoyancy Rating” (kinda like thumbs up on Digg). The higher this buoyancy rating, the higher the story is in the “most popular mode”.

Registered users are given the option to save a story in their personal archive, which is useful for following a developing topic, and can comment on stories as well. The basic registration (naturally free) asks the user to choose the basic info (username, password), but the profile is further customizable by adding additional info such as location, homepage URL, age, sex and bio. I don’t see why this exists as an option now, since there is no visible purpose for this (sharing stuff with other members, searching other members, grouping …), so I am guessing the service will extend member interaction in the future, so this additional info will be useful then.

The interface looks nice (a very web 2.0 - ish interface), with effects that are moderately expensive as far as processing is concerned, but slower machines can by-pass any rendering problems by turning off “some” of the advanced interface features (requires registration). One thing that bothered me was the lack of feeds (or at least I didn’t find them). There are five categories - most recent, most popular now, biggest today, 1w, 1m - that could all have their own feed and make it easier to see headlines in a feed reader. I am hoping they will introduce this in the future. The graphics on the site are very impressive though, and so is the whole look and feel of the site. If NewsPond added video news as well, that would really make them stand out. Check them out!

Share This

iDesktop.tv is pretty much a web site a different approach to creating the user interface for YouTube, but unlike YouTube, iDesktop allows viewers to save the video clip in any of the numerous formats offered - MP4, AVI, 3GP, 3GP2, WMV and EXE. The interface is much nicer in my opinion, but that’s a matter of taste I guess. I especially like the slider which controls how many video boxes are shown on the screen at a time - minimum three large boxes, or maximum 33 (at least at my screen resolution of 1280×800). The interface look is customizable, so users can add the personal touch to their profile. Usage experience is quite nice, with the whole interface resembling a desktop application. This is what they say, in 50 words or less :

“iDesktop.tv is an amazing modern dynamic web application for searching, watching and downloading YouTube videos. iDesktop.tv allows you to manage that content in many possible ways. With its incredible design and flexibility, it is one of the richest web applications for managing video content.”

iDesktop’s interface is what gives it juice, but it’s still pretty much a YouTube front. If the service expands with some unique features in the future or integrates other sources of video it will probably get a lot of attention. Good job so far!

Share This

TokBox announced a new development. They now offer a group chat option for up to 6 simultaneous connections. This is currently available on Meebo. A change like this is welcome, especially after a great start by TokBox in mid-October.

There are a couple of other changes as well, such as improved video settings, immediate callback function, higher definition image quality, improved stability and speed.

TokBox already has an API which allows site visitors to talk to each other through the hosting site, without software downloads. If the API includes the group chat feature any time soon, than it will become a whole lot more useful.

Share This

MyArtInfo is a social network for artists, featuring members/artists from all over the world (USA, UK, Poland, India, Spain, Russia, Mexico and many other countries). The site has a searchable database of artworks (performing arts, fine art, decorative art, gastronomical art, design, written artworks). All art presented on MyArtInfo can be rated. You have to register to be able to enjoy other functionality on the site such as rating artworks, communication with other members and submission of artworks. There is also a blog featuring posts written by members on various topics. There is a variety of multimedia content.

The site still needs work in my opinion (it’s still in beta), but is already interesting enough to spend a couple of hours on just looking at all the various artworks posted by members. The site already gives a way to inquire about advertising options, which threw me off a little. I am sure there will be room for this later on, but it may be interpreted in a wrong way this early on.

Share This

Skribit is a new site with a fairly simple goal in mind - to help bloggers know which topics their visitors are interested in. They offer a small widget that, when embedded into a website, will allow visitors to describe in short what they want to read about. This way, a blog can easily concentrate on topics the visitors are interested in instead of wasting time and resources writing about stuff that users simply don’t want to see. All submitted topics are voted on on Skribit (they call this “What’s hoppin”).

Since the site is currently in beta, the widget, which is the core of the service, is unavailable to the general public but you can contact Skribit and ask to be informed about the public release of the widget. Skribit may prove to be very useful, both for the readers (content consumers) and webmasters. Kind of like analyzing search keywords the visitor used to come to your site and trying to guess the visitor’s intent from them, only this is easier because having gone through the widget, the intent is quite clear - they want to see content about this or that particular topic. I’ve signed-up to be contacted for the public release, and will give Skribit a try for sure. I am especially interested in seeing whether this kind of communication with blog readers is in line with other methods of website traffic and content demand analysis. If that indeed proves to be the case, than things will get so much easier.

Share This

There is a new service on the Web, called TokBox (tokbox.com) which enables users to make video calls without installing any additional software whatsoever. What you get is free video chat, no downloads to use the service, interface embeddable in any website, and privacy control. Finally, this sounds too good to be true.

This is nothing really new in concept. The service uses Flash technology, and its support for audio/video streaming. The rise in adoption of broadband Internet in the last couple of years has certainly contributed to something like this finally happening, but the fact that all you have to do to use this service is to register, and all you have to do to make yourself available for video chat is to paste some code, makes this really useful.

There is also an API for a more advanced use of TokBox services, but I haven’t tried it yet. The API documentation is simple enough and gives basic control on how you are going to use TokBox on your site. Developers can make POST requests with or without authentication and get functionality accordingly. If I understood correctly, apart from calls, you can also register users through the API from your own website. This is cool if, for example, you give someone the option to video chat with you but they don’t use the service yet. I can see a lot of implementation for this for something like customer support, where a friendly face can get more than than a lengthy phone conversation. The only obstacle may be industry adoption, but look at Skype, and how quickly it spread.

So, what about money? Advertising appearing on the site may be delivered to TokBox users by TokBox or one of their web advertising partners. I expect this will not be much different than other in-video advertising solutions such as AdSense in YouTube (video units). Free always has a price, but if this is done moderately it shouldn’t bother users too much.

NY Times gave TokBox a more in-depth coverage, and gives them a thumbs-up for the future. Actually, according to the NY Times post, one of the people backing TokBox is a former YouTube founder Jawed Karim, which should mean TokBox is heading in the right direction. TokBox aims to do for video chatting what YouTube did for online video.

The service is still in Beta, so glithces are to be expected. The API has a lot of room for expansion so if you have suggestions, head on over to their blog. BTW, they announced a small competition, The TokBox $5000 Developer Challenge, where the best use of their API for development gets $5K. So, if you have an idea, go for it.

Share This

I’ve always wanted something like this. Instead of doing screen capture yourself, gluing two screenshots together for the full page image, resizing and so on, you can now simply go to Thumbalizr.com which does it all for you in a minute. Simply enter the URL of the page you need thumbalized and that’s it! You have a choice between standard resolutions (150, 320, 640, 800, 1024 and 1280 pixels wide) or you can enter an arbitrary width in pixels if your needs are more specific. I tested two thumb creations in a row for the same page, and it took almost the same time to generate, which got me thinking that it may be a waste of server time to create the same image over and over again. I was wrong of course, since the application does actually retrieve images for already made thumbnails from the local server if the address is matched. Maybe I just started the same thumbnail generation too fast in a row.

Thumbalizr.com offers an API, which simply lets you call the thumbnail generator directly from the URL which is put into the SRC property of IMG. The screen shot of this blog (on the right) is actually generated on the fly using this method. I wouldn’t actually call this an API really, since it is just a server program which generates an image. Since the whole project is still in Alpha, I guess the API will offer more functionality as the site progresses onto the next stage.

The site states over 1246602 thumbnails generated so far (at the time of writing this).

So, Thumbalizr.com - go create some website screenshot thumbnails!

Share This

YeboTV, a Finnish, Ohio (US) based company, features live video streaming of entertainment content. Content ranges from many different categories - animals, arts, autos & vehicles, comedy, entertainment, music, news, people, pranks & gags, sports, technology, travel & places. The company also has an office in Finland.

Live events are announced with a live timing ticker, letting you know how long before the next live broadcast. There are also scheduled rebroadcasts for those who miss the live event. Videos can be uploaded, and there’s also text messaging - both require free registration.

Yebotv is a ‘next-generation’ TV-channel with a vast selection of real time and archived content that can be viewed via multiple platforms; the Internet, mobile devices, satellite and IPTV. Content is also generated and streamed Real-Time from webcams, and in the very near future, from mobile devices.

The company is aiming to become a broadcast center where everyone can become an author, producing their own content channel which can be directed to particular audiences using multiple platforms.

Yebotv is committed to ensuring that the Yebotv viewer enjoys what they see and what they do within the site. A Yebotv subscriber will not only have a chance (and a choice) to view content from a vast array of genres (i.e. music, sports, comedy, Reality TV., etc), but can also produce and publish their own content. Users can create their own TV-channel(s) and subsequently operate the channel with a global audience utilizing multiple platforms.

A similar project has already been announced (Floobs) although with a slightly more moderate approach. Indeed, the emergence of services such as YeboTV, will create a whole new approach to rich content aggregation on the Web by putting the regular user in the center of things. A user-centered Internet is, after all, the goal that seems to be aimed for, not only in the rich media sector.

Here’s an example of video content found on YeboTV (nice guitar skills!):

Share This

The latest upstart to, er …. start, is Attendi, a search engine that differentiates from other search engines by enabling visitors to search and communicate with others online at the same time and learn about the search topic from attendees who are online. Attendi likes to call this “a living breathing search engine”.

Basically, you enter a search query and get a set of results paired with someone who can answer your questions in real time (unless they are offline naturally, in which case they are labeled “offline”). In order to use this you have to be a registered user. The whole thing is actually a chat session and looks something like this for the query “halo 3″:

The concept is interesting, but would I use this kind of search instead of standard search … well, I am not sure. Maybe when researching something more complex, when a single search result simply won’t cut it, Attendi might be useful because chatting with someone (or seeing a chat session relevant to my query) who is well on top of my search topic can give me bits of information and resources that I would otherwise be searching for for hours using standard search.

The site is still in beta so you have to leave your email address to get an invitation from the team to be able to register. There is limited content since the project just started but the authors promise more content soon. Their goal is “millions of Attendi’s storing billions of insights”, and since there seems to be a patent pending, maybe they are actually serious about this goal. If it ever gets to that, a social network powered search with all the social network features comes to mind as the next evolution step for Attendi. Something like Facebook with the primary purpose of friend assisted web search.

Share This

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to publish live video broadcast using only your own mobile phone? Now we can, or rather, we will be able to soon. A Finnish upstart Floobs has come up with an idea that will allow users to broadcast their live video footage over the Internet. The whole project is still in an early stage, so there’s nothing much to see on their site, except an announcement for the upcoming service.

Floobs has plans to offer a free TV channel for everyone enabling people to broadcast live shows (or pre-recorded material) for free. The service is scheduled to start later this year. They’ve opened a Finnish language test service this week, and are planning an English service site in November. The service will be targeting groups and communities that otherwise don’t get airtime on mainstream television channels. Floobs will charge for professional broadcasting tools and will offer advertisement options to advertisers.

This may be an interesting development in citizen journalism. Soon everyone will be able to broadcast live events from the spot using nothing more than their own mobile phone. If this service becomes popular over time, TV reporters may find themselves in a tight spot (by the time a TV network reporter gets to a location, someone will have streamed live footage over the Internet). Oh, and just think of the cash you could get for exclusive footage simply by being on the spot at the right time.

Share This