Dain Binder's Technology Blog

Cavootle - Location Enabled Polling

2012-05-17T00:02:00.001-04:00

Cavootle is a new service to vote on bands, movies, fashion, entertainment, books, restaurants, politicians, and more. What makes it innovative is that unlike a regular poll you can view the answers for a specific geographic region. You can find the favorite beer for people living near Boston, Los Angeles, or wherever by changing the answer location. From there you can expand the area and even take into consideration everyone no matter where they are. Creating a new Cavootle and adding options to existing polls is easy.

The service is new and has room for improvement, but I can already see this being very powerful when you are traveling or doing research. I would like to see an improvement on the location feature so that we know exactly what area "far" covers and the increments between. Perhaps giving a distance radius would do the trick. The other issue that will probably be solved over time is a distinction between a general question and one that involves a location. For example, this question asks what is the "Best Steakhouse in New York City". Using the location feature for that question really is telling you the location of the voter and works differently than a question such as "What is the Best Steakhouse" and setting the location for NYC. It is an interesting dynamic when dealing with location.

Cavootle was founded by Patrick Kling and Brian Kane. You can signup today and follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Adding an API and the ability to embed Cavootles with definable default locations would drive rapid expansion. I can envision them being embedded on travel and business websites to offer readers great insights. I am certainly going to follow their progress.

Google Launches New Research Tool For Google Documents

2012-05-15T20:44:00.001-04:00

Google has launched the Research tool for Google documents. This new tool allows you to add Google Search content directly to your document without leaving the page. Right now when you login and create a new document you will see the new pane on the right side. You can reopen the tool anytime by clicking Research under Tools, or by initiating a search.

To initiate a search based on text you have already written you can right click on any word, or highlight a phrase and right click, to find the research function. Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows or Cmd+Alt+R on Mac are key shortcuts you can use also. If you prefer, when the tool is open, there is a search field at the top so that you can search for anything you want at anytime. The tool is not available in spreadsheets or the other file types.

The Research tool enables you to add a lot of different media that can easily be edited. Perhaps the best feature in my opinion is that any content inserted is automatically cited if required with a superscript number and footnote containing a link to the content along with a page title and date if available. Images and maps can be dragged to the document while text is added or cited by hovering over it. Any web page can be previewed in another pane that comes up next to it; even the webpage screenshot can be dragged to your document. Here is a quick sample document I made so that you can see the footnotes..

Give it a try and let us know what you think. I wish I had this in school!

My Roku Service Headache (Updated)

2012-05-14T22:27:00.000-04:00

Let's start off by saying I generally love Roku! They produce excellent well made streaming devices that have a great interface, simple controller, and plenty of channels to choose from. They have built a perfect ecosystem and is the #1 streaming device in my opinion.

My passion started last year when I picked up the LT as a simple low cost device to stream content to my bedroom TV. In the living room I already had a Sony networked Blu-ray player and Google TV so I didn't need anything else. It was so nice to use that four months later I purchased the Roku 2 XS for the living room and no longer use the other gear for streaming, but still have it for other things.

Today, like many times before, my Roku players updated to software version 4.7 - build 2049 (4.7.2049). This time I wondered what changed so I headed to their support website and blog, but could not find any information about the software update. Next I went for the live chat and after about a five minute wait the below fiasco began:

Begin
8:27 PM EDT: Prem
Hello Dain . How may I help you?

8:27 PM EDT: Dain
Hello, where do I see what a software version update entailed? My Roku 2 XS updated to 4.7.2049 and I was wondering what was changed or enhanced. Thanks!

8:28 PM EDT: Prem
Hi, Dain.
Press home button on Roku>settings>software version.

8:30 PM EDT: Dain
I see that, but, what does version 4.7.2049 do? What was changed from the previous version?

8:32 PM EDT: Prem
Sorry for the delay, Dain.
Your Roku player's software version is the latest version.

8:33 PM EDT: Dain
I know. I updated today. What does that version improve upon or change?

8:33 PM EDT: Prem
Previous version is 4.6 build 240.
It is the software improve. To fix some bugs and to get some extra features.

8:34 PM EDT: Dain
What features? What bugs? Is there a blog post or release note about it?

8:37 PM EDT: Prem
It is just to fix some issue like buffering while playing a movie, or kick back issue with some channels. And features like, screen saver upgrade, display . Software upgrade is user friendly.

8:39 PM EDT: Dain
User friendly? Not sure what you mean by that.

8:41 PM EDT: Prem
yes, by upgrading the software it is easy for you to control Roku player. That is what exactly user friendly mean.

8:41 PM EDT: Dain
For the future; where can I find an overview of what the software update entailed?

8:42 PM EDT: Prem
It is not possible Daine. Whenever Roku releases a new software , it will be updated automatically.

8:44 PM EDT: Dain
I know that. When companies update software they usually provide highlights about what has changed. Google Chrome for example has a blog where they state what changed. Their updates are automatic as well, but they know people like to know what is updating. Updates to Windows are similar. It would be nice for Roku to have a different blog for release notes to let people know what has changed.

8:45 PM EDT: Prem
Please visit this link www.blog.roku.com
Visit the above link, Dain.

8:46 PM EDT: Dain
I did before this chat and you don't have release information. Unless I missed it? Where on that blog does it talk about 4.7.2049?

8:47 PM EDT: Prem
Or else you can also visit this link Dain. www.forums.roku.com

8:48 PM EDT: Dain
I went there also and could not find information on the recent software update. Can you point it out to me?
Found it! Thank you.

8:51 PM EDT: Prem
That's great, Dain!

8:52 PM EDT: Dain
We should have just started with that! That was exactly what I asked to begin with.

8:53 PM EDT: Prem
I am sorry for that, Dain.

8:53 PM EDT: Dain
Off to watch some shows. Have a good night.

8:53 PM EDT: Prem
Is there anything else I can help you wit now?

8:53 PM EDT: Dain
No, thanks

8:53 PM EDT: Prem
Thanks for using chat support! There is a quick survey after I disconnect. You will also receive a broader survey in your email shortly. Please take a moment to complete that to help us gauge and improve our service.
End

In my aggravated state when I search the forum and saw results for 4.7.2049 I thought I was all set. Come to find out the forum did not answer the question either, in fact, it was another person asking the same exact thing.

The most annoying part was the non comprehension and quick to answer based on a keyword attitude. It ended up taking 26 minutes and multiple iterations of the same question to pry a little bit of information out of them and no resolution for the future. The first reply should have been "Dain, the update primarily fixed an issue with buffering and had a screen saver upgrade. We do not publish release notes, but will pass the request on to my manager." That would have resolved everything in about two minutes!

Update, May 15, 2012, On the support forum a few people mentioned about it being a limited early release. I did not know about that, or that I was on that list, but that would have been a perfect explanation as to why they didn't have the information and/or release notes. Although, if it is being tested publicly it would be good to provide release notes to better enable a "tester" to know what they have and provide educated feedback if something is not working. I understand not making the notes public because the release has not been fully deployed and could change, but they should be available internally for situations like mine. It would be easy to maintain one internal webpage of general release notes with the version in testing being a different color.

Update 2, May 15, 2012, Roku has published a blog post about the release. Doug from Roku commented below letting me know that they post all of the update notes on their blog once they are confident with the release. I appreciate his comment and that they are going to work on improving the issue and shared with him my thoughts (above) about how to handle the early release information.

If you are a Roku employee the case number is 1386484.

TraitPerception - Crowd-Based Trait Measurement And Reputation

2012-05-12T00:37:00.000-04:00

TraitPerception uses behavioral questions to determine your traits as rated by your LinkedIn or Facebook connections. By crowdsourcing these types of questions from your peers, friends, and family they are able to build an accurate view of how others generally view you.

The way the question are presented plays a pivotal part in the equation and truly sets TraitPerception apart from others in the same arena. You will notice that the questions are not simple yes or no questions and you are never asked to specifically select or type out a list of traits for an individual. It is much more situational and based on your direct and personal perception of the individuals.

Below are some sample questions where you would choose one of the five people presented that has the embedded characteristic.

Who might often feel discouraged?
Who has a more vivid imagination?
Who is most likely to probe deeply into a subject?
Who worries most about things?
Who is the quickest to understand things?
Who is less interested in other people's problems?

You can see how these questions get right to the point. It is nice because they probe your mind as well to make you think of traits you might not have thought of on your own. They are also worded is a manner that is non-confrontational because answering one about a group of five means almost nothing, but get a crowd to do that over and over and with their algorithms you have some powerful information. At least 50 questions need to be answered about a person from a minimum of 10 contacts before a percentile based trait report can be generated. You can almost relate it to an Amazon product review for people says co-founder Juan Cartagena.

The service is still very new and needs to gain a good following to make it relevant, accurate, and useful. Some of the uses could be for an employment application, interview, networking, team building, resume/references, dating, and online commerce. You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook. The TraitPerception team is Juan Cartagena (CEO), Borja Martín (Chief Dev), and José Ignacio Fernández (CTO). At this time you can either login and rank under your Facebook or LinkedIn account, not both; I hope it is enhanced in the future to connect the accounts. Try out TraitPerception and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Joinbox - A Slick Dashboard That Brings Social, Email, And News In To One Stream

2012-02-27T21:09:00.000-05:00

Joinbox is on a mission to create a better web experience for the everyday user. They hope to merge your social activities, email, and news together to form one cohesive consumer website that does it all. This tantalizing video from last year got everyone excited for a one stream solution! One year later, a true product demo has been released along with early access.

Did that get you excited? That sure is an elegant, simple, and fluid dashboard. The founding thought of the service is to bring everything to your personal internet mailbox. Do you travel around the world picking up magazines, newspapers, and letters or are they mailed to your home? Joinbox wants to eliminate the need for you to be opening and monitoring numerous tabs and visiting countless websites every day just to stay on top of your networks and the news. It should also be just as easy to check up on your network when you are traveling or on a friend's computer.

Five founders started this mission in 2010 after they could not find an easy way to consolidate all the incoming information they were looking at while researching to possibly start a freshly baked croissant delivery service. Since then they said goodbye to the croissant world and hello to Joinbox. It has been a long. hard, and educational journey to build in Node.js and to get to where they are today after starting over from scratch this past summer. This information consumption problem is a complex one and can't be solved overnight. After two months of alpha testing with about a hundred users they are ready for a larger private beta. We have invites!

Let's take a look at what Joinbox Double Rainbow can do. Below we see the settings page where everything is setup and deleted.

Social Networks - Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts via OAuth. It will allow more than one Twitter connection, but no Facebook pages. LinkedIn, YouTube, and Flickr integration is in the works.
Email - Bring in emails from one or more services by adding your email address and password.
News - Search for news and follow sources. Unfortunately this does not support you to directly follow an RSS feed or import a set of subscriptions via OPML.

On the main page you are shown the total unread/unseen items with a breakdown for each stream. You may drill down using the left navigation panel to view everything, only social networks, all emails, just news, or individual accounts within each section. When you click on an item in the middle stream it opens to the right. When available, content is included in the displayed item (photos, videos, RSS stories, Twitter conversation, etc). Tweets do not automatically pull in the content from included links. It would be nice for them to do that like Parrotfish can on Twitter.

When composing a new message you are able to send it to by email, Twitter, or Facebook.

Overall the design is fast and intuitive. If your browser window is smaller it will auto expand the area on mouseover and, as seen above, grey other sections out that are not in use. The only real issue I had was upon login, sometimes I had to refresh to get my feed to come up the first time. Retweeting, replying, favoriting, liking, and commenting all work as expected. I use Gmail and replying broke the "conversation" which I don't like. For a just out of alpha release it is solid and looks very promising. I will certainly be using and testing it, but need to see more features and enhancements before exclusively relying on it.

The five founders that make up the Joinbox team are Konrad Mazanowski (CEO), Michael van der Weg (CTO), Felix Steiner (VP of development), Fabian Jordi (development), and Tobias Kneubühler (development). In the future they want to add more services, chat, enhance email functionality, and tackle news aggregation. With that they hope to eliminate double inputs (you don't need to see the same story on three different channels) and to find what is really important to you. They admittedly have a lot of work a head of them. You can follow Joinbox on Twitter, Facebook, and their blog.

Who wants to use Joinbox? Retweet the below Tweet, or email me, and tomorrow I will randomly pick ten people from those that did to give access to. Be sure to follow me on Twitter so I can direct message you.

Joinbox - A Slick Dashboard That Brings Social, Email, And News In To One Stream - goo.gl/dxLfO
— Dain Binder (@dbin78) February 28, 2012

Dropbox Redesigns Web And Releases New Android App

2012-02-24T02:36:00.001-05:00

Today Dropbox has redesigned their website's file management portal and updated the Android app to the include the automatic background uploading we saw in the beta test earlier this month.

The new website design, as shown in the screenshots below, is brighter and more spacious. In addition, it includes a lightbox feature that allows you to easily flip through larger images. It will show up once you automatically upload some images.

Once you download the new Android version and allow automatic uploading you will get 500 MB of additional space added to your account when your first photo/video uploads. Your entire current photo and video library will upload automatically, then whenever you take a new photo or record a video it will be uploaded to the "Camera Uploads" folder in your Dropbox account. Over time an additional 3 GB of space will be added to your account when you automatically upload more images and videos; they have not disclosed the specifics of how this increase will work.

Download the new Android version today from the market and let us know what you think. An updated iOS version will be coming soon as well as new Windows and Mac desktop clients.

ScreenLeap Drastically Simplifies Basic Screen Sharing

2012-02-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

ScreenLeap's founder, Tuyen Truong, and team members set out to make screen sharing simple. After extensive research, coding, testing, and feedback they have succeeded. This is screen sharing even your grandma can use! The initial web app offers:

2 click instant sharing (1 if you grant perpetual permission)
No user account for either end
Nothing for the viewer to install
Anyone with a browser can see the shared screen

Many will argue that this already exists. It does on a feature/product level with services like GoToMeeting, WebEx, and JoinMe available. Although, none can match the simplicity and universal availability of ScreenLeap. Did I mention it was free? It is, and always will be. They plan to monetize it by proving additional premium features that are available for a charge.

What makes this so powerful is that I can share my screen with my wife on her Chromebook, on my parent's iPad, on my friend's Android phone, and of course on my brother's Windows laptop; all at the same time and in real-time. The viewer is simply on a webpage built with HTML and JavaScript while the presenter allowed a Java plug-in access to broadcast their screen.

Upon arriving at screenleap.com the presenter will click "share your screen now" to start the session. Once that is done you are given a link people will use to access the broadcast. If it is not easy to send the link you can verbally give them a share code to enter in the field at the top right of the homepage. The sharer is able to see how many people are viewing and also limit what part of the screen is shared.

What does the future hold? "We want to really nail the screen sharing experience first and make it work reliably for everyone. Remote desktop control and live collaboration are follow-up ideas that we are definitely looking into," Truong says. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Floq - A Survey Platform That Has Global, Open, And Shareable Answers

2012-02-20T20:28:00.000-05:00

Floq is on a mission "to make all types of questions and answers global, open and shareable" says Jonah Cacioppe. The service has been in development for over a year with Jonah Cacioppe (co-founder and CEO), Michael Kruger (co-founder and CTO), Brinley Ang (developer), Rod Pattison (developer), Chris Cacioppe (designer), and David Jardine (marketing) making up the six person team. Floq is tied to, and partly owned by, Integral Development. ID is primarily owned by Dr. Ron Cacioppe and Jonah and is providing some of the workspace, infrastructure, as well as the initial pool of data.

Update, May 15, 2012, Floq has publicly launched! The core services now include team surveys, mobile customer feedback, and organizational surveys. Many enhancements and updates have been implemented to include QR codes, web embedding, social sharing, and PDF generation.

Floq's web application provides the ability to compare your group's survey results with other similar survey answers within the industry. Doing this provides a benchmark to strive for as well as deeper context to the respondents' answers. Questions and answers are anonymized with the questions being constantly compared to show you if your question has been asked before.

Imagine asking if a person prefers iOS or Android. While setting up your survey the autocomplete feature shows you that the question has been asked before. The previous results divulge that Android is selected more often overall, but the demographics of your team have not been asked. The answers you receive from your survey will benefit you as well as contribute to the community by providing more data for that question. Perhaps your small team prefers iOS but you see more people in general like Android. Another way this could benefit you is if you have a very small team to include their answers with a larger data set to receive a more accurate answer. This type of tool could be immensely beneficial.

Looking ahead they plan on integrating the Q&A with social networks to further expand the platform. A survey library will also be coming so that people can search a repository of pre-made survey templates that anyone can contribute to. The lessons learned and technology platform may also be used for other things such as ratings, polls, and tests.

Floq can also be found on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The user interface and design are very slick! It is in very early private beta testing and has some issues here and there that they are working on.

Mentimeter Is An Easy To Use Audience Polling Service

2012-02-16T01:19:00.002-05:00

Mentimeter was created as a tool to interact with and engage an audience. While attending the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden the four founders discovered that they were not being actively engaged by the teachers. After seeing the same thing occur in their professional lives they set out to change how speakers interact with audiences. The solution needed to be simple, fast, and always available. They also didn't want it tied to a classroom; it had be accessible to anyone anywhere.

Steve Jobs and Apple's creations strongly inspired them to design products with "a holistic user experience", says co-founder Johnny Warström. As you use the product you will notice everything from the text entry to the gently animated dynamically resizing chart just works. The other founders are Henrik Fräsén (management and digital marketing), Niklas Ingvar (design and testing) and Kristoffer Renholm (architect and coder); Johnny heads up marketing and customer interaction.

Mentimeter allows you to quickly create custom polls using a web interface. Once the poll is created a unique code is given for the group being polled to enter at vot.rs to access the voting page on their mobile phone, tablet, or any connected device. A QR code is generated as well for anyone that has a reader app. The public results URL is provided for people to see the results while a special administrative one is created for updating, closing, or resetting the pole. Code for embedding the results is provided for easy publication which I have included below the post; be sure to vote over to the right.

The architecture has been built to allow for incremental expansion using a Ruby (Sinatra) REST API hosted on Heroku and a PHP frontend. All content is published from the frontend, but Wordpress is used in the background for their content management system. Raphaël Javascript is used to get the presentation view to scale correctly on all sized devices; AJAX polling updates the view when live votes come in. Finally, Backbone.js syncs the Document Object Model with the API.

Looking to the future they want to maintain Mentimeter's simplicity while adding more interesting features. Some of those features will be user accounts so that people that want to can more easily retrieve questions, saving and comparing historical data is on the horizon, as is additional question controls for professional lecturers. Mentimeter has a blog and is on Twitter.

This video shows how it looks in real-time when numerous votes come in:

Hall.com Opens The War Room For Full Team Collaboration

2012-02-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

Hall.com publicly launched its real-time collaboration platform in November of last year and in less than four months has taken it to the next level with War Room. The core functionality, which we wrote about last year, is still active and being used, but is now called "Community Rooms" instead of a "Hall". Other enhancements such as the new top navigation bar and a persistent information panel on the right now adorn the site. They still need to add a search function to find public communities.

Let's see what the War Room can do!

Each of the numbered items below correspond to a red number on the large screenshot underneath. You can click on the image to enlarge it or right click and open it in a new tab so that you can flip back and forth.

Group Chat - Each person in the War Room can type and everyone can see the messages. To direct, but not hide, a message to a single person you can @mention them.
File Sharing - Files may be uploaded traditionally or by drag and drop for everyone to access. This is only a way to easily share files with a group for review; they can not be edited or viewed within the browser.
Notepad - This virtual piece of paper can be used for anything. All edits are visible as they occur by anyone and everyone can edit and create content live at the same time.
Invite - Here you are able to invite people to your War Room by email, Facebook post, or by sharing a specific URL. Each member needs to have an account to enter and can sign up traditionally or with Facebook.
Members - This section shows the current members and has a green icon in the lower right corner of each avatar to show if the person is activity logged in to the room.
Video Stream - Up to four members can broadcast video and audio for a video conference. Other people in the room can still see and hear the group even if they are not able to participate.
Private Chat - You and your contacts (#10) can IM privately without the War Room seeing.
Actions - The monitor/administrator can edit the room name and privacy, make other members monitors or kick them out, and change the email notifications. An email may be sent for each action, a daily summary, or no email at all.
Activity - A list of recent activity in the Community and War Rooms you participate in.
Contacts - Your contacts (requires mutual approval)
My Hall - Lists of your rooms

This is a great step forward in getting everything you need in one place for everything from ordinary meetings to project collaborations by virtual companies. Hall.com can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and their blog.

PressPass Tries To Easily Connect People And Businesses To Journalists

2012-02-14T20:01:00.001-05:00

PressPass is in beta testing and has just launched a directory of vetted journalists with the goal of creating a platform for startups, street reporters, small businesses, and everyday people to connect with them and share stories. The database boasts over 5,000 journalists reporting for about 250 publications.

The idea is rock solid, but the functionality and effectiveness fail in my opinion. Before I get into specifics lets take a look at what it purports to do.

PressPass wants to provide a benefit to journalists by proving them with new stories to write about, and to the individual by helping them find the best reporter to get their story in front of for coverage. "I’m hoping that everyone who has a newsworthy story will be able to not only find the right reporters to get their word out, but build trustworthy relationships with them." says co-founder Valencio Cardoso.

When arriving at the website you will begin to browse through the journalists, their media outlets, beats (topics), and geographic regions with the goal of finding the best reporter(s) to contact about your story. This is where things start to go astray for me. First you must know that this is built around Twitter with heavy integration and is the primary data source and communication channel. Cardoso says the reporter's profile is there "to help you to get a more in-depth understanding of the reporter, ensuring that you’re pitching your content to the right people. It also helps journalists receive leads on stories they’d be interested in."

To the right is the PressPass profile page for Matt Brian, a writer for The Next Web (click it for a closer look).

Let's say you didn't know that his Tweets were behind this and you came to the page without reading any information about PressPass; what is your initial though about the stories listed? That Matt wrote them? If so, you are like 90% of the everyday (non-techie) people I asked. Given that misconception you may think he writes about football/soccer, used to be an alcoholic, and uses Twitter.

Even if you do know these originate from his Tweets it still does not really provide substantial information for me to base my decision on about approaching him to write an article about a new iOS app. (He writes mostly about Apple at TNW by the way.) What is mostly peculiar is that he has shared numerous stories he wrote, but they do not show here. As for these 5 items:

Tweetbot was shared at 10:00 AM on February 13th
The drunk one was actually something he Retweeted on February 4th
He Tweeted The Register item at 3:21 AM on February 14th
Striker was also a Retweet from January 31st
I could not find the fifth one, but the article is from January 31st

The chronological order seems to be modified based on a Tweet's influence (favorites and Retweets). That still does not explain why the articles from the Tweets below are not shown.

Google+ article written by Matt for TNW - Tweeted at 3:01 AM on February 14th
Tweet about Angry Birds article Matt wrote at 9:32 AM on February 13th
Sports post on TNW by another writer was Tweeted at 8:08 AM on February 13th
Apple Tweet about a story by Matt at 8:44 AM on February 13th

It seems to me the articles a writer publishes, especially for their publication, should be given a much higher weight. Seeing articles they Tweet or Retweet may help me know more about the writer personally, but it does not provide value when looking for someone to give my story to. For many publications an author will have a page that lists all the stories they have written (here is Matt's). Tapping into that would provide a wealth of information about the journalist.

In addition to the articles on a writers profile you can see other information from the links shown on the top of the page. None are very useful for me.

Topics - Gives the top hastags used in their Twitter stream
Spotlights - Shows the people they mention the most
Ranking - Simply ranks people overall and by beats based on their total follower count

When I want to contact Matt I press the "Contact this journalist!" button which initiates a Tweet box. For him it shows as "Hey @m4tt >> YOUR MESSAGE << via @presspassme"; your message total obviously can not exceed 140 characters. With Matt there may be a chance of him seeing your message, but imagine trying to get Anderson Cooper to even see your message, never mind reply to you!

I believe for a startup to succeed it needs to create something completely new, greatly improve upon a current service or product, create a new method of thinking, or make a task exponentially easier. As it stands now I can just as easily send an @mention on my own and the author pages do not offer enough insight. The idea behind PressPass is a good one, but I strongly feel they need explicit participation from the journalists and other ways to contact them to succeed. This is just the beginning and I will certainly keep an eye on their progress.

PressPass is based in Dubai and was founded by Valencio Cardoso and David Haddad. You can keep up with them on their blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

SendHub Brings Simple Group SMS Subscription Services To Everyone

2012-02-13T00:05:00.000-05:00

Earlier today I almost skimmed right passed a post about SendHub from TechCrunch. Based on the name I initially thought it was just another service that brings all your phone numbers together like Google Voice. I am beyond happy to have taken a moment to read more about it and to try the service out.

SendHub offers a group SMS (text message) service that could not be simpler. Within ten minutes of signing up a new way to subscribe to this blog was available. This service can be used for families, clubs, companies, classrooms, churches, sport teams, and a broad range of other groups. They use Twilio's reliable API to power the communications. The venture actually started as InfoRate in 2010 and received some press back in September 2011 and only recently changed its name to SendHub. The team is made up of the three co-founders Garrett Johnson, Ash Rust, and John Fallone along with Ryan Pfeffer; (Michael Siedlecki recently left the company).

On initial sign up you will verify your cell phone number by using a confirmation code that is sent to you. After verifying your number will be linked to a new number from their system that will most likely have the same area code as yours, or you may select a different one. Their number is the one people use to subscribe to and will be the number they receive text messages from. You can send texts to your group members through SendHub from your personal cell number.

Lets take a look at how I am set up to better illustrate how this works:

My number, as found on my contact page, is 413-342-1082
SendHub assigned me with 413-315-4418
I set up a new contact group named Dain Binder's Technology Blog and enabled the Text to Join feature using Keyword TECH

Now anyone can text TECH to 413-315-4418 to join my SMS group; when they do:

A message is sent saying "Welcome to Dain Binder's group: Dain Binder's Technology Blog - please respond with your full name to complete the subscription."
Then, "Thank you, your subscription is complete. To cancel, send 'unsub tech' to this number. To stop all messages text STOP at anytime."

An example of a message I recently sent is:

"Like Secret Finds Romance Within Your Social Circle - http://goo.gl/1YTww -rate http://j.mp/xtJlGZ"

The "-rate" and link are automatically added by SendHub and will be used in conjunction with an upcoming analytics feature
I sent this from the website, but it can also be sent from your cell phone by sending a text to your SendHub number and precede the message by, in my case, "@tech".

As you can see this is a really powerful and solid way to communicate for many reasons. The SendHub number can be replied to and even called; if called it connects to your linked number. There are options to disable incoming messages and/or incoming calls if you choose. If you have contact lists and permission to use cell phone numbers you are able to import and add them to your groups. This entire setup can be used for individual communications also.

Join SendHub on Twitter, AngelList, and Facebook. If you want to try it out feel free to use a test group I set up by sending TEST to 413-315-4418, or subscribe to my TECH group. I will send out test messages from time to time under the test group and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Like Secret Finds Romance Within Your Social Circle

2012-02-12T01:36:00.000-05:00

On a lonely night late last year Like Secret's co-founder Jesse Pollack thought about the fact that dating services primarily help connect you with strangers. "Why not flip that idea on its head and focus on the people you already know", he said. Co-founder Drew Blaisdell and Jesse think there is a lot of potential to build a romantic relationship with a friend in your current social circles.

I believe there is truth to that because friendship in a relationship is very important. It usually forms over time while dating and is what holds people together after the initial infatuation wears off. Although, it is much more difficult to start a relationship with a friendship. Like Secret wants to create a new way for relationships to form while removing the awkwardness of the "friend zone". Many potential relationships never begin because neither person wants to take the risk of damaging the friendship.

What if you knew the person felt the same way you did? How would you even know? The collegiate founders that met on Hacker News in January starting coding, as they have their entire lives, to create a platform that answers that question. Within a month Like Secret was born. The bootstrapped service softly opened to Jesse and Drew's colleges (Pomona and UW, respectively) and garnered positive comments.

Like Secret works by allowing you to anonymously choose who you are interested in with their Facebook application. When initially signing up with your Facebook account you will notice that no one will be able to see your activity; meaning that it will not show that you are using the app or website in anyway to anyone. Once active you choose a person you like and have the option of letting the service anonymously email or text them to say someone is interested in them, or you may do it without any notifications. The process can be done for up to fifteen friends. On the other side it works exactly the same and they would only see that someone is interested, but not who it is. Only when two people are interested in each other does it show who the friend is that likes you. I fully tested this using my wife's account with mine and it works as advertised.

I can envision this model working well for other awkward types of situations with friends and acquaintances. Think different cliques in school, people at work, or restarting old relationships. It could possible be expanded beyond your Facebook friends list to other social networks. Maybe different types of relationships can be conveyed and people would not be matched if they didn't feel the same way, such as one only wanting a physical encounter while the other person wishes for a long term monogamous relationship.

Jesse tells me there are two new features coming out as a result of the initial feedback. The ability for users to recommend matches for their friends should be coming out in a week or two. They also hope to implement the ability for people to flirt anonymously with each other by next month. The official public launch is set for Valentine's Day, but it is live now! As the user base expands new challenges will certainly come up, but if they keep the service free of abuse and maintain a serious professional image (not become a fun/joke app) they will do well. Dating is big business and they could easily monetize it by requiring payment to see a match. Of course monetizing and getting people to pay are two different things; staying free is the way to go for now.

Follow them on Facebook or Twitter and signup today to see if anyone wants a relationship with you. Do you think there is love to be found with a current Facebook friend?

XYDO Redefines Newsletter Relevancy And Engagement Performance

2012-02-08T18:35:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I spoke with Cameron Brain, co-founder of XYDO [zahy-doo], about their new B2B product launching publicly today. To better understand what they have launched it is good to look at where they began.

XYDO started life in early 2011 as a next generation social news website that incorporates your social graph. By using what you subscribe to, your interests, similar users with the same interests, and much more it delivers relevant personal content from various sources that has been vouched for. Those sources are the users themselves, imports from the social sites, RSS feeds, and content publishers. Voting, commenting, and sharing on the site work with the cumulative shares and likes on connected social networks to give you a dynamic news feed.

Later in the year came the XYDO Brief, that ended up being extremely popular and useful. With it you can set up multiple once daily emails that combine selected topics, and if you choose, the stories shared by your contacts on Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, and LinkedIn. Each of the topics and networks can be given more or less weight in each brief to tailor the email content to your liking. Like the news site, the email's content is put through relevancy, freshness, and social spread algorithms to show you the best content. According to Cameron, the brief produces 40% - 60% open rates with clickthrough rates ranging from 30% to 50%. Any marketer would love to have those numbers!

Today marks the launch (press release) of their newsletter product which should monetize their extensive content curation platform. This endeavor is focused on allowing other businesses to use XYDO's proven content relevancy and ranking system to build content rich white-labeled marketing emails. The months of testing have shown amazing engagement results and a realized value to the subscriber considering an unsubscribe rate of only 2%. The test clients used their own distribution lists as well as ones purchased from third parties to try the newsletter on. The positive results prove that if you send great content people will engage with it.

How does sending an email out with other people's content benefit the business? For one, you become the authoritative figure on the subject which brings along repeat visitors and brand recognition. Your content will make it the readers as well because while building the newsletter you are able to mix in your content. Those articles will drive visitors to your web properties to learn about your business, events, products, and values. The email can have any stories in it you like, but Cameron recommends no more than 2 or 3 that link back to you peppered within.

If you are looking for a new marketing platform or want to spice up your current newsletter XYDO could be your answer. I could even see it being useful to publications like mine. Pricing starts at $250/month and includes robust engagement analytics down to the individual reader. In the future they plan on releasing an API and adding Twitter and Facebook publication capabilities so that your social streams become as relvent and useful as the newsletter. Many case studies, videos, and other information can be found on the site. Sign up for the free 30-day trial and learn more from one of their specialists over the phone.

I believe the consumer products will not be closed down, unlike Techcrunch who said "While some XYDO fans won’t be thrilled with losing its consumer-facing social news platform...". The consumer actions and social data are pivotal in my view for the relevancy provided in the newsletter and closing them down would hurt the business. When I asked Cameron about those he said they "have other plans for our consumer offerings (news.xydo.com, brief.xydo.com, and our forthcoming mobile apps)". Although that is not a definitive answer, I think they will stay active and be further developed.

Below are two videos by the co-founders, Eric Roach and Cameron Brain, from the features page; head over there for more and to learn if this service could be useful for your business. If I sound a bit excited about this launch it is because I am! I don't like boring newsletters and the email brief is has truly been of great value to me. If implemented properly this service will benefit the sender, and more importantly, the recipient.

Archify Preserves Your Online Browsing And Social Content (Invites Available)

2012-02-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

Archify is there for you when you forget. Always running, remembering, and saving what you have seen. It consumes your Facebook and Twitter streams while silently running in the background of your browser as you click your way through the ever expanding digital world.

It is a common thing for me and many other people to remember the turtle video we watched last week, but not know what site it was on, or even what it was called. Oh, and remember that great article about beer you saw in your Facebook News Feed last month? That ad I wanted to click on to buy that cool t-shirt when I got paid is not on the website anymore; what was the store called? With Archify these questions will have answers!

Once you complete the signup process (invites below) you will be prompted to install the plugin/extension. The page will automatically deliver the proper one depending on your browser; Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari are supported. You will then connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts. (Edit: February 15, 2012 - LinkedIn support has been added to record those status updates.)

Archify works by using the plugin to save a record of every webpage you visit. The page's text is saved and becomes searchable and a low resolution screenshot is captured (example) so that you can see exactly what you saw on that day. Secure pages that are under https and domains you have added to your personal blacklist are not recorded in any way.

On the social network side it saves every Tweet and Facebook post that is visible to you or that you created. Unlike the plugin, you do not have to be on the social webpage for the content to save. I noticed that new user setups may take a bit of time for the social information to start flowing in, so don't be discouraged if you do not see it right away. An excellent aspect to the Facebook data is that it will import everything since you began using the site, instantly making Archify an easy way to search old status updates. Google+ and LinkedIn connections are coming soon.

Now that all this data is available in your account it can be searched and shared. Let's run through an example to give you a better idea of how it works.

Here we have just read an article about Dropbox. Behind the scenes the extension automatically records the text and takes a screenshot. If you wanted, you could click on the extension icon to open the small window outlined in orange. In it your are able to share the information you just read, place that domain on your blacklist, or initiate a search of your archive.

When you search your index this page will now show up. To the right of the screenshot there are options to share, favorite, or delete the entry. On the left side you will notice the excellent controls available to refine your search. The relevance sorting uses their "Dwell Rank" which takes into account how much time you spent on the page as well as other factors.

A page you share is publicly available and can also be shared.

Now when you search on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Facebook, or Twitter the results from your personal index are just one click away.

Overall the service works very well. The only issue I had was that the extension bogged down my Chromebook a bit, but worked fine on my other machines. Gerald Bäck, co-founder of Archify, has provided fifty invites to the private beta for you to check it out. Follow their progress on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.

Signup today; only 50 invites available!

Is Google Testing Local Wireless Broadband Networks?

2012-02-05T15:50:00.001-05:00

GigaOM has come across a document (PDF) that Google filed with the FCC on December 29, 2011 requesting permission to test an entertainment device outside the laboratory. Many publications have speculated about what it could be. VentureBeat thinks it is related to Google TV, 9to5 Google says they are smart glasses with a computer interface, MG Siegler guesses a hardware device of some kind, while Phandroid takes the Android@Home route.

Before speculating let's extensively research the document line by line to see if it gives us any clues. This will be organized in the way I discover the details.

Filed with Office of Engineering and Technology (OET). Their mission is to manage the spectrum and provide leadership to create new opportunities for competitive technologies and services.
Richard S. Whitt is a telecommunications lawyer per his Google+ profile; looking at his contacts provides no insight. He is known for his work on mobile broadband, the spectrum, and WiFi.

In October he worked on four Motorola licensing transfers (0004907037, 0004907038), 0004912040, and 0004912042. These, according to this document (PDF), are for Private Land Mobile Radio Services.

The filing from December 29, 2011 states the Class of Station is MO which means "Mobile Station" intended to be used while in motion or during halts at unspecified points, which includes hand carried transmitters.

Along with the December 29, 2011 filing I found a second one (PDF) from December 13, 2011 he submitted.

Also has the Class of Station marked as MO
Is for a "next generation personal communication device"

The purpose of the test is to connect the devices to home WiFi networks to test stability, and that of the supported Bluetooth technology.

The December 13th document essentially says the same

The call sign WF9XLG can be tracked to an RSS feed from the FCC which says "A grant was issued on 02/02/2012 to Google Inc., experiment type: WiFi". In the feed we can see file number 0798-EX-ST-2011. There are some new documents there, but they do not provide any further insight.

The call sign from the older document is WF9XKU and can be also be tracked to that RSS feed from the FCC which says "A grant was issued on 01/26/2012 to Google Inc., experiment type: WiFi". In the feed we can see file number 0758-EX-ST-2011. There are some new documents there, but they do not provide any further insight.

The manufacturer is listed as Google. Before the Motorola acquisition they did not manufacture anything.
All tests will use Google employees that are in range of a Google office
The 5 GHz frequency listed can be used for a lot of things, including WiFi and Wireless ISPs. The 2.4 GHz can be used for Bluetooth wireless LANs.

With all of these details it leads me to believe they are possibly testing a local wireless broadband network with a Google office as the hub and the devices listed in the December 29, 2011 filing as the nodes. Could be a WDS or a WMN type of setup. The 252 nodes must be a type of home entertainment base to fall within the "entertainment device" description, and could be a new Google TV or Android@Home device as some believe with additional functionality. That device could allow connections from current WiFi and Bluetooth enabled cell phones to have non-cellular phone calls and communications. The earlier December filing is for 102 personal communication devices which may be handheld and used for voice and data communications while within the LAN and outside of a traditional home connection.

Or, I could be way off! What do you think Google is working on?

Betapad - Graffiti For Your Social Stream

2012-02-04T21:10:00.001-05:00

Betapad is an interesting early stage product and iOS app available in Japan. Essentially what you do is draw on a pre-made card, take a picture of it using the betapad app, and it automatically goes to your social network stream(s). It does get a little more complex than that by using a machine readable medium that lets you mark off some options. You can share to Twitter, Facebook, or both, as well as select coloring options if you choose (red, green, or blue). The corners are marked, for what I believe the reason is, to ensure the correct proportions if the image is taken at a slight angle.

I like this concept and it could be a good business model if it catches on and people have to buy the cards. To do that the cards would need a unique identifier to ensure one time use otherwise users will just copy or scan a card to make their own. It may be easier to charge for the app and email the printable template to new users. But, I digress.

The demo video below is a bit light on the details and I had to do some translations to figure out what exactly was going on, which was mentioned earlier. Also, that yellow card is a demo/learning card; the cards you would use are all white except for the marks the app needs to see. When you install the application you link your social accounts so that they stand at the ready depending on how you indicate your betapad drawing to be shared, if at all.

Have you see anything like this available in the US? Add sharing to DeviantART, Pinterest, Picozu, and other networks and it will be a knockout for a lot of artists and doodlers. I think it is a very effective way to digitize and share artwork. CENDO has done an excellent job with the design!

Dropbox Is Giving Up To 5 GB Extra Space For Testing Android App Version 2.0.9

2012-02-03T16:54:00.002-05:00

Dropbox is testing Android Build 2.0.9 and increasing users' storage space by up to 5 GB for trying it out. This experimental version includes the following updates:

Automatic background uploading of photos and videos over Wi-Fi or data plan (sorry Sync.ly)
Can now upload files of any size (the 180 MB limit is gone)
Uploads will pause when there are network issues, then resume when resolved
Other performance improvements & bug fixes

Once you download the beta version APK and allow for automatic uploading you will get 500 MB of additional space added to your account when your first photo uploads. Your entire current photo and video library will upload automatically, then whenever you take a new photo or record a video it will be uploaded to the "Camera Uploads" folder in your Dropbox account. During the beta period you will get an additional 500 MB of space for every 500 MB of photos/videos that are automatically uploaded. The program caps out at 5 GB of extra cloud storage space.

If anything be sure to at least get the initial 500 MB for trying it out. The app is nice and works smoothly. Save or share this page to come back on your Android device and click here to download Dropbox 2.0.9. If you do not have a Dropbox account you can signup here and get 2 GB of space free.

Wantlet Launches An iOS App In Conjunction With A New Direction And Design

2012-02-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

Social shopping planning and recommendation service Wantlet, that originally provided want lists, feedback, and the platform to bring in your Facebook and Twitter friends' advice, has made a pivot. We can assume that the service that launched a little over one year ago and landed at SXSW has not gained enough tracking in its current form.

The new service and redesign has made it an easy to use local product search engine. The homepage states:

We want to help you find the stores in your neighborhood that sell products you really need. We're also a mobile app, check us out from the App Store!

As said above they have just launched an iOS app so that you can find the products you are looking for around your current location using an optimized program. For Android, Windows Phone, and everyone else you can simply pull up the website in your mobile browser.

The number of retailers is pretty small (they are looking for more) and I could not find a place to purchase some common items. My town is tiny so I tried Boston and New York for some products and didn't have much luck either. Another issue is that searches are case sensitive, for example "iphone" will not display the same results that "iPhone" does. There is certainly work to do, but I am happy to see Wantlet trying a new direction instead of closing up shop.

To further promote they have joined the traffic generating site Pinterest where they pin interesting product finds every day. Joining their community on Twitter, Facebook, and Posterous will keep you up to date. Will you try it out or are you content with the way you shop today? If you do give Wantlet a test run share your thoughts below.

Watch Out StumbleUpon, Pu.ly Is Here

2012-02-01T13:31:00.001-05:00

Pu.ly could give StumbleUpon some competition. It could take a while to topple StumbleUpon given its over 20 million users and over 1 billion stumbles each month, but what Pu.ly lacks in size it makes up for in relevance.

For me StumbleUpon is hit and miss with its often dated results and submissions intended solely to drive traffic. The secret weapon of Pu.ly is that your "pulls" can be displayed based on your Know About It account. As stated in the previous review of Know About It's service they scan your social accounts and content subscriptions to email you "recommendations to the next level with intuitive analysis of multiple data sources to truly show what you want to see, not just aggregated stories that were shared the most".

They built Pu.ly's discovery engine on top of that platform to show you random content that is interesting to you. Using their algorithms and the mountains of user data they have about what you and others like you like they bring relevance to a new level. Most importantly it is fresh and recent content, with the majority coming from your social streams. While using the service when logged in and linked with Know About It you can see what people in your social circles are saying about the pulls via the chatter button and also share a pull directly to Twitter and Facebook.

If you prefer, or don't have a Know About It account, you can still "pull another". The results will still be timely and interesting, just not personalized to your interests. The service is new and will certainly improve over time. A good feature to add would be to incorporate a yes/no button to further gauge a logged in user's interest in the displayed item; another would be to have the ability to toggle on/off sharing to specific networks.

Give Pu.ly a try today and share your thoughts. I highly recommend you set up a Know About It account to enhance what you are shown. Today I will be pulling stories and not falling all over and stumbling while I look for good things to read.

Snapjoy Stores And Organizes Your Photos - Review, Tour, And Invites

2012-02-01T00:29:00.001-05:00

Snapjoy effortlessly organizes your photos while being backed up in the cloud. The website provides a simple and fast interface for uploading your pictures. The startup was founded by JP Ren and Michael Dwan because, as two photographers, they wanted a safe place to share pictures with people while automatically organizing the ever increasing quantity of images taken and stored.

There are no storage/upload limits during the beta period. After that, you will get 5 GB of storage for free with additional paid options available; no word on when the beta will end, but JP said users will be given at least 30 days notice. The free plan is exceptional compared to 1 GB on Picasa, 2 GB on Dropbox, and Flickr's 300 MB monthly limit (it would take you seventeen months to upload 5 GB). If you are not backing up your photos offsite in the cloud then this is a great chance to do just that. Snapjoy has given me twenty invites exclusively to give to you so be sure to request an invite (instructions at the end). Time for the tour!

The home page - be sure to check out the Live Demo.

Creating your account is fast and only needs minimal information. There are no privacy options because the default is, and always will be, private.

It lets you know if your selected username is available. The shown username URL is not currently active, but they plan to offer more public types of sharing in the future, at which time I believe this profile will play a role.

Welcome!

Now it is time upload your pictures. For Windows and Mac you can do a traditional upload where you select the files (I used this method). They also offer "Shoebox" for Mac, which offers a drag and drop style upload.

During the upload you have the ability to cancel individual files from uploading. You will notice only JPG and JPEG are supported. The ability to support RAW files is being looked at.

Upload complete and images are being processed.

If your images lack EXIF data the system is not able to properly organize them. If you are uploading them right out of the camera then this should not be an issue, but if it is for whatever reason, you are able to adjust the date and time details of any photo as shown later on.

After uploading my second set I came to my Timeline.

This is the individual photo display and edit page with a commenting section.

On the left are your editing icons where you can download, rotate, edit date/time details, and delete the photo. The download functionality could use some work as it only opens another tab/window with the full resolution version so that you can right click on it to save the image.

Over to the right side is your sharing button.

Edit the date and time taken.

There are many Library views available. This is the Timeline view we saw before where you can click each row title to drill down further.

Last Roll shows your 48 most recent uploads.

Remember when is fun, especially with a large Library. It randomly displays a photo to bring back your memories.

Shared with you shows the photos you have access to that where shared by your family and friends.

Unsorted (Lost & Found) brings the pictures together that have no date and time information so that you can update them.

This is the view after pressing the delete icon; it moves that photo to your trash.

Your trash folder's images will automatically delete after 30 days, or you can empty it immediately.

Restoring a deleted image is easy.

The settings page lets you view your information and change your password.

Overall the service is clean and responsive with the available storage size and back up aspect being its selling point. Sharing is currently simple but effective, although I hope to see additional features soon. Those features, or others, are coming soon because they have told me to "expect new things within the next week". Snapjoy has some serious work to contend on a large scale but they have built a very strong base platform with an excellent UI to build off of. Besides more social features, enhanced sharing, and better downloading I personally hope to see automatic uploading (desktop and mobile), printing options, embedding capabilities, and enhanced image editing.

I highly recommend you try it out and let everyone know what you think in the comments below. If you want an invite please email me at dain@dainbinder.com and I will get you in. Enjoy! Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Rocket UI Launches As A Web Application To Create Complex Navigation Widgets Without Coding

2012-01-28T23:37:00.001-05:00

Rocket UI is a great tool for designers, bloggers, and website owners that have no coding knowledge. The founder, Sung Park, and his business partner have gone through different iterations, tweaks, and pivots to create this product. When we first chatted four months ago they were about a week away from a private beta. A short while after completing it they decided to change direction after getting a "lukewarm" response from industry professionals. They narrowed the scope and target audience to better fit with what people needed.

The wait was well worth it! (As a side note; I commend them for not launching a product that would have probably faltered just because they had completed it. Sure, they would have had some use and may have even found success, but their research showed there was a better chance for failure. Acting on feedback when working on a startup is essential, as is not getting emotionally attached to a specific version.

Rocket UI is a web application that allows you to design interactive navigation, prototypes, and self contained interactive widgets. After finishing a design the widget is easily added into your website by copying and pasting a bit of code; much like embedding a YouTube video. Their motto is:

01. Design It - Rocket UI makes it easy to create interactive navigation, prototypes, content, banner ads and more with no coding.
02. Embed It - After you're finished you copy and paste one line of code to embed your Rocket UI widget into any website.
03. Forget It - It just works. It works on all modern browsers (doesn't work on IE 6), smart phones and tablets.

I created the below widget containing three buttons in about 10 minutes. First I specified the dimensions of the overall item, then began work on the buttons. Once the first button was complete I was able to clone it to cut down on the creation time of the other buttons. Everything is controllable such as the color, gradient, font, and size. Specific sets of rules and customizations can be given for when you hover over it and click on it. You will notice the button is black, then turns to blue when you mouse over it, then goes red upon clicking it. There are different actions available for when you click them; I chose to have the user directed to a webpage for the first two then to send an email for the third. Give it a try:

As you can see from the below videos and their home page there is a lot you can do in addition to the simple navigation widget I created. Their YouTube page has a lot of tutorials to help you get started. Join them on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to learn more; sign up and try it out today. I envision people having a lot of fun creating things with this as well as seeing it used in a professional setting.

What can you make? Share a description of what you created in the comments below and add a link to the page it is on so everyone can take it for a test drive.

Summify Alternatives - Percolate, News.me, XYDO, Know About It, Utopic, and Scoopinion

2012-01-28T15:41:00.002-05:00

As you may know, Summify has been acquired by Twitter (source backup) and is closing the product and company. Many have been upset about the news while others see the future. After conversing with Mircea Paşoi, co-founder of Summify, I am excited to see what Twitter and the team come out with. He said to me:

We are going to focus our efforts on making Twitter even more engaging and useful for you. While we can’t get into details on what’s to come, we can say that we’re excited and we think you will be too.

Lets hope the product that many love will be back in some form. Until then, there are some viable alternatives. I have been using all of these side by side with Summify for some time now and most provide content on a similar level. None, in my opinion, match up to Summify's relevancy, options, and readability; but, using two or more of these services will fill your news aggregation gap.

Percolate - Gathers data from Google Reader, Twitter, and Tumblr. You have the option of getting the summary emails in the morning, morning and afternoon, or none at all. It "bubbles up" the most interesting and shared content of interest to you. The emails are organized nicely and are most similar to Summify's in how it shows who shared it and provides a snippet of the story.

News.me - Sends a daily digest email containing items from your Twitter stream as well as top stories in their network. The email is a nice daily snapshot of top items around, but it is not good at determining relevance to you. This can be a good thing when combined with a more relevance directed service so that you don't miss out on the outside world.

XYDO - Provides a daily brief by email that is based on the most interesting people you follow and experts that share your interests. To personalize the email you can follow different communities (interests) in which people post content to in addition to the automated curation feeds. Those are combined with, and prioritized further, based upon your Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, and LinkedIn data. You can even follow other users (like me) if you like the articles they provide all of which rolls into the same daily email.

Know About It - As noted in our previous post it sends a daily email after crunching your Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr streams to determine what interests you. It also can use your RSS feeds (including Google Reader's), Twitter Lists, and people you follow on Disqus. I find the email does a good job of collecting the day's posts, but the item titles tend to be nondescript. It is worth a look especially with its Read it Later and Instapaper integration.

Utopic - This once a day email is a little sparse for me, but suspect if I actively used the service's website more it would be more robust. As it stands it scans my YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Reader accounts for relevant stories I may have missed. Connecting to and follow other users furthers the curation.

Scoopinion - An email is sent bi-weekly with stories based upon your website article reading history; not your social networks. This is a new service that I have only been using for a week, but I have found to be very good. It works by using a Chrome browser extension to collect your reading data on reviewed and approved news sites (list). It categorizes the articles, then based on what you have read, and where you spent the most time, it tailors the email to provide you with the most interesting stories.

Have you used these services, and if so, what do you think? Are there other ones that you have been using that curate well? Share your comments below.

Limk Readies For Launch With Teaser Video

2012-01-28T03:23:00.000-05:00

Limk has released a video moments ago providing us with a look at what they have been working on. They have been in stealth mode for exactly one year as of today, January 28, 2012, and look to be gearing up for their early 2012 launch. Limk initially launched back in 2004 as a social bookmarking site by Ozer Dolekoglu who is now the Chairman. The new service is describe as:

A web startup aims to work on a special algorithm: Social Rank + gamified real-time feed, that finds the best content on the web, just for you.

I have contacted Oguz Serdar, CEO of Limk, for comment on the upcoming launch and will update this post when I hear back. Be sure to pre-register your user name now on the site. You can follow their progress on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.

Smile!

2012-01-26T18:24:00.000-05:00

The World Smiling - Join the smiling movement! If you're happy share a smile, if you are sad stop by to get cheered up. The site is simple and straight forward to use and is a fun social project. Head over to the site, click on "Click Here and Smile" at the bottom, then select your country (or be anonymous), now Adobe Flash will use your webcam to take the picture when you are ready. Smartly the photos go through an approval process to eliminate abuse. An update I would like to see is the option to add your email address so that you can be notified when the image is approved.

The idea came to the founders when they were relaxing outside watching the stars. They told me "We thought that people need to smile more often and we built the site, giving everyone the possibility to watch other people smile and share another one in exchange". Follow them on Facebook, spread the word, and smile!